The Relaxed Ravenous Reader

I'm a bibliophile and also a librocubicularist Things I reviewed here are the books I've read in English only, but since it's not my native, pardon my poor grammar.

An Experience with the Archilles's Heel

Big Nate Goes for Broke - Lincoln Peirce, Sasha Illingworth

Title: Big Nate Goes for Broke

Series: Big Nate Novels #4

Author: Lincoln Peirce

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: Mar 20th 2012

Page Number: 220 pages

 

Blurb

 

Mighty Jefferson Middle School always wins. Then Nate decides it's time to go from zeroes to heroes! Will Nate crack under the pressure of of the "Ultimate Snowdown"? Or lead P.S. 38 to its biggest victory yet?

 

For fans of the hilarious Diary of a Wimpy Kid series: Meet BIG NATE, notorious class clown and definitely NOT the teacher's pet.

 

What I Thought

What a great junior novel Big Nate is!! This volume has strong messages. I believe when my kids read it someday they'll get something in it.

 

And my favorite character in this book is Dee Dee!

 

Favorite Lines

Everybody has the archilles's heel. Anybody can be beaten.

 

Archilles's Heel

Before The Romance Started

The New Hunger - Isaac Marion

Title: The New Hunger

Series: Warm Bodies #0.5

Author: Isaac Marion

Publisher: Zola Books

Publication Date: Jan 28th 2013

Page Numbers: 105 pages

 

Blurb

 

The end of the world didn’t happen overnight.

 

After years of societal breakdown, wars and quakes and rising tides, humanity was already near the edge. Then came a final blow no one could have expected: all the world’s corpses rising up to make more.

 

Born into this bleak and bloody landscape, twelve-year-old Julie struggles to hold on to hope as she and her parents drive across the wastelands of America, a nightmarish road trip in search of a new home.

 

Hungry, lost, and scared, sixteen-year-old Nora finds herself her brother’s sole guardian after her parents abandon them in the not-quite-empty ruins of Seattle.

And in the darkness of a forest, a dead man opens his eyes. Who is he? What is he? With no clues beyond a red tie and the letter “R,” he must unravel the mystery of his existence–right after he learns how to think, how to walk, and how to satisfy the monster howling in his belly...

 

What I Thought

This novella-length book claimed as the sequel of Warm Bodies, even though I found the line

"Isaac Marion is currently working on the sequel of the Warm Bodies"

There was R and Julie, of course. But the main characters were Nora Greene and his brother, Addis. I love these siblings relationship, I love how they strengthened each other. And the skeletons part in the ford was scary enough. This is the story when Julie finally met Nora, when R met M. This is the story before the romance started.

 

Opening Lines

A dead man lies near a river, and the forest watches him. Gold clouds drift across a warming pink sky. Crows dart through the trees—dark pines and cedars that hover over the dead man like morbid onlookers. In the deep, wild grass, small living things creep around the dead man’s face, eager to eat it and return it to the soil. Their faint clicks mingle with the rush of the wind and the screams of the birds and the roar of the river that will wash away his bones. Nature is hungry. It is ready to take back what the man stole from it by living.

 

But the dead man opens his eyes.

 

My review of Warm Bodies

The Oil Jar and Other Stories -- Classic Short Stories

The Oil Jar and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) - Luigi Pirandello

Title: The Oil Jar and Other Stories

Author: Luigi Pirandello

Publisher: Dover Publications

Publication Date: Apr 13th 2012

Page Numbers: 98 pages

 

Blurb

Celebrated title story plus "Little Hut," "Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-in-Law," "Citrons from Sicily," "With Other Eyes," "A Voice," and 5 other tales from the 1934 Nobel Prize-winning author.

 

What I Thought

I have a trouble to finished this book. Despite it is classic, these stories getting more and more frustrated. I wonder, would I have different perspective if I understand Italian and read this pieces in it's original language, since I read the English version?

 

For now, I jist think that this book is not my taste, even I found some stories were interesting

A Robot That Save A Life

A Robot In The Garden - Deborah Install

Title: A Robot In The Garden

Author: Deborah Install

Publisher: Transworld Digital

Publication Date: Apr 23rd 2015

Page Numbers: 288 pages

 

Blurb

Warm-hearted fable of a stay-at-home husband who learns an important lesson in life when an unusual creature enters his life.

With all the charm and humour of THE ROSIE PROJECT and ABOUT A BOY mingled with the heart-swelling warmth of PADDINGTON BEAR MOVIE.

A story of the greatest friendship ever assembled.

