Sunday, April 19, 2009

Spotlight: "Doctors" and "If You Could See Me Now"

Midway through April and already I've crossed off two books on my reading list. Here's where it stands now:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
--I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal

10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin


In between my Holy Week Cleanup Project, I read this novel by Erich Segal. As I mentioned before, I had read this when I was very young, maybe more than ten years ago. Reading it again, I now have newfound respect for anyone who is entering medical school. I knew it was difficult, but reading about the journey of two childhood friends from the first day of medical school all the way to becoming doctors of their own chosen fields was really enlightening.

What I liked about this is that the novel begins by introducing us to Barney and Laura, the protagonists. It establishes the bond that they have in childhood, a bond that remains all through medical school and beyond. But midway through the novel, when they actually begin going to med school, we are introduced to their classmates and their respective back stories. This makes the story even richer as these people weave in and out of Barney and Laura's lives, making all the stories intertwine. More than just the story of Barney and Laura, then, Doctors is really about their batch in Harvard Medical School, at a time when women and black doctors were not generally accepted in their field, when a cure of polio had yet to be discovered, and new medical advancements slowly unravel as time passes and the novel goes along. It was a very informative and engaging read.


As a Christmas gift, my boss gave me a copy of If You Could See Me Now, her all-time favorite Cecelia Ahern novel. Having read the summary at the back cover, I wasn't very intrigued by the premise. But after taking this book with me to the dentist yesterday, I just couldn't put it down.

Without getting into details (it's a bit difficult to summarize this book), it really taught me about friendship. How sometimes, people just really come into your life to fulfill a purpose --like to make you learn something about yourself-- and once they have achieved that, they have to move on and make a mark in other people's lives. I used to think of this as abandonment, as people never staying too long in life, but now I realize that it just means it's time to meet new friends who will teach you something new about yourself.

If you would be so lucky to find people who will stay forever, that means you should be open to growing together, always learning new things about each other, and learning new things about yourself whenever you are with that person. If not, well, the world is so full of people you can learn a thing or two from, as long as you keep yourself open to the opportunities that life has to offer.

While I read A Place Called Here first and it had an intriguing premise, I thought If You Could See Me Now really captivated me. It was so engaging and reachable-- the fantasy element was so woven in to real life, unlike in A Place Called Here where it was a tad too out there. It looks like If You Could See Me Now is my favorite Ahern book too.


So now I've hit 9 out of 17! Halfway down the list now! I would really, really want to start reading The Other Boleyn Girl, but it's so thick I think it'll take me forever to finish. Who knows though, maybe all I need is to just get started. Do I reserve the right to put it down if it proves to be a boring read? Let's see!

Have a great Sunday!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

taking a minute on a Holy Thursday

Strangely, the shower is where I get all my best ideas and epiphanies.

Today, I realized that I love anything that tells a story. I love to read (hence the 17-book reading list), I love to watch movies (there is a DVDs-to-watch list that must be written down in the next few days), and I love hearing stories about other people's lives (yes, I'm a sucker for gossip).

But more than that, I realized that I also love to tell stories (about other people, myself, or random things I hear about) and I love to invent stories (anyone who knows me well knows that I like starting sentences with "What if". Oh, and have I ever told you where the pizza place called "Shakeys" got its name? *wink*).

Maybe that's the same reason why I enjoy working in this industry. Being a publicist is sort of like trying to come up with a story: what story can this magazine tell through a press release, a television segment, or a radio talk show? I cannot imagine applying the same metaphor to a corporate environment, so maybe that's why I can't imagine being anywhere else but here.

And life, to me, is one big story. People come and go, chapters begin and end. Friendships sometimes end with one chapter, only to be rekindled again many chapters later. There can only be more unforeseen twists in the plot, more characters introduced, but ultimately, I have faith that this story called Life will have a happy ending.


Okay, talk about random! My minute is up, so ciao!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

hitting 7 out of 17

Here's my reading list as it currently stands:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
--I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin


The latest book I've crossed off the list is The Amber Room by Steve Berry. When Dan Brown came out with The Da Vinci Code (which I also enjoyed), so many other authors began to write with a similar theme. But Steve Berry was different. He may have come around the same time everyone was going crazy over the Jesus-and-Mary Magdalene love angle, but he chose to focus his attention on other historical mysteries: the third secret of Fatima, the story behind the Romanovs and Princess Anastacia, and here, the amber room.

It took me a while to finish this book, which is probably a sign that it didn't have me hooked from the beginning. For one, it doesn't explain the conflict straight away. I had the sense that the novel assumed I had some knowledge of Germans and Soviets, why they fought in World War 2, and what happened between them post-war. I have no idea why Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but that's what I learned from the book-- apparently they had some rift. I think that to have a real appreciation of the book, you have to first understand why this Amber Room is so important to them. Yes, I can imagine that an entire room filled with panels of amber, making it seem like it's glittering in gold, could be very precious, but there was a more cultural and historical reason why they were all after it, and I couldn't quite grasp what it was. The explanations came somewhere in the middle, but by then I'd already been so lost. You know when you're walking through the forest, you know you're lost but you think, "Well, I'll just keep walking then, even if I don't know where I'm going," and then someone throws you a map, but you can't even begin to make sense of it because you don't know where you are in the first place? That's how I felt.

There also wasn't enough character development for the protagonists. The summary in the back cover says "a divorced couple race through Europe with trained killers swiftly behind". Well, I know more about the trained killers than I do about the couple. It wasn't a really bad book, but maybe I'm just cutting Steve Berry some slack because this was his debut novel, after all. So, I finally crossed this off my list with the conclusion that it was just a so-so read.

Next on my list is Doctors by Erich Segal. I had read this book years ago, maybe when I was still in grade school, because my older cousins had a copy lying around. All I remember is that it was one of those books I couldn't put down (along with Danielle Steel's Wings, but I don't remember what that was about either), and any book that kept me up till the wee hours of the morning must be something worth re-reading. I may also gain a new appreciation for it now that I'm much older. 

I started reading the preface, and I can't wait to dive into it this Holy Week.


So far, I've been successful in my pact not to add to my Reading List. The only addition was a birthday gift from my boss, and at least it was just one book. I'm making good progress with this list, so yay! :)