By Amanda Hocking

Part 1 of the Trylle Trilogy

***~~ (3/5)

Switched By Amanda Hocking

Click here to buy the book Switched by Amanda Hocking form The Book Depository (with free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Wendy Everly knew that there was something different about herself when her mother had tried to kill her on her sixth birthday. She accused her of being a monster that had been switched at birth with her real baby.

Wendy doesn’t feel like a monster, but she can’t help but feel that she doesn’t quite fit in. She is bored and frustrated with life in her small town, and to top it off, she’s the new girl in school. There is also a secret that she has discovered about herself that she can’t tell anyone…. Wendy has the mysterious ability to influence people’s decisions just by willing it to happen.

The one night, Wendy’s world is turned upside down and inside out when she finds Finn, the strange and intense boy from school, who also happens to be darkly handsome, right outside her bedroom window. All Wendy’s questions may finally be answered…

Book Review:

I quite enjoyed reading this book by first time author Amanda Hocking. Hocking is 26 from Minnesota, and has apparently become a self-published ebook phenomenon, having sold one million books to date. The Trylle Trilogy is now being published in hard copy form by St Martin’s Press New York.

I have to qualify: if you are one of those people who wouldn’t touch Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight with a barge pole, please stay away from this book as it is very similar in genre and I’d have to say not as gripping in plot. But if you are a fan of Twilight, you may enjoy reading Switched too.

One more note on Switched’s similarity to Twilight –it seems that every boy Wendy comes across is GORGEOUS and a potential mate. The main character goes on and on about how attractive he is. There’s even a line in the book where she says she is thinking of setting up a life with the boy – she’s just met him! This may be a teenage thing, but there seem to be superflouous amounts of fluttering over how good looking a boy is and how unsure she is are of if they like her or not. Ok…fine… thinking back to my teenage hood, this was often pretty much the case, so maybe this is a true reflection of teenage hormones combined with lack of experience in such matters.

The book is funny at times and a very easy read. I kept reading because I wanted to know more about the changeling world, which was quite interestingly set up.

I questioned some of Wendy’s motivations – why wasn’t she thinking more of her family? As a reader, I was frustrated along with Wendy about how little she was being told, which is a good sign that I’m on her side.

I hope do first time writer Hocking will develop into a more sophisticated writer. Maybe we might even see this develop in the next two books of the Trylle Trilogy, just as we saw with Stephenie Meyer’s books. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to reading the following two books Torn and Ascend.

x

Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Review Site

-Reading Like Rabbits-

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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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

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by Jonathan Safran Foer

****~ (4/5)

Adult Fiction

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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

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Part 1 of the Inheritance Cycle

by Christopher Paolini

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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

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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

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by Elisabeth Robinson

***** (5/5) Fiction

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Book Synopsis:

This novel is told in the form of letters from Olivia Hunt to her sister with cancer, Michael her ex-boyfriend, her parents and her best friend. Along the way we find out about the progress or non-progress of Olivia’s feature film that she’s trying to get off the ground in Hollywood.

Through Olivia’s letters we track the progress of her year, and are privy to her thoughts, the varied way she communicates with people, her highs and lows and also just the plain usual things that happens day to day that find themselves into her letters. Simply yet powerfully told, this novel simultaneously funny and sad, tragic and heart warming.

My Book Review:

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! The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters is a simply written yet extremely engaging, funny and moving novel. It’s written in the form of letters by one of the sisters, Olivia Hunt. She writes to her friend, her sister, her ex-lover, and as she is a down and out Hollywood Producer, we also follow her correspondence in trying to get the movie Don Quixote made.

This book begins when Olivia finds out her sister, Maddie, has been diagnosed with leukemia. Through the letters Olivia writes, the reader gets to know the intricate workings of her family, Maddie’s weakening yet buoyant spirit and Olivia’s inner world – writing to her ex-lover possibly her soul mate, Michael, who won’t write back, as well as her Hollywood movie making exploits.