Ben Chambers wakes up to find something rusty and lost underneath the willow tree in his garden. Refusing to throw it on the skip as his wife Amy advises, he takes it home

 

What I Thought

What a wonderful and warm-hearted story! Even there was a robot in it, it didn't give me headache 'coz of technology explanations. Yes..this story is more like a family drama rather than a sci-fi.

There's more to him than a metal box [page. 190]

In the end of this book, I believe everybody would love Tang. An escaped robot, the oldest model, but has a 'special' thing. He developed. And it helped our hero, Ben Chamber, fixed his broken life, accidentally. I love how Deborah Install described Ben as a phlegmatic, jobless and lack of will to reached something in his life (even though he took veteranian surgeon as his major). We could guess the ending, but still....I feel it's a good ending. I love it. I smiled, I laughed and I cried within the journey of Ben and Tang.

No, Ben is not leaking. Ben is healing [page. 179]

 

Opening Lines:

"There's a robot in the garden," my wife, Amy, informed me

 

Life at The Seville of Roxy Apartement from A Goldfish's Eyes

Fishbowl - Bradley Somer

Title: Fishbowl

Author: Bradley Somer

Publisher: Ebury Press (Fiction)

Publication Date: Aug 6th 2015

Page Numbers: 320 pages

 

Blurb

Told through the eyes of a goldfish named Ian, who is currently falling from the twenty-seventh floor balcony of an apartment building, this novel follows an eclectic cast of characters on one single day.A quirkily charming, highly original and philosophically joyful novel with the unlikeliest of heroes. This is Tales of the City as seen by a goldfish.

There is the handsome grad student, his girlfriend, and his mistress; the building’s superintendent who feels invisible and alone; the pregnant woman on bed rest; and the home-schooled boy, Herman, who thinks he can travel through time. In this one building are stories of love, new life and death; and of learning that sometimes taking a risk is the only way to move forward…

 

What I Thought
This is my first reading experience in a novel with a summary of the whole book as the last chapter. No, I don't mind at all. It's pretty unique, so does the book itself. The blurb said about the sight in a goldfish POV and yes...I got it. But not for the whole book. This book offered me more than a sight from a goldfish, but this book brought me to peeked some residents of Seville of Roxy apartment out.

In this book, we would met Jimenez, the superintendent. He was invisible, even he could fixed the elevator and leaked fawcet. There also Garth, a misterious guy who introduced as a guy-who-bought-a-package. Then we found The Villain Connor Radley (who I pictured as Adam Levine of Maroon 5 :D) with his affair, the Evil Seductress Faye. The victim of both of them was Katie, our heroine. Ian, the goldfish, was a gift from Katie to Connor, to substituted Connor's dog which die long time ago. There also home-schooled boy named Herman, who did heroic thing for the pregnant lady, Petunia Delilah after his unconsciousness, and with the help of Claire, a lady who worked in the sexphone company who has OCD. This book told the stories of them all in one day.


Favorite Lines:
Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes that reason is a choice that was made, sometimes that reason is serendipity and sometimes it's divine. Life cascades on it's respose. [page.293]

A New Hope for A Flood Survival

The Minnow - Diana Sweeney

Title: The Minnow

Author: Diana Sweeney

Publisher: Text Publishing

Publication Date: May 28th 2014

Page Numbers: 256 pages

 

Blurb:

Tom survived a devastating flood that claimed the lives of her sister and parents. Now she lives with Bill in his old shed by the lake. But it’s time to move out—Tom is pregnant with Bill’s baby.


Jonah lets her move in with him. Mrs Peck gives her the Fishmaster Super Series tackle box. Nana is full of gentle good advice and useful sayings.

And in her longing for what is lost, Tom talks to fish: Oscar the carp in the pet shop, little Sarah catfish who might be her sister, an unhelpful turtle in a tank at the maternity ward. And the minnow.

The Minnow is a moving and powerful coming of age story with a whimsical element that belies the heartbreaking truth of grief and loss. Tom is a character you will never forget.
 

 

What I Thought:

Well, what should I say. As an award winner book, I know that this book has 'something'. Maybe the basic idea. The way Tom continued her life after losing her family and her pregnancy in the age of fifthteen, I believe it gave the reader a 'thing'. But the story itself went anticlimax for me. Until the end of the book (at least in this copy that I received), I still didn't know what did Bill do until the cops looked for him and also when Tom's mom sounded waiting for Tom to be awaked. What did actually happened? I was afraid that I probably missed some clues, but I realized I didn't want to re-opened it to searched one by one. 

Another complaint for me, who's actually Tom's baby name? 'The Minnow'? Why did on earth you name a little girl 'Minnow' with the? I just didn't get it. Or maybe, this book is not for me, even though I love the basic idea.

