by Robert T. Kiyosaki

***** (5/5)

Click here to buy Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant (with free delivery)

Listen to the audio book-review:

Audio: Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant

x Julie

Book Shop and Book Reviews

-Reading Like Rabbits-

by Sara Paretsky

**~~~ (2/5)

Fiction / Thriller / Crime

Click here to view Sara Paretsky’s book collection

[Click here to buy the Audio Book of Total Recall by Sara Paretsky]

Audio Book Synopsis:

Lotty Herschel is caught up in a whirlwind of the past when a man who claims to be a Nazi death camp survivor, approaches her and her friends seeking his long lost family. Lotty is forced to confront a memory, a secret, from the war that she has long buried.  Our heroine, V I Warshawski, sees the pain her friend and mentor is in, and is pulled into the saga though her investigation of the so-called survivor’s past.

V I is simultaneously investigating an insurance fraud case which has an unexpected link to an international conspiracy dating back to Nazi occupied Europe, as well as a means for VI to save her friend.

My Audio Book Review:

I’d heard about Sara Paretsky’s work whilst listening to a ‘meet the author’ audio podcast. She seems to have a plethora of work and a good fan following of her female detective protagonist, V I Warshawski. I’d thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Millennium Trilogy thriller series by Stieg Larsson, and thought that listening to another thriller would be a good idea.

However, I was disappointed at the story of Total Recall. I was not absorbed in the chase, and the story kind of ended for me with a bit of a fizzle and plop. Having said that, I listened to it all the way through, so it was listenable enough.

I thought the narrator, Sandra Burr, did an okay job, but compared to narrators like Saul Reichlin, she seemed to by skirting on the surface rather than pulling me into the depths of the story. But more likely, it’s more that the story was not one that grabbed me.

V I is constantly running around and trying to solve this mystery of who, what and why, driving badly, with little sleep. Maybe I joined in the middle of the series of books and have not warmed to the character yet. But i did think the unraveling of the plot ended up being a bit boring, and my attraction to the characters left much to be desired. I didn’t really care who the killer was.

On a side note: [Listening vs Reading] What I have found interesting after having started to listening to audio books, is that the facts and story don’t stay in my mind as clearly as the story in a book would. I don’t retain the information as well as I would for a book, which is why I find it difficult to write audiobook reviews. I find that I am only able to give a ‘sense’ or ‘feeling’ review – how I felt about the book after I finished, if I liked it or not, as opposed to a detailed and analytical review.

I think it has something to do with the fact that the act of reading a book is an active process, and that listening to an audiobook is quite passive. (A friend of mine actually laughed at me when I said I had started listening to audiobooks, calling it the ‘epitomy of laziness’.) I still have to create the pictures in my mind, unlike TV, but the audio book is still fed to me whether I am paying attention or not. With a book, you have to pay attention, and if you drift, it is much easier to scan back and re-read a paragraph or two. Whereas with audiobooks, rewinding takes more effort, so I am less likely to go back on something I’ve half-missed.

So I think that my experience of reading Sara Paretsky’s book may have been different to my experience of listening to it.

Even so, Total Recall left me unsatisfied.

x Julie

P.S. You should check out my favorite audiobooks [The Help] and [The Millennium Trilogy]

Click here to go to my review of The Help

Online Bookstore and Book Review Site

- Reading Like Rabbits -

]]> http://readinglikerabbits.com/audio-book-total-recall-by-sara-paretsky/feed 3 http://readinglikerabbits.com/desert-children http://readinglikerabbits.com/desert-children#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:28:00 +0000 juliewee http://readinglikerabbits.com/?p=1564 Desert Children

by Waris Dirie

with Corinna Milborne

Translated by Sheelagh Alabaster

***** (5/5)

Non-Fiction / Memoir

Click here to buy Desert Children by Waris Dirie with free delivery

Book Synopsis:

Desert Children is about Waris Dirie and Corinna Milborn’s investigation into the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Europe. It is estimated that up to half a million girls and women have undergone or are at risk of FGM in Europe.

Presently, France is the only country that convicts offenders. What’s more the threat of female genital mutilation is not officially recognized by any European country as a reason for asylum.

Waris Dirie was a top model and UN ambassador. Her story, Desert Flower, of growing up in Somalia, enduring FGM at the age of 5, fleeing though the desert and being discovered as a model by Terence Donovan was an international bestseller.

In Dirie’s second book, Desert Dawn, she writes about her experience as a UN Special Ambassador against Female Genital Mutilation, and returning home to her family in Somalia.

In this latest book, Desert Children, reveals the appalling truth of Female Genital Mutilation throughout Europe.

My Book Review:

I picked up this book by chance at the Library Book Fair over the weekend. It’s an eye opening, important read. I’d recommend this book to everyone. Men and women. We need to know what is happening to women all round the world, and we need to do something about it.

This book focusses on Waris Dirie’s research into the practice of Female Genital Mutillation in Europe. You wouldn’t think that FGM is widespread in modern Europe, but unfortunately, thousands of women and girls are at risk of this horrific ‘cultural’ ritual. What’s worse, many of the reasons behind the practice of FGM are complete myths. And these beliefs surrounding FGM are so infuriating in their ignorance, it’s unbelievable. Some women even think that they will be unable to give birth naturally unless they are circumcised. Others want to have their children circumcised in the belief that it will keep the girl pure, that she will be dirty if she is un-cut, that FGM is the only way to find a husband.

This book is an education in the reality of the widespread mutilation that is being inflicted on girls in our world today, and along side this, of the plight of African immigrants to Europe who refuse or are unable to assimilate and embrace the country they have chosen to live in.

We have to have compassion for the women who were cut against their will and without knowledge as girls, but it is these same women who are agreeing either wholeheartedly or through family pressure to have their own children cut.

I was shocked to find out that of all the women worldwide who have undergone FGM, about 15% are infibulated. But in Somalia or Sudan, the figure rises to 99%. Infibulation is a severe form of FGM. It involves ‘cutting out parts or the whole of the genitalia, with subsequent stitching together the opening to leave a tiny hole. In this procedure, usually the inner labia are completely removed and the outer labia are sewn together so that scar tissue covers the entrance to the vagina’. (Taken from WHO’s classification of FGM)

FGM operations are often done without the use of anesthetic.

Victims of FGM are often left with the traumatising memory of the incision, and grave psychological and physical damage. What’s more, the cutting of females is still a taboo subject and is often never talked about between women and especially not with men. This culture of silence firstly leaves women to suffer alone, and secondly without any dialogue, this practice will just keep repeating itself generation after generation, without any assessment on what it is doing to the victims, what it is for and why on earth it is being practiced.

Furthermore, FGM has nothing to do with Islam. ‘Many of the countries that defend the practice mistakenly base their arguments on Islam. But there is no mention of the practice in the whole of the Koran, and certainly no recommendation of it… FGM is a phenomenon that pre-dates Islam.’ (Quote taken from Desert Children)

It is so easy to turn and blind eye and not to interfere because it is a cultural belief. Who are we to question someone else’s traditions? It infuriated me to read what this person wrote on a forum site with the topic of Female Circumcision:

CK: “Whilst being terrible to us remember its part of their culture. One of my friends used to shag a circumcised girl and there was no complaints from either party. Whilst you guys get on your high horse about injustices in the world how about feeding the homeless man you walk past each morning.”

There are so many elements that are exasperating about this apathetic and uninformed remark. And if we remain with this attitude, FGM will never stop. Girls clitoris’s and labia will continue to be cut out everyday.

Culture is not fixed, it inevitably changes over time. The reasons for ritualistic practices often get diluted and change meaning. It is so easy to just follow cultural practices because they are ancient and traditional. Old age does not make a thing moral or right. Blindly following culture has resulted in people unquestioningly cutting out a vital part of their child’s body.

As Kadi, one of the victims that Waris Dirie speaks to in her book, tried to explain to her cousin who is in favour of FGM said: “I’ve tried to tell her that FGM is a bad thing and I’ve told her about the health problems that can result. But only when I told her, “It’s like society deciding it’s better for children to live with just one eye, so they cut the second one out” – that made her stop and think.”

Desert Children will make you stop and  think. Is FGM happening in my own country, in my own neighbourhood?

How can we solve this problem and end the practice of mutilation? I am neither Muslim nor of African descent, and I understand how hard it is for people of other cultures to come butting in on other people’s decisions. This is one of the issues discussed in Desert Children, the difficulty of outsiders to intervene, and also the need for sensitivity in this issue.

But I want to do what I can. If we all take on the attitude of ‘CK’ in the online forum, taking a back seat in the name of culture and remain uninformed and uninvolved, tossing a few coins to the homeless, the mutilation of girls will go on and on.