Finishing an amazing book is like having said good bye to an old friend. Bitter sweet. You miss their presence, you want them around again, but you know they’re gone and you just have the memories to savour. This is how I feel now about this book. Olivia’s voice is personal and rings true. If she were a real person I’d like to be her friend.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters has sad content but is surprisingly uplifting throughout. Even while I was crying, with tears that were blocking my ability to continue reading, I was laughing.

x Julie

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by Mohsin Hamid

****~ (4/5)

Fiction

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Book Synopsis:

Seated at a cafe in Lahore, a mysterious stranger tells you his story. He invited you to join him, and though the evening, you come to know what led the stranger to approach you. Well educated, well traveled, he seems to know more about the ways of the West than you do. He embraced the Western ideal and a western woman, and was let down by both. However, you soon find out the real reason for this meeting…

My Book Review

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, Changez. This book is really one long monologue with the reader only getting to see one side of a conversation, dominated by Changez, with an American, whom we suspect to be a very reluctant listener.

In general, I find genre classification misleading, as it leads to stock expectations. Philip Pullman (the author of His Dark Materials, a writer for whom I have great respect) is quoted on the cover of my copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist saying: “Beautifully written…more exciting than any thriller I’ve read for a long time.”

So I read this book expecting a thriller. But it’s not a typical thriller. If I had to classify it, I would call it a love and falling-out-of-love story, with the overarching genre being a subtle thriller – for you know from the title, time period and what Changez says early on, that there is something larger than just a casual conversation between an American and a Pakistani.

I guess the key word here is subtle. This one sided conversation shifts between the present, the American and the Pakistani sitting in a cafe watching Lahore go by, and the life story of Changez – from his studies at Princeton right up to him now, sitting at this very cafe. This book provides a glimpse of understanding as to what a Muslim Pakistani might feel caught up in an American world before and after 9/11. Just remember my key word of this book -subtle- even at the end, which I think is the best part about it.

x Julie

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by Ariana Franklin

****~ (4/5)

Fiction / Murder Mystery / Thriller

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Book Synopsis:

Cambridge, England, 1171.

A gruesome murder has taken place. The victim is a child and other children have disappeared. King Henry wants the killer found, as it is the Jews, who supply the King with much of his revenue, who have been accused by enraged townspeople for the child murders.

Simon of Naples a well-known investigator has been recruited, along with a young woman and an Arab. The young woman, Adelia Aguilar, is one of the rare female doctors of the 12^th Century. She specializes in the examination of dead bodies. As a mistress in the art of death, she must keep her skill a secret for fear of being charged as witch.

The inquiry takes Adelia from castle to convent, and into the heart of medieval Cambridge. She makes friends and even chances upon love. However, her investigation attracts the attention of a killer who is willing to strike again.

My Book Review:

I enjoyed reading this murder mystery. The plot is made more interesting because it is set in the 12th Century and because it won a historical award, I trusted its accuracy. The author does note however that she was somewhat anachronistic in her writing to make it more accessible for readers. For example, she used the present name Cambridge, though it was called Grantebridge until the 14th Century.

So if you’re worried about this novel set way back in the 12th Century being archaic and difficult to read, you’ll be in for a neat surprise. Ariana Franklin has done a marvelous job in making this book extremely accessible to modern readers, whilst still keeping the time period vivid.

In this novel we follow our ‘mistress of death’, Adelia (a very down to earth and intelligent lady), to uncover a brutal and elusive killer of children. The plot is a tad slow for a short while in the middle, but once you get past that, much happens that is both exciting and frightening. .

Adelia’s job is to root out the killer, but she is hindered by being female, even worse, she is a foreign female doctor. She has to tread carefully, because the killer could be anyone – the prior, the prioress, the tax collector, the crusader, the merchant, the hunter, the list goes on….

Whodunnit?

x Julie

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by Michael Cunningham

***** (5/5)

Fiction

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Book Synopsis:

Three women.

1920s London. Virginia Woolf attempts to begin her new novel, but she is struggling to settle her unruly mind.

