Days of Delirium

Just when you thought you've known everything about Carrie Bradshaw, her three besties and everything in between about their lives, here comes another pre-instalment of the famous Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell.  Because, why not? Milk all you can out of the famous book/TV-series/movies while you still can.  Normally, I don't read chick-lits. I found these books, ' Carrie Diaries ' and its sequel ' Summer and the City ' during the Big Bad Wolf sale last year and decided - hey, why not since I was already a huge fan of the series and the movies.  Plus, they were only at RM8 each. Hardcover too.  The book brings us back to 1980s when Carrie Bradshaw was a 17-year-old high school student aspiring to be a writer and get accepted into Brown. At the same time, having a love-hate relationship with the new boy in school, Sebastian Kydd whilst maintaining friendship with her three best friends, Maggie, Mouse and Walt.  The firs...

Book #6 for 2012: Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson "Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life." Those words at the back cover totally sold the book and made me a fan. It tells the story of Christine Lucas, who lost her memory every time she goes to sleep - resulted from a mysterious accident. Every day, she wakes up not knowing where she is, what happened to her or how she got married to her husband, Ben.  As suggested by her doctor, she keeps a journal to keep track of her daily activities but one morning she found a startling thing written in the journal - ' Don't trust Ben '. That opens up the floodgate of suspicions - what really happened to her and is Ben really telling her the truth? Before I Go to Sleep is fil...

Book #5 for 2012: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest This third and last instalment of the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson brings us back to Lisbeth Salander, the femme fatale of the story, who is in critical condition with a bullet in her head. Laying somewhat 2 doors away from her hospital room is Alexander Zalachenko, whom Lisbeth tried to murder albeit unsuccessfully.  Upon her full recovery she would be taken back to Stockholm where she is to be tried for numerous criminal offences put against her. At this last straw she must prove her innocence with the help of Mikael Blomkvist, a famed journalist, and at the same time denounce those in power who have allowed those vulnerable, like her, to be used, abused and suffer.  If you are a follower of the previous two instalments of this trilogy, you would really want to get hold of this one as soon as you're done with 'The Girl Who Played with Fire'. In contrary with its predecessors, 'The Girl ...

Book #4 for 2012: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson The chronicles of Lisbeth Salander continue in this second book of the Millennium trilogy. The story picks up where The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo left, whereby Mikael Blomkvist is planning to publish a story by Dag Stevensson and Mia Johannson about a big sex-trafficking operation which may put Sweden echelons in not-so-pleasant spotlight. The situation gets an unexpected turn when both writers were found murdered and our femme fatale, Lisbeth Salander's fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. The murder triggers an extensive investigation into the matter which may reveal more than they have anticipated and shed a new light on Lisbeth Salander's well-kept past.  Those who have read the first installment of the Millenium trilogy will appreciate this sequel as it probes deeper into Lisbeth Salander's life - both present and past. Readers will finally get to know ' All the Evil ...

Book #3 for 2012: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon As the title suggests, it all started when Christopher John Francis Boone saw his neighbour's dog was killed on one night.  Christopher, a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome, embarked on a solo mission to find out who impaled Wellington, the dog, with a pitchfork - a mission that not only solved the mystery but changed the way he perceived the people around him as well.  The story is narrated by Christopher himself and his condition with Asperger's syndrome played a large part in the storytelling. He uses logic and calculations to make his every decision, and whenever he faced difficulties in explaining he would illustrate them, through diagrams or charts. I don't really know how to explain this book because, well, it is so simple and direct-to-the-point. There's nothing much to be discussed or explored but to read it yourself. While Google Books, Amazo...

Book #2 for 2012: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson I must have passed by this book a thousand times over the last 2, 3 years but it wasn't until I watched the heart-stopping trailer of its film adaptation that I decided to give this book a place on my bookshelf. Boy, disappointed I was not.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book of the Millennium Trilogy (the other two will be discussed in the coming posts). It is about a disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist who found himself in an unexpected assignment to uncover the disappearance mystery of a girl some forty years ago. The task took an unexpected turns as the deeper he dug into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, the more he uncovered the unpleasant side of top Swedish echelons where corruption and power abuse were rampant.  Of course, to carry out the interesting task, he found himself a partner in the form of Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed genius and the femme fatale of the s...