Upon reading Desert Children, I can’t help but feel the need and the passion for wanting to help and be involved in this fight. To protect other girls and women from suffering this fate. I am now trying to find out what the status of FGM is in Singapore and if there are laws in place to prevent FGM.

Please do leave a comment on this page and tell me what you know or think about this issue. Even if you are for FGM, I’d like to hear your opinions. And if you are against it, what we can do to help end FGM?

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Review Site

- Reading Like Rabbits -

Here are some websites I came across about FGM in Singapore:

“Muslim rite is modernized”

- Overview:

1) ‘There are no laws regulating the practice in Singapore’

(Article was published in 2002, I don’t know yet if the laws have changed or not)

2)  ‘In Singapore’s small Muslim community, female circumcision involves nicking the prepuce, the skin covering the clitoris. It is markedly different from the practices of some Muslim communities in Africa and the Middle East decreed by human rights activists as female genital mutilation.’

3) ‘most Muslim women go along with the practice. They say it does not affect sexuality nor cause discomfort.’

What I want to find out is: What exactly is this procedure? Does it really differ from what we call FGM? and Does it really not affect sexuality nor cause discomfort?

Article ‘Female Circumcision’ on Singapore’s AWARE website

- Also, have a look at the video on ‘Labiaplasty’ and though the contents of the video may be disturbing to some viewers, it’s an eye opener to how we, modern women, view our nether regions.

Inside a Female-Circumcision Ceremony

- a slide show of a female circumcision ceremony in Indonesia

Expat Singapore’s discussion forum: Very Sensitive topic – Female Circumcision in Singapore

- People’s discussions, questions and opinions on the issue.

by Colm Toibin

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction

Click to buy Brooklyn by Colm Toibin with free delivery

Book Synopsis:

Work in 1950s Ireland is hard to find. Eilis Lacey does what she thinks is best and makes the long and arduous journey across the Atlantic to Brooklyn, America. For the first time, Eilis is on her own, in a strange city, living in a boarding house filled with other working girls and a scrutinizing landlady. Eilis is isolated and far away from home.

Gradually, however, as Eilis gets used to her new life, her job working in a department store, taking evening classes in book keeping, Friday night dances in the church hall, and maybe an American man… Eilis starts to realize, she’s found a kind of happiness.

But where does Eilis belong? In Ireland with her family or in her new found home, Brooklyn?

My Book Review:

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin was recommended in the Straits Times News Paper (Singapore’s national newspaper) as one of the Best Novels of 2009. (Also recommended was The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa)

Upon reading Brooklyn, I was surprised that it received such a high recommendation in The Straits Times. Colm Toibin’s story is indeed interesting, and at times very absorbing. His protagonist, Eilis, was identifiable in her loneliness. However, I wouldn’t put it on my best book recommendation list.

Towards the beginning, I thought uh oh… this is going to be a depressing book. You know there are some books that start depressing and remain down in the dumps with no light at the end of the tunnel? Those books bug me, as they have a strange effect on my mood and make me think dreary thoughts, just like the characters. I sometimes have to stop reading those books. Stories should have light, dark and moments of shade. Luckily with Brooklyn, it did not stay in a rut for too long and elements of light and love came to the fore. Thank God!

I enjoyed the way Toibin writes, but I found it strange yet interesting that he seemed to skip over important moments in the story. For example, Eilis’s farewell to her mother is skipped in the chronology of her journey. I would have thought this would have been one of the most important moments. Yet, I understood why this was skirted over – so it could be left to the imagination, as a reader, you know what it’ll be like, so the writer felt he didn’t have to spell it out. I found this approach interesting for me, a wannabe writer, to take note of. Skip the boring bits. Having said that, Toibin’s penchant for little, almost disjointed, anecdotes about Eilis’s settling in period was frustrating, interrupting what could have been a nice flow. I don’t know, I’m not a writer (yet), but this was my opinion as a lay-reader.

In the synopsis, I have left out the last paragraph that gives away the ending. So if you hate spoilers as I do, don’t read ahead:

Mini Spoiler Alert!

I’m still going to be a bit vague and broad about the actual contents of the story. I am a person who will not be excited about reading a book, or watching a movie if I already know the ending. I know some people who are completely different, who can’t stand the suspense and have to read the last page or chapter of a book first in order to decide of they are going to read it at all. (Absurd in my opinion!)

Anyway, back to Brooklyn.

There is a devastating event that occurs towards the end of the book and causes Eilis to be put in a situation where she has to choose between two worlds. I think the clever and trapping aspect of this book is that both choices are right, and yet both choices are wrong. Whatever decision she makes, she is going to hurt someone.

As a reader, I made my choice of who she should choose, but then at the end of the book when she did choose, I was not left with the satisfaction that she chose ‘right’, but with the sense that all of it was wrong. Whatever decision she made, it would leave her empty and incomplete.

Having said this, I was distinctly unmoved by the ending. I think this goes back to the author skipping over bits of the story,  skirting over the character’s emotions and reactions that the readers want to know, and probably should know. For example, (Again, vague. I’m sorry, I cant help it! I just don’t want to spoil the ending for you!) when Eilis betrays someone, we see her actions, but we don’t hear her reaction to what she is doing. I think my involvement at the end would have been fuller, if I had been given this insight. To hear more of her thoughts would have helped me be more empathetic.

I did enjoy reading Brooklyn, I liked the character of Eilis and the journey she went on, but I certainly wouldn’t call it my best book of the year.

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Review Site

- Reading Like Rabbits -

by Chetan Bhagat

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

Click to buy Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat with free delivery

Book Synopsis:

3 friends, Hari, Alok and Ryan, are students at IIT, India’s most prestigious technological university. Instead of mugging their lives away like the rest of the cohort, they decide to have the time of their lives.

All the things not to do at university and more: mess up your grades, drink vodka on the faculty rooftop, date a professor’s daughter…

A funny and dark story of friendship and trying to survive IIT with a five-point something GPA. Will they make it?

My Book Review:

I picked up this book at a bookshop in Mysore, India, when I was attending a wedding there last week. I thought, I’ve experienced this country, so I should experience more of its contemporary fiction. Chetan Bhagat is apparently a lauded writer in India having written 4 novels to date:

Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT

One Night @ the Call Center

The Three Mistakes of My Life

and

2 States – The Story Of My Marriage

He is among the ‘trio of modern Indian writers that have re-written Indian publishing rules and brought a new scale to the Indian publishing landscape with previously unheard of book sales’ (courtesy of Wikipedia).

So I thought… Promising…

Chetan Bhagat is a humourous, down to earth writer, with a flair for writing identifiable characters – as I read, I kept thinking that parts of one of the characters reminded me distinctly of my boyfriend.

Set at India’s premier engineering school IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Delhi, 3 students decide that they want to actually experience life whilst in college and not just mug 4 years away (Apparently unheard of in IIT culture). There’s the ring leader Ryan with crazy his schemes, Alok the responsible cry baby and Hari, whose point of view this novel is written from, a bumbling yet extremely likable guy.

I find I value stories about friendship and loyalty. In stories, despite the huge mistake a person is about to make, if the decision is based on loyalty, it makes it all okay. It’s like they’re making the right decision, even though they are making the wrong decision.

Halfway through reading Five Point Someone, I described it as Lad-Lit, Chick-Lit for Men. It got deeper as it went along, and although it’s not great literature it’s definitely a quick, fun read with heart. I enjoyed it.

I have 2 more of Chetan Bhagat books on my shelf, so I will be reading and reviewing them in the near future.

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Eoin Colfer

Science Fiction / Children’s Books / Young Fiction Ages 8-12

Click here to buy the Book: The Supernaturalists by Eoin Colfer

Click here to buy the [Audio Book: The Supernaturalists by Eoin Colfer]

Book Synopsis:

Future, Satellite City.

Cosmo Hill is 13 years old and lives at the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Cosmo Hill is an orphan, otherwise known as a ‘no-sponsor’. No-sponsors are put to work by the government as human lab-rats. Day in and day out, they test dangerous products. Night in and night out, they sleep in their cardboard utility pipes covered in scars, sores and burns from their hard day’s work.

Cosmo Hill needs to escape. But how? Cosmo prepares for the day when he can make his daring getaway from Clarissa Frayne…

After a tumultuous escape, Cosmo is saved by a gang of kids with amazing psychic powers. They are able to see ‘supernatural parasites’, invisible creatures who suck the life force of humans. Cosmo finds that he has psychic abilities of his own.

