Ron Does Stuff

I know I’ve missed like four days of blogging this past week but I’m not getting paid to do this! I do make time for this because it’s easy and actually kinda relaxing catching up on book news!

Manila International Book Fair

Every Filipino bibliophile always looks forward to the Manila International Book Fair, or MIBF as it’s popularly known. Almost all of the country’s publishers and big bookstores always have a booth and when I was younger and had more free time I would always attend all five days. Alas, this time around I’ll only be around for the weekend parts of it.

Just like every staging, there’s going to be signings, there’s going to be talks, there’s going to be new releases. I’ll be going to the Romanceclass Books signings on the weekend for sure!

Pedro Almodóvar’s short story collection

Legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has a collection of short stories out, entitled El último sueño or The Last Dream. According to multiple bookstore websites this is going to come out in September 24 — but I don’t know if the Philippines is included in that.

The Guardian has a great feature on Almodóvar and the book and I like his observation about scriptwriting and novel writing that he relates in this quote about Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Cormac McCarthy.

“There’s a lot of examples of that but the one I’ll give you is Cormac McCarthy, who I like a lot. You’d think – or at least I’d think – that this guy would write a good film script because he’s very good at dialogue and his novels are based on dialogue. But he wrote a script, single-handed, called The Counsellor, which was directed by Ridley Scott and which had Penélope [Cruz] and Brad Pitt in it. It was really weak and the film didn’t work. They’re two different disciplines.”

There’s a lot of great stuff in there about him studying in a Salesian school –like me! — and his time as part of La Movida Madrileña. Read the whole thing!

Barbara Kingsolver Lifetime Achievement Award

Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver is receiving another honor this year. The Demon Copperhead author is being recognized with the 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the National Book Awards.

She’s going to get a $10,000 cash prize, but as she points out in an interview with the Associated Press, what’s great about it is the medal nomination is made by “former National Book Award winners, finalists, judges and other members of the literary community.”

“I feel like I’ve been on this steady course, and it’s a remarkable and wonderful feeling to be appreciated and honored this way by my peers. It’s not someone outside the field. It’s the people who see literature as our livelihood and our spiritual anchor. And that means the world to me.”

Emma Donoghue’s new novel

I read Room a long time ago and I remember liking that book even if it was heartbreaking and now Emma Donoghue is back with another novel.

The Paris Express is set to come out on March 18 next year and according to People is based on the 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station. People has a short excerpt from the book and it really is short. Check it out!

‘Midnight Sun’ on Netflix

It’s been four years since Stephanie Meyers’ Midnight Sun came out and now it’s getting a new lease on life as Netflix has announced it is going to be adapted into an animated series.

In case you’re not a fan of the Twilight series and all the media that came out of that and don’t know what Midnight Sun is, it’s basically the ploy of Twilight but told through the perspective of Edward Cullen rather than through Bella Swan.

National Children’s Book Award winners

The National Book Development Board and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People recently awarded the books Bum Tiyaya Bum: Philippine Nursery Rhymes and Verses, Hanapin ang Sagot: Ano ang Batas Militar?, Inip, Hiya, and Wild Song as this year’s Best Reads. These books were picked by “a panel of award-winning children’s book authors, illustrators, and scholars.”

As stated in the Facebook post, “The NCBA is a biennial event that honors the best books published for children and young adults in the previous two years. The awards encourage parents and caregivers to spend more time reading with their children while recommending the best published works.”