big bad wolf book fair in bacolod

Big Bad Wolf was in SM City Bacolod on September 20 to 29 for another one of their popular book fairs. This was part of their ongoing campaign to raise a million new readers. 

Launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2009, BBW is the brainchild of BookXcess' founders, Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng. Their primary mission is to cultivate reading habits, increase English literacy worldwide, and build a new generation of readers by making books more affordable and accessible to everyone. 

promotional event announcement

what we read & how it defines our storytelling

It's summer reading list time! For bookworms and nerdy story lovers like us wonder |wander | women we share this Longreads list with you. Questioning the Stories We Hold: A Reading List Inspired by Annie Ernaux.

Illustration by Krista. Images by Getty Images.

“Annie Ernaux reminds me that sometimes things find their meaning only in hindsight.” by Bekah Waalkes - January 19, 2023.

As Sheila Heti writes in the New York Times: “Most memoirs operate as if the past were right there and can be looked at, like a painting on the wall. But Ms. Ernaux understands that one’s 18-year-old self is a stranger to one’s 70-year-old self.” 

writes of spring

The skies go grey, then bright, then grey again - British spring is not so much a season as a series of false starts. This week we're going through another cold dip after the brief period of warmth in March that is meant to get a Londoner's hopes up before the April windstorms drench our spirit again.

"real" British seasons, from Reddit

Enjoying London at home.

It's now been nearly three years since the COVID pandemic, and people are still being infected at an alarming rate. As of today there have been an average of 69,638 new cases and 221 deaths every day. Now Boris Johnson has announced he will eliminate the requirement to self isolate, setting COVID-positive patients free to infect many others. Which means wonder | wander | women will stay at home. But we still want to enjoy and support our favourite neighbourhood shops and cafes, and we still can.

London Review Bookshop, Bury Place

communication + connection = community

wonder | wander | women love the beauty of well applied language - painting vivid images, evoking deep sentiments, capturing the subtlest nuances - the eloquence of a story well told. 

Illustrated by Okalinichenko

Mahala is more interested and fluid when it comes to learning other languages. Issa is bound more by the native tongues we were born to and raised around - English, Hiligaynon, Tagalog. Together we thrive on a rich world of words, nourished and fed in these created universes. 

Illustrated by Okalinichenko

Reading "Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country" by gifted American author Louise Erdrich validates and vindicates our obsession. Moving to another country has magnified the ache and longing we have always had - displaced back home and more so now that we have relocated.

an eloquent and lovely memoir by Louise Erdrich

Anno Mitsumasa at Japan House

Illustrator Anno Mitsumasa has been creating beloved children's books with incredible detail and a gentle sense of humour since the 1960s. wonder | wander | women were enthralled by his show Anno's Journey in Japan House this past week.

Courtesy of Japan House

summer reads

Over here in New York City, we have the weird tradition of celebrating Christmas in July.

Maybe it is simply a commercial bid to drum up sales when the city empties out. As folks leave for vacations or are driven indoors by the overbearing heat.

Most stores start purchasing their inventory for the coming Christmas season in July. To make room for new stocks they usually put last year's unsold Christmas items on sale.

we love our books

By now our readers know that wonder | wander | women are bookworms who love our reading collections with an insatiable passion.

As independent working women living in urban hubs, our compact living spaces rarely allow for much. Lucky for us we have always managed to find our own creative solutions.

We have an abundance of hacks and imaginative ways to optimize and maximize our way around the challenge of having more books and shelves without crowding ourselves out of our home life.

Colinton, Edinburgh: a literary walk

"An open outlook is to be desired from a churchyard, and a sight of the sky and some of the world's beauty relieves a mind from morbid thoughts." 

- Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh: Picturesque Thoughts

Wellcome Library archives: buried treasures of bibliophilia

We were recently invited to a tour of the closed archives of the library at the Wellcome Collection. We've explored the library before and are perpetual visitors to the Reading Room, but who could pass up a chance to visit the stores of rare books and medical artefacts that made the historic Wellcome Institute so famous?

recipes for wonder at the Royal Institution!

The Royal Institution (or the Ri) was founded at the end of the 18th century by the leading scientific minds of the time. It still hosts the original laboratory of Michael Faraday, the father of electromagnetic principles, and the annual BBC Christmas Lectures by the leading minds of today, including Professor Stephen Hawking.

Sir James Dewar lectures on liquid hydrogen

Stay-at-home adventures: book binding

Sometimes the weather keeps you indoors and the impending holiday season means you're a bit too busy preparing to go visit museums. Or maybe the dim winter light dulls all the nice pictures of your daily walks. What to do? Embark on an indoor adventure!

Moleskines don't play well with fountain pen inks.
We can fix that!

Science Fiction classics at the Barbican Library

This week we have added more to our Into the Unknown post: the Barbican Library is having its own little exhibit of classic science fiction memorabilia!

Into the Unknown: Science Fiction at the Barbican Centre

From June 3 to September 1, our favourite retrofuturistic wonderland the Barbican Centre is holding a Science Fiction retrospective!

Into the Unknown explores the ability of science fiction to investigate 'the mysteries of what is still to be discovered, and the power of human ingenuity to unravel them."

holiday preparations

'Tis the season to plan parties! Everyone is getting ready for holiday celebrations and pre-holiday celebrations. People are planning flights and get-togethers, practicing their special dishes and holiday 'looks'. Cafés replaced the pumpkin spice lattes of autumn with their 'Christmas menu' and it's a joy for wonder | wander | women to discover who puts the most marshmallows in their hot chocolate.

We vote for Benugo.

for book & boat lovers: Word on the Water

London is a city of waterways as well as roads. We've posted about our canal walks before, but today we want to highlight a special resident of the Kings Cross floating community: the Word on the Water book barge. (Check out their Twitter and Facebook!)