This is super late post. hehe. I finished this two books I think two months ago. So yeah, 4 down on my personal book review thing-y. :) And 26 to goooooooooo! LOL
My Imaginary Ex
by Mina V. Esguerra
Here's what happens when you play pretend.
When Zack asks Jasmine to pretend to be his ex-girlfriend, she gamely agrees, thinking it would be fun. A few years later, she still has to keep convincing people that they were never together! Then one day, she finds out he's getting married to someone she'd just met once! All of a sudden, things aren't so clear-cut anymore. Can Jasmine sort out her feelings (sometimes, she can't even tell real from pretend when it comes to her and Zack) before it's too late?
My friend recommended this chicklit and for that I want to hug her. Thank you Len! I think it's been ages since I last read this kind of book. I bravely admit that I love to read Tagalog pocketbooks, they're everywhere in our house. My table have piles of those kind of books. :) Reading light-themed books, for me, is a good escape for stress. hehe. Just like Mina V. Esguerra's My Imaginary Ex. I love Zack's character on how he contain his love for Jasmine all of those years. It has a nice flow on the story's build up, on how Zack and Jasmine pretends during their school days. Siyempre pa, I listed memorable lines.
From Zack referring to Jasmine's ex-boyfriend: "I hated that guy from the very start and I never lied to you about it. I let you stay with him because you kept choosing to go back. Even I was just there the whole time." *See? Ewan ko lang kung sinong babae ang hindi kikiligin sa line na ito?*
Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he called fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghost like pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle--yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.
I wouldn't hide the fact that I love magical realism. I also love Gabriel Garcia Marquez works. Last January I just read Murakami's Norwegian Wood and I also love that book. This book made me cry with so much emotions in me. (Nah, just being dramatic. hehe) But yeah, this book is touching. Murakami orchestrates the words and story line into a magical world you would love. I love Kafka's view and characters. There was no boring part for me in this book. Also, I now notice Murakami's attachment to cats. :) ♥ Now I have to purchase my own copy of this book. For those who love magical realism I definitely recommend Murakami's books.
Hence my list of favorite quotes:
"If you remember me then I don't care if everyone else forgets."
"Chance encounters are what keep us going."
"Everyone one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feeling we can never get back again. That's part of what it means to be alive."
"Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear."
"Being with her I feel pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is I'm thankful for it. It's like that frozen pain and my very existence are one. The pain is an anchor, mooring me here."
"In everybody's life there's a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can't go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That's how we survive."
"Each person feels pain in his own way, each has his own scars."
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The Adventurer/Paper Lover
