TFG BINGO

The Oracle is at it again! Our Reading Challenge for 2016 at the book club is called TFG Bingo. Each one of us chose a number (1-75), and each number represents a card. No two cards are alike, I presume. Now, the card is very tricky. Instead of numbers, each box could represent a book genre, topic, setting, or a certain book list found in Goodreads.

Here’s my card:

As you can see, I’ve already marked the set I wanted to pursue. I am posting this here so that I can keep track of the challenges I’ve set upon myself. Each mark will be replaced by a book title if I finish a challenge, so I think I’ll add this to my sidebar for easy access.

There is no strict rule on when each challenge should be accomplished, except that we finish it within the calendar year. But I guess I should add for myself, on this challenge, any Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) does not apply. That would be like hitting two birds with one stone, and it wouldn’t be an honest challenge at all.

TFG had been doing these challenges for years now. It’s not only fun, but a good way to further stretch our reading horizon or step out from our comfort zones. I’m glad that a good number of members still enlist themselves. And, I highly appreciate the people who take time to conceptualize and initiate these challenges (Yay!).

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What's Next For This Bookish Person

What does a bookish person want for the New Year? Now that is really difficult to articulate since a bookish person like me would tell you that I want to read all of those books on my TBR pile and review them all as soon as I am done. It’s more like a fantabulous wish, really. Most of us bookish people live in fiction if you know what I mean.

Taking a good look at 2015 will probably make a good sense of what I do want for 2016, then. Goodreads made a beautiful illustration of each member’s Year 2015 in Books, and here is mine (click on the photo below).

 Last July 2015, I posted the best books I’ve read for the first half of the year. And to that I am adding these beauties:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – This will always be beautiful, maybe, no matter how many times I reread it. I will always love Atticus, I guess.
• The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence – I’m so enamored with the kind of friendship Alex showed here. It is a story not easily forgotten.
• Slade House by David Mitchell – This one is short but an unrelenting thrill. Just brilliant!
• Night Study by Maria V. Snyder – I am ridiculously biased toward this series. I love every detail, every character, and the development of the story. It just keeps getting better every time. Release date on January 26, 2016.
• The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick – Arthur Pepper is one hell of a guy to root for. He is curiously charming –all heart and nothing less. He’s coming out this May 2016.

For special mentions:

• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
• Family Life by Akhil Sharma

The Goodreads’ illustration and this list will tell you that I almost read anything, although I still prefer seeking the books I want to read for authentic enjoyment. So, what does this bookish person want for the New Year? I want satisfying reads. It doesn’t necessarily have to make me happy. It may leave me in a pile of tears and snot, for all I care, as long as I’m fully satisfied. Satisfied in that sense where I am able to hold on to something substantial and not easily forgotten.

On that note, I may have to forego my yearly challenge. I’ll read how many books I can read. Sure, 75 was a good number. I was not really pressured, or anything, to reach that number. But having an actual number out there seems restricting as it is. So, no more numbers.

I’d like to add more buddy-reading this year. Last year limited me to Perdido Street Station and When We Were Orphans; and that’s so sad. I miss the ‘Wenches of TFG’ very very much!

The TFG Dare To Read Challenge could have been better. Yeah, sure, I’ve accomplished them, but I’m hoping that this year’s challenges will be better.

I may also have to make some changes on the book requests. I’ll make a separate post for that one, including my plans for this blog.

For now, I’m happy to be up and about and blogging once again. Thank you for staying with The Page Walker all through 2015, and hope that you keep on visiting. 

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TWERP by Mark Goldblatt

A Quintessence of Dust.

   

TWERP is a coming-of-age story set in 1969, Queens, New York. Julian is a good kid, mixed up with the wrong company. Most of the time, peer pressure and wanting to belong got the worst of Julian and lands him into trouble. The biggest trouble wasn't revealed until the end of the story. But throughout the book, there are hints for Julian’s week-long suspension. His English teacher assigned him to write a journal involving all of his activities for the semester to get out of reading Julius Caesar, so he thinks this is a pretty good deal. His entries were fun and revealing, but he tried very hard skipping that incident with Danley.

That’s what it means to be a man. You do what you think is right, regardless of who it hurts, and whether it works out, because in the end you have to live with yourself.

It took him quite a while, writing things down, he made some huge realization. Some, he made peace with himself; mostly, he started making changes. Belonging and finding one’s place is important, but Julian also realized that deciding to stand up for what is right is important too. He decided that anything he does in 1969 is but a speck of dust in the future, but doing what is right will always make a difference.

But here’s the weird part. Knowing the truth frees you up. Or at least it frees you up if you accept it. Knowing that, in a thousand years, nothing you’re doing or not doing will matter frees you up to do what your heart tells you to do.

Twerp is all about bullying. Not just about bullying the weakest kid by some neighborhood or school kids, but being bullied by your own friends into doing something wrong. Standing up and saying no to a dare is a choice kids at any age should always keep in mind. But don’t think for one second that this is a heavy book. Between Julian’s misadventures with his ragtag group of boys, sports ambition, and initiation with a girl, there are plenty of things to enjoy in this story.

Book details:

Title:  Twerp

Author:  Mark Goldblatt

Publication:  May 28th, 2013, Random House Books for Young Readers 

Genre:  Fiction, YA (9-12)

Rating:  ★★★★

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Required Reading: December 2014

November had come and gone. And December is here carrying all the Christmas cheers we may enjoy. For a bookish person that means more books –receiving, listing, buying, shelving, and reshelving.  But let us not forget Thanksgiving, feasting, family, and fellowship on our list, my dears.

