Short Story Peril: Tricks by Laura Lippman (And a Wrap Up Post for R.I.P. V Challenge)

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Tricks by Laura Lippman (The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime)

Tricks by Laura Lippman will be my last read for Carl's R.I.P. V Challenge, considering this challenge will end on October 31st and I don't think I will be able to finish reading the rest of the short stories of this anthology over the weekend. Nonetheless, I want to say I had fun participating in this challenge (as always! Plus, Carl is a wonderful host) and this has given me the opportunity to read more short stories since I rarely read them these days.

As the title indicates, Tricks by Laura Lippman is a story of a con man who not only cheat vulnerable women into marrying him but also stealing money from them during the process. We never get to know his name right from the beginning since there is no point in it considering he moves on and changes his name after getting what he wants from the victims.

Tricks tells the story of his perspective and his moves on his latest victim. I wish I could say something more aside from these but I am afraid that would spoil the fun for you. Laura Lippman writes great mysteries so expect a twist and a good ending to this story.

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I decided to do a wrap up post here for the R.I.P. V Challenge since October 31st marks the last day of the challenge and I don't think I will be able to read and review a few more short stories over the weekend. I am committed to read The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories for the Short Story Peril but instead I got sidetracked by other books and by the time I wanted to get into that anthology again, the interest is no longer there. Thus I picked up The Dark End of the Street with a new expectation since they are two different genres altogether.

Due to time constraint, I am not able to finish reading the whole anthology but I would get to the rest of the stories at some point. Below is a list of short stories I read for the R.I.P. V Challenge (in chronological order):

• Tricks by Laura Lippman (The Dark End of the Street)
• Me & Mr. Rafferty by Lee Child (The Dark End of the Street)
• What Was It? by Fitz-James O'Brien (The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories)
• The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories)

Among these four titles, I have to say my favourites are Me & Mr. Rafferty and The Old Nurse's Story. I was wowed by the former and the latter simply creeps me out.

Before I end this post, I would like to thank Carl for hosting this fun challenge! Carl's R.I.P. Challenge is one of my favourites reading challenges and I always look forward to it this time of the year.

Did you participate and what books did you read for this challenge?

Short Story Peril: Me & Mr. Rafferty by Lee Child

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ISBN-13: 9781408807583
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published: September 2010
Source: Personal Library


Me & Mr. Rafferty by Lee Child (The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime)

When I saw the list of authors' names printed on this anthology, I just knew I have to get it. Well how could you possibly say no to big authors like Lee Child, Laura Lippman, Joyce Carol Oates and Francine Prose (just to name a few)? I know I couldn't, so there you go.

Me & Mr. Rafferty is actually the fourth story in this volume, and Lee Child is the main reason why I jumped into this story instead of starting from the first because I enjoyed reading Killing Floor, which is the first book of his Jack Reacher's series.

I have to say that Me & Mr. Rafferty is somewhat slow paced as compared to Killing Floor, and I don't meant it as a bad thing considering that the tone and the writing style is totally different. Killing Floor is intense, explosive and very action-oriented, whereas I find Me & Mr. Rafferty is more focused on the build up, as if Lee Child wanted us to take the time in exploring the narrator's thoughts and getting to understand him better. And in my opinion I think this approach is simply fantastic because you absolutely have no idea who the nameless narrator is except that he kills and his victims are often associated with prostitution. And he loves playing hide and seek games with a detective named Mr. Rafferty.

And I confess: It is about more than just equilibrium and partnership. It is about the contest. Me and Mr. Rafferty. Him against me. Who will win? (Pg 61)

As much as this is a mystery, what made this story such a delightful read is Lee Child's writing style and the satire behind it. In the end it was the overall reading experience that overrides the feelings of finding out who won eventually and to me, that is the real satisfying treat.

Grave Surprise, Charlaine Harris

What with the success of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and the TV show True Blood based on them, it might be easy to forget that Harris actually has four book series that she is responsible for.  Granted, none of them are as prolific as her southern vampires, but fans of her work are sure to be familiar with Aurora Teagarden, Lily Bard, and Harper Connelly. 

