April 2011

I have only listed two books for April:

1. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
2. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

There were several reasons why there are only two for next month. Among them is because I couldn't get the books my friends recommended me on time, and because, well, it's about time I read Moby Dick.

My husband gave me the classic story when we first got married five years ago (almost), and I had attempted to read it through several times. However. I could never get past page 15. I always, ALWAYS promptly fell asleep. Seriously. I mean, it was as if I repeatedly stumbled on a booby trap and fell unconscious every. single. time. It was better than the Bible for sleep-inducing read.

So, needless to say, it is really going to be a challenge. Hope I can make it. I mean, it's worth the effort. It's a classic reading, famous for its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", and my husband really recommends it. So if only I can... zzzzz

Book 18 - A Thousand Splendid Suns

My colleague gave me her e-book when she knew I was making a list for this month's reading. Normally, I always love getting free books to read, but with this particular one, I freely admit it wasn't something I was looking forward to.

I had read The Kite Runner, Hosseini's first book, three years ago. It's a great story and was written wonderfully. Once I finished it, I realized what I just read was something special, a rare gem that has got to be one of the greatest fiction written in the last decade. I had recommended it to friends and ... relieved I hadn't missed this book.

However. The process. The hours I spent while I was reading it. That experience was a different story altogether. It wasn't a fun, light book to read when all you want to do is to relax, had a good laugh, and forgot what it's all about ten minutes after you finished reading. It wasn't a book to read when you want to escape the boring 9-5 daily routines. And God knows I had never thought my love for reading as a sophisticated hobby or to gain some knowledge. I'd watch news and prefer to watch the Daily show for that. I read to have fun. I read to relax. I read for the chance to escape reality, to briefly visit a fantasy world where there's happy ending, where the underdog won, where the bookish girl got it all in the end. There's a reason why I kept reading and loving Julia Quinn's romance books after all. And for all of those reasons above, this book was NOT a good choice.

For me personally, once I started reading Hosseini's book, it was as if I were, very unwillingly, drawn into the story, as if I were there to witness the story as it happened, and the subject he was writing was far from pleasant. It was that strong of storytelling.

So I let his second book, given free to me almost a month ago, just sat there in my inbox. I was almost relieved that I still had a lot of other books to read (half of my February picks were done only by mid-March) until it came down to the two books in March list: Hosseini's and Obama's Dreams from My Father.

At 7: 30 pm last night, after a tough day at work with my daughter already fast asleep (she didn't nap), it seemed that Hosseini's book was a good choice. Besides, I would only read the first few chapters while waiting for Daily Show's download to complete (connection was bad here. big surprise).

Of course then I started reading, and I couldn't stop. I knew I was in for a long, rough night by the end of the first chapter. I read, and read, and read until I finished the book at 1:30 am. And even when I only speed-read the last chapters (because I need to finish it, because it's already past midnight and I still had few more chapters), I still finished the book with tears streaming down my face, my heart ached and my head pounding (the last one probably because I really needed to sleep by then). THIS is why I dreaded reading Hosseini's books, because I knew I'd cry and I hate crying.

A Thousand Splendid Suns opened with the story of Mariam, a bastard daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur and his maid in the mid fifties in Afghanistan. Love was something that eluded Mariam. Her mother, bitter, depressed, angry, and emotionally disturbed, had repeatedly told her that she wasn't worthy of love, that she was nothing. It wasn't that Nana hated her daughter. In her own perverse way, this was how she showed her love to Mariam, by preparing her to see the world as it was from the eyes of an illegitimate daughter in Afghanistan. Yet, young Mariam loved Jalil, her father. He was her refuge, her strength, and her oasis of comfort in the dessert of her loveless young life.

Then one day, she had to learn the hard way that Jalil had not really loved her like a father should: an unconditional, selfless love that is every children, especially daughters', God given right. It was heartbreaking. It was all because of something so trivial, but the impact was so devastating for a young girl so thirsty of love, as it triggered a series of events that made her see the truth in her mother's words.

How horrifying was it to find out that the one person you love, who you admire, who you think love you as much in return, was actually embarrassed of you? Who was being nice to you as a penance for the incident of your birth? who considered you as nothing more than a burden? as a pesky distraction that needs to be rid of, quietly, to avoid further scandal? Mariam learned all this at the tender, fragile age of fifteen.

Maybe because of my very close and warm relationship with my dad (he's my hero!), maybe because every day I witness how much my daughter and my husband completely adore each other, this particular betrayal was especially hard for me to read.

Mariam's mother once told her to: "Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam."

I was very uncomfortable because to some degree, I recognize the truth in it. Not from personal experience, but from other similar sayings: Behind every great man, there's a great woman. A nice, flattering thing to say, but doesn't it work the other way? Behind every man's downfall, there's a not-so-nice woman? Anyway, back to the book. Miriam's mother's warning was a prophecy of what to become of Mariam's fate.

More than two decades later, Laila was born. Laila was very close to her father, especially after her mother became despondent and emotionally unavailable when Laila's brothers went to war; after the news of their death, she vowed to live so that her dead sons could see their dreams come true through her eyes, not for her only surviving daughter.