Here are the books and short stories I finished last November:

• Flury: The Journey of A Snowman by Tony Bertauski – 5/5 stars – Wonderful story about love, family and sacrifice. If you haven’t started with this series yet, may I suggest you get your copies now? Because this is the best read for the season.
• Dwellers by Eliza Victoria – 4/5 stars – TFG’s book for November turned to be a very interesting read and prompted a really good discussion last FilReaderCon.
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell – 5/5 stars – It took me a while to finish this, but it has nothing to do with the writer’s storytelling. Three quarters through, I got heartbroken and I found it difficult to turn another page.  I did muster my courage, eventually, and let the tears fall where it should.
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – 4/5 stars – This one is a journey in time and characters. It was not exactly a sad story, but I ended my reading with a constricted sigh. Sorry, I have to explain myself at length some other time.
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – 3/5 stars – This is my last Dare You To Read challenge. Yay! Kundera is a very good poet, no doubt about that.
• Doll Bones by Holly Black – 3/5 stars – A brave adventure and a test of friendship. A very nice “coming-of-age” story.
• Roselily by Alice Walker, and The Swimmer by John Cheever – 5/5 stars – Short stories of the month via The Short Story Station.

For my last Reading Requirement of the year, I've chosen only one book. The one that matters the most…

•     Fall Like Rain by Ana Tejano – There is no secret why I know I will love this. I love the person who wrote it, and I know she had put plenty of love and effort into making this book.

I believe that I will not be able to finish all my 70-book challenge this year, but I don’t feel too bad about that. I did try my best to fight off the giant called “Reading Slump.” It was a good fight, because I was able to bounce back, somehow. I do know it will be back and try to overcome me again. That is the reality of every reading life; we just keep doing what we love.

A Christ-filled season to everyone and a prosperous bookish year ahead of us!

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The Once and Future King by T.H. White

The Forever King

   

This is the penultimate of my  I Dare You to Read 2014. Seeing this was already in my TBR pile, Ronnie recommended me to read this as part of the challenge, providing me with the audiobook (too), which was wonderfully narrated by Neville Jason.

Book 1: The Sword in the Stone is a well-told story of The Wart, his childhood, and education under the tutelage of Merlyn, a sorcerer living backward in time. It was a joy reading the boy's adventures and challenges leading to his phenomenal unsheathing of Excalibur from the stone.  

Book 2: The Queen of Air and Darkness (The Witch of the Wood) introduced us to the remaining descendants of Igraine and the Earl of Cornwall. Within it is the story behind the tragic future of King Arthur, of how sin took roost and extracts its due.  Also, included is Arthur’s conception of the Round Table and his ideas.

Book 3: The Ill-Made Knight spoke of Lancelot, his knighthood, his quests, his betrayal of Arthur, and his illicit affair with Guenever. Although this book was long and arduous, it included Arthur’s struggles as a king of the New Order and the quest for the Holy Grail. The narrative from here grew somber and apprehensive.

Book 4: The Candle in the Wind came with great sorrow. Arthur’s dream of a New Order is crumbling. He struggles to hold his kingdom together in the face of betrayal and war. His imminent demise swiftly unfolds.

T.H. White dressed these legendary stories amusingly and unpredictably. Even his narrator, a present-day scholar, has a rather peculiar way of addressing the reader. His linking of the fictional past and present is curiously clever, even though these books were already told and retold for years. The tone begins playfully and sweet, and then gets philosophical and darker as the plot moves along. It slowly moves from a wonderful fantasy to a tragic ending we all saw but unable to avoid.

Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds.

Like many others before me, I love King Arthur and will never get tired of reading his story being told from different perspectives. I root for him not only for his adventures but also for his noble ideals. An incredible illustration of how a great man can fail despite honorable intentions. The night before his death, Arthur instructed his page, Tom of Newbold Revell, to run back home away from the war, and to take heart the King’s dream of using one’s force in behalf of justice for others and not for his own account. I strongly believe that stories are called epic because they leave behind sagacious lessons such as this.

Book details:

Title: The Once and Future King

Author: T.H. White

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Corp.

Publication: January 15, 1981

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: ★★★★

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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

A Love Story

   

I've watched very little war movies, much less read about them, even lesser about the experiences of the people who toured NAM. I wouldn't have read this book and got introduced to Tim O'Brien if this was not a dared book from the TFG challenge earlier this year.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is a great book that engages the reader with its unique format. It’s neither a novel, nor a collection of short stories, but rather a composition of story fragments that are interconnected completing an experience beyond profound. O'Brien tells the stories, and then re-tells them while changing some bits of facts; afterward, he tells the reader that the stories are made up, but still true. These constant contradictions of fiction and reality challenge the reader to suspend disbelief and focus more on the impact of war on the human soul, rather on the mundane details of war. This is a work of fiction, and yet, the stories capture the heart with its undeniable truth.

“By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain.” 

The words simply flow on its accord, letting the reader drift into the story and forget to put the book down. I read this book in less than 5 hours in one sitting. Some stories are really hard to read due to conflicting emotions and philosophy of morals. But O'Brien insisted that these are not war stories, but love stories that needed to be told again and again.  I agree with him because stories like this needed be held with love in remembrance of the irretrievable pieces that the soldiers left in Vietnam.

"Over the years, that coldness had never entirely disappeared. There were times in my life when I couldn't feel much, not sadness or pity or passion, and somehow I blamed this place for what I had become, I blamed it for taking away the person I had once been. For twenty years this field had embodied all the waste that was Vietnam, all the vulgarity and horror."

I was so affected by these stories; I believe that I may never listen to the Lemon Tree song the same way again.

Thank you, Patrick, for lending me your copy.



Book details:
Title: The Things They Carried
Author: Tim O'Brien
Publisher: Mariner Books
Publication: October 13, 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

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