1940s Los Angeles. In the stifling heat, Laura Brown, a young mother and wife aches to abandon her domestic life to escape to the solitude of reading Mrs Dalloway.

1990s New York. Clarissa Vaughan hosts a party for a dying friend.

Michael Cunningham uses the life and works of Virginia Woolf as inspiration for a moving reflection on love, failure, despair and artistic behaviour.

Why I love this book:

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, it’s about the lives of three distinct women – their daily lives, their thoughts, their relationships with the people around them, and more importantly their own internal relationship with themselves.

The Hours is beautifully yet simply written, and is one of my tip-top favourite books. My mother says that Beloved by Toni Morrison changed her life, and for me it’s The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Maybe I wouldn’t say it ‘changed’ my life, but it certainly had a significant impact and helped me make a positive decision, one that I had been storing away and ignoring.

x Julie

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by Anita Amirrezvani

****~ (4/5)

Fiction

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Book Synopsis:

In 17th Century Persia, a father dies suddenly, leaving a fourteen year old girl and her mother to fend for themselves. With no male protector and no dowry with which to marry, they have to make the long journey to Isfahan, to live with the girl’s uncle, a rug designer to the King.

The girls imagination and interest is aroused by the carpets and she hungrily learns the craft, becoming a talented rug maker. But as time goes by, her chances to marry diminish and she is given no choice but to marry a rich man in secret. Will she stay in this unhappy marriage, or does she have the strength and courage to weave a new life for herself?

Why I like this book:

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 ambitious young female protagonist, we learn about the world of Persian carpet making, which involves great care, skill and practice from the design and knotting, right down to the choice of colours.

We learn much about the place of a woman in this society. I found the particular arrangement of her marriage shocking, but I have come to find out that in Islamic tradition, the kind of marriage you will read about in The Blood of Flowers is both accepted and lawful. (I have been purposefully vague in my description of the marriage, as I myself don’t appreciate knowing too much about a story before I actually get to read it)

The book, The Blood of Flowers, is a fascinating look into the life of a young Persian girl becoming a woman in an Islamic world in the 17th century.

x Julie

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By Richard Bach

Photographs by Russell Munson

***** (5/5)

Fiction / Inspirational

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Book Synopsis:

Seagulls fly to find to food. Seagulls eat. Seagulls survive. This is seagull law. But Jonathan Livingston Seagull has discovered the sheer joy and pleasure of flying and swooping and diving. Because of this, Jonathan is banished by the seagull elders. But Jonathan still continues to fly, expanding his horizons and searching for his higher purpose.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable about seizing life by the horns, and following your dreams, even if it means going against the norms of the flock.

A story that will inspire you to follow your dreams, so that you can soar too.

My Book Review:

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’.

This book is wise and accessible, told simply from the point of view of a frustrated seagull with dreams and aspirations higher than what his fellow seagulls could ever comprehend. Russell Munson’s photographs which are scattered throughout the book, of seagulls in flight, cement the idea of flying and freedom. There are so many quotes I want to extract from this book, but you really have to read it to understand.

I have read Jonathan Livingston Seagull twice now, and have decided I should read it periodically, to remind myself that ‘whatever stands against freedom must be set aside’ and that nothing can be achieved without practice. Give this inspirational book as present to yourself or to others.

I also recommend another Richard Bach story Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.

x Julie

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by Jhumpa Lahiri

****~ (4/5) Fiction / Short Stories

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Book Synopsis:

9 short stories that reveal the lives of Indians living at home, or abroad, but nevertheless isolated, steering their way through the murky path between tradition and the new world that has evolved around them. These stories which are eloquently and subtlety told by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, will speak to anyone who has experienced the longings of exile, or the isolated confusion of an outsider.