But if her mother was mostly a ghostly figure, physically there but never really there when Laila needed her, Laila's father spent time with her, doing homework, making sure she's on the right track, if not ahead, in her education for he fiercely believed that women should have equal chance in life with men. Then, there was her sweetheart, Tariq, whom she had known since she was a little girl. Although he lost one leg because of minefield, Tariqwas always there and had always protected Laila. These two men loved Laila in a way her absent mother could not.

Unlike Mariam, these men had never failed her, at least not in her early life. Her father's too late decision to move the family out of Afghanistan, whether out of greater love to Laila's mother or fear of her, and Tariq's greater sense of responsibility for his own parents, robbed everything that was good in Laila's life.

One man, Rasheed, became Laila and Mariam's nightmare and made their lives living hell. Rasheed embodied everything that was wrong in Afghanistan, he was the ultimate Taliban before the country even knew what Taliban meant. Dealing with Rasheed, Laila and Mariam found ally in each other. They became friends, then best friends, then sister, and finally, Mariam became a mother figure for Laila.

Finally, for the first time in her life, Mariam found unconditional, unreserved love, and Laila found the mother she never really had in Mariam, and their love for her children became an endless source of determination to survive, of strength, of hope.

In the end, though, what Mariam's mother said was true: "There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school. Look at me... Only one skill, and it's this: tahamul. Endure" Sadly, tragically, this is still true in current Afghanistan.

This book told a harrowing story about the quiet strength of these two women, their abilities to endure and even persevere no matter how oppressive their situation is (when the good time to be a woman was under the Soviet regime, you know it's really bad). Perhaps because the main characters were women (Laila was only few years older than me), and the story focused on the relationships between girl friends, daughters, wives, and mothers, it touched me far deeper than his first book.

After reading this book, I can't help but thinking how Afghanistan was, still is, filled with plenty of Lailas and Mariams. It is a sad truth that was so easily overlooked when we are so busy with the distracting minute details in our daily lives, where the world was always filled with breaking news of natural disasters, political riots, recessions, nuclear radiations. It was disturbing how easy it was to acknowledge, yet largely ignore the ordeals of these women, who stood quietly and watched the world moves on without them beneath the suffocating burqa.

Book 17 - The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

I was first introduced to Bill Bryson's writings about eight years ago, when my then-boss lend me his "Notes from A Small Island". I didn't like it then, not because it's bad, rather because it wasn't quite what I expected and I had never read anything like it. I didn't even get to the first chapter to be honest.

But then I ran out of things to read and money to buy books, and free book was just too hard to pass, so I started leafing through it and the second time, I got it. The book was hillarious, entertaining, and in an unexpected way, informative.

The thing about reading Bill Bryson's book is that I never know what to expect. After that first travel book, I made the mistake of getting "A Short History of Nearly Everything", a book about...well, the short history of nearly everything, from biology, geology, archaelogy. It wasn't that it's not entertaining, on the contrary, it was very entertaining and very fine introductions to many things I won't care to know otherwise. It's just that I'm really, really, not interested in reading about biology, geology, et cetera.

But I love his writing because it makes me feel as if I'm sitting down and listening to a very witty, knowledgeable person with a great sense of humor who can explain things to me in a very interesting way with complete details that might even escape an expert in the subject matter. I have to say that he is simply brilliant that way. Which is why because I love traveling as much as I love reading, I love his travel books to Europe (Neither Here nor There), Australia (Down Under), and England (Notes from A Small Island).

But at the same time, while I can force myself to read through his other books on A Short History of Nearly Everything, history on English (The Mother Tongue), and American history (Made in America), well, it's not something I care to read twice. It has nothing to do with how he writes it you see. It's just that I'm not interested in those subjects. It's not his writing, it's me.

So when I saw his book, the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, I felt like I need to read this rather than I want to read this. Why? Well, like i said, reading his books felt like sitting down and listening to him telling you entertaining stories, and after eight years and six books, it's about time to know more about where he came from.

Of all places, Des Moines, Iowa, apparently. The book told his story of growing up in the 1950s in Des Moines, Iowa. I had never heard of the city until I started reading his books. The first decade of his life was apparently the happiest moment in the American history, not because of his birth, though I'm sure it's a very happy occasion for his family, but because the level of prosperity that Americans enjoyed that was unmatched by any other countries in the world during that time, and on less obvious reasons, because it was a time of blissful ignorance: about the danger of smoking, about the danger of nuclear radiation, of pollution, etc.

It was very interesting because even if I'm not American, have never been to Iowa, and was born three decades after him, the way he so vividly described his childhood, how things were so fascinating through the eyes of a child were so real that I nodded with agreements.

In the end, reading his book reminded me of my own childhood, and how it was so different from my daughter's, now still three years old. It reminded me of growing up in a very different time, much simpler time when we did not possess as many things and yet not in any way less happier. When one of the highlights of the week was to put on your best clothes to go to the Church on Sundays, when there's only one television channel and one program for kids, when it was still okay to have instant noodle every day (because no one warned about preservatives then), when children in my neighborhood gathered and marveled at new toy that someone just got, when there's only one telephone in one block, when we never had to lock our door, and when everybody knew everybody in the neighborhood.

