Booking Through Thursday: Worse?

Which is worse?

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or
Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

I have to admit both experiences are equally disappointing to me, but I think I will be more disappointed if the book I read by my favourite author is a letdown.

I have came across one or two of my favourite authors who have changed their writing styles and decided to write for other genre. I have no problem with that but in my opinion, I feel some authors are great in writing a certain genre but not the other.

But I think my greatest disappointment is to wait for a long time for my favourite author to release a book! One of my favourite authors takes about a year or two to release a book, and to me that is a long wait!

What about you? Which is the worse for you?

Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson

ISBN-13: 9780143114703
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: February 2009
287 pgs

I was first introduced to Linda Olsson's beautiful prose after reading her debut novel, Astrid & Veronika, published two years ago. I remember I had an enjoyable reading experience with that book so when I saw Sonata for Miriam on display, I told myself I have to get it.

Like her first novel, Linda Olsson has once again explore the beauty yet complexity of human relationships. This time around, she has cleverly crafted an unforgettable story about loss and finding one's identity, using repressed memories and history the basic structure in Sonata for Miriam.

Upon discovering a discarded hair clip one day, this brings violinist Adam Anker aching memories of his daughter, Miriam, and the accident that took her away from him. Bringing back to the past, he remembers his discovery of a photograph bearing his name and the plea for information attaching to it among the documents and mementos supplied by Jewish refugees at the Holocaust Gallery in the Memorial Hall.

Traumatized by the loss of his daughter, it took him a year before he decided to pick up where he left and contact the elderly woman who had left the note beside the photograph. Thereafter it begins his journey of searching his past and he will get acquainted with two men who would be able to shed some light regarding his past as well as the truth behind his family secret through some mysterious photographs and a pile of unopened letters.

In the last quarter of this book, Linda Olsson then shift the perspective towards Miriam's mother, Cecilia, and readers will get to know more about her past relationship with Adam and how a decision made changed both their life thereafter. Initially I had question about the change of perspective but as I read further, I realized her story is interwoven with Adam's and how this will attribute to the overall of this story.

Reading Sonata for Miriam is like a roller coaster ride to me; this book is full of emotions but there is nothing too depressing about this story; the atmosphere surrounding this story is just right and I could feel Adam's grief and loss under Linda Olsson's skilful writing and the way she constructed the words like a sonata, so beautiful and alluring that I find myself lost in them.

Most memorable quote:

Memories are unreliable. I carry memories that are now so worn I can't possibly tell if they are accurate.

Other reviews:
Debbie's World of Books
S. Krishna's Books
(Let me know if I have missed yours.)

Wordless Wednesday

Hamburg, Germany

Cover Attraction - April 29

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

As quoted by Marcia:

I love beautiful, and interesting, cover art so every Wednesday I post my 'Cover Attraction' for the week along with a synopsis of the book. Everyone is welcome to stop by and, if they'd like, post a link to their favorite weekly book cover.

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My find this week is The Scent of Oranges by Joan Zawatzky. I feel I could just smell the orange every time I look at this cover!

Publisher: Garev Publishing International
Published: October 2008

Synopsis (from B&N):

Linda returns to the family orange farm in South Africa to attend her father's funeral. She is drawn back to her past, to the striking beauty of her homeland and the people who still live and work there, but her country is vastly different. A democratic government has emerged from the shame of apartheid, yet it's a violent land where extreme poverty, AIDS and TB exist alongside western affluence and where beliefs in ancestral spirits and voodoo still linger below the surface. Her father's last wish was for Linda to investigate the murder of her youngest brother and the guilt of those accused. Ghosts of the past guide her search as she seeks the dangerous truths behind each new lead. As the lies unravel, her family will be dishonored, a shameful past will be revealed and yet there is great hope for reconciliation and the future.

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To find out more or participate go to The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Teaser Tuesdays (and Awards)

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, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• 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!

Here's my teaser for today:

Memories are unreliable. I carry memories that are now so worn I can't possibly tell if they are accurate.

(Pg 6, Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson)

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THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I am feeling very blessed and honoured to have received two awards by two wonderful bloggy friends whom I have known recently. First, I want to thank Ms Ulat Buku from Ulat Buku in the City for passing on the Proximidade Award to me!

About the Proximidade Award:
This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award.

