Books and Brainfart

Tagged : Caught with a Crusie

2008-04-05T20:52:00.008+08:00

I have been tagged by Twigs over at Multiply, which gives me yet another reason to drown you all with my brainfart, flooding feeds over there, and here at Blogger, and then at Facebook (because I'm an online-journal-whore that way.)

Anyways:

1) Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
2) Open the book to page 123.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the next three sentences.
5) Tag five people.

Okay. Because I've been, as my fellows like to put it, defragging my bookshelf, everything is everywhere, which means lucky me (and you) got to grab Jennifer Crusie's Bedroom Business. And that's not all folks, because page 123 features:

She sank onto the bed beside him, trying to find the right words, any words, but there was so much heat in her that she couldn't speak. She pushed herself through layers of air with only Zack's warmth to guide her to him, so that she was almost surprised when her lips touched his. It was like finding him underwater or in the dark, she'd had to penetrate so much to get to him.

Alas, the quote needed for this meme ends there. Too bad for you because the Rarrr Scene is immediately right after: She moved her lips... . Ah, yes, I love my trashy books. :)

Ooh, I tag ZoeAnne (because you're my marshmallow), Sandi (because you, like me, have a To-Be-Read list that will haunt us beyond death), Sarj (because it's a belated happy birthday -- I owe you a book!), Sheng (because I miss you na, pare) and Jev (because I have not seen you in sooo long.) Okay? Orayt.

54

2008-04-04T22:11:00.001+08:00

A Lover's Discourse
Roland Barthes

Sniffle, sniffle, it's lovely in so many different levels. :) Oh gush, gush, gush. I've read and reread this so many times, memorized passages, copied some to give to other people, and all that jazz. It's perfect. And honest. And accurate in a way that makes you wonder if Barthes, bless his soul, ever lurked around your bakuran to spy on your loving.

Reading List #01

2008-04-04T14:45:00.000+08:00

Okay. This summer, if it ain't gonna be happy time and sweetness, it's book-whoring and pseudo-writing. Great.

And because once in a while, I like to think that I'm a sane, organized person, I made a list about this summer's To-Be-Read:

1 - Niagara Falls All Over Again by Elizabeth McCracken
(because I fell in love with the giant in The Giant's House.)

2 - Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
(because I bought it for a hundred bucks sa National when it still looks like it cost 700.)

3 - Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
( yeah, I know it's a big effin' disappointment after White Oleander but I will try, why nots?)

4 - The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
(because it has been collecting dust in my bookshelf, and because Fall On Your Knees is an earth-shattering piece of literature, hahaw!)

5 - The Empire of Memory by Eric Gamalinda
(because I started reading it for Sir Pulan's class, but never got around to finishing it because Finals week crept up on me.)

6 - But For The Lovers by Wilfrido Nolledo
(yes, shall reread, because it's that booty-ful.)

7 - Swann by Carol Shields

8 - Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
(because a year ago [!] Martin told me that this is Murakami's best novel, better than Sarj's rec, Kafka on the Shore.)

9 - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
(because it's kooky and I like kooky.)

10 - Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce (Anthology)
(because Ann Beattie is here.)

11 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
(because I feel like an elephant's sitting on my chest whenever I realize I haven't read this thing.)

12 - Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(because these short stories always keep getting set aside for other books.)

51, 52, 53

2008-04-04T04:53:00.004+08:00

Pieces of Dreams by Jennifer Blake
Liar's Moon by Kristin Hannah
A Midsummer Day's Dream by Linda Lael Miller

Some run-of-the-mill romances to tide me over. First one involved identical twins. Yum, ahem. Second involves some role-playing. The third involves some time-traveling. Yeah.

God, my brain needs a jolt.

50

2008-04-04T04:27:00.001+08:00

One Kiss From You
Christina Dodd

More satisfying than the first part of the Switching Places series, the one about Madeline. Maybe because Eleonor’s a much more compassionate character. Anyway, this is a very good story. Enough to pull me away from the ton of work lying around for me.

49

2008-04-04T04:26:00.000+08:00

Duchess in Love
Eloisa James

Me likey very much. It’s a peculiar plot with scandalous characters, and me thinks that’s what makes it so refreshing.

48

2008-04-04T04:25:00.001+08:00

Burning House
Ann Beattie

The time and energy supposed to be used for writing a more comprehensible review has been used for constructing an altar for Beattie. Thank you for your understanding.

47

2008-04-04T04:24:00.002+08:00

The Lives of the Muses
Francine Prose

Oh gasp. Haha, muses are so romantic, even in their real trappings. Hello, the madness, the depression, the infidelities, the art.

