Betty's Books

New Releases in June

2011-06-03T11:02:00.001-06:00

I’ve been getting monthly emails from Goodreads.com about new book releases and I’ve been adding so many new books to my wishlist that I really have no idea how I’m ever going to read them all in this lifetime!

I thought I’d list them here, partly as a list to keep track of and partly as a way to prioritize my reading list, if it happens that other readers comment on them and either recommend them highly or tell me not to bother with them. =)

So here’s this month’s new releases that caught my interest:

The Art of Forgetting
by Camille Noe Pagan

It sounds interesting; Marissa’s always been second fiddle to her friend, Julia, but Julia gets into an accident which affects her memory and her personality. Now Marissa has to take charge and help Julia recover her memories, which means dragging up a possibly painful history.

State of Wonder
by Ann Patchett

Well, I don’t really know what this book is about, but I loved Bel Canto by the same author, and I’ve been looking forward to reading more of her books.

The Borrower
by Rebecca Makkai

A librarian helps a ten-year-old boy to get access to the books he wants to read when his overbearing mother disapproves. When he runs away from home and end up at the library, the librarian, Lucy, needs to make some difficult choices. How can I resist a story about libraries and books?!

A Need So Beautiful
by Suzanne Young

We all want to be remembered. Charlotte's destiny is to be Forgotten...

I must it was the cover art that caught my eye, but reading the synopsis, I thought it’s just right up my alley. A young adult paranormal book, one of my favorite type of books!

The Day Before
by Lisa Schroeder

I’ve recently been seeing this author’s name a lot on Twitter, and thought to myself that I should read her books. I ended up seeing this book on Goodreads.com as a new release, so what better book to start with?!

Imaginary Girls
by Nova Ren Suma

Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

I just realized that there are wayyyy too many new releases that I’m interested in. I might have to space them out in different posts by genre or something. For the moment, I hope these few books will pique your interest too. =)

Shine by Lauren Myracle

2011-05-30T23:21:00.001-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: Shine by Lauren Myracle on Blogcritics.

I know that it’s been said over and over again never to judge a book by its cover, but I have to admit that I picked up Shine by Lauren Myracle only because I was attracted by its cover.

I have never heard of the author and I had no idea what this book was about. I read the synopsis, and gathered from it that a boy named Patrick is a victim of what looks like a hate crime and is now in a coma, and sixteen-year-old Cat, his former best friend, is investigating what really happened.

It sounds pretty clear-cut, but it’s more complicated than that. There’s all sorts of relationship dynamics between the inhabitants of this small town, and of course, there’s the small-town mentality that Cat needs to overcome, especially considering that Patrick was supposedly attacked because he’s a homosexual.

Cat is threatened when she asks too many questions, but the threats only make her angrier and more determined to find the answers. In the process of digging up information about Patrick’s attack, Cat also has to dig up her own past and the emotions she buried a long time ago.

This is the town that Cat grew up in; these are people that she knows and have relationships with. Some of them she’s had bad experiences with; some were her former best friends. What do you do when you suspect that one of your friends have hurt another?

I was very impressed with how well-written Shine was. It’s kind of like a Nancy Drew crime/mystery novel in the sense that it has a teenaged sleuth who’s solving a crime by asking questions and piecing the answers together, except it’s so much more subtle than a Nancy Drew novel, and yet so much more intense and emotionally involved.

You get to know the characters well, and then you see a different side of them. I think that’s one of my favorite things about this book. Nothing and no one is really what they seem. It’s ironic that I was drawn to this book because of its cover, and then when reading it, find that the prevalent theme in this book is about not taking things at face value.

Shine is one of the most engrossing books I’ve read so far this year, and I’m so impressed by Myracle’s writing that I’ve added her other books to my To-Be-Read list.

Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano

2011-05-30T16:32:00.001-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano on Blogcritics.

I had been seeing Wither by Lauren DeStefano a lot in bookstores and was intrigued by the premise. A genetic experiment gone wrong has given all newborns a fixed lifespan of 25 years for males and 20 years for females. How could I not get hooked?

Apparently, it happened when scientists were trying to discover a cure of cancer and other degenerative diseases. They found a way to genetically engineer fetuses so that all the babies would be born strong and healthy and immune to any disease. It worked great, and the first generation all grew up and grew old and never got sick.

Unfortunately, their children and their children’s children all started dying at the age of 20 and 25, and they’ve been looking for a cure since. In the meantime, it was important not to let the human race die out, so they started kidnapping girls in their teens to become child-brides and produce babies.

Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is one of the child-brides, but although her husband Linden loves her and she gets along well with her sister wives, she longs for her freedom and the love of a servant, Gabriel, who is as much a prisoner as she is. It’s a bittersweet story, and I can’t help but root for Rhine and Gabriel even as I’m rooting for her husband, Linden.

Reading this book makes me think of all the reasons people are against cloning, genetically modified foods, genetic engineering, and anything that interferes with the natural order of things.

It’s hard to say where I stand on this issue, because on the one hand, I can see all the benefits that could be achieved, but on the other, who knows what kind of effects all these experiments could have on us in the long run?

People have been saying for a while now that our lives are getting longer, but they haven’t considered the fact that these statistics include a lot of terminally sick people whose suffering are being prolonged by drugs and surgery. In contrast, the inhabitants in the world of Wither are all healthy and strong until they reach their curtailed life expectancy, then they get sick and die quickly.

In my opinion, if our lives were limited to 20-plus years, we wouldn’t be spending so much of our childhood learning lessons we’re never going to use, playing video games, and wasting time. We’d probably be living hedonistically and we’d definitely be having children as soon as we’re able to - we wouldn’t have time to read or do anything that didn’t contribute to our survival. We’d basically be living like animals.

The only thing that keeps the inhabitants of Wither from living like animals is the fact that the first generation of genetically engineered humans are still alive, although the youngest of them are already seventy years old. They are the ones that try to keep a semblance of a normal society intact, but what’s going to happen in a few more decades when the first generation dies and they still haven’t found a cure for the younger generation?

I’m interested in seeing what happens next with Rhine, Gabriel, and Linden and I want to know more about what happens to the people in Wither. Will they ever find a cure? What will happen when the first generation dies out? Wither is the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading the next books in the trilogy.

Wild Roses by Deb Caletti

2011-05-26T05:57:00.000-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: Wild Roses by Deb Caletti on Blogcritics.

Wild Roses tells the story of 17-year old Cassie Morgan, and the way she and her mother handle living with a temperamental and, at times, almost insane musician.

Dino Cavalli is a world-renowned violinist, and he’s also Cassie’s stepfather. At first, he seems like only a bully and an egomaniac, but when he goes off his medication because it blocks his creativity, he becomes manic, paranoid, and destructive.

While Dino never actually hurts Cassie or her mother physically, there are times in the book where the scene is so intense and frightening that I tense my muscles in expectation that he might. Fortunately, he never crosses that line, but unsurprisingly, he does finally hit someone towards the end of the book.

The more interesting story in the book though, is the romance between Cassie and Ian Waters, who happens to be Dino’s student. Ian is an extremely talented violinist who might have a chance to get a full scholarship into the most prestigious school for musicians.

Of course, his romance with Cassie gets in the way of his music, or you could say that his music gets in the way of his romance with Cassie. Either way, Dino isn’t happy, and the situation is full of difficult choices for Ian and Cassie.

It’s interesting to note how the book portrays how difficult it can be living with and loving talented musicians. Both Cassie and her mother have to cater to the needs and the moods of the musicians they love, letting go of what they want in deference to what talent and genius need.

I relate to this on a personal level because I married a very talented musician after making a promise to myself a long time ago that I would never get involved with musicians! I had dated musicians before my husband, and I always felt like I wasn’t important and that their needs always came first.

To be fair, it wasn’t so much that they treated me badly, but more that they were oversensitive and I always had to be careful what I said and did so that I wouldn’t hurt their feelings inadvertently. It got so tiring that I gave up dating musicians until my husband came along.

What drew me to him and what made me forget my promise of not ever getting involved with a musician again is the fact that he’s the most amazing musician I’ve ever met, and he’s still as down to earth as anyone with his measure of talent can get. He’s sensitive but not overly so, and a lot of the time, he puts my needs before his.

Obviously, living with my husband is nowhere near as dramatic as Cassie and her mother living with Dino, but what I relate to is the deference to genius. My husband never expects this accommodation, and in fact, sometimes will cancel a gig for my convenience instead, but always to my disapproval.

There’s this feeling that I, as a mere mortal, get about not getting in the way of genius. I think my husband is amazing, and I think he’s got potential for huge success, and because of that, I always insist that his music comes first.

So reading this book, while I feel that Dino is too volatile and definitely not someone I’d like to live with no matter how talented he is, I started wondering about my own life with a musical genius and why I so naturally defer to his music.

Wild Roses mentions many times how everyone is moved to tears when they listen to Dino’s music. No matter how horrible Dino is as a person, and no matter how much people may dislike him, all is forgiven when they hear his music.

I think that’s the key; we yield to talented musicians because their work touches us and makes us feel things we otherwise would never feel, and somehow our instinct is to do whatever we can to make sure that the music survives.

Wild Roses is an engrossing book and I like that it made me think about my own relationship with a musician and how we all need music in our lives. Deb Caletti is an excellent writer and I will definitely be reading more of her books.

Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan

2011-05-25T19:50:00.001-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan on Blogcritics.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Third Eye by Lois Duncan. I’ve read this book at least half a dozen times since I first read it in high school. Funnily enough, I haven’t read any of Duncan’s better known books, like Stranger with My Face, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Killing Mr. Griffin.

I finally got a hold of a copy of Stranger with My Face, and it was so exciting that I finished reading it in one day. At first glance, the plot sounds like a cliché; Laurie Stratton is a sixteen-year-old girl with an evil twin who wants to take over her life.

It's an overdone plot, but consider the fact that this evil twin can astral travel and is strong enough in astral form that she can cause harm to others, and factor in that it was written in 1981, and you can’t help feeling really impressed with Duncan’s vision. As far as I know, no one else has ever told this story with a paranormal twist, and again, remember that it was written thirty years ago.

I’ve loved her writing ever since I read The Third Eye, and now I can add Stranger with My Face to my ever growing list of favorite books.

This new edition of Stranger with My Face also features a Q&A with the author that, to be quite honest, was my favorite part of the book. I never knew before that she had a teenage daughter who was murdered in 1989, and that psychic detectives played a big role in discovering information about her murder.

It must have been devastating to Duncan and her family, but it sheds a new light on her books and their subject matter. She has also written a book about her daughter’s murder, Who Killed My Daughter?, which I am definitely going to read.

Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman

2011-05-19T12:35:00.001-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: Thirteen Days To Midnight by Patrick Carman on Blogcritics.

If you could have only one superpower…what would it be?

This question is asked over and over again in the book, and I have to admit, I still don’t know what my answer would be.

In the beginning of the book, the protagonist, Jacob Fielding, ponders the possible answers to this question and he discusses the pros and cons of a couple. Flying would be dangerous, for example, and invisibility seems to be the best superpower, except that it would lead to all sorts of temptation since you’d basically be able to do almost anything without consequence. So he decides that invisibility isn’t a superpower, it’s a “lose-your-soul-to-the-devil power”.

He has a point. With great power comes great responsibility, famous words from another superhero story, and true, because power can be used for good but it can also be abused. Jacob, his girlfriend Oh, short for Ophelia, and his best friend Milo, find out the hard way what happens when they abuse a power that they don’t understand.

Jacob and his friends discover that he has the power of indestructibility, and that he can pass on that power to others and use it to save lives. It would be a really cool power to have, except how do you decide who gets to live and who dies?

They experiment with it, get into fights with it, save a few people with it, and let some others die because the power can only be given to one person at a time. Unfortunately, all those deaths that didn’t happen, have to go somewhere, and so Oh becomes home to all that darkness. Jacob and Milo have to kill her to save her, but how do you kill someone you love?

I enjoyed the story itself because it was well-written and has an interesting plot, but what I really liked about it is that it makes you think. Obviously, there’s a moral to this story and it’s telling us not to abuse power because there are always a consequences. But here’s the thing, what if there are no consequences?

There Jacob is, telling us about invisibility being a temptation at the beginning of the book, because nothing would stop you from doing anything you want with it if you were never caught. Then he tells us the story of what happens with his own superpower, of how he and his friends abused it, only to find out that there is a consequence, and when they realized it, they stop abusing the power.

My question is, if there was no consequence, would they have gone on abusing the power forever? Are we all “good” citizens because we’re afraid of the consequences, of getting caught, or are we good because we want to be, because we believe it’s the right thing to do?

It really makes me wonder; if you knew you would never ever have to face any consequence of your actions, would you lie, steal, cheat, murder? How far would you go and where would you draw the line? Or would you still be a “good” person simply because you choose to?

Now, I’m not sure if the author intended for his readers to ask these questions, but it was written for the young adult audience and most young adults are naturally inquisitive and imaginative. I’m sure they will enjoy this book on many levels.

Comments are back!

2011-05-18T12:18:00.001-06:00

I tried, I really tried, but I don’t know how to fix the glitch with the comments. After troubleshooting, it seems to be a Disqus integration problem. I don’t know how to fix it, so I’m going back to the Blogger commenting system for now.

I might or might not try again with Disqus. I do like Disqus and all their features, but it might not be worth all the trouble I’m going through with it right now. =(

We’ll see!

In the meantime, we’re back! =)

New Look and Glitches

2011-05-17T09:15:00.002-06:00

As you can see, I’ve given my blog a new look. Well deserved, after so long with the old layout. =)

There’s a problem with the comments though. There’s always something to fix every time I change to a new layout. Any wonder why I do it so little.

Anyway, when you click on the comments you don’t get anywhere, but if you click on the post itself, it will bring you to its own page and you’ll be able to comment from there. I’ll try to fix it within the next couple of days. At this moment I’m not sure if it’s a Blogger problem or a Disqus problem, so we’ll see.

Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience. =)

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

2011-05-17T08:33:00.001-06:00

Article first published as Book Review: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore on Blogcritics.

This book is the first in the Lorien Legacies series about nine alien kids with special powers, or Legacies, from the planet Lorien, who are hiding on Earth from the Mogadorians.

The Mogadorians are sinister beings who wants to kill them and destroy Earth like they destroyed Lorien. Three of the nine kids have been killed, and Number Four, the protagonist of this book, is next.

The mysterious author, Pittacus Lore, is described on the back cover of the book as Lorien’s ruling Elder and having been on Earth for the last twelve years, preparing for the war with the Mogadorians.

Now obviously this book is a work of fiction, but I like the idea that it could be true. Do I believe that there are aliens? Of course I do. The universe is so vast, I think we’d be arrogant to think that we’re the only intelligent life forms living in it.

Do I think that this particular story about the Loriens and the Mogadorians is believable though? Not so much, even factoring in suspension of belief and all that. I mean, forget about all the super powers, healing stones, shape-shifting animals, and all that stuff for a moment. It’s the simple details that gets me.

Firstly, every time Number Four and Henri, his guardian, had to move, they move within the United States. Why? Why can’t they move to some other country in some other continent? Wouldn’t that be more effective if they really wanted to hide from the Mogadorians? I understand that there are nine other Lorien Legacies and if they meet each other, the spell that they can only be killed off in the order of their numbers will be broken, but I’m quite sure that there are more than nine countries on Earth.

Secondly, just how clueless can Number Four be that he fails to notice that Bernie Kosar isn’t a regular dog? The dog runs into one part of the woods and then appears from the other side, don’t you think that’s more than just “peculiar”? Wouldn’t a supposedly intelligent person have guessed that there was more to Bernie Kosar, especially since he had already seen the Lorien animals in his dream-memories?

Also, the way the Mogadorians were described, and the way they killed so easily and so quickly before, with Numbers One to Three, you’d think that with so many of them surrounding Number Four and his friends, that they’d be killed just as easily.

Sure, the difference is that Numbers Four and Six have gotten their legacies already, but seriously, as ruthless and strong as the Mogadorians are, how are Mark and Sarah able to get close enough to hurt them, much less kill them, so extremely easily and without getting hurt themselves?

I won’t even go into character development, except to say that most of the characters were shallow and not very likable. I liked Bernie Kosar though; I thought he was the best character in the book.

There are so many problems with this book that make it hard for me to really enjoy it, but I won’t go into all of them. I’m sure it will make for a great movie with all the special effects and all, but I expected a lot more from the book.

Room by Emma Donoghue

2011-03-16T23:35:00.001-06:00

Room by Emma Donoghue

One of the more thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time, Room addresses certain issues that most of us take for granted.

The book is written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, whose whole life is “Room”. He’s never known any other world except the small room he was born in, where his mother has been kept in captivity for 7 years.

The man who holds her captive, and who fathered him, brings them their food and other items they might need. They have a TV where Jack sees things that are “real” and “not real”.

There are two parts to this book, the story of their lives in captivity, and then the story of after they’ve escaped. Both parts make you think.

The first part is pretty straightforward in that you wonder about how Jack’s emotional intelligence has been compromised by only knowing Room as his whole world, and only having Ma, and occasionally her captor, as the only other people in his world.

Although compelling, it’s the next part of the story that really makes me wonder. After Jack and Ma escapes, they both have to (re)integrate themselves into society, and of course, for Jack, his whole world turns upside down.

The thing that strike you, is although Jack and Ma were kept in captivity, the irony is that they were free to be themselves when their whole world was just them. Now that they are free, they no longer have the freedom to be themselves. They have to conform to the rules of society.