And this is where the adventure begins…

My Book Review:

Eoin Colfer is a young peoples writer and I enjoyed reading his first Artemis Fowl book (I’m about to read the second Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident). However, I guess I was expecting something more sophisticated when I bought the audio book for The Supernaturalist. I found it in the Sci-Fi section, and assumed it was an Adult Sci-Fi book. I realize now from Eoin Colfer’s website that the book is meant for 8-12 year olds!

I was not personally engaged with the story. However, I am really of the wrong demographic to judge this book so harshly. If I were pre-teens, I would probably quite enjoy this book. I think that The Supernaturalist contains characters that young people would identify with.

The story has larger then life characters (or in this book’s case, smaller than usual), and has high stakes and big twists.

I thought the narrator, Jack Davenport, was very easy to listen too, as well as being a very capable narrator. He shifts accents for almost every character, which sounds like he’s just showing off his range at first, but it also adds an extra multicultural aura to the futuristic Satellite City. However, the choice to make Stephan’s voice so deep, drew me away from the ‘reality’ that the characters are all young people, teenagers themselves. In the audio book, I began to think of them more as adults because of this choice and I think it would have been more effective for me if I been able to imagin them as teens trying to save the world.

If you have children, or are looking to buy a gift for a child, or if you are a child, I think you’d enjoy the adventure and imagination in Eoin Colfer’s books.

Click here to read my review of Artemis Fowl

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Memoir / Biography / Autobiography

Sequel to Hirsi Ali’s autobiography Infidel (click here to read the book review of Infidel)

Hirsi Ali has also written The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam

Click here to buy a book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (free delivery worldwide)

I have great respect for Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Against the odds, she is standing up and speaking out for what she believes in. Ayaan’s journey in her first memoir Infidel is fascinating. And I have just got my hands on Nomad, her follow up memoir about her new life in America, based on my friend Vani’s email, which she has allowed me to publish:

Hi friends,

You may or may not have heard of Ayaan Hirsi Ali but I think it would be a pity to miss reading this one-helleva woman. I first heard of her in 2007 when I was setting out for my Watson year of travels and research and I was putting together a list of all the books I wanted to read when I hit the road. One of the books was Ayaan’s autobiography “Infidel.” I remember walking into Borders in Melbourne to purchase it, flipped through some of the pages, hit a chapter entitled “the caged virgin” about the emancipation of women in Muslim nations, and I ended up staying in the store for a few hours and finished the entire book. (of course I went ahead and still bought it!)

What’s mind-blowing about this woman is her personal struggle (survived child genital mutilation, escaped a forced marriage in Somalia to seek refuge in the Netherlands, got herself educated and within just 12 years became a MP in the Dutch Parliament), and how even in the face of fatwas, she’s got the balls to put her life on the line and still voice out her views about Islam and its treatment of women. What’s really interesting (and hugely controversial!) is how she rejects even “regular Islam” as a religion that suppresses the liberty of women by preventing them from making basic life choices, over their sexuality, jobs, attire, etc.

Her new book, Nomad, apparently makes that case and has been featured in today’s issue of the Guardian

I’m not quite sure what I think about it from the look of it and I don’t like to form an opinion without reading it first, but I definitely disagree with her suggestion that Muslims could fare better by learning from the Christians.

Anyway! The point of this e-mail is to suggest a summer read if you’re in the process of putting together a reading list for the upcoming holidays. I recommend “Infidel” – it’s highly inspiring, thought-provoking, and might bizarrely have you build up an intimate relationship with the author. That rarely happens to me.

Also, if you guys have any recommendations for a nice summer read (mindless ones are more than welcome!), PLS let me know. I’ve got 2 months to get delirious without legal textbooks! The only books I’ve got on my list right now are Arundhati Roy’s latest -”Field notes on Democracy – Listening to the Grasshoppers,” and the Bhagavad Gita. (a decent point to start from?)

Vani

Click here to browse through books to buy with free delivery worldwide

Thank you Vani!

x Julie

Book Reviews and Online Bookstore

Reading Like Rabbits

Reading Like Rabbits Book Review’s Meet the Author with S.M. De Silva Part 1

Reading Like Rabbits Book Review’s Meet the Author with S.M. De Silva Part 2

Click here to go to The Daywalker Chronicles official website

x Julie

Book Reviews and Online Bookstore

Reading Like Rabbits

Here are the best of my fiction book list reviews:

For Fiction  Storybook Readers looking for the best story book, I recommend:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett ***** (5/5)

This was my first audio book purchase and I absolutely loved it. The Help was not only Audible.com’s the highest-rated audiobook of 2009, but it is also its highest-rated audiobook of all time. It’s also been on the New York Times bestseller list for 51 weeks and is presently at No.1. So I started with quality….click here to read the full book review.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson ***** (5/5)

This is why I started this site – to find and share books just like this one. I walked into a used book shop and bought this novel for $2. It did say ‘International Bestseller’, but I had never heard of it before. What a find!….click here to read the full book review.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham ***** (5/5)

Immediately upon finishing this book, I was so moved that I made the firm decision that I needed to visit my elderly grandparents in England – and I’m so glad I did. I guess it’s because the novel deals with death, making me want to seize the moment, carpe diem and all that. It’s not all about death though….click here to read the full book review.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz ***** (5/5)

It’s been a long time since I’ve been so hooked on a novel, and I’m pretty sure this is the fastest I’ve ever read a book….click here to read the full book review.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini ***** (5/5)

Over five years on the New York Times bestseller list, and published in 42 different languages. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul….Click here to read the full book review.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini ***** (5/5)

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul….click here to read the full book review.

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani ****~ (4/5)

I really enjoyed reading The Blood of Flowers, which brought me deep into 17th Century Persia, and into the difficult lives of two women struggling to make their way with no real male protector. Through the eyes and experience of the ambititous young female protagonist.…click here to read the full book review.

Extremely Loud and Incredible Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

****~ (4/5)

I had heard wonderful things about Extremely Loud and Incredible Close. Friends of mine had said it was one of their top 10 books of the year, so I was really looking forward to reading it….click here to read the full book review.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid ****~ (4/5)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an extremely readable novel. It is also surprisingly gentle. The political and religious seem to take a backseat to the life story of the Pakistani protagonist….click here to read the full book review.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ***½~ (3.5/5)

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer…Click here to read the full book review

Inspirational Storybook Reading:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull – a story. By Richard Bach ***** (5/5)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a beautiful and inspiring story. After reading it, I feel like I can do anything. IF I choose to. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut in your mind, but when you read Jonathan’s story you want to join the race to learn and to shed all your limitations. Bach writes, ‘Break the chains of your thought and you break the chains of your body too’.…Click here to read the full book review.

Fiction Short Stories:

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri ****~ (4/5)

Won the reading awards : The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2000, the Hemmingway Foundation / PEN Award 2000

Jhumpa Lahiri’s elegant stories tell the lives of Indians in exile, of people navigating between the strict traditions they’ve inherited, and the baffling new world they must encounter everyday.…Click here to read the full book review.

Funny Reading and Fun Light Reading:

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding ***** (5/5)

I rarely read books twice over, but I have read Bridget Jones at least three times. I read it when I want to feel better and have laugh. I do love Bridget...Click here to read the full book review.

Click here to browse for books with free worldwide delivery

For the best book reviews recommendations in the Fiction Prose Genre, I recommend:

For Recommended Mystery Books / Crime Books / Thrillers:

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin ****~ (4/5)

Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award

England, 1171 and a child is in danger…In Cambridge a child has been hideously murdered and other children have disappeared. The Jews, who provide a large part of King Henry’s revenue, are being accused of the crimes by angry townspeople, therefore the king wants the real killer found, and quickly.…Click here to read the full book review.

Blood On The Moon – The Daywalker Chronicles: Volume One

by S.M. De Silva ***½~ (3.5/5)

Singaporean novelist S.M. De Silva has joined the Vampire novel craze! In her world, Vampires and Weres have come out of the closet, and are living openly in our world. I thoroughly enjoyed Volume One and can’t wait for her 1st book to be a roaring success, so I can read Volumes Two and Three!…Click here to read the full book review.

[Note: There is only free delivery for the book Blood on the Moon in Singapore. Go to The Daywalker Chronicles website to find out more.]

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larrson : ***** (5/5)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

An absolutely fantastic trilogy. Full of action, suspense, with likable, unpredictable and fully formed characters. I bought this from an [audio book shop], and listened to it one after the other. Get the [audio book with the narrator Saul Reichlin], he’s amazing. The books would also be gripping reads. Great series!

Click here to browse for books  (with free delivery worldwide)

Come to Reading Like Rabbits to find a good book review that is linked to a bestseller book store and a fantastic [audio book shop].

