Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong

 

Synopsis :

Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols-a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf.

The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival-a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen's own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence.

After many years, the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen's kinfolk, Han Chinese, sent from the cities to bring modernity to the grasslands. They immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the wolves, sending the balance that has been maintained with religious dedication for thousands of years into a spiral leading to extinction-first the wolves, then the Mongol culture, finally the land. As a result of the eradication of the wolves, rats become a plague and wild sheep graze until the meadows turn to dust. Mongolian dust storms glide over Beijing, sometimes blocking out the moon.

Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem is a stinging social commentary on the dangers of China's overaccelerated economic growth as well as a fascinating immersion into the heart of Chinese culture.

This is what I have to say :

It took me more than 1 month to read this title. There's 670 pages and the fonts are not the big type.

While it was quite challenging for me to read it consistently, it was also a very interesting read.  Part biography and part fiction, it certainly created an understanding of lift in the grasslands and the people and their believes and way of lives.

It was also interesting to read of interwine of lives in creating an eco system that is dependent on one another to survive.  

The author was pretty descriptive in some of the narration especially when he was describing the wolves hunting the sheeps, horses and gazelles.  He was equally descriptive in his narration of human hunting the wolves and skinning them.

However, nothing beats the way he described how a wolf cub was stolen from the wolf's den and raised domestically. That didnt end well and was rather tragic and was one of the key focus of this title that captured my attention right till the ending.

This title has been with me for a long time. I am glad to have finally read it.

Stories from Around The World

 

This is what I have to say :

I just want to put on record that I tried to read this book that I bought from the floating book ship, Logos. It has been sitting on my shelf for many years.

Initially, I thought it would be similar to the 'Chicken Soup' series. Have I mentioned that I love the Chicken Soup series? I believe I did many years ago.

Stories From Around The World is not the same as the Chicken Soup series. It consists of random stories from random people with some stories being 2 to 3 pages long and some is just only 1 page.

Some stories make sense but some are rather vague and senseless. Some are funny and some tried to be funny but failed. Some are sad and some are happy stories.  

Anyway, I didn't complete this. Halfway through I gave up and just put it aside. It will not go back to my shelf but will be donated and maybe someone else might find the stories appealing to them.  

The Witch by Freida McFadden

 

Synopsis :

Some secrets don't die―they wait.

When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling seventeenth-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear.

Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her.

Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41 a.m. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door.

As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692―and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. When decades of family lies begin to surface, Julia must confront a terrifying truth: Pemberton may be haunted by women whose voices refuse to stay silent.

This is what I have to say :

Here I am. Once again. With the latest title from Freida McFadden.

I read this title over a weekend.  I read The Witch expecting it to be the same as per her previous titles.  However, I must say the author decided to level up (that's how I would describe it).

As a hint, the twist to the story started right at the beginning of the story itself and that itself is pretty refreshing to me.

Alternating between Caroline in 1692 and Julia in current timeline, the story is very captivating and as much as I want to know what happend to Caroline, I also wanted to know what is happening to Julia in current timeline.  I have no choice but to exercise patience and read it one page and a time and not to flip to the ending! But that doesnt stop me from guessing what the twists were and when I got to the part with the surprises, I was loving it.  To me there were two main surprises and the surprises were rather refreshing as it does have a hint of Freida but at the same it, it was different too.

I can quite safely say that this title is now my favourite title.  Of course nothing beats The Housemaid but this is also very good.

Ok, Freida. What's next?

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Book #1)

 

Synopsis :

What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

This is what I have to say :

I first saw Before The Coffee Gets Cold in a bookshop in TRX (if you know what's TRX, you know, if you dont, it's ok too).  I managed to get my hand on an ebook version sometime later.  During a recent solo trip I thought it would be chill to read it inflight.

Bad move! Dont get me wrong. It is a GREAT book.  Before the Coffee Gets Cold is so so good. I love the way the author wrote or maybe it's the translation. But it was easy to read but captivating at  the same time.  Readers met four individuals who wanted to time travel for various reasons.

The traveller that touches my heart was the one who travelled back in time to meet her husband who is suffering from alzheimer and do not recognise her now.  She wanted to meet him again at a time when he can remember who she is.  Their story brought heart breaking tears to my eyes and horror of horrors,  I found myself sobbing mid way through my flight.  So embarassing!  Luckily the most of the other passengers were snoozing and it was a pretty empty flight and I did not have an immediate neighbour. 

