The Pretty One by Cheryl Klam

This book is one of the first few that I have read back when I was 13. Probably read this three to four times already and it's just what someone might need from time to time. A flawless ugly duckling Cinderella dream. Though this one, for teens, is closer to home.

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Megan Fletcher, a sixteen-year-old Ugly-Betty-looking girl who goes to Chesapeake School of the Arts has secretly always wanted to be a theater actress. But with her sister Lucy's excessive beauty, popularity and undeniable talent, Megan seems to be just a spec of dirt in the CSPA student body's metaphorical windshield.

Along with her best friend Simon, being just techies and having their constant visit to Spoons for an iced mocha cappuccino is what she thinks a satisfactory life can mean.

Simon and Megan was persuaded by Lucy to go to the fall festival (CSPA's version of prom) and double date with her and her boyfriend at the time.

In the fall festival, Megan excuses herself from Simon to go to the comfort room. While she's inside the stall, she hears two girls mocking and ridiculing her choice of outfit and her overall unattractive appearance. She discovers that one of the girls was her sister Lucy.

She runs outside as fast as she could and Lucy tries to catch up. Megan gets hit by a running vehicle on the street.

She miraculously survives the accident but the injuries were so bad, a major surgery was needed. After a year of recovery, she goes back to school anew. With a maybe even prettier face than Lucy's and a slimmer physique, all the boys suddenly turn their heads her way.

Her dream-boy Drew Reynolds is directing and acting in a play he wrote himself and she was asked to audition. Lucy wants both the role and the director as well.

Megan gets the part and Lucy goes cuckoo. Will Megan get her dream-boy? And Simon is falling in love with her, how is she going to turn him down? Will she and Lucy be okay again?

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I like the subtle kind of depth this book offers to the readers. Issues about physical appearance, plastic surgery, dealing with a difficult set of family, the theater, rejection and love are the many things you'll encounter here.

It's almost as if it didn't want me to have the story the way I wanted it. The author chose to stick with reality. It was bittersweet, the way things had to be. 

Drew admitting he didn't think he'd fall in love with her if she wasn't pretty but that he was genuinely in love with her anyway (and he thinks that's what matters) was human. Simon's feelings being disregarded and judged at times was harsh. He is no exception to the big question (whether he'd fall in love with Megan if she wasn't pretty). But in his defense, he was the one who was there since the beginning.

And Lucy, the way she wanted Megan to have a taste of how it is to be pretty but not wanting her sister to have it the way she has it is understandable but wrong.

This is more than an okay book! I hope they make this into a film. It deserves to be.

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

One of the must-reads the other long-time bloggers have on their list.

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It's the 1970's, in the town of Lightsburg, Ohio our protagonist is struggling to make the first day of senior year (and hopefully the rest of it) to be as normal as a normal person could live through it.

Karl Shoemaker, the son of the deceased former Lightsburg mayor, now works 5 jobs just to get by. He lives with his irresponsible drunkard mother who always seem to get away with finding his stash of money and stealing it.

It is a hard life for Karl and so is the same with the troubled kids he goes with to this special counseling sessions. They call themselves the "Madmen Underground".

It's kind of a pact, really. They may all come from different statures in high school but they all know each other's awful stories and deep down, they'll always stick for one another no matter what.

It may all seem like it always was, the loop of endless abuse Karl gets from his mother. But maybe this year, he has a choice. Maybe he has a chance to make all the bad things stop for him. Maybe he has a ticket out of the freak-people club. But does he really want out of the only thing that understands how it's really like?

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I read this book on Christmas day. It may get boring but this book is full of humor. It is something for the teenagers to have a moment with. Of course, the friendship is one of the things you envy in it. This book is original and successful in making the readers experience something they may not even ever live through their own life.

It has all the recipe of a book that deserves an award. Oh wait, it has an award!

Quotes I cannot forget:

"Dip me in shit and paint me blue."

"Like a coat of paint."

Bakit Hindi Ka Crush ng Crush Mo (at iba pang technique kung paano makaka move on sa wasak na puso) by Ramon Bautista

Even my Papa was hooked. This book is the Purpose Driven Life of the lovesick, loveless and love-deprived Filipinos.

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A compilation of Sir Ramon Bautista's formspring Q&A's. A guidebook to modern love dilemmas.

I, personally, call it "the oracle".

This is the perfect supplement in understanding not just the complicated pursuit of love but its psychological aspect. A book with fresh, trendy and somewhat stern humor. It may raise eyebrows regarding Sir RB's clinical responses. An example is when a girl asked when she is ever going to have a boyfriend, she said she's wearing braces and eyeglasses but she isn't a nerd. The response went something like, "first of all, accept that you're a nerd and second you will have a boyfriend, do not worry".

In my observation, the elderly appreciates the practicality RB is trying to instill. He chose to be an inspiration in this book. An inspiration to deal with life without the standards and the fairytale-dreamlike aspirations we expect from it. He tried to make it human as much as he can, his psychoanalytic answers. Definitely, he comes off as rude and arrogant at times and to be honest that's where the humor comes from in this book. It's cruel because you know immediately what these individuals wanted to hear when they ask for RB's advise. But if you think about it, it's more cruel if you lie to please them or say the truth in a beating-around-the-bush manner. He attacks with sometimes short, sometimes long but always witty answers.

I super kaduper enjoyed the book! I wanted more from it. I wish there'll be another one coming up. A gift to the Filipino youth. Dapat siguro may subject na ganito sa mga schools at ito ang gagawing textbook. Para naman maka-intindi ng mabuti ang mga trap sa ilusyon na gusto nilang mangyari sa buhay pag-ibig.

A slogan that fits the book's idea, "Walang personalan, katotohanan lang!"