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.

BF 2009

To all our beloved readers and bookworms,

'The Brunei Book Fair 2009 started yesterday at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Indoor Stadium in Berakas.

The 10-day event themed "Book is the Future", is being organized by The Language & Literature Bureau in conjunction with the Silver Jubilee National Day Celebration. The fair, which was launched yesterday, will end on March 8.

58 companies including from Malaysia & Singapore participated in the event, which has more than 100 booths. Each booth showcases various books and other related educational products for children and adults.

The fair is held to promote & instil reading habit among the public. The fair also give opportunities to publishers to meet and interact with book distributors, book lovers, librarian & the general public in order to enhance trade cooperation, networking & also to develop the book publishing industry throughout this region & on international stages as well' - Borneo Bulletin Weekend.

What are you waiting for? Start going there and buy some books!

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

'Harry - yer a wizard.'

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and whistling wind could be heard.

'I'm a what?'

Everyone knows about Harry Potter. Before I knew about this book, I watched the movie which at first I find it kind of lame. When I heard my friends talked about it, I realized it's an adaptation of a famous book written by JK Rowling. The book is better than the movies (though the actors are all good). There are so many things happening in the book that are not in the movies like S.P.E.W, the History Professor, the other Weasley boys and etc.

This book tells a story about an orphan boy named Harry Potter who lives with his only relative, who doesn't seem to care about him. He thinks he's just an ordinary boy when one day, a man size of a half-giant came to him to give his letter that informs Harry that there's a place for him at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he realized that, he's a wizard after all!

He learns that there's another world besides where he grew up for years. He learns to do magic/spells, play a famous wizard sports called Quidditch and make friends with Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. But he also learns that a dark wizard tries to kill him since birth, that also kills both his parents when he was just one year old. Harry must destroy this evil wizard before he too ended up like his parents.

What amuses me is that how Jk Rowling can create new words like Hogwarts, Quidditch, muggles and all. When I read this book, I feel like I'm in one and having an adventure. For this book I'll rate...

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.

Silent Boy by Torey Hayden

'When someone sort of hates you,' he said, 'They do things to you. You never know when it's going to happen. You never know exactly what. But when someone hates you, you always know they'll do things.'

A book I bought in KK that cost $85.69. A story about a child psychologists, named Torey Hayden tries to help a 15 year old boy to speak again for he had not spoken a word for 8 years.When Torey breaks the 'silence', she learns about his horrible past.

The story started with Torey being introduced to the boy named Kevin, hiding under a table. She tries to make Kevin talks in several methods or ways, then bring him to the outside world, teach him swimming and meeting new people. Torey's heart will not rest until she helps Kevin to be 'alive' young boy who could talk again and live his life like all normal boys would do.

This story is a true story and Kevin does exist. If don't believe me, check here. This book kind of inspiring and I get to learn how terrible events/past such as child abuse, broken family can affect the growth of a child emotionally and how, for us people, could help this children in need and be patient.

When I read this book, after reading several pages it's become so addicted because you want to know what's going to happen to Kevin, if Torey manage to help this poor boy and if Kevin finally have his happy ending.


Ps. This book is also under the name 'Murphy's Boy'