The Girl on the Landing by Paul Torday

Ever once in a while you stumbled upon a book which isn't recommended by anyone.  You just feel like picking up the book and give it a go.  Well, that's what happened to me for this particular book.  I'm not a fan of 'clever ' book but this one is and I'm so glad I chose it. 

This was read in July, 2011.  Yup, I know I have issues with updating my reads for the blog.

p83 It was like living with a someone for 10 years, you thought worked in a tobacconist's shop and then finding out that he was a nuclear physicist.

The novel begins as Michael, a middle-aged man of means, is dressing for dinner at a friend's country house in Ireland. As he descends the grand staircase, he spots a small painting of a landing with an old linen press and the white marble statue of an angel. In the background is a woman clad in a dark green dress. During dinner, Michael comments on the painting to his hosts but they say there is no woman in the picture. When Michael goes up to bed later, he sees that they are correct. This is only the first in a series of incidents that lead Michael to question his grip on reality. His wife Elizabeth is unsettled by the changes she sees in a man she originally married because he was dependable and steady, not because she loved him. Suddenly she is aware that she has never really known Michael and as he changes, she sees glimpses of someone she could fall in love with. Michael, in the meantime, is disturbed by events up at his family's ancestral home in the wilds of Scotland and by a past that he is threatening to destroy everything, and everyone, he has ever loved.

Oh and did I mention that apart from being clever this book is also creepy ... ? (Twilight zone theme, is most appropriate now)

p293 Elizabeth ran back to the house, slammed and locked the door.  Her  3 bars mobile signals suddenly disappeared 

I had to stop reading to catch my breath.  Too terrified to read.  Fearing for Elizabeth.  That's how good or scary the writing is.

p304 Lamia is a Greek word means greedy, female demon.  part woman part serpent and drank the blood of men.  

So now you know.

This was a fast read for me.  It's a psychological thriller which if I knew from the start I would not have chosen it but choose it I did and it didn't disappoint at all. In fact, I enjoyed it very much.  Like the cover said, its clever (think Sixth Sense movie) and gripping.

ps/Sharin if you are reading this, this book is not for you

Having a Coke with You by Frank O'Hara

I never knew this poem before nor do I know who the author is. It was mentioned in the movie Beastly which I just recently watched and I looked it up. And when I saw the the author read it, I immediately fell in like with it.  Like at first sight.  If you may call it as such  ^_^

So enjoy.



HAVING A COKE WITH YOU
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it's in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven't gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn't pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

—Frank O'Hara

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.

This book was my read in June last year.  I love Dan Brown books.  Maybe because I'm always fascinated with fictions that interlace with facts, history and religion.  I know there are plenty of books out there with the same genre but let just say I'm sort of loyal.

I was planning to visit a girlfriend in Washington last year so reading this book was aptly and I also plan to take the book tour.  So there I was busy jotting down all the must-not-miss places to see from the book.  Alas the visit didn't materialized due to my work commitment but finished the book I did.  Perhaps, one day.

Back to the book.  Although it was fast paced for me but it didn't capture my interest as much as I thought it would be.  I have high hopes for this book, perhaps that was the reason.  Nevertheless, I like all the quotes and captions I found thru out the book - as usual.

p58 We all fear what we do not understand
me: like other religion and culture

p112 Knowledge is a tool.  And like all tools, its impact is in the hands of the user

p143 Alcohol came from an Arabic word al-kuhl

p537 Avrah Ka Dabra = abacadabra = I create as I speak
me: magic ^_^

p596 Albert Pike - what we have done for ourselves alone, dies with us.  What we have done for others and the world, remains and is immortal.

At one point, the book sort of lost me and I couldn't care much about how the story ends but I did enjoy all the many infos especially the history behind the words and monuments in DC.  All are saved for my 'perhaps one day' visit to Washington.

Without wax
me

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

I really want to like this book even before I read it.  I can anticipate myself making a connection to at least one out of the four female protagonists or even to all four.  After all, I am inspire to be a housewife one fine day.  Yup, you read me right.

The book is about 4 women who leave their careers to embrace motherhood and before you knew it 10 years had lapsed. What was meant to be temporary dragged to a decade ...

It's like the snooze in an alarm clock.  No matter how many times, the alarm screams at us, we can always find time for 5 min more (or in my case 9 min more) of sleep.  I'm not surprise that motherhood and marriage can make a decade of time flew off just like that.  

Alas, it didn't happened.  I mean the connection, that I hoped for between the characters and me.  

I like the idea of the story but it didn't engage me.  I found the story to be too narrative and sometimes too real for me to enjoy.  And at the end I struggled to finish the book.  But thanks to a short holiday to the island of Tioman where I purposely took only this book with me so I can finish it.  Limited access to internet on the island helps too.

ps/finished reading the book on June 9, 2011

Scent of a Woman - Korean Drama

After Secret Garden and subsequently World's Within mainly due to Hyun Bin the actor, I don't have much options of any interesting drama to watch.  But it was better that way bcos I'm easily influenced.
Anyways, I found about this drama and was hooked on it.  Storyline is not out of the ordinary.  Its pretty straight forward or rather common but I guess that why it works.  This time the writer stick to the original sappy story.  Rich, about to be engage (to a gorgeous, mean girl) guy fell for an ordinary girl who happened to be his ex-employee and he doesn't know that she has only 5 months to live.  And how their path crossed is because she has a bucket list to fulfill.  The drama is called Scent of a Woman because it followed the Hollywood movie with the same title whereby there was a tango scene by Al Pacino.  And of cos our terminally sick girl wants to learn to dance the sexy dance of tango as one of her bucket list.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for all this melodramatic, romantic, love story.  So since I can't wait for the episodes to be shown on tv plus I usually don't get the tv remote at the said time so I have to turn to the internet.  Bless the www.

The two main actors came down to KL to promote the drama recently which was how I got to know about it.  The famous OST for the drama is You Are So Beautiful sang by Kim Junsu from the band TVXQ who also made a cameo in this drama but I prefer this track.  I just learned that the singer is Kim Dong Wook and it is aptly titled Bucket List.

Until the next drama. 

A Thousand Years by Christina Perry

Happy 2012 people!!

Hope you enjoyed your new year eve. I didn't do anything special but family and I had supper at 1am at our favorite 'mamak stall'. So today is a late new year for the whole household.

Opening the blog for the first day of 2012 is this haunting tune. I have yet to watch Breaking Dawn the 4th sequel to the Twilight series. I'm gonna get the DVD. Soon I hope.

So here's wishing 2012 to be the best year yet for everybody. Enjoy the song.

 

The blog that use to be known as

Confession of a thirty something.
Hah, I wish!  Last I checked I was no longer thirty-something in August this year ^_^
So the change of the blog title is inevitable.  And since I'm changing the title, why not change the whole layout right?  So here I am after more than 2 hours trying to figure out Blogger's new dashboard layout and how do I make these changes, so pls, pls, bear with me if you encounter a half cook blog here.  I'm doing my best.  So here's hoping you stick with me and I see you around.  Soon. I hope.
PS/ apparently you can choose how you want to view my blog from the drop down menu (on the left).  So the choice is in your finger or mouse.