46

2008-04-04T04:24:00.001+08:00

A Knight in Shining Armor
Jude Deveraux

I hated it. Abso-fucking-lutely hated it. No, this has nothing to do with the fact that my boyfriend has abandoned me for a fucking artists’ get-together in some god-forsaken mountain in Antipolo. I hated the book because it is far too long. I hated the book because it was so unnecessarily convoluted. I’ve read time-traveling romances before (Karen Marie Moning and her Highlanders come to mind) but I’ve never criticized them on their implausibility. I hate this book because I wanted to whack Dougless repeatedly for her “alcoholic personality” and I hated this book because Nicholas isn’t exactly one of the most loveable heroes I’ve ever come across – he’s too medieval in a bland sort of way. I don’t like the novel, it isn’t at all romantic, what with all the focus on the mission of saving Nicholas’ family. And I really hate the ending. I mean, sure, don’t allow Nicholas to toss away his grand legacy by coming over to live in the twentieth century but hello. I don’t care for that Let our sould find each other bullshit. So what if she meets a twentieth-century guise of Nicholas’ soul? Goddamnit, can you just imagine the emotional turmoil Dougless will have to go through? Jesus Christ on wheels – and Dougless: supposedly this book is how a woman learns to stand for herself, that people won’t walk all over her all the fucking time. But really, with all the sacrifices she made – no matter that she made them willingly, out of love – in the end, wasn’t she the one used? The she, precariously, set her own happiness and sanity on the line to save an earl long-dead, who cares if history thinks he just likes to rut women on tables?

Christ, ano ba. And so what if the last statement is the point of the whole “romance”? Whatever. I abhorred this book, absolutely do not like it. God help me.

45

2008-04-04T04:22:00.002+08:00

Blue Angel
Francine Prose

Shall give comments about this book when it's not 4:22 in the freaking morning because it's worth a saner version of my mind. Really.

44

2008-04-04T04:21:00.002+08:00

Devil in Winter
Lisa Kleypas

Book Three, with Evie Jenner and rake/kidnapper-of-Lillian, Viscount St. Vincent. Hm. There were moments in the book that I had to wonder whether this really is Evie Jenner, the “painfully shy” wallflower from the previous books. It seems she just started to fit in the romance heroine mold when it was her turn to be married to a cad. I did like the part where St. Vincent is in his deathbed. And, hm, but I didn’t like Lillian very much here. I have to ask this question: what now, after the end? Do they continue to live in the gambling house? Where will their children live? Gahd.

43

2008-04-04T04:21:00.001+08:00

It Happened One Autumn
Lisa Kleypas

Book Two, with Lillian Bowman and Lord Westcliff. Meh. Both of them are mucho annoying.

42

2008-04-04T04:20:00.000+08:00

Secrets of a Summer Night
Lisa Kleypas

Book One of Kleypas’ Wallflower Series, with Annabelle and Simon Hunt. It was good, but not exactly her best. Although I was teary-eyed at the end, after the foundry incident.

42

2008-04-04T04:19:00.000+08:00

Worth Any Price
Lisa Kleypas

Man, but heroes like Nick might ruin real-life sex for women everywhere.

40

2008-04-04T04:18:00.002+08:00

Something Wild
Shannon McKenna

Hello Mr. Hot Architect Bicycle Dude. Although it starts implausible – here is depressed woman being stalked by unbelievably hot man (implausibility in the minimum alarm caused by potential serial killer vibes) – I like it because it’s steaming hawt. Yey, exhibitionism.

39

2008-04-04T04:18:00.001+08:00

Satisfy Me
Lori Foster

Literary amnesia at the moment.

38

2008-04-04T04:17:00.000+08:00

No Mercy
Thea Devine

Meh.

37

2008-04-04T04:16:00.002+08:00

Stranger in Her Bed
Suzanne Forster

Stupid, creepy little plot involving erotic video games and CEOs in weird federal-offense disguises. Ugh, fuckers.

36

2008-04-04T04:16:00.001+08:00

Tangled Dreams
Lori Foster

This is Book Two of Winston Brother Series thing. Weird little story with supernatural elements. Although I must admit me likey the domination part. Sort of lang naman.

35

2008-04-04T04:15:00.002+08:00

Tangled Sheets
Lori Foster

Book One of Foster’s Winston Brothers series, featuring Cole of the whipped cream fixation, and repressed little Sophie with the creamy breasts.

Damn it, I wanted it mucho hotter. I kept thinking that if this was a longer book, the author could have made them go on with the charade (“I have a way hotter twin sister”) until they both go crazy with lust and heartache for each other. But meh. Oh well.

34

2008-04-04T04:14:00.002+08:00

Passion
Lisa Valdez

OMGWTFBBQ! Any book that starts with “His hand held her breast” is definitely something fantabulous. Haha. This is the steamiest piece of erotic romance I’ve ever read, both erotic and romantic. And oh my god, talk about gigantinormous peepees practically bulldozing its way into some Victorian girl’s vajayjay. Wow.