It’s fun to browse through bookshops online through Reading Like Rabbits and The Book Depository. And I have to say again, books are much cheaper when you buy through bookshops online, especially with Free Delivery Worldwide.

Here are my best book review recommendations from across the book list review pages:

Memoirs:

Autobiography Story / Biography Memoir / Non-Fiction Biography / Contemporary Biography

I love a great autobiographical story.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali ***** (5/5)

A famous memoir you should read. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today’s most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo Van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next. An international bestseller, Infidel shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished – and sometimes reviled – political superstar and champion of free speech….Click here to read the full book review.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls ***** (5/5)

A fantastic memoir and possibly my favourite autobiography: The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant….Click here to read the full book review.

An Ordinary Man – The True Story Behind ‘Hotel Rwanda’ by Paul Rusesabagina with Tom Zoellner ***** (5/5)

A powerful biography is the autobiography of the man whose exceptional courage inspired the Oscar nominated film Hotel Rwanda.

Confronting the killers with a combination of diplomacy, flattery and deception, Paul Rusesabagina managed to shelter more than twelve hundred Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Hotel des Mille Collines, of which he was the general manager, while homicidal mobs raged outside with machetes during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 when 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days, the fastest and most efficient genocide in history….Click here to read the full book review.

Fictional Biography / Autobiography Fiction:

If you’re looking for non-fiction fiction (I think this is a funny title) a great example of a fictional biography is:

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey ***** (5/5)

James Frey published his book as an autobiography, but then it was discovered that much of his book was fiction. Despite him being exposed, and despite knowing that this a fictionalized biography, it’s a fantastic read!

Reader Recommendation:

“I’m not sure whether you’ve read/heard about A Million Little Pieces by James Frey but it was a book I knew I would read again long before I finished it the first time and I think you might enjoy it. Awesome stuff.”

-RyanLoh

Recommended Non-Fiction Books:

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell ****~ (4/5)

A famous non fiction book would be Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Or really any other book written by Gladwell. They are informative and extremely easy to read. I’ll just say this: Read Outliers, you’ll feel smarter after =)….Click here to read the full book review.

The Help by Katheryn Stockett ***** (5/5)

The Help has been on the NYT best seller list for 61 weeks. (Incidentally, I have also been listening to the New York Times Book Review Podcast on my iPhone.) The Help was also the favourite audio book for audio book stores and won the fiction award at the Audies in 2010…Click here to read the full book review.

[Click here to buy the audiobook of The Help]

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson ***** (5/5)

The Millennium Trilogy is also a regular on the NYT best seller list, with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo still on the list after 49 weeks. The narrator of this audiobook, Saul Reichlin, is awesome. He tells the story simply and manages to find a unique and distinctive voice for every single character. He also reads women superbly. The Millennium Trilogy is mysterious and alluring with complex characters…

Click below to buy these books (with free delivery worldwide):

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest

[Click to browse the Millennium Trilogy Audio Books]

I really like [audible.com], compared to the audio book sellers that I’ve looked at, because of their plans. It works out to be quite inexpensive with the monthly credit system.

by Daniel Keyes

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Science Fiction

Click here to buy the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (free delivery worldwide)

Book Synopsis:

With an IQ of 68, Charlie Gordon works as a sweeper in a bakery. He thinks has friends, but little does he know he is the butt of their jokes, an amusing plaything.

Charlie’s life changes radically when he undergoes an experimental operation that to enhance his intelligence. Charlie becomes a genius.

However, Algernon, the mouse who had been successfully enhanced before Charlie, dies. Charlie has to live with the knowledge that his new life and his insights into the world are only temporary.

My Book Review:

This book, Flowers for Algernon is interesting on many levels. Firstly because of the fantastic ‘What if?’ question that it poses. What if there was an operation that could enhance a man’s intelligence? We could make all the mentally disabled people like us, they could integrate into society, they could live ‘normal lives’, they would no longer be a burden.

But this book goes deeper, as it charts the changes in Charlie, who undergoes this operation. As he becomes a genius, his eyes are also opened to the ugliness of the world and he realises that the people whom he thought were his friends, were actually making fun of him the whole time. So, despite gaining superior intelligence, he has lost what made him happy, friends who enjoyed his company, who laughed with him. As a reader we feel the cringe of Charlie’s lack of knowledge before the operation, that his colleagues are actually laughing at him. But in Charlie’s mind, he has great friends, and he is happy. Which begs the question: is Charlie better off in his lack of knowledge, or in knowing the truth of his situation?

Flowers for Algernon covers many areas, from the disparity in the intellectual and emotional growth in Charlie, to flashbacks to the past and the way his family treated him, to love . Charlie was severely taught that he was to keep away from women. This inculcated a fear of getting close to women, which stayed with him, even as he became intelligent and integrated into society. The love story with his former teacher, Miss Kinnian, shows the push and pull of these emotions. Will the old Charlie let the new Charlie be free of this fear?

The main arc of the novel is the lack of knowledge of whether this experiment will last, and then the knowledge through Algernon’s behaviour and subsequent death, that Charlie would end up back at square one.

The book is written in the form of Charlie’s journals, or Progress Reports for the scientific experiment. Charlie’s writing starts off simplistic with bad spelling. Then immediately after the operation, when he is told how to spell the word ‘progress report’ correctly, he remembers it, and continues spelling it correctly. That is the first sign of Charlie’s change, even if Charlie himself doesn’t recognise it. But then, he suddenly becomes super intelligent, learning new languages, going through pages of books at one glance. I missed the leap. So when the men at the bakery became afraid of him, and both the bakery workers and Miss Kinnian suddenly felt inferior to him, I missed the connection. I didn’t get the full impact of this intellectual shift, the wideness of the subverted gap, as I didn’t realise it had happened. I guess the author doesn’t have to spell the shift out, but I think my understanding and the impact of their reaction would have been clearer and more powerful if he had established this beforehand, as opposed to after. As a reader I knew that Charlie would become intelligent, but I didn’t realise that he’d become a genius.

The questions that were raised when I read the book were:

Would Charlie have been better off if he had never had the operation?

Is Charlie a better person before or after the operation?

Why do people make fun of disabled people? What in them makes them do this?

Reading about how Charlie’s family treated him, made me realise that we don’t truly treat the mentally disabled like human beings. Directly or indirectly, consciously or sub-consciously, we have an aversion to such people, a dread or sheer thankfulness that we are not like them. We see them as deprived of a real life, a burden. But we don’t know what’s really going on inside. Could they be happier than we the ‘normal people’?

I’m beginning to realise that what makes us happy is not what we think makes us happy. The external societal push towards this concept of ‘happiness’ doesn’t always equate to us actually being happy. Money, material things, education, career, marriage, children. The ‘normal things’, that everyone is striving for, may not be what will truly make us happier in our own skin. What we are striving for is the path that society has said is the correct and ‘normal’ one, or we end up searching for surface happiness, instant gratification that will soon fade away.

But then the question is: What DOES make us happy?

I don’t know yet.

x Julie

Reading Like Rabbits

Bookstore and Book Review Site

An online bookstore where you can buy cheap books online with free delivery worldwide through the Book Depository.

I love reading books. I am constantly searching for good new books and recommended books. Through Reading Like Rabbits, I’ve found a new way to buy cheap books online. I’ve discovered that books bought through my site are much cheaper than in the bookstores.

I was looking to buy the graphic novels Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman as a Christmas present. At Borders Bookshop, the set of 2 books cost US$42.50, through the Reading Like Rabbits Bookstore, it only cost me US$27. I was really surprised at the price difference from buying books online to buying them at physical book stores.

So I’m really happy to be offering these book reviews and book recommendations to you, coupled with a great bookshop to easily buy books online. I’ve never actually bought books from Amazon.com, because, living in Singapore, once I add in the delivery price, the book price soars, but with free delivery worldwide through books bought online through Reading Like Rabbits, it’s a no brainer!

I hope you enjoy my reviews. If you ever feel like contributing your own book recommendations and book reviews, don’t hesitate to drop a comment on the ‘Your Book Recommendations page.

You can also subscribe by email to Reading Like Rabbits by typing your email address on the right hand side of the site. You’ll receive book review updates, which will link you directly to the online bookstore.

Just click here or on any of the book cover pictures to start browsing for books online.

Look out for new books in my collection of book reviews.

