review

book review: objects of affection

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Objects of Affection by Krishna Udayasankar

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I did not realise it is a collection of poems when i started reading it. i read it as i would short stories. being not really a literary person, i was surprised to realise that they were a collection of poems. it is something new to me and i enjoyed reading it.

at first, i read the ‘stories’ or poems, on its own until i realised when read together, or weaved in the chapters, it could be a whole story of two individuals, i mean, it is! it has to be.
i like surprises like this!

it challenges the reader to imagine as an inanimate, observing as a third ‘person’ of two lives. it is refreshing. it is intimate. i am not a fan of reading (having, sadly, found out along the way) about betrayal or extra marital affairs, i guess it tries to humanise the emotions involved. but i am sure if the chapters are read on its own, it could give glimpses of different meanings and experiences.




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it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly is not for me (storyline-wise) but i appreciate the refreshing notion of reading poems as though they were short stories and the surprise that if you put a mindset of reading the chapters together, it almost draws you in to read about the two individuals into one whole story, like a novel on its own. and with a vague ending, as all short stories are.

how to find love in a bookshop

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How to Find Love in a Bookshop

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My first assumption was i might got bored reading this. i thought it would be something similar to Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop, which although i found it intriguing at first, i just skimmed through the rest of the chapters and only got interested again towards the end.

Somehow How To Find Love in a Bookshop made me read through and i finished it in 3 days! It was an easy read, endearing characters, although certain plot you kind of expected it how to end and of course, it has an all happy ending feel to it. the characters aren’t pretentious, a bit too many characters to fit in, and at 200+ pages, it feels too short, i guess they were all nicely put in and weaved in through how they were connected, and have their own ‘air time’ without being too “touch and go” or just for the sake of it.

it was a nice coincidence that i finished reading it two days before christmas, i didn’t know it would end happily on a christmas day.

i hope a producer picks it up and make it into those christmas-sy films or series. i want to see the characters alive!



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book review: the weight of our sky

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The Weight of Our Sky

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I am so proud for having read this! An Asian writer to be applaud and be proud of! The moment it started with “If this will hurt you, please don’t read my book,” in the author’s note…i’m hooked. I mean, i have not read any book with its author stating that don’t read my book if its going hurt you. Risky and….caring..at the same time?!

A story that managed to grip and grab my attention with just being frustrated of the protagonist, i mean i am really frustrated with her and wished i could say “Girl! Snap out of it already!” but at the same time, wished that we could just, “come on, help her already!!”

This book has so many things going on without feeling overwhelmed or ‘messy’. It’s about friendship in hard times, regardless of your differences. It’s about a daughter and mother’s love and frantic search for one another in dangerous times. It’s about history and there’s snippets of violence delicately described so as not to put off readers like me (i don’t really read anything related to war, terrorism, strikes, bloodshed, etc) but realistically enough that i could pretty much have a picture of the events in my mind.

Most importantly, it’s about one’s struggling with a mental disability, tastefully shadowed as ‘exorcism’, as per our ‘culture.’

I can feel her exhaustion and frustration. that deep struggle to be okay when it’s easier said than done because it was not something she can control, no matter how much she wanted to control them. that need. sigh….my mind almost feel as tired as her while reading this.

I definitely loved the climax of when she finally found her mother, my heart dropped too! i was like, finally!!! like we could finally breathe now, like all this while, our mother is alive!! all those worries and fears!! and we could let our guards drop for a short while because our mother is here in front of us. just here.(see how i use ‘we’ and ‘our’ here, coz i’m so immersed with her).

I think this book should be read by all Malaysian students, even as part of their literature (language or historical) subject.



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******

I read this as an ebook borrowed from the NLB app and really, I didn’t expect to be blown away by it. It was also my first full fledged ebook reading. i must say it was a good start. the storyline caught my attention so much that i ‘open’ it up every time i was on the bus to find out how the story goes.