 

Opening Lines

I think Bill is in love with Mrs Peck,’ I confide to an undersized blue swimmer crab that has become all tangled up in my line. 

A Story of A Wikiblogger

Something Wiki - Suzanne  Sutherland

Title: Something Wiki

Author: Suzanne Sutherland

Publisher: Dundurn Group

Publication Date: Jan 27th 2015

Page Numbers: 160 pages

 

Blurb

 Jo Waller has three brainy friends, two mostly harmless parents, and friends, two mostly harmless parents, and one deep, dark secret: she edits Wikipedia for fun. But when her 24-year-old brother moves back home with his pregnant girlfriend, Jo is forced to reconcile the idealized version of her absent, cool older brother with the reality of romantic relationships and the truth behind so many embarrassing health class videos.

 

With the young couple moving back into the family home, there's barely enough room for anyone to move, let alone have any privacy. Throw in some major friendship turbulence, a seriously unrequited crush, and a mortifyingly bad haircut, and it's looking like Jo will be lucky to make it out of the year alive. When you're a pizza-faced dork who uses Wikipedia as a diary and would rather wear ancient hand-me-downs than shop at the mall, what's the upside? Jo is about to find it in the most unlikely way

 

What I Thought

Being twelve is sucks!


When Jo's bestfriend stole, when her cool bro suddenly announced that his girlfriend just pregnant and her zist getting crazier. And Jo wrote her diary into wikipedia (a smart way to used the edit button, but she erased it right after wrote it down) instead created blogs or wrote it down in facebook (I can't help for those who being so dramatic in ANY social media).

This book is about Jo's daily life. Her school life, her life at home and the problem usually twelve girl had (BFF, family, boys and...zist :D). My fave character is Jen (from Jenevive, not Jennifer) the pregnant girlfriend. I just felt like she would be a great big sist also a cool mother. The theme in every chapter also cleverly put in some paragraf that cited from wikipedia, with a lil bit edited by Jo. This is usual theme in preteen books, but it has unusuall way to write it (and the idea to used wikipedia in this way also kinda cool)....IMO :)

 

Opening Lines

ACNE VULGARIS

 

from Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia

(as edited by me

 

Acne vulgaris (or cystic acne, a.k.a looking like total greaseball) is a common pretty nasty human skin disease, characterized by areas of skin with seborrhea (scaly red skin -- ew), comedones (blackheads and whiteheads -- sick), papules (pinheads -- gross), pustules (pimples --duh), nodules (large papules -- which sounds like some kind of walrus), and possibly, scaring (oh, great).

Magic at The Sea

The Witch of Salt and Storm - Kendall Kulper

Title: The Witch of Salt and Storm

Author: Kendall Kulper

Publisher: Orchard Books

Publication Date: Sep 4th 2014

 

Blurb

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the sea witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe and prosperous at sea. But before she could learn how to control her power, her mother - the first Roe woman in centuries to turn her back on magic - steals Avery away from her grandmother. Avery must escape before her grandmother dies, taking with her the secrets of the Roe's power. 


The one magical remnant left to Avery is the ability to read dreams, and one night she foresees her own murder. Time is running short, both for her and for the people of her island who need the witches' help to thrive.

Avery has never read a dream that hasn't come true, but a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane tells her he can help her change her fate. Becoming a witch may prevent her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers it will also require a sacrifice she never expected. And as she falls in love with Tane, she learns it is his life and hers that hang in the balance.

A sweeping romance with a spellbinding twist - from a talented new voice in YA fiction.

 

What I Thought 

The writing style lil bit confused me. It was good actually and the plot also built so strong. The setting of Roe Island also stunning. But I can't enjoyed this book as much as I expected.

 

I didn't enjoy it as I want.

 

Opening Lines

Despite my mother's best efforts, I never forgot the day when my grandmother taught me how to tie the winds. That was ten years ago, when Prince Island was more than just a rock out in the Atlantic Ocean, when its docks choked with ships, when the factory furnaces spat out the constant steam of laughing men, their faces round and shiny.

People With Brains Way Cooler

Dork in Disguise - Carol Gorman

Title: Dork in Disguise

Author: Carol Gorman

Publisher: Open Road Media Young Readers

Publication Date: Aug 5th 2014

Page Numbers: 102 pages

 

Blurb

At his new school, Jerry Flack is determined to stop being a dork and start being a cool guy—but does this science nerd really have what it takes to be popular? 


Jerry Flack is starting middle school in a new town where no one knows him and he can be anybody he wants. Jerry has a plan: He is finally going to be cool. But that turns out to be easier said than done. As his lies begin to pile up, Jerry knows he’s going to slip up soon, and everyone will see him for who he really is.

