Flea Market Preview - July 2016

 It's been quite awhile since I took part in a flea market.  If I am not mistaken, the last time was in April/May.

I have been pretty busy since then but at the same time I have new titles to offer as well and some of them are really good titles.

Home Front by Kristin Hannah would be looking for new home at the market. 

The same goes for The Time Traveler's Wife.

Not forgetting An Unsuitable Job for A Woman by P.D. James.

and many more.

So, make a book date with me on Sat and Sun from 10 am to 5 pm in Green Heights Mall if you are in Kuching and bring home a book or two. :)

An Unsuitable Job for A Woman by PD James

Synopsis :

Handsome Cambridge dropout Mark Callender died hanging by the neck with a faint trace of lipstick on his mouth. When the official verdict is suicide, his wealthy father hires fledgling private investigator Cordelia Gray to find out what led him to self-destruction. What she discovers instead is a twisting trail of secrets and sins, and the strong scent of murder. 

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman introduces P. D. James's courageous but vulnerable young detective, Cordelia Gray, in a "top-rated puzzle of peril that holds you all the way" (The New York Time).

Cordelia Gray inherited a private investigator agency when her mentor passed on.  Slightly inexperienced, she tried her best to take on a job in investigating the death of Mark Callender. There are some who felt that she's not fit for the job...which I think hence the title, An Unsuitable Job for A Woman.

All in all it was a pretty decent read. This is the second title by PD James that I read.  I still have a couple of her titles at home.  The pace of the book is rather mellow. It focus on lives in the country in a very English manner.  Everything is rather prim and proper.

PD James's Inspector Dalgliesh made an appearance and yes, I think there's a work chemistry between Cordelia and Dalgliesh.  Perhaps he will be her new mentor in books to come?

Overally I enjoy this book at a time when I don't want to be thrilled too much and also at a time when I have enough of lite chic.  

Home Front by Kristin Hannah

Synopsis :

All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost. . . .
 
Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life--children, careers, bills, chores--even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then an unexpected deployment sends Jolene deep into harm’s way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a soldier she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own--for everything that matters to his family.

At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

Home Front has been sitting in my shelf for more than two years.  I always wanted to reserve certain books to read for certain occasions like when I am on a specific holidays or such but opportunities never seems to present itself for me to do so.

Until recently....where I have an unexpected one week break and the announcement of the break (in conjunction with a festive celebration) came rather last minute so I don't have time to plan for any trips, so it was very much a 'home-cation' that I had.  The princess was away at camp and in between some spring cleaning, I make time for my 'bookation' as  in 'book vacation' and it was certainly an enjoyable and guilt-free reading spree!

Home Front made it's debut in my reading plans and I had a grand time with Michael and Jolene and reading about their stories and what they went through and are going through.

Home Front deals quite a bit on PTSD of soldiers returning from war.  Michael was defending a war veteran suffering from PTSD accused of murdering his wife and Jolene herself had severe PTSD to deal with after suffering a physical disability upon her return from Iran.

There are some nice moments in the book but there are some annoying moments too and sand to say, I wasn't warm up to Michael and Jolene's two children - Betsy and Lulu.  I actually find them pretty annoying and clingy and all Betsy has to say to her mum is 'What is wrong with you?'  I don't think Kristin Hannah did a good job in developing these two characters.

All in all, I was happy to have Home Front's company during my recent 'home-cation'.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Synopsis :

Audrey Niffenegger's dazzling debut is the story of Clare, a beautiful, strong-minded art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: his genetic clock randomly resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, and lend a spectacular urgency to Clare and Henry's unconventional love story. 

That their attempt to live normal lives together is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control makes their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Time stood still for me as I enveloped myself into The Time Traveler's Wife recently.   This is not a new title and it was a very popular many years back and there was a movie adaptation as well.  I didn't read the book in it's height of popularity and neither did I watch the movie.  Such, I have no prior expectations from it other than it's a fairly thick book.

I have no idea why there are others who dislike the book and called those who do, having 'poor taste'.  Well I like the book. It wasn't the most easy book to read but the story itself was arresting enough for me.  It was emotional experience and I guess some people just don't have the imagination for it.

I won't analyse the book as to it's cultural connotation, no differential styles between characters and some even analyse to how many times certain phrase appears in the book! Well, that's them and I guess they don't get much enjoyment out of a love story for that's what this book is, not a science fiction, but a love story...a love story that transcends time and goes beyond dimensions.


I cry buckets at certain section of the books and yes, at the ending too....*sniff*  I love it.

The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Synopsis :

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.

Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.

As the four friends struggle toward salvation they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees...

My first book by Adam Nevill was Last Days which I read last year.  Since then I have been on the lookout for his books but they are not in the mainstream bookstores.  The only stores of which stocked Adam's title, so far, from what I can see, is Kinokuniya in KLCC.

And for course, the state library of which was my initial introduction to Adam Nevill's titles.  When I was there a few weeks back, I can't help to to see if there's any and yes, The Ritual was the only title there at that time so even though I have a lot of other TBR titles at home,  I just have to have this one.

The Ritual is creeeeeepy.  It is horrifying and it's thrilling.  The image cover itself is already extremely creepy.  From the first chapter right up to the last, it's not a book to be read while at home alone thus you might scared yourself silly but that's what I did and scared myself silly I did too!  

There's a section in the middle of the book that was a bit out of syn, like the author was a bit at lost on how to progress on with the story but after a while, I think he managed to bring everything back together and tie everything together rather well.

I can't wait until I get my hands on anther title by Adam Nevill.

The Drop by Michael Connelly

Synopsis :

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.

DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab's DNA cases currently in court.


Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving's son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch's longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.

Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.

The Drop is the second of Michael Connelly's book that I read in recent years. The first was The Overlook read about four years ago.  The Overlook also features the same character but I guess he wasn't a very memorable character as I am not able to recall anything about him.

The Drop however, left an impression as it's a very thrilling thriller. It started off very well with the possibility of a crime and also investigation of a crime from a cold case.  There wasn't any connection but the movement from one case to another was very fluid and exceptionally captivating.

Harry Bosch wasn't a very nice person but where being a cop is concerned, I guess he is a good cop.

I highly recommend this book to those looking for a thriller.