Jack has to learn manners and ways of speaking and addressing people in society. Ma can no longer breastfeed Jack because he’s five years old and society doesn’t approve. There are so many new rules to learn to be an accepted member of society.

Personally, I feel that breastfeeding is a good, healthy, natural thing and should be done as long as possible. Unfortunately, even though I feel this way, I probably still wouldn’t breastfeed my kids past a year, because I would worry too much about what other people think. I would, however, wholeheartedly support mothers who are braver than me and breastfeed however long they and their kids want to.

The point is, it makes me think… are we all just prisoners of society? But then again, who makes the rules? It’s really up to us, at the end of the day, to change the status quo. Certain things frowned upon years ago are acceptable now. Slavery was abolished, gay marriage is legal in certain parts of the world now, many other changes are happening… It’s up to us to become prisoners or not.

I highly recommend Room, because it is so profound on so many levels. But even if you only read it at its most basic level, it’s still a terribly fascinating book, and one that grabs you and makes you want to read more and find out what happens.

You might also like:

Slammerkin
Emma Donoghue
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The Sealed Letter
Emma Donoghue
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Landing
Emma Donoghue
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The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

2011-02-22T12:03:00.002-07:00

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

This is a true account about a book thief who stole rare books and instead of feeling remorse or guilty, he continues thinking that he deserves to have free rare books, and in fact, thinks that his request for everyone to donate a book to him is reasonable.

I found it fascinating, because although I’ve always loved and collected books, I never had any interest in first editions, hardbacks, or rare books.

Mostly I think it’s because I don’t think I have the ability to take care of them the way they need to be, and I would certainly feel heartbroken if I had a priceless book in my care that ended up damaged because of the way I kept or handled it.

I did consider myself a book collector though, but now I wonder if I was right. You see, back in Malaysia, our libraries suck, and the only way I could get books was by acquiring them somehow, from bookstores, or used book stores, or people giving away their old books, etc. And I collected as many books as I could because I read a lot!

Now that I’m in Calgary, and have access to millions of books from the public library, I’m perfectly happy to borrow and not acquire at all. I realize that it’s not the books, but the contents, that’s important to me. So I’m not a book collector after all! There goes my life’s identity!

Fortunately, I’m still a reader, and this part of my identity will never change.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much will get you thinking about your own relationship with books. I recommend it to everyone who’s ever had books play an important role in their lives.

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Used and Rare
Lawrence Goldstone
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Priceless
Robert K. Wittman,...
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Provenance
Laney Salisbury, A...
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Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

2011-02-20T09:50:00.002-07:00

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

As per Jodi Picoult’s style, this is a controversial novel about a picture perfect couple, to the outside world. Behind closed doors, Alex Rivers, a famous actor, abuses his wife Cassie Barrett, a renowned anthropologist.

I won’t go too much into detail here, except to say that Picoult handled this subject very well, but it’s hard for me to enjoy it because of the subject matter.

I get it, I do. It’s hard to leave someone you love. It’s harder to leave when you have no outside support, and most abused women don’t because their husbands try to alienate them from their friends and support systems. I’ve been there too, in a “less abusive” relationship. Physical abuse is easy to quantify, but how do you know when you’re in an emotionally abusive relationship?

To me, I guess it’s about happiness. Are you happy with him or crying all the time? It’s never been about how much you love each other. We all know that sometimes even though you love someone, it doesn’t mean that you should be together.

I decided that love isn’t what makes the world go round, happiness is. Love doesn’t always bring happiness, but happiness always brings love.

I was in a very unhealthy relationship and I was hurt and crying all the time. I couldn’t leave because I had no friends and no support system, I felt dependant on him, but the thing is, I *always* knew I had to leave. He’s really not a bad guy, he’s too simple to know that he hurt me, to be perfectly honest, and again, it’s emotional abuse, he never laid a hand on me. He loved me and I loved him, but I always knew we weren’t good for each other. I left when I could.

So I do get it. Kind of. I just wish more people would realize that love doesn’t make the world go round. Love doesn’t mean you should be together. Stop looking for love and start looking for happiness. Happiness will bring you love, not the other way round.

I found my happiness and my love. I hope others do too.

You might also like:

House Rules
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Nineteen Minutes
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Sing You Home
Jodi Picoult
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The Good Guy by Dean Koontz

2011-02-16T22:48:00.002-07:00

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz

Well, Dean Koontz is a name that I’ve heard many times and very long ago but surprisingly, I’ve never read any of his books until now.

This book is about a man, Timothy Carrier, who is mistaken as a hit man and given ten thousand dollars and a woman’s picture to kill her. When the real killer arrives, Tim gives him the ten thousand as a no-kill fee and keeps the woman’s picture, saying that he changed his mind and didn’t want her killed.

Of course, the mistake is eventually, and too soon, discovered. Tim and the target woman, Linda, is forced to run and evade the killer.

The book is very fast-paced, and not at all what I expected. I’ve read quite a few similar thriller stories like this, but somehow the way Koontz presents the story is very different. It’s a completely fresh perspective to me, and I like how the suspense holds all the way to the end.

My only regret is not reading Koontz’s books earlier, but I’m glad that I have another “new” author to add to my ever-growing To Be Read pile.

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Frankenstein
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Frankenstein
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Thirst by Christopher Pike

2011-01-26T14:53:00.002-07:00

Thirst by Christopher Pike

Ever since I read my first book by Christopher Pike, Bury Me Deep, I’d been a huge fan. Except for the Spooksville books, I’ve probably read every single book he’s ever written.

Thirst No. 1 and 2 are actually compilations of the six books in his The Last Vampire series, which I read when they came out more than 15 years ago.

In the series are:

The Last Vampire
Black Blood
Red Dice
Phantom
Evil Thirst
Creatures of Forever

I’ve read a lot of vampire stories since then, but Pike’s The Last Vampire series remains my favorite of the genre. Alisa, who is 5000 years old and whose real name is Sita, is the ultimate vampire that every vampire should be. She was the first one that I knew of that didn’t die if exposed to the sun, and didn’t need to drink blood everyday, and had the ability to compel people, and had super cool powers.

Since then there are many other vampire books that have followed some of Pike’s ideas of what a vampire ought to be, but I believe Pike’s Alisa was the first quintessential modern vampire.

Seeing that they were actually written for Young Adults 15 years ago, and they were six individual books, it’s easy to feel that the stories are a little disjointed when reading them as omnibuses.

Enough time has passed that I’ve forgotten much of the stories so it’s as if I’m reading them again for the first time, and I’ll admit that because it’s six different books compiled into the first two books of Thirst, it feels like there’s not much of a flow with the stories. It’s six different stories, connected by Alisa’s pasts and a couple of regular characters.

Thirst No. 3 however, is more like what a novel should be. It feels like Thirst No. 1 and 2 are only precursors to Thirst No. 3, and here is where the real story begins.

Thirst No. 3 takes place 15 years after the first two books. It’s also written 15 years after The Last Vampire series, so that totally makes sense.

It’s times like these that I love vampire stories. Alisa never ages even after 15 years. She still looks as young and hot as ever, and is even more powerful because a vampire gets more powerful as they age.

Thirst No. 3 is even more exciting than Thirst No. 1 and 2, and I really can’t wait for Thirst No. 4! Yes, there’s gonna be a fourth book!

All in all, this series is one of the must-read vampire books for any true vampire lover.

You might also like:

Thirst No. 4
Christopher Pike
Best Price $7.41
or Buy New $7.41

The Secret of Ka
Christopher Pike
Best Price $9.49
or Buy New $12.00

Remember Me
Christopher Pike
Best Price $1.25
or Buy New $9.99

2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge

2011-01-15T15:49:00.001-07:00

I’m finally ready to participate in reading challenges again! It’s been a long time since I last participated and 2010 was a bad year for reading. I’m hoping that reading challenges will motivate me to pick up more books.

Anyway, starting with this challenge:

2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge

There are four levels to this challenge...Pick your poison:
--The Mini – Check out and read 30 library books.
--"Fun" Size – Check out and read 40 library books.
--Jumbo Size – Check out and read 50 library books.
--Mega Size – Check out and read 51+ library books.
(Aim high. As long as you read 30 by the end of 2011, you are a winner.)

I’m aiming for the Mega Size Challenge. Since I’m borrowing almost all my books from the library anyway, it’s actually only a question of how many books I’m going to read this year. =)

Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – basically any book counts just as long as it is checked out from the library. Books MUST be checked out like with a library card, books purchased at a library DO NOT count.
Crossovers from other reading challenges count.
Challenge begins January 1st 2011 and goes thru December 31 2011.

Yayy! Can’t wait to start! =)

Books Read and Borrowed from Library:

1. Pegasus by Robin McKinley	2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead	3. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
4. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead	5. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead	6. Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
7. Thirst No. 2 by Christopher Pike	8. Thirst No. 3 by Christopher Pike

2011 Young Adult Reading Challenge

2011-01-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

Here are the rules:
1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.

2. There are four levels:
--The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.
--The "Fun Size" YA Reading Challenge – Read 20 Young Adult novels.
--The Jumbo Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 40 Young Adult novels.
--The Mega size YA Reading Challenge – Read 50+ Young Adult novels.

3. Audio, eBooks, paper, re-reads all count.

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

5. The Challenge starts on January 1, 2011 and goes until December 31, 2011.

Go to For The Love of YA to join.

I’m going for the Fun Size level of the challenge. I figure that since I’m gonna be reading mostly non-fiction books in most of my other challenges that I deserve this one fun reading challenge. =)

Books read:

1. Pegasus by Robin McKinley	2. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead	3. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
4. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead	5. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead	6. Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike
7. Thirst No. 2 by Christopher Pike	8. Thirst No. 3 by Christopher Pike

Vampire Academy Series 1-4

2011-01-15T15:35:00.002-07:00

The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

There’s been a huge vampire fiction resurrection in recent times, and I have to say, I was actually pretty bored with all the vampire hype, especially since I don’t think much about the Twilight series or The Vampire Diaries

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Stephanie Meyer’s or L. J. Smith’s works, and in fact, if you look through the archives for my older reviews, Meyer’s The Host is one of my all time favorite books, and L. J. Smith is one of my all-time favorite authors.

I’m also a big fan of vampire fiction, so it’s not the problem of subject matter. I guess with any story, what compels me is the characters, the way the story is told, and most importantly, the believability of the story.

Suspension of belief has been a huge topic of conversation for me lately, and sure we can say, “Hey, we’re talking about vampires here, it’s a given that the story isn’t real, so what are you going on about with believability?”

Well, you know, I’m completely willing to believe that we live in a world secretly filled with vampires, but then what?

Tell me your story; tell me what they do, tell me what’s important to them, tell me what makes them “human”, because that’s what’s important to me.

It’s been a long time since I found a vampire story I really cared about and now I’ve found it with Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series. I honestly had no idea that I’d love it this much, but I really do!

How do I even start? In Vampire Academy, Rose is a dhampir, a half-vampire, half-human, who’s bound to Lissa Dragomir, a princess of the Moroi, the good vampires.

All Moroi are magic users, but they’re not allowed to use it for violence or protection, and that’s where dhampirs come in. Dhampirs are the Moroi’s bodyguard, against the evil vampires, the Strigoi.

As far as I know, there are 6 books in the series, and then a spin-off, but I’ve only read the first four books.

There are great sub-plots in each of the books, but the main story line so far (no spoilers, you can probably find all this info in the synopsis of the books on Amazon.com) is that Rose is Lissa’s guardian and protects her from any harm that might come to her. Rose met Dimitri in the first book when he came to bring them back to the Academy, and he became Lissa’s other guardian and Rose’s mentor.

He teaches Rose as much as he can about being a guardian and fighting the Strigoi. Inevitably, they fall in love, but they can’t be together as they would put Lissa’s life in danger as her guardians. So they fight their feelings as long as they can, but eventually they both give in to it.

Unfortunately, there was a Strigoi attack not long after, and Dimitri is turned into a Strigoi. Well, to the Moroi world, that means he’s as good as dead, but Rose feels that she has to kill him before she can truly let him go. So she sets off to find and kill him.

It’s all very exciting and I can’t wait to find out what happens next. I’m on the waiting list in the library system, so I have to wait a while, but not too long I hope.

What I like about the way Mead tells the story is the way it seems to have just the right combination of childishness and maturity. I feel that’s what we all as humans basically are; people trying to find the right combination between having childish fun and enjoying life, and being responsible and mature adults. It also completely applies to our behavior; when do we act mature and classy, and when do we act petty and childish?

Growing up is hard to do, as Rose and her friends find in Vampire Academy, but a lot of the times you find that growing older, even when you’re legally an adult, doesn’t mean that you’ll actually act like one. Even when you’re 80 years old, there are times when you’ll still act childish, not necessarily in a bad way.

The irony is, all the time I was reading these books, I was actually supposed to be studying for a huge exam this week! Serves me right, because I didn’t do very well in the exam! I’m just hoping that my other projects and assignments will pull me through.

But what could I do? When a story pulls you in like that, you just have to let go and go with the flow! Sometimes, escapism is more important than exams, says my childish side while my mature side disapprovingly shakes her head. I just really hope I pass! I don’t need to get an amazing grade, but please just let me pass!

You might also like:

Last Sacrifice
Richelle Mead
Best Price $9.89
or Buy New $9.89

Spirit Bound
Richelle Mead
Best Price $7.00
or Buy New $10.52

Vampire Academy Box Set 1-4
Richelle Mead
Best Price $22.65
or Buy New $24.41

Echoes by Melinda Metz

2011-01-09T19:37:00.002-07:00

Echoes by Melinda Metz

Echoes is a reprint of the first three of Metz’s Fingerprints series. There are more, but I haven’t been able to find out how to get them yet.

Echoes is about Rae Voight, who hears people’s thoughts through the fingerprints they leave behind. All she has to do is touch something that they have touched before with their bare hands, and she will be able to hear what they were thinking while they were touching the object.

At the start of the story, she doesn’t know about her ability and believes that she’s going crazy hearing voices in her head, but with the help of her friend Anthony, they soon figure it out, and not a moment too soon. Someone out there knows what Rae can do, and they want her dead. Rae and Anthony have to find out who it is before she gets killed.

Since this book only consists of the first three books in the series, I don’t know what happens in the end yet, but I have loved the journey so far. I do have my theories on who it is that wants Rae dead, and I believe that it’s quite obvious, but I don’t want to give out spoilers here. I could be totally wrong and have been fooled by Metz, but at the moment, I think I’m probably right.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the books and find out if I am right. I have missed reading YA books, and I really enjoyed this one more than most. More sophisticated readers may feel that YA books are sometimes too simple and not realistic enough for them, but I find that I’m more able to suspend my belief when reading YA than when reading more serious novels.

I finished this book before 2011, but have only been able to review it now, so I won’t be adding this into the list of YA books I’m reading for my challenge.

You might also like:

Crave
Melinda Metz, Laur...
Best Price $5.25
or Buy New $9.99

Fingerprints #4
Melinda Metz
Best Price $25.00
or Buy New

Betrayed
Melinda Metz
Best Price $9.99
or Buy New

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

2011-01-09T18:46:00.002-07:00

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Pegasus is a story about two completely different races living in a symbiotic relationship together. The humans kill the natural predators of the pegasi, and the pegasi’s presence always bring abundance to the humans.

The royal family and their cousins have been bound to their own personal pegasi when they turned twelve for dozens of generations, but the two races are so different that they can barely communicate or understand each other without the help of the magicians and shamans. That all changes when Princess Sylviianel and her pegasus, Ebon, find that they can speak directly to each other through their minds.

I usually either find myself loving McKinley’s work or being really ambivalent about them. The problem is, I’m not sure yet if I think this is a great book or a really meaningless one. Apparently, there is a sequel to this book, so I can hardly make my decision until I read the sequel because this book definitely can’t stand on its own.

To say that the ending was abrupt would be an understatement, and I honestly feel that the break didn’t work at all. McKinley and her publishers should have waited until the whole story was finished and published the whole thing together. If they couldn’t wait, they should’ve found a better way to bridge this book into the next.

Some people have said that they found the story slow going, and I would agree, but I did enjoy a lot of the back history and description of the differences between the races. There was a lot of beauty to the story, and a lot of nuances to the differences between the culture of the two races and the way they saw things differently. The truth is, I really did enjoy the story, even if I don’t like the way McKinley ended, or rather, didn’t end, it.

I am pretty invested in the story, so I will be looking forward to the sequel to see how everything turns out. I don’t recommend getting started on this book until the sequel is out though.

You might also like:

Chalice
Robin McKinley
Best Price $4.95
or Buy New $8.99

Beauty
Robin Mckinley
Best Price $3.58
or Buy New $6.99

Sunshine
Robin McKinley
Best Price $3.74
or Buy New $8.99

Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

2011-01-03T12:16:00.002-07:00

Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

In this you get to create your own challenge by deciding if you want to read books only about Dragons or if you want to read those obscure fantasy books you were looking at. Mix and match to make your perfect combo. You can have Steampunk and obscure fantasy or even Serial Killer mysteries, Historical Romance, the point is you get to choose.

There are four levels of Pick Your Poison:

Hemlock- You read 1 book of each of your categories
Nightshade- 4 books of each of your categories
Foxglove- 6 books of each of your categories
Monkshood- 12+ books in each of your categories

Challenge begins January 1, 2011 and lasts until December 31, 2011. You can join at anytime you want. Sign up at Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge.

I’m going to be doing two categories in the Foxglove level.

Any books about books, authors’ biographies, and writing.
Books on music psychology, therapy, etc. Not so much on music culture but more on how music affects mind and body.

