Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Quote from the back cover of the book:

A Chinese proverb says, “Falling leaves return to their roots”.

And then, the cheeky side of me thought; what if the fallen leaves are picked up by someone and carried far away from its roots? :-P
Will it grow anew like jade plant which grows right from its leaves?
Perhaps growing up beside the parent tree might not be a good idea after all eh?
Don’t mind me, sometimes my mind wanders…

Sometimes I wonder how often we look back to our childhood reminiscing about the bygone era in which we lived a carefree life without being saddled with endless bills, expectations and so on.

While some will whine, some, like this book entitled “Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah”, captures the essence of a childhood trapped in a never-ending home politics is a gem to be savored.

In this open hearted, tell-all book (which is almost none-existence in Asian culture), Adeline exposes the underbelly of the home politics when her biological mom passed away after giving birth to her. Her dad remarried to a “sophisticated lady” and with her stepping on the wrong side of the shadow, she was labeled as the black sheep of the family.

From thence onwards, she was often subjected to countless exclusion and not to mention humiliation during her growing up years. She literally paved her own road away from the family despite being deprived from what she craved the most; love and acceptance as part of the family.

I will not dwell in the methods she used to “break” from the family but in my opinion, the book is readable but the portrayal is rather one sided.

That is to say that Adeline’s depicts herself as victim from start until the end of the book. I’m not to judge an autobiographical book like this but readers should be neutral-minded when they read this book so as not to pass any judgment without hearing both sides of the story.

Short book review eh? :-)
I can’t comment nor review too much on people’s autobiography right?
Later I kena “tembak” for commenting on other people’s life. :-P

Personal rating: N/A

Cons:
1) N/A

Pros:
1) N/A

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

I was in melancholy mood; as in sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness and not a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged, depression; (am I explaining myself here?-P) (quoted from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/melancholy) when I stumbled upon this book entitled “The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry”.

I’ve watched one movie previously (forgotten the title though.. a dotong mah.. :-P) about a group of assassins who assassinate based on pattern derived from an old cloth making machine, so I thought to myself perhaps “The Lace Reader” will revolve around the same premise :-P

Boy I was so wrong. Don’t get me wrong, this book is a really good read. The book is engaging; the plot and character development/explanation is so good that you’ll end up “creating” mould out of the plots/characters in your head as you read on.

However, towards the end of the book, all the plots and characters you’ve built in your mind came crashing down leaving only doubt whether the ending matches the beginning or vice versa. To put it in perspective, reading this book is exactly like watching the movie “Shutter Island” acted by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Essentially, it is a book about generations of women endowed with special skill of lace and/or mind reading in Salem (infamous for the Witch Hunt Incident). The protagonist of this novel is a lady called Towner Whitney (real name Sophya) who can “decipher” the past, present and future from the lace pattern, particularly the handmade Ipswich lace.

Towner escaped from Salem years ago when she had mental breakdown after her twin sister’s suicide, only to go back to the hood when her beloved great-aunt Eva disappeared. Flashbacks, memories and urge to discover reasons of her twin sister’s suicide brought along confusing blend of fact and make believe into picture.

In fact, all the characters introduced into the plot revolve along Towner’s life; two characters worth mentioning are:

1) Her mother, May, who appears to be her mom in the beginning only to negate all that in the end. Meaning that she’s not her mom after all. GASP!
2) Her twin sister, Lyndley, who lived separately from Towner since young only to be reunited and killed herself when she stumbled upon Towner in a boat together with her crush, Jack LaLibertie. However, at the end of the novel, even this fact is not true, because apparently Lyndley is a twin Towner never had because she died immediately after birth

See, I told you this book has quirky ending. In fact, it is so quirky that I had to re-read the ending part twice just to make sure that I read the right thing. Well, I bet everyone will do the same if they read this book.

This is a neutral book review because it is complicated to begin with and my hats off to Brunonia for writing such a compelling book with such a refreshing albeit twisted ending :-P

I do agree with The Washington Post’s quote, “Gripping… a marvelously bizarre cast of characters (living and dead) in a uniquely colorful town”.

Personal rating: 7 out of 10

Cons:
1) A complicated read. I had to slow down in order to grasp the flow of the story

Pros:
1) A novel with real good twist at the end

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

First and foremost, I’ve to admit that I’ve been a slog in updating my blog with book reviews. But then, I need to work to earn a living you see :-P (I hope that explains everything). Anyway, I think I’m getting better at speed reading.

In fact, I managed to finish (on average) a 300pager (plus minus) on a one way 3hours flight (excluding transits); that is after deducting off the sleep, the lunch, the toilet visit etc etc etc (I find that etcetera makes me sound more intelligent :-P).

So, here I am, stuck at transit terminal typing the latest book review on a book entitled “Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton”. It should be noted that this same book was previously published as “The 13th Warrior by Michael Crichton”.

“Praise not the day until evening has come; a woman until she is burnt; ice until it has been crossed; beer until it has been drunk” – Northmen/Viking’s proverb

Praise to Michael because this is the kind of book which I actually enjoyed reading. Suspense, thriller, gore and grime all blended together ala tutti-frutti. I don’t know whether to believe references quoted conspicuously as footnote as you read thru the book but Michael did say that “sic”; “the references in the afterword are genuine. The rest of the novel, including its introduction, text, footnotes, and bibliography, should be viewed as fiction.”

