InkSpell by Cornelia Funke

InkSpell is the second book in a trilogy, following InkHeart.

 

 

It took me over two years before reading the second book so some details from InkSpell were already vague to me. As I flipped through the pages, details started coming back and I was re-acquainted with the magical world crafted by Funke. I loved it.

A year passes since the end of the first story before the second one starts. Meggie and her parents live in the mansion of her book-loving Aunt Elinor, and she still continues to fantasize about the world where Dustfinger came from. Her mother gladly tells her about the magical place, while her father would have nothing to do with it.

While Meggie had her happy family, Dustfinger continued to travel with his apprentice Farid, finding a way to get back to his story. He found a reader who would do it for a fee, but it turns out that he was conniving with the evil Basta and Magpie, mother of the late Capricorn. Dustfinger successfully re-enters InkWorld.

Farid having learned of the evil plot was horrified for his mentor. He would not accept being left behind in this world. To him, his place was beside Dustfinger. He sought out Meggie, knowing that she was possibly the only one who could use the words weaved by Orpheus to send Farid over to the other world.

His longing to rescue the fire eater leads them to a big adventure. Meggie could not pass up the chance to visit the world she's been fascinated with. She read herself into the story too, a feat not even the talented Orpheus could do. Every step in the forest, she would recall details from the book, or from stories shared by her mother, who was trapped there for 10 years.

In InkWorld, it didn't take them long to find the fire eater and Fenoglio too, the author of the book who was now living in the story as a poet. There were new characters to meet as well. It was as if InkWorld truly had a life of its own beyond the words in the published book. And that was what troubled its creator.

Sadly, Fenoglio just couldn't live as a spectator in the world he considered as his own making. He had it in his head to manipulate the story from within, and with Meggie by his side he had found a way to make it happen.

To make matters worse, the Magpie and Basta retrace their steps to Elinor's house. With Orpheus as their ally, they are sent back to InkWorld, bringing Mo and Resa with them, intending to finish them off.

With our main characters now in the volatile world made from Ink, anything could and did go wrong.

There is a sad twist in this story, one that I haven't fully accepted yet. But if there was a lesson to be learned, it's that you can't bring back the dead, and meddling with other people's stories lead to no good.

I hope it doesn't take me another two years before getting to the final book in this trilogy, InkDeath.

This my fourth and final entry for the 2012 Award Winning Books Challenge :) 

Books to Blog About

 

I have at least three books that I've read in the past month and a half that I have yet to post about. That's a huge backlog for me. The irony is that I really enjoyed reading these books, all are keepers as far as I'm concerned. Sometimes, the mojo just isn't there, and it has nothing to do with the book I want to review.

We'll see if I can get them done before 2012 completely bids adieu! Would you bet on it? Hehe :)

 

The Dreams of Ada by Robert Mayer

 

It was three years ago when I first learned of the names Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot. Three years ago when I read John Grisham’s The Innocent Man. The Dreams of Ada by Robert Mayer is one of the books referenced by Grisham in his research for that book.

The two books are so similar I had a difficult time separating one from the other. As I read The Dreams of Ada last month, I kept trying to recall details of the other case.

The Dreams of Ada is about the case against Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, pertaining to the disappearance of convenience store clerk Denise Haraway. The two young men were arrested and tried six months after the disappearance, after they allegedly confessed to the crime. As far was Tommy Ward was concerned though, he was merely telling the police about the dream/s he had after police questioned him the first time around.

Ada is a very small town, so pretty much everyone knows everyone else. When the disappearance happened and there was no clue as to who may have taken the young woman, the town was in an outrage. They were thirsty for blood, hungry for justice. When news of a confession came out, the two boys were automatically judged guilty. And because they were the filth of the town, no one cared about them when they said the confessions weren’t true.

What happened to these boys was also the product of law enforcement personnel so eager to make a show of delivering justice. They were so bent on finding the perpetrators, they cared little about how it had been done.

I still find it very hard to believe that they were convicted twice, despite the absence of physical evidence. Despite the presence of witnesses corroborating their alibi Despite of the presence of reasonable doubt.