"What a wonderful world it was. We won't see its like again, I'm afraid" Although he's talking about Des Moines in early 50s, I can't help but thinking that's exactly how I felt about Surabaya in early 80s.

Book 16 - Watcher in the Woods

The second book of the Dreamhouse Kings series picked up immediately where the first one, House of Dark Shadows, left off. And I'm happy to say, it's as brilliant if not more.

The King family was still reeling from the kidnapping of their mother, and a secret that was kept for thirty years caused a tension in the relationship between father and son.

But, determined to fight back and find their mother, they realized it is more important than ever that they came together, and this realization made it possible for them to cast aside their differences as they focus on what must be done to save their mother.

The second book largely focused on the point of view of David, the second son. Things are not going well for him. As if dealing with new school in a new town isn't stressful enough, David found himself in an awkward position between his father and his older brother. Not only that, he, and the rest of the family, had to act as if everything was normal in their lives and pretended that their mother was back in Pasadena so that no one got suspicious about her disappearance.

This soon proved to be almost impossible when someone who knew the secret of the house tried to take it over. At the same time, across the country, someone else not only knew but had built the house himself, and he determined to tell its deeper layer of secret to the King family. Unfortunately, being over ninety, living in a nursing home, and can't even finish a sentence without having to catch his breath, made the mission more complicated.

While Xander was becoming more obsessed and impatient in exploring the portals to find his mother, David had to deal with school bullies and the growing public suspicions that his dad had abused him. Nope, things are definitely not going well for twelve years old David.

The last chapter in the second book ended with another cliffhanger: while the police arrested David's father, the school bullies found a secret way to enter his house, David ran to the secret room to find his brother informing him that he found their mother.

I can't wait to read the third book, Gatekeepers

Book 15 - Daughter of Joy

Daughter of joy is a Christian fiction romance set in the 19^th century. Abigail Stanton lost her husband and son within two years, and she needed some time to step back and to have a more private space to grief. But this happened in the late 1800s, so she couldn’t just get a ticket to Italy like Elizabeth Gilbert did. What’s a widow to do in that time? Applying for a housekeeper position in a working ranch in different town of course.

In Culdee Creek, she met a thirty five years old Conor MacKay, father of two. His wife deserted him more than a decade ago and he fathered a daughter from a Native American woman whom he cared deeply for but never married to. She died and his son ran away after first robbed him blind. So yeah, he had all requirements for tormented heroes in a romance novel. Bitter, angry, distrust for others, and don’t get him started on the subject of love and God.

Daughter of Joy was a bittersweet story about loved ones lost, betrayal, and ultimately, faith in God. At times I thought the author tormented the characters more than necessary, especially the heroine, by placing her in a very precarious situation and demanding almost the impossible from her.

But then I remembered in the Author’s note that she wrote this book after losing her youngest son so unexpectedly, and how she had drawn from her own personal experience of grief and lost in describing what the heroine went through. I often got a sense that sometimes the feelings poured out in writing is that of the author’s, and the grief was still so raw.

For me as a reader, the level of faith told in this book is theoretically wonderful, but in reality I know that I still have a long way to go to get there.

March 2011

Since I still have four more books from February List to read this march, I decided to only add three books in March:

• Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama
• Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir - John McCain
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

*UPDATED*

Since I can't find John McCain's book, I replace it with:

• Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid"

I will move up McCain's book for April reading, hopefully that would give me enough time to look for it.

Hopefully I can make it this time...

Book 14 - Unbroken

Normally (at least in my country) when people are in their late twenties, they would have graduated from university with a bachelor or master degree, married, probably have a child or two, have a career or running their own business to pay the mortgage on the house and cars they have.

When Louis Zamperini was in his late twenties, he had quitted college, unemployed, had failed investments, and spent most night drinking to oblivion. But that’s not all who he was.

Before he reached my age, he had also raced in Olympic game, had his picture taken in Germany with Hitler by none other than Goebbels, stole a nazi flag, went to war, was one of only two people who survived a plane crash, stranded at sea for 46 days and to survive he had eaten raw birds, raw fish, and battle sharks with oar and fists – yes, you read it correctly, fists. He had been a POW in Japan and was eventually transferred to the most brutal prisons and endured the most unimaginable hardship. He survived the war, and came home two years after he was declared dead.

Unbroken is a story of survival; Most of the 400 pages of the book described in harrowing details Zamperini’s experience as a Prisoner of War in the Pacific where more than 37% of the American prisoners held by Japan died, “By comparison, only 1% of Americans held by the Nazis and the Italians died” (315)

But it was the last few chapters of this book that affected me in a very unexpected way.

After returning from war as a hero, Zamperini suffered from severe case of PTSD, or battle fatigue as it was known then. He became so bitter and enraged with God, convinced that the Almighty had been playing with his life. When he was emotionally at his lowest point in his post-war life, his wife dragged him to attend a sermon by Billy Graham.

It was then that realization dawned.