School of Life Reading Challenge 2011

2011-01-03T02:06:00.002-07:00

School of Life Reading Challenge

How To Participate

Decide which major or subject you would like to study
Visit your alma mater's website and see if they have class syllabi online. If they don't, check one of the hundreds of free online classes at Yale, MIT, or any other college
Pick a few classes in your major
Choose one or more books required in each class syllabus
You do not have to write reviews
You may keep in touch and leave links to your reviews, if you choose to write them
You do not have to have a blog
The books you choose can be overlaps from other reading challenges
The challenge begins January 1 and ends December 31, 2011

Levels of Participation
cum laude: 6 books
magna cum laude: 8 books
summa cum laude: 12 books

I used to major in Natural Health and Holistic Nutrition before my college unfortunately shut down, so I never got to finish my degree.

I was studying part-time and couldn’t finish my courses before they shut down for good and I didn’t want to be transferred to other colleges that they had worked out something with because I had other things going on in my life and I knew I wouldn’t be able to commit at that time.

I’ve still got some of the text books that I’d already bought but didn’t get the chance to study, and there’s a whole reading list I’d love to read on the subject. I’m going with magna cum laude, but will try to get summa cum laude if possible. =)

Chinese Literature Challenge

2011-01-03T01:02:00.002-07:00

I’ve been wanting to read more Chinese books, especially since now we’re in Canada and far away from our roots and things that would remind us of our roots, traditions, and culture.

We always hear friends and family speaking Chinese and Cantonese all the time in Malaysia, and now that it’s just two of us, we’ve decided that we’ll communicate in Mandarin to each other even though we always used to speak in English.

This is a perfect opportunity for me to read more about Chinese history and culture. =)

What is the duration of the challenge?
The challenge will start and end on Chinese New Year, which means it will runfrom February 3rd 2011 to January 23rd 2012. You can however join in anytime.

What do you mean by Chinese literature?
Books either written by a Chinese author or books about China (incl. Hongkong and Macau) or Taiwan.

What are the requirements for participating in this challenge?
You have to read at least one book and write a review about it. If you don't have a blog, it's also fine to post your review on Goodreads or Librarything.

There are four levels of participation (no need to set one beforehand):
Merchant: 1-3 books
Artisan: 4-6 books
Farmer: 7-9 books
Scholar: 10+ books

I think I want to take the Scholar challenge. I really do want to focus more on this, but we’ll see. I’ll probably know before the challenge starts if I can commit the time to this.

What kind of books can I read?
Any genre, in any format (audiobook/e-book/paper) in any language. Also, re-reads are allowed.

Can I combine with other challenges?
Sure! You could, for example, combine this challenge with the East and Southeast Asia challenge hosted by VioletCrush. But anything goes.

Do you have a list of books I can choose from?

I have listed a few books below, by different authors. It is, of course, far from complete. You are encouraged to find books that are not listed. Feel free to contact me if you have suggestions for this list or if you need more suggestions from me.

CLASSICS
The Story of the Stone - Xueqin CAO
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Songling PU
Monkey - Ch'eng-en WU
The Analects - Confucius
The Art of War - SUN Tzu
Romance of the Three Kingdoms - LUO Guanzhong
Romance of the Western Chamber - WANG Shifu
The Peony Pavilion - TANG Xianzu

CHINA
Teahouse - Lao She
Falling Leaves - Adeline Yen MAH
The Shop of the Lin Family and Spring Silkworms - Mao Dun
The True Story of Ah Q - Lu Xun
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China - CHENG Jung
Lust, Caution (and other stories) - CHANG Eileen
Shanghai Baby - (ZHOU) Weihui
Waiting - JIN Ha
Song of Everlasting Sorrow - WANG Anyi
Sky Burial - (XUE) Xinran
Village of Stone - GUO Xiaolu
Bitter Winds - WU Harry
A Dictionary of Maqiao - HAN Shaogong
Candy - Mian Mian

TAIWAN
Running Mother and Other Stories - GUO Songfen
Orphan of Asia - WU Zhuoli
The Taste of Apples - HUANG Chunming
Rose, Rose, I Love You - WANG Zhenhe
A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Rivers - HSIAO Li-Hung
My South Seas Sleeping Beauty - ZHANG Guixing
The Old Capital: A Novel of Taipei - CHU T'ien-hsin
Three-Legged Horse - CHENG Ch'ing-wen
Notes of a Desolate Man - CHU T'ien-Wen
Wild Kids: Two Novels About Growing Up - ChANG Ta-chun
Wintry Night - LI Qiao

HONGKONG
Farewell My Concubine - Lilian Lee

OVERSEAS CHINESE
The Lily Theatre - Lulu Wang
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

Sounds like fun! How do I sign up?
Go to the dedicated blog for the Chinese Literature Challenge. =)

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-01T12:07:00.001-07:00

2010 in Review

2010-12-31T19:12:00.002-07:00

So it’s New Year’s Eve! Another year has gone by, another new year is almost here, and it’s time to look back on this year and everything this year has brought. =)

Literary-speaking, 2010 was one of the worst years for me, unfortunately. I hardly read, and I had sooooooo many periods of downtime where I didn’t even have the mood to pick up a book! This is honestly the first year in my life that I’ve ever felt like this about books, and it’s a really weird feeling.

However, I’ve got really great reasons, because I got married in January this year, and all that nervousness and excitement for planning the wedding and everything was what got me too hyped to read.

I recovered after a few weeks(!) but then in August, we moved to Canada from Malaysia, and there was all that excitement and business with planning and preparing and moving and settling into a new place and etc… So I again got too hyped up to read.

And to be honest, I’m not quite settled yet, and there’d been so many adjustments in our lives that we’re still working out a lot of the kinks in our daily routines. Things are getting better, and I do still read, but it’s been hard to get into the “zone” that I used to go into when reading a *really* good book.

Probably because I have a lot more work and chores and responsibilities now than I used to have. I know that’s something that I’ll have to get used to though, so maybe I’ll get a new “normal” soon.

So yeah, 2010 wasn’t a great year for books, but it was an *amazing* year for life! I had a great time, I had so many great new experiences, and I am so looking forward to a more exciting 2011!

Have a great new year, everyone!! =)

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

2010-12-22T22:41:00.002-07:00

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

Predictably, I cried buckets when I read this. I’ve heard about this book a long time ago, but never got around to reading it until now.

When reading other people’s posts about it though, more often than not, they’ll mention how much they cried at the end, so being a sentimental sap myself, I knew I would cry too.

Dewey is an amazing story, and Dewey is an amazing cat. I’ve never had cats growing up so there’s a lot I don’t know about their behavior and characteristics, but it seemed to me that Dewey is really almost human.

Of course, he is one of a kind, and as Myron says in the book, not every cat can be a library cat, a library cat has to have the right personality. And Dewey did.

What I love most about the book is the stories about every person that Dewey touched, each life he changed, how much better and brighter a person’s day became just because they crossed paths with Dewey.

We all need a Dewey in our lives.

This is a wonderful, wonderful book. It touched me and warmed my heart and brought me to tears and made me realized just how big a difference even a small person or animal can make in the world. It is a must-read for any cat lovers, but really, I think everyone should read it.

Sell Back Your Book

2010-12-12T02:27:00.002-07:00

I just found out about this site, Sell Back Your Book, and I wish I had known about it back when I was selling a lot of my books before moving here!

I still have some of the books I wanted to sell left, mostly textbooks and a few non-fiction; so I decided to check how much I might’ve gotten for them. They have a field on the front page where you can key in the ISBN numbers of books you want to sell, and they’ll quote you prices for them in seconds!

I don’t have the books with me now, obviously, so I couldn’t key in the exact ISBN numbers to get the exact price quote, but I got the ISBNs of the same books in different editions and I would’ve been able to get $101.44 for 3 of the books! Wow!

Ok, since the editions I keyed in are newer than the editions I have, the amount probably could be less, but even if I only got half the amount quoted, it’s still really good! Oh, how I wish I knew about this site earlier!

They even pay for the shipping with a pre-paid postage label that you can print out and just attach to your package, and they pay you for the books via paypal or check as soon as they receive and confirm the contents of your package!

The most important part for me, is that the company who owns Sell Back Your Book is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau with no complaints! Having worked for a company that was also an accredited member of the BBB, I know how important this accreditation is, and I have many times, trusted and chosen to use a company’s services simply because of their BBB status.

I’m really kicking myself for not searching for a site like this when I was selling my books! I definitely could’ve used the extra money!

All My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells

2010-12-11T11:56:00.002-07:00

All My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells

Just a couple of weeks ago, I read a book called Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders. Click on the title to find out more about it.

I was tickled when I found this book because of the similarities in the titles, and also because I was sure that a book about animals as patients would be really fun and amusing to read.

Well, it wasn’t a bad book, there are a couple of funny stories, but somehow it just left me feeling somewhat indifferent to it.

It’s probably not so much the stories as it is the writing style and the presentation of the stories, so in all fairness, I’m not criticizing his experiences or expertise in his practice, but the book itself.

With many of the stories, I found myself wondering what his point was. These are amusing anecdotes, sure, but they don’t seem to be worth spending money on to buy the book. It was a little disappointing as I expected more from it.

Scaring myself

2010-12-03T12:46:00.002-07:00

So I know Halloween’s over, and Christmas is coming, but somehow I’ve been in the mood for horror and ghost stories. Which is really stupid, because now that there’s only me and DH at home, and it’s winter and it’s dark by 5pm, and DH works most evenings and I’m home alone…

What’s *even* more stupid, is that I’ve borrowed books from the library about true ghost stories in ALBERTA! Which is where I am now.

Why do people scare themselves? =P

Normally I read books really, really fast, and it’s all short stories, so I *should* be reading them really fast anyway, but because of the timing; I have to only read the ghost stories during daytime and only when DH is at home, it’s taking me ages to finish.

Actually, it’s taking me ages to even start!

I feel like I should go to the library where there many more people other than myself and stay there and read until they close so I won’t be alone.

Hmmm….good idea, actually… except that I still need to cook and clean and eat. =P

I need a dog or a cat to keep me company. I miss my doggies back in Malaysia. =(

Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders

2010-11-29T22:02:00.002-07:00

Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders

Lisa Sanders writes a weekly column about diagnostic stories and is also a technical advisor for the House TV series starring Hugh Laurie.

This is her first book and as the title clearly says, it’s about the art of diagnosing patients.

All the stories about diagnosing patients are very informative and interesting, and some cases are truly mysterious but very satisfyingly solved in the end.

Scarily enough, there are a few horrifying cases where misdiagnoses caused a lot of money, suffering, and in some cases, unnecessary deaths. A lot of times, misdiagnoses happen because the doctors are too busy to actually listen to the patient and diagnose them too quickly. Finding a doctor who will take the time to listen is important because the patients’ testimonies can give crucial clues to their condition.

The scariest thing I gained from reading Sander’s book though, is the knowledge that many doctors are too stubborn and set in their ways to learn from mistakes or to change with new knowledge. Based on this, I feel that it’s important that we educate ourselves about our own health or illnesses instead of passively putting our health and our lives in the hands of other people.

With the internet being as useful as it is and with all the free information sharing online, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t educate ourselves and look for alternatives if we feel what we’re currently doing to medicate ourselves isn’t working.

I’ve always been interested in learning more about natural healthcare, and after reading this book, I’m glad that I decided to educate myself and take control of my own health rather than leaving it to other people.

Of course, in urgent cases and emergencies, there’s often no time to find out what I can do, but at least 9 times out of 10, I can rest easy knowing that there’s something I can do to make it better. I highly recommend reading this book!

The Beginning of a Book Group

2010-11-20T12:27:00.002-07:00

Those of you who’ve been following my blog for a while know that I’ve wanted to be in a reading group for the longest time, so I’m happy to say that I finally got one!

Well, kinda.

It’s only just me and one other guy at the moment, but it’s a start! We’re looking for maybe 3-5 more readers to join us, but while we’re looking, we’re gonna go ahead and start with just the two of us, so I’m really psyched about it! =)

We’re gonna be meeting on the third weekend of every month, and we’ve already got our first two books picked out.

December’s book is Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy, and
January’s book is The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

I can’t wait! The discussions are gonna be great! I hope we get more people joining us soon, but even if not, I’m sure we’ll have fun anyway. =)

KOBO Birthday!

2010-11-09T23:42:00.002-07:00

My birthday was on October 14, but both DH and I were so busy that we didn’t get a chance to celebrate it in any way at all.

So I barely noticed my birthday passing by, and was very, very happily surprised when the DH gifted me a KOBO on November 5!

He’d mentioned about buying me an e-reader one day, but I’d always assumed that it wouldn’t be until at least a year later since we shouldn’t be splurging now, having just moved to Canada, and since I’ve discovered the library, I’ve got plenty of books to read!

I did show a lot of enthusiasm about getting an e-reader one day though, and I guess DH was smiling inside because he already knew I’d love my present before he even bought it. LOL!

So I *am* thrilled, and I’m loving it so far! It’s got 100 classic ebooks included in it, some of which I’ve read, some of which I’ve been wanting to read, and there are more free downloadable ebooks available online! I also have some PDF ebook files on my computer that I’m planning to transfer over to my KOBO, but I’m not sure if that works yet.

DH said reviews for the KOBO were the best of all the e-readers, but I haven’t had a chance to really play with it just yet. Last week was mid-term week, and I’ve still got a couple of projects to get done, but as soon as I have time, I’ll glue my nose to the KOBO! LOL!

Does anyone else happen to have a KOBO and can give me some tips on how to use it?

WWW Wednesdays (27 Oct)

2010-10-27T00:39:00.001-06:00

A new (to me) weekly meme! Yayyy!! =)

Hosted at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

* What are you currently reading?
* What did you recently finish reading?
* What do you think you’ll read next?

My answers:

What are you currently reading?

Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. It’s a collection of fairy tales from around the world, some familiar, some not so, and many are quite sinister and gory. I’m really enjoying it so far! I think it’s a great read for fairy tale lovers!

What did you recently finish reading?

Well… I’ve read quite a lot of books since I touched down in Calgary, actually, but not all are good reads, so I’ll just mention a few of the ones I really liked:

Stephen King’s Under the Dome was great and one of my favorite reads of the year! It was so engrossing and I thought about the story and the characters long after I finished reading it. It’s similar to and as good as King’s The Stand, but it definitely has its own novelty. Loved it! Would recommend it to anyone who loves horror, thrillers, and apocalyptic stories!

L J Smith’s Dark Visions trilogy. I read this YA trilogy many times and many years ago. It was one of my favorite books as a teen, and although I thought now that I’m all grown up, it might have lost its charm for me, but I love it more now than ever.

The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike. He’s one of my favorite authors ever since I read my first book by him when I was 11 years old. This is his newest book, which I liked, but I *loved* his older books a lot more!

What do you think you’ll read next?

Most probably Sheri S. Tepper’s The Waters Rising because I have it on loan from the library, but I might read some other non-fiction books I borrowed on herbs and gardening instead.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own WWW Wednesdays post, or share your answers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Blogging from Canada!

2010-10-22T15:36:00.002-06:00

Well, I’m finally back posting on my bookblog!! I’ve missed my blog so much, I’m so glad to be back!

We’d been so busy with finding a place to live, buying furniture, getting a job, getting my school stuff done, basically just getting on from day to day, that I just thought I shouldn’t blog until we were settled… but we’ve been in Canada a couple of months now and I think we’re probably as settled as we’re ever going to be!

Of course, we still need to buy more winter clothes, and firewood, and I need a car!!! I’m enjoying walking and taking public transport, but not when it’s cold out and I’m freezing and carrying heavy groceries!

Other than those minor stuff, I’m really loving it here! The air is fresher, the people are wonderful, I’ve got everything I ever wanted! =)

And the library, oooooohhhh, the library!!!

As some of you know, I sold a lot of my books prior to coming, but I’ve also kept a lot of my treasured books which I left behind in Malaysia. I was thinking that I’d miss them so much, but the library is so amazing that I hardly miss my books at all!

I’ve got books galore, courtesy of the library!

Well, of course, I can’t keep them and I can’t bookcross them, but I’ve got plenty of books to read and more!

In Malaysia, I buy all the books I have because the libraries suck, but here… I’m in booklovers’ paradise! =D

Anyway, I’m looking forward to blogging regularly again! We’re still really busy with everything, but we’re settling as fast as we can! I’ve missed everyone in the blogosphere!

Books for sale!

2010-07-08T04:22:00.002-06:00

So the reason why I haven’t been blogging much lately is because I’ll be moving to Canada soon. This August to be exact.

I’ve been busy with preparations and stuff, and I’d also had to choose which of my books to leave behind, since I can’t bring them all with me. =( It was hard to let go of most of them, but it was necessary.

Anyway, I decided to sell them to make a little extra money. We are moving to a totally new place after all, and the extra money would come in really handy.

So take a look at the books listed and see if there’s anything you’ll like.

Books for sale! Cheap!

All prices are in Ringgit Malaysia.

Pick-up only, meaning you come and pick them up from me, unless you prefer me to mail them to you, in which case, you pay for the shipping and handling fees.

All fiction are RM5 to 10!

Reference books and textbooks are RM10 to 20!

Nothing higher than RM20!

Those who buy more than RM100 worth of books may get some free Bookcrossing books! (While “stocks” last. You can’t choose the books, but I’ll try to give you suitable ones based on your apparent reading tastes.)

I’m open to negotiating better deals if you buy more books, but please be reasonable!! I’ve spent a lot of money on these books, traded good books for some of them, have given away a lot of books for free, and I’m still selling these books for a really good price!

Email me at bettysbooks (at) gmail (dot) com and let me know which books you want. First email, first serve! Except for reference books and textbooks; if more than one person wants them, best offer gets them.

