Hero by Kevon Brown (book review)

I really liked the book. I think the author did a good job with maintaining my interest. It helped a lot that this book is a coming-of-age novel, a genre that I really love reading since I am still a young man. I can relate to the characters’ pains and plights because the emotions portrayed here are universal and we have all shared and experienced the same emotions at least one time in our lives. It made me think about myself as an individual, questioning whether I should be who I am or be what others expect of me. 

 

I like books that challenge my way of thinking about the world. I love it when I can sympathize to the characters and feel as if I am part of the story, the same way I felt the angst and existential crisis while I was reading “Catcher in the Rye.” I like books that are raw and honest and are not afraid to be daring and true. I can certainly feel that this book may be a little autobiographical because of the way Kevon Brown wrote this. It is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which reminded me somehow of The Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. He seems to have experienced a lot of the characters’ emotions himself so that is why he had written such an effective read.

 

This book is not perfect. Some minor editing and proofreading issues can be found here and there but I do not think it is really bothersome. I ignored that aspect because I want to look beyond those issues and just focus on what the book is all about. For me, what is important is that the author found the courage and will to write this kind of book. Some better proofreading and editing might be very useful in the future but I can certainly forgive him because the way he wrote this book is good enough for me to overlook those mistakes I would rather not dwell on. Rather, I focused on the entire message of the novel. It is something that adults and teens especially should read. Teens would learn a lot from what the characters experienced and they may see a reflection of themselves in the whole book. Adults, especially the parents, would also be educated as well. It can be an eye opener to the whole truth of our society nowadays. I had a nice time spending some of my hours reading this book because it affected me emotionally which is what I want books to do to me. 

Guys join churpchurp now! Get rewarded for your social networks! It\’s really cool! ph.churpchurp.com

I am actually trying if this is working. I am a poor social whore who is desperate for money to buy books. So why not try this?

Guys join churpchurp now! Get rewarded for your social networks! It\’s really cool! ph.churpchurp.com.

Journey to a far away place (book review)

The idea of hell always fascinated me. I love reading about demons, the Devil and the Inferno. I enjoy reading about sins, eternal punishment and basically anything diabolical. That is the reason why I have no hesitation to get this book as soon as I read its premise and summary. I read this book with much excitement and much anticipation. I was not disappointed at all. From the first page, the story unfolded very easily. It is fast-paced for me and not at all boring. Victoria Wells, the main character, moved Heaven and Earth and went straight to the center of Hell itself just to save his husband who was tricked into giving up his immortal soul. I enjoyed how the author tackled this story. It is truly an exercise of a very creative mind. I could not put this book down. I am so eager to know everything that happened next. His descriptions of the novel’s conflicts, of Hell or the Lower Astral Plane, all details in the book are done so eloquently. Despite the fantastic premise, I see this novel as a beautiful love story, a story of love so great that a person would go beyond what is expected in order to save her beloved. This novel put a smile on my face as I read because I cannot help but sympathize with Victoria Well’s position. I also have loved someone so much that I am sure that I would do anything for him. Giving any more details of what Victoria Wells had undergone in this very enjoyable novel will be sinful. I highly suggest that you should grab a copy yourself and find out! Truly this is a read that I cannot forget! I hope to read more works by this author!

I really love this blog post! =P

The Silver Bomb (book review)

I have been a European Studies major when I was in college so I was exposed to a lot of blah blah about politics, economics, law and other intellectual and tedious stuff. Our lives as students revolves around reading excessively technical and serious scholarly articles or books which we are forced to consume because we simply have no choice. If we do not read them, we will surely fail. But reading this kind of writings can be brain-numbing, especially with the amount of information that one needs to know beforehand and the new information that must be digested and internalized. This is masochism, literally.

I do not really enjoy reading stuff like this. I love reading non-fiction but topics regarding economics in general make me rather read ancient religious texts in the original extinct languages. I would derive more fun from that. But then, I gave The Silver Bomb a try because its topic is something I have never read. Although the book is blatantly related to economics, the premise is very intriguing for me. I know that I would definitely have fun with it.

And I did. The book is really interesting. It is not purely an economic treatise about money. In fact it is much more than that. We are taken into the history of money and how it affected humans and civilizations. Money has a profound effect on our existence and our collective human history. It also describes the vital significance of the roles of gold and silver in the looming possibility of the return of metal as money. I think this book is written in a way that is stimulating enough to hold a general reader’s interest but it is also informative and well-grounded on facts and history to make an economist, a scholar or a student take notice and appreciation on this book. There are a lot of fascinating quotes and thought-provoking passages throughout the book that will surely entertain the reader.

But I can still say that this book is not for everyone. A reader of this book should have at least enough knowledge on economics, politics and history in order to understand what the authors are trying to say. But it is definitely a useful tome for people who study or teach in universities and colleges. It is definitely a good source of information. I think it condensed a lot of historical facts and concepts well. It can definitely help people comprehend more the nature and importance of money in our lives, and also the significance of metal.

