Come Read with Me - January '12

I am so behind time, initially I was supposed to complete reading this book in December, but with friends visiting, preparations for Christmas and also the New Year had made me a lazy butterfly :)

The book that I read was the final book of the Inheritance Cycle - Aptly named Inheritance. Paolini really pushed himself in this one, in fact, it feels a little bit too much..and the ending is [too] neutral for my liking. A smart move as he opened leeway for the story to continue. [Perhaps a new series??]

This would be the first book that I've read that I actually felt sick/pain when I read the battle scenes. Good job, writer >.< The story had some endings for some of the characters, but all in all I enjoyed reading it, but the story became a little flat after the climax battle ended.

Thank you for writing this cycle as you have made me love dragons considering there are in actual fact a gigantic version of the house lizards that I dislike oh so much! :P

Reminiscing 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I am a little behind my compilation of 2011. Lots of things have happened last year, some happy some not. Cheers to 2011 in pictures!

Attended a bunch of weddings

..all of them beautiful in their own right :)

Got awesome gifts and cards (only compiled the pics that were in my comp...there were more, and I thank you all for them!)

Friendly competitions..

Had so much fun with these games!!

 Celebrated a bunch of birthdays

I realised they are all mostly chocolate cakes!

Read some books

I owe you a write-up on Inheritance!

 Traveled for the soul...straight into the Land of Smiles!

July - Thailand

 Traveled some more in August

Klang.KL

Miri, Sarawak

Watched movies..I realised that most movies this year involved robots,blue creatures,aliens,dragons,mutants,vampires and werewolves.. what happened to the homo sapiens??

Didn't watch too many this year..

Visited the gorgeous Rat Island

Met a beautiful Bull-terrier!

Cotton <3

Christmas!!

Some of our friends had a small get-together on the 31st and Summer made us draw out our 2011.. here is mine!

Happy 2012! Here's a video of the fireworks we saw on 1st Jan 2012

Blessed Christmas, Everyone!

Have a wonderful holiday and let us be reminded of the birth of Jesus our Saviour!

Come Read with me - November

I read a couple of books - both belonging to my 11-year old cousin!

I was really anticipating for Book 2 of Heroes of Olympus to come out (spin-off from Percy Jackson Series) and the wait was worth it. This time the story revolves around Percy - who is a Greek demi-god who gets switched into the Roman Camp by Juno/Hera. He has to work with the Roman Demi-Gods (kids who has 1 parent whose a Roman God/dess) on a quest to release Death and save all of them from being destroyed. Riordan still writes with the same flair that keeps your glued and wanting to know more. I enjoyed this read - only part is that *spoiler alert!*             it's somewhat a cliffhanger!

The second book - I didn't really fancy - perhaps I'm too old to appreciate it. It was written by a 13-yr old French Novelist. I wonder if the beauty of the story has gotten lost with the translation. It's a story of 3 girls on a quest to save Fairytale. Oddly, Death is on strike here and they meet it too! A nice read if you're in your tweens. 

Come read with me - October

The Book I read for October was excellent.Thanks Summer for lending this book to me. She couldn't put it down, and I can understand why!

The book has 2 parts to it and it tells of the struggle of a Chinese woman who has a dream of being a scholar, just like her mother was. Being in China at that time, women were degraded and reading and writing was something only meant for the men. She gets sold to a rich man who owns a silk business.Thus unfolds a journey of her perseverance to learn how to read and write and how her wit saves her on numerous occasions. 

Second part tells about the life of her child and the struggles she endures. It gets a little bit repetitive as it might seem that she has the same fate as her mother, but read on as her life story is all about seeking and finding closure. 

It will take you on a very visual journey as the author has a great flare of describing things perfectly. It really feels like you're with the protagonist collecting the silkworms!

Awesome read.

Come Read with Me - September

I have been tied up most of my September that I did not get to update my book of the month! I didn't get much reading done.

A good friend of mine sent me a book that they used for one of his English classes (or something). I must say I enjoyed reading it a lot. 

 

It's a compilation of short stories that talk about Indian expatriates living in the United States. Lahiri has the ability to make you glued to the story till the end. I must say it is a bit too much if you read it all in one read (for me personally), cause it's too much culture at one go. hehe

She tends to leave the ending hanging and lets you make your own conclusions. I do know some people are not too keen on that but I think that's a way of adding a sense of unknown. There's one story in it (there's 9 in all) that has the same title as the book. I was taken aback at how literal it really meant, yet it held some mystery to it. Very interesting read and it gives an insight of how some will never let go of their culture no matter where the end up living in and also how they deal with their relationships.

More information on the author and this book:

 Interpreter of Maladies

Jumpha Lahiri

Book 2 in September was a kiddy book. We have a library at work for employees to borrow books to improve their English. It's mostly filled with children's storybooks. I read this book during one of my lunch breaks.

I recommend this to anyone who has kids that like reading mystery books :D