Sorry about the bad pics. All the books are in very good to NEW condition! Some of them are old, but still in very good condition. Some have labels or names written in them. Some of them are NEW and have never even been read! (I have a book-buying addiction that makes me buy more books than I can read. =P)

Mass Market Paperbacks: RM5 each!

From Left to Right, Top to Bottom: (ALL SOLD!)

~~Women Like Us - Erica Abeel (Reserved)~~
~~Fire Along the Sky – Sara Donati (Reserved)~~
~~The Smoke Jumper – Nicholas Evans (Reserved)~~
~~Inheritance – Judith Michael~~
~~The Demon Lover – Victoria Holt~~
~~Striking Poses – Kate Thompson (SOLD!)~~
~~2 in 1 book: Something Borrowed & Wedding Blitz – Martina Reilly (SOLD!)~~
~~The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs (Reserved)~~
~~Atonement – Ian McEwan (Reserved)~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Impostress – Lisa Jackson (SOLD!)~~
~~Napoleon – Max Gallo (Reserved)~~
~~Hemlock Bay – Catherine Coulter (SOLD!)~~
~~Remember Summer – Elizabeth Lowell (SOLD!)~~
~~Red Beans and Vice – Lou Jane Temple~~
~~The Hundred Secret Senses – Amy Tan (Reserved)~~
~~Empress Orchid – Anchee Min~~
~~At Large – Lynne Murray~~
~~Larcery and Old Lace – Tamar Myers~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~The Other Sister – Frances Brown~~
~~Pandora – Jilly Cooper~~
~~The Secret Swan – Shana Abe (SOLD!)~~
~~Spring Moon – Bette Bao Lord~~
~~Hex and the Single Girl – Valerie Frankel~~
~~One Night Stand – Julie Cohen (Reserved)~~
~~Charlie – Lesley Pearse~~
~~Playing Away – Adele Parks~~
~~PS. I Love You – Cecelia Ahern (SOLD!)~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~The Women in his Life – Barbara Taylor Bradford~~
~~A Crowning Mercy – Bernard Cornwell~~
~~Gallows Thief – Bernard Cornwell~~
~~Reality Check – A. M. Goldsher~~
~~I Take This Man – Valerie Frankel (SOLD!)~~
~~Lost for Words – Lorelei Mathias (SOLD!)~~
~~Sweetheart from Hell – May-Zhee Lim (SOLD!)~~
~~Polo – Jilly Cooper~~
~~The Time of the Hunter’s Moon – Victoria Holt~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Lily – Cindy Bonner~~ (SOLD!)
~~Lethe – Tricia Sullivan~~ (Reserved)
~~White Oleander – Janet Fitch~~ (Reserved)
~~Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak – Julie Cohen~~ (Reserved)
~~Forget About It – Caprice Crane~~ (SOLD!)
~~Memoirs are Made of These – Swan Adamson~~ (SOLD!)

ALL SOLD!!

~~He Loves Lucy – Susan Donovan~~
~~Play Dirty – Sandra Brown~~
~~Sunrise – Grace Livingston Hill~~
~~Always and Forever – Patrica Cavendish~~
~~A Kingdom of Dreams – Judith McNaught~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~The Game – Neil Strauss~~
~~Sam the Cat – Matthew Klam~~
~~Mrs. Mike – Benedict & Nancy Freedman~~
~~Night Mare – Piers Anthony~~
~~Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing – Gabrielle Lord (SOLD!)~~
~~Twisted – Sarah Thorp (SOLD!)~~
~~Sweetsir – Helen Yglesias~~
~~Throwback – Frank C. Strunk (SOLD!)~~
~~My Point, and I Do Have One – Ellen Degeneres (SOLD!)~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Winter Solstice – Rosamund Pilcher (SOLD!)~~
~~A Cavern of Black Ice – J.V. Jones~~
~~Indelible – Karin Slaughter~~
~~Devil May Care – Elizabeth Peters~~
~~Samurai and Silk – Haru Matsukata Reischauer (SOLD!)~~
~~The Testament – John Grisham (SOLD!)~~
~~Gallows Hill – Lois Duncan~~
~~Ransom – Lois Duncan~~
~~Daughters of Eve – Lois Duncan (SOLD!)~~

ALL SOLD!

~~Lethal Guardian – M. William Phelps (SOLD!)~~
~~Panic – Jeff Abbot (SOLD!)~~
~~Hey Nostradamus – Douglas Coupland (SOLD!)~~
~~Do They Hear You When You Cry – Fauziya Kissindja (SOLD!)~~
~~Waiting to Exhale – Terry McMillan~~
~~Daughter of the Forest – Juliet Marillier (SOLD!)~~
~~Not Between Brothers – David Marion Wilkinson (Reserved)~~
~~The Innocent Man – John Grisham (SOLD!)~~
~~The Last Juror – John Grisham (SOLD!)~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Stitch – John B. Spencer~~
~~Ghost Children – Sue Townsend (SOLD!)~~
~~The Hero and the Crown – Robin McKinley (Reserved)~~
~~People of the Wolf - Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear (Reserved)~~
~~Spirit of the Sea – Georgina Fleming (SOLD!)~~
~~The Fire Rose – Mercedes Lackey~~
~~A Sea Change – Lois Gould~~
~~The Bond – Lilly Sommers~~
~~Granny Dan – Danielle Steel~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Fresh Blood~~
~~When Red is Black – Qiu Xiaolong~~
~~Immortals – Michael Korda~~
~~Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov (SOLD!)~~
~~Bedlam’s Bard – Mercedes Lackey~~
~~Blazing Star – Marcella Thum~~
~~Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah~~
~~Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall Smith~~
~~Romeo & Julia – Annie Kimberlin~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Occult Murders~~
~~Serial Killers~~
~~Hidden Forces~~
~~Divination~~
~~Strange Talents~~
~~Eternal Enigmas~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~How to Write a Love Letter that Works – Sidney Bernstein & Linda Tarleton~~
~~Do It! – John-Roger & Peter McWilliams (Reserved)~~
~~From Thought to Theme – William F. Smith & Raymond D. Liedlich (Reserved)~~
~~What Color is Your Parachute? 2007 – Richard Nelson Bolles~~

Trade Paperbacks: RM7 each!

ALL SOLD!!

~~The Poe Shadow – Matthew Pearl~~
~~The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller~~
~~The Summer Garden – Paulina Simons (SOLD!)~~
~~The Stars’ Tennis Balls – Stephen Fry (SOLD!)~~
~~The Pilot’s Wife – Anita Shreve~~
~~Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Soul – Arielle Ford (SOLD!)~~
~~Swan Bay – Rod Jones~~
~~Following the Wrong Gods Home – Catherine Lim~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Making History – Stephen Fry~~ (SOLD!)
~~The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards~~ (SOLD!)
~~Shadowbrook – Beverly Swerling~~ (SOLD!)
~~My Sister, Victoria – Charlotte Moore~~ (SOLD!)
~~The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd~~ (SOLD!)
~~Bee Season – Myla Goldberg~~ (SOLD!)

ALL SOLD!!

~~You or Someone Like You – Chandler Burr (Reserved)~~
~~Wild Animus – Rich Shapero~~
~~Macbeth – William Shakespeare (SOLD!)~~
~~Saving Fish from Drowning – Amy Tan~~
~~Another Life – Michael Korda~~
~~Bad Girls of the Bible – Liz Curtis Higgs~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Great Vampire Stories – Various Authors (SOLD!)~~
~~Great Horror Stories – Various Authors (SOLD!)~~
~~Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – Gregory Maguire (SOLD!)~~
~~Son of a Witch – Gregory Maguire~~
~~Spiking the Girl – Gabrielle Lord (SOLD!)~~
~~Sorceress of Darshiva – David Eddings~~
~~Somebodies and Nobodies – Robert W. Fuller~~
~~Protector – Laurel Dewey~~

Hardcovers: RM10 each!

ALL SOLD!!

~~Little Women – Louisa May Alcott~~
~~The Daphne du Maurier Companion – Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, & Frenchman’s Creek (3 in 1)~~
~~Wild Boy – Jill Dawson~~
~~The Footprints of God – Greg Iles~~
~~Meditations on Middle-Earth – Various Authors~~
~~Walkers – Graham Masterton~~
~~Irresistible Impulse – Robert Lindsey~~
~~Five Hundred Years After – Steven Brust~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper~~
~~Young Wives – Olivia Goldsmith~~
~~A Murder of Quality – John Le Carre~~
~~Drowning Ruth – Christina Schwarz~~
~~Hill Towns – Anne River Siddons~~
~~The Kitchen God’s Wife – Amy Tan~~
~~Music for Torching – A. M. Homes~~
~~If Only It Were True – Marc Levy (SOLD!)~~

ALL SOLD!!

~~Guinness World Records 2008~~
~~Assassinations – Readers’ Digest (SOLD!)~~
~~The Ultimate Joke Book Encyclopedia~~
~~Mandy Annual 2005~~
~~Bunty 2005~~
~~The Darwin Awards II~~

Wizard – Guide to Comics : Whole Batch, 16 editions – RM20

Wizard Magazines No. 12, 14-19

Wizard Magazines No. 27, 28, 33, 36, 38

Wizard Magazines No. 39, 40, 42, 43

IT Reference books: RM10 each!

~~HTML – Shelley Cashman Woods~~ (SOLD!)
SAM’s Paint Shop Pro 5
SAM’s HTML 4
SAM’s How to Use Macromedia Flash 5
XHTML for Dummies
The Non-Designer’s Web Book

~~Visual Quickstart Guide – Macromedia Flash 5~~ (SOLD!)
~~Visual Quickstart Guide – Macromedia Fireworks 4~~ (SOLD!)
~~Visual Quickstart Guide – Photoshop 6~~ (SOLD!)
~~Visual Quickstart Guide – Macromedia Dreamweaver 4~~ (SOLD!)

Golf Books: RM15 each!

Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible
Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible

Psychology and Business Text and Reference Books: RM20 each or best offer!

Some notes in margins (things like “Betty Loves ____” and “Betty and _____ forever!” I’m sure these notes will be very helpful to you as well… =P), no CDs included.

The Business Communication Handbook – Judith Dwyer (Prentice Hall, 4th edition)
~~Developmental Psychology – David R. Shaffer (Brooks/Cole, 5th edition)~~ (SOLD!)
~~Human Motivation – Robert E. Franken (Wadsworth, 5th edition)~~ (SOLD!)
Marketing – Gary Armstrong & Philip Kotler (Prentice Hall, 6th edition)
~~Choice and Change – April O’Connell & Vincent O’Connell (Prentice Hall, 6th edition)~~ (SOLD!)
Anthropology – Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, & Peter N. Peregrine (Prentice Hall, 10th edition)

Abnormal Psychology – Gerald C. Davison & John M. Neale (Wiley, 8th edition)
~~Theories of Personality – Susan C. Cloninger (Prentice Hall, 3rd edition)~~ (SOLD!)
Sociology – John J. Macionis (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition)
Organization Theory and Design – Richard L. Daft (Thomson, South-Western, 8th edition)
Human Communication – Joseph A. Devito (Allyn & Bacon, 9th edition)
Philosophy – Manuel Velasquez (Wadsworth, 7th edition)

~~Introduction to Psychology – Rod Plotnik (Wadsworth, 5th edition)~~ (SOLD!)
The Future of Business – Gitman & McDaniel (Southwestern, Interactive edition)

That’s it!!

Email me at bettysbooks (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me which books you want! I will reserve the books for you up to 5 days for you to make a payment or collect the books. If you haven’t made a payment by 5 days, I will sell the books to the next person who asks for it.

Payment and collection details will be emailed to you. If you want a better deal, make me an offer and we’ll see what we can do!

Thank you!

Banned Books Meme

2010-05-15T09:24:00.001-06:00

I think I’m hooked on memes now!! Yikes!

Bold the books you've read & liked or loved
~~Strike~~ the books you've read but didn't enjoy
Italicise the books you want to read
Put a cross (+) the ones on your book shelf.

1. 1984: George Orwell +
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The: Mark Twain
3. Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The: Mark Twain
4. Agnes the Sheep: William Taylor
5. All the King's Men: Robert Penn Warren
6. Ambush Moon: J.R. Roberts
7. American Tragedy, An: Theodore Dreiser
8. Animal Farm: George Orwell +
9. Annie on my Mind: Nancy Garden
10. Appointment in Samarra: John O'Hara
11. Around the World in a Hundred Years: Jean Fritz
12. As I Lay Dying: William Faulkner
13. Athletic Shorts: Chris Crutcher
14. Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand +
15. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The: Ernest Gaines
16. Bastard Out of Carolina: Dorothy Allison
17. Being There: Jerzy Kosinski
18. Bell Jar, The: Sylvia Plath
19. Beloved: Toni Morrison
20. Beyond Belief: Brad Steiger
21. Blubber: Judy Blume
22. Bluest Eye, The: Toni Morrison
23. Boy's Life: Robert McCammon
24. Brave New World: Aldous Huxley +
25. Breakfast of Champions: Kurt Vonnegut
26. Bridge to Teribithia: Katherine Paterson
27. Call of the Wild, The: Jack London +
28. Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer +
29. Castle in the Attic, The: Elizabeth Winthrop
30. Catch 22: Joseph Heller +
31. Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger
32. Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut
33. Catspaw: Joan D. Vinge
34. Cay, The: Theodore Taylor
35. Ceremony: Leslie Marmon Silko
36. Charlotte's Web: E.B. White
37. Chocolate War, The: Robert Cormier
38. Christine: Stephen King +
39. Clockwork Orange, A: Anthony Burgess
40. Color Purple, The: Alice Walker
41. Congo: Michael Crichton
42. Crazy Lady: Jane Leslie Conley
43. Cujo: Stephen King
44. Day No Pigs Would Die, A: Robert Newton Peck
45. Death Be Not Proud: John Gunther
46. Deliverance: James Dickey
47. Don't Call Me Little Bunny (ne m'appelez plus jamais "Mon Petit Lapin"): Gregoire Solotareff
48. Dragonslayers: Bruce Coville
49. Drowning of Stephan Jones, The: Bette Green
50. Education of Harriet Hatfield, The: May Sarton
51. Education of Little Tree, The: Forrest Carter
52. Egypt Game, The: Zilpha Snyder
53. Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury
54. Fair Game
55. Fallen Angels: Walter Dean Myers
56. Farewell to Arms, A: Ernest Hemingway
57. Figure in the Shadows, The
58. Forever: Judy Blume
59. From Here to Eternity: James Jones
60. Funhouse, The: Dean Koontz
61. George's Marvelous Medicine
62. Giver, The: Lois Lowry
63. Go Ask Alice: Anonymous
64. Go Tell it on the Mountain: James Baldwin
65. Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell +
66. Grapes of Wrath, The: John Steinbeck
~~67. Great Gatsby, The: F. Scott Fitzgerald~~
68. Great Gilly Hopkins, The: Katherine Paterson
69. Grendel: John Champlin Gardner
70. Halloween ABC: Eve Merriam
71. Handmaid's Tale, The: Margaret Atwood
72. Headless Cupid, The: Zilpha Snyder
73. How to Eat Fried Worms: Thomas Rockwell
74. I Have to Go: Robert Munsch
75. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou
76. I, Claudius: Robert Graves
77. Iceman, The: Chris Lynch
78. I'll Be Seeing You
79. In Country: Bobbie Ann Mason
80. In the Night Kitchen
81. Indian in the Cupboard: Lynne Reid Banks
82. Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison
83. James and the Giant Peach: Roald Dahl
84. Journey of the Sparrows: Fran Leeper Buss
85. Julie of the Wolves: Jean Craighead George
86. Jumper: Steven C. Gould
87. Keeping the Love You Find: Harvelle Hendrix
88. Killers, The: Ernest Hemingway
89. Killing Mr. Griffin: Lois Duncan
90. Kim: Rudyard Kipling
91. Lady Chatterly's Lover: D.H. Lawrence +
92. Last Mission, The: Harry Mazer
93. Learning Tree, The: Gordon Parks
94. Leaving the Fold: Edward T. Babinski
95. Lily: Cindy Bonner
96. Little Red Riding Hood: Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
~~97. Lolita: Vladimir Nabokov~~
98. Lord of the Flies, The: William Golding
99. Lucy: Jamaica Kincaid
100. Maggie, Girl of the Streets: Stephen Crane
101. Matilda: Roald Dahl
102. Maurice: E.M. Forster
103. Minpins, The: Roald Dahl
104. My Brother Sam is Dead: Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
105. My House
106. My Teacher Glows in the Dark: Bruce Coville
107. My Teacher is an Alien: Bruce Coville
108. Naked and the Dead, The: Norman Mailer
109. Naomi in the Middle: Norma Klein
110. Naked Lunch: William Burroughs
111. Native Son
112. Night Chills: Dean Koontz
113. Nightmare: Marjorie Dorner
114. Of Mice and Men: John Steinbeck +
115. On My Honor: Marion Dane Bauer
116. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
117. One Hundred Years of Solitude: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
118. Out of Control: Norma Fox
119. Phantom Tollbooth, The
120. Pigman, The: Paul Zindel
121. Point Counter Point: Aldous Huxley
122. Portnoy's Complaint: Philip Roth
123. Postman, The (Ardiente Paciencia): Antonio Skarmeta
124. Probing the Unknown: Stephen Tchudi
125. Queen of the Summer Stars: Persia Woolley
126. Rainbow, The: D.H. Lawrence
127. Return of the Indian: Lynne Reid Banks
128. Revolting Rhymes: Roald Dahl
129. Run With the Horseman: Ferrol Sams
130. Runaway Sleigh Ride, The: Astrid Lundgren
131. Samurai's Tale, The: Erik C. Hauggard
132. Scarlet Letter, The: Nathaniel Hawthorne +
133. Schindler's List: Thomas Keneally
134. Separate Peace, A: John Knowles
135. Short Takes: Elizabeth Segel
136. Sister Carrie
137. Skin Deep: Isaac Asimov
138. Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut
139. Sons and Lovers: D.H. Lawrence
140. Sophie's Choice: William Styron
141. Studs Lonigan: James T. Farrell
142. Sun Also Rises, The: Ernest Hemingway
143. Tar Beach: Faith Ringgold
144. Tex: Susie E. Hinton
145. Then Again, Maybe I Won't: Judy Blume
146. Tintin in America: Herge
147. To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee
148. Tropic of Cancer: Henry Miller
149. Turn of the Screw: Henry James
150. Ulysses: James Joyce
151. View From the Cherry Tree, The: Willo Davis Roberts
152. Wayside School is Falling Down: Louis Sachar
153. When the Legends Die: Hal Borland
154. White Ninja: Eric Van Lustbader
155. Witches of Worm, The: Zilpha Snyder
156. Witches, The: Roald Dahl
157. Wizard in the Tree, The: Lloyd Alexander
158. Women in Love: D.H. Lawrence
159. Wrinkle in Time, A: Madeleine L'Engle

Hmm…I’ve read very few of these books! I should start reading more banned books! Though, I do wonder why some of these are banned…

Book Title Meme TT #41

2010-05-12T10:08:00.001-06:00

I had such fun doing the last book meme that I went searching the web for more! I found this here, and liked it so much I decided to do it. =)

The rules are: Using only books you have read in the last year (365 days, obviously, since we're barely over the threshold of ought-ten), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: The Book Thief (This is me, alright! Except that I don’t actually steal books…)
How do you feel: Quirkology
Describe where you currently live: The Last Summer (Well, it’s always summer here, and I’m hoping it’s my last year here!)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Brave New World
Your favourite form of transportation: The Host
Your best friend is: Dear Enemy (something like that…=D)
You and your friends are: Finding Your Mojo
What’s the weather like: The Mist (Not really, like I said, always summer here, but I didn’t have any better book title!)
You fear: Night Mare
What is the best advice you have to give: Handle with Care (Really good advice for everything, I think)
Thought for the day: Harvest for Hope
How I would like to die: The Most Wanted (in a good way, I hope!)
My soul’s present condition: Keeping Faith

Books!

