bethgstories

It's been a tough time for all of us, being confined in our homes with nothing much to do but to rummage the kitchen, stare blankly outside the window wondering if the little money left in our bank accounts would be enough to buy us food for the rest of the quarantine period, scroll on our phones for hours, and maybe chat a little bit with family and friends. Good thing I was too lazy to read books last year that I have something else to do to take my mind off horrible things. I decided to do a quarterly wrap-up of all the books I've read, and see if I am somehow fulfilling the reading challenge I set for myself. So far it's going great, and here's the list of books I've read the last three months. A book with a Pantone Classic Blue cover - Written In The Stars, Aisha Saeed. I haven't written a review for this book - it's the first book we've read in the book club I established with my two other friends out of boredom also known as enhanced community qu...

Just like Dekada '70, this wasn't on the list of books I plan to read this quarter, but it made it there somehow. But it's on my reading list nonetheless, a book that fits one of the items in the 2020 reading challenge I set for myself. This is one of the books in my NBS haul I did the first day of this month, and now I'm finally done reading it. What is it about The story revolves around Aurora Cabahug, a 22-year-old cabaret singer; Walter Zamora, a police officer; and a casket that contains the remains of Aurora's sister Soledad, an overseas Filipino worker who died in Jeddah. Nobody knows if she died a natural death or if she was killed, but certainly it is one of the sad but true stories of OFWs who only wanted a better life for the families they chose to leave behind. What I think about it I had a hard time reading it at first - I couldn't understand why every character has to be introduced like they have major roles in the story. Maybe it was one of the hi...

No, this is not in my TBR list for this quarter, but I squeezed it in unannounced. I wasn't even planning on reading it, but after seeing the musical which gained a lot of positive response (including me), I just knew I had to experience this story in its original form of art. What is it about Dekada '70 is written in Amanda's POV, a mom of five kids and a wife to Julian, a traditional, patriarchal husband. They're in an upper middle class family, just one of the many families of different social statuses that felt the unjust wrath of dictatorship. The book presents a perfect illustration of what the Philippines was like during the '70s, in terms of social, political, and economical aspects, just to name a few. What I think about it I was having second thoughts in writing a review of this book - it was published in 1986, and the author has a first-hand experience of what it was like during the martial law in the Philippines which makes this book a credible alternat...

I don’t own comic books—except for a few volumes of Pugad Baboy that my brother bought years ago. I wanted text-y materials - something I could read for at least three nights, a full novel that would keep me company. But then maybe comic books were created for more than just that. What I think about it I had never heard of Magtira Paolo before—maybe I haven’t attended enough book events where I might have come across his work. His Liryo is a heartbreaking, illustrated narration of the senseless war on drugs, where innocent lives are lost and nothing is gained. While an author could have explored this theme in a full-length novel, Liryo delivers its impact through striking visuals and sparse dialogue, allowing readers to experience the depth of Celso’s (main character) despair as his story represented countless faceless men executed without due process. The narrative also highlights Marcy’s struggle, not just as someone trying to survive in a brutal environment but as a person torn b...

Maybe the quarantine did some good - now I have an ample amount of time to read at night. I discovered this book when I Googled my own book Right Where You Left Me . Thankfully this is the only other book with the same title as mine, but I also told myself that I have to get hold of it and read it and see what it is about. The blurb offered as much information as finding out it's a YA book, and that it's not romance (at least that's not what the novel is focused on). Luckily I found a second-hand book shop that sells this and I didn't waste any time to grab the opportunity. What is it about? I'm not sure if it's just me, but whenever I find the words Ukraine, Russian reserve, FBI, and newspaper together in any form of art and/or literature, I always think of an exciting, adrenaline-rush-inducing book or movie about Russian spies and wars and kidnappings. But the kidnapping is the only thing that I got right. Written in the point of view of the 17-year-old Charlo...

Every year I challenge myself to read at least 20 books - and each year, I've failed. Last year I only read 12, but I decided not to be hard on myself because I read Insurrecto for six weeks (or maybe more!) and anyone who has read it would understand where I'm coming from. Plus, 2019 was a tiring year that I didn't have the all the energy in the world to pick up a book, read through the work nights and write a review (yes, I try to write a review of the books I've read and post it here - it means a lot to the author, I promise). This year, I'm not supposed to have goals, but now it feels like I am kidding myself because I perfectly know I am a goal digger to begin with. So once again, I challenged myself to read twenty books. And this time, with a twist. Fully Booked's 2020 reading challenge Fully Booked has created a reading challenge for 2020 , and this is much more sophisticated than me just finding the time to finish reading twenty books of any genre. Now ...

One thing I want to do this year is to read all the unread books in my shelf. I got this from NBS's Book Binge Bazaar back in 2018, and I read it just now because I allowed myself to be distracted by other books and things that I thought were more interesting and worth my time. But to be fair, Not That Kind of Girl got me entertained. What is it about?  Natalie is Ms. Perfect - both in the academics and, basically life in general. She's never made a bad choice, and she always did the right decisions. She's not like the other girls in her school, those teenagers who wore slutty clothes and threw themselves to boys. Until one day before she knew it, everything came crumbling down in front of her. What I think about it At one point in my life, I was Natalie. I was your average jeans and t-shirt girl, and nothing else mattered except being on the top. Talk about being an overachiever. I criticised girls who had polygamous relationships, and thought myself better than those who ...