Of her non-undead stories, my favorites are the Harper Connelly books.  Harper was struck by lightning as a teenager, and ever since she has had headaches, weakness in her right leg-and the ability to sense the dead and how they died.  She and her step-brother Tolliver travel around the country as detectives of a sort, helping loved ones locate their missing dead or determining their cause of death.  In Grave Surprise, the second in the Connelly series, Harper and Tolliver are asked to come and demonstrate their unique skills as part of an anthropology class at Bingham College in Memphis.  The professor, while pretending to have an open mind on the subject of the paranormal, actually hopes to expose them as frauds, something that he has done with every special guest he has asked to speak to his class.  Unfortunately for him, Harper is able to identify every body and the cause of death in a very old cemetery-including the body of a missing girl who was not supposed to be there.  Turns out that the girl was someone that Harper had been asked to find months earlier in Nashville.  Was it coincidence that they stumbled upon her in Memphis?  Or was someone manipulating them?

While I don't profess to believe in any kind of paranormal talents or life after death, I do enjoy reading about both of these topics-at least in the fictional sense.  Like all of Harris's books, this novel is a good popcorn read, perfect for this particular fall, when I barely have the cognitive energy at the end of the day to decide what to make for dinner, much less for deep philosophical literature.  I actually read this series out of order, so I already know the outcome of the burgeoning feelings between Harper and Tolliver, and I am almost over being squeamish about it.  I hope that when the current spate of national vampire obsession is over, she will be able to leave Bon Temps for a while and give us more about Harper (and Aurora, and Lily). 

Wordless Wednesday

27 September 2007
Taipei, Taiwan

Teaser Tuesdays (And a GIVEAWAY!)

Please scroll down to find out more about the Giveaway!

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

He was still drop-dead gorgeous, with laughing brown eyes that narrowed to slits when he smiled, but he'd lost the power to suck the air out of her lungs with just a look. He was her sister's husband, an old friend, and nothing more.

(Pg 38-39, Falling Home by Karen White)

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Karen White, The New York Times Bestselling Author of On Folly Beach, tests the limits of love and the resilience of family in her highly anticipated novel, Falling Home

After arriving in New York, Cassie did everything she could to reinvent herself, from losing herself in a career to squashing her accent. But a single late-night phone call brings back everything she has tried to forget. She hasn't spoken to her sister Harriet since Cassie wiped the Georgia clay from her high-heeled pumps - not since Harriet stole Cassie's fiancé and married him. Now Harriet's on the line with the news that their father is dying.

Cassie makes the trip back, and the only thing that frightens her more than losing her father is seeing Harriet and the family who should have been hers. But she can't help loving her nephews and nieces any more than she can help feeling at home in a place where people ask how you are and actually expect to hear the truth. As she fights a surprising reaction to a forgotten friend and faces an unexpected threat to the family she left behind, Cassie comes to realize that moving on doesn't always mean moving away from who you are - and that home is a place that lives in a person's heart, waiting with open arms to be rediscovered.

Once again, Karen White shares a place that has touched her heart. In this case, it is Monroe, Georgia, which she visited years ago and which inspired the fictional town of Walton. "My parents are from Mississippi, so I've always considered myself a Southern girl," says Karen. She lived in four states and two countries before actually living in the south. "I spent most of my childhood wishing I had a home town to call my own," she notes. When she first saw Monroe, located just an hour from her Atlanta home, she recognised it as the kind of small southern community she'd always hoped to claim for herself.

Falling Home was originally published in 2002, and is being released again in November 2010 in response to the many readers who reached out after unsuccessfully searching for the out-of-print novel. It has been extensively revised for this new publication. "Readers told me they loved the story and characters, so it was hard to see what I might change," says Karen regarding the revisions. "Then it clicked. I didn't want to change the story. I wanted to change some of the writing - to take the experience and education of having written nine other novels and to work at creating a better book."

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Thanks to the author's publicist, I have one copy of Falling Home to be given away to one lucky winner! To enter for the giveaway:

• +1 Leave a comment on this post stating your name and your email address (Please also state the total number of points given).
• +1 Tweet about this giveaway.
• +1 Blog about this giveaway (posting on your sidebar is also acceptable.)

Because this book will be sent directly from the publicist, this giveaway is open to US/Canada readers only (no PO boxes, thank you!). I will be drawing for the winner on November 2nd (Tuesday), the day when Falling Home goes on sale.

Good luck!

Monday Musing

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page where readers get to share the books that came into their house last week; this month the host for Mailbox Monday is Avis of She Reads and Reads.

Here's what I received last week:

1) Nightshade by Andrea R. Cremer (bought from The Book Depository)

2) Falling Home by Karen White (from the publicist)

What books came into your house last week?

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We have been trying to stay indoors whenever we can lately due to the haze, which arises from the forest fires in Sumatra but I have to say the condition has been getting better (as to date) after the heavy rains and I hope the Pollutant Standards Index reading would stay at the healthy range.

Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend despite the fact that we were housebound but we made good use of the time cleaning up and organising our stuff together. After everything was cleaned, I decided to play catch up on my DVDs watching and Before Sunrise was the choice since I haven't watched it before (gasp!) but wanted to after reading a fellow bookblogger's post about it (was it you, Sandy?).

So, Before Sunrise is unlike other romance flicks I watched in the past. For starters, you won't remember about the rest of the characters (never mind if their scenes last for merely a few seconds or a moment more) because this film only focus on Jesse (played by Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) and the conversations they exchanged since they meet on a train and how they spent the night walking around the city of Vienna and getting to know each other.

If you are expecting for some exciting plots, then you will be disappointed because this film captures these two characters about their ideas and perspectives on love and life in general. There is nothing too fanciful about the plot but I find the storytelling style somewhat refreshing and most of all, I enjoyed hearing the two characters' perspectives and sometimes their exchanges just made me chuckle. There might be no extravagant meals or roses during their time spent together, but still I find it romantic with these two characters sharing their thoughts before they go on separate ways. There is just something nostalgic and bittersweet about the story, and oh how I loved the setting! I have never been to Europe, so it was considered an eye-opener to me watching a few landmarks in Vienna (e.g. Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel, and the Danube Canal etc. I even find there is a particular quality about their café, which is so traditional and well, cosy.)

I don't know about you, but I think Before Sunrise is one of the most romantic films I have ever seen. The connection (and yes, the sparks!) between Jesse and Céline is simply indescribable and most of all, I felt there is an edge of realism to this film which what made the overall such an enjoyable treat. I can't wait to see what is in store for the sequel, Before Sunset.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Patterns of Paper Monsters by Emma Rathbone

ISBN-13: 9780316077507
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Published: August 2010
206 pgs
Source: Personal Library

The Patterns of Paper Monsters. I liked the title; it intrigues me and it somewhat reminds me of all the angst and drama one would experience during adolescence. As it turns out, this is actually a coming-of-age story of a seventeen-year-old boy's life spent in a juvenile detention center after he was being caught for a failed armed robbery.

Three months into his sentence, Jacob Higgins lives his days in the JDC with an attitude (being indifferent and acts indifferent towards any beneficial programs). In short, he is simply obstinate and full of angst until the day he met Andrea, a fellow resident who shares the same bleak outlook on life as him. Well it didn't come as a surprise to me when I find their blossoming friendship turned to love and just while I started to hope that things would get better for Jacob, a huge obstacle gets in his way, in the form of another inmate named David. Jacob hardly speak with David; in fact no one speak much with him since he is always portrayed as mysterious and a loner. No one knew what he had convicted either, and no one asked anyway. So when David made an attempt to talk with Jacob, he was a little taken aback and of course at this point we all suspected that there is something fishy going about David's intention.

As the story progress, we soon find out that Jacob is unlike some of the troubled youths we have read from other books. Sure he can be obstinate and full of angst, but beneath those attributes there is actually a sense of vulnerability and sentimental values in him, and I liked it that he can be a bit funny at times and does not make up excuses for anything. In short, he actually knew what he wants, though he might get impulsive anything concerning his mother's alcoholic boyfriend. Of course there would be some struggles down the road for Jacob (which I am not going to spoil for you), what I find this story a little different from the others is the writing style and Jacob's voice. It is through his straightforward demeanour (and at times mixed with a sense of sardonic humor) that made him such an interesting character to read (I haven't mention that this is written from his point of view, in which I think the author has done a great job in capturing the overall essence of Jacob as a troubled youth and as a person) and also I liked it that there is a balance between the seriousness and some humour parts to this story. I am sure this debut novel by Emma Rathbone will appeal to young adults and adults alike.

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Phew! It seems as if I've been on a roll reading books about troubled teens but I just want to say it wasn't intentional. I read Confession by Kanae Minato on a whim after seeing it during my visit to the bookstore two days ago, and honestly speaking I didn't have the intention of reading it on that same day as I tend to have this habit of chucking newly acquired books to my TBR pile but I just couldn't seem to put down the manga after reading the blurb so there you go.

Next onto my reading list would be a book by Jacqueline Horsfall titled For the Love of Strangers (actually it's in a PDF format since the publisher couldn't send the book to me on time due to a printing delay). This is for the Green Books Campaign hosted by Eco-Libris and all participants will publish their reviews on the same day - November 10th.