2010-05-06T17:21:00.001-06:00

I did this back in 2007, but I’ve since read more books and acquired some and changed my mind about reading some of these books, so I thought I’d do this again. =)

INSTRUCTIONS:
Bold the ones you’ve read,
Italicize the ones you want to read,
Cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole,
Put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and
Asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

+1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

+2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

+3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

+4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) - and the sequel too!

+5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) - I don't plan to read the LOTR series, but I *would* touch them with a 10 foot pole...

+6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)

+7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)

+8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) - and all the sequels!

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)

*10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)

+11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K Rowling)

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

+16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)

*17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)

+18. The Stand (Stephen King) – loved it loved it!!

+19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling) - stop it with the Harry Potter already! Just becoz I read them doesn't mean I loved them.

+20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

+21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

+23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) - I read it and I had the book, but I didn't like the ending, so I gave it away.

+25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

+27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) - read it twice already, but don't remember it. I was very young when I read it.

+28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) - I read this, but it didn't impress me and I wouldn't read any of his other books ever.

+31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

+33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

+34. 1984 (George Orwell)

+35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) - read it twice and loved it so much I went and got two copies! (by mistake =P)

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

*37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)

+38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) - really intense, not an easy book to read emotionally.

+39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

+40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

+41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) - and the sequels too!

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

~~43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)~~ - I like her other books, but I won't read the shopaholic series.

~~44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)~~ - Never ever ever!

45. The Bible - I want to read it just to know what's so powerful about it to Christians.

+46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

+47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) - I love it! One of the best books ever!

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

+50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb) - another really intense book.

+51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)

+52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

+54. Great Expectations (Dickens)

+55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

*56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)

+57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)

+59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) - really good book, food for thought.

+60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

+63. War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)

~~64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)~~

*65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)

+68. Catch–22 (Joseph Heller)

69. Les Miserables (Hugo)

+70. The Little Prince [Le Petit Prince] (Antoine de Saint–Exupery)

+71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)

+72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)

+73. Shogun (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)

+75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

*76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)

~~77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)~~

78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)

*79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)

+80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

*81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)

+83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)

+85. Emma (Jane Austen)

86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)

+87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

+88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)

*89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)

~~90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)~~

*91. In The Skin Of a Lion (Ondaatje)

+92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)

+93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

+94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)

+97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)

+98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) - don't remember it though

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Credits goes to Ugly Ogre Robert because he insisted that he wanted his name on my post, just because he pointed this meme out to me. =P =)

Meanings Behind the Nursery Rhymes TT #40

2010-05-05T10:16:00.001-06:00

This week’s TT is based on a book I’m currently reading. Heavy Words Lightly Thrown by Chris Roberts is about the meanings behind the old nursery rhymes that we’re all familiar with.

I haven’t finished the book yet, but so far, there’s been many interesting revelations and I just had to share.

So this week’s TT is Meanings Behind the Nursery Rhymes:

Humpty Dumpty: Humpty Dumpty was actually a cannon, which broke apart and couldn’t be fixed by the king’s men. What I find funny is why everyone thinks it’s about an egg, when the rhyme doesn’t mention an egg at all.
Little Jack Horner: Apparently, “Jack” Horner was a steward to an abbot, who stuck his thumb into a piece of very lucrative pie, figuratively speaking, and pulled out a plum in the form of a title deed to a manor house.
Jack Be Nimble: Jumping over the candlestick without the flame going out is supposed to be a form of pagan sport which foretells good luck, fertility, and a prosperous year, depending on the results of the jump.
Sing a Song of Sixpence: Most probably about King Henry VIII and two of his six wives; Catherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn, who is the maid that got her nose snipped off (beheaded).
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: There’s a debate on whether the “Mary” in the rhyme is referring to Mary Queen of Scots or Mary Tudor, but if it’s Mary Queen of Scots, then the cockle-shells in the rhyme apparently refers to the cuckolds in her promiscuous court.
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep: One of the more straightforward rhymes if you’re looking for its hidden meaning, it’s quite obvious that it’s a complaint about taxes.
Ladybird, Ladybird: It seems that back in the days, it was popular to get rid of a witch in central Europe by telling her that her house was on fire. The rhyme may be a reference to that.
Georgy Porgy: There are a few theories to this rhyme, one of them is that it’s about George Villiers, who might have been King James I’s lover. The part about kissing the girls and making them cry is supposed to be about George ruining the King’s relationship with various women.
Rock a Bye, Baby: Of unclear origins, there are many theories to this rhyme ranging from it being a reference to baby Moses, to being about new Pilgrim settlers who used to suspend their cradles on trees.
Ding Dong Bell, Pussy’s in the Well: Surprisingly, this may be one of the more literal rhymes where the moral of the story is meant for children, teaching them not to be cruel to cats.
Jack and Jill: Very possibly about sex, going “up the hill to fetch a pail of water” may have been an euphemism for having sex, and “losing your crown” means losing your virginity.
Ring-a-Ring o’Roses: The most popular theory is that it’s about the Black Death, but another theory is that it’s actually about a children’s game that allowed young people to get around prohibitions on dancing.
Old King Cole: Two interesting theories with the pipe and the bowl; Old King Cole either really liked smoking cannabis, or the pipe referred to some kind of wind instrument, and the bowl was a kind of drum, and Old King Cole really liked music, especially with his fiddlers three.

I’m still reading the book and having lots of fun with it. I hope you enjoyed this week’s TT!

Non-fiction funk

2010-05-02T07:40:00.002-06:00

Recently I’ve been reviewing less books, mostly because these days I seem to be more in the mood for non-fiction than fiction.

Non-fiction, depending on the book, usually takes a lot longer to read than most fiction for me, so while I used to finish two books a week on average, now it seems like I might be taking two weeks or more to finish one book.

I don’t know why I don’t have the mood for fiction these days, perhaps it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of studying, reading non-fiction and textbooks, and really just feel like resting my brain during my study breaks, rather than reading anything.

Then again, I could probably get interested in lighter fiction, but I don’t have many of those kind of books because I don’t keep them, so find it a waste of money to buy them. I have a lot more ‘heavy’ fiction on my Mt. TBR, but don’t feel like reading them because they’re heavy.

I don’t know when I’m going to start feeling like reading fiction again, but hopefully it’s soon, because I really do need a little escapism. Maybe I’ll just read some trashy old romances I have lying around.

13 Characters from the Greek Myths TT #39

2010-04-28T10:00:00.001-06:00

Today’s TT will be 13 characters from this book; Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin.

I enjoyed the book so much and loved reading and finding out more about these characters, so I thought I’d feature them this TT. =)

So…

Zeus: The king of the Gods who poisoned his father, Cronos, to released his brothers and sisters that Cronos swallowed, and led an army against Cronos to dethrone him.
Poseidon: One of Zeus’ brothers, the God of the Sea. It’s said that he created the dolphins to appease one of his lover’s jealous rage, and the horse to give to Demeter so that she would accept his pursuits.
Hades: One of Zeus’ brothers, the eldest, and the God of the Underworld. He kidnapped Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, to be his wife.
Persephone: She was kidnapped by Hades, and tricked into eating 6 pomegranate seeds. Zeus ruled that she had to spend a month with Hades in the Underworld for every seed she ate.
Arachne: She was a very talented weaver until she displeased the Goddess Athene when she said she could weave better than her. After she lost a weaving competition with Athene, she was turned into a spider, to weave her webs for eternity.
Echo: Trying to save Zeus from Hera’s wrath, she lied to Hera and when Hera found out, she cursed Echo to forever only be able to repeat the last words that anyone says to her. Until today, we can still sometimes hear her repeating the last words we say.
Narcissus: He broke Echo’s heart when he spurned her, and because she was Aphrodite’s favorite, Aphrodite vowed that Narcissus will fall in love with someone who will never love him back. He fell in love with his own reflection by the river, and spent his days rooted by the river always staring at his own reflection.
Perseus: Zeus’ son from one of his affairs with a mortal woman, he slayed Medusa and saved his mother from a lecherous old king who wanted her as his wife.
Pandora: She was actually a gift given to the brother of Prometheus, who stole fire from the sun and gave it to humans. When she opened her wedding gift, a beautiful golden box that Hermes gave her, she let out all the evils that haunt mankind.
Midas: A greedy king who had more gold than he needed and wanted more, Apollo decided to grant his wish that everything he touch turns to gold. He was not as upset over his daughter turning into gold, as he was about not being able to eat because everything that touched his lips turned into gold too.
Theseus: The son of Poseidon from an affair with a mortal woman, Theseus was small but very intelligent. With his wits and using his enemies’ strength against them, he managed to kill the dreaded Minotaur.
Orpheus: He was a musician whose music hypnotized audiences. When his wife, Eurydice, died, he went to Hades to begged that she be returned to him. Hades was so moved with Orpheus’ music that he agreed on the condition that Orpheus couldn’t look back to see if Eurydice followed him.
Daedalus: Lesser known in the Greek myths, Daedalus was Icarus’ father, who made the wings that killed his son. They were trying to escape from their prison, the Minotaur’s labyrinth, which was also Daedalus’ creation on the request of the king.

I had a lot of fun reading about the Greek myths, and I only wish there was more! I hope you enjoyed this week’s TT. =)

Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

2010-04-24T10:38:00.002-06:00

Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

What is the book about?Well, the title kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

What did you like most about it? I loved that Evslin wrote the stories in a way that makes them very easy to read and understand. I got really engrossed in the stories of the Greek myths, and I really like the way he connected the characters from one story to another.

I’ve read about the Greek myths before but a lot of the time I get confused with who’s who. Evslin’s book made the distinction clearer and I felt that I really learnt a lot about the Greek myths from his book.

What did you like least about it? I wasn’t happy that it’s such a small book, only slightly over 200 pages. I wanted more. There were many Greek gods, heroes, and monsters that Evslin didn’t elaborate on. Most notably, Heracles.

I realize that Heracles’ story is very long, adding his and other stories would make the book huge, and apparently that’s not what Evslin was going for. Which is what sucks, because I loved the stories so much, and the way Evslin told them, that I really wanted a lot more.

Who would you recommend it to? If you love learning about the Greek gods and Greek myths, or if you just love great stories, this is a really great book.

Any additional comments? Now I have to find out if Evslin wrote any other books (ie. *thicker* books) on the Greek myths, and if he did, I am soooooo gonna check them out. =)

13 Things I Missed about Thursday-13 TT #38

2010-04-21T10:13:00.001-06:00

For those who are just joining us, here’s a recap. ;-)

Since December, I’d been getting last minute preparations done for my wedding on January 31st. If anyone knows me, they know I was a terrible procrastinator and very disorganized person, so *everything* was last minute. =P ( I say “was” because after all the hassle I went through with the wedding, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna spend the rest of my life procrastinating and disorganized! So one good thing came out of all the headache, anyway…other than having a new husband…)

But that was in January, and it’s now the second half of April, where was I before this, you ask?

Well, the answer is:

being tour guides to friends from Canada who came for our wedding and decided to make it a vacation
celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY) which means traveling back to my husband’s and my hometowns and visiting relatives for 2 weeks
catching up with work that I missed coz of wedding and traveling
making funeral arrangements and attending the funeral of my maternal grandmother who passed away not long after CNY
and recuperating from everything!

So anyway, now I’m back, and for my first TT after so many months, I’d like to make a list of 13 things I missed about T13! =)

I miss visiting everybody’s T13s!!
I miss people visiting mine!!
I miss thinking up ideas for T13s!
I miss reading some very interesting T13s!
I miss commenting on other T13s!
I miss getting comments about my T13s!
I miss linking my T13s to Mr. Linky on the T13 site!
In fact, I kinda miss my own linkies… can’t decide if I should renew my linkies or not.
I miss looking forward to Thursdays!
I miss being part of a fun weekly community event!
I miss discovering new blogs and new friends!
I miss the “old” blogs and “old” friends I’d already made!
I miss the feeling that I was not alone in this great big world of blogging.

It’s really great to be back! =)

Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

2010-04-17T20:59:00.002-06:00

Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

What is the book about? It’s about a boy and his two dogs, the things they go through together, hunting coons, making miracles happen, saving each others’ lives.

What did you like most about it? The fact that it’s about the love between two dogs and their human.

What did you like least about it? The fact that it made me cry. Well, ok, I don’t really hate it. I loved it too much to hate it.

Who would you recommend it to? Anyone who has a dog or who has ever had a dog. Anyone who loved “The Incredible Journey” and the movie “Homeward Bound”.

Any additional comments? I had the book for ages but never thought of reading it until I saw that the movie was going to play on TV next week. I thought I’d read the book first before watching the movie. I wonder if I’d like the movie as much.

The Last To Know by Melissa Hill

2010-04-03T21:32:00.002-06:00

The Last To Know by Melissa Hill

What is the book about? Oh, this one is so complicated I don’t even know how to explain it! Some people write a book and send it to Brooke, who is an editor, to let her know the truth about her background.

What did you like most about it? A very interesting story and exciting enough for me to want to read to the end to find out what happens.

What did you like least about it? The author is so full of gimmicks and deluded self-praise (you’ll understand why when you read the book) that I never want to read another one of her books again.

Who would you recommend it to? Anyone who likes stories in the vein of Jodi Picoult and has a higher tolerance level than me for gimmicks.

Any additional comments? The author is actually quite a talented writer if she would stop making it all about writing techniques and just tell the story. When you get to the end of this story, it’s so nonsensical that you just wonder, what was the point? I feel like she’s not using her writing to tell the story, but using the story to show off her writing.

Before I Forget by Melissa Hill

2010-04-03T21:18:00.002-06:00

Before I Forget by Melissa Hill

What is the book about? A freak accident causes Abby to lose her short-term memory, which of course causes a lot of problems for her. She wants to forget the man who left her before her accident, but can’t, and there’s a wonderful new man in her life, if only she can remember him.

What did you like most about it? It’s a fun and easy read, with a very interesting premise. It was exactly what I needed because I was still in a reading slump and couldn’t concentrate on heavier books.

What did you like least about it? The author is talented but often I feel like she’s trying too hard. She’s very gimmick-y, and you’re conscious of it the whole time.

Who would you recommend it to? People in need of a light beach romance.

Any additional comments? I found her gimmick-y writing very annoying and predictable after a while. I wouldn’t have read another one of her books except that I bought two on offer.

Review Template Maybe?

2010-04-03T21:03:00.002-06:00

To make it easier on me, especially since it’s getting harder for me to come up with coherent reviews, I thought I should come up with a template of sorts for my book reviews. Sort of like a simple question and answer thing.

I’ve seen some people doing it before, so I guess it works, but I’m just wondering what questions I’ll be using. I’m considering just these:

What is the book about?

What did you like most about it?

What did you like least about it?

Who would you recommend it to?

Any additional comments?

I’ll try it for a while and see if it works.

Not Grooving Just Yet

2010-03-19T19:55:00.002-06:00

I’m aware I’m still not back in the groove with blogging just yet. There’s been a lot of things I needed to catch up on, and I haven’t had the time to really think about blogging, but I do miss it so much.