33

2008-04-04T04:14:00.001+08:00

Aftershock
Jill Shalvis

Meh. This man and this woman get trapped in a building during an earthquake, and they have sex, and then she leaves because she’s so bleeping insecure about things, and one year later, she goes back with a baby and he finds out and it’s all angst angst angst and then happy happy days. Ugh.

32

2008-04-04T04:11:00.003+08:00

Never Too Much
Lori Foster

A sequel to her Too Much Temptation, that hot story with the lovable Grace and hotness Noah Harper. It’s the brother Ben’s story. And it was so fucking hot, dude.

31

2008-04-04T04:11:00.002+08:00

Secrets and Surprises
Ann Beattie

One of the best short story collections I've ever read. And I'd never have stumbled upon it if Larry Ipil hadn't stumbled on me one Monday night and told me that I had to read her.

Anyhoo, Beattie writes with simple prose that is brimming and luminescent of all what is unspoken. Honest statements bring out so many questions about passion and relationships and intensity -- I love it.

I love this book. Oh, worship. I've found a new favorite writer.

30

2008-04-04T04:10:00.001+08:00

Charming the Prince
Teresa Medeiros

Hm. I don’t like this as much as I’ve liked all the other arranged marriages / barbarian / I love you but I won’t say it / kind of books. Parang there’s too much involvement of the secondary characters, making them just annoying and not so, “Aw, I want to read a book about them.”

29

2008-04-04T04:09:00.002+08:00

Sex Appeal
Lori Foster

I want to be like Shadow Callahan, because she’s so freaking quirky. But that's about it, I guess.

28

2008-04-04T04:09:00.001+08:00

The Taming
Jude Deveraux

Interestingly sweet. The whole gasgas nang plot about the willful wife who’s managed her father’s estates and the fierce warrior blah. But it was good.  It’s about the Peregrines, the first tale of a trilogy, methinks. I’ve read the last one, about Zared (the Peregrine daughter masquerading as a man) and the younger Howard son or something, but I can’t remember the title. And I can’t recall what happens to the middle son, Severn. Gah.

27

2008-04-04T04:08:00.001+08:00

Smaller and Smaller Circles
F.H. Batacan

Gutsy work for a Filipino novel – crime and serial killers and (gasp) forensics. I doubt the last part’s true though. Something about this novel smacks of pretension. Or maybe I’m just not into the detective novel, much less about something I see in the news every freaking day.

26

2008-04-04T04:07:00.000+08:00

Touch of Enchantment
Teresa Medeiros

Sequel to Medeiros’ Breath of Magic. I like it, I like it a lot because of the whole time-travel thing and the witch who’s forever in denial. And me likey the medieval lord. And the part where the heroine meets the hero’s intended. Aw.

And ew, they had sex where his first love hanged herself. That’s just, er, wrong.

25

2008-04-04T04:04:00.000+08:00

Dressing Up for the Carnival
Carol Shields

Shield's is hit and miss for me. (I couldn't move past page 7 of "Stone Diaries" but I am in-love-to-death with "Unless".) But I love this collection, the language, the plots and the non-plots. Very realistic issues tackled in a not-so-conventional manner.

24

2008-04-04T04:03:00.000+08:00

My Fair Temptress
Christina Dodd

Hm. I think I like this. I think.

23

2008-04-04T04:02:00.002+08:00

The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café
Alfred Yuson

Convoluted na kung convoluted. Hyper-modern na kung hyper-modern. I love Sir Krip, the idiotically confusing writer. Oh, my head. But me likey, strangely enough. Sup?

22

2008-04-04T04:01:00.003+08:00

Gangster of Love
Jessica Hagedorn

Slightly off-kilter, but I think that was the point. Still, if this hadn't been required for school, I never would have finished it through, or picked it up. It had its nice parts, but there’s just something I don’t like about it that I can’t quite put my finger on… Hm.

21

2008-04-04T04:01:00.002+08:00

Mine to Entice
Karen Anders

Whew. Hotness. Harlequin Blaze, wasak. The Carlyle thing was better, though, because this lawyer-crime shit didn’t really do much for me. It was too intense, in a corny kind of way. And I find it hard to believe that a man would be so patient and, well, loving, to be a woman’s sex slave. Anyway. The sex scenes were hot, and that wanking (haha) sequence was the shit. Haha. Wahever. I need to go take a bath now.

20

2008-04-04T03:59:00.003+08:00

Let’s Talk About Sex
Liz Carlyle

If you thought Christina Dodd’s was torrid, well. This is erotic romance at its finest. It’s a couple of shades away from pure smut. And I fucking loved it, haha. Irrepressible dialogue, words like bleep and bleep and bleep and yes, fuck, the phone sex, the exhibitionism, the gah!