Can Jerry keep the act going? Or is it possible that a dork can actually be . . . well, cool?

 

What I Thought

Being cool is everything, especially for nowadays pre-teen. And the cool thing usually identic with the Beautiful People and sports. Maturity, in the other hand, think that smart person is the cool one. Those are this book told about. Jerry Flack didn't want to get a "dork" mark in his new school, so he pretended that he was a cool ones. He hide his cleverness, his glasses and learnt to act like cool people (based on the cool magazine). He also had crush with Cinnamon O'Brien, the prettiest girl in sixth grader, it means that he had to competed with Gabe Marshall, the most popular lad in school. With the help of Brenda, Jerry tried very hard to be a dork in disguise.

From the first read, I already guessed how this story will end. And it has strong message, especially for the young readers. That being yourself is everything. We don't have to push ourself for being someone that we didn't like it, just for being in popular group. 

My fave character in this book is Tony. I have no particular reason, but I think he was cool in his way (and he proved that he didn't brain-dead :D). And Cinnamon was an annoying character, pretty but has no brain.

So what if she said aspiration instead of inspiration? At least she hadn't said prespiration!

Ugh!

 

Note: the good thing of this ebook, Open Road Media also provided the first three chapters from Dork on The Run, the sequel of this book

 

This book was meant to be series, but I only read the first book

A Love Letter for Fanartists

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St.Martin's Press

Publication Date: Sep 10th 2013

Page Numbers: 445 pages

 

Blurb

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.


A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

"Touching and utterly real." —  Publisher's Weekly

 

What I Thought

My oh my...This book made me missed Harry Potter so much (I think I would re-read it). I felt like reading two different books in a same time (or maybe three?). Some of Simon Snow's scenes remained me to HP a lot!!! The one that I can remembering is the fencing scene, when Simon had to face Baz. It looked like Harry vs Draco in Dueling Club, when Draco finally throwed snakes from his wand. Ok..let's stop talking about HP thingy and get back to the real book.

Cath and Wren are twins. Both of them love Simon Snow, a young magician series which wrote by Gemma T. Leslie. Cath and Wren collaborated in write fanfic about Simon Snow which became famous among the fans,Carry On Simon. But college life change everything. Wren decided to live outside, means she would hang out with lots of new people, separated with Cath as eternal roomate (for eighteen years!!), drank when everybody drank and made her life live as ever. And she left Cath alone, felt betrayed and miserable. Also Cath had to deal with her Writing-Fiction final exam, their little manic Dad and Laura, the mom who abandoned them since the twins just eight years old. Daily writing on Carry On Simon became her only escape. The world and people that she loved and understood so much. When Cath knew Reagan and especially..Levi, her life got better, and Cath tried live her own life. 

That's the main story of this book.

For me, the great part of this book is how RR could made the reader like drowned in two different stories. Yes, maybe because I was that kind of fangirl (but not the slash thing). And I made things like Cath did (I was more to fanart, by the way) so I knew the hype and enthusiasm especially when the new series was coming. I also know a friend who wrote ff and she always looked drowned in her writing. That's the way I pictured Cath and her difficulties to finished her final exam. RR wrote the character emotions so well. I felt sad and almost cried when Wren said "The wrong C". That's too cruel. Also flattered when Levi said something sweet to Cath :D The one who need a punch in the face was Nick, for letting a girl back home ALONE by HERSELF in the frozen midnight (also for other reason). Not to meant I underrated girls couragement, but at least he could gave a favor, was he?

There's something personal in this book, kinda nostalgia and for me, it's a big plus!

Add note: 
- People kept saying that Simon-Baz were like Harry-Draco. But for me it was more like James-Snape *based on the haircut* :D (edit: since GTL mentioned that Baz's eyes are grey, it turned to Draco again. Both have same eye color)

- If I ignored hair and eyes color, I imagined Levi as Jim Sturgess XD Simon and Baz are Logan Lehman and Ezra Miller. Cath...more like...my friend that I mentioned before (Wren too, but it's hard to imagined her with short hair).

 

Opening Lines

There was a boy in her room.

Cath looked up at the number painted on the door, then down at the room assignment in her hand.

Pound Hall, 913

When "The Mystical Creatures" Solved Problems

When Mystical Creatures Attack! - Kathleen Founds

Title: When Mystical Creatures Attack

Author: Kathleen Founds

Publishers: University of Iowa Press

Publication Date: Oct 1st 2014

Page Numbers: 206 pages

 

Blurb 

In When Mystical Creatures Attack!, Ms. Freedman’s high school English class writes essays in which mystical creatures resolve the greatest sociopolitical problems of our time. Students include Janice Gibbs, “a feral child with excessive eyeliner and an anti-authoritarian complex that would be interesting were it not so ill-informed,” and Cody Splunk, an aspiring writer working on a time machine. Following a nervous breakdown, Ms. Freedman corresponds with Janice and Cody from an insane asylum run on the capitalist model of cognitive-behavioral therapy, where inmates practice water aerobics to rebuild their Psychiatric Credit Scores.