For this award, I am passing it on to the following book bloggers who are new to me with hopes of starting a new friendship based on our love for books and reading. This award goes to:

Ms Ulat Buku (I'm passing on this award back to you! )
Kailana from The Written World
Debbie from Wrighty's Reads
Wanda from A Season to Read

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Next, I want to thank Melissa from Melissa's Bookshelf for passing on the 2009 Friendly Blogger Award to me! For this award, I will pass on to all my friends who always read and leave comments on this blog. I am definitely not taking this as an easy way out because there are so many of you out there and seriously I hate to leave anyone out!

Thank you so much for your friendship! I really appreciate them all!

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

ISBN-13: 9780316014564
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Published: January 2009
224 pgs

Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick have one thing in common: they are both social outcasts. This drawn them together and they became the best of friends. Just when Jennifer thinks she could seek solace in Cameron whenever she has problems, her world seems to come to a halt when Cameron disappeared and she was told he was dead.

Few years later, Jennifer is a senior in high school but with a new identity. She is no longer the chubby, insecure Jennifer but a popular and confident Jenna Vaughn. No one else knew about her unhappy past; it is like she is completely a new person. She is very happy with her life now; her mother remarried and she has a wonderful and understanding stepfather. She has friends and a good-looking boyfriend. Life seems wonderful and promising ahead until one day, Cameron walks back into her life again.

Without saying, Jennifer is stunned. And this leads her to memories of the old days and an event that had claimed to alter their life. Then again, there is another question she has asked herself is, should she embrace her life being Jenna, or should she return to her old self as Jennifer?

As I read further, I realize there is so much more about this story. Issues like abusive treatment, insecurity, friendship, love, and not to mention about finding oneself along the path of growing-up. The characters are well-developed, and there are so much reality in this story. I liked the way how this story explores about finding one's identity, through Jennifer's transformation to Jenna and towards the end how Jenna thought about everything and wonder if she could be Jennifer again.

As for the abusive treatment, there is not much mention of how Cameron is being treated but you would be able to feel how it affected Cameron and Jennifer through their minds and emotions. And I liked how this is portrayed without exposing too much of the ugly facts to the readers, considering this is a YA fiction.

Due to all these circumstances, there is always a connection between Cameron and Jennifer. They share a lot of similarities, though Jennifer appears to be the more fortunate one. Their relationship may seem pure but oh so true. The love they have for each other may seem unclear, but it is there growing silently in their hearts.

Sweethearts is a bittersweet story of friendship and how certain people come into your life and leave a mark. It is a wonderful story that tugs at my heartstrings and leave me something to ponder about.

One of my favourite quotes:

"... I’m talking about the ones who, for whatever reason, are as much a part of you as your own soul. Their place in your heart is tender; a bruise of longing, a pulse of unfinished business. My mom was right about that. Just hearing their names pushes and pulls at you in a hundred ways, and when you try to define those hundred ways, describe them even to yourself, words are useless. If you had a lifetime to talk, there would still be things left unsaid."

Other reviews:
Becky’s Book Reviews
Em’s Bookshelf
It’s All About Books
Jenny’s Books
Mari Reads
Maw Books
Presenting Lenore
Superfast Reader
The Well-Read Child
Things Mean A Lot
Words by Annie
Worducopia
YAnnabe
(Let me know if I have missed yours.)

Cover Attraction - April 22

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

As Marcia says:

I love beautiful, and interesting, cover art so every Wednesday I post my 'Cover Attraction' for the week along with a synopsis of the book. Everyone is welcome to stop by and, if they'd like, post a link to their favorite weekly book cover.

* * * * *

My find this week is Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg.

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: April 2009

Synopsis (from B&N):

Beloved author Elizabeth Berg tells the story of the recently widowed Helen Ames and of her twenty-seven-year-old daughter Tessa. Helen is shocked to discover that her mild-mannered and loyal husband had been leading a double life. The Ames’s had saved money for a happy retirement, planned in minute detail, but that money has disappeared in several big withdrawals—spent by Helen’s husband before he died. What could he possibly have been doing? And what is Helen to do now? Why does Helen’s daughter object to her mother’s applying for a job—and why doesn’t Tessa meet a nice man and get married?

What Helen’s husband did with all their money turns out to be provocative, revelatory—and leads Helen and her daughter to embark on new adventures, and change.

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To find out more or participate go to The Printed Page every Wednesday.