Thank God for young artists who find time to read despite their busy schedules. Anne Curtis is a star on the rise. Recently, I attended a movie premiere of When Love Begins written and directed by Jose Javier Reyes and with Aga Muhlach and Anne Curtis as the leading couple. At the post premiere get-together at Florabel’s (at The Podium), I asked this young actress who performs effortlessly in this recent romantic flick to share with us her favorite books.
1. Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller: “Had me screaming! I love love stories and this is a book I keep re-reading. I even read the sequel: A Thousand Country Roads.”
2. Love Story by Erich Segal: “My ultimate favorite. The lovers’ lines to each other: ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry…’”
3. Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris: “She’s my idol — I love to read all the trivia about her.”
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: Such a sad story, about a little girl who is raped. It is a tearjerker, but the story is riveting.”
5. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: “Such a sweet love story. It is science fiction, a realistic character study and a love story all rolled into one book. It is about waiting: the wife is the anchor of the man who disappears and reappears at various periods of their lives.”
6. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Richard Howard: “Such wisdom in such a simple story.”
7. The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession by Paulo Coelho and Margaret Jull Costa: “I could not put this book down. The journey of his love story is so inspiring. How can you go from being obsessed and taking love for granted into changing yourself during a journey to find your love again and realizing its worth?”
8. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: “Made me cry but opened my eyes to how difficult life is for the Afghans. How fortunate we are.”
9. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera: “Set first in Czechoslovakia, then in Switzerland, it is a complex story of a womanizing Czech surgeon forced during the Russian invasion to take on menial jobs, giving his passion for the flesh a slightly different perspective, as he is no longer a doctor but just a window-washer. Such a sad, tragic story — beautifully written.”
10. My Devotional Bible: “I feed from The Word. It’s my time with God.”
“The Reading Club” recommends Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken. It will give you inspiration during this turbulent time and gives you hope — that there are people, communities in the world working together to create a better more human society.
Available in all National Bookstores and selected Powerbooks branches.
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“The Reading Club” further recommends Martha Stewart Living magazine available for subscription from Emerald Headway.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome at readclub@aol.com.