I hope you enjoy the books I love!

x Julie

Reading Like Rabbits

Bookstore and Book Review Site

a memoir by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi

***** (5/5)

Autobiography / Biography / Memoir / Non- Fiction

Click here to buy Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi (free delivery)

Book Cover Synopsis:

Malika Oufkir has led a split life. She spent her childhood days raised as a princess, but from the age of nineteen, she was imprisoned with her mother and siblings for the next 20 years.

Maika was General Oufkir’s eldest daughter. He was the closest aide of the King of Morocco, who adopted five-year-old Malika and brought her up as his daughter’s companion. Malika grew up in privilege and luxury, in the shelter of the court harem.

But on 16^th August 1972, everything changed. General Oufkir was executed for attempting to assassinate the king. Malika, her mother, her five siblings, and two loyal friends were immediately arrested and imprisoned.

After being locked up for fifteen years, the last ten of which they were placed in solitary cells, the Oufkirs dug their way out of the prison using their bare hands, and made a courageous escape.

After 5 terrifying days of freedom, they were recaptured and eventually put under house arrest for another five years.

In 1996, at the age of 43, Malika was finally free to leave Morocco and begin her new life of freedom.

Stolen Lives is a shocking true story of resilience in the face of extreme hardship. A tremendously touching account of bravery and perseverance An example of how humor can exist even in the darkest of places. It is difficult to comprehend that it could have happened in our own times.

My Book Review:

You must read this book. As the last paragraph of the book’s synopsis says, ‘it is difficult to comprehend that it could have happened in our own times.’ Malika’s story is almost like a fairytale, except in fairytales, we often skip the horrible bits and drive through to the happy ending. It’s dispicable that King Hassan II, in our day and age could have imprisoned the innocent family of his attempted assassin,  the youngest of which was 3 years old, for what amounted to 20 years. It’s completely shocking, yet this happened. And is still happening to others now, I’m sure, in various parts of the world.

In all, Malika, her mother, Malika’s 3 sisters and 2 brothers, along with 2 women who came with the family out of loyalty (a commitment which is extraordinary and admirable to me) were locked up for an unknown indefinite amount of time. They were the ‘disappeared’. And it just got worse at every step along the way. They were truly being punished for their father’s sins. Every time they there was some semblance of  comfort in their lives, it was taken away from them. They never knew where they were being moved, were extremely malnourished, and what’s most heartbreaking is that the family was separated from each other, blocked by cell walls for 10 years.

But out of this horrifying life story comes moving human stories. Whilst locked in separate cells, they constructed an amplifier out of wire and radio parts which they pushed through small holes in the walls to communicate with each other. Through this hidden device, what sustained them was a story that Malika made up. A story that she kept going for 10 years. They also survived on humour. The Story, humour and looking out for each other and i guess sheer survival instincts kept them all alive.

None of them knew how long they would be imprisoned, when this torture would end – maybe, maybe, this is what gave them hope, that King Hassan might one day pardon them. However, I think, this lack of knowledge of a future caused what Malika calls ‘the night of the long knives’, a night of true despair, where a mass suicide could very well have taken place had they been successful.

Then comes their astonishing and terrifying escape. Failed, but magnificent because they managed to get their story out to the world and eventually secure their own freedom.

After 20 years outside time, obviously assimilating back into modern society would be hard, extremely hard. Abdellatif, who was imprisoned at only 3 years old, and 23 when he truly got to see the world, missed his childhood, teenage and early adult years. All he knew was prison. It was almost worse for the rest of the family who had lived a life of luxury in their past life, Malika herself as an adopted princess. This is what I didn’t understand when I read Malika’s follow-up autobiography Freedom. I read Stolen Lives and Freedom the wrong way round, and I had no idea what they truly had experienced. When you read ’20 years in prison’, 20 years is long, but its just a number until you go on the journey of Stolen Lives. As I said in my review of Freedom, an intellectual understanding of her circumstances is no where near an emotional understanding of what she went through.

Click here to buy Freedom by Malika Oufkir (free delivery)

Click here to read my Review of Freedom

I highly recommend this complex autobiography. It shows the ugly and vengeful side of human beings, but more so the strength and love that we are capable of. And it is because of these qualities that this story has a happy ending.

My admiration goes out to the 9 individuals who suffered through those 20 years, they truly deserve peace and happiness.

x Julie

Book Reviews -Reading Like Rabbits

]]> http://readinglikerabbits.com/stolen-lives-twenty-years-in-a-desert-jail/feed 1 http://readinglikerabbits.com/the-remains-of-the-day http://readinglikerabbits.com/the-remains-of-the-day#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 06:35:36 +0000 juliewee http://readinglikerabbits.com/?p=1258 The Remains of the Day

by Kazuo Ishiguro

**½~~ (2.5/5)

Fiction

Click here to buy The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (free delivery)

Book Cover Synopsis:

The aging butler of Darlington Hall, Stevens, begins on a rare holiday through the English countryside and deep into his past.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s contemporary classic is haunting and beautiful. A tale of life between the two world wars in a grand English house, of the way we choose to live our lives, and the love we may have lost because of our choices.

My Book Review:

I feel I have to justify giving a Booker Prize winner: **½~~ (2.5/5). These book reviews are according to my taste, and sometimes ‘great literature’ and prize winners are just not to everyone’s liking. I appreciated this novel for what it is, but personally, I prefer a bit more movement and action to my novels. The content of coming to the end of ones career and looking back at what might have been, or different choices one could or should have made definitely has its place, and maybe I’m just not at that stage in my life to really appreciate that. But it has got me thinking.

This book was not what I expected. I’m not sure what I expected but I guess my expectation was formed when the author Andrea Levy called it something to the effect of ‘a close to perfect novel’. Indeed, the perspective of an ageing butler of a once important household, who has devoted his entire adult life to serving,  now given the opportunity to reflect on his life, is interesting. The character of Stevens is well formed, flawed, and set in his ways. The ‘stiff upper lip’ butler has led his life, with the personal so enmeshed with his career, with dignity, decorum and pride in his duty.

The voice of Stevens that Ishiguro creates is extremely authentic. Written in the first person, Steven’s thoughts and desires are suggested, but almost never spelt out, in keeping with his character. I enjoyed the romanticism of seeing a large Lord’s household, with back passages, servants quarters and dining halls.

What I found particularly interesting was the historical implications of Steven’s flashbacks to before World War II. Steven’s employer, Lord Darlington, is trying to orchestrate better ties between Britain and Germany, ties with a certain Herr Hitler. Stevens is warned of the danger and potential mistake that Lord Darlington is making, but Steven’s code is not to interfere. Stevens maintains a lack of curiosity and personal opinion on his employer’s dealings. Yet, Stevens feels a great sense of pride in belonging to a house where important decisions are made and enjoys the feeling that he has indirectly influenced great matters of international importance. An amusing instance was when he felt a great sense of achievement upon changing a valued guest’s foul mood before a big meeting because of the shininess of the silver. This part of the plot got me thinking that its human nature to want to be part of important matters, no matter now thin the connection or sometimes how dubious the circumstances.

The Remains of the Day is quiet, reflective and at times amusing. We, the readers, see Stevens inner life and flaws . Flaws that he himself may not recognise. I wanted him to break out of his shell, to say and do what he truly feels, but I also realised there is a certain charm and lesson to be learnt from Steven’s idea of ‘dignity’.

Although I didn’t completely appreciate this novel, I finished it, which I never do with books that don’t hold my attention. So there’s something to be said for that. I am an impatient being, and prefer more drama and suspense in my reading. I think Kazuo Ishiguro is a really good writer and I really enjoyed his 2005 novel Never Let Me Go. You should read that book.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

I’ve just up loaded my latest review Nanny Returns by Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin.

And coming up in the next couple of days, my reviews of The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson.

Sneak Preview: I spent 2 hours a day traveling to and from the TV station in Myamnar listening to the audiobooks of The Millennium Trilogy. They made boring journey’s exciting. The story is compelling, complicated and gripping. The narrator Saul Reichlin is amazing. I loved all three books.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

Nanny Returns

Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin

(Sequel to The Nanny Diaries)

***~~ (3/5)

Click here to buy Nanny Returns by Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Nan from the Nanny Diaries is back in New York twelve years after the ill-fated nanny-cam night, the night Nan was fired. She is now married to HH (Harvard Hottie) who how has a name, Ryan. Nan is finally settling down and renovating her new (falling apart) home, and is trying to get her consulting business up and running. But is surprised at Ryan’s sudden desire start a family. What startles her the most is her resistance to the idea.

Then, Nan gets a drunken visit in the middle of the night from Grayer X, now 16 years old. He has found the nanny-cam tape…

Because of Nan’s guilt and soft heartedness, she ends up helping Grayer and his younger brother Stilton though Mr and Mrs X’s malicious divorce. Nan finds herself yet again caught up in the vortex of the venomous Upper East Side world of power, money and dysfunction.

