Princess Maryam by Eric Cabahug

Princess Maryam by Eric Cabahug
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


BLURB

Princess Maryam is about friendship of two young girls going over boundaries made by human laws and religion. This book has portrayed the picture of what is it like to see the cruel world throug child’s eyes. It will remind you how to be innocent at heart and how it can bring out the best out of someone’s sorrowful heart. It also give emphasis on the importance of our relationship with our Creator regardless of one’s religion. (excerpt from Goodreads)

Reviw Marathon: Randomly Something

Well, it’s a fact that it’s been quite some time since my last review post but that doesn’t mean I haven’t read any book at all. I have read a few since the dawn of 2016. They’re just not that many and I’m afraid with my speed, I still won’t be able to reach my Goodreads 50-book Challenge. 

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Not by Sight by Jon Bloom

Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith by Jon Bloom

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publishers: Crossway Books
Genre: Non-fiction, Christian, Inspirational.


OVERVIEW:

Trusting Jesus is hard. It requires following the unseen into an unknown, and believing Jesus's words over and against the threats we see or the fears we feel. Through the imaginative retelling of 35 Bible stories, Not by Sight gives us glimpses of what it means to walk by faith, counsel for how to trust God's promises more than our perceptions, and the way to find rest in the faithfulness of God.
(Excerpt from Goodreads)

Book Talk: Review Marathon

Well, hello blogosphere! It’s been quite a while since well, my last post. Been quite busy with the offline world so I had to put TBBN on hiatus for a while (That means about 4 months!) Woooah!!! But I did not forgot my bookish goals! This year I’m going to surpass that 2015 Goodreads Challenge. I did my reading home works. In fact, what I’m going to share today are the books I read since my last post.

The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo

The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo
Source: TOR
Pages: 43 pages
Goodreads Rating: 4.01 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Folk tales, Short Story, Paranormal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

EXCERPT


There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls...or so the story goes. But it’s just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel, Shadow and Bone.
-From Goodreads~

On Cindi Madsen's Cinderella Screwed Me Over

 Cinderella Screwed Me Over by Cindi Madsen
 Pages: 294 pages
 Pacing: Fast-pace
 Format: E-book

 Goodreads Average Rating: 3.85 stars
 My rating: 5 of 5 stars

SYNOPSIS:

Darby Quinn has a bone to pick with Cinderella. Burned one too many times by ex-boyfriends, Darby has lost all belief in the happily-ever-after that the fairy-tale princess promised her. She's sworn off love, Prince Charmings, and happy endings and she's happy about it. Really. Or at least she was…until she met Jake, her gorgeous neighbor and the manager of her favorite restaurant. But Darby has rules about dating, ones she's culled from her years spent with so-called “princes,” and starting something with Jake would break all of them.

Charming, fun, and unwilling to give up on her, Jake doesn’t fit any of the profiles Darby has created from her case studies of ex-princes-gone-bad. Finally presented with her own Prince Charming, can Darby take a chance on a happily-ever-after?

Full of wit and sarcastic humor, Cinderella Screwed Me Over proves that sometimes the perfect love, like a perfect pair of shoes, is just within your grasp.
~From Goodreads~

On Isla and The Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Dutton
Genres: Young Adult, Romance
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.19
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

BLURB

Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series. ~From Goodreads~

On Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern
Publisher: Hachette Books
Pages: 443 pages
Genres: Women's fiction, Contemporary Romance, ChickLit

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Format: Ebook
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.97

THE BLURB
Sometimes you have to look at life in a whole new way...
From the bestselling author of PS, I Love You comes a delightfully enchanting novel about what happens when two people who are meant to be together just can't seem to get it right.

Rosie and Alex are destined for one another, and everyone seems to know it but them. Best friends since childhood, their relationship gets closer by the day, until Alex gets the news that his family is leaving Dublin and moving to Boston. At 17, Rosie and Alex have just started to see each other in a more romantic light. Devastated, the two make plans for Rosie to apply to colleges in the U.S.

She gets into Boston University, Alex gets into Harvard, and everything is falling into place, when on the eve of her departure, Rosie gets news that will change their lives forever: She's pregnant by a boy she'd gone out with while on the rebound from Alex.

Her dreams for college, Alex, and a glamorous career dashed, Rosie stays in Dublin to become a single mother, while Alex pursues a medical career and a new love in Boston. But destiny is a funny thing, and in this novel, structured as a series of clever e-mails, letters, notes, and a trail of missed opportunities, Alex and Rosie find out that fate isn't done with them yet.