As I understand it, the two are now free. But not after spending half of their lives (over 22 years) in prison. What life did they still have to go back to?

Tommy Ward, in a way, was better off for having a family who had supported him all the way throughout the years of injustice he suffered. Karl Fontenot had not. Karl, seemed willing to stay in prison despite his innocence because he had guaranteed food and shelter. That was more sad.

Here in the country, there is still an ongoing fight to free Paco Larranaga, one of the young men convicted for the rape/slay of the Chiong sisters in Cebu. There’s a documentary film released about his story, I hope to get to watch it some time. Months ago, Hubert Webb and his co-accused for the Vizconde Massacre were finally released after being in prison for over 15 years. When they were convicted, they were just starting their lives. Now, they are old enough to already have high school kids themselves.

This type of injustice happened in America, it is with no doubt, happening everywhere. There must be something that can be done to prevent it from happening. We need to be able to trust the justice system.

On a completely different matter…

I attended our company Christmas party the other night, the first time I did in three years. After the party, we went searching for food and it brought us to Makati’s red light district – P. Burgos. It’s like a totally different world there all the flashing lights that are permanently there and not just Christmas décor. Haha. It’s a very short, but very bright strip. Made me want to go out and find custom banners made just to decorate the outside of this compound. Haha. Why not?

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Click (2006 movie)

You’ve seen the movie Click right? It stars Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale. I love this movie!

I’m surprised (really?) that I haven’t written about this movie before. I must have seen it at least five times over the years but I know we saw this in the cinemas when it was released here. Apart from Linger being one of my favorite songs and the couple’s theme song in this movie, I love this film for a number of other reasons. But first, a quick summary.

Sandler plays architect Michael Newman, and Beckinsale is his wife Donna.  They have two young kids. The story begins with Michael not getting the promotion he was expecting in return for all the work he’s had to put in. The wife is supportive, but for sure, Michael just can’t wait to get promoted already.  With all the confusion of which remote controls what appliance, he heads out to the retail store Bed, Bath and Beyond. In the Beyond section he meets Morty who gives him the Universal Remote.

Michael soon finds out the amazing features of his new gadget. He can pause everyone and everything around him, and rewind to any point in his life – in fact, this is how he remembers what their song is. Since he can rewind, he also tries to fast forward. That’s what he does for arguments with the wife, traffic, and even for sex – because he has loads of work to do for his boss Mr. Ammer.

Despite having missed out on time with the family, he finds that his promotion keeps getting delayed. He decides to fast forward to when he is finally promoted. The thing is, he skips through an entire year. He has no memory of it but it happened. A version of him who is on auto-pilot goes through that year. When it stops, he is being congratulated for his promotion, but he is also undergoing marriage counseling. The wife’s complaint? He’s just never there.

The thing is, the remote records the user’s preference, so without even hitting a button, it already knows when to fast forward – arguments, sex, traffic, promotion. So the boss just had to promise a promotion (to CEO) and Michael finds himself waking up to the day he is made CEO – ten years later.

And so the story goes. Michael can’t get rid of the remote control that he thought was meant to let him control his life. Only he finds that it actually set things out of control.

So why do I keep watching this film?

• I love Adam Sandler
• Maybe I got girl crush on Kate Beckinsale
• Perhaps for its message?
• It makes you think about what you value most, and how you show it.
• There are no shortcuts in life. Or at least, they come with consequences.
• The movie tells us that each day we have an opportunity.
• Good guys deserve a break.

Alfred and I were supposed to leave for the mall this afternoon but Click was on. Our afternoon became a two-movie marathon afternoon. The second movie was top billed by The Rock. Kwento ko next time.

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonnel

I picked up a used copy of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat at a Book Sale for only PhP60.00 (USD1.50). What caught my eye was definitely the cover art by Jonathan Bean .