Children's curious thoughts oftentimes teach a lot of things that adults may find extremely useful when discerning on one's life purpose. Raymie Nightingale is a children's book, and I picked it up because it was from the same author who wrote The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, the book that Do Min Joon read all the time in My Love From the Star. No, I haven't read that book yet as I am looking for the hardbound copy and I can't find one so if you want to give me something for my birthday, it's on my wishlist. Raymie Nightingale is set in 1975 in sunny Florida. The story revolves around three young girls who unintentionally became friends - Beverly Tapinski, the girl whose father is in New York City working as a police officer; Louisiana Elefante, an orphan who lives with her grandmother and appears to be always on the run;and Raymie Clarke, whose father left her and her mom for a dental hygienist. They met at a baton twirling class, hoping to win the...

Kasie West has to be one of the contemporary young adult authors who writes interesting plots. I read The Fill-In Boyfriend a couple of years back, and that’s why I picked By Your Side as one of the items to complete my NBS Thank You Sale book haul. I just knew this decision would never let me down. And yes, it didn’t. What is it about? The plot couldn’t be more typical at first until the conflict unfolds in just a few more pages. 17-year old Autumn Collins got trapped in the public library on a long weekend. No phones, no computers, no means of communication to the outside world. How this no-communication-to-the-outside-world thing happened is kind of unfathomable, given the fact that she’s in – technically – a research facility. Apparently it happens and the reasons for this were actually well-established. The second game changer is that she discovers she wasn’t alone. Dax Miller , a guy that no one knows but goes to her school was also trapped in there. He’s dark and mysterio...

This book heavily reminded me of David Levithan’s Everyday series. Stahler actually released this book in 2009 and I wonder if A’s story is based on the heganger . What is it about? We all know what a doppelganger is, but this book has a far more morbid idea of what a doppelganger is all about. The book is about a teenager who refers to himself as a monster–he is a doppelganger, a shapeshifter that kills humans and takes the physical appearance of their victim. But this teenage heganger is totally different from the ruthless, heartless monster that he is supposed to be. As he assumes the body and the life of a teenage boy, he is suddenly confronted with complex human emotions and caught himself dealing with them like a normal human being does. He doesn’t have anything else but himself He doesn’t have a name, his mom said their likes don’t need or even deserve one. So he calls himself just that, a heganger. I could understand how he could probably handle mingling with other hu...

The moment I closed this book, I want to strangle Macie Merrik and all the likes of her. It was in 2015 when I got absorbed in reading YA books about bullying that resulted to self-harm and suicide. I read every Goodreads recommendation that I could find and tried to imagine what sort of self-satisfaction these bullies get in bringing their poor target over the edge. How come they’re getting away with this? How come this is not okay but it’s happening every day? I Swear is one of the books that made my TBR list some 4 years ago. At the time, it felt like a classic – a teenager (Leslie Gaitlin) killed herself because of the unrelenting bullying she received the past 3 years of her school girl life. Parents are pressing charges so who’s to blame when the bullying goes too far? Written in four POVs The book is written in alternating POVs of Beth, Katherine, Jillian, and Jake. Too bad we won’t be able to see what’s in the ringleader, Macie Merrik’s mind, which I think would be fu...

I love rainy days, and if the word pluviophile is legit, then I’ve found a new word to describe myself. The white sound that is the raindrops on my roof at night, the cold breeze that makes me pull the covers tighter around me, and the smell of the morning after when I open the window mixed with the aroma of coffee are some of my life’s greatest pleasure, I kid you not. And it’s going to be a lot better if there’s a good book I could curl up with and a cup of coffee in front of me. You may have read these books too, but if not, this is definitely an entry for you. I still have a box of books I haven’t read yet, brought about by the number of book sale hauls I did the past years (MIBF 2017, Book Binge Bazaar 2018, Power Books Supersale 2019, etc.). While I find the time to sort them by genre and maybe arrange them using the Dewey Decimal System, let me tell you about some of my recommended books perfect for a cozy, rainy day in bed. Ang Bahay Ni Marta. I've always wondered what ...

To be fair, this isn't the worst book I've read, but god... I wonder why this book exists.  Okay, maybe I sounded a little bit too harsh on that. Snuff is the book about porn stars that I've been talking about. I didn't plan on buying this book, I just felt the need to buy it because it was 10% off from the Powerbooks Sale last February. The blurb mentioned something about murder too, so I bought it, without knowing I was basically trapped under false promotion. What is it about?  Cassie Wright, a known sex priestest is about to set the world record by having sex with 600 men, and some people (or maybe everyone) expects her to die in the process. A cardiac arrest. Vaginal embolism. Stroke. She's doing this to give her abandoned child a great fortune, whoever that is. The story is told from 4 POVs. Sheila, Cassie's personal assistant, and the three men from the 600 - the porn man who allegedly fathered Cassie's lost child, a TV star who's care...