My Writing Strategies

1. Make ebooks in Smashwords.

2. Have deals with other ebook publishers like Flipreads or Blurb or Lulu.

3. Make an effort to contact a real publisher.

4. Make a blog.

5. Religiously add friends and ask them to follow you or become your fan.

6. Make friends with authors and your fans and make sure you are updated.

7. Promote your books at your Facebook, Twitter and others.

8. Reply to emails.

9. Subscribe to review blogs and other websites that caters to writers.

10. Keep your profile updated and interesting always.

11. Write and read reviews of other writers.

12. Give out promos and freebies.

13. Join a poetry and short story site like Allpoetry and Storywrite.

14. Join Book clubs online or in real life.

15. Talk to actual bookstores regarding the potential consignment of your books.

That is all I can think of now and all these have been tried and tested by me so no problem with promoting it. 

Reading classics through comics

I recently rediscovered some ancient (I mean ancient as something older than me) short comics in our bodega (I do not know the English translation of this.. sort of a basement and attic but it is actually a room inside your house). It is a gift from an old woman neighbor who has a child before, now much older, who loves so many books and literature. The old woman donated a lot of their old books to us which actually was the starting points of me having a library so I am actually very thankful to her and would probably give her a gift.

Anyway, more of that later…

I discovered some Classics Illustrated with these old comics circa 1970… They are about famous classic novels and literature. I was so excited because they are more interesting shortcuts to knowing what the books are all about instead of reading the summary in wikipedia which I do a lot for classics because I feel kinda biased towards them..

Anyway, here are the comic I found which I devoured already:

LES MISERABLES – the comics was so nicely done and it made me wanna read the book itself! It sounds so good and of course so much better than the abridged version of an abridged version of the original Les Mis.

Vanity Fair – so so..

As You Like It – another so so

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – I have the book and I think I will read it soon because the comics was so interesting..

I am now excited to read the others:

The Time Machine
The Reign of Terror

This is so true. =P You are so right, my beloved Wanggo =P

Wanggo Online

I really would love to begin this post by asking how any artist who communicates love and acceptance of all people regardless of who they are to be in any way immoral or satanic? How does an artist who tells people to be who they are, to not justify themselves to the harsh world and to fight for their freedom be, in any way, evil? I feel so frustrated of all these close-minded Christian groups who came rallying and protesting against the concert, calling her immoral and satanic.

Okay, fine, so she can be lewd and she drops the F-bomb a lot. But who cares? That’s her approach. I was never one to shy away from a strong personality. I curse a lot and I am not at all offended by lewdness. I would like to think I have a more mature understanding of sex. I don’t think, at all…

View original post 515 more words

I will join this!

qarrtsiluni

Submissions are now open for the Fragments issue, with a deadline of just one month from now: June 20, the solstice. The issue editors are Olivia Dresher and Catherine Ednie. All submissions must be sent through our submissions manager.

Theme description

The theme for this issue is fragments: writing “in the wild.” Overly crafted pieces can feel less honest, less real, even boring… whereas fragments are illuminations, a flash of lightning, a light turned on for just a second. Shards, torn pages, unstrung beads, homeless paragraphs, scraps, brevities, miniatures… brief excerpts from notebooks… writings that may be aphoristic or simply wordplay, meditative or emotionally raw… unpredictable, probing, urgent, spontaneous. We love writing that contains an element of surprise, reflecting a commitment to fragments as a literary genre.

Send us your pieces that stand alone or consist of a series of short fragments. Optionally, we’d also like to…

View original post 444 more words

Celtic Storms (review)

I always love anything Celtic or Irish. I am so attracted to their culture because it seems so bloody and violent, and yet so relentlessly beautiful all at the same time. My first exposure to Celtic culture in novels is from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Aside from that, I have read a lot about Celts, especially the ancient pagan human sacrificing Celts. I had a book all about them in French. The Irish Gaelic language is also very wonderful for me that I even bought a dictionary and a grammar book to study this very mysterious and difficult language sung by my beloved Enya.

So in short, I am an absolute Celtophile. So I expected a lot from a book called Celtic Storms which I saw as an ebook. Without caring much about reading the summary, I downloaded it since I had a feeling that this would be good because of the word Celtic in the title.

I was not disappointed. It is really really really good! It is actually like a family saga, about two clans joining together as one through the marriage of some important members. Although this is not about the pagan Celts I would have preferred, I still found this very interesting because I learned a lot from reading this book. This is set sometime in the earlier centuries, when Christianity was still somehow new to the Celtic setting and there was still magic and mysterious rituals mixing with the popular religion. This was the time when there were still family feuds and feudalism was still practiced. This was the time when the rich lived in castles, but not as far as when Arthur lived.

In short, it was like a fairy tale, but with a modern way of telling it. No non-sense at all. The novel is well-crafted. I cannot put it down. Well, because I am a human being, I still have to sleep but I look forward the next day to read it again. The descriptions are vivid and the story flows well. There are a lot of characters but their names are really beautiful so it is easy to follow their plot lines and their roles in the whole novel.

I do not want to spoil anything so I just advise you to get a copy of this book and read it for yourself. if you like romance, read it. If you like historical fiction, read it. If you like a wonderful novel to spend some time with, this is it. You would definitely discover a lot of precious gems in this treasure chest of a novel. And you know me, if I review a book, I am passionate about it especially if it is worth writing a long review such as this. I really believed that this novel is great and I cannot wait for more of this! Congratulations to the author!