This book is supposedly written with reference to original manuscripts/travelogues penned by Ibn Fadlan with sprinkling of ideas taken from Old English epic of Beowulf.

In this book (criss-cross between fact and fiction), we follow Ibn Fadlan; a refined Arab courtier; a representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad; on an off-tracked adventure.
He was supposedly sent as an embassy of the Caliphate to the king of the Volga Bulgars but was sidetracked when his badly timed (or sheer bad luck) visit to the Northern wild lands resulting him to be chosen as the 13th warrior; hence the name of the book.

In this book, the Vikings in the Kingdom of Rothgar in the Land of Venden are being spooked, mercilessly slaughtered and cannibalized by “apparitions” in the black mist. Despite being hardy and brave warriors they are, these Vikings are no match for the unseen and “shall not be named” enemy. Hence, King Rothgar’s son, Wulfgar, trekked and sailed all the way to seek help from a hero named Buliwyf to wipe out this menace from their land.

To cut the story short, the 13 warriors grabbed their gears, ate; drank, frolicked and copulated all the way to their destination :-)

When they finally met the creatures in the black mist for the first time, they fought full heartedly and managed to beat them back; only to see the reappearance of the creature in the form of “the glowworm dragon a.k.a Korgon”; which is basically a bunch of horse-riders with fire torch riding as a horde.

Our warriors fought hard and even went deep into the enemy’s territory to complete the annihilation; however, they’re able to do it only when they ventured to the underwater cave/lair to kill the “Big Momma” of the enemies :-P, thus, throwing them into disarray.
Buliwyf and many of the warriors are killed in the end, and our protagonist, Ibn Fadlan escaped with a great story under his belt. End of story.

Whew, I’m so relieved to be able to pen this book review during my transit hours. So, I shall start reading another book after I log off, and hopefully I’ll be able to find time to write another book review on my journey home to “tanah tumpahnya darahku” :-)

Gonna board my ferry now... TATA…

P/s: I’ll be baacck… (voice-over like Terminator)

Personal rating: 8 out of 10

Cons:
None that I can think of

Pros:
1) Good description on the Viking’s way of life. I enjoyed the description of their crude lifestyle which somewhat pales in comparison with the “refined” lifestyle of the ancient Asian cultures
2) Michael managed to blur the line between fact and fiction seamlessly. It is a truly enjoyable read

Ai Hen Jian Dan by David Tao

I have to admit that understanding Chinese songs is never my forte… however; I have soft spot for great tunes and poetry of Chinese songs; though I have to read the pinyin version slowly in order to sing the song.

I bet this is an old song cos as what I’ve said, I’m not particularly updated in Chinese songs arena. However, this song is so beautifully written, the tune is so melodious and of course, the singer, David Tao has the perfect voice to carry the song that I felt so attached to the song despite the language barrier.

I’ve attached the translation here as well… so, light up the scented candle, steep a cup of fragrant tea, sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the song… :-)



Lyric taken from: http://www.jpopasia.com/lyrics/24161/david-tao/ai-hen-jian-dan.html

Ai Hen Jian Dan (Loving/Love Is Easy) by David Tao

Romaji: Ai Hen Jian Dan

wang le shi zen me kai shi
ye xu jiu sh idui ni you yi zhong gan jue　　
hu ran jian fa xian zi ji　
yi shen shen ai shang ni zhen de hen jian dan

ai de di an tian hei dou yi wu suo wei　
shi shi fei fei wu fa jue zhe
mei you hou hui wei ai ri ye qu gen sui　　
na ge feng kuang de ren shi wo

I LOVE U　
wu fa bu ai ni
BABY　　
shuo ni ye ai wo
I LOVE U　　
yong yuan bu yuan yi
BABY　
shi qu ni

bu ke neng geng kuai le　
zhi yao neng zai yi qi zuo shen me dou ke yi　
sui ran shi jie bian ge bu ting
yong zui zhen cheng de xin rang ai bian de jian dan

ai de di an tian hei dou yi wu suo wei　
shi shi fei fei wu fa jue zhe
mei you hou hui wei ai ri ye qu gen sui　　
na ge feng kuang de ren shi wo

I LOVE U　　
yi zhi zai zhe li
BABY　　　
yi zhi zai ai ni
I LOVE U　(yes I do)　　　
yong yuan dou bu fang qi zhe ai ni de quan li

ru guo ni hai you yi xie kun huo
Oh No　
qing tie zhe wo de xin qing ting
ting wo shuo zhe ai ni
(yes I do)　
wo ai ni

I LOVE U　　
yi zhi zai zhe li
BABY　　　
yi zhi zai ai ni
I LOVE U　(yes I do)　　　
yong yuan dou bu fang qi zhe ai ni de quan li


Translation: Ai Hen Jian Dan

I've forgotten how it started
Maybe it was because I had some sort of feeling for you
And suddenly, I realized that I
Already love you deeply, really quite easily

I don't mind love's dark heaven and earth
I can't choose between right and wrong
I have no regrets regarding the love I've already followed
That crazy person is me, oh...

I love you, I can't not love you baby
Say you love me too
I love you, I'll never be willing baby
To lose you

I can't be happier, as long as we're together
Doing anything is okay, though this world is always changing
I'll use my most honest heart to let love become easy

I love you, I'll always be here
I'll always love you
I love you, oh yes I do
I'll never let go of the right to love you

If you ever have any troubles, oh no
Please stick to me, I'll listen; listen to me say I love you
Yes I do, I love you