My book review:

I absolutely loved The Nanny Diaries. It was absorbing in its humorous yet cringe-worthy portrayal of the rich and the spoiled mothers (a more accurate description would be: a woman who once gave birth, handed her miniature-self to a nanny, then recuperated at a spa for the net 18 years) of Upper East Side New York. Nanny’s experiences in The Nanny Diaries, plus the love story going on with Harvard Hottie, induced both wide-eyed shock and butterflies in the tummy.

Nanny Returns, set 12 years after the disastrous end of The Nanny Diaries, doesn’t contain the warmth of new love, but the commitment of a 12 year old relationship, in which Ryan (HH) and Nan are working through the idea of whether to have children, as well as trying to renovate their brand new dilapidated house. I think the idea of family-planning is a natural and obvious-yet-interesting path for the writers to take Nan on after her experiences with her ex-employers The X’s. And Nan is freaked out– what if she doesn’t make a good mother? What if she screws up her children? However, the readers know she’d make a wonderful mother, she just needs to realise it.

I didn’t enjoy Nanny Returns as much as I loved The Nanny Diaries. But it does make for a fun light read. The reader (at least I did) still gets the feeling of incredulity at what the rich and powerful feel they can get away with, and I loved the character of Grayer’s younger brother, Stilton, who is charming, delicate and quirky. It’s interesting to see what Grayer has grown to up be, as the last time we saw him, he was four years old. Nan seems to be surrounded by screwed up people with their head in the clouds, and it’s a breath of fresh air when she encounters the few down to earth people in the book.

Nanny Returns is quite funny, and if you enjoyed The Nanny Diaries, you may have fun reading Nanny Returns to see how things turn out for Nan, Grayer and the daunting Mrs X.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

P.S. I was listening to the’ B&N Meet the Writers’ podcast from iTunes and found out how Nicola Kraus and Emma Mclaughlin write their books together.

They share every idea and talk though the story a lot, especially in the beginning. They said they share every idea because sharing every other idea in such a collaboration just didn’t work, they’re not mind readers!

Then they divvy up the scenes within chapters and write them individually. They said they were lucky that their writing styles and voices matched really well. They also used their strengths, one would be better at writing Mrs X, while the other had Grayer down pat. They also said they do A LOT of editing.

by Kathryn Stockett

***** (5/5)

Fiction

Click to buy the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Click to buy the audiobook The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Book Synopsis:

1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, three women, as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny come together for an underground project, which if exposed, would put them all at risk.

Skeeter is a 22-year-old white woman who has just returned home after graduating from university. But in 1962, mothers care more about their daughter’s marriage prospects than their career hopes.

Aibileen is an astute black maid who is bringing up her seventeenth white child. When Aibileen’s own son died, as his employers looked the other way, something changed inside her. She is dedicated and caring towards the little girl she is raising, but she knows that they will have to part ways someday.

Then there is the sassy Minny, also a black maid, who can cook up a storm, but has a sharp tongue that always gets her fired. Minny gets lucky and finds a new job, working for someone so new to Jackson that she doesn’t yet know her reputation. But her new employer has her own secret to hide.

Through various circumstances, these women meet and begin in their own clandestine way to push the boundaries, and cross the entrenched but invisible line that defines their town and their times.

My Audio Book Review:

This was my first audio book purchase and I absolutely loved it. The Help was not only Audible.com’s the highest-rated audiobook of 2009, but it is also its highest-rated audiobook of all time. It’s also been on the New York Times bestseller list for 51 weeks and is presently at No.1. So I started with quality.

This audio book is wonderful to listen to. The actors were flawless and the images conjured by their voices had me laughing and even tearing up in public as I was listening to the novel on my i pod.

This story is narrated in the first person by three women Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer. [When writing the novel, Katheryn Stockett said she based some of Minny's sassy-ness on her interactions with actress friend Octavia Spencer who ended up playing Minny in the audiobook.]

I have been overwhelmed by black vs white novels in the past few weeks. Performing in To Kill A Mockingbird as Scout, reading Small Island by Andrea Levy and listening to The Help. You’d think it would be too much, too infuriating, heavy, but although The Help deals with hard issues, the women in the story are full of soul, warmth and chutzpa.

Even the villain of the piece, Miss Hilly Holbrook, is fascinating in her unabashed racist behaviour. Miss Hilly, respected in her white ladies community, is intent on delivering her public service message, ‘The Home Help Sanitation Initiative’ – advising white families to install outdoor toilets for their help to prevent the spread of their diseases. I spent the whole novel wishing she got her just deserts.

Skeeter is the lone white woman who actually sees the injustice. At first, she doesn’t say anything. Then elements fall into place for her and she secretly makes her stand. The stakes are high, what they are doing is dangerous. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny could get in a lot of trouble if found out.

The Help was extremely enjoyable listening. Listening to an audio book made me more productive and even enthusiastic about doing manual tasks – I cleaned the house and even sewed while listening! Aside from great travel listening while walking or on the train, this audio book was great to listen to when I was too tired to read but too awake to sleep. I’d just play it as I lay in bed with my eyes closed.

I’ve found a new form of entertainment!

My next audio book is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Click here to buy the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Click here for more information on audio books.

x Julie

Audio Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

a play by Yazmina Reza

Click image to enlarge

ART is an hilarious comedy about three men and a white painting.

Starring: Jason Chan, Andrew Keegan and Glynn Connop

Black Box at Centre Stage 15 Woking Road (off Portsdown Road), Singapore

Playing from April 8th till 24th. Thurs to Sat only. 8pm.

Book your tickets now at: http://www.tix.com.sg

How much would you pay for a white painting?

Click here to buy the play ART by Yazmina Reza

Have a great night of theatre with your friends. It opens real soon, so book your tickets now. I’ll see you there!

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

I’ve been listening to podcasts like the New York Times Book Review and B&N Meet The Writers which I have enjoyed very much, but I’m now ready for more. I get motion sickness if I read while traveling, so I get really bored and frustrated not to be able to be engaged in a book while I’m getting from one place to another.

So, I decided to sign up for an audio book membership with Audible.com to listen to audio books on my i phone/i pod/ MP3 player. I used to think of audio books as being expensive, but I’ve realised, they can be cheaper than buying an actual book!

Here’s the plan I’m getting:

Audible Listener Discount Gold Membership

• Price: Monthly: USD$7.49 for the first three months and USD$14.95 thereafter and Annually: USD$149.95

• Benefits: 12 membership credits; 30% discount on future purchases; complimentary subscription to The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times
  

• Click here to Download an audiobook for $7.49 and save 50% for your first 3 months. Choose from over 75,000 titles.

or try:

Audible Listener Platinum Free Trial Membership

You can also sign up for a 14 day free trial – but you must remember to cancel it before 14 days are up in order for it to remain free.

• Price: Monthly: $22.95 and Annually: $229.95

• Benefits: 14 day risk free trial; 24 membership credits; 30% discount on future purchases; complimentary subscription to The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times.
• Click here to Try Audible Now and Get A Free Audiobook Download with a 14 Day Trial. Choose from over 60,000 Titles.

Personally, I think the Gold Membership is better if you only want one book a month. But if you plan to listen to more than one audio book a month, Platinum would be a good choice.

All plans allow cancellation at any time.

Audible Fact: The average reader gets through 5 books a year, the average AudibleListener member completes 16 books a year.

Click here to buy the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett (free delivery)

The first Audio Book that I’m going to get is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I’ve heard so much about it. It’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for 50 weeks and is still at number 2. It’s about a young white woman and two black maids in 1960s ­Mississippi.

Click here to read my review of The Help by Kathryn Stockett

You can listen to samples of all the books to get an idea of the story and what the voice you will be listening to will sound like. I’ve found the quality of the voice actors very high. (there are even audio awards!)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

When I tried signing up on audible.com the first time, I was furious to find out I couldn’t get the book I ordered because I live in Singapore. However, audible.com kindly wrote back to tell me that I can usually get the audio books I want, but owned by a different publisher (it’s an area rights and copyright issue). Once I sign up and they have details of where I’m from, as long as I’m logged in, they will show my only what I CAN buy.