Upon writing this, I've no idea what book I should read besides For the Love of Strangers. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for my copy of Nightshade by Andrea R. Cremer to arrive from The Book Depository so who knows I might dive into that if it does arrive today! I tend to be fickle-minded when it comes to my reading and what I've decided to read might change the next. So what're you reading now? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

告白〔漫画版〕- 湊佳苗 Confession by Kanae Minato (Manga)

ISBN-13: 9789571352558
Publisher: Reading Times
Published: October 2010
176 pgs
Illustrator: Marumi Kimura
Translator: Huang Bi Jun
Source: Personal Library



Shocked and speechless. These what sum up my reactions towards this manga after I finished reading in one sitting last evening.

If you were a teacher, what would you do if you found out that the murderer(s) of your child happens to be one of your students? Would you let their fate to be decided by the law, or would you seek revenge yourself? Between ethics and justice, which would you choose?

The story begins with teacher Yuko Moriguchi giving a farewell speech to her class of junior high students on her last day of employment. She talks to them about life and how one should value their life before she move on to her personal history, as she began to disclose how much it has deeply affected her after the death of her 4-year-old daughter. Truth be told, Yuko's purpose of sharing her personal account is not to gain sympathy from her students, for she already has a plan mapped out for two students in the class whom she believed have murdered her daughter. She has successfully planted the seed of fear to these two students by confessing that she had contaminated their milk with HIV virus. At this point, you might be wondering why those two students managed to get away from the crime scot-free. It is because they are under age 14 and they are protected by the law.

If you think she has seeked her revenge right there and put an end to the story, then you are in for a surprise for what happened thereafter I could only describe as explosive and mind-boggling. The story goes on to explore the minds behind these two students, Shuya and Naoki, and how they came about the plan of murdering Yuko's daughter. Reading about their agendas sent chills down my spine, but what most astounded me is finding out about their yearnings and how one circumstances have led to another is beyond my comprehension.

"以憎恨来报复憎恨是没有用的。有一天他们一定会知错的。相信他们，你才有办法重生啊！"
(Translated: There is no use in seeking revenge. One day they would know their mistakes. Believe in them, and you will be able to find and live your life.)

There was one passage (as above) which I liked, as it reminds me of a famous quote by Mohandas Gandhi - "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." But of course Confession is not only a story about revenge, but a psychological one which makes us to think and take a deeper look into humanity and the social problems we face today. Confession has been made into a film and it has been selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. I hope there will be an English edition of this story next. And as for this manga edition, I can only say that Marumi Kimura has totally left me in awe of her work.

Wordless Wednesday

26 September 2007
Taipei, Taiwan

Taxi, anyone?

Taipei Metro Jiantan Station
(nearest station to Shilin Night Market)

Shilin Night Market (士林夜市)

Inside Shilin Night Market where you will see many food stalls

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

I was then led through a concert of doors - smudgy revolving doors, glass doors, heavy wooden doors with frosted windows in them - and deposited in my "room", where I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling and started breathing really fast before I realized that there was really no point in doing that. But rather than describe the psychotic carousal of anger and deadened acceptance I experienced that night, here is a portrait of the Braddock County Juvenile Detention Center.

(Pg 10, The Patterns of Paper Monsters by Emma Rathbone)

Monday Memes

Do you prefer hardcovers, trade paperbacks (the bigger ones), or mass market paperbacks (the smaller ones)? Why?

Honestly speaking, I love all editions as I think each is special in their own ways. I love hardcovers because they make a great collection and plus, they are more lasting. Trade paperbacks felt just right on all counts when it comes to the print and the size of the book. And I just love the mass market paperbacks for the convenience as I could always carry them around wherever I go.

The only thing that makes a great difference is the price, that's all.

What about you?

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Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page where readers get to share the books that came into their house last week; this month the host for Mailbox Monday is Avis of She Reads and Reads.

Here's what I received last week:

1) When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden (bought from The Book Depository)

What books came into your house last week?

Map of Ireland, Stephanie Grant

I think that white northerners, people in America living north of the Mason-Dixon line, like to convince ourselves that historically there was no real racism here, at least not like in the south.  Sure, there were a few hot spots like Detroit where race riots happened, but some of our best friends were black.  We supported abolition.  We didn't have Jim Crow laws (at least, not the kind written down).  We're the racial good guys.

The fact is, racism, while less overt, was and is just as insidious in the northern part of the US as it was in the south.  While it's true that more northerners than southerners expressed a positive opinion of desegregation and equal rights, when I came right down to it the same fear and prejudice reared it's ugly head during the 1960s and 1970s in places like Chicago and Boston.  Especially at issue was school desegregation, which resulted in the forced busing of both white and black students out of their neighborhoods and into other areas of the city to achieve racial integration.