 
The lives of Janice, Cody, and Ms. Freedman are revealed through in-class essays, letters, therapeutic journal exercises, an advice column, a reality show television transcript, a diary, and a Methodist women’s fundraising cookbook. (Recipes include “Dark Night of the Soul Food,” “Render Unto Caesar Salad,” and “Valley of the Shadow of Death by Chocolate Cake.”) In “Virtue of the Month,” the ghost of Ms. Freedman’s mother argues that suicide is not a choice. In “The Un-Game,” Janice’s chain-smoking nursing home charge composes a dirty limerick. In “The Hall of Old-Testament Miracles,” wax figures of Bible characters come to life, hungry for Cody’s flesh.
 

Set against a South Texas landscape where cicadas hum and the air smells of taco stands and jasmine flowers, these stories range from laugh-out-loud funny to achingly poignant. This surreal, exuberant collection mines the dark recesses of the soul while illuminating the human heart.

 

What I Thought

This kind of genre is a new for me. What does it called...a dark humor? The story is about Laura Freedman, an English teacher, who suddenly absent from her class becaused she diagnosed of a mentally illness. Most of her students didn't care about it, but not Janice Gibbs. With an unique story-telling ways, Kathleen Founds told the relationships between the characters. 


Why I called this unique? Because we won't found an ordinary chapters like in other novels, but the story built by letters, emails, journals, short stories (mostly by Cody Splunk), essays and some therapy journals. And I love the humor (especially the "racist" Danny Ramirez!). The only thing from this novel is sometimes I can't recognized the POV. Some chapters didn't gave any clue about who's mind that I'm reading, which made me lost in track. 

This book not supposed to end like that. But I have no idea how it should end, either.This is kind of book with unpredictable ending, which in my experience, I'm starting to enjoyed it a lot when it suddenly end :D

 

Opening Line

1. What is your favorite mystical creature? _____________________

2. What is the greatest sociopolitical problem of our time? ______ ________________________________________________________________

 

Journaling Prompt: Write a one-page story in which your favorite mystical creature resolved the greatest sociopolitical problem of our time.

Life as An Expatriant in Jakarta

Ramadan Sky - Nichola Hunter

Title: Ramadan Sky

Author: Nichola Hunter

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publication Date: Sep 26th 2013

Page Numbers: 102 pages

 

Blurb

A contemporary twist on a classic story of forbidden love, set in Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia.


When Vic accepts a teaching position in Jakarta, she has already been working and travelling in Asia for many years; she thinks she knows what to expect. However, before long she becomes troubled by the casual coexistence of vast wealth and woeful poverty, and by the stark differences in freedom and power between the men and the women. It also becomes apparent that there will be no support or companionship from her fellow Westerners and colleagues.

Fajar has lived in Jakarta all his life. He gets by, loaning money from friends and family, spending his nights racing, and his days working on the roads as an ojek driver. When he impresses a customer with his understanding of English, he sees an opportunity. He dedicates himself to being the woman’s driver – taking her to and from work, running her errands. He thinks he’s won big.

Neither Fajar nor Vic expect to find friendship and solace in their strange arrangement. But, before long, they will step outside the mores of their cultures together, crossing a boundary that will shake both of their lives

 

What I Thought

What could I say about this novella, besides the almost perfect details of all of the familiar things that Nicola Hunter had described about my country (or the capital city, actually)?

It is a sunny day, but nothing shimmers or sparkles.

 

There is one particular woman I pass every day on the way to my office. She sits on the concrete in the hot, damp weather with faraway expression of cattle. A filthy baby lies on a square of cloth next to her and, next to that, a child scratches at ulcerated leg.

 

I especially don't understand the casual, uneffected way that the rich people seem to trample all over the poor. You have everything that belongs to everybody else locked up in your own impenetrable vault, and down in the street, where there should be hospitals and schools, there are more of these malls going up.

 

On Sunday afternoons you see the well-heeled families of Jakarta eating dim sum and ravioli in the vast, expensive eateries sitting at the tables while maid stands up next to them, holding the baby.

Familiar, is it? I would complaint nothing for those descriptions, because for some reasons, it was accurate. It doesn't mean that the whole cities in Indonesia like that, but everything happened in Jakarta (especially the bad things, like fires, demonstrations, etc) always became the national issues. And for the result, people always thought that: THAT was Indonesia looked like.