Look out for my audio book reviews coming out soon!

x Julie

Audio Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

The author of The Long Song and the award winning Small Island

Click here to buy The Long Song by Andrea Levy

Click here to buy Small Island by Andrea Levy (free delivery)

Meet author Andrea Levy on at the following bookstores:

When: 27th March 2010 (Saturday)

Where: Kinokuniya (Singapore Main Store), Orchard Road,  #03-09/10/15 Ngee Ann City

Time: 3.30pm

OR

When: 27th March 2010 (Saturday)

Where: Borders, Wheelock Place, Orchard Road

Time: 6.30pm

Join award-winning author Andrea Levy as she makes an appearance for her newest book The Long Song, at Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store on 27th March 2010, Saturday at 3.30pm and at Borders (Wheelock) at 6.30pm!

Be sure to catch the winner of these prestigious awards – the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award (2004), as she shares on her books and writing experience, as well as autograph your copy of her book at this event.

The Long Song tells of an extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom and love, set in Jamaica, and told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July. With some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, the book traces the life of Miss July, the child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, who experienced war and slavery through to its chaotic end.

Andrea Levy is also the author of Small Island, Fruit of the Lemon, Never Far from Nowhere and Every Light in The House Burnin’.

I’ll be going!

x Julie

Book Recommendations

Reading Like Rabbits

The Daywalker Chronicles: Volume One

by S.M. De Silva

***½~ (3.5/5)

Fiction / Vampires

Click here to buy the book Blood On The Moon by S.M. De Silva (with Free delivery)

Singaporean buyers can click here to order their copy (free delivery and gift wrapped!)

Click here to visit The Daywalker Chronicles official site

Book Synopsis:

Sleet City: decadent and alluring, but infinitely dangerous. A city where crime, cruelty and glamor reign supreme. Vampires and were-creatures have come out of the closet and now mix openly in human society. Vampires are the new breed of celebrities, the glamor gods of Sleet City.
Alegria, a Singaporean supernatural species consultant, receives a package. A package that contains a ring. A ring attached to a severed finger. A severed finger belonging to Alegria’s sister.

And from here the relentless action begins. Alegria is on a mission to save her sister from Sleet City.

My Book Review:

I was really excited when I was asked by S.M. De Silva to review of her debut novel: Blood On The Moon. The Daywalker Chronicles: Volume One. [My first advanced review! Reading Like Rabbits is taking off!] But I was also nervous. What if her book was rubbish, badly written, or worse, boring?

It was none of these things. I thoroughly enjoyed Volume One and can’t wait for her 1st book to be a roaring success, so I can read Volumes Two and Three!

De Silva has joined the Vampire novel craze! In her world, Vampires and Weres have come out of the closet, and are living openly in our world. It’s not surprising that most of the celebrities on the red carpets have turned out to be vampires, with their immaculate figures and dazzling good looks. [This makes perfect sense to me. I've always suspected Nicole Kidman of being a Vampire] And humans have gone mad for them, vampires are all the rage.

Blood on the Moon contains action, dark pasts, sexual tension, and most importantly an endearing protagonist: Alegria – a Eurasian woman from Singapore who is a supernatural species consultant, with some natural gifts of her own.

The action begins right from the first chapter when Alegria receives a horrifying gift. A diamond ring, attached to a severed finger. Her sister’s finger. This takes her to Sleet City, to the mansion of Joao, Prince of the City… I wont give anymore of the plot away, you’ll just have to read it to find out more.

The story flows easily with exciting turns and revelations. There were only a couple of moments where the logic did not quite fit for me and it took a little while for my suspension of disbelief to kick in. But these were only minor. I’m also not used to reading about a Singaporean character, so when Alegria mentions a pair of tigers in her back yard, I immediately thought “There aren’t any tigers in Singapore anymore!” but then I had to remind myself, there aren’t any Vampires either… or are there…?

I particularly enjoyed De Silva’s humorous footnotes, which provided interesting facts and details pertaining to Were and Vampire culture, among other digressions. There’s also a mouthwatering section where Alegria teaches a werepanther to make debal curry. Yum!

De Silva has created a full, detailed and imaginative world of Sleet City and Vampire culture. Blood On The Moon is rather cinematic in its construction and pace and I can easily see it being made into a movie. [I'll be first in line to audition for the role of Alegria. She'd be a fun and challenging role to play. Though I'm not sure I'm the right type of Eurasian]

S.M. De Silva is a promising new writer. I know she’ll just get better and better!

I want to read the next 2 installments in the trilogy so click here to pre-order Blood On The Moon: The Daywalker Chronicles Volume 1 from Amazon now!

[Note: There is only free delivery for the book Blood on the Moon in Singapore. Go to The Daywalker Chronicles website to find out more.]

x Julie

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

a compilation of poems, short fiction, pictures and non-fiction

by Singaporean writers

I just found out about this book and its launch today. I won’t be able to attend the launch, but I’m going to order a copy of the book. If you are free and interested, head down to Club St tonight.

Support local literature!

x Julie

Book Launch

Reading Like Rabbits

Book Launch

Ceriph’s book launch:

BooksActually

86 Club Street

7.30pm

12th of March 2010, Friday

Ceriph was started by 3 Singaporean undergraduates who noticed friends creating poetry, prose and photographs that were worthy of being shared. They began this non-profit project to create an accessible space that was neither too formal nor flippant for Singaporean non-professional writers to showcase their work.

The first issue of Ceriph tells that tell quiet stories of busy cities through a compilation of short fiction, poems, non-fiction and pictures.

Issue Zero, which was published independently, showcases the work of:

Laremy Lee

Desirée Lim

Sudev S.

Mark Lam

Shane Pereira

Lee Fur-Fur

Cai Li Xian

Ng Yiqin

Andrew Robert Ng

Sharlene Teo

Riot

Captain Crash

Jonah Sun

Wei Fen Lee

Ang Shao-Wen

and

Linette Lim.

Click here to check out Ceriph’s webpage

]]> http://readinglikerabbits.com/book-launch-march-12-books-actually-singapore/feed 0 http://readinglikerabbits.com/blood-on-the-moon http://readinglikerabbits.com/blood-on-the-moon#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:27:03 +0000 juliewee http://readinglikerabbits.com/?p=1068 Blood On The Moon

The Daywalker Chronicles: Volume One

by S.M. De Silva

Fiction / Vampires

Click here to visit The Daywalker Chronicles official site

Book Synopsis:

Sleet City: decadent and alluring, but infinitely dangerous. A city where crime, cruelty and glamor reign supreme. Vampires and were-creatures have come out of the closet and now mix openly in human society. Vampires are the new breed of celebrities, the glamor gods of Sleet City.
Alegria, a Singaporean supernatural species consultant, receives a package. A package that contains a ring. A ring attached to a severed finger. A severed finger belonging to Alegria’s sister.

And from here the relentless action begins. Alegria is on a mission to save her sister from Sleet City.

Watch out for the review coming soon!

My friend has written a vampire novel! I’ve just received an advanced reader copy, and what I’ve read so far looks really promising!

S.M. De Silva’s debut novel is out in stores and on Amazon on 31st May 2010. You can visit the official Daywalker Chronicles site to pre-order your copy, as well as read the first couple of chapters of her book.

x Julie

[Note: There is only free delivery for the book Blood on the Moon in Singapore. Go to The Daywalker Chronicles website to find out more.]

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Cally Taylor

***~~ (3/5)

Click here to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Lucy Brown is about to marry a wonderful man. Dan is handsome, caring and funny. Lucy has never been happier, she is about to get everything she has ever wanted.

But, on the eve of her wedding, Lucy dies in an accident.

Lucy has a choice to make: she can go to heaven and be separated from her soul mate, or she could be with Dan forever…as a ghost.

Lucy will not leave Dan, and she makes her choice. But things are not quite so easy for Lucy. She has a task to complete before she can become a ghost. First, she has to find true love for a total stranger.

My Book Review:

I was really excited about reading this book after seeing that it received 10/10 reviews on chick lit websites, beating Bridget Jones’s 9/10. (I love Bridget!) However, although I enjoyed Heaven Can Wait, I didn’t love it like others did. To me, Briget Jones still leads the pack by miles.

I enjoyed the fantasy of the story: Cally Taylor’s vision of heaven, limbo, tasks and ghosts. I particularly liked Lucy’s housemates from ‘The House of Wannabe Ghosts’. Brian, the endearing smelly train-lover and Claire the petulant young goth.

You know when you read a synopsis or watch a movie trailer and it basically tells you the whole story? I wish I hadn’t read so much about this book before I actually read it. I removed the last sentence from the synopsis above, so that there will be a bit more surprise in the story for you. I think my biggest issue with this book is that that last quarter of the story is rather predictable. Its a case of the reader being a step ahead of the character.

I’m still waiting for another book to overtake my esteem for Bridget Jones but until then, if you enjoy this genre or need a fun, perk-me-up read, definitely give Heaven Can Wait a chance.

x Julie

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

p.s. I know I’m constantly raving about it, but if you haven’t read Briget Jones’s Diary, you’re missing out. She’s a menace to herself but she’s lovely.