It is Boston's struggle over school desegregation that is the focus of Stephanie Grant's novel, Map of Ireland.  The main character, Ann Ahern, is a troubled Irish girl from Southie, the neighborhood in South Boston where the Irish settled during the 1800s and early 1900s.  It is now the 1970s-the 60s are over, leaving behind some aging hippies and a country struggling to catch up with the furious pace of cultural change that it just experienced.  The year that the busing started in Boston's public schools is the same year that Mademoiselle Eugenie, a Senegalese exchange teacher, comes to teach French at Ann's school.  Ann quickly develops a crush on Mademoiselle Eugenie, but it's not her gender that concerns Ann-it's the color of her skin.  While Ann has known for a while that she is attracted only to women, her desire for Mademoiselle Eugenie brings her into contact with more Blacks than she has ever known, and forces her to confront her own prejudice, as well as the oppression and violence that poor Blacks in Boston experienced at the hands of their white neighbors during that difficult year.

Grant does with this novel what I hope other authors will do as time goes on-she has a gay main character, but the book is not about gay issues, at least not mostly.  There are many societal issues raised in the book-sexuality, class, ethnic heritage, race-but the racial issue takes centers stage, and is the driving force behind the other parts of the story.  While no one is defined by a single part of their identity, often books with gay protagonists are specifically about being gay-struggling for self-acceptance, coming out, finding love, fighting for equality.  In this novel Ann has already mostly come to terms with her sexuality, but her feelings for Mademoiselle Eugenie throw her into crisis.  While Grant never uses this term, much of what Ann struggles with is feeling like a race traitor, feeling as though she is trapped by her own ethnicity and geography, unable to see any way forward that does not mean cutting herself off from the only community she has ever known.

The other thing that Grant does quite well with this book is the authenticity of the characters.  Despite her obvious support of racial equity and understanding, her black characters are not sentimentalized.  They are portrayed neither as noble heroes or victims, but as complicated, flawed people.  While some of the whites in the book are obvious villains, for the most part they are written as people struggling to maintain control over their own lives in the face of fear of the unknown.  While it is clear where Grant's sympathies lie, the story does not ever devolve into preachiness or stereotypes, and while you might not agree with the position of any one character, you begin to see how nuanced the situation really was.  Black and white issues rarely exists in the real world, and they don't exist in this book either.  Like most of us, this book resides squarely in a shade of gray.

Nostalgic Moments #3

I will cheat a little for my Nostalgic Moments post today, for there won't be a wordy post but a music video I found from YouTube. Sang by Faye Wong, Eyes On Me is the ballad that serves as a theme of a video game series, Final Fantasy VIII. Though I don't play video games, I've to say I'm totally in awe and fascinated by the overall technology that is able to bring these game characters to life. And most of all, this music video brings me back fond memories so how could I leave this out in my NM post?

As weekend is just round the corner, I wish you all have a wonderful weekend filled with books and everything nice! Enjoy!

Forget You by Jennifer Echols (A Joint Review with Violet)

ISBN-13: 9781439178232
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: July 2010
292 pgs
Source: Personal Library



Synopsis:

WHY CAN’T YOU CHOOSE WHAT YOU FORGET . . . AND WHAT YOU REMEMBER?

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four- year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. Feeling like her life is about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon. But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people— suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

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I did a joint reading with Violet of Violet Crush for this book. This is the first time I'm doing a joint reading/review with Violet and I truly enjoyed every moment of it! I definitely look forward to doing more of these with her in the near future! Without further ado, here are my questions for Violet:

1. Do you think some of the plots sound logical to you, especially on the accident and how Zoey felt thereafter? (I won’t elaborate further so as to prevent any spoilers for the readers.)

As far as the medical conditions go I do find the plot logical. I had an accident in college once and I couldn't and still cannot remember the accident and about 24 hours after that, except snippets. I had a terrible headache for days and had no idea what I was doing or thinking for 2-3 days after that. So yes, I do think it was logical.

2. How do you feel towards Zoey? I asked this because she seems like a clear-headed, independent girl to me but at times she also gave me the impression that she is confused, stubborn and insecure.

Surprisingly I was indifferent towards Zoey. I didn't like her nor did I hate her. As you said there were times when she was clear-headed and sure of herself and times when she was lets say stupid. But she just had an accident, she had some major family problems and she was a teenager. I think that should about explain most of it.

3. Do you feel any connection with the characters? And how do you feel about the relationship between Zoey, Brandon and Doug?