 

The main story of this novella is more like a sinetron (Indonesian soap opera), with Fajar, a poor ojek driver, who had a relationship with two (or more) women. Aryanti, is his true girlfriend (means he will married her soon) and Vic, an Australian teacher, to whom Fajar made an affair. The story about their relationship also predictable (how could you can't predict a triangle love story?) but how Nicola Hunter gave her personal opinions about things happened made the story more interesting. The intriques happened during the Ramadan, so that's the novella title came from (also, Fajar and Aryanti were Muslims, but the way they followed the Islam's rules were differents).

 

It also told with three POV's, so the reader would know what exactly happened in the three main characters lifes, including the morals and the way Indonesian people ruled their days and, also what the foreign citizen things about Indonesian society, especially in Jakarta (and Tangerang, maybe).

 

I, personally, like this novella. There were few authors, especially not an Indonesian, who brought an idea about a love story which put Jakarta as the location. And with this novella, Nicola Hunter also spoke her minds about people which must struggled with poverty:

When you are young, of course, it is easier, because of the perfect body and the flawless skin ans the belief that the future might bring anything at all. When you get older, it's harder. The dissappointnent starts to show through the cracks, and cheap clothes do not forgive an ageing body. It is only youth that can outshine poverty

And she also brought a religion's issue, that religions through the poor people in this country means nothing, besides made them such as the hypocrite people, or just a cover to avoid other people judgement

There are many naughty girls in Jakarta. They will wear their jilbab every day, and keep their faces very sweet and pure, but once inside a room with a man, it is a different story. We find them on Facebook from internet cafe, and meet them in Jakarta Raya.

 

Fajar is a conventional Muslim. He will break the rules, but only in the way they are allowed to be broken.

I think this is also an issue in this country. How money could be master of people soul and nothing besides it matter. And so do the ex-pats though about Indonesian employees, which usually got the lower position from them in their own country. Mostly Jakarta's people fight with poverty and made them selves not in the trap of it. Government with their renewed rules also made it getting worse (outsourcings and jobs field policies, and so many others). That's why, those ex-pat, with their different government, different rules an

 

Opening Lines

I thought about leaving the phone, complete with an entire story in the text messages, on the seat of the airport.

Two Different Boys with The Same Name

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green;Penguin Books USA

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Author: John Green, David Levithan

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Publication Date: May 10th 2012

Page Numbers: 308 pages

 

Blurb

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high-school stage.

 

What I Thought

When I reached the last chapter, I just wanna scream,"PLEASE, GIVE ME MORE!!!!" But I know, I actually got an perfect ending. The whole characters were in their deepest self-consciousness and probably they would start a great new day by tomorrow.

 

This is a story about two young lads with the same name, Will Grayson, but they had different life, different sexual orientations, lived with the different parents at the different house, etc etc. The one that connected both of 'em (besides name, off course) was Tiny Cooper. 

With someone like Tiny Cooper, if, he's next to you, you know it. All he has to do is stay, and you know he's there[146]

Tiny Cooper is a big guy (his size is about fifteen). But he has a unique and warm personality and he made everyone near him felt curious but comfortable about him. Tiny Cooper is (straight) Will Grayson's best friend, but also (gay) Will Grayson's boyfriend. Seemed like Tiny Cooper was a center character in this story, since most of the two Will Grayson(s) time always about Tiny. He also had an ambition to made a musical about his life (little bit remained us about Glee). I just can say, Tiny Cooper was the great character with his great personality and the most of all, he felt comfy with himself (especially his gay-ness and he seemed like felt in love about zillion times with different boys) so people could easily felt have-to-be-around him.

Most babies come into the world crying or gasping or snotting. Not Tiny Cooper. He comes into the world singing 

The other character that I love is (straight) Will Grayson's dad. He's a doctor but he also a funny and wise man (and he mentioned Indonesia in one convo.Ok, that is a personal pleasure). Like, this convo which warmed my heart, especially because I'm a parent too

"All the money that would have gone into a yatch, all that time we would have spent travelling the world? Instead we got you.It turns out that the yatch is a boat. But you--you can't be bought on credit, and you aren't reducible. I'm so proud of you that it makes me proud of me."[220]

This is a book project between two (success) YA authors, John Green and David Levithan. And I dunno how they shared their writing portions (I assumed that the straight Will Grayson created in John Green's mind, and the other one by David Levithan's mind), but the result was awesome. This book is amazing with amazing characters. The shared of two Will(s) by different chapters also made it impossible to switched (and I like the writing style of gay Will Grayson). I recommended this book to everyone who loved reading about teens world with has no problem with LGBT issues.