My Book Review:

I generally don’t read short story collections, they never really appealed to me. I like to travel along the long arc of stories with the characters and really immerse myself in a book. Short stories always seemed to cheat me of that depth. I did enjoy reading the book The Interpreter of Maladies. Though short story collections are still not my cup of tea, and I did end up wanting more of an investment in each story, I understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Each story was a world of its own, entering the lives of real people and their displaced lives. As the book synopsis says, Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories are ‘understated’. They are quiet and domestic, but also therefore identifiable and honest in their portrayal. All 9 stories are unique and independent of each other in very satisfying ways, jumping across continents and content. I appreciated all the stories, but the two short stories that stood out the most for me are ‘This Blessed House’ and ‘The Third and Final Continent’.

Jhumpa Lahiri also wrote The Namesake, and though I haven’t yet read the book, it makes a great movie.

x Julie

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by Shel Silverstein

***** (5/5)

Children’s Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy. So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk…and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree and the tree gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.

Why I love The Giving Tree:

The Giving Tree is my absolute favourite children’s book. Its a children’s book, but it’s content is sophisticated and will touch the heart of any adult.

It is a love story between a boy and a tree. The tree possesses unconditional love for a young boy, and the boy, like all of us, grows up and wants more and more from life and the tree. With its simple black and white drawings, The Giving Tree is extremely moving and has powerful messages relating to the environment and the nature of love.

When my mother read The Giving Tree to my sister for the first time, she ended up in tears. It is a heartbreaking, but beautifully told story, that gently teaches us valuable life lessons.

This is the most powerful children’s book I’ve ever read. It would be perfect as a gift or as a teacher’s resource.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

by Helen Fielding

***** (5/5)

Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

Bridget Jones wants to have it all – and once she’s given up smoking and got down to 8st 7lbs, she will. Bridget Jones’s Diary is about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? Bridget Jones is everyone’s favourite Londoner. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with the funniest, most heart-warming young lady ever to grace the pages of a Picador book.

Why I love Bridget Jones’s Diary:

I do love Bridget. She’s gawky, clumsy, does insanely stupid things, doesn’t look perfect, is terrible in love, kind, loyal and therefore adorable. Her quirky language and desperate measures to improve her love life, career and general appearance are both identifiable and amusing. There are some priceless moments of humour in that book.

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. A curious thing happens when I am reading her diary – I tend to start thinking like her, seeing things from her point of view. It’s weird but rather fun, and I feel safe with the knowledge that though I understand her, I’ll never be quite as ridiculous.

The movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary is just as good, one of the few adaptation films that I think lives up to the original. With the charming Colin Firth, dashing Hugh Grant and a Renee Zellweger with a decent amount of flesh on her, what’s not to like.

The sequel, Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason, is also enjoyable, though her first diary is still top of my light reading book list.

So if you need cheering up or just want a bit of a laugh, I highly recommend reading Bridget Jones’s Diary.

It would be great as a gift for a girl friend (if she hasn’t already read it).

x Julie

Book Review

- Reading Like Rabbits

by Audrey Niffenegger

**~~~ (2/5)

Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal at least for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cosy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetary in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin… but have no idea they have been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twin’s mother – and who cant even seem to quite leave her flat…

What I thought of this book:

I just finished Her Fearful Symmetry, and I can’t decide if I liked it or hated it. I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife, and was ecstatic when I spied Audrey Niffenegger’s new book on the bookstore shelves. I didn’t buy it immediately, I was saving the promising experience of reading it for a later more deserving time.

The book starts off great. It’s all about 21 year old American twins who move to London to live in their recently deceased aunt’s apartment that she left to them in her will. It’s full of dark secrets of the past, present twin-ly tensions, and a spirit that cannot leave. It’s a ghost story, but don’t be fooled into thinking it will be scary. It’s not in the least. I’d say its ghostliness is surprisingly normal, until the plot takes some rather strange and not quite believable turns.

I’m glad I read this book, precisely because of the bewildered way it made me feel after I finished the last sentence and because of the side character Martin. Martin is an old man who lives on the top floor of the twin’s apartment building. Martin has OCD, and is so charming in his disabilities that you can’t not adore him as he struggles with his compulsions mingled with the distinct knowledge that they are just compulsions and he could simply get up and walk out of his flat – if he wanted to. With his counting, scrubbing, smoking and his love for his wife, I was with him all the way in his quiet inhibited journey. He really was a lovely old man.