I have discovered that there's actually 6 books in the series and you can be sure I will be getting my hands on them and you will hear all about it here in time to come.  Whether there will be another embarassing episode from me or not will depends on where I read the other titles in the series. 

The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth

 

Synopsis :

And the world as it is today is a very scary place.

When British and American intelligence catch wind of a major Al Qaeda operation in the works, they instantly galvanize- but to do what? They know nothing about it: the what, where, or when. They have no sources in Al Qaeda, and it's impossible to plant someone. Impossible, unless . . .

The Afghan is Izmat Khan, a five-year prisoner of Guantánamo Bay and a former senior commander of the Taliban. The Afghan is also Colonel Mike Martin, a twenty-five-year veteran of war zones around the world-a dark, lean man born and raised in Iraq. In an attempt to stave off disaster, the intelligence agencies will try to do what no one has ever done before-pass off a Westerner as an Arab among Arabs-pass off Martin as the trusted Khan.

It will require extraordinary preparation, and then extraordinary luck, for nothing can truly prepare Martin for the dark and shifting world into which he is about to enter. Or for the terrible things he will find there.

This is what I say :

I read this title in 10 days. Started on a Sunday and completed it the following Tuesday.  I am rather pleased with myself for this achievement.

That said, The Afghan wasn't a difficult title to read. Being a thriller, it is actually quite captivating in the way that an experience author is able to.

There are very few dialogues.  It is like reading a brief. Somewhat dry but surprisingly captivating.

Not much character development but at the sime time feel like we know the character well enough.

It ended quite sudden and abruptly and I was left with "that's it?" but then quite rightly too as what more can be written about it. 

I do like The Afghan.  I would recommend it to you if you are a fan of thriller but only if you are ready to commit to it then you will appreciate it.

Salvage by Keren David

 

Synopsis :

Aidan Jones was my brother. But I couldnt remember his face

Cass was adopted at an early age and life' been comfortable ever since - too comfortable, some might say.

I glance at the paper. There's a picture on the front page. I sit down and stare at Cass. It's her. My stolen sister.

Aidan's disrupted childhood has been spent shuttling between foster care and children's homes, with a brief disastrous return to his birth mother.

Their experiences couldn't be more different, but their paths are about to converge. Aidan manages to track down his lost sister, and they arrange a secret meeting.  But neither of them have really thought this through.

Can a broken family be salvaged?

This is what I say :

This is my first title since a couple of months ago.  I found this book while looking for some other titles. If I remember correctly, this book belongs to the princess. But I read it anyhow as I wanted to clear it from that section of THR titles.

I started this title on an Wednesday and I finish reading it on that Saturday.  

It was a ok title.  Wasn't bad. But doesnt have the wow factor also.

It's a title that wants readers to think after reading.  1 family (brother and sister). Lives disrupted by circumstances and choices not from their own making.  Started from the same root but moves on to different lives system. One was adopted. the other went into foster care.  

If you like to 'think and reflect' after reading, you can do a lot of 'thinking and reflecting' from this title. From their you can draw your own conclusion. Can what's broken be salvage?

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

 

Synopsis :

Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.” But since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in her nature to say no to people.

So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees—she ends up saving it from certain disaster. Turns out the computer’s owner is an investment manager. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But Fixie laughs it off—she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she?

Then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life and his lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons. She wants nothing for herself—but she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. And Seb agrees, until the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie—from small favors to life-changing moments—ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants?

This is what I say :

I would give this title a 6 out of 10.  I seldom rate a book in such manner but I dont know how else to start sharing my thoughts on this title.

I dont dislike it but I dont quite like it too.  Recent titles by Sophie Kinsella dont really hit the mark. Having said that, I Owe You One is quite readable.  

Fixie (nickname) I cant even remember her real name, as a main character doesnt really appeal to me. I miss Samantha from Undomesticated Goddess and the author's other characters from earlier years.

Or maybe it's just me.

I am different now from when I first read Sophie's title many many years ago.

Even then I am glad for the opportunity to read this title since Sophie said a forever good bye to this world end of last year.