Book Specs Author: John Banville Publisher: Picador Publishing Date: 2005 Number of Pages: 264 pages Genre: Novel Synopsis When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. The Grace family had appeared that long-ago […]
Author: carllbatnag
I am a lot of things. I am that book with endless words. I am that pen that never ceases writing. I am an imagery that captures the beauty that there is. I am a celebration of life. But most of all, I am a memory, a speck of dust that somehow coexisted and survived with other mindless dusts in our personal space in time.
Hungduan Travel Guide
Hungduan, Blessed by Nature The Cordilleras, my home region, has, for years, been an enigma to the outside traveler. In its towering peaks resonate voices that one can barely hear through the conundrum. But like a lengthy book, it took a long time to truly unravel its true beauty. The mystical Cordilleras began taking shape […]
Kamsahamnida, South Korea
November 2, 2017 Just like that, my friend and I wrapped up our South Korean adventure as we spend our last full travel day here in the land of K-Dramas, KPop and Oppas. *Deep breath*. How time flies, FAST. It was just like yesterday when we landed in Incheon, brimming with enthusiasm. Who’d have thought […]
Book Review # 91: Cloud Atlas
Book Specs Author: David Mitchell Publisher: Random House Publishing Date: 2004 Number of Pages: 509 Genre: Metafiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy Synopsis A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles and genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and […]
Glimpses: The Hungduan Rice Terraces, A UNESCO Heritage Site
The Philippines, undoubtedly, is a blessed country that never runs out of amazing sights and landmarks. A mecca for the traveler, Philippines offers a wide range of exciting activities and destinations. Among these amazing destinations are the countless rice terraces that can be found all over the country. Rice terraces are very common amongst agricultural […]
Book Review # 90: The Blind Assassin
Book Specs Author: Margaret Atwood Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Date: 2000 Number of Pages: 521 Genre: Historical Fiction Synopsis ‘Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.’ Thus begins The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood’s stunning new novel. Laura Chase’s older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent […]
The Great Cordilleran Traverse: Mt. Napulauan, A Bloody Climb
This is my version of the climb. For Saul’s version of our climb, you may visit his site: Great Cordillera Traverse: Mt. Napulawan Edition. Day 1: A Small World of Bloody Coincidences When I started taking climbing seriously, the thought of doing an overnight climb barely crossed my mind. The idea of spending a night […]
Book Review # 89: The English Patient
Book Specs Author: Michael Ondaatje Publisher: Vintage International Publishing Date: December 1993 Number of Pages: 302 Genre: Historiographic metafiction Synopsis With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, […]
Book Review # 88: Murder on the Orient Express
Book Specs Author: Agatha Christie Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks Publishing Date: January 18, 2011 Number of Pages: 288 Genre: Mystery Fiction, Suspense Fiction, Detective Fiction Synopsis Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a […]
Book Review # 87: Disgrace
Book Specs Author: J.M. Coetzee Publisher: Secker & Warburg Publishing Date: 1999 Number of Pages: 220 Genre: Literary Fiction, Novel Synopsis David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, is a scholar fallen into disgrace. After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, he has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair […]