As I said I didn't really feel any connection to Zoey. I felt bad because she didn't have even a single friend she could trust. I liked her mother though, I wish we had gotten a little more insight into her. But then again Forget You was not about the mother. Brandon was a caricature of a school football player - popular, handsome and stupid. But he was entertaining. Zoey's relationship with Brandon? Haha, well that's something worth discussing. Didn't you just want to shake Zoey and put some sense into her?

(I totally agree with Violet here. And yes, I did want to shake Zoey at times, hehe.)

4. Following your question: Which one did you like more? Forget You or Going Too Far?

I loved Going Too Far more without a doubt. I felt the romance and the chemistry between the main characters was portrayed much better in it than in Forget You. The plot was also much better and both Meg and Cody were such lovable characters. I think what worked for Going Too Far was the simplicity of the plot. Forget You had too many things going on at one time. I felt as if the "confusion" that could have been cleared in 5 mins took unnecessary time, effort and ultimately pages. Although the writing was as awesome as ever.

5. And finally I couldn’t help asking this: Who is sexier in your opinion? Doug Fox from Forget You, or his brother, Officer Cody Fox from Going Too Far?

Cody Fox all the way. That doesn't mean Doug was not sexy. He was. But for most of Forget You Doug was in the background and we really don't get to know him for more than half of the book. Besides Cody Fox was a cop, that kind of increases the sexiness quotient, don't you think?

~*~*~*~*~*

Now go visit Violet's blog to read my answers to her questions. For my review of Going Too Far, click here. To read Violet's review of the same book, please click here.

Wordless Wednesday

26 September 2007
Tamshui Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭)
Taipei, Taiwan

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Leave it to Doug to turn his response into a defensive insult. "I don't try to hide anything. People know all my business anyway, or think they do. You're just not paying attention."

Screwing up my courage, I struck right back at him. "Nobody seems to know why you went to juvie."

(Pg 146, Forget You by Jennifer Echols)

A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore

A Gate at the Stairs is the story of Tassie Keltjin,the daughter of a potato farmer in rural Wisconsin.  In the days before 9-11, she is a college student At the University of Wisconsin in Troy, Wisconsin.  Like most college students she is cash poor, and so she begins looking for a job to keep herself in clothes and food and heat.  She applies to be the nanny for Sarah and Edward Thornwood-Brink, a couple in the process of adopting a biracial baby.  From very early on Tassie can sense that something is not quite right with Sarah and Edward.  Their manner is just-off from normal, their interactions are intimate and cold at the same time.  Tassie never imagines, however, the secret that will come to affect her life and the life of the little girl, Mary-Emma.  This novel is a strange, uncomfortable coming of age story, one that left me feeling unsettled, and unsure I really got what Moore was trying to convey.

Moore's writing is rich.  Her language shows a depth of thought and a flair for metaphor greater than any other author I've read recently.  There are long passages where Tassie is thinking about her life and events in the story that would be worthy of a circus contortionist in the way they bend and twist, making seemingly random connections into something meaningful.  This was really interesting for the first three quarters of the novel, but over time I found myself wishing for a more straight-forward narrative.  But then, about three quarters of the way through the novel is where I started to feel like the story I thought I was reading was not actually the story Moore was telling.

While most of the story revolves around Tassie's relationship with Sarah and Mary-Emma, there are other, seemingly disparate, stories woven throughout.  Tassie has a secret relationship with a fellow student who turns out to belong to a fanatical Islamist organization.  When he disappears from her life suddenly, I expected there to be some fall-out for her, but he just fades from the story.  When she loses Mary-Emma, I expected there to be some resolution to that storyline, but we never hear what becomes of the little girl.  The loss of her brother is the only one in which we get a sense of how that loss affected not just Tassie but her parents as well-and that is the last quarter of the book.  The theme of loss is the only constant throughout the story, but it is only with that last loss that we see exactly how deeply Tassie feels her sorrow.

One thing that struck me about this book is all of the white liberal-guilt and angst portrayed by Moore through the interracial adoption group that Sarah and Edward become involved in.  The conversations that Tassie overhears while playing upstairs with the children during their meetings are circular, in turns angry and defensive, and probably very authentic, despite seeming stereotypical.  The themes never change, and most of the white parents seem to feel that their adoption of the black and biracial children is under-appreciated by people who question their ability to raise children of color.  Complaints about people's comments on the street, or the advice they get from well-meaning people that end up sounding like back-handed compliments, are all fodder for their insecurity and self-pity.  They bring up issues of race and class, even within liberal communities, that people believe have long been subdued by inclusiveness and acceptance.  Moore seems to be pointing out the naivete of people who believe we have entered a post-racial era, where issues of race have mostly been addressed. 