I can say I enjoy e-book reading now. but need to be very selective on what ebooks i borrowed. it had to be something i can enjoy… am so glad of this NLB- ebook borrowing…why didn’t i find this joy much earlier??!!

so anyway, this is a good read for something ‘light’ and quick. the storyline is no way that light. what i meant by light is, it isn’t a thick epic fantasy book.

should any child or teen read this? a definite yes. so many learning points that you can find. sigh…i can almost imagine the flood of discussion you can have if you are a literature or history teacher.

friendship, hardship, love, parent-child relationship, loss, death, racism, interfaith, harmony, violence, right and wrong, truth, politics, mental health, confidence, self-esteem, self-identity, religion, national pride, national identity, patriotism….the list can go on and on.

so yea…read it…

book review: sweet bean paste

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Sweet Bean PasteSweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A nice read.

of a man’s struggle to live by after going back to society after imprisonment. of an elderly woman who suffered leprosy, sickly but wise and strong in her own way. how they bonded over sweet adzuki beans paste.

it gives you that good feeling that every one has a chance at living. that no matter who we are or in what circumstances we find ourselves in, we all have a purpose in this world.

“we were born in order to see and listen to the world” i like the concept of listening to the world. to the trees and every living things. as humans, we often forget that. to stop and listen to the world. it could just give us some answers.

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if you like uplifting reads, a bit of confectionary making, and get teary a bit at the end of the story, this could be a good read. especially if you’re into japanese authors

book review: heart berries

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Heart Berries: A MemoirHeart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

it is too lyrical and deep in emotion, it feels heavy reading it and i think i can get a bit depressed through it. perhaps these are the intentions of the author. perhaps i misunderstood the summary and was expected something completely different and was not expecting a life of hardships and abuse. i could not empathise with the protagonist, although i really want to. i just wish she could just step up her life and leave this man who is abusing her emotionally already. but if this is based on a real life, i believe it is not as easy as it seems.

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book review: dream storeys

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Dream StoreysDream Storeys by Clara Chow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have not yet read many local Singaporean authors. After a few attempts of reading some short stories collection from other authors, i think i have found a favourite in Clara Chow’s.

This collection of short stories included her interviews with architects about their dream buildings and her stories will then revolve around their ideas. Somehow i could connect and resonate with her writing and stories.

Looking forward to reading more stories from Clara Chow!

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book review: the bookseller

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The BooksellerThe Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

the title of the book caught my eye first, and then the mention of sliding doors. picked it up, read it, and i liked it but not fully.

as everyone has reviewed, it’s about a person ‘having’ two lives between dreams and somewhere along the story, we kind of have to figure out which life was the real life one because both lives seems to be going on pretty smoothly. almost perfect for a single person (kitty) and for a married woman (katharine).

and then it started to unfold some uneasiness, like the bookstore’s not earning enough and then the mother ‘realises’ she has a child with autism, but still perfect, i think, considering the husband is loyal and supportive.

i was beginning to find it a bit slow now, because i wanted to know which life is real and what caused this dual lives dreams. i began to understand when it reached to the meeting point of when her parents lived in Kitty’s life but died in a tragic plane accident in katharine’s. that could be the cause of starting to have these dreams to change realities because of the trauma of losing one’s parents. and then i guess katharine’s was the real one and the single kitty was the dream.

i guess the end game of the story is that all the what ifs leads to different life pathways but all pathways are never perfect. you win some you lose some. you can never have it all. and it’s true, isn’t it.

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book review: the story of the lost child

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The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels, #4)The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book took me longer to finish than i anticipated.

perhaps somewhere it gets a bit draggy. perhaps this adult life the ladies are facing were, as it was, draggy…and just leaving life, facing whatever challenges, trying to survive in a hard world.

elena’s life turned out fine at the end, and sadly lila’s, not so much, i guess.

such turnaround. how the ladies’ cycle of life is like the opposites of each other. like when lila’s was having a much better life with a booming computer business, elena’s seem to go in a turmoil with a divorce leaving her and her daughters trying to lead a life back home, and a fling with and old crush. and then it moves the other way round. the only time they were parallel in their lives were when they were both pregnant with baby girls a month’s apart.

the peak of the story seems to be the loss of lila’s daughter without a trace, which i find it frustrating more than sad. because why would this happen? where is the logic of this story going? how is it possible that the child disappeared without a trace. it was like a jigsaw puzzle that doesnt seem to fit in anywhere in this whole story. more than anything, i just wanted the child to be found and alive and i wanted a happy ending for both lenu and lila!

you know what, the author needs to have a #5 for this series and tell me that they found lila and tina! please!