Being in a relationship, that's something you choose. Being friends, that's just something you are[258]

Opening Lines

When I was little, my dad used to tell me, “Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.” This seemed like a reasonably astute observation to me when I was eight, but it turns out to be incorrect on a few levels. To begin with, you cannot possibly pick your friends, or else I never would have ended up with Tiny Cooper.

 

How to Deal with Dilemas

How We Deal With Gravity - Ginger Scott

Title: How We Deal with Gravity

Author: Ginger Scott

Publisher: Ginger Scott

Publication Date: Jul 6th 2014

Page Numbers: 244 pages

 

Blurb

When her son Max was diagnosed with autism, Avery Abbot’s life changed forever. Her husband left, and her own dreams became a distant fantasy—always second to fighting never-ending battles to make sure Max was given opportunity, love and respect. Finding someone to fight along her side wasn’t even on her list, and she’d come to terms with the fact that she could never be her own priority again. 

But a familiar face walking into her life in the form of 25-year-old Mason Street had Avery’s heart waging a war within. Mason was a failure. When he left his hometown five years ago, he was never coming back—it was only a matter of time before his records hit the billboard charts. Women, booze and rock-n-roll—that was it for him. But it seemed fate had a different plan in mind, and with a dropped record contract, little money and nowhere to go, Mason turned to the only family that ever made him feel home—the Abbots. 

Avery loved Mason silently for years—until he broke her heart…completely. But time and life have a funny way of changing people, and sometimes second chances are there for a reason. Could this one save them both?

 

What I Thought

But I can't make mistakes with Max[209]

The life of Avery Abbot was not easy at all. She was a single parent with an autism five year old son, Max, and her ex-husband was a kinda prick: he left them a day after the doctor diagnosed that Max has autism. But, suddenly, Mason Street, a man from her past, which she ever falled in love with--but hurted in return, was back and decided to lived with them. And Ave should made a choice, whether she took her happiness with Mason or sticked with things that she fought recently.

Life is full of things that don't go according to plans, Avery [222-223]

This story was a pure real-life drama. The romance between Ave and Mason was not a surprise, and I bet everyone could guessed Ave's choice. But Mace's love to Max which as big as his real parent was touched me. Because it wasn't an easy thing to do. I knew some stories in my real life which the man only want the mum but rejected the kids when they tried to built a new life. Mason threated Max as a human being, the whole points,including his special needs. Mason also pushed Max to do his best, to keep tried on his ability to memorized, not tried to shut him down because he was different. I think the guy like Mason is too good to be true (but I believe there was, at least--one, in this world. God bless this guy).

 

The best of all, was the character of Ray Abbot. A father, a grandpa, a tutor of life, music lover and a man who became the center of our main characters in their world. I always love a wise old-man. 

I can tell you what, though...the Avery that takes a chance for her own happiness is going to be a hell of a lot stronger to Max than the one who gives up[223]

This is my first book of Ginger Scott and I like it. Eventhough the romance didn't get my full attention, but how she put the problem such as Max's autism could brought my tears down. I also adore Avery's character, a strong mom, put other people first and never showed her weakness in front of the others. Even some dilemas hitted her, but she always had a way to decided. A woman like this mostly never failed the readers to love her character.

 

And this book also made me starting to listening of some old songs, like the Beatles and Johnny Cash :D

You only get to do now once in your life. Do it right [234-235]

Opening Lines

Avery

 

The looks on their face--that's the worst part

 

Nobody tries to help. They never do. They just rush by with their own children, hiding their eyes so they don't see the woman causing the scene with her kid.

A Coming of Age Story in Hollywood

A Way of Life, Like Any Other - Darcy O'Brien

Title: A Way of Like, Like Any Other

Author: Darcy O'Brien

Publisher: Open Road Media

Publication Date: Jul 1st 2014

Page Numbers: 180 pages

 

Blurb

Winner of the Ernest Hemingway Award for Best First Novel in 1978

 

The hero of Darcy O’Brien’s A Way of Life, Like Any Other is a child of Hollywood, and once his life was a glittery dream. His father starred in Westerns. His mother was a goddess of the silver screen. The family enjoyed the high life on their estate, Casa Fiesta. But his parents’ careers have crashed since then, and their marriage has broken up too.

 

Lovesick and sex-crazed, the mother sets out on an intercontinental quest for the right—or wrong—man, while her mild-mannered but manipulative former husband clings to his memories in California. And their teenage son? How he struggles both to keep faith with his family and to get by himself, and what in the end he must do to break free, makes for a classic coming-of-age story—a novel that combines keen insight and devastating wit to hilarious and heartbreaking effect.