{page 375}

“ Louis found himself thinking of the moment at which he had woken in the sinking hull of Green Hornet, the wires that had trapped him a moment earlier now, inexplicably, gone. And he remembered the Japanese bomber swooping over the rafts, riddling them with bullets, and yet not a single bullet had struck him, Phil, or Mac. He had fallen into unbearably cruel worlds, and yet he had borne them….

What God asks of men, said Graham, is faith. His invisibility is the truest test of faith…A memory long beaten back, the memory from which he had run the evening before, was upon him…Louis was on the raft…the cunning bodies of the sharks, waiting, circling. He was a body on a raft, dying of thirst. He felt words whisper from his swollen lips. It was a promise thrown at heaven, a promise he had not kept, a promise he had allowed himself to forget until this just instant: If you will save me, I will serve you forever.”

In the most unexpected ending I’ve ever read, Louis Zamperini found peace in God and through Him, he was able to overcome his nightmares, to defeat his personal demon, and to forgive his tormentor.

I certainly did not expect it, but Unbroken may be the best Christian literature I’ve ever read, even if it’s not meant to be one.

Book 13 - Craving God

I have to say, when considering what I should or should not eat, God is the last thing in my mind. I think about its nutritional value and what it would do to my cholesterol level and how it would show on my scale. I have never thought what the bible has to say about that.

Craving God is a 21 Days-Daily Contemplation that assessed our food craving from biblical point of view. It is not that the Bible listed food that we can or cannot eat, but the book argues that we can resist the temptation to eat that sugar-glazed krispy kreme doughnuts by drawing strength from the scriptures.

I kid you not.

For example, comfort food. Sometimes when we’re having a very bad day, we might just want to go home and finish off a bar of chocolate, or a can of Pringles. This book suggested that instead of relying on food to make us feel better, why not relying on God? Meaning, instead of reaching out for that bag of chips when we felt sad, why not take a moment to pray? It is not that we should never eat Pringles ever again because it is sinful, but we should rely on God to comfort us rather than turning to food.

It is a very interesting read if you’re Christian; you might one to get it while it’s still free on Amazon Kindle.

Book 12 - Happily Ever After

This is another Christian book that I enjoyed despite the fact that one of the characters was not entirely believable, the conflict felt forced at times, and the background stories were...well, let's just say I think it can do well without.

I know. Sometimes I wondered myself why I liked the book, but there were times when I read it that the writing just resonated with me, and I guess that's the only reason.

Would I recommend it? Um, if you're the type of girl who read bible daily or attend the church (even if not every week), then yeah, I think this is a fine book to read.

If you're a guy or someone who doesn't do religion, you may find this book annoying.

Personally, I think the Potluck Club is a better, more neutral read than this one

Mona Reynolds was determined to open her own bookstore and hired a drifter, Joe Michaels. She encountered many problems that were not accidents, and she started to question whether they were heavenly signs that it was not meant to be, and whether Joe the drifter was behind them, which would be very unfortunate because, well, he's a fine kisser and all that.

I know. kinda cheesy. Anyway, Joe managed to proof his innocence every time and showed a mightly fine restraint and act of forgiveness that made me cringed at times for its over-the-top level and got me thinking, well, that's not going to happen in real life.

Final verdict: it's a good reading for a free christian chick-lit book, if you're into it.

Book 11 - Band of Brothers

February has passed and I haven't written a single thing about this month reading.

Let's see...I have completed several books from my February List, the first one I read for this month was Band of Brothers, by Stephen E Ambrose, from which the 2001 HBO miniseries is based on.

The book chronicled the true story of men of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during World War 2 from how Capt. Sobel "made the company" in Toccoa, Georgia, to victory in Germany.

The series was beautifully made and remains memorable even after ten years from its release. I know nothing about the real men of Easy Company, but the general consensus was each of the actors in the ensemble cast had successfully captured the men they were portraying.

One of the most memorable was Damien Lewis’ depiction of Major Richard Winters. Major Winters was a beloved, respected, and much admired leader of E Company who, if I didn’t know he’s a real person, I would think this man is too good to be true.

So when I heard of Major Winters’ death last January at the age of 92, I was once again reminded of the series and thought it was past time I read the book it was based on.

In summer of 1942, young men from different corners of the country came to Toccoa, Georgia, to volunteer for the paratroopers. They did it for the thrill and honors, and the extra US$50 per month was also good enough motivation for some. But knowing that once they join the Army they would be sent to war, the men of E Company all agreed they would have a better chance to come home alive by joining the best the Army had to offer and to do so, they have to be one of the best themselves.

The “sorting” process was so hard that out of 500 officers volunteers, only 148 made it through, and from 5,300 enlisted men who volunteered for try out, only 1,800 earned the Screaming Eagle badge of the 101^st Airborne.

The book told in greater details of the trial that E Company faced during the physical training back in USA before they were shipped to England. It gave us more information about each of the service members that the miniseries, with its time constraint, did not discuss. It also assured us that yes, Captain Sobel was as bad as David Schwimmer portrayed him to be, if not worse, and Major Winters was not only one of the finest warriors but also a true gentleman.

