The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

‘A haunting story of the search for identity…is packed with memorable characters and evocative settings. Cleverly constructed and beautifully written, this is the perfect summer read.’
- Choice Magazine

It's hard to summarise this book because of its complicated story plot but basically the book is a mixture of tales from different generations of the Montrachet family and how a secret was created among the family and it took a few decades later for others to discover the true story behind the Montrachet family. The book opens with the story of Nell who was 4 years old when she was on a ship from England on a journey towards Australia but found herself abandoned by the mysterious ' The Authoress'. The dockmaster found her and adopt her as his own. As Nell grew up into a young lady, she learned the real story behind her abandonment as a child and led her to England. A few decades later, her grandchildren took the same journey and slowly found herself uncovering the real story behind Nell's family history.

The book is divided into chapters where the story will jumps between each chapters for example the book will begin with a chapter telling the story of Nell. The next chapter will tell the story of the Montrachet in the past and the next chapter will go back to Nell's story. This might be confusing for a while but fortunately the good storyline compensates for the confusing way the story is arranged in the book. The book has some mystery, drama and it even got some short children's tale 'The Crone's eyes' and 'The Golden egg' concealed among the pages and written by Eliza Makepeace, one of the main characters.

Overall I really like this book for its beautiful story and the way the mystery evolves from pages to pages ,making me becoming more curious with how it will all end. Mind you, this book is very thick, about 645 pages so a motivation is needed for me to finish this book in a short period. As some of the reviewers of this book suggested, if you like 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, you will like this book.

Buy book from:

• The Book Depository
• Amazon

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

"This witty, fantastically absorbing tale shows that not all bitchy girls are mean, not all nuns are strait-laced and that, no matter what, you can always change your future"
- Books Quarterly

The Book of Tomorrow tells the story of Tamara Goodwin, a 16-year-old spoiled child who always gets whatever she wants. However after her father died, her family were left with debts and Tamara and her mother were forced to leave their rich and pampered lifestyle and moved to live with her aunt and her husband in the countryside somewhere in Ireland. One day, Tamara was visited by a travelling library bus and there she encountered a diary which can tell her future.

As always with other Cecelia Ahern's books, there are some elements of fantasy in the story which in this case, an encounter with a magical diary which can predict the future. However this book is not a favourite of mine as I find the character very annoying in my opinion. Furthermore, I found that the writer tends to wrote lengthy description of some unnecessary things such as the trees, the workings of the bees. But don't get me wrong, I do understand the importance of using description in books but I prefer the descriptions to be in limited number of words or in just one small paragraph. But in this book, sometimes the description of the trees took one whole page to describe and many times I found myself becoming bored with the story and many times I had to skipped a few pages before I can understand where the story is going.

But nevertheless, the book's cover is gorgeous and this is also the reason why I like buying Cecelia Ahern's book but if you would like to read more of her book, I suggest you read P.S. I love you which is her first international best-seller and two of my favourite A Place Called Here and If You Could See Me Now.

• The Book Depository
• Amazon

French: Phrase Book & Dictionary by Berlitz

I bought this book while on a holiday in Kuala Lumpur and the price was RM19.90 which is equivalent to B$8 which in my opinion is unbelievably cheap for such a small book which provides not only a comprehensive guide to learning french but also a whole lot of other useful stuffs about french language and France in general.

The book is in pocket-sized with 223 pages. The book starts off with a step-by-step guide in french pronounciation by identifying the nasal vowels, the liaison and so on and how to pronounce the french alphabets.

The contents are divided into several colour-coded sections which include topics such as health, travel, sightseeing, eating out, stores & services and more. Each topics focused on the commonly used french expressions and phrases alongside with an easy to understand pronounciation guide on every phrases. For example orange juice = un jus d'orange/ang zhew dorahngzh. Along the way there are also some tips given when practising using french such as differentiating the formal and informal phrases and what can be expected to be heard or seen in real life when using the french language.

The last section consist of a French-English dictionary which concentrates on decoding written french which are used in public places such as in hotels, shops, public buildings and so on which might come in handy when visiting France or any other french-speaking countries and locations.One small bonus is a small map of France at the very end of the book. Overall, this small book might be suitable to those who wanted to study basic french in a short period of time or those who are planning to learn some french just before they can travel to any french-speaking countries. For those who have an interest in learning french but don't know where to start, this book is for you. Plus, its low price but with comprehensive contents makes it a great bargain. It might be difficult to find this book in bookstores so I recommend you to get it online instead. Au Revoir!

