Out of boredom on a Sunday morning, I decided to update my Library Thing with the books I've recently read. My last update was in February and since then I've read 10 books. That's almost 2 books a month (I'm so proud of myself).
And again, out of boredom on a Sunday morning, I'm listing all the books here.
1) The story of Edgar Sawtelle
I bought this book because Oprah was going on and on about how great this book is. And since the story is about a mute boy who grows up rearing their own special Sawtelle breed of dogs, I was thinking I would love this book. To my disappointment, the whole storyline of this books was pointless and the most frustrating thing about the pointless storyline was the pointless ending. The story was so pointless that I went online to read forums hoping to get some light on the ending. This is one of those books which has a lot of "isi tersirat" and it's up to you how you want to interpret it. Didn't like the book.
2) The Kitchen God's Wife
I was running out of books to read so I dug out some of my sisters old books. She is an Amy Tan fan but for some reason I was never interested in reading books about any Asian culture. Since young, all the books I've read was always by American authors and their American ways of life. With no other books to read, I choose this book.
The book is about the relationship between a mother and daughter. Mother came from China, lived through a lot of hardship and managed to migrate to U.S. later. Daughter, having brought up in the U.S. has a strained relationship with her mum because she cannot understand her mum's old conventional ways. The storyline then focuses on the mum telling her daughter about her life back in China digging up all the secrets hidden in the past.
After reading this book, I think understand why the older Chinese generation act the way they do. It kinda opened my eyes a little and made me realize that just because I've been brought in the modern world with my modern thinking doesn't mean I always know better. This book sparked my interest in reading books focus on other cultures thus I bought the next book below.
3) Wild Swans
I loved this book. Wrote a whole post for it
here. The books is an autobiography of 3 generations in China, beginning with the author's grandmother, her mother and then herself. It tells of what life was like in China over the last century. Definitely a must read.
4) Starting Over
The book is about a middle age man who has a heart attack and recovers thinking he has a second chance in life. It makes him rethink about everything about life and decides to quit the job he finds meaningless, becomes a friend to his teenage children and a lover to his wife. However, things don't always go to how you think it would be and he may end up losing everything instead.
This book was an easy read, though I didn't like the ending. A story must have an ending, a conclusion, a summary to make all the hours I spent reading the book worthwhile. And when the book doesn't give me a satisfying ending, I'll not like it. After this book, I decided I won't buy anymore Tony Parsons books.
5) In Her Shoes
At this time, I found the 2nd hand bookshop that Shu-Yin blogged about
here and I now only buy books from there. All books from here onwards are all from that little bookstore in Island Plaza. In Her Shoes is a story about 2 very different sisters. The older is a responsible plain woman with the prestigious college degree and career, where else the younger sister is a gorgeous hottie who jumps in and out of waitressing jobs always relying of her older sister to save her from any fix.
I loved this book. It's witty, it's funny and it shows that no matter how much your sister drives you crazy, she will still always be your sister (So Genny, I forgive you for stealing all my shampoo and conditioner).
6) The Pilot's Wife
I picked this book because of the "Oprah Book Club" logo. Decided to trust Oprah again. This book is about a woman whose pilot husband died when his plane crashed, killing all passengers on board. As the story unfolds, the devastated wife finds more and more secrets about her husband that she never knew. You think you know a person, but how sure are you? While reading this book, I repeated asked the hubby over and over again, "Are there any secrets you're keeping from me????" I enjoyed this book.
7) Chocolat
Boring book. I forced myself to read this book since I already bought it. Won't say much about it.
8) Keeping Faith
I loved this book. And I'm now officially a Jodi Picoult fan. This book is about a seven-year-old Jewish girl who starts telling people she sees God after her parents divorced. Throughout the whole book, you'll wonder whether she really is seeing God, or is it part of her imagination.
9) Enduring Love
I bought this book because it's by the same author as Atonement and I loved that movie. However, I was disappointed with this book. Predictable storyline. Not worth the read.
10) Man and Boy
I know I mentioned that I wouldn't buy another Tony Parsons book, but a review of this book came out in the newspaper. This book has been translated into 38 languages wor..... it has to be good right? I just finished this book last week. Story is about this 30 year old guy who has everything. A beautiful wife and son, a fabulous career, and wonderful parents however he finds that he has reached a stage in life where he feels stuck. In just one night, he finds himself losing everything he has and the story goes on from there.
The book was okay. I'm not jumping up and down about it, but it was okay.
So there we have it, boy and girls, the 10 books I've read. I've just started the non-fictional The Bookseller of Kabul. Seems like a good book.
Any books you wanna borrow from me, just let me know. :)