I remember I told myself, "let's not buy YA books anymore because I think we're past that," but this book simply made it to my shopping bag as I hoarded some from the Power Books super sale. Inexcusable appears to be "that kind" of read, where you are confronted with questions of social significance and challenge you to use your moral compass. The prospect of reading a book about date rape written in an unconventional manner ignited my curiosity. Well, the book is written from Keir's point of view, a teenager whose life is marred by teenage angst and superstar ego (he's in a sports team in school). And yes, he is the rapist. Keir lived with his dad, Ray, who was described to be a good man, a kind man. Upon turning the pages, this description gave me a picture of a soft-spoken man of the house who couldn't even swat a fly on the kitchen table. Then, there's Fran and Mary, Keir's older sisters, who somehow made it a point to make Ke...

Please look after mom is so ironic, because moms usually look after their children, and not the other way around. I picked up this book when I saw the author's name, because I might have seen a lot of Kdramas the past years but I've never read a book written by a Korean author. Plus, I've long ago learned that reading books by authors coming from different parts of the world meant an introduction to different cultures and culture-based principles and norms and that fascinates me. Although, Please Look After Mom is more than just that, for this is a story that each one of us could relate to, regardless of where we came from and regardless of the norms we're accustomed to. It talks about the joy, the pain, and the mysteries of being a mom, and how we, as children sometimes and maybe completely forget that Mom can't just be Mom. Our moms could have been someone (or something) else, had they not been our moms. There's no better profession in this wor...

It's been a week since I finished reading The Spy, and I am still undecided if Mata Hari's life story invites us to dare to be different, or keep to ourselves and stay at home for a peaceful life just like how a woman should be, according to what the society dictates. Paulo Coelho has a knack of writing books that seemed to be celebrating womanhood, but in the end they make me think if that was really what he's trying to say. The Spy is no different. Albeit being a historical fiction, the book was written from Mata Hari's point of view, which made me empathize with her more and made me feel where she was coming from. The book began on the day of Mata Hari's execution. Everything about that day was vividly described, and though we all know most of the descriptions were probably done in pursuit of literary excellence, they left me with an idea that she must have done something so terrible to deserve such a terrible fate. It turns out, she j...

Not gonna lie - as I was reading the first few pages of this book I thought it wasn't my cup of tea. Now I'm glad I finished reading the entire thing even if it took some 3 weeks to do so. I found out about Insurrecto when Pat put it in her wish list in our company exchange gift. I saw it in the bookstores, too, and got too intrigued when I read the blurb because of how Gina Apostol described the country - Duterte's Philippines. Some few weeks and a right timing with the right person later, I got my own copy of the book, thanks to Sugar and our never-dying friendship. I could've gotten really drunk, had I taken a shot of alcohol every time the words Ali Mall were mentioned in the early chapters of the book. The story was a bit confusing at first, because in my mind I could see vintage-y things from the 1970s and everything else associated with that decade, including the things my parents told me about President Marcos and martial law. One scene even force...

It was after reading a Gayle Forman book that I became determined that I should travel the world in the hopes of finding something that would "stain" me. I requested for I Have Lost My Way from my then-unknown monita for our company Christmas exchange gift because I really had no idea what to ask for. I've always loved books as they used to be my only indulgence, so why n ot? Plus, I've read books by the same author and I enjoyed each one of them. Besides, I promised myself I'll read more this year, and I'm all about keeping promises to myself because no one has ever kept his promise to me these days. What is it about Three strangers met in such a fateful way - an emerging singing artist who suddenly and inexplicably lost her voice, a guy who just broken up with his boyfriend, and another guy who decided to go some places after he lost his father. Freya, Harun and Nathaniel have different life struggles but all of them experience the same deal - loneli...

Si isn't like the Bob Ong books I've read in the past. Gone were the comical words with satirical context. Gone were the portrayals and constant references to the society where we exist. Instead, I've read about love, hope and faith, the two sides of these three, and the power of both sides to make or break the person within us. Love is the most powerful thing ever existed on the face of the earth. No, you can't touch it, nor you can see it. It's the only kind of ideal matter that gives you a thousand more feelings. The feeling of being able to soar up the skies and live your dreams. The feeling of being able to conquer and defeat anything that tries to break you and put you down. The feeling of being able to give everything you have, despite your weakness and incompleteness. It is only love that makes you recognize the missing piece of yourself despite your wholeness. It fills you up even if you're already adequate, yet you'd never be more than ...

If I was dragged back in time, maybe I'd look for other things I never noticed before. Things that could make a much better impact towards my present self. But of course, I wouldn't have come up with this hadn't I read this book. At first I thought this is another YA love story, given the way it looks. But no. Proof of Forever teaches us about friendship, the validated reasons why we, more often than not, lose it, and what we could've done to keep it. As I grew older (and maybe, wiser), I realized that grown up friendships are complicated. I didn't really understand what makes them so, but lately I find myself thinking about the people I used to call friends, and how come I'm not talking to them anymore. It's almost as if I already forgot the basics on how to make friends, or maybe, life happened. Friendships require us to be completely honest , but sometimes as much as we want to give a hundred percent honesty, some things prevent us from...