The story seemed to swerve absurd directions in a way that left me thinking ‘This doesn’t any make sense, why on earth would he/she/they make that decision?’ There was not enough lead up to the major plot twist, not in a good surprising manner, but in a way that distanced me from the characters because I didn’t believe the decisions they were making had enough basis. I didn’t believe how their state of mind could end up at this point.

More surprisingly for me, the twists left me exclaiming both ‘I didn’t see that coming!’ and ironically ‘I saw that coming’ at the same time. I think the reader is just a little ahead of the pace of the book. Talking about pace, I did find the first half of the book slow, it’s very domestic and nothing much happens. Maybe this is the set up for the action of the second half, but nothing’s extreme enough to justify what happens. Moreover, all the little reveals along the way seem contrived and not quite believable either.

I feel rather harsh, but I get so passionate and riled up about stories, that I can’t help it. I want to be thrilled, enamored and to fall in love with a book, but this one left me frustrated.

All that said, I WAS absorbed in reading Her Fearful Symmetry, wanting to know what would happen next. It was both fantastical and domestic. I’d love to hear comments of other readers because this book left me mixed-up, with a kind of disappointment but also with a kind of hole that was caused by having travelled on this crazy journey with the characters.

Despite this gloomy review, do read Niffenegger’s first novel The Time Traveler’s Wife. That story is truly magical and moving.

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

by Stephenie Meyer

****~ (4/5)

Fiction

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Book cover Synopsis:

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

What Bella doesn’t realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And, it might be too late to turn back. . . .

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight will have readers riveted right until the very last page is turned.

Why I love these books:

I have to admit I was hooked on the Twilight series. I read book after book after book. I would pass them onto my mother and she gobbled them up like candy too.

Stephenie Meyer is not the best writer in the world, she writes popcorn. But the popcorn she writes is so buttery and thrilling to swallow that before you know it you’ve read all four books and seen the movie twice.

Meyer’s writing got much better as she developed the series. The first book was rather infuriating with the repetitiveness of how gorgeous and amazing Edward was and how Bella didn’t deserve his beauty and did I mention his amazing body? Blah blah blah on and on for a few hundred pages of the same gaga drooling. It’s the plot that draws you in. The world of vampire culture that Meyer creates is thrilling, dangerous and utterly addictive. It’s a fantasy world filled with vulnerable magic powers and deathly enemies. It roams from fighting inner demons to significant battles.

I think the most compelling aspect of the Twilight series is the fact that it is set in our world. Bella is a normal, slightly awkward teenage girl who goes to a regular high school. The only difference is, vampires in disguise are also on the attendance sheet. It’s the world that you always knew was lurking round the corner, just past the corners of your eye.

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits

by Harper Lee

****~ (4/5)

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book synopsis:

”Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this enchanting classic – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.

Thorough the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties.

The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice.

But the weight of history will only tolerate so much…

Why I like this book:

I have a long affiliation with To Kill a Mockingbird. I studied it in secondary school, then in Junior College I was in the drama club production of it. I had two lines: “Scout’s daddy defends niggers!’ and “Slut!”. And in February 2010, I will be playing Scout at The Drama Centre in Singapore. This is why I recently read the book again, as well as the play version by Christopher Sergel.

I enjoyed reading To Kill A Mockingbird all three times I have read it. I was 14 the first time and found the first few pages too confusing, so I skipped the first chapter going on to thoroughly enjoy the rest of the novel.

The play is very much a watered down version of the thick Southern atmosphere and action of the novel. It’s very much like watching movie versions of good books you’ve read, they rarely compare.