• The Book Depository
• Amazon

They Cage The Animals At Night by Jennings Michael Burch

" A valuable and beautiful book which addresses issues of concern to everyone-what really does happen to foster children and what allows some children to survive the same emotional trauma that shatters forever the lives of others"

-Eleanor Craig, author of P.S. Your Not Listening


To be honest, I really like to read books with stories that can be a real tearjerker when you read them. Especially those of true stories. Some books which I had bought which can be classified under this kind of books are 'Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah' as well as her 'Chinese Cinderella' book and 'Tuesdays With Morrie' by Mitch Albom. Reading these books can really make me cry even after reading them so many times.

So back to this book I'm reviewing, it basically tells the true story of the author's experience of being a foster child and being forced to live in different orphanages. Set in the 50s, as Jennings's mom who could no longer take care of all her children, was forced to put some of them including Jennings into different orphanages. While living in orphanage, Jennings encountered some heartless nuns and bullies but somehow managed to find good friends along the way. I first saw this book on Amazon when I was researching on what books I should buy next. The book received many positive reviews and earned 4.8/5 stars on Amazon. As I read the readers's reviews, many commented that the story was heart breaking, it made them cry. So I thought this is my kind of book and so I bought it.

While the book was easy to read and understand and there is a great lesson everyone can learn from the book but somehow I don't find this book to be that great. One thing that bothers me about this book is to what extent is the story a real story because I find some parts to be more like a novel writing rather than an autobiographical writing. But who am I to judge people's experience so putting that aside, I think what is more important is the lesson that people can get from reading about Jennings's experience.





Buy book from:

• The Book Depository
• Amazon

F in Exams: The Best Test Paper Blunders by Richard Benson

"Packed full of hilarious examples of the creative ways students answer exam questions... More revision needed, methinks!"

- Western Morning News

I can totally relate to the situation when as a student you couldn't think of the answer to the exam question but feel guilty leaving it blank, unanswered. Then I will just write down any answers I can think of but, twist the facts a little but I will never go out of topic in my answer. But the exam answers given by the students shown on the book are too just funny! I would never dare to do the same thing in my exam papers.

The book is in small size with 127 pages and I bought in on bookdepository.com for B$14+ with free shipping. It listed funny and creative exam answers from wide range of subjects from English, History, Geography and many others.

Some of my favourite answers from the book: Give the names of two gases that might contribute to global warming=1. bottom gas 2. cow burps / What is the highest frequency noise that a human can register?= Mariah Carey / The race of people known as Malays come from which country?= malaria
There are many other funnier exam answers in the book but you'll have to buy it to read more for yourselves.

I never usually buy humour books but once in a while why not buy one. I just read too much fictions that I think I need a change of scenery for a while. I might as well review more humour books in the future. But one thing that bothers me is the book smells like sushi as I flipped it open, very addictive.

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

“In this extraordinary book, Coelho has the courage to ask awkward questions... and give surprising answers.”

— Daily Express (UK)



What would you do if one day a stranger offered you something you can't resist but only with one condition that is to have someone murdered? That's what happened to the inhabitants of a little town called Viscos. One day a stranger visited the town hoping to find the answer to the question: Are human beings, in essence, good or evil? The stranger set up a plan in which he offers the villagers 11 gold bars which are buried somewhere in the woods but only if they agreed to have someone murdered before the week is over.

This book is another favourite of mine from Paulo Coelho along with The Alchemist. The concept of the story is quite simple but it is the message that the book is trying to present which is quite meaningful: which path would you follow? good or evil? In my opinion, we human beings determines whether we are good or evil because we have the choice to be good or evil. Although the story is simple ans quite short for me compared to his other novels The Zahir or The Alchemist but still very enjoyable to read. I've managed to finish this book in just one day so perhaps this book would be great reading while you are travelling on a plane or on a long journey.

Buy book from:

• The Book Depository
• Amazon

Message In a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

" The novel's unbashed emotion-and an unexpected turn-will put tears in your eyes."