I’m sorry I haven’t replied some of the comments either. I will as soon as I can think of better replies to them! =)

Well, this was just gonna be a quick note, so that’s about it. I’ll come back with more stuff and book reviews soon!

In the meantime, please bear with me. Thanks so much, my dearest readers!

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

2010-03-05T00:44:00.002-07:00

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

As usual, Jodi Picoult comes up with a very interesting and controversial topic for a book. A mother whose child is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, sues her doctor, who is also her best friend because the doctor failed to find out that her child had the disease until it was too late to abort.

The thing is, her child, Willow, was born five years ago, and even if she’d known ahead of time about the genetic disorder, she’d never have aborted the child. She’s suing because she wants to secure a better future for Willow, one where they won’t have to struggle to make ends meet paying for Willow’s surgeries and hospital bills because of her breaks and fractures.

I’m a big fan of Picoult, and I love most of her books. I love that she tackles controversial topics, and I love her writing style, which is so natural and engaging. However, I feel that Picoult is now being controversial for the sake of being controversial.

The subject matter of the book and most of the story is very interesting, but towards the end of the book, and especially with the verdict, a lot of things didn’t make sense. I couldn’t understand how the verdict could be what it was, with the testimonies presented. I felt like she ran out of things to say, and didn’t know how to continue with the story, as if the topic was a hypothetical one where she couldn’t find an answer to present to us.

Also, the ‘twist’ at the end of the book… I remember watching an interview of Picoult a while ago, where she says people expect twists in her books, because, hey, it’s Picoult, so in that particular book, there was a twist of a twist. The problem is, the ‘twist’ in this book was so unnecessary, and knowing that she did it for the sake of doing it made it really cheap. She calls it a twist. I call it jumping the shark.

It’s as if she feels her books can’t be good unless there are twists, but honestly, I think she’s an amazing writer and really doesn’t need to have twists in her books all the time!

Betty’s Back!

2010-02-26T09:08:00.002-07:00

Well, I haven’t blogged since last Christmas eve!!! OMG, I’ve missed my blog so much, and more importantly, my reading!!

There’s a *really* good reason for my hiatus, though. =) My wedding was on January 31st 2010!! Yayyy!!! Congratulations to me! =)

So I’m not the most organized of people, though that’s changing, I hope, and one month before the wedding, there was a lot of last minute details we needed to finalize, but that’s normal. What wasn’t so great was that there were also some last minute changes, coz of cancellations and conflicts, etc.

I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say, I was very stressed out and busy for the whole month before the wedding, to the point where I didn’t even have the mood or the concentration to read!!!!

Can you imagine? Me??! The girl who *always*, and I mean *always*, has a book in her hand and never goes anywhere without a book, and in fact, never goes a day without reading at least a couple of pages no matter how busy she is.

I went a whole *month and a half* without reading!!!!

I lost my mojo, and I felt totally lost without it. That’s how stressful my wedding was! I have *never* in my whole entire life, gone so long without reading! And it wasn’t even that I wanted to read but didn’t have the time to, I totally didn’t even feel like picking up a book! When I did, I read the same page 10 times before realizing that nothing was registering at all!

OMG, I’m so glad I’m only ever gonna have this one wedding! If I ever marry again, I’m gonna elope! =P

After the wedding, I was so out of whack that I still couldn’t read a book! It wasn’t until only five days ago that I finally got into a book!

Luckily, I had things to keep me busy because our friends from Canada came for our wedding, and right after the wedding, we became their tour guides for 10 days before they went back to Canada. And after they went home, it was Chinese New Year, so I had that to keep me busy too.

I’m so glad I finally got my reading groove back, but let me tell you, I’ve never felt so un-me in my whole life! Betty isn’t Betty if she doesn’t read. =(

Well, I’m finally Betty again, and I’m finally reading again, and I’m finally blogging again! I can’t wait to get back in the blogging groove! I’ve missed a lot!

But I’m so glad to be back! =)

13 Ideas I had for this Xmas’ TT

2009-12-23T21:23:00.002-07:00

13 things I want for Xmas
13 of my favorite Xmas songs
13 of my favorite Xmas movies
13 things to do on Xmas
13 things NOT to do on Xmas
13 things for people who don't celebrate Xmas to do
13 most memorable Xmas
13 funny Xmas stories
13 ways to celebrate a tropical Xmas
13 ways I want to celebrate a white Xmas in Canada next year
Presents I got my dad for his last 13 birthdays (on Xmas)
13 significant things that happened this year
13 things to look forward to in the new year

13 December Birthdays TT #36

2009-12-16T09:49:00.001-07:00

Somehow I seem to have a lot of closer friends who are born in December than any other month! (Or maybe it just seems that way because there are so many presents to buy in December! Yikes!) So anyway, here are 13 December Birthdays!

Dec 2: Rob, a very close friend of mine who I’ve never met IRL!

Dec 4: Seng, an old and dear friend

Dec 4: Samantha, an old friend I’d lost touch with but have recently found again!

Dec 7: Eddy, a very talented musician friend

Dec 9: Lone, my dearest husband

Dec 13: Jason, one of my bestest friends ever!

Dec 15: Sanjiv, a student of Lone’s

Dec 20: Riri, one of the sweetest friends we have who’d recently gotten married

Dec 20: Sandra, Rob’s wife, whom I’ve also never met IRL but feel like I know so well!

Dec 21: Ceaser, the guy who helped bring Lone and I together

Dec 24: Tati, the wife of one of Lone’s bestest friends

Dec 25: My father! Born on Christmas!

Dec 29: Teody, a musician friend who taught us some very valuable music-related stuff.

Are you a December baby too?

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

2009-12-14T22:15:00.001-07:00

Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

Dear Enemy is the sequel to Jean Webster’s more popular book, Daddy-Long-Legs. Daddy-Long-Legs is one of my most favorite books, and if you’ve read Daddy-Long-Legs and loved it, you’ll love this book too.

Daddy-Long-Legs featured Judy Abbott, an orphan from the John Grier Home, who was sponsored by a very rich and generous alumni, to go to college. The whole of the book then consists of letters that Judy writes to her anonymous benefactor about her life and her friends in college.

Among her closest friends is Sally McBride, who is the protagonist of Dear Enemy. Sally is asked to be the director of the John Grier Home after Judy’s husband bought it over, and this book tells the story of how Sally takes over the running of the orphanage, falls in love with the kids, and falls in love, all in letters that Sally writes to various people.

There is a certain charm to the way Jean Webster tells her stories, and although some people don’t like epistolary novels, I think these two books are among the good ones. Some epistolary novels are hard to read because of the way they’re written, but both Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy are written in short and witty chapters, with illustrations to boot!

Daddy-Long-Legs has long been a favorite since I was a little girl, and now I’ve added Dear Enemy to my exclusive list of favorite books as well.

The Music Lesson by Victor L. Wooten

2009-12-12T20:33:00.002-07:00

The Music Lesson by Victor L. Wooten

If music was a religion, and some people would say it is, *this* book would be its bible!

I have never heard of Victor L. Wooten, and it was my husband, who is a musician, who bought this book.

Initially, I thought that it was some kind of autobiography of how Wooten grew spiritually as a musician, and I wasn’t really very interested in reading another musician’s autobiography, especially since I haven’t even heard of this particular musician.

Well, thing is, this book isn’t really an autobiography, or maybe it is, but you find yourself really wondering how true it is. It’s believable, yet so incredible that it you have to wonder at it. There’s so much in this book, about music and how to live your life fully and completely, and the more I read, the more I wonder, how could anyone live without music?!

The phrase “no music, no life” is true as far as I’m concerned, and I believe anyone, not just musicians, who love music should read this book. It is beautifully written, but I lack the skill to express how beautiful it is. There’s a lot to the book, I can’t describe it, I can only urge everyone I know to read it and live a richer and more musical life!

13 Hobbies & Interests TT #35

2009-12-02T19:57:00.002-07:00

I have a lot of interests and hobbies, because I think there are a lot of fun things to do out there. I may not do them all at once, but all these 13 has been a hobby or an interest at one time or another.

Reading and collecting books!!
Singing and writing music
Crochet and knitting
Writing snail-mail letters to penpals
Cooking
Fishing
Palm reading
Tarot reading
Sketching and painting
Watching TV shows and reality TV
Learning Chinese
Looking for fairies in the garden
Making hand-made cards

Free ebooks from The Book Depository! TT #34

2009-11-25T21:01:00.002-07:00

The Book Depository is offering more than 11,000 free ebooks for a limited time! I’ve been downloading like crazy the last couple of days!!

Here are 13 (out of like a thousand!) of the books I downloaded:

	Dear Enemy by Jean Webster This is the sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, one of my favorite books in the world! I’ve been looking for this book a long time, and I found it free! How cool is that! They also have Daddy-Long-Legs if you want to download it.
	Edmund Dantes by Edmund Flagg A sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo which I didn’t know existed! I love the Count of Monte Cristo, and I’m thrilled to find this! The Count of Monte Cristo is also available for download.
	The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas I loved the movie, I fell in love with the Musketeers, but I’ve never read the book. Maybe I’ll love it even more! =)
	The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan This is one of those books that you always hear about and kinda know what it’s about, but never actually read. Now I finally got me a copy and I’m going to see what the fuss is about.
	Fanny Hill by John Cleland Banned book, never seen a single copy of it anywhere, heard so much about it, finally found a free copy! ‘Nuff said! =)
	Five Children and It I’d never heard of it until the movie came out. Haven’t watched the movie, but found the book and got curious.
	Les Miserables by Victor Hugo I got a copy years and years and years ago, from a very generous bookcrosser while I was in Melbourne. Unfortunately, I lost the book coming back from there, and haven’t been able to replace it until now!
	Paradise Lost by John Milton A book that everyone seems to know about and talk about, but I’d never read it. It doesn’t seem easy to read either, but I’m curious!
	Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin I vaguely remember hearing this title somewhere, but the author’s name isn’t familiar and I don’t know what the book’s about.
	The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang And also the Red, Green, Yellow, Crimson, Brown, etc. Fairy Books!!!! These books were featured in a blog I visited a while ago, but I never thought that I’d actually be able to get my hands on them. Now I have! =)
	The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope I don’t know what it’s about, and to be honest, I was never interested, but finding free books is one of the best ways to open yourself to books that you’d normally not read!
	Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche Again, not a book I’d normally be interested in, but I’d heard about it and thought I’d try it. Since there are free books galore!! =)
	Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe A classic I’ve been wanting to read a long time. I still don’t know what it’s about, but so many great reviews can’t be wrong!

And these are just 13 of them! I’ve got lots more, and there are lots more free ebooks waiting at The Book Depository! Go download like crazy now! ;-)

13 More Random Stuff about Me TT #33

2009-11-18T09:28:00.002-07:00

The first concert I ever remember going to was Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth tour. I was really, really, really, young.
I hate the smell of smoke from cigarettes and cigars, but funnily enough, I love the smell of tobacco.
My favorite perfume/cologne is Polo Sport for men. I get a little high if I smell it on a man. =)
One of my favorite memories as a child is of my mum making pancakes for us in the mornings. I loved those pancakes…
I’ve never understood why people would be afraid of the dentist. I’ve never been afraid of going to the dentist in my whole life. Everything I’ve gotten done has always been relatively pain-free.
I had my first “boyfriend” when I was 10 years old. He was my best friend, and we had crushes on each other. It was really sweet, but then we parted on bad terms, immature kids that we were, and I still miss him now.
My first ever performance in public was when I was 4 years old. I sang a children’s song on stage at my father’s restaurant at the time, and got the whole crowd clapping and singing along with me. If only it was as easy now. =P
I don’t like long fingernails because they get in the way, but I’m too lazy to trim them every week, so they end up looking untidy. Once, I went for a manicure just because I was too lazy to cut my nails myself for an interview the next day.
I love eating fries dipped in ice cream. Some of my friends think it’s gross, I have no idea why!
I love going outside after a heavy rainstorm and smelling the fresh air and looking at the beautiful sky. It makes me smile because it reminds me that the best things in life are free.
I’m Chinese, but I can’t hold chopsticks the right way. =P
Oh yeah, I can’t really speak and read Chinese either, though I’m learning. Really slow.
I kinda like doing TTs about random stuff about me. Shows you how narcissistic I really am. =D

The Mist by Stephen King

2009-11-15T23:49:00.002-07:00

The Mist by Stephen King

Another Stephen King novel this year! =) I got interested in this book because I read on a website somewhere about best and most unexpected movie endings and the movie for based on this book was listed as one of them.

So anyway, it made me really curious to watch the movie, but I wanted to read the book first.

Luckily enough, I found the book in a sale not long after visiting that particular website (which address I forgot).

As with most Stephen King books, it was thrilling and scary, never really knowing what was in the mist. The buildup of the book was incredible and I read anxiously to find out what would happen next.

I anticipated the ending, but I realized also that the movie and the book isn’t always identical, and it wasn’t. The book didn’t end the way the movie did (the website gave spoilers, so I knew what would happen), and in fact, ended by not ending, something I noticed with a few of King’s earlier books.

But it was a great read anyway. Not my favorite from King, but great nonetheless. I watched the movie after I finished the book, and while I prefer the book to the movie, I loved the movie’s ending a whole lot more!

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

2009-11-15T22:55:00.002-07:00

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

This sounded like a promising book. A Jane Austen addict, Courtney Stone, falls asleep reading Pride and Prejudice, and when she wakes up the next morning, finds herself living in Regency England.

She’s in some other woman’s body, living some other woman’s life, and she doesn’t know when or how she’ll ever get back to her own time, or if she’d even want to.

I was intrigued by the storyline and I had high hopes for the book, but while it was quite entertaining, it wasn’t really all that well-written.

Courtney Stone is supposedly a Jane Austen addict, and as such, she would know the acceptable “modes of conduct” for a lady in Regency England, yet she says things like, “We haven’t even slept together yet” when Mr. Edgeworth asks her to marry him, and is surprised with his shocked response. I’d understand if she was going for the shock factor since she knows it’s not acceptable in that era, but it’s just stupid when she doesn’t get things that she should.

That being said, it doesn’t make me hate the book, just exasperated with it. I did feel that the ending was incomplete though, because we never really find out what happens to Courtney Stone.

It was definitely an interesting and fun read, and the journey was quite exciting. It’s only that I’m not sure the destination is worth it.

13 Books that are Helping me Through NaNoWriMo TT#32

2009-11-11T09:35:00.001-07:00

When I say 13 books that are helping me through NaNoWriMo, it doesn’t mean that I’m reading them all at once! If I was, I probably wouldn’t have the time to write at all!

What I mean is that I sometimes glance through these books when I need some inspiration, or I read or re-read passages, or only specific chapters. Sometimes, I just look at these books on my shelves and they will spur me on. So…

13 books that are helping me through NaNoWriMo:

The November 5th version of Thursday Thunks

2009-11-04T21:29:00.002-07:00

1. Mad Cow disease, Bird Flu, Swine Flu...what barnyard animal will cause the next big outbreak of disease?

2. Sesame Street turns 40 this month. If you were to be on Sesame Street, which character would you want to be in a scene with?

3. We are out shopping for a new laptop. Which one do you pick and why?

Because I wanted something small and lightweight, and I think after years of being a tomboy, my inner female is finally coming out; I love that it’s pink! =)

4. Have you ever dried a flower in a book (pressing)? If so what was the flower and the name of the book?

Not the whole rose, just the petals.

In my favorite book, The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie.

5. Do you think it's important to study other planets? If so, why or why not?

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6. Have you ever walked out of a movie at the theater? What was the movie, how much was the ticket and why did you walk out?

I never did walk out from a movie. Even the ones which I really hated, I kept on watching in hopes that they might get better… I’m an optimistic person. =)

7. Does the city/town you live in have traffic enforcement cameras? Have you ever gotten a citation/ticket/fine from one? If so, did you pay or fight it?

Yes, to enforcement cameras, but never been fined coz of that. I’ve gotten parking tickets, and I pay those. I’ve gotten stopped by the traffic police too, and I fight those. =P Long stories.

8. If your neighbor is having a baby would you buy a baby gift for them?

9. How many questions are too many questions?

10. Do you have a handwritten journal you write in everyday?

Kept one ever since I was 11, but I don’t write everyday though.

11. Have you already made plans for 2010?

In January! =)

12. Thursday Thunks has a huge party for all those who play along each week. Where is the party,

how long does it last

and does Kimber fall off the roof dropping crayons?

If so, what color of crayon does she fall on?

13. We may have "blogger celebrity" questions in the near future. Are you excited?

Random Things TT #31

2009-11-04T09:26:00.002-07:00

13 Random Things about me:

I love spicy food. Love, love, love it!! Even though I don’t exactly have a high tolerance for it, but I love a little bit of it in my food whenever possible!
When I was a teenager, I wanted to marry Christopher Pike, who was my favorite author at the time.
Now I want to marry Bon Jovi, because I think he’s such a wonderful person. Saw him on Oprah a while ago, love him! Also, I’ve never seen Christopher Pike in person…
Once, when I was I think 12 years old and on a two-week school break, I read 7 books (YA books) a day, every day, for the whole two weeks!
I think the best song to make love to is Def Leppard’s Hysteria. I think it’s really sexy. I think a lot of Def Leppard’s songs are sexy.
I can read palms! My father studied palmistry with a master when he was young, and he taught me a little. I’m a little out of practice now, but I used to be really accurate.
My favorite fantasy art is Jonathon Bowser’s Goddess Art, his artwork is amazing! I’d love to see more art like his, but haven’t found any others to my liking yet.
I once paid for a full year’s membership at the gym. I only went twice.
The only trophies I’d ever won in my life was for singing. That doesn’t mean I’m any good at it, it’s just that I’m really lousy at everything else.
My favorite online forum is at Bookcrossing.com. It’s also my favorite book site.
I made a promise to myself when I was younger, that I would never get into a relationship with artistic musician types, because most of the musicians I knew at the time were always over-sensitive. I ended up marrying an artistic musician type. =P
I’m terrified of flying animals! The usual disgusting-looking insects, but also butterflies and birds! I’m afraid they’ll fly at me!
When I was only 3 or 4 years old, I fell and hit my head on a grill. I had to have stitches, and now there’s a small bald spot at the back of my head (luckily not visible).