 

What I Thought

Well, where should I begin? I thought this book is kind of a biography but in the end of the book, the author confirmed that this is just a fiction (some of the reader believe that this book was his autobiography).

 

Our hero was a young boy named Salty (this is just a nickname, which..surprisingly, announced in the middle of the book!!) who lived at Hollywood with a selfish, dreamer and obsessed-of-the-right-man's mother and an ex-cowboy actor's father. Off course his parent finally divorced and he followed his mother in searching of her dream man. After some relationship adventures, his mom finally married a Russian rich guy named Anatol who made them travelled out of Hollywood. Suddenly, his father needed him and Salty must back to America. It made everything hard because his father still lived with his granny, which made him moved into friend's house, Jerry Caliban and Salty learned everything here, especially how to had a relationship with a girl. When his granny finally die, Salty back to his dad and helped him to continued his (hard) life.

 

I thought that there would be a rebel son, but in this story, Salty sounded like a nice young-boy. He knew that there was wrong with his parent, but (surprisingly again) he UNDERSTAND it. Like what his parents did and why they did it were normal reactions to him. Like he described his parents in page 114:

My inquiries into human understanding that had taught me that my father was constantly constant as a rock and my mother as constantly inconstant as the sea, and that wasn't much go on. A rock as big as my father you could not throw, but you could hide behind it and rest in it's shadow. When it fell to the sea, it sank

He knew that he could got love from his father (his mother counted love with how much money that a man have) but he also knew that the divorced made his father down. For me, this is unusual story which had set in Hollywood, with it's glamorous life.

 

This is a good book after all. Even IMO, Salty is too humble (or, maybe too naive?) but at least he knew what was good for him.

A man was tested sometimes, and the true test of man was whether he could get off the floor and still be a champion [page 33]

Opening Line

I would not change the beginning for anything. I had an electric car, a starched white nanny, a pony, a bed modeled after that of Napoleon's son, and I was baptized by the Archbishop of the diocese.

SPOILER ALERT!

A Drama About A Dysfunctional Family

The House We Grew Up In - Lisa Jewell

Title: The House We Grew Up In

Author: Lisa Jewell

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: Aug 12th 2014

Page Number: 400 pages

 

Blurb

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children's lives.

 

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they've never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in -- and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

 

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family's desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

 

What I Thought

I love other people's families. they always make me feel better about my own [Owen, page 123-124]

I love this book!! The characters are built so strong, the plot was well written and the story was so sad. Tons and tons of sadness and the twist of damaged feelings written in whole pages.

 

Problems always tested every family and the way they faced it, found solutions and moved on are interesting points to followed. So does this book. Birds Family lived as a dream-like family everybody ever wanted. They lived in a beautiful house, with a happy family....in the surface. A beautiful and full energy mum, Lorelei, a smiley ageless dad, Colin and their four children, Meghan, Bethan and the twin boys, Rory and Rhys. The family had a tradition to do eggs hunting every Easter and cooked the roasted lamb legs with less potatoes and too much carrots. It happened year by year until a bad thing arrived.

 

Lorelei has a Hoarding Disorder and she never threw anything, even the foil of the easter eggs. She believed that spirit of memories are keep in the things which would lost if we threw it out. It made their pretty house turned into a kind of junkyard. Meg frustrated about it and she felt she hated her mother. As a"revenge", she became a super mom with four children and very cleaned and organized house. Beth, as the younger sister has more charm connected with her look. But she actually lived in the shadow of her big sister and her mother, a coward and in the end, she turned as a self-hatred person. Rory was a charming and popular young lad until sixteen. After the thing happened to his twin brother, he became an anger, sad and uncontrolled, felt guilty for the rest of the story. Rhys, as the youngest in the family, is a typical of a loner, un-popular, careless and always grieved about everything. The story of each person in here are sad, yet beautiful, but I still can't take the relationship between Lorelei and Vicky, and also what Colin decision about Kayleigh (I think I'm not open minded person...whatever, I wish I could as wise as Molly).

 

I love the cover of this book!! It looked pretty and fragiled in the same time, same as the Birds family. This is my first Lisa Jewell's book and enjoy it! It made me want to read another book of her, hopefully I could find it somewhere :)

I think I want the next thing. I think I want to move on [Rory, page 124]

P.S: In his "escape" it mentioned that Rory visited Indonesia :) It was personal, but I always happy when my country mentioned in a novel

Opening Lines

Tuesday 2nd November 2010

 

Hi, Jim!

 

Well, I must say, I didn't think for a minute you'd be called something earthy like Jim!