-People


If you are not familiar with the name Nicholas Sparks, all I can say is that he is a best selling author of mainly romance novels with most of them have been turned into movies. I'm sure you guys have heard of the movie 'A walk to remember' which featured pop sensation Mandy Moore as one of the leading actors. The movie was adapted from one of books by Nicholas Sparks which ia also called 'A Walk To Remember'.

This book which I have chosen to be reviewed which is called 'Message in A Bottle' has also been turned into movies but I have not seen them yet. The book introduces us to a character named Theresa who was jogging along the beach when she accidentaly discovered a bottle on the beach. Inside the bottle, there is a love letter to a person called Catherine, written by a man named Garrett. Intrigued by the love letter, Theresa then made a decision to tracked down the man who had written the letter.

I think this book was destined to be made into a movie. The book was written brilliantly and the plot is interesting with the ending turns out to be very surprising and sad. Even while reading the book feels like watching a movie. I have nothing but good words for the book. It is also the book which first introduces me to Nicholas Sparks and I have been a fan of his romance novels ever since. If you like romance novels, reading books by Nicholas Sparks is a must. But I highly recommend you to start by reading 'Message in a bottle' and ' The Notebook'. These two are considered to be some of his best written works.

Brunei Bookswap

Do you have soooooooooooooo many books that you wish you could sell it but you love them so much that it's hard for you to sell it away? (I Do! : S) Or you wish you could lend it to someone else so they can read what you have read?

Well, let me introduce you to Brunei Bookswap! Join them on Facebook where you can discuss about the books you read or would like to read and you may find people who can swap books with you. Sometimes there'll be an event or meetup posted on that group. More information, join Brunei Bookswap on Facebook. Enjoy!

~Bukuku Admins =P

Goosebumps Series by R.L. Stine

I am not sure whether the kids today still read the Goosebumps series but back in my school days, these series is very popular among the kids. Whenever we go to the school library, the majority of my classmates including me will either pick the Goosebumps series or the Enid Blyton's series. Our school library is not short of some interesting books. They have the Anne Rice's vampire novels, some Stephen King, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and more. The Goosebumps books with its many quirky titles such as "Say Cheese and Die", "Night of The Living Dummy or "My Hariest Adventure" never failed to attract our attention back in the days. I can be thankful for discovering the Goosebumps series because it encourages a love for reading in me and also helps me to improve my english at school.

Another thing that I would like to point out is the struggle of learning or using english especially among the non-natives speakers of english like us Bruneian. I am not saying the Bruneians are weak in English but we have to accept that there is still a number of people who are struggling with English. One of the things that can be done to improve their English is through reading. But don't be to eager to buy lots of english reading materials if at the end of the day, you are struggling to understand what you are reading. What you can do is to read books with simpler english. Books like the Enid Blyton's series and Goosebumps series or even those books written for children. And as you go along and you find you have improved your english a little, then take a step further and try reading books with a more advanced english.

Night by Elie Wiesel

"As a human document, Night is almost unbearably painful, and certainly beyond criticism"

                                                                                                                - A. Alvarez, Commentry

In the midst of the Second World War in 1944, Elie Wiesel and his family along with the rest of the Jews from the town of Sighet in Transylvania were forced to abandoned their homes and make a long journey to the concentration camps in Auschwitz and later in Buchenwald. It was while living in these concentration camps that Wiesel told his harrowing stories of surviving the Holocaust. Imagine being a witness to the death of your own family members, seeing babies thrown into the burning flames, letting people decide whether you deserve to be alive or dead and eventually losing your belief in god. 

While these are not the only horrible things that Wiesel experienced which are mentioned in the book but they are enough to give the view of how powerful this book is in its description of what happened during the holocaust from the viewpoint of the author. Perhaps the ability of this book to effectively convey the feeling of what happened during the holocaust made it into one of the most important literature on the holocaust. Furthermore, this book is only 120 pages thick. It was published more than 50 years ago and continues to be a bestselling book. In 2006, it was chosen by the Oprah's Book Club and in 2008, it was removed from the New York Times best seller list after staying there for 80 weeks. 

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory

The story began from the period Mary Boleyn caught the interest of King Henry VII and she would later became his mistress. However, Mary had to face many struggles living as the King's other woman. She had to bear the guilt of stealing someone's husband and bear a burden to give the King an heir while at the same time having to face the threat from her jealous sister, Anne Boleyn.