NaNoWriMo 2009

2009-11-01T09:19:00.002-07:00

Guess what??

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year!

The last time I did this was in 2006, and I gave up pretty early on. =(

I never tried again in the years after that, but this year I thought I’d give it another shot, so here I am!

I’ve written 1,714 words the first day, so I’m off to a good start! Wish me luck in completing NaNoWriMo this year as a winner! I want to go all the way to 50,000 words! =)

Hey, if you’re participating too, leave a message, we can motivate each other!

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

2009-10-31T02:36:00.002-06:00

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

I bought this at a recent book sale, I forgot which, there were so many book sales lately.

Anyway, it intrigued me because it was written in the form of a young boarding schoolgirl’s diary, and it’s supposedly about her obsession with her friend, Lucy, and a girl named Ernessa whom she thinks is a vampire.

I’m not sure if I missed it, but I think this is another one of those books where you never learn the narrator’s name. If I did miss it, and someone knows her name, do let me know!

Anyway, what I like about this book is that you could say it’s a vampire story, but then again, it could also be a story about a girl with a psychological disorder. You never really get any proof or certainty, not even from the narrator herself. She’s sure Ernessa is a vampire, but she never sees anything certain or finds anything to prove it without a doubt.

I just found out that there will be a movie based on this book coming out in 2010. I think it would make a really great movie if they can stay true to the book instead of trying to cash in on all the vampire hype these days and making it a full-fledged vampire story. Let’s see what happens.

The Halloweeney Version of Thursday Thunks

2009-10-29T05:38:00.002-06:00

Ok, I’ve seen many people playing this, and I finally decided to play too, because it looked so fun! Halloween may not be the best time for me to play my first round, since Halloween isn’t that big here, but what the heck! =)

1. So Halloween is this weekend, if you haven't heard. Are you gonna open your doors up or not? Well, no, we don’t actually go ‘trick or treat’-ing here. I don’t think it’s caught on yet.

2. You better open 'em cuz I'm coming... what are you putting in my treat bag? Nothing, you ain’t getting anything from me. Sorry. =P

3. Since October is the bestest month for television (well for cable & dish subscribers it is) and there is a horror movie on at any given time of the day - are you sick of them yet? Not really, I don’t really watch much television anyway, but I *am* on a Stephen King binge with my reading. Perhaps I’ll watch the movies based on his books.

4. Which one of those movies can you watch over & over again? I don’t know. I’ll need to watch them first before I can give you the answer. =P

5. Tell us about a Halloween scare you've had.... Um, none? (Sigh, poor me, never had a real Halloween =()

6. Did you watch the old Casper cartoons when you were a youngin? Well, back then they weren't old I suppose, but I'm sure you still understand my question. Which old Casper cartoons do you mean? I watched the Casper movie with Christina Ricci and Devon Sawa, does that count?

7. Have you ever found a four-leaf clover? No, but I’d love it if I did!

8. Haunted Houses... you know, the kinds you pay to get in and they chase you with chainsaws and severed heads.... do you like 'em? No… I scare easy. I only go if a big group of friends are going with me, but even then, I stay as close to the middle of the group as I can!

9. Do you use cute cartoon type wrapping paper for Christmas presents or the not cutesy paper? Or are you one of those gift card and/or gift bag people? Why are we talking about Christmas wrapping? I thought this was the Halloweeny version of Thursday Thunks?

10. How long do boiled eggs need to stay in the boiling water before they become hard boiled eggs? And why are we talking about boiling eggs now???! =P

11. Jason is coming in through your front door... Freddy is coming through your back door... zombies are at every window of the house and Norman Bates is calling to invite you to dinner... what do you do? Well, Jason is a very good friend of mine, and I’d invite him in for sure. I don’t know anyone named Freddy, so I’d ask him if he’s sure he’s got the right house. I don’t know who’s Norman Bates either, so I probably won’t go to dinner with him. Zombies I see everyday, they can do whatever they want as long as they don’t bother me. =D

12. Did you know that the scariest part of Halloween is giving all of your Reeses Peanut Butter Cups away? What are Reeses Peanut Butter Cups?

13a. If you were to play a part of a haunted house (not the ghosts in the attic kind), what would you want to be? Perhaps it’s not very creative, but I’d like to be a witch. At least once in my life! Then maybe I’d think of taking other roles.

13b. Have you ever played a part in a haunted house? No.

14. If Thursday Thunks had a Halloween party, what do you think Kimber & Berleen would come dressed as? I second Hootin’ Anni’s answer, an evil set of siamese twins!

15. Do you cook a turkey for Thanksgiving? No, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here. I have a boring life.

16. Have you ever read a book that scared the pants off of you? Hell yeah! Stephen King’s The Shining! I don’t even want to think about it now!

17. Whats the predicted high temperature for today? I dunno… don’t really care either.

18. Have you ever howled at the moon? No… but I’ve sung to the moon, does that count? My singing sometimes sound like howling…

19.You are in an alley and a werewolf and a vampire are coming at you - one of them has to win. Which one do you want to bite you? Vampire! But I’m hoping that a vampire would be a neater biter compared to a werewolf, and depending on the myth we’re working with, I’d rather be turned into a vampire myself, than a werewolf. =)

Thinner by Stephen King

2009-10-29T04:55:00.002-06:00

Thinner by Stephen King

As most of you know by now, I’m on a Stephen King binge this year. I’ve read four this year, (not counting another two yet; The Long Walk & The Running Man) and have a lot more of his books in queue!

I bought this book because I remember my cousin Allison telling me about it many years ago. I remember she said that this book really freaked her out.

Perhaps it’s because she hadn’t read his other books at the time? Or maybe there’s just something that stood out to her in this story? I gotta ask her one day.

Anyway, she told me that this story was about this man who was cursed by a gypsy to keep getting thinner and thinner everyday until he wasted away. It didn’t matter how much he ate, he kept getting thinner.

Thinner doesn’t compare to the other King books I’d already read, but still, King is an amazing storyteller, and the story was thrilling and more than a little creepy, as his books are wont to be. It’s definitely worth reading, and the ending is great, though I can’t tell you much else or I’ll give it all away!

Wedding Preparations TT #30

2009-10-28T10:17:00.001-06:00

So we have about 3 more months before our wedding, and we’ve left so much of the planning and preparations til the last minute that now we’re rushing to get things done!

To be honest, we’re both not really the kind who cares about having a wedding at all, but as expected, we have to please our families, so we have to have one. And since we’re having one, we thought we might as well do it our way. =)

Except we’re a little bit too lazy to bother organizing it.

But we kinda have to because it’s gonna have to happen whether or not we organize it, and it’s much better if we organize it well, right? =)

So because we have to, here’s 13 of the things we have to get done for the wedding:

1. Finalize the guest list.

2. Print the invitation cards.

3. Plan the seating arrangements for our guests.

4. Hire the photographer/videographer.

5. Choose the menu for the dinner.

6. Food tasting session before the dinner.

7. Organize the performances for the evening.

8. Work out the schedule for the night.

9. Plan the wedding entrance with our entourage.

10. Choose the songs for our ‘soundtrack’.

11. Choose the deco for the venue.

12. Decide on the flowers.

13. Delegating responsibilities to our bridesmaids and best man.

I’m pretty sure we’ve got a lot more to do than this though… just can’t think of the details right now. =P

Neno’s Award

2009-10-26T01:00:00.002-06:00

Alice Audrey at Alice’s Restaurant gave me this great award. Thanks, Alice!! It’s really wonderful to be appreciated! =)

Neno’s Award—-Rules and Regulations

1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.

2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging.

3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.

4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.

5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.

6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.

7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

Why I love blogging?

So many reasons, but I think the main one is because you get to “meet” so many people in the blogosphere. You could write in a physical diary or in my case, since I like to review books, I could keep my own book of reviews, but where’s the fun in that?

When I post my reviews on a blog, I meet many more readers who love the same books as I do, and get more recommendations for other great books, and of course, sometimes we have small discussions on what we liked or disliked about a book, and I think it’s wonderful!

I’m passing this award on to:

Adelle Laudan because I love her posts and writings.

Jehara because I think she’s a very interesting person.

Molly & Andy from The Bumbles, because I think they’re such a fun couple!

Rob from The Luck Key just because he’s been an amazing friend. =)

Another 13 books I recently bought! TT #29

2009-10-14T17:45:00.002-06:00

I found out about the Penguin warehouse booksale on the final, final, final day of the sale! It was a Sunday, and I had planned to rest, and get some household stuff done, but it was the final day, and Penguin warehouse sales are the bestest!

If it was an MPH warehouse sale, or Paylessbooks warehouse sale, or any other warehouse sale, I could probably pass. But Penguin’s the best, and the last time they had a sale was in 2007 and I missed it!

You know why they’re the best? Coz they’re the cheapest. The other warehouse sales aren’t really sales at all… just more excuse for the organizers to make money. =P

So anyway….here’s what I got:

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

I forgotten exactly what this book was about, except that it’s about a Jane Austen addict. =P I bought it because I remember hearing about it a while ago and wanting to get it but not being able to.

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I recently read Love in the Time of Cholera and I loved it, and of course this is another one of his famous books. I have to admit I don’t know a single thing about what this book’s about though. =P

3.
The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg
The sub-title says, “Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy”. I like sushi, I’m interested in economy, and I love learning about the makings of everything, especially if it’s something that I eat.

4.
The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman
This book is about “the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations”, or how being disorganized can actually make you richer than if you were disorganized. A different concept from what we’ve been conditioned to believe in, and hey, I’m a terribly disorganized person, so I think I need this book!

5.
Surviving the Extremes by Kenneth Kamler
I took one look at the title and sub-title, which was, “What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Endurance”, and pretty self-explanatory, and decided I wanted to read about it.

6.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I heard many people mention this book, I remember it because of the unique title, but I still don’t know what it’s about. =P I’ve only heard good things about it so far, though, so I don’t think I’ll regret this buy. =)

7.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
And yet another book I don’t know anything about, and just bought coz they were cheap!! =P This one was the cheapest at RM5. But again, only heard good things about it, so… =)

8.
The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
I’ve been interested in anything with “labyrinth” in its title since David Bowie’s movie of the same name years and years ago. I bought this book coz of the title and because I vaguely remember hearing people talk about it.

9.
The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux
My boss read his first Theroux book a couple of weeks ago and now he’s in a Theroux phase (like I’m in my Stephen King phase), so this one was for him. =)

10.
Spontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil
Well, I don’t know how seriously to take this book, but I’m curious and I want to read it before making judgements. It’s a fascinating subject matter anyway, and since I’m interested in health of the body, mind, and soul, I think this book might have something for me.

11.
Ghost Children by Sue Townsend
I recognize the name, but wasn’t sure who she was. The book looks interesting though. It’s about aborted fetuses and selling babies to childless couples, and of course, the way it affects two particular protagonists.

12.
Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham
I read it online when it launched years ago, and I remember really enjoying it. I knew it came out on paperback but I didn’t want to buy it since I’ve read it online before. Finding it at the sale was a huge bonus!

13.
Holly’s Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham
This was a huger bonus! =) Because I’m sure this is the sequel, which I hadn’t read online, so it’s a great buy! On a side note though, I remember hearing that Holly Denham is actually a man, or something like that.

I can’t wait to dig into these books! I’m buying them faster than I can read for sure! I think I need to take a break from the book buying and start reading them first! LOL!

A Typical Day at Work TT #28

2009-10-07T10:00:00.001-06:00

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m just lazy. And really tired.

I didn’t have the time to write a better post about more interesting topics, so I’m just going to write these simple random 13 things about my new job. =)

I have to wake up at 6.30am every Monday to Friday, so that I won’t get caught in the traffic jam.
Hubby sends me to the LRT station, then I commute to work.
I leave the house at about 7.20am, and I reach the office at about 8.40am! =(
After that it’s work, work, work the whole day, although sometimes I take a toilet break or a water cooler break. =)
I don’t really get the chance to eat healthy though, the food in KL is really expensive, and there aren’t many places that offer healthy, good food.
Also, I used to eat little meals 5 times a day, now I only get 3 meals a day, because I only get one lunch hour. (LOL! Of course!)
Sometimes I only get 2 meals a day, because I run late in the mornings and have no time for breakfast. =(
I’ve started putting on inches on my waistline since eating bigger meals.
I enjoy my work a lot, but I think my biggest complaint is always being hungry and never getting good and healthy food, and also that the food is so expensive there.
I start work at 9am, and finally finish at 6pm. They don’t count lunch hour as a work hour here…=P (Hello, I’m eating more expensive and less healthy food in KL because I’m *at* work, aren’t I? It’s not like lunch hour’s a holiday for me. I hate how they exploit you to the max here.)
And then I commute home again, during rush hour when the we’re all packed like sardines in the train, and someone with halitosis is breathing down my neck. Ugh…
Finally I reach the station where hubby picks me up again, and we go to his mother’s house where dinner’s waiting.
So from 6.30am until 7pm, I’m pretty much tied down because of my job. And after that, I’m too tired to do much else.

So of course you’ll forgive me for not having a more interesting TT this week, right? =D

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

2009-10-04T06:32:00.002-06:00

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

I’ve heard and read a lot of reviews about this book, and I’d been curious about it for some time.

The reviews piqued my interest, and the subject matter looked like it would be fascinating to read about. It didn’t disappoint. Much.

The story’s about Truly Plaice, who’s born big and keeps getting bigger, apparently from a medical condition. She suffers from isolation and the cruelty of her peers because of her difference, and it doesn’t help that her older sister is the total opposite of her; petite and beautiful.

The story was good, but I felt that there could’ve been a lot more to it if the author would’ve explored further. The ending was a little anti-climatic for me, I felt that there was so much potential that wasn’t probed at and explored.

All in all, I’d say that the book is worth reading, but not particularly spectacular. Perhaps other readers will like it better than I did.

13 Recently Bought Books! TT #27

2009-09-30T17:45:00.001-06:00

You know why they’re the best? Coz they’re the cheapest. The other warehouse sales aren’t really sales at all… just more excuse for the organizers to make money. =P

So anyway….here’s what I got:

1.	Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler I forgotten exactly what this book was about, except that it’s about a Jane Austen addict. =P I bought it because I remember hearing about it a while ago and wanting to get it but not being able to.
2.	100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez I recently read Love in the Time of Cholera and I loved it, and of course this is another one of his famous books. I have to admit I don’t know a single thing about what this book’s about though. =P
3.	The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg The sub-title says, “Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy”. I like sushi, I’m interested in economy, and I love learning about the makings of everything, especially if it’s something that I eat.
4.	The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman This book is about “the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations”, or how being disorganized can actually make you richer than if you were disorganized. A different concept from what we’ve been conditioned to believe in, and hey, I’m a terribly disorganized person, so I think I need this book!
5.	Surviving the Extremes by Kenneth Kamler I took one look at the title and sub-title, which was, “What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Endurance”, and pretty self-explanatory, and decided I wanted to read about it.
6.	The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows I heard many people mention this book, I remember it because of the unique title, but I still don’t know what it’s about. =P I’ve only heard good things about it so far, though, so I don’t think I’ll regret this buy. =)
7.	Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh And yet another book I don’t know anything about, and just bought coz they were cheap!! =P This one was the cheapest at RM5. But again, only heard good things about it, so… =)
8.	The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie I’ve been interested in anything with “labyrinth” in its title since David Bowie’s movie of the same name years and years ago. I bought this book coz of the title and because I vaguely remember hearing people talk about it.
9.	The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux My boss read his first Theroux book a couple of weeks ago and now he’s in a Theroux phase (like I’m in my Stephen King phase), so this one was for him. =)
10.	Spontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil Well, I don’t know how seriously to take this book, but I’m curious and I want to read it before making judgements. It’s a fascinating subject matter anyway, and since I’m interested in health of the body, mind, and soul, I think this book might have something for me.
11.	Ghost Children by Sue Townsend I recognize the name, but wasn’t sure who she was. The book looks interesting though. It’s about aborted fetuses and selling babies to childless couples, and of course, the way it affects two particular protagonists.
12.	Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham I read it online when it launched years ago, and I remember really enjoying it. I knew it came out on paperback but I didn’t want to buy it since I’ve read it online before. Finding it at the sale was a huge bonus!
13.	Holly’s Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham This was a huger bonus! =) Because I’m sure this is the sequel, which I hadn’t read online, so it’s a great buy! On a side note though, I remember hearing that Holly Denham is actually a man, or something like that.

I can’t wait to dig into these books! I’m buying them faster than I can read for sure! I think I need to take a break from the book buying and start reading them first! LOL!

