A Spot of Bother

I have to give it to Haddon. This book is just as hilarious and quirky as his previous book: Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time.

A Spot of Bother is about a British dysfunctional family whose lives get shaken up in the weeks before the daughter's wedding. There is the father who is having a nervous breakdown, the mother who is having an affair with his husband's friend, the daughter who has doubt about the marriage while the son who has commitment issues. With any other writer, you might feel like you do not give a damn what happens to such wretched people but Haddon tackles each of the shallow, selfish characters with his quirky sense of humor which going to proved you wrong. You won't get enough of it.

Haddon wants you to know the character and identified with them which probably why the first 100 pages of the book is a bit of a slog. Then events events start to accelerate and they don't let up until the final explosion and the wedding reception at the end of the novel. The last few chapters are the highlight of the book for me because it was simply hilarious.

In the end I thoroughly enjoyed "A Spot of Bother" and its characters. And I really can't wait to see what Haddon comes up with next.

The Ragwitch

I am a fan of Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. So I bought this book with some sort of expectations. However, it turned out to be a difficult reading for me because after I read the first few pages, my reaction was "Oh dear, I knew I should have bought his Keys to the Kingdom's books instead..."

Here how the story goes:

Paul and Julia are brother and sister. One day, Julia found a rag-doll which turned out to be the most evil thing ever, hence the name: Ragwitch. So the Ragwitch possessed Julia and brought Julia to her 'evil' world with Paul following without the ragwitch's knowledge. Naturally it was Paul's duty to save Julia. What he doesn't know though, he is also the chosen one who can destroy the evil Ragwitch, with the help of few friends he found along the way. Julia who was trapped in the Ragwitch mind, also found some help from an unexpected source.

Unlike the Abhorsen trilogy, this book isn't as textured and somehow it is somewhat too childish for my liking. Not the best book by Nix but I can't say it was bad. It just wasn't as gripping as his other books. It lacked something. But do not let my review discourage you from reading the rest of Nix's books otherwise you'll be missing a lot.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This book is about a 15-year old boy named Christopher John Francis Boone who is an autistic. He is a genius at math and love physics. He hates yellow and brown and does not like to be touch. Christopher takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers. He lived with his father after his mother who can barely cope with his quirks, left him. But he does not know this because his father told him that his mother died of heart attack until one day he found her letters.

The story begins when his neighbor's dog named Wellington was killed with a garden fork. Encouraged by his teacher, Siobhan, he then try to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington. He also writes a book about the investigation. His search for answers however leads him to unsuspecting twist in his life.

Haddon 'got it right' with this novel. He was able to write this book from Christopher's point of view and yet managed to make him lovable albeit of his quirkiness. Haddon navigates the novel with extraordinary touch which do not make this book condescending, overly sentimental, exploitive or grossly tasteless. Quite a rare gift he had for a first-time novelist, I say.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is original, clever, and genuinely moving: this one is a must-read.

I am Muslim

I am Muslim by Dina Zaman is one of my favorite non-fiction books. I bought the book right after I got my heart pierced with betrayal and it has been such a good remedy for the wound.

This book is a selfish journey of faith by its writer. For me, this is the most honest book I ever came across about Islam in Malaysia. It tells us how of most Muslim Malaysians practiced Islam. Dina gets into all kind of scrapes to discover what it means to be a Muslim in Malaysia.

Reading this book was an eye opening experience for me. She asked questions like: are Muslim Malaysian lost? Do we lack confidence in ourselves and that's why we hold onto religion or a certain lifestyle, because there is nothing else left to make us feel fulfilled? Contented? Who are we as people and personalities.

I am aware that being a Muslim in Malaysia you are judge by the way you present yourself physically. For example: if you are wearing the hijab, you are a good Muslim and if you are not, you'll be burn in hell instantaneously. Why do we wear hijab but do immoral things: consort with shamans, drinking, smoking Cuba cigars while attending Friday prayer diligently. Sad isn't it?

It is also heartbreaking to learn things that I am aware of but didn't realized how it has reached critical point such as the gay/lesbian culture or infidelity with same sex, that are getting out of hand. I was ashamed and angry when I found out about these things. Is this the modern Malaysians Muslim that we are proud of/to be?

I especially like the way Dina conveys her journey of discovery. Most of the time it is downright funny so I really enjoyed reading it. I have recommend this book to all my friends, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Its a must have.

Dragon Rider

Another fantasy book by Cornelia Funke in my list, Dragon Rider is book that intended for kids albeit that it is a long one (500 pages or more). Just like the book's title, it has dragon in it, and other magical creatures as well.

The story is about FireDrake who went on a journey to the Himalayas to find the Rim of Heaven. The journey begin when the place that he's living with few other dragons was under the threat of destruction by mankind. After he acquired a map from a rat, he started on the journey with Ben, a human boy (he's te dragon rider) and Sorrell, a brownie, as his companions.

But their journey was not without tribulations. They got Nettlebrand (a vicious -but very vain - creature made from impenetrable gold) on their tail. Nettlebrand intended on destroying all dragons and had them for dinner. Over the years he had killed many of the dragons and because of him, the dragon was living in hiding.

He was first aided by Twigleg, a homunculus who stowed away in Ben's bag as a spy. Twigleg's duty is to report every single details to Nettlebrand about their journey but over the days Twigleg started to appreciate Ben more and more. When Ben discovered Twigleg, he treated him as a friend and this changed Twigleg's alliance once and for all.

So together they made plans to fight Nettlebrand.

I won't spoil the ending but perhaps you can guess who wins. hehe..

library update [Sept 07]

My book list can be downloaded here.

It has not been growing as I hope it would be for this year. I have been too busy with works and most of my free time I spent watching anime.

baca buku in many bahasa

Chinese: 获悉 书
Italian: leggere libro
French: lire livre
Spanish: leer libro
Dutch: lezen boek
Czech: číst kniha
Danish: læse bog
Swedish: läsa bok
Japanese: 読んで知る書物
Estonian: lugema raamat
Finnish: lukea kirja
Turkish: okumak kitap
Hungarian: olvas könyv
Icelandic: lesa bók
Malay: baca buku
Polish: czytać książka
Korean: 읽어 알다권
Slovenian: prebrati knjiga
Rusian: вычитать книга
Latvian: izlasīt grāmata
Lithuanian: perskaityti knyga
Norwegian: lese bok
Arabic: كتاب يَعْرِف بالقِراءَ
Portuguese: ler livro
Slovak: čítať kniha
Greek: διαβάζω βιβλίο