19

2008-04-04T03:59:00.001+08:00

Someday My Prince
Christina Dodd

Meh.

18

2008-04-04T03:58:00.000+08:00

My Favorite Bride
Christina Dodd

Literary amnesia. I forget.

17

2008-04-04T03:57:00.000+08:00

Scandalous Again
Christina Dodd

A story about changing places. Didn’t do much for me, could hardly turn the next page. But the sexual whammy all over the place was kewl. Needless to say, I skipped to that, haha.

16

2008-04-04T03:56:00.000+08:00

The Princess
Jude Deveraux

I like this so much, damn it. She’s such a funny, contradictory princess, and he’s just pure yumminess. I only wish it could have gone on, because I would have loved to see the royal couple in action.

15

2008-04-04T03:55:00.000+08:00

All That Glitters
Linda Howard

This time, the tycoon caveman didn’t work so well for me. I’d have murdered that alpha male in his Greek-god sleep.

14

2008-04-04T03:53:00.002+08:00

The Third Suitor
Christina Dodd

Torrid much. Refreshing character, me likey Harry Windberry.

13

2008-04-04T03:53:00.001+08:00

Game of Chance
Linda Howard

I like Chance, but please get over your dark past. Whining, much.

12

2008-04-04T03:50:00.001+08:00

Mackenzie’s Pleasure
Linda Howard

Hello, White Knight Syndrome. Man, they spend most of their time fucking, or dodging bullets. Astig. I love their daughter Nick, though, the little hellion. That’s probably the best part, me thinks.

11

2008-04-04T03:49:00.002+08:00

Naughty But Nice
Jill Shalvis

It was, er, nice. I can’t remember if it was naughty. Hm.

10

2008-04-04T03:49:00.001+08:00

Shadow and Lace
Teresa Medeiros

Let’s see. It was a sexy book, and the Dark Lord of Carleon had his good parts. But it wasn’t that spectacular.

9

2008-04-04T03:48:00.000+08:00

Portrait in Sepia
Isabel Allende

I fucking love Isabel Allende. I love this story, I love the indulgent behemoth of a grandmother.

8

2008-04-04T03:45:00.002+08:00

Prozac Nation
Elizabeth Wurtzel

A book about a young depressive, which struck and annoyed me for the narrator being completely self-centered, self-indulgent, self-absorbed. God, I wish I’m not this irritating when I’m fucking depressed.

7

2008-04-04T03:44:00.001+08:00

The Effect of Living Backwards
Heidi Julavits

It’s a wryly funny book, intelligent – which means my head hurt a little from all of the second-guessing terrorism-antiterrorism muddle that was the plot. But it’s definitely one of the books I feel prouder for reading, haha.

6

2008-04-04T03:41:00.003+08:00

Getting Rid of Bradley
Jennifer Cruisie

I hate that goddamned crazy-ass creep Bradley. He was much too distracting to the actual love story. Ai.

5

2008-04-04T03:38:00.002+08:00

Charlie All Night
Jennifer Crusie

Sweet and lighthearted and sexy, as expected of Crusie. And the sex scenes made me want to yank someone, anyone, out of random chairs, hehe. Me likey Charlie a lot.

4

2008-04-04T03:32:00.003+08:00

But For The Lovers
Wilfrido Nolledo

I am in love with this book. Love, love, love. Many thanks to Sir Pulan for requiring us (hehe) to read this.

I remember Sir Sawi commenting that I write like Nolledo. Wow, haha. I realize that Nolledo handles the convolutions way better than I do. :) Perhaps I'll write like this (and succeed at it) fifteen to twenty years from now? :)

3

2008-04-04T03:30:00.002+08:00

A Season of Grace
NVM Gonzales

Read for Philippine Literature class, because otherwise I never would have made it to page 2 on sheer willpower alone. This is the sleepiest piece of fiction I've ever went through. Made even more so because I had to finish it. Gah.

A book that proves that grace is a snail-paced lifestyle of nothingness. Sorry, Mr. NVM, sir -- it was a snoozefest for me.

2

2008-04-04T03:27:00.003+08:00

The Stories of Eva Luna
Isabel Allende

The stories in this collection are so wonderfully written, the language lyrical, everything so unabashedly romantic that it all just makes me want to scream, “I want to write something like this!”

1

2008-04-04T03:15:00.003+08:00

Eva Luna
Isabel Allende

I want to be Eva Luna. This is a beautiful novel about a beautiful, strong woman, her life, and her love(s). And darling Rolf is raunchy the way incest-involved fictional people can only be.