From the gifted author of PS, I Love You comes this charming, romantic, addictively page-turning novel that will keep readers laughing and guessing until the very last page. ~Excerpt from Goodreads~~

Rowell Holidays: On Fangirl and Eleanor and Park

Like I said on my previous post, I'm definitely posting my Rainbow Rowell holiday experience. Yes, that means Fangirl and Eleanor and Park. 

Photo from Novelsounds

Book Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


SYNOPSIS:

Hopelessly crossed in love, a boy of half-fairy parentage leaves his mundane Victorian-English village on a quest for a fallen star in the magical realm. The star proves to be an attractive woman with a hot temper, who plunges with our hero into adventures featuring witches, the lion and the unicorn, plotting elf-lords, ships that sail the sky, magical transformations, curses whose effects rebound, binding conditions with hidden loopholes and all the rest.

~~~From Goodreads~~~

On Paulo Coelho's Manuscript Found in Accra

Sweepbloggers

Thanks to a dear friend of mine that I was able to get hold and read this one-of-kind piece of Paulo Coelho. I have been curious about Paulo Coelho ever since a friend of mine from a youth community kept on talking about his best selling book "The Alchemist". 

SYNOPSIS:


The city of Accra awaits the invasion of the crusaders who have surrounded the gates. There, within the city walls, men and women of every age have gathered to hear the words of a mysterious man known only as the Copt. He has summoned the townspeople to address their fears with truth, hope and comfort. They begin with questions about defeat and struggle; they contemplate the virtues of loyalty and solitude; and they ultimately turn to questions of beauty, love, wisdom, and what the future holds. "What is success?" poses the Copt. "It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace." * * * Now, centuries later, the manuscript containing the Copt's extraordinary insights on courage, solitude, loyalty and loss has been unearthed from a cave in Cairo. A Manuscript Found in Accra is a revelatory exploration of our most enduring and transcendental values, and a testimony to everyday wisdom.
-from Waterstone---

John Green's The Fault in our Stars

Photo Link

I've been hearing a lot about this John Green piece for a while and I've seen this book in bookstores where I usually hang around but never got to get one for myself.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon Read Philippines that I got interested into reading The Fault in our Stars. The overview kind of intrigued me into reading. Also, it's actually a July Challenge in RP where members are to post their thoughts and reviews on the book and there will be one lucky winner.  

Here is the short summary:

"The story follows the main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster, as she battles cancer. Not only is Hazel trying to live the normal life of a 16-year-old girl, but she is also struggling with what it will be like for her parents after she dies. While Hazel attends a church support group for cancer survivors, she meets a boy that is one year older than her, Augustus Waters. While Augustus had a type of cancer that causes him to lose his leg and wear a prosthetic, it also has a survival rate that is much higher than Hazel's death sentence."

 -"excerpt from Bookrags"

Book of the Moment: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Finally, I’m back to being a bookaholic again. Oh, I miss reading stuff and I hate that my work is one of the main reasons I can’t finish a book. Anyways, my book for the moment is Michael Scott’s series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas. Yeah, the name is familiar. You might want to check it out in Wikipedia or review your knowledge of Harry Potter’s first book The Sorcerer’s Stone. Nicholas Flamel is the Alchemist who created the sorcerer’s stone. So, enough on the review-of-related-literature part, let’s get the part about Michael Scott’s series.

The truth is I really haven’t heard of this book until December. There was some little fuss about the Christmas wish list for upcoming Christmas party and I was one of those who didn’t submit a wishlist because honestly, I really didn’t know what I wanted for Christmas so while my officemates were filling up their lists of t-shirts and bags, I searched the web. I thought, I wanted a book this time.  I was actually looking for Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist book at National Bookstore’s online shop when Michael Scott’s Book One of the series entitled “The Alchemist” popped up on the search results and Alas! There goes Michael Scott’s Book One on my wish list.

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VERONICA ZUNDEL’S THE TIME OF OUR LIVES

I just got my salary last week and I bought a copy of The Hired Wife for my sister who was really eager to have a look with story I wrote... The other book I bought was Veronica Zundel’s Journeying with the Bible, “THE TIME OF OUR LIVES”, a bible study guide.

I promised myself that I would buy a new bible with my first salary however my budget couldn’t afford to buy a new one so I bought a study guide instead. Maybe next time, I can finally buy a new bible.  Anyway, I really like how the book was made.  It contains over 200 reflections and right now I’m through 8 articles of reflections of verses and prayers.

The book was divided into 5 chapters namely, THE TIME MACHINE, OLD TIMES, HARD TIMES, SIGNS OF THE TIMES and TIME TO GO, which truly make sense why the book was entitled TIME OF OUR LIVES. It talks a lot about times and amazing stories as well as lessons and truths that we sometimes deny.