Too much Rosenberg?

I realized I didn't make it on time to repost a lot of blog entries before my apparently favourite blogsite - blog.com - went down. I particularly feel bad that I wasn't able to repost entries about The Copper Scroll and Dead Heat, the last two books in the The Last Jihad series by Joel C. Rosenberg. Or maybe I haven't really written anything about these two books. Then I'd have to wait until I read them again, because I already finished reading The Ezekiel Option a second time last July 19, Wednesday.

I've grown fond of Rosenberg's novels as well as a lot of characters in his works. Obviously, I already finished the Jihad series. I've also read The Twelfth Imam and yet to read the next two sequels. 

Then there's the J.B. Collins novels - The Third Target and The First Hostage - which I've just recently started. I'll just take a short break but I will soon buy a copy of Without Warning.

The last scenes from The Third Target were so compelling that I kind of vowed to look for and get a hold of The First Hostage. I literally went to a lot of BookSale branches, mostly in Makati, looking for it but I found one in SM Megamall. Very thankful, because my search had finally come to an end and because I couldn't remember other BookSale branch anymore.

Much to my surprise, I was able to finish reading The First Hostage - all 430 pages - within 24 hours, complete with sleep and all forms of break from reading. It's the first since forever.

Novels are not the only books Mr. Rosenberg write. He's also written non-fictions, two of which I have - Epicenter and Inside the Revolution, which I am yet to finish reading.

A night of health, gluttony, anxieties, and beer

I think the last time I saw Angie was back in post-grad college, during our NLE review days. That was 2008. It really was a long time no see thing. Well, being the book lovers that we are, we met again at SM Megamall's National Bookstore. Actually, it was because I came first and was hanging out at the bookstore. 

We then headed for dinner at Shangri-La Plaza's Sentosa, a South and Southeast Asian cuisine (but there was no Filipino dish there). It was... it was a gluttony dinner. What we had were Thai Grilled Lemongrass Chicken, Seafood Omelette with Sambal Sauce, Nasi Goreng Fried Rice, Chrysanthemum Tea (Angie, it was chrysanthemum!), and Bandung Rose Milk Tea. Yeah, there were only two of us. Per Angie, which I also agree, Sentosa was a good choice for us to dine. We needed a quiet place to talk about things.

And talk we did, about things, about people, about me, about her, about the food, about anything. It was refreshing, yes the Badung Rose Milk Tea and the second serving of Chrysanthemum Tea were, being in a different environment and situation. I told Angie what has been bothering me at work.

Knowing that the night bore tons of feels for both of us, Angie and I decided to have some beer at Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant. It was my first time at Brotzeit and I loved their Preiselbier (Dunkel Hefe-Weissbier with cranberry juice). I think I'd be visiting again, alone or with company.