He's a thoroughly decent man who's almost too good to be true. He didn't drink, gamble, swear, and his men loved him so much that they were more worried about disappointing him than anything else.

Bill Guarnere called him "A leader personified", and Edward Heffron thought of him as "One of the greatest soldiers I was ever under...A wonderful officer, a wonderful leader. He had what you needed - guts and brains"

He is the epitome of An Officer and A Gentleman.

At the beginning of the Easy Company's campaign, he "led an attack that destroyed a battery of German 105 mm howitzers which were firing onto the causeways that served as the principal exits from Utah Beach. The guns were defended by approximately one platoon of fifty German troops, while Winters had only thirteen men. This action south of the village of Le Grand-Chemin is often referred to as the Brécourt Manor Assault. The attack is still taught at the military academy at West Point as an example of a textbook assault on a fixed position. In addition to destroying the battery, Winters also obtained a map detailing all German defenses in the Utah Beach area" (Wikipedia)

and that was just a start of his exemplary leadership, bravery and most important of all, tactical excellence.

There are differences between the series and the DVD, which the author admitted it was because of artistic/dramatic purposes, and also some events were not depicted in the series and one important, almost defining moment in the series was only mentioned in one brief paragraph in the book.

I'm talking about that scenes where Lt. Speirs proved himself as being badass enough to lead the men of Easy company. I tried to put it into my own words but I realized I'm simply not a good enough writer to describe what happened.

So, this is a direct quote from http://www.badassoftheweek.com/speirs.html about Lt. Speirs on his heroic, mad deed that day ( a bit long for quotation, but I think the way the author wrote it is just perfect):

What Ron Speirs is best known for, however, is the utterly fucking badass way he handled the assault on the Belgian town of Foy during the infamous Battle of the Bulge. After somehow surviving a brutal siege of Bastogne in the dead of winter, where the 101st Airborne was completely surrounded and getting pounded day and night by the most elite SS Panzer Regiments the Germans had to offer, the men of Company E of the 506th Parachute Infantry launched a counter-attack on Foy. Well their commanding officer, Lieutenant Norman Dike, was basically a worthless moron who couldn't lead his way out of a quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag if you gave him a welding torch and a machete. Dike split up the assault team into two forces, and promptly went about getting both sides of his divided force utterly ass-reamed by German tanks and artillery. After a couple minutes of watching his best buddies get torn apart by the Nazis, Major Dick Winters had enough of that bullshit. He grabbed the first officer he saw, who just so happened to be Ronald Speirs, and told him to go deal with the situation.

Speirs didn't even fucking blink.

The young, battle-hardened officer just grabbed his submachine gun and started sprinting across the field toward Foy, determined to bail out the pinned-down Americans and shove his foot up some Nazi asses. He ran over to Lieutenant Dike, who at this point was basically so shell-shocked and brain-dead that he probably couldn't remember how to tie his bootlaces, and told him he was taking over as company commander. Dike, utterly awed by being in the presence of such an unflinching hardass who obviously meant business, simply nodded.

Spiers ran over, gave out orders for a mortar team to take out a German sniper position, regrouped the soldiers, and provided Easy Company with some much-needed tactical direction. The assault continued, morale was bolstered, and the Americans stopped getting their fucking asses handed to them on a silver platter.

Then there was this whole issue of the assault force being stupidly divided into two teams, neither one really coordinating properly with the other. Speirs had a plan there, too, and it's got to be one of the most awesome/badass/crazy battlefield plans ever devised – Ron Speirs just grabbed his rifle and fucking ran directly through the German positions to reach the Americans on the other side. No shit, he fucking blew past Nazi artillery crews, riflemen, and Tiger tanks like he was out for a run around Boston Common on a quiet Sunday morning.

At this point basically every German firearm in the town of Foy was trying to bust a chunk of lead into Lieutenant Speirs' brain, but he didn't give a crap. He ran through the streets, bullets and explosions going off all around him, and reached the Americans on the other side. Then, once he gave them his updated orders, he fucking ran BACK THROUGH THE GODDAMNED TOWN to his original position. How nuts do you have to be?!

Indeed.

Lt. Col Speirs died in April 11th, 2007, and Major Richard Winters passed away last January 2, 2011, a couple of weeks short of his 93th birthday.

Book 10 - House of Dark Shadows

This is the last book on January 2011 list, I made it!!

I love love this one. It's the first book of six in Dreamhouse Kings series, all six books have been published and I'm surprised I don't know about the books before. I heard it's for young adults, but hei, a good read is a good read, don't you think so?

The story opened immediately when an evil presence kidnapped a family member. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. Thirty years later, the King family moved in when the patriarch accepted a job as the principle of the only secondary school in the area and found the grand but abandoned Queen Anne/Victorian house in the edge of the forest.

From the moment they checked the house, the oldest son, Xander (from Alexander; the King family had been naming their children after old Kings and Queens for generations, hence the children's name: Alexander, David, and Victoria) noticed something was not quite right with the house. But the lure of having his own room, and even the possibilities that the house might offer some kind of adventure, however sinister it might be, made him and the younger, thriller seeker brother David, wanted to live in it. And what adventures they are: fighting gladiator in ancient Rome and a close call of being leopards' lunch in the middle of tropical jungle.

Until the entity took their mother away.

While it is certainly not a Harry Potter book, it's still a very fun book to read and I'm glad I stumbled on this one.

Book 9 - The Potluck Club

This is the second Christian book I read after Fools Rush In and I love this one. It is the first book of the series, and it's about the lives of six women who met for a monthly prayer meeting.

To be honest, at first I dreaded reading it after my first experience with Christian fiction. I was afraid that this book would also paint a too glossy, perfect world that only fictional christians lived in; Like the Stepford Wives universe, only worse, everyone in it is a believer who's on the same page as to their faith in God. It's a sweet world I suppose, but too sweet it's almost sickening.

But this book did not try to picture a world in which faith in God warrant a problem-free life. The women in this book club certainly did not live in a fairy tale universe: There were secrets, cheating husband, elopement, racial issues, death, terminal illness. I'm not saying that I'm happy if I read about misery and suffering experienced by Christians just so that God can come and save the day. I merely think that well, this is closer to the reality that I know real people experienced, and it is interesting to read about how they struggled with their faith and even anger in God. I've certainly been there now and then.

Despite calling myself a Christian, I know it's a continuous struggle to let God into my life. Despite believing he is God, it's not that simple to involve him in the decisions I made. Naturally, I wanted to be in full control of my life, even when most of the times I barely knew what I was doing. That at some points in my life (notice plural), I can't help but being sarcastic to him, to the idea of him, to be angry and confused and reluctant and impatient with him. Even after having first hand experiences of his grace, and personal accounts of the comfort of sweet surrender to him.

I guess I'm still his work in progress.

By the end of this book, there are still a lot of loose ends; none of the stories are completed, and they are to be continued to book 2, Trouble's Brewing. I haven't read it, but I'm very much looking forward to it.

Book 8 - A Taste of Magic

This book is fun to read; in short, it can be summed up as the famous old saying, "Be Careful What You Wished For"

Things were not looking good for Elizabeth at the beginning of the story. It was a couple of days before her thirty-fifth birthday, she had been divorced for a year, the business she co-owned, a bakery called A Taste of Magic, was not doing well, and to add insult to injury, she had inadvertently accepted a job to bake a wedding cake for his ex husband and his former-mistress-turn-wife.

As an icing on the cake gone bad, she learned that her replacement was pregnant, while during ten years of her marriage to him, her husband had refused to start a family with her.

So despite her loving family and supportive friends, no one could blame her when she wished her ex-husband a temporary impotency during his honeymoon while she, ever the professional, baked him the cake. I would not have blinked an eye if she had done something much worse, but she did mention that she would not want to go to jail. Sensible girl.

Of course, she then learned that she had inherited magical ability from her maternal grandmother, and that her wish had come true.

So, she went on a baking spree to put her new-found abilities to good use for her friends, family, and herself. At least, she thought so, until she realized that casting spell was a bit trickier and her granted wishes had unpredictable consequences.

I would give 3 out of 5 rating for this one, simply because I like the character. She's unpretentious and honest, but not without flaws. The book also gave sufficient introductions to characters that would be the hero/heroines for the next books in this series. However, having said that, it did not give a lasting impression. It's not that funny, it's not overly dramatic, it's not that serious. It's basically an okay book, quite enjoyable while you flipped the pages, but once you're done, or at least once I'm done, I'm done. It's that forgettable.

But on the bright side, this one cost $0.99 on kindle, so go ahead and get this one ...

February 2011

So after reading so many romance books this month (which is a great way to warm up the year, btw), I'm switching gear to a much more serious theme, Military books.

No worries, to balance things up, I listed equal amount of lighter read in between...

Here it goes...

• Craving God - Lysa TerKeurs
• Happily Ever After (Deep Haven Series # 1) - Susan May Warren
• Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose
• Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
• Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes (Cancelled, can't get the book)
• Daughter of Joy - Kathleen Morgan
• Watcher in the Woods - Robert Liparulo

I hope I can follow it through...

Book 7 - Fools Rush In

This is the first Christian fiction book I've ever read. To be honest, I didn't even know there's such thing as Christian romance book before I stumbled on this one.

To sum up, I would definitely recommend this book for my daughter to read when she's past her Sweet Valley book series (are they still around, btw?).

The book is light, funny and ... surreal.

An Italian American girl recently took over her family's business of Wedding Organizer, and through a divine intervention, met a cowboy. A tall, handsome, sensitive, respectful, parents-loving, God-fearing, and almost physically perfect Cowboy.

Almost too good to be true? That's exactly the problem. I don't mind a little bit of preaching here and there about faith and God, I really don't. But it seems everything was just SO made up in this book. "The problems" that the heroine faced seem to be only in her head. Small problem were written here and there and made to seem like they're huge deal, i suppose so they fill up the pages, and there were times when I just want to tell her to snap out of it already! Also, there were too many coincidences that conveniently resulting in these "problems" resolving themselves. Which, we are to assume, it's the Divine intervention, aka God.