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book review: those who leave and those who stay

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Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (The Neapolitan Novels, #3)Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh My God!

the ending is so unexpected! i have been rooting for Lenu to end with Nino since day one. and it finally happened!! except that it was not in the circumstances i would have imagined.

well the third instalment of elena ferrante’s story since My Brilliant Friend. i was satisfied that this time around, more focus was given to Lenu herself and her family. we get to have a bit more scenes that tries to portray the relationship between her and her mother. i am happy that her family got more mention, with her sister Elisa suddenly came on into the spotlight towards the end.

i am left satisfied because the previous two books felt like it focused so much on Lila. so this third one feels like it gives more insight on Lenu’s adult life and her frustrations and struggles of being in marriage, with an aloof husband and two daughters, juggling these many roles as well as the difficulties of trying to continue writing but failing to do so.

however, the twist of fates in their lives gives the impression that now Lila is getting the better of their worlds with her involvement and skills in handling modern machines, and now its Elena who is being the lesser of two, juggling her life.

however, this time around, i found some passages which i felt describe this complicated friendship between Lenu and Lila.

“I had been conditioned by my education, which had shaped my mind, my voice. To what secret pacts with myself had i consented, just to excel. And now, after the hard work of learning, what must i unlearn. Also, I had been forced by the powerful presence of Lila to imagine myself as I was not. I was added to her, and I felt mutilated as soon as I removed myself. Not an idea, without Lila. Not a thought I trusted, without the support of her thought. Not an image. I had to accept myself outside of her. The gist was that. Accept that I was an average person.What should i do. Try again to write. Maybe I didn’t have the passion, I merely limited myself to carrying out a task. So don’t write anymore. Find some job. Or act the lady, as my mother said. Shut myself up in the family. Or turn everything upside down. House. Children. Husband.

Although this last statement is giving us a teaser on what is going to happened at the end of this period. as I would find out at the end.

Also Pietro’s description of Lila is on point. “…she wasn’t at all my friend, that she hated me, that she was extraordinarily intelligent, that she was fascinating, but her intelligence had been put to bad use – it was the evil intelligence that sows discord and hates life – and her fascination was the more intolerable, the fascination that enslaves and drives a person to ruin.”

and this part!! I don’t understand how your relationship could have lasted so long, obviously you’ve carefully hidden from each other anything that could rupture it.

to end the beautiful pieces.”My becoming was a becoming in her wake. I had to start again to become, but for myself, as an adult, outside of her.” Yes Lenu, Yes. about time. Finally you understood this.

being almost like an observer to these characters, following their lives. i am glad i picked up My Brilliant Friend some months ago and got hooked to the Neapolitan dramas.

Now that i am moving on to the final book, i feel like i do not want in to end.

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after dark

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After DarkAfter Dark by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who can make a night of about 12 hours and be fully engaged on stories. he can.

I am pleasantly surprised that this book kept me engaged throughout, and who would have thought that so many things can happened in a night?

a girl ‘running’ away from home, choosing to read a thick book in cafes, an absolute introvert, a chance meeting with her sister’s friend and then got involved in helping a foreign girl being hit in a love hotel, deepening friendships and personal reveals. it’s a one-night adventure.

and all this while, trying to understand and find out what happened to her sister who have been sleeping and have not woken up for two months since.

at the end, it is, a story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, after feeling estranged from one another because of their different personalities and pursues. it really touches me, when at the end, the girl came back to her sister, still peacefully sleeping, and slept beside her sister.

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