Book #1 for 2012: By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham brings another jewel to the table with his latest book, By Nightfall. The mention of 'Michael Cunningham' and his book in the same line would probably echo some familiar elements represented in his previous books: complexities, homo-eroticism and raw emotions.  And that's exactly why I always looked forward for his latest instalments. By Nightfall is a story about a middle-age couple, Peter and Rebecca Harris, who lives in Manhattan. They have a life which normal people would envy: he's an art dealer and she's a magazine editor. Somehow, there's something hollow in their life and the presence of Rebecca's younger brother who's coming over to stay with them, the Yale dropout Mizzy (short for 'Mistake' or his real name Ethan), just cuts open the couple's silent trouble, particularly Peter's boring and banal life. As the story progresses, the seemingl...

Hannibal by Thomas Harris Okay, first of all, many thanks to Ann Jie for recommending me this book. I had no idea about this Thomas Harris' masterpiece until she suggested me to give it a try (I know, I know, I should be punished for not knowing about this book's existence. Dumb) and just like what she told me, it was full of gore and plain gruesome. Short, lots of graphic, sadistic events take place in this book. For the benefit of my fellow few readers who are still in the dark about this book, Hannibal by Thomas Harris is about the namesake, a cannibalistic serial killer who escaped to Italy and being hunted by his rich, surviving victim, Mason Verger with the help of a tainted Italian detective and a corrupt US government official. At the same time, there's Clarice Starling - an FBI agent who's trying to fix her bad reputation from a raid-gone-wrong by pursuing Dr Hannibal Lecter. Interestingly, the antagonist likes her (as told from previous bo...

What would you do if one day you wake up just to find your entire family vanishes without trace and without having any clue of their disappearance? No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay is a story about Cynthia Archer who found her entire family had disappeared on one morning and left her no notice, no signs of their whereabouts. Twenty-five years later, she still has no idea what had happened to her father, mother and younger brother that morning - until a series of strange things started to happen. She has a strange feeling that someone is watching her wherever she goes. She bumped into a man who looked like her missing brother a number of times. Her aunt, the only surviving family relative she has, was killed before she could tell her secrets that could changed her life. She claims her father is attempting to reconnect with her although her husband now thinks she's on the verge of becoming insane - or is she not? The most special part about this book is probably the...

I don’t really know how to describe this book but i’d surely try my best. I had seen this book on numerous bestseller lists since 2007 and on my sister’s bookshelf but I had never gathered enough reason to read it until two people recommended me to do so (thanks Afiq and Ida!). The first few pages were dizzyingly confusing; the next few chapters were intriguing while the rest of the book was painfully long and criss-crossed with one era and the other. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova tells the story of the author’s hunt of Vlad Tepes or the fictional version of it, The Dracula in the 1970s with her father. The quest started off when she found an old book with a woodcut dragon in the middle of the book in her father’s library and led the latter to reveal her how he had accidentally found the book during his student days in 1950s. Then, we will learn why the author’s father had wanted to keep the book secret for years especially with his professor’s disappearance after he had shown him...

Okay, I've read three books for the past month of January - which is relatively good since one of my new year's resolutions is to read at least 10 books this year. I know that's quite a laughable figure, but I'm taking baby steps here. Is 'laughable' even a word? Anyway... Here are the books I've read in January: 1. 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown. This is another laughable point for this post. I'm about two years late to pick up this book, since the first print was only hardcovers. I can be cheapskate and calculative at times, alright. By the time the paperback was finally released, I ended up downloading it straight into my iPad - better still, it was free. Now who's laughing? I know most of you must've known how this book goes. Perhaps, a movie adaption was being made while I'm typing this (who knows?). For the remaining handful of people who have yet to read this, The Lost Symbol follows the quest of Professor Robert Langdon (of Th...

Before I get down to business, let me give you an idea of what this book is about. Taking its title from one of the lines in a psalm, 'World Without End' is supposedly the sequel to the marvelousness, that is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It tells the story of Kingsbridge town some two centuries later and revolves around the lives of four children - Merthin, Gwenda, Caris and Ralph, from their childhood until 40 years later with many unexpected events occurring in between especially after they witnessed the killing of two knights in the woods by a runaway lord, Sir Thomas Langley to protect a secret that 'could kill everyone'. Okay, so over the next 1237 pages of the book, you would think that you're going to learn about that dreadful secret, the motive of the killing, some political struggle between monarchs or even know how the secret could affect the town of Kingsbridge, right? WRONG. That supposedly-momentous event occurring in the woods is nothing an...