The book however is extremely lulling and comfortable. [I know this is a strange description for a book about the injustice of racism, but the 'goodie' characters whom you get to know throughout the novel, who live in this sleepy town of Maycomb, are lulling in nature and they do make you comfortable to know that there good people in this world.] It’s full of good natured and upright characters in an unjust and colour-coded world. The children, brother and sister Scout/Jean Louise and Jem with their little friend Dill, speak from a confused and innocent child’s perspective. They learn how they should live and discover the world in which they want to live in. This is one of the most important aspects of the book, that to a child, race doesn’t mean anything unless it is cultivated . Children are taught to be racist, or they learn to be racist, the blank slate is filled with whatever it touches.

To Kill a Mockingbird possesses the danger of becoming preachy with Atticus their father, and their neighbour Miss Maudie extolling pearls of wisdom on behaviour and conduct. However, as a reader you understand that there are people like the bigoted Bob Ewel, and then there are sympathetic and honest people like Atticus. He has little influence on a public scale, but is able to hold on to his personal integrity and ideals, and more importatly educate his children so they grow into compassionate adults. He leads by example and you respect him for that.

Harper Lee’s handling of this subject matter ironically necessitates this kind of black and white approach with the characters behaviour. As an educational and growing tool, I think this is a crucial textbook to life – these kinds of accusations and sham trials actually occurred in 1930s America, and beyond, I was shocked to find out – from the false accusation of the Scottsboro boys, to the brutal murder of Emmett Till (whose white killers walked away scott free). I think this book will stay in the school literature syllabuses for a long long while.

To Kill a Mockingbird’s content is infuriating, charming and admirable. This novel has been described as having two parts, a trial story with Atticus defending the black Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white girl, and a kind of distant love story between Boo Radley and the children. I want to be as noble as Atticus, as free spirited as Scout and secretly I identify with the reclusive and elusive Boo Radley.

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits

by Christina Schwarz

***** (5/5)

Fiction

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book cover Synopsis:

At the close of World War One, Amanda Starkey leaves the city and travels to her family farm in rural Wisconsin to recover from a traumatic love affair. Instead, she is caught up in a tragedy that will take her beloved sister’s life, and leave Amanda to raise her niece Ruth. What happened the terrible night when Mattie died? Why does Ruth say she can remember drowning? For years the consequences of the tragedy reverberate; the truth, when it is revealed, is both dramatic and extraordinarily moving.

Why I love this book:

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. I plowed through Drowning Ruth, finishing it in 3 days – I’m generally a slow reader, usually taking at least a week and a half to finish a book. So if speed is an indicator, Drowning Ruth gets an A+.

I would have expected the way that the mystery around Mathilda’s death unravels, so slowly, throughout the course of the book to be frustrating, but I enjoyed not knowing. The story around the mystery moves at a pace where you’re intrigued by the characters and their changing relationships, just as much as you are with the over arching through-line surrounding Mathilda’s death. Mathilda’s death sets the story rolling, the secrets around why and how she drowned are compelling, but the consequences in the years that follow and the journey that Amanda the sister, Carl the husband, and Ruth the daughter experience, are in a sense, more the heart of the story.

Schwarz’s setting is so vivid and strangely charming that I feel I know the farm, the lake and the pivotal little island that Amanda found and claimed as her own.

The perspective of the story moves between Amanda, Ruth and the omniscient observer fluidly, each revealing pearls of unique insight. I loved this shift in view that let us peer into the feelings and contradictions of the characters in this tense world of longing for a dead loved one, that leaves the three surviving characters shrouded in a sense of the incomplete.

Speedy or not, this novel was fascinating.

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

***** (5/5)

Fiction

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Cover Synopsis:

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. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, is a Hazara, a member of the ethnically shunned minority. Their intwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave behind the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendships, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies. Written against a history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel’s faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption.

Why I loved The Kite Runner:

Khaled Hosseini is my favourite writer. I was reading The Kite Runner while on holiday in Cambodia and I spent all the time I wasn’t at Angkor Watt reading! It has been a long time since I read it, but it has stayed in my memory as one of my favourite books. I will read it again soon and review it properly. But there’s no need to wait for that review, just read The Kite Runner.

Hosseini’s next book A Thousand Splendid Suns is equally riveting.

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits