Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

I read this book in Oct 2011.  It has been sometime so here I'm sharing Goodreads summary of the story.

Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing, she has answered an ad to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards's two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened. 

I read Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve before but wasn't impressed by it.  I wondered why it appeared on Oprah's Book Club.  Then I saw this title at my favorite discount bookstore and thought I gave the author another try and bought it.  At pp 48 the story has yet to get me engaged.  Fortunately I wrote too soon.  Take back my words.  It turned out that I enjoyed this book after the initial 48 pages.  Much better than the Pilot's Wife.   Shreve weaves a story about marriage, family, and the courage it takes to love.  

The good experience from this read lead me to another Shreve's novel which now already added into my to read list.  When to read is a different story.

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

At page 4, a thought crept subcontiously into my mind - I think I'm gonna like this book which I believe is a good sign to both reader's and book.

Arlene has spent the last ten years of her life in Chicago as she tries to forget the events that led up to her departure of her childhood home in Possett, Alabama.  She has changed her life around as she no longer will sleep with any man that walks through the door and has received a great education that will give her a stable future.  So far she has kept her promise and so does God.  Things are about to change for Arlene when her African-American boyfriend Burr is ready to take their relationship to a new level.  He has raised the ultimatum: introduce him to her family or consider him gone. Arlene loves him dearly but knows her lily white (not to mention deeply racist) Southern Baptist family will not understand her relationship.  As she and Burr embark on the long-avoided road trip back home, Arlene digs through guilt and deception, her patched-together alibi begins to unravel and she discovers how far she will go for love and a chance at redemption.

Although Arlene cited many examples of how ruthless her Aunt Flo is but I have a feeling that she's exaggerating it until I reached pp160-161 where Aunt Flo 'wiped clean' traces of Arlene from her shared room with Clarice (Arlene's cousin).  As if she never existed.

But come to think of it, what happened to Wayne's (Clarice's brother) dog and their neighbor's hen as a result of Aunt Flo's rage were equally horrifying too.

This book is full of sassy humor and family dark secrets were revealed one by one.  I enjoyed the book and it was a fast read.

I'm going to leave you with this line I got from the book 'If you keep the truth to yourself, it becomes a lie to everyone else'.  Hmm, think about it.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

If you come to me in company with a purple lion, a green elephant and a scarlet unicorn astride which was the King of England in his Royal Robes, I do believe that it is you and you alone that people would stare at, dismissing the others as minor irrelevances - p113

Picture that.  Seriously!  Somehow the paragraph got me laughing out loud.

It's post - Halloween (by 10 days or so) and I'm posting an entry which fits the occasion though late.  I guess by now it's not a surprise if I were to say that the book was read in early September LAST YEAR.  I haven't been updating my reads for the longest time.  So I'm now depending on my scribbles on the small multicolored (in this occasion they are in bright orange) notepads to remind me of the story.  What I've got so far apart from the paragraph above is that story is about a boy (named Bod short for NoBODy Owen) who was raised by ghosts in the cemetery.  As a toddler, he found his adopted ghost parents & guardians (or was it the ghosts found him?) when he escaped murder in his own house which killed his parents.

There are many interesting ghostly characters in the story.  Many whom initially appear to be scary but actually are good hearted.  But few are soulless downright scary) too.  And how sometimes the real (outside the graveyard compound) world is more dangerous for a growing up boy.  Particularly when there's someone or something out there wants to kill you when you are still a baby.  In many fantasy children's book there's always a character or two (whether willingly or not) that kinda look after the young protagonist and in this story its Silas (like Dumbledore or Hagrid in looking out for Harry Porter).  So Silas trained Bod or granted him special powers to allow him to embrace the graveyard as his home and introduce him to other 'tutors' to prepare him for the outside world.

You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.

This is my first book by Neil Gaiman.  I knew about him after after watching Caroline which to me was pretty scary.  This was an okay book for me.  I'm not really drawn to any of the characters.  Anyways I like the idea of the story.  See how you like it.

One Day by David Nicholls

I'm exactly one year behind in updating the books that I've read.  This book was read during raya holiday last year (12 months ago) and I'm now in the current raya holiday.  Time do flies - with the speed of light ...

Anyways back to the book.  I didn't realize I had the book until I saw the movie's still ad in Goodreads and realize that somehow the title sounds familiar.  A rummage thru my unread list cupboard proved I was right.  Based on previous experience, whereby I watched a movie based on (already owned) book, I tend not to read it.  So to avoid that I quickly read this one.

The storyline of One Day is not new.  A story of 2 people which expands for twenty years.  Mostly its funny but also moving.  Really I can imagine Anne Hathaway playing Emma Morby character.  In fact I'm picturing her all the way as I'm reading the book.  Back then I didn't know who will play Dexter Mayhew which kept me wondering and trying to put a face to the character.  

Emma and Dexter characters remind me of this movie called Before Sunset which was a sequel to Before Sunrise starring Ethan Hawke (I didn't watch Before Sunrise).  Its about two characters whom are in denial of their feelings to each other and choose to suffer through out the years.  "I love you but I just don't like you anymore" kind of stuff.

One Day was a fast read for me but I didn't expect the ending as such.  Since I'm a sucker for romantic comedy movie (but not in books) so I'm looking forward to the movie.

Eid Mubarak 2012

Amir Ishak clan

I think I should rename my blog as do you remember me?  It has been so long since I last post anything at all.

So before I miss Aidil Fitri altogether, here is the photos compilation of the recent celebration at my in-laws place in Ipoh.  After several years of not celebrating our 1st raya there, this year we (my family) did.

I've tried to upload the video into YouTube but after countless attempts which I'm too lazy to elaborate here but let just say it forced me to abandon the task but I found another way of uploading it onto this blog but unfortunately the pics quality are not HD (high definition) enough in the video.  Meaning the more beau tee effect in the photos doesn't work here :p Sorry.

Anyways enjoy the video.

Salam Aidil Fitri & Maaf Zahir Batin.

The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

Everything can be told.  It's just a matter of starting, one word follows another - Javier Marias (A Heart So White)

p36 Hakawati - teller of tales, myths & fables (hekayat)

This book is a gem and the author is a genius.  There were many plots and subplots.  Stories within stories. Fables and myths mixed with current tales.  Many, many interesting characters but never once was I lost.  I understood the story perfectly well even after I have to put it away for a while ~ to attend to life's reality.  That's how good the book was.

The story is about a young man Osama al-Kharrat who returned to war torn Beirut to be with his family (near and extended) and his dying father.

p7 I was a tourist in a bizarre land.  I was home.

When Osama was with his family and friends, standing vigil at his father's deathbed, they turned to the things that gave them solace - gossip, laughter and above all, stories.

... stories do not belong only to those who were present or to those who invent them.  Once a story has been told, it's everyone's, it becomes common currency, it gets twisted and distorted; no story is told the same way twice or in quite the same words, not even if the same person tells the story twice, not even if there is only ever one storyteller - Javier Marias

Osama was reminded of why and how his grandfather became al-Kharrat (the fibster) and along the stories that he learned to tell, Osama's own family tales were also a fascinating real time drama.

On p292, one of my favorite character who was Osama's uncle (his father's youngest brother) died.  He was such a colorful and interesting character that I felt disappointed when he died in an uneventful death.  Just like that and he's gone.

Like I've mentioned earlier there were many incorporation of old tales and fables of the Arabian Nights into this book which many I haven't heard before this but characters or rather their names were familiar to me.  Maybe because I knew them from the local version of the 1001 tales of the Arabian Nights, once upon a time ago when I was young

The Hakawati is funny, captivating and enchanting from its very first line, “Listen. Let me take you on a journey beyond imagining. Let me tell you a story."

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