I'm not a big fan of fictional books except for classics by Tolstoy, Woolf, Steinback etc. Somehow, I had a big urge to pick up this one, what more with many recommendations by my friends who had either read it or watched the TV series based on the book. Besides, how wrong can you get with a book which had been endorsed by the Big O - Oprah Winfrey? In a nut shell, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett tells the story of the building of a great cathedral in a quite village called Kingsbridge during the 12th century. However, you won't be reading anything about its construction until you've flipped almost 300 pages. The author takes his time to give a beautiful outlay and introduction of the setting and the main characters involved before getting down to the real business. The next 700 pages unfolds the chronicles underlaying as the cathedral takes its shape - monarch rivalry, ecclesiastical politics, unswerving ambition, family ties as well as betrayal, manipulation, rev...

My book-reading libido has been quite high of late. Right after I finished Eat,Pray, Love I picked up Mitch Albom's latest book, Have a Little Faith and finished it within two days. Seemed like recent trip back to my hometown was a fruitful one as I managed to finish two books in a span of four days. All thanks to the gadget-deficient luggage - no laptop, no PSP (actually I brought it back but had forgotten to pack along the charger. Pfft). Only my phone and iPod to keep me entertained on the bus - I can't read books while being in motion. Have got used to Mr Albom's way of writing from three of his previous books (The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Tuesdays with Morrie and For One More Day), I must say it was a pretty, err, boring read for me as I expected more from this book which took eight years to be completed. Somehow I felt rather 'cheated'. As if his publisher was trying to milk out as much profit as possible by printing his name on the cover and selling i...

I had written a completely different draft for this entry but it didn't sound like what I really feel about the book. So I scrapped it all and replaced it with this one instead. If there's anything extraordinary about this book which enables it to sell more than 6 million copies worldwide, I would say none. The storyline is simple - about a woman's quest for joy, spiritual healing and balance of both - just how many times have we heard or read about it. But there lies a true simplicity in the storytelling for each page which allows you to connect with the whole real-life experience faced by the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, while she was in Italy, India and Bali, Indonesia seeking the three things mentioned earlier. Her pursuit for spiritual, especially, was written from a novice's point of view, sparing all the scientific and entangling terms which may turn this book into a 'Spiritual-101 Guide. Thankfully she writes as if she's right there in front of you over a ...

I've known Dr. Maya Angelou through her numerous appearances on Oprah and captivated by her personality. Her wisdom, her ideas and the way she talks as if a mother talking to her children. No wonder Oprah sees her as her mentor and I definitely learned a thing or two from this interesting lady as well. This book was first published in 1967 as a memoir of her life thus far and reprinted for its second edition this year, 2009. I saw it couple of weeks ago in Borders and the title is enough to entice me to read it more. I didn't buy it that day though, and ended up returning home feeling guilty and miserable. So, the next time I was in Pavilion, I dropped by Times bookstore and quickly made a purchase of this book. Though the first few pages seemed confusing and rather slow-paced, I simply couldn't put it down after moving on to chapter 3, 4 and so on. Miss Angelou shared her bittersweet childhood in this memoir and unlike most memoir where the story-telling seemed formal and ...

I spent the last couple of days reading Barbara Walters’ memoir, Audition – a 400-page thick book about this respected journalist whom I greatly admired. Released in June last year, I found her self-written memoir a very good read, a rare adjective for memoir/autobiographies which could be dreadfully boring most of the time. Though her memoir lacked of fancy words and redundancy in story-telling, it was a very entertaining and inspiring read and as if listening her talking to an old friend and she had no trouble name-dropping those involved in the matter she talked. I didn’t grow up watching Barbara Walters on her ‘Today’ show on NBC while she was still in the network prior 1974. I knew her from her talk show ‘The View’ and I had an opportunity to read an excerpt from her memoir sometime last year in Vanity Fair (the one with Bobby Kennedy’s picture on the cover) and instantly I got a gripped on it. What really made me connected to her story was about being seen as this perfect...

I've bought and read the book, Tuesdays With Morrie for at least 3 times and still, each time I learned new things from this wonderfully-written book. Recently I found out that it has a movie version made by Oprah Winfrey back in 1999, which did not disappoint any less. It is about the author, Mitch Albom who discovered his college professor sufferred from a terminal disease called ALS or simply the Lou Gehrig's Disease, which collapses the body organ and system one by one starting with the lower limbs and finally the lungs. He spent the final days of his professor by visiting the latter on Tuesdays, taking a 700 miles trip each week from Detroit to Chicago and learned new things about life. As Oprah said, to be a best-seller for more than two years, a story has got to have a connection to the people reading it. And damn she was right. The story of Mitch Albom and his Professor Morrie Shwartz was so simple yet it struck you as if you knew the characters personally. Each page sp...