I've started to catch up on my reading once again. It's probably a sign that I've already adjusted to my new schedule at work, and in general. Haha! The last two books I've read were Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and David Stukas's Someone Killed His Boyfriend.

After that, the only books left for reading were Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess and Plum Sykes's Bergdorf Blondes.

Uhm, I've had both books since late last year but have chosen not to open or read them yet because I think I've had an overdose on chick lit after going through four Kinsellas and one Weisberger. Oh, add to that Jerry Oppenheimer's unauthorized biography of Anna Wintour. Yeah, that's a lot of chick lit I should say.





A couple of weeks ago, with nothing to do I decided to finally open Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess and started reading. Just a quick review, I didn't enjoy it that much because I was already too familiar with the Sophie Kinsella formula. The novel's heroine, Samantha Sweeting, was all too similar to the Shopaholic series' Rebecca Bloomwood. The only change this time was the venue where the character was.

While it was still funny and with a hint of drama, conspiracy (yes, conspiracy!) and romance, I read the book only because I don't want to be left hanging. (Although when I think about it now, there was a great chance one could have predicted what the ending was going to be.)

Kinsella also mentioned the Philippines. (I should have marked what page it was. Haha!) Before Sweeting was hired by a couple in the English countryside, the rich couple had a Filipina employee.

I also wanted to finish this quickly so that I can finally start on Timothy James Beck's He's the One. My friend Zandro, who's on the other side of the world, was the one who introduced me to this wonderful author (or I should say authors. Find out here why.)

Anyway, before I start writing on Timothy James Beck, you may want to read an excerpt from The Undomestic Goddess here, whether you're a chick lit fan or just looking for a book that's not too heavy.

Also, here are three books that I am definitely looking forward to read. Awwww! I hope that by the time I finish the two Beck novels, one of these books would already be out. Haha! But I doubt if it will be available that soon here.

National Bookstore, Powerbooks and Fully Booked people, I hope you're reading this.



I fell in love with Daniel and Blaine (the book's main characters) even before I got through half of It Had to Be You. And by the time I finished it, I am already in love with Timothy James Beck. It was such a good read because I felt that everything about it was so close to the real situation - the characters, the plot, the drama, the romance, the emotions. I've never been to New York, but it's quite easy to transform the setting of the story to Manila or to whichever city you're living in.

I'm really glad that the authors decided to do a follow-up on the story of Daniel and Blaine. Now I don't know which one to read first, He's the One (the second novel but with a completely different set of characters and storyline) or I'm Your Man (which I think is the continuation of the Daniel-Blaine story).

Anyway, there's a new title and I can't wait to read it as well. I'm really hoping that it'll be good. And I'm hoping more that it'll be available here in Manila.

Read about Someone Like You here


As I have mentioned before, Alex Sanchez is one author I wish I had read when I was growing up and sorting things. And as I have also said before, I think his books should be included in the reading list of every literature class of every high school. I'm sure his books have helped a lot of people already.

I know the chances of him reading this is very remote but just in case. Alex, please, please, please have another Rainbow novel? Or if possible two more? Just so you can have five books in the Rainbow series. Think about it. It would look great as a gift set. Kidding aside, please write more about our three boys. If I may be so bold as to suggest, Rainbow 4 may be about the college years. I'm sure readers would love to know how Princeton went for Kyle, whether Jason got into Tech, and what of Nelson? Rainbow 5 can be about their post-college and entry into the real world, perhaps. Just some thoughts.

Anyway, back to reality and to the present, you can read the first chapter of Getting It here.





Michael Thomas Ford is the other Ford I am very much into (the other one is Tom). I've read some of his essay compilations (Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me Anymore) but what I really enjoyed were his two novels Last Summer and Looking for It. Again, I loved the two novels because of the closeness to reality of the various aspects of the story. It felt like reading about a good friend's story.

And so when I found out that there will be a new Ford novel, I couldn't help but get all excited. I hope this new novel also becomes available here in Manila. You can get Looking for It and Last Summer at National Bookstore.

To get an idea about Ford's new novel Full Circle, go here.

So these are some of the titles I am looking forward to read. If you have any recommended titles, whether it's chick lit or queer, let me know.