First of all, I like the way the book was written. the english was simple and clear and I'm sure most of the non-native english speakers like me will find the book easy to understand. The story of the Boleyn girls is one of the most interesting events that had happened during the Tudor period. Their story have been widely made into novels and films and even TV series. Recently, this book was turned into a movie which starred Hollywood's big names such as Scarlet Johansson and Natalie Portman but I haven't seen the movie yet. Nevertheless, as for the book, I found the story very interesting but I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the author's version of the Boleyn girls' story and whether the historical facts mentioned in the book was correct. But the author has provided the list of all the sources for her story at the back of the book.

The story was full of drama which made it hard to put the book down as soon as you immersed yourself into the story. Overall, the simple english and the interesting storyline made the book a pleasure to read.

Chinese Cinderella and The Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah

Not one of the best book by Adeline Yen Mah who is the author of the bestselling book 'Falling Leaves'. This book tells the story of a girl named CC (Chinese Cinderella) who seek refuge in a martial art school under the guidance of Grandma Wu. She later joined the Secret Dragon Society and got involved in a few daring adventures which include rescuing a crew of American pilots. The story was set in China during the Second World War.

The story of CC and the secret society was originally a short story written by Yen Mah when she was small. At the beginning, I expected this book to be somewhat similar to the heartbreaking story written in Falling Leaves which I have already reviewed in this blog. Looking at the picture of the small girl on the front cover which was also shown on the front cover of Falling Leaves, made me thinking that this book must have some connections with the book Falling Leaves. Since I really like the story in Falling Leaves, I decided to buy this book instead of buying Paulo Coelho's Like a Flowing River. And now I feel regretting buying this book.

The book's description of a girl's adventure with a secret society with a little bit of kung fu might sound appealing at first but quite a disappointment when reading it. Firstly, I cannot deal with the fact that the society members included a Japanese Russian boy, a Chinese American boy and CC herself. I am not being a racist but why aren't there any real chinese members excluding CC, in the Secret Dragon Society? I would assume that having a true chinese as the members of the society would be more interesting that they will show some interesting cultures being a chinese as well as some real Kung Fu moves! I assumed that The author is trying to suit the story to the western readers by creating characters which are mixed-blood. This might be acceptable for the Western readers but not for me. Having wathing Chinese Kung Fu movies all my life, I have come to accept that every Kung Fu movies have Chinese warriors showing their their remarkable Kung Fu and later getting involved in some kind of adventure.

I think that this book would definitely suit to the small children who might be interesting with the concept of secret society and Kung Fu. But for the rest of us, it might be worth checking out other books.

Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela

This book depicts the story of one of the greatest icons of the world, Nelson Mandela, starting from the story of his childhood and his transformation into a political activist fighting for freedom in the apartheid years of South Africa and the years he spent in prisons until his achieved his own freedom in 1990. One can never again wonders why Mandela is a legend and considered an icon by many people after reading this book.

It is amazing to read about how he never gave up his fight for freedom even after being prosecuted by the government many times and spending most of his time in jail and away from his family. One should admire his courage and his undiminished hope of seeing a free and equal South Africa. It is sometimes heartbreaking to read about his struggle and the ugliness of the apartheid system of the South African government and the unequal treatment towards the Black Africans, the original inhabitants of Africa before the European colonialists took over their land. But sometimes small funny details appeared throughout the book which makes this book more interesting to read.

My favourite part of the book was the part where Mandela was in the prison in Robben Island. Nonetheless, this is a great book and a must have book for any bookworms.

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall

This book is no ordinary self-help book. It will not help you to become thin, to be healthy, to be happy, to live life to the fullest, to enjoy life and so on. These are among the common topics for many self-help books out there. In this book, Paul Pearsall criticised the self-help industry and he pointed out some weaknesses of the self-help industry. In one particular part in the book, he wrote "They call to children, to the elderly, to ethnic minorities, and to every conceivable sexual oreintation..despite the hundreds of guranteed programs designed to help us discover our full potential and lead wonderful lives, most of us still languish in the doldrums or think we're not as happy as we should be." For me, there are some parts of his view on the self-help industry that I do not agree. Although self-help books might or might not be able to fully transform some people but reading those self-help books will give them some ideas on how to transform or improve themselves. This book is interesting to read and I would give it a 2 out of 5. Maybe this is the last self-help book you'll ever need.