Click here to read my review of Bridget Jones’s Diary.

by Alice Sebold

***½~ (3.5/5)

Fiction

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Pennsylvania, 1973, fourteen year old Susie Salmon is brutally raped then killed. Susie tells her story as she watches her family from heaven. Susie’s killer was her neighbor, and still lives next door. Susie’s family is desperately trying to cope with their loss. But with no body found and her killer still on the loose, they cannot rest. They become isolated from each other, each member dealing with their grief in their own way.

As the years pass, Susie’s siblings and friends grow up, fall in love and experience things that Susie never got to experience herself. However, Susie is not quite finished with life yet…

My Book Review:

It’s taken me a while to add another book review because I started and gave up on 3 different books. I lost interest in 2 of them halfway through – which is extremely frustrating, having devoted so much time to reading them, then getting bored. The Lovely Bones was what I needed to get me back on track: being absorbed in a good story.

I loved the progression of this novel. It began with this creepy and disturbing event that made tingle and slightly freaked out. Then it became a story of observation and longing, about understandable human reactions. Susie’s family’s grief and search for her killer come to the fore. But then the story becomes about their lives in the years after her murder, seen through Susie’s eyes up in heaven as she follows them, she herself unable to let go of the people she loved and the woman she would never grow up to be.

This is not a typical, predictable story. I say this not to make you think that there will be major unexpected twists but to try and describe the subtlety and flow that Sebold infuses into the direction of her novel. It’s not a typical thriller about catching the killer. We definitely want to catch Susie’s killer – but do we always get what we want?

Thinking back on the feeling I got from this story, what I experienced was a fully formed impression of this family. Despite the loss and grief, we see healing and joy. I grew to appreciate the characters of the feisty alcoholic grandmother, the sensitive son and a mother who just cant seem to be.

It was only towards the very end that I lost my grasp on my suspension of disbelief for a while. And only for a while – until I accepted it and allowed myself as a reader to follow the path that was set (I am being cryptic so as not to spoil the story for you).

What is really interesting about this book is its take on ‘heaven’. Sebold’s heaven in this novel is different for everyone in it. Each person creates their own heaven. Susie was fourteen when she died, so her heaven included school buildings, a gazebo and playful dogs. But she was still lonely, inextricably connected to her life on earth, constantly watching. Susie would only be able to enter a freer, wider heaven when she let go of her own past and allowed her family to let go of her.

It’s strange that this novel is written from the perspective of a dead girl because the next novel which I am about to read is also from this perspective: Heaven Can Wait by Cally Tayor. It came highly recommended by chick lit clubs (10/10!), so I’m looking forward to reading it!

x Julie

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Jonathan Safran Foer

****~ (4/5)

Adult Fiction

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Oskar Schell is nine years old, and had begun a vital and secret mission that will lead him through New York’s five boroughs. Oskar has found a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died on September 11th in the World Trade Centre. In his search for the lock that fits his key somewhere in New York, a task that seems like looking for a needle in a haystack, Oskar meets survivors of all kinds. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a moving, funny and healing journey.

My Book Review:

I had heard wonderful things about Extremely Loud and Incredible Close. Friends of mine had said it was one of their top 10 books of the year, so I was really looking forward to reading it.

This book suprised me. Jonathan Safran Foer is a really interesting writer. The characters he creates are out of the ordinary, and the way he reveals their story and their inner workings is delicate and intriguing.

His child character, Oskar, is hilarious and so endearing. Foer deftly balances the child’s innocence and naivety with his intelligence and acute understanding. There is one incident in the book, when Oskar is at his psychologists office, that had me laughing out loud (several times) whilst reading in public. Embarrassing, but I couldn’t help it. It was just too funny to keep inside.

Oskar’s grandfather, after the trauma of losing everything during the war, also loses his speech and is only able to communicate through writing notes in notebooks. He tattoos ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ on each palm to make communication easier for him. His journey spans many decades, and readers follow him from his youth in Dresden to the present day. His relationship with his wife is bizarre but when you learn what they have been through, understandable.

I love the layout of Extremely Loud and Incredible Close – there are photos, words circled in red pen and pages with only one sentence printed on them, scattered throughout the book.

If I compare this book to a movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close would be a great independent movie. It’s unique, unpredictable and poignant.

x Julie

Reading Like Rabbits

Book Shop

Part 1 of the Inheritance Cycle

by Christopher Paolini

Click here to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

A poor farm boy counts himself lucky when he stumbles upon a shiny blue stone. But little does Eragon realize that his find is actually a rare dragon’s egg. He has chanced upon a legacy as old as the Empire.

Eragon’s simple life is turned upside down as he is plunged into an unknown world of dragons, magic, destiny and power. Eragon has to leave all that is familiar and find his way through the Empire ruled by the evil king.

With the future of the empire resting in their hands, Eragon and his young dragon must step up to the challenge and the live up to the legend of the Dragon Riders.

My Book Review:

I was amazed to find out that Christopher Paolini began writing Eragon when he was 15 years old.

Paolini’s clear use of language and his precise descriptions of the landscape, fight sequences and emotions are simple yet (without insulting the capabilities of teenagers) sophisticated for the writing of a 15 year old. What an ambitious and exciting task for Paolini to have embarked on!

I enjoyed reading Eragon whilst on holiday in Bali. It’s perfect for pool-side and bedtime reading. Eragon is the first part of the Inheritance Cycle trilogy and I have yet to read Eldest or Brisingr.

It’s strange how fictitious beings like elves and dwarves have come to be so formed in our minds, from books like Tolkein’s The Lord of The Rings and Raymond E. Feist’s Magician: Apprentice, that once the word ‘elf’ is mentioned we know exactly what it entails: pointy ears, magical powers, ethereal, mysterious…And dwarves are obviously short and carry hammers. In this sense, Alagaësia, the world in which Eragon is set, is familiar. When I was reading Eragon, I felt like I had visited his world before. However, I did find the dragons and the politics of the land new and fresh (especially the telepathic communication between dragon and rider).

Although this is a fun fantasy book with much adventure – dragons, magic, and a hidden legacy, traveling across vast deserts and fighting cruel enemies – oddly, it seemed like not much actually happened. I know this is totally untrue, but the feeling I got while reading was that the true events hadn’t started yet. This was just the set up. I think what contributed to this feeling of occasional monotony in the book was that Eragon got into so many scrapes during the course of their long journey that, for me, they eventually started melding a little into each other.

I guess this is my frustration with some trilogies. You get to the end of the first two parts but you don’t feel the satisfaction of an ending, because you are only in the middle of the adventure. Trilogies are like one really really long book. I get so hungry to find out what happens next that I can’t read fast enough!

So, my conclusion is, I can’t complete this book review, nor do the series any justice, without finishing both Eldest and Brisingr. Till then…

x Julie

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

by Eoin Colfer

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Artemis Fowl, a genius criminal mastermind has succeeded in establishing the existence of fairies, and is determined to catch one. After staking out over 100 fairy locations, Artemis succeeds in kidnapping LEPrecon Captain Holly Short.

But these aren’t the toadstool-dancing creatures of fairy tales, these are trained law enforcement fairies, and they are ready to fight back. Just when Artemis Fowl thinks he has them cornered, the fairies stop playing by the rules.

FYI: Artemis Fowl is a twelve-year-old.

My Book Review:

I flew through this book.

Artemis Fowl is just like a hostage-situation action movie. The only difference being, the bad guy is 12-years-old and those under siege are tech savvy fairies who live near the earth’s core. In fact, Eoin Colfer has described it as “Die Hard with faries”.

The characters in Artemis Fowl include Artemis, a villainous scheming child (who reminds me of Stewy in Family Guy) who may have a prickling of a conscience (unlike Stewy), a centaur (very much like Q in James Bond), a huge hunk of a bodyguard, a fuming LEP-recon commander, and history’s first female LEP-recon officer.

I should explain. We humans don’t know this but “the word ‘leprechaun’ actually originated from LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police”. No bucked shoes and knickerbockers in this book! (That was their old uniform).

Eoin Colfer creates a vivid fairy culture, dispelling our pre-conceived ideas of the fairy world.

This is a fast paced, funny story packed with action and other-worldly intrigue. This is the first of 6 in the series so far and I’m definitely going to read the rest of the series!

These books also come as BBC Audio Books which you can buy as a gift for kids for bedtime story listening or to keep the peace on long car journeys.

x Julie

Book Shop and Book Reviews

-Reading Like Rabbits-