13 Reasons Why I Missed the Last 3 TTs! TT #26

2009-09-23T10:19:00.001-06:00

I missed the last three TTs, after just 3 weeks of saying I’d try not to miss them again, because I’d stopped TTs for about 3 months before that. =(

I enjoy TTs, and I really rather not miss them because they’re so fun, but when I list my reasons, you’ll see why I might not be able to play as regularly as I would like anymore. =(

So here are my 13 Reasons Why I Missed the Last 3 TTs:

We found out that an employee was stealing money from us, and we confronted her.
She denied everything, but then she ran away the next day, and we went to make a police report.
A couple of days later, another employee ran away too, she was probably in league with the first employee, so we had to make another police report.
But better news, my brother’s wife gave birth to fraternal twins on the 4th of September! =) Yayyy! Welcome Charlotte and Olivia to the world!
Then hubby and I had to prepare for another pre-wedding photo-shoot with my father and his other amateur photographer friends. They get “free” models, we get “free” pictures! =)
There were a lot of preparations involved; renting the gowns, buying the props, discussing ideas, etc.
On the 10th of Sept, I got a phone call from a company I’d submitted my resume to, and had an interview with them on the 11th.
I went for the interview and on the same day got the job! Yayyy! =) Had to start work on the 14th.
During the weekend before starting work, I was really busy because of the photo-shoot, which was on the 12th and 13th, and also finishing up my other tasks before starting work on the 14th.
My first week of work, from the 14th to the 18th, was crazy busy! I had so much to learn and do, and there were so many last minute tasks to finish! =( But I enjoy the work so far. =)
Finally the weekend came, and even better, the 21st and 22nd are public holidays, so I got some reprieve.
But I had a wedding performance on the 21st, and because there wasn’t time to practice when I started work, we did a lot of last minute practicing on Saturday and Sunday.
I finally got some time on Tuesday, except there were still some small tasks to do, and Wednesday’s back to work again.

So you see, I’ve got great reasons for missing the last 3 TTs, and depending on how things are at work later on, I might not be able to TT every week. =( I will try though, but I may only be make the rounds later on Friday/Saturday. =(

I enjoy my work and my new job, but I’m missing my freedom already!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

2009-09-21T20:43:00.002-06:00

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I’d been wanting to read this book for a long time after seeing so many people loving and recommending it.

I had no idea what the book was about though, only that it was a utopian vs. dystopian world, or something to that effect.

Well, utopia and dystopia really quite describes this book. It’s about humanity’s quest for the perfect world; always stable, always enough for everyone, and everyone happy.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite so simple. To get this particular utopia, we have to lose our freedom to think, choose, and be different. So you’ll have to wonder, is this really utopia, the perfect world? Or is it a dystopia, a hell on earth?

This is a thought-provoking read, and there are so many things I could discuss about it. Foremost on my mind, is that we’re are already living in a sort of utopia/dystopia. Not as extreme as the one that Huxley writes about, but to a degree. That is, if we recognize it.

Books like these are scary, because they’re entirely possible. It could happen if we let it. This is definitely a book everyone should read and think about.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

2009-09-07T20:54:00.002-06:00

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I watched the movie when it came out a long time ago, thinking it was a light-hearted chick-lit. Imagine how taken aback I was when I realize the somberness and tragic nature of the movie.

It made an impact on me, but perhaps I wasn’t ready to understand it yet.

Now, many years later, I read the book, thinking that maybe I’ll get more insights about it that I missed before with the movie and my young age.

Truth is, I still don’t understand much of it, but I think it’s not really meant to be understood. Perhaps Eugenides was trying to tell us how futile it is to try to put a label on the reasons for suicides. It could be any number of factors, even the person who commits suicide may not understand what compels them to do it.

I don’t claim to know anything about it, but still I wonder about it and strive to find reasons. We want to know why, even when we realize that we may never know the answer.

Suicide is a painful subject, especially for those left behind, but Eugenides tries to let us see it, in a roundabout way, from the points of view of the persons who commit suicide. We’ll never be able to see it, but still we try our best.

It’s a sobering and tragic story, but written very well. I think the most important thing about this book is that it forces you to think, and perhaps, talk, about a very painful subject.

The Shining by Stephen King

2009-09-07T06:50:00.002-06:00

The Shining by Stephen King

This is my year for King’s books! Having just read Gerald’s Game, which in my opinion is the most thrilling King book, The Stand, which is the most epic and my favorite King book, now I’ve just finished reading The Shining, which is the scariest King book!

While many of King’s books are scary in the thrilling sense, none of them scared me to the point of sleeping with the lights on. This book did.

Yes, I slept with the little light on, right after finishing it at 4am in the morning. I even woke my husband up so he could accompany me to the bathroom, which adjoins the bedroom!

I can’t help it! Monsters, serial killers, and apocalypses don’t scare me. Ok, they do, but not much. Ghosts, on the other hand, freak me out! Yikes, I can’t even write this review without getting the shivers!

Ok, very briefly now, this book is about a little boy who has the sight, called the “shining”. His father is hired to be the caretaker for The Overlook Hotel, and of course, as with every respectable hotel, it has its share of ghosts. However, The Overlook’s ghosts are a lot more sinister and dangerous than your average ghosts. So what do you get when you put a boy with the “shining” in a hotel full of malicious ghosts? A really horrifying story!

Although this was an amazing book, I’m not going to re-read it anytime soon, I can tell you that!

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

2009-08-31T11:16:00.002-06:00

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

This is another version of the Beauty and the Beast story. Rosalind Hawkins, or Rose, as she’s later called, is in a desperate situation and has to accept employment as a governess/translator/secretary to a reclusive employer, who was horribly disfigured in an accident.

Later on, we find out he’s not really disfigured in the sense we expect, but transformed into a half-lupine, half-human form. They fall in love, despite many enemies and dangers along the way.

This was a tough book to read. Not tough in the sense of challenging, but because it was a struggle to keep myself interested in it. It wasn’t boring, exactly, but it just didn’t hold my interest well.

Many times I wanted to give up on it, but it wasn’t all that bad and I did want to find out what happens in the end. Unfortunately, now I wonder if I wasn’t better off spending my time reading some other more interesting book.

The story is an interesting one, I’ve always been partial to the Beauty and the Beast story myself, and the added elements (pun intended) of magick, Masters of Elements, and the Elementals, did make the story a lot more interesting than it would’ve been.

Perhaps it was in the way the story was told. Perhaps there was too much magick history that we were subjected to, and perhaps a lot of it didn’t really make sense and weren’t very consistent. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is exactly that I don’t like about the book, but it may well be just me. I definitely hope that others who read it would like it a lot better than I did.

13 Favorite Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books : TT #25

2009-08-26T10:00:00.001-06:00

I thought it would be fun to list 13 of my favorite sci-fi & fantasy books, so in no particular order, here they are:

1. The Host by Stephanie Meyer	About aliens that invade human bodies and take over their lives. They’re not as violent as they sound and are in fact, almost too peaceful to a fault. But a few of the last humans aren’t going to give up their lives and their bodies so easily. This is a beautiful story of love and friendship that has touched my heart. Read my review here.
2. Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee	This book is actually two books in one, Biting the Sun & Drinking Sapphire Wine. It’s about a hedonistic world where everyone can do whatever they want, commit suicide and come back in a different body they design. Robots do all the work, and the protagonist, whose name we never find out, tries to find more meaning in life. Read my review here.
3. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper	This is an futuristic novel written like an epic historical one. The communities in the other planets are looking for a planet safe from the plague, where they can run to. The only planet that’s immune is Grass, so called because it’s mostly covered in Grass, but it seems the inhabitants of Grass may not be as friendly as they hoped. Read my review here.
4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman	This book is like a darker, more sinister, deeper version of Alice in Wonderland. The protagonist, Richard Mayhew, is originally from London Above, but somehow finds himself in the world of London Below, where everything’s really weird and not at all what he expects. Click here to find out more.
5. Season of Passage by Christopher Pike	This is my absolute favorite Christopher Pike book, and I worship Pike! Lauren Wagner and her crew has been sent to Mars on an expedition. Not all of them came back, and the ones who did, didn’t seem themselves. Lauren’s fiance and younger sister know something is wrong, and they have to do something even if it kills them to do it. Click here to find out more.
6. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood	This is a frightening story, mostly because it is entirely possible that one day it could happen. Similar events have happened before, after all. In this story, women are treated like animals. They are divided into classes, where some are to keep houses, and others to produce offspring. The protagonist, Offred (of Fred), tells the story of how a world like this came to be. Click here to find out more.
7. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende	I watched the movies, and I fell in love with them. Then I read the book, and fell completely head over heels in love with it. Bastian, a human child, reads The Neverending Story, and becomes the world of Fantasia’s only hope for survival. I love it! Fantasia is such a wonderful, beautiful world, with so many colorful characters! Click here to find out more.
8. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin	Oh, where do I even start with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series? Will it suffice to tell you that I’ve said many times, that if I was forced to read only one book (series count!) in my whole entire life, it would be this. Coming from an addicted reader to whom reading is like breathing, you know this book must be something good! Click here to find out more.
9. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley	This book is the story of King Arthur told primarily from the females’ perspectives. From Morgaine (Morgan le Fay) to Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), we are told about the power struggle between religion and politics, and Christianity and Pagan. One of the best books I’ve ever read and my favorite Arthurian story! Click here to find out more.
10. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger	Well, the movie has just come out (but not here in Malaysia yet), I can’t wait to see it! This is the story about a man who was born with a rare genetic defect that gives him the ability to time-travel, but through no control of his own. His wife suffers his sudden disappearances and absences, but their love endures despite it all. Heartbreaking and very moving. Click here to find out more.
11. Sunshine by Robin McKinley	One of the best vampire stories I’ve ever read. Robin McKinley is one of my favorite fantasy authors, and this is my favorite book from her by far. There’d been a lot of books lately about human girls falling for handsome vampires, but a lot of them are too corny for my taste. This is one of the better ones. Read my review here.
12. The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman	My brother started me on these books and I loved them. He’s a huge Dragonlance fan and have almost every book in the series. While I loved the stories too, there are way too many of them for me to read, and I’m the sort who needs variety. However, you can’t call yourself a fan of fantasy unless you’ve read The Dragonlance Chronicles at least. These are; 1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight 2. Dragons of Winter Night 3. Dragons of Spring Dawning
13. Un Lun Dun by China Mieville	Similar with, but lighter than, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, this is another story about an alternate world of London where nothing is like what it seems. This book can be scary and exciting, and I enjoyed all the imaginative and creative things that Mieville came up with. Read my review here.

Night Mare by Piers Anthony

2009-08-25T20:56:00.002-06:00

Night Mare by Piers Anthony

The first time I read a book by Piers Anthony, I was 14, and I couldn’t finish the book because someone stole it! I remember really enjoying the book and being frantic when the book disappeared (I was in school, i left it on my desk, and when I came back it was gone!).

The worst thing was I couldn’t remember the author’s name at the time, and I could only remember the word “gargoyle” on the title. So I spent more than 10 years wondering what book it was and if I could ever get it back.

I’m not sure how I found it, but finally I discovered that the book I’d been missing for so long was Piers Anthony’s Geis of the Gargoyle. So I got a copy from Bookmooch.com, and I read it, and loved it! I usually don’t like to read books in a series because there are too many to read and I simply don’t have the interest to read them all!

But the great thing about Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels, is that you don’t have to read all of them to enjoy a few of them. I’ve read two of them now, and my enjoyment of both wasn’t diminished just because I didn’t read the other books for backstories.

Night Mare can be enjoyed in and of itself, and I personally loved it. I thought it was hilarious! I love Piers Anthony’s humor and creativity, and of course, the puns, since Xanth is a world made up of puns!

More books by Piers Anthony:

Twins TT #24

2009-08-19T10:00:00.001-06:00

I’d just finished reading The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper, and the book featured twins, so I thought I’d do a TT on twins this week.

13 facts about twins:

Feodor Vassiliev of Shuya, Russia gave birth to the most sets of twins; 16 sets (in addition to 7 sets of triplets & 4 sets of quadruplets). She had a total of 69 children(born between 1725-1765), 67 of whom survived infancy.
Mrs. Peggy Lynn gave birth to Hanna on November 11 1995 and twin Eric on Feb 2 1996, 84 days later, the longest interval between twins.
The oldest female twins in the world were Japan's Kin Narita and Gin Kanie who were born August 1 1892. Kin passed away on January 23 2000 from heart failure at the age of 107, and Gin passed away February 28 2001 at 108.
The oldest females in the USA were most likely Alice Grubb Hill and Maggie Grubb Lambeth of North Carolina were born January 13 1884, and both died at 106.
The oldest male twins ever were Eli and John Phipps born February 14 1803. Eli lived to 108 years, 9 days. They are also the USA's longest lived male twins.
The world's first test tube twins are Stephen and Amanda Mays born June 5 1981.
The most identical twins are John and William Reiff of Pennsylvania, who have won a record 22 titles in a most identical contest. They have had a 13 year winning streak (57-96).
The youngest mother of twins is Donna Dowman of England, conceived twins at 13 and had Rachel and Rebecca at age 14 in 1997. Nicola Doherty of England had her twins Courteney and Caitlyn April 20 1997 when she was 14.
The youngest father of twins is James Sutton of England, who was 13 when his girlfriend Sarah Drinkwater (age 17) had identical twins Leah and Louise in late 1999.
The oldest mother of twins is Lin Fu-mei of Taiwan, who apparently had twins at age 59. Judy Cates of the USA had twins at age 58. Lynne Bezant of England had twins David and Susan on May 24 2001 at age 56. Marilyn Nolen had twins Travis and Ryan on March 22 2000 at age 55.
Twins run in my family! One of my aunts was born a twin, her twin died as a child in a car accident. I also have cousins who are fraternal twins, a boy and a girl.
My brother’s wife is now pregnant with twin girls!
They’re due on the last week of August! Very soon now! =)

The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper

2009-08-17T19:10:00.002-06:00

The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper

I’d been a huge fan of Tepper’s ever since I read Beauty, which was one of the most amazing fairy-tale retellings I’d ever read.

Since then, I’ve read only this book and Grass, and I am so amazed by her ability to weave such complex worlds in her books.

In The Margarets, humans on Earth have exhausted Earth’s natural resources with overpopulation and indifference, to the point that the intergalactic government have decided that something has to be done to control the population, or some other entities will decide to destroy all humans instead, to preserve Earth.

Humans try to negotiate with the other beings, but the only resource they have an abundance of are people, so they export their children out as bondslaves.

Margaret is one of them… Or should I say, she is seven of them. Margaret was the only human child living on one of the colonies, and to keep loneliness away, she created six imaginary companions, who are all aspects of herself. As she grows up, one by one, these companions are separated from her.

They go on to live different lives in different planets around the galaxy, but it is crucial to the human race that the Margarets find one another again.

As I’ve said, I love Tepper’s complex worlds, she gives so much details of the background, the places, and all the different inhabitants of the planets. I also love her characters; all the Margarets, so different yet so similar, and the other colorful characters, including the vile but so interesting K’Famirs.

Because her stories are so complex, it’s sometimes hard to dive into them, but once you’re in, you’re completely engrossed, and they’re always worth it.

MIA : TT #23

2009-08-12T10:07:00.001-06:00

Wow, the last time I did a T13 was on May 7th, over 3 months ago!! I had no idea it was so long ago! Time really flies, doesn’t it?

So anyway, since I’d been MIA so long on T13, I thought the most appropriate T13 for me today, after not doing one for so long, is:

13 Reasons why I’ve been MIA on T13:

Planning my wedding guest list, not as easy as I thought it would be!
Preparing and taking our pre-wedding photographs. Still have a lot to do and prepare for, before the second shoot.
Writing and recording our new and old original songs. Also planning for the homemade music videos. =)
Studying Chinese! I’ve been learning Chinese on my own, and reading Chinese comic books to help me learn. That’s another reason why there’ve been less book reviews here, I’ve been reading less English books.
Studying for my double degree in Holistic Nutrition and Natural Health. So interesting, but the projects are time-consuming.
Preparing our documents and other necessary information for our immigration application to Canada.
Learning and practicing new songs, and performing at weddings and other events.
Working on our upcoming site for our music and other related info.
There’s been a lot of babies popping out from our friends and relatives, so I’ve been busy crocheting baby stuff for them too!
Oh, I recently started writing snail mail to new penpals. Haven’t had a penpal since I was 12, and really loving having things in the mail to look forward to.
Started playing badminton again, because I realized I’m sedentary most of the time and need some exercise to keep fit.
Ok, ok! I’ll admit it! I’d been twittering a lot too. =P
And I’m just plain terrible at time management. =(

I’ll try to do better with T13s, because honestly, I’ve missed it so much! I miss visiting everyone’s T13s and coming up with ideas for my own. It’s too much fun for me to stop, so I’m back, and I’ll be as regular as I possibly can!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

2009-08-11T23:08:00.002-06:00

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

This book is one of my favorite books. I haven’t done an official “poll” yet, but I would venture to say that it might be in my top 10 list of favorite books!

The first time I read this book was the year the movie came out, in 2002. I read the book before I knew the movie was coming out, and I fell in love with the book. (I hated the movie, by the way, it’s so meaningless compared to the book!)

This is a huge book, over 1000 pages, and this was the only book I’d ever devoured so intensely which was more than 350 pages long! I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat for most of the book, and even more towards the later part of the book.

There were so many twists and surprises in the story, and so much pain and anguish, but with a sort of sadism, we can’t help but watch all this happen with glee and a “Well, it serves them right!” attitude even while we are also saying “Oh, no! Oh my gosh! Oh, those poor things!”

If you haven’t read this yet, I’m jealous! You’ll get to read it and savor it the first time, because honestly, the first time’s the best. After that, the book’s still good, but since you already know what’s going to happen, it loses a lot of its shock-factor.

This is the third time I’m reading the book again, after about 5 years, and it’s great because I’ve forgotten much of it and can enjoy it over again, but still… nothing beats the first time.