Notice!

Some of the readers had suggested some books for us to review and we are trying as hard as we can to get our hands on some of the books suggested. That is our main goal we will try to review at least one in the future. But for the meantime, be patient and please keep coming back to our BukukuReview Blog for new updates. If you have any suggestions or if you want to share with us any good books for us to review, please send them to admins.bukuku@gmail.com, thanks

Paulo Coelho's New Book on Myspace

I have got some good news for Paulo Coelho's fans out there. I just found out that Paulo is posting up chapters from his new book "The Winner Stands Alone" on Myspace. Click here to go to Paulo Coelho's Myspace. You will be the first to read his new book before it will be release on March 19 in UK while other countries will be around June to December 2009. The following description was taken from the website www.fantasticfiction.com.

"Set during one day at the Cannes Film Festival, this is the story of a successful, driven entrepreneur who will go to the darkest lengths to reclaim a lost love. Captured in all their crassness are producers, actors, aspiring starlets, supermodels, and notorious fashionistas, whose lives and actions hold sway over millions."

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

I absolutely in love with this book and It is now officially one of my many favourite books. This book depicts the story of three women of different generations living in different periods of time in China. The three women which consist of Jung Chang's Grandmother, her mother and herself told their own haunting stories living during the political turmoil in China under the Japanese occupation, under the Kuomintang and under Mao Zedong.

What makes this book an enjoyment to read is how Jung Chang managed to described the stories of her Grandparent, her parents and herself in a way that you immediately can relate yourself to the characters and you can feel the feeling of hope, love and courage shown by the characters. The haunting stories of the book follows me everywhere that I am able to remember all the stories vividly. This book was published in the early nineties but I only found out about this book recently while I was on my holiday trip to Malaysia. And did you know this book was banned in China? Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

I have always loved mystery with a little hint of suspense and for me the title 'After Dark' has already given the impression of something mysterious and dark. This book is a real disappointment for me because at the beginning of my reading, I found the storyline to be interesting but as the story develops, It became nonsense and does not make any sense at all.

If you could get your hands on this book and read it, you might get what I mean by saying the storyline becoming nonsense. But on the other hand, I think this book is worth to be adapt into a movie. With a good director who would be able to capture the feelings described in this book I bet the movie will turn out good. This is the first time I read Murakami's book and although it is a disappointment but I will read more of his book in the future because I like his style of writing. This book was written beautifully but the storyline tainted the book's reputation.

Kampung Boy by Lat

I grew up reading Kampung Boy and not only Kampung Boy but also other comic books by Lat. What appeals to me about Kampung Boy is the distinct feeling of living in a "kampung" or village. I can always relate to the main character which is the kampung boy himself, Lat who always hang out with his pals and his little sister.

Whenever I read Kampung Boy, I would remember the time when I was living in the Kampung somewhere in rural Tutong and I remember taking a bath in the river near my grandmother's house and being told by my cousins that there might be a crocodile lurking nearby. Nothing can compensate for living in the Kampung.

Back to Kampung Boy, another thing that I like about it is the unique features of the characters and I also find it funny sometimes. Lat, the main character seem to have his eyes covered by his hair everytime and I remember one of his pals whom I can't remember his name, is cross-eyed and has front teeth which too forward. This book has been made into a TV show and I remember it was shown a few years back at Astro but for me reading the series is a lot more fun. Although now it is difficult to find this book but If manage to find it, I would highly recommend you to buy it or any books by Lat.

AS and A Level: Oxford Revision Guides

This Oxford Revision Guides book series is a must for A Level students or perhaps those who are keen to know more about any particular subjects covered by this series. The subjects covered by this series include Economics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Government and Politics and so on.

This series is a must if you want to know learn and understand a subject in a short period of time because this books uses a lot of diagrams to convey the important points of the subject. It is similar to using a mind map while learning but the only thing is the mind map is already provided and it is only depend on us to understand them and try to register the points in our mind.

But the only drawbacks is since it uses a lot of diagrams, the information given are very brief and not enough. This book would be suitable to those who are very familiar with the subject of their interest but needed to freshen up their mind and recall back what their had learned and that is when the diagrams on this book will be useful.