Monday Musing

I know I hardly post anything on my weekend cooking, but I'm going to make an exception today since I discovered a dish I love last Friday when my husband and I visited a Japanese restaurant - wakame sunomono. This makes a great appetiser and I just love any dishes with cucumbers in it.

Anyway, it took me three attempts to get the dressing right for the taste. My first attempt was that I have added too much soy sauce in it, while my second attempt was having not enough soy sauce! What looks like a simple dish doesn't seem so simple after all, because the portions have to be right and well balanced. Finally, I thought the third attempt came out all right to me and I was glad that the hub and my eldest daughter loved it! She even asked me to prepare this dish again soon! (Wish I had taken a picture of it but anyway I googled the picture and this is how it looks like.)

(Photo credit)

The recipe:1 cucumber (preferably Japanese cucumber)
Wakame seaweed (according to your preference)
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar

Cut cucumber into thin rounds and set it aside. Mix vinegar, sugar and soy sauce in a bowl. Shred wakame seaweed into smaller pieces. Mix the wakame seaweed and the cucumber in a bowl and pour the dressing. Mix well and serve.

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Onto an unrelated note, my husband arranged our study room over the weekend so that our PC desk and study desk are sitting side by side together. The purpose of doing so is to make more room for a new bookcase and the thought of getting a new one excites me! Currently my piles of books are stacked from the floor till almost to the ceiling at a corner of our store room, and I haven't even counted the stacks that are occupying our study room as well! Anyway, I find that the desks arrangement looks so much better than the previous one, and I can't wait to see how it will look like when my new bookcase arrives!

I also added a few books onto my pile lately (it is a habit hard to ditch!). Here they are:

1) Three Seconds by Roslund & Hellström

2) Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

3) Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

What did you do over the weekend? Hope everyone has a great week!

You Wicked Little Monkey!

It only took me three weeks, but I finally finished a book!  So I guess you could say I was the wicked little monkey!  I sure felt supremely slackerish in the reading department.  But the title of this post has more to do the the novel, Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff, than with my own lack of reading achievement in the month of September.

Bad Monkeys is the story of Jane Charlotte.  Jane has been arrested for murder, and during her interrogation in the psych ward she reveals that she actually works for a super secret organization called Bad Monkeys, whose sole purpose is to track down and stop evildoers by any means necessary.  If all else fails, it is Bad Monkeys' job to assassinate the evildoer.  No one has heard of Bad Monkeys, who have the ability to track our every move.  You know all of those rock posters you had on your wall as a teen-the eyes on the posters were actually spying on you.  The books you read-the spines transit information to the organization.  Even the money you spend tell them where you are and what you are doing.  Trouble is, there is no way to verify Jane's story.  Of course, she says that's because the organization can change any record, erase any tape, falsify any video-basically they can control everything we see and hear.  So, is Jane really an agent of good in the form of a Bad Monkeys assassin, or is she delusional?

This book is quirky and well-paced and fun, despite the sometimes horrific content.  I mean, Jane kills people who are evil-many of the characters are not exactly likeable.  By the end I wanted Bad Monkeys to exist-though the Big Brother aspect of it was pretty frightening.  And I wanted Jane to be good.  Throughout the novel she struggles with her own evil, and in the end that seems to be the message Matt Ruff is trying to get across, at least in part.  All of us have the capacity for good or evil, and it is our choices that determine whether we are on the side of right, or whether we are a bad monkey.

I realized after I finished Bad Monkeys that Ruff had written another novel that I found really quirky and fascinating, Set This House in Order.  It ist he story of Andy Gage, the public face of a mind with multiple personalities.  He is integrated enough to work designing virtual reality environments.  At work he meets Penny, another multiple personality who needs Andy's help.  The novel is engaging right from the start, and while I don't necessarily believe in the multiple personality disorder as a real condition, I do think that MPD as a mechanism for showing the multiple sides of our psyche and the conflicts they can create within us was pretty genius!

Bobo's Daughter: One Woman's Journey to Find Hope, Healing, and the Father behind the Face Paint by Bonnie Barnett

ISBN-13: 9780984235872
Publisher: Synergy Books
Published: September 2010
232 pgs
Source: Publicist

When the publicist contacted me and asked if I was interested to review Bobo's Daughter, I was skeptical at first because I rarely read memoirs. However, I was attracted by the gorgeous cover but what most intrigued me is this memoir is about the relationship between the author and her father, who makes his career as a clown. I've to admit I wasn't a huge fan of clowns since young; while some children think they are funny I often thought of them a bit creepy and intimidating. I've to blame it on the bright paints that they put on their faces.

