Coffeespoons

Look! I have tabs! (Originally published on Wordpress, 11 Nov 2025 ) This was a joy of a book. Reminds me of the headiness of falling into N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy . Or the wonder of discovering Eddings’ The Mallorean series (please don’t hate me. I really did love The Mallorean when I was a teen) or Terry Brooks’ Shannara series . You know: complex but truly well done worlds, amazing characters that you like, a magic system that makes sense within the world, great pacing, and astute social commentary. To give a little bit of context, Foundryside is set in a world where objects are scrived—a process where words or symbols are written on an object to make them do things that may or may not be opposed to their nature. And the purpose of scriving objects is, presumably, to make life easier for people because, say, you can scrive a carriage’s wooden wheels to go faster. Except that the instructions and know-how for scriving are owned by only four families who live...

  Have long waited for a Del Rey title to  win the Hugo , and now, here we are! It’s also won the  World Fantasy Awards  recently.  Anyway, I feel like I’ve slept on Robert Jackson Bennet for so long, despite strong recommendations from readers I trust. I sought to remedy that recently.  So now, I’ve finished the book. And by golly, I love it. I love Ana and Din. I love the world Bennett created. I love how weird but utterly logical it is. I love how things are revealed and how the action is driven forward. I love the deadpan humor. I love how the mystery is thrown into relief by the reality of leviathans threatening all their lives that everything else pales in comparison. I even love the names (because sometimes, names in SF&F books kind of make me cringe).  Reading THE TAINTED CUP reminded me of the joy of starting an SF&F series by an excellent writer. It reminded me a bit of how it felt to read Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (though Jemisin’s ...

Yesterday I went to the second READ & MEET: A Read Together Session, organized by the lovely Alexx Majam of Drafts Gift Shop & Studio in Quezon City.  Essentially, Read & Meet is a silent reading/book lover socializing session, the brainchild of Alexx and Ilia (I think! Correct me if I’m wrong, Ilia!). It’s held in the workshop area of Alexx’s flower shop, Dratfts, which isn’t a huge space, so there’s only room for 10 people, making for a cozy reading session.  I’d been to the first one as well, as I do know both Ilia and Alexx professionally. On occasion, I even try to convince them to do some other reading-related events for both work and fun. I didn’t think I’d make it to this second one, because of scheduling conflicts and because when Alexx announced the sign-ups, I think the slots filled up very quickly. But fortuitously, my schedule cleared up and someone canceled, so I got the last slot. This was the table, from my POV, artfully cluttered with flowers an...

Happy April 1! I have no jokes; instead, in the grand tradition of book content creators everywhere, here is a reading wrap-up. And because it's a holiday here in the Philippines, I actually took the time to compare wrap-ups of Goodreads , Fable , and Storygraph . And as you'll see here, I used Storygraph.  Honestly, I update Goodreads and Fable more. But Fable has the disadvantage of being difficult to add new books, and I like to include the Philippine-published titles I've read. I love you, Philippine publisher and writer friends, but I do let out a yell of frustration whenever I try to add Philippine title on Goodreads, and I can't find it. And yes, Goodreads is my first stop, because of longevity and because from experience, it's highly likely that if the title isn't on Goodreads, it's not going to be on Fable or Storygraph. But the inverse is not true. All to say, Goodreads still has the largest database. But it's not so much of a problem if the ti...

PRH US titles from Filipino creators Obviously this post is work-related, but I also love doing this, so let's call this a mix of business and pleasure. A few months ago, I posted a version of this on my IG, but lists and announcements in the industry are constantly updated, so I've updated this list as well. This is supposed to be a list of Filipino authors and illustrators (creators) who are being published this 2025 by Penguin Random House US and its distribution clients (publishers who do not belong to PRH US, but who are distributed by PRH both in the US and worldwide). But I snuck in two kids' titles that were pubbed in 2023, because, well, I just found out that the illustrator was from the Philippines. Does this happen often, that I realize belatedly that a creator is from the Philippines? Not often, because we honestly make it a point to find the Filipino creators on our lists. But it does happen occasionally because, well, we have a very big list. This list also h...

I’ve been actively avoiding posting content on Meta (FB/IG/Threads) for ethical and practical reasons, i.e., Z*ck seems to be a douchebag who apparently enjoys manipulating humanity for profit, and I think that in the long run, it’s better to own my own content. I haven’t left the platforms to still keep track of people, wish them happy birthday, check brands, etc, but I tell myself not to post anything of mine directly anymore. Let me tell you right now: it’s hard. I’m chatty and I like sharing things, and my main platform for sharing was Meta. And yes, most of my communities are there.  I do share the most on BlueSky now, which I’m using like the good ol’ days of Twitter (RIP, Twitter). But while I believe Bsky has enormous potential, right now, there just aren’t that many people there yet, or even news sites. (Shoutout, by the way, to the few #romanceclass people I do interact with on Bsky!) So, I take photos and because I don’t want to put them on IG, I make plans to create e...