Like I said, had I been sixteen and reading this, I would like it very much. But I'm not sixteen, and as a near-thirty years old woman myself, I don't believe this is how the world seems to be for someone my age. If it did, then God must have a favorite child...

Book 6 - The Bite of Silence

................................................................

I was about to ask for a refund until I remembered that I got this book for free.

Where to begin?

Girl meets Boy. Boy is a Vampire. Boy used to be a Spartan General turned to vampire (cue to start gagging for the sheer cheesiness of the entire thing)

Girl flashed boobs. Sex followed. Author spent more time describing sex than actually telling story or developing plot line. And not good one at that. As a matter of fact, while I have always, always, love romance novel, this is the first time where I had no choice but to admit that I have just read a bad sex story. It's an insult to the art of erotic writing.

The first word that came to mind is: Riiiggghhttt, followed by: ewwwwwww. It made me cringe. It's so traumatizing that I'd never repeat the experience of reading her books again.

ewwwww

Book 5 - Aphrodite's Kiss

I like it.

It started of Harry Potter-ish, then seamlessly morphed to Buffy-like with a little bit of Harlequinesque spice here and there, enough to keep you wanting for more, not too much to turn it cheesy.

As a fan of Harry Potter book, an avid follower of True Blood, and an addict to romance novel, what more can I ask for?

Oh, and the heroine is a librarian, and she saves the guy. Brilliant.

ps: I've always wanted to be a librarian and I have no patience for a swooning, faint-prone girl waiting to be rescued.

Book 4 - Heidegger's Glasses

The story took place in Germany during WW II. Despite the real life characters depicted in the book, such as Martin Heidegger, Goebbels, and a brief mention of Mengele, the premise of the story was entirely fiction.

A group of polyglots had been picked out of certain death and secreted away to live in a compound. Their sole purpose was to answer letters to the dead. You see, when prisoners arrived in concentration camps, they were made to write letters to their relatives, saying that hei, the camp was not that bad, there were food and people were nice and they even asked the relatives to join them.

Of course afterwards most of them were sent to gas chambers immediately. This amounted to a huge numbers of letters from the dead, all of them unanswered. So, for record keeping and also for a very superstitious reasons, the Reich decided that these letters should be answered in whatever language they were originally written, like answer like, and hence the scribes, living in an underground compound with painted sky and stars and cobblestone street, protected, helped, and fed by their two guardian angels who happened to be SS officers.

I have no idea what to think of this book. Story wise, I supposed it's okay. I mean, if I can enjoy the story about a magical platform in London that would opened up and led to a secretive train station that would carry you to a wizardry school of Hogwarts, I suppose I should be able to accept a premise in which a commandent of a concentration camp let two prisoners walked away, in which not all SS Officers were bad, some of them were actually risking their lives to smuggle people to safety.

But I just can't.

A story about a German businessman who built an SS-sanctioned factory which actually was a sanctuary for the condemned was certainly too wild to be true, but that was exactly what Oskar Schindler did.

Being a Chinese descent who live in Indonesia, learning History in classroom about WW II in the Pacific, listening about the Rape of Nanking from my dad, a seemingly romanticized story about how a Japanese diplomat, in collaboration with a Dutch consul, saved several thousands Jews seemed implausible, until I read about Chiune Sugihara

I'm not so naive to think that the world operates in black and white. I knew there must be more people like Schindler and Sugihara. I would like to read more stories like theirs, for truly their bravery and humanity deserves to be recounted and told over and over again.

But not like the one written in this book.

I tried to put my thoughts in words, but this time I simply can't.

Maybe such sensitive, important, and horrific subject matters are better not to be imagined into fiction.

Book 3 - The Year She Fell

The Year She Fell by Alicia Rasley

I Love it. It's definitely going to my favorite book list for sure. If my favorite book in 2010 is One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, this book is the first in my candidate for favorite book in 2011. It's that book that any other books I'm yet to read this year would be compared to (I want to name it the best book I read in 2011, but it's still the first week of January. I'd like to think I'd found more awesome books and certainly don't want it to go downhill from here).

How do I start?

The characters are strong, well developed, with appropriate amount of layers and background stories to breathe distinct personalities to each of them. What amazed me is the eased with which the author, Alicia Rasley, assumed and explored the identity of each person, giving different first person's point of views and voices. If you tell me these characters are real people and Ms. Rasley simply recorded what they told her, I would have believed you.

And what a story it is! I certainly did NOT see it headed that way, and I love how Ms. Rasley guided me through the eyes and hearts of these different characters as the story unfolds.

Only one, well, two things that I wishes she had written more. The first one is the Matriarch's point of view. Although, I suppose that's the whole point, so that just as the characters felt, in the end, we felt as if we could never know the real Mrs. Wakefield. She's a strong, smart, and imposing public figure, she's a loyal wife, she's also a good mother who must chose the lesser of two evils at times and just like a lot of mothers out there, was misunderstood and reduced to just that: Mother.