Now as an adult and though my feelings towards them hasn't changed, I've grown to respect and admire their zest by always putting on a smile and their best performance to their audience. Bobo's Daughter chronicles author Bonnie Barnett's journey of getting to know more about her father and searching for him as he travels to places as a circus clown.

Bonnie first met her father, Chester "Bobo" Barnett, at the circus when she was 4 years old. She knew nothing about him, and her mother did not mention much about him considering he had chose to leave them behind for his career as a world famous clown. Despite that, Bonnie was mesmerised after watching her father's performance, and she told herself she would like to get to know him better. Needless to say, her mother didn't share her sentiments and felt somewhat betrayed that Bonnie wanted to meet him. Nevertheless, Bonnie never give up her intention of reconnecting with her father throughout the years and this book is the result whereby she shares with her readers about her struggles growing up, and finally finding peace and forgiveness after what she's been through.

This memoir also covers the relationship between Bonnie and her mother, who used to be a girl clown and how she gave up her clowning career to raise Bonnie all on her own. I really appreciate the author for including a few pictures of her parents and herself in between the chapters as they enable me to glimpse more deeply of the life she's been living on top of her written words. In a nutshell, Bobo's Daughter is only only a moving memoir about reconciliation and forgiveness between a daughter and a father, but also about having hope and the courage of finding oneself and learning through experiences without giving anything up. Today, Bonnie works as a Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist and Life Coach near Durham, North Carolina.

About the Author:
Bonnie Barnett currently lives in Durham, N.C., where she owns a private, in-home outpatient therapy practice. She also works at Agape Corner where she helps at-risk children and families living below the poverty line. She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a minor in psychology from California State University at Los Angeles and a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University.

(Many thanks to the publicist, Lindsay Marshall for sending this book to me for review.)

Killing Floor by Lee Child

ISBN-13: 9780553505405
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: April 1998
528 pgs
Source: Personal Library

Having read Sandy's review on Lee Child's latest release, 61 Hours, awhile back, I figured I've got to check out this author since I've heard nothing but raves on his books. Although I understand that all his books could be read as standalone, Killing Floor is the first book of the series and I wouldn't want to miss the introduction of the hero, Jack Reacher so here we are.

The story opens with Jack Reacher being in a new town in Georgia, Margrave. He used to work as a military police, and being part of a Special Investigations Unit he had had handled several tough cases. Since leaving the army, he has became quite a drifter and has travelled quite a few places but he never leave his trails behind.

Anyway he stopped by Margrave randomly. This little town is known to be quiet and peaceful, but it has its first homicide in thirty years, and now Jack became the suspect since he is the only stranger in town. Being a tough cop that he is, he wouldn't let any nonsense or pressure gets to him so of course he is going to find things out his way. And then the situation gets way too personal for him as he later found out that his brother got killed dealing with the case, which is supposed to be a secret deal but something just went wrong. To clear his conscience and to seek revenge for his brother, Jack began to explore deep into the case but of course the homicide is just a beginning and a camouflage of a huge deal that will blow Margrave apart should anything goes wrong.

Well, this is all I am going to say about the premise. It wouldn't be fun if I say too much of the plot and all I can say is I was totally blown away by it. The characterisations are excellent and I could almost picture them in my mind, with their personalities and all. Jack Reacher is one great action hero, and after reading this book I'm glad to say I have added him onto my literary crush list, aside from Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery's series and a few others, that is.

I find the pace and the writing to be fast and smooth respectively. I had my attention totally fixed onto the words because I wouldn't want to miss anything, for every bits here and there might be a clue to something (I was feeling rather smug after guessing a few of the crooks correctly, one of which is meant to be a surprise). And oh, there is an amount of violence in this book, after all crimes in general are dirty and messy.

Another thing I'd like to mention is his relationship with Office Roscoe. The romance subplot is minimal but I felt it is a fresh take from all the intense and violence I have been reading. I hope to see more of Office Roscoe in the next few instalments, for despite the differences of the paths they chose to take, who knows if they would run into each other again in the near future?

After reading and enjoying Killing Floor, I really look forward to reading the rest of the Jack Reacher's series. And if there ever be a movie on this, I'd be there to watch it.

Wordless Wednesday

25 September 2007
Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei 101

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (国立国父纪念馆)

Statue of Sun Yat-sen