I opened the book to see if there were more illustrations and was happy enough to see them along the top of each page. The illustration throughout the book wasn’t intrusive. There was just enough to keep the theme going, more would have made it a picture book for younger children. Here’s one of the interior pages (photo courtesy of Jonathan Bean’s website, no copyright infringement intended):

So who’s Emmy? She’s a very good girl. She and her parents used to live above a bookstore that her parents ran, but they became ultra rich overnight when a distant uncle they hadn’t known about left them all his money. They moved in to his big house and Emmy transferred to a better school. That would have been good news right? Not for long. Strangely enough, her parents began taking trips all over the world, leaving Emmy in the care of her nanny, Miss Barmy. In her new school, her classmates and teachers acted like she doesn’t exist most of the time.

This all made Emmy very lonely. Miss Barmy wasn’t someone she could befriend. She always wanted the girl to take weird concoctions, and insisted on her having to see the school guidance counselor regularly like something was wrong with her. And she was just plain weird.

Is there something wrong with Emmy? All school year long she swears she can hear the class rat talk. One day she stayed in the classroom during break time because she didn’t want to feel awkward all by herself in the school yard. And then the Rat started talking to her. Yes, she had a conversation with the Rat, and that was the beginning of a wild adventure. She makes friends, human and otherwise, and she finds out what Miss Barmy is really after.

Yes, there is magic in this story. Not the Harry Potter kind, mind you, but magic nonetheless.

It would be a really nice read for any adult into kid lit, and a wonderful one for young readers aged 9-12. Reading this book reminded me that children’s literature is my first love. Thank you Emmy and Rat for that reminder.

Honors received:

Booklist Editors Choice
Minnesota Book Award for Children's Literature
School Library Journal Best Books of 2007

The King of Torts by John Grisham

I haven’t read a John Grisham novel in a long time. The last one was probably his non-fiction work, The Innocent Man. More recently, it’s Scottoline whose been supplying me with all the dose of legal thriller I’ve needed.



I think I was in high school when John Grisham became highly popular. Or at least that was when he got my attention. I remember reading one of his novels and realizing how much I wanted to be a lawyer. It also made me think about the concepts of justice and injustice. But in recent years, I haven’t read much of his work. We no longer troop to the bookstore to get his latest release. I’m not sure why.

Now The King of Torts isn’t like previous Grisham bestsellers that I remember. Instead of being set in the South like his older novels, this one is set in Washington, D.C. The main protagonist is Clay Carter a public defender whose life changed so much in almost like a blink of an eye. In what he thought was a routine preparation for the defense of yet another murder case, he stumbles on something, just what it was he didn’t know exactly. But it changes his life nonetheless.

He takes the word of Max Pace, whose origins he couldn’t determine, and gambles his life on it. In the beginning it pays off. From being penniless, he moves on to become a hotshot lawyer overnight with offices set in prime real estate. From his first case, he moves on to the next big one. His law firm grows, and he is able to make a lot of people happy.

Then the big boys in tort law hear about him so they want him to be part of their circle. This is probably when things started to turn for the young lawyer. He started believing them when they said that in order to make money, he has to spend more money. That’s true yes, but some of those spending were not really necessary. I almost wished he had some sort of diversion, a hobby maybe. If he played any musical instrument, he might have had something else to divert his attention to rather than just always being about work. 

But it wasn’t just the spending that worried me about Clay. I worried about his spirit, how he was losing it. And how he was risking everything he had. And he didn’t even need to. He earned so much money already, he could have literally stopped and retired a happy man already.

Because there was more than one case and hundreds/thousands of clients, the novel didn’t focus on any single one. Rather, it seemed that the novel really sought to educate the reader about tort law and its practice. It’s about how class action lawsuits happen. It’s about how they are won, and who benefits most from them. The lawyers invest in research, in attracting clients, and then in going after the companies. There is no guarantee that the case will be won, but they sign as many clients as they can. The clients themselves don’t stand to get too much money, just enough to compensate them for the inconvenience caused by a defective product. And the lawyers get 20% from each one. So yes it’s a number’s game.

Apparently many law firms in the US have hit jackpot because of this practice. But undoubtedly, many companies probably have gone under for having to pay off each complainant. There is a whole system already in place for cases like this.

As for Clay? In the end he lost his law firm and he had to file for bankruptcy. But life is still good because he had friends willing to help him out. And he still gets the girl in the end.