I mean, once you have the title Mother, it seems that that one word sums up the whole person. People tends to forget that before a woman becomes a mother, she's also a child, a girl, a young woman, a wife (sometimes), and that these experiences and the people and situations she interact with, ingrained and shaped who she is when she becomes a mother. Once she is a mother, she remains, forever always, a person in her own right, and more importantly, a distinct individual, a human being. And you know what, human made mistakes.

She's a mother, NOT a saint!

Each character was given a chance to tell their stories, and therefore explained themselves and why they did what they did. But not Mrs. Wakefield. So, I'm really curious to know what her story is. Maybe Ms. Rasley should publish 2nd epilogue like Julia Quinn did, and give Mrs. Wakefield a chance to tell her stories, to tie the loose ends and what happened to her daughters afterwards.

**Spoiler Alert**

Did Ellen and Tom manage to rekindle their marriage? How did Sarah deal with the situation? Did the long distant relationship between Laura and Jackson work? and what about Theresa?

Yes, what about Theresa? Come on, it is just so obvious that something will happen between her and Mitch. Theresa is the most conflicted character (after Cathy, I suppose) in the book. It can't be easy for her to adjust to her new life outside the cloister, and Mitch is not without emotional baggage himself. While Ellen, Tom, Jackson, and Laura seemed to have dealt with their past demons or finally at the stage of their lives where they know who they are and felt comfortable with themselves in the book, the same can't be said about Theresa and Mitch, both I believe have just started the healing process.

Please Ms. Rasley, in the unlikely event that you read this, please write about Theresa and Mitch. I NEED to know more about them!!

Anyway, regardless of that, This Book is so good that despite having a free Kindle version of it, I'd buy the printed copy as well!

Book 2 - Millie's Fling

Millie's Fling by Jill Mansel

I like it. It is a chick lit book and doesn't pretend to be something else: it's light, funny, and entertaining.

I love the characters, and although Millie is the heroine, the supporting figures are also given a chance to shine. When they interact with Millie, they are not vague and hiding in the shadow, they have their distinct personalities and managed to be as engaging as Millie, sometimes even more so.

Am not happy about Lucas' portrayal. I mean, although he was just a supporting character, it seems that he's only used as an easy fix for most conflict in the book. **Spoiler Alert** He stumbled across Hugh and Millie and gave a not so subtle and yet "inspiring speech" to encourage Hugh to do the right thing. He offered Nat and Millie jobs and solved their employment problems, He "cured" Hester's obsession with him in a very selfless and almost degrading way for him, and he solved any potential romantic conflict between Nat and Hester by telling the truth to Nat. He even had an indirect influence on exposing Giles' cheating way, and he has a spot on intuition about Colin's preference!

It's like, Lucas is a reluctant hero disguised as a womanizing, self-centred man who's not given a chance to have his own story told. Maybe the author didn't mean it that way, maybe, while the focus was about Millie (it IS Millie's fling after all), the distractions was supposed to revolved around Hugh, Orla, Hester, and Nat.

Only for me, the distraction was Lucas. Or to be more exact, the injustice portrayal of Lucas' character. Give the guy a chance! He's not as bad if he does all those noble thing, if he does the right thing and not chose the easy way out (by refusing Hester's advance in the pool, by telling Nat the truth).

Then I remembered that it is a Chick lit. It's all about Millie's fling and not about a conflicted and elusive supporting figure in Lucas character.

Hm, I wonder if Jill Mansel would write a story with Lucas as the hero? I'd definitely buy that one!

Book 1 - Mossy Creek

Mossy Creek is a book written by Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, and Virginia Ellis.

I'm a bit undecided about this one. I didn't expect much, I thought the book was about a compilation of stories from different mossy creekites' point of view. And I do enjoy reading about small town life in the USA, which, surprisingly, not much different than small town life here in Indonesia. Gossip, peer pressure and influence, etc.

Then, just as I expected the author would explore more on the mayor's relationship with the Lt. Col, or probably about the mayor's son and his wife, the story abruptly ended and moved on to different characters. Okay, that was surprising and not in a good way, but I thought I'd keep reading and while knowing other mossy creekites, I'd also catch up with the mayor's personal story. I didn't. I read a line or two about it, but it felt forced and lame excuse to remind me about the mayor.

I like the stories, don't get me wrong; laughed at the Foo Club's stealing the town sign, blinked a tear or two for Jayne Austin. I just wondered if the author was limited to only a set amount of pages and therefore didn't have enough space to develop the characters more. I personally think that it would be a better book if there are fewer characters and more pages for the remaining ones. I caught a glimpse of their lives but by the end of each character's stories, I don't know them any better, and therefore, their stories are easier to forget by the time I got to the last page.

The ending is annoying. Reading the book, I'd never thought that it's a mystery book until the last chapter. No, the last pages. And it doesn't seem ... fair. It's like you start with a John Grisham book only to end up with a Stephen King one, and not in a good way either, even if they are your favorite authors.

To be fair, I haven't read Reunion at Mossy Creek. Does anyone know if it would explore the original characters more, or would it just introduce yet more Mossy Creekites? Because so far, unfortunately, I don't know these Mossy Creekites characters well enough to care about what happened at the Reunion.