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c h i k k a
r e v i e w s
THE TWITTER HIT
Say You , re
Just a Friend
by Austin
Mahone
Thanks to YouTube,
Twitter and
Facebook, Austin
Mahone is a star.
His first single,
“11:11”,
sold
125,000
copies on iTunes purely
using his social media network.
His second, the bouncy “Say
Something”, won him legions of
fans. And now, this baby-faced
teen from San Antonio, Texas is set
to perform at six Taylor Swift Red
Stadium tour dates this year. His
newest single, “Say You’re Just a
Friend” featuring Flo Rida, is now
available on iTunes.
THE MUSH-READ
Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
No typo there — Nicholas Sparks does mush
best. This time, his novel centers around Katie,
a young woman whose arrival in the tiny
North Carolina town of Southport gets people
questioning her past. Despite not wanting to
get close to anyone, she is reluctantly drawn
to Alex, a kind widower, and his two small
children, and Jo, a neighbor. But the moment
love shows up in her life, her struggles with a
secret continue to haunt her. Will she choose a
safe existence of no attachments, or risk falling
in love again? Read the book before seeing the
movie, directed by Lasse Halström and starring
Josh Duhamel, which will be out this year.
PHP1,056 at Powerbooks.
THE SHORT STORY
COLLECTION
Vampires in the Lemon Grove
by Karen Russell
On the heels of Karen Russell’s
New York Times
bestseller
Swamplandia!
is this unusual and
entertaining collection of short stories. In one
tale, a group of girls captured and held in a silk
factory transform into human silkworms that spin
threads from their bellies — a metamorphosis
that helps them escape. In another story, a
massage therapist realizes she can heal by
maneuvering the tattoos on a war veteran. At the
heart of the collection (and the title of the book)
is a tale of two vampires who attempt to quench
their thirst for blood in a sun-drenched lemon
grove. PHP1,014 on
THE JAZZ
ALBUM
Somewhere
I Belong by
Karen Mok
Many know Karen
Mok as a Mandarin recording artist
and Asian superstar. But with this,
her first English album, she hopes to
bring her music to a bigger audience
and add “jazz singer” to her long list
of accomplishments. The 10-song
set features a broad palette of songs
running all the way from Cole Porter
to Portishead, Chris Isaak to Sting
and from George Gershwin to The
Beatles. Available at Astroplus,
Odyssey Music & Video and Fully
Booked or online via iTunes or
mymusicstore.com.ph
MUSIC
BOOKS
THE COOL MANUAL
Instant Love: How to make
magic and memories with
Polaroids
What happens when you get three
Polaroids enthusiasts together? Pure magic,
apparently, and this book is the evidence.
Behind this delicious-looking little tome
on how to create beautiful, dramatic and
fun images in an instant are three instant
photography gurus from across the globe —
Jenifer Altman (from North Carolina, USA),
Susannah Conway (from London), and
Amanda Gilligan (of Vancouver, Canada).
Apart from step-by-step instructions,
resource listings of where to purchase both
cameras and film, the book includes a
portfolio of the trio’s inspiring works.
