The Village by the Sea by Anita Desai

Synopsis :

Forgotten by the evolution of the centuries and indifferent to the advances of the twentieth century, Thul, a tiny fishing village not far from Bombay, continues to follow those rhythms of the seasons that have always been handed down. 

Hari and Lila were born and raised in the village, but now their family is falling into despair: the father to alcohol while the mother is seriously ill. As for money, that there is not even enough to meet the most basic needs between.

If there is a book about change, this book would be it.  I feel that 'change' is the central theme that the author is trying to share with readers.  The willingness to adapt to change can really lead to change in quality of lives and directions of lives.

The focus of the book is a teenage boy by the name of Hari.  He and his sister, Lila had to take over in caring for their family when their mother fall sick and their father was too drunk to take care of the family.  With limited food, Hari and Lila were quite lost as what to do to keep the family together.

The village was facing change with factories being planned by the government to be built in the village.  The villagers were skeptical of new fishing methods and were not willing to accept the need to have proper fishing boats.

It was quite a read following what Hari and Lila did for the survivor of their family.

The Talisman by Lynda La Plante

Synopsis :

The long dark skein of the romany curse runs down to the fourth generation.  

Edward - a brilliant academic, he inherits not only the dark romany looks of his prize fighting father, but he carries he curse of Midas.  Alex - the second son.  Unjustly imprisoned and desperate for revenge once released, he cannot break the ties of blood that bind him to his brother.  He will use the Midas Curse to build an empire on corruption.  Evelyn and Juliana - the fourth generation.  Heirs to a fortune, a legacy in the shadow of a romany curse.

The Talisman is a vast, compelling sage that sweeps from the mines of South Africa, through the boardrooms and gambling clubs of modern day London to the international world of fashion - tracing the phenomenal rise to wealth and power of a family whose bloodline is cursed.

I never intend to read this book.  I didn't think it would be nice.  The story is that one afternoon, I was stranded somewhere with no reading material except this particular one and I picked it up and started on it.  The more I read, the more infuriating I become.  In the end, I decided to borrow it to read and it took me a week to finish and now I have returned it back to where it belonged.

The story is second part of the Legacy saga that this follows the next generation of the characters in Legacy.  I didn't read Legacy but it didn't stop me from being able to follow the story.  So, was it nice?  Not particularly so.  I didn't like any of the characters in the book. I especially didn't like either Edward or Alex and even their off-springs of Evelyn (which is a boy) and Julianna are not engaging nor charismatic.

I didn't like the writing as well as I find it very chaotic and rather narcissistic at times.  If it's not because of the time that I have invested in the book that afternoon, I would just forget about it.  

However, just because it doesn't work for me, it doesn't mean it wont' work for others.  If you are a fan of family saga, you might find this your cup of tea.

Perfect Strangers by Robyn Sisman

Synopsis :

Suze Wilding and Lloyd Rockwell are perfect strangers.  She lives in London, he lives in New York.  They know nothing about each other - until one summer they exchange jobs and homes.

Suze is impetuous, impatient and NEVER wants to get married.  Lloyd is complicated, cautious and contemplating marriage to the eminently suitable Betsy.  But when Suze discovers a plot at work to get rid of Lloyd, the two begin communicating long-distance and they wonder what might happen if they ever met face to face....


Perfect Strangers is the perfect book for a perfect Saturday afternoon with a cup of english tea and a couple of cookies to go with it.  It is also perfect if you paired it with a sparkling wine and some grapes or cheese to nibble on.  Whatever you have it with, it is just perfect for some alone time.

Suze is just the guest that you would be worried about if you are the type who keeps your house picture perfect, like Betsy.  However, Suze can be extremely loyal and believe in Lloyd when no one, including Betsy and Lloyd himself would not.  Lloyd is too trusting for someone in advertising and the fact that he's willing to leave his position in the hands of his assistant for two weeks' secondment in London is just too naive to believe.

One look and you would know that Perfect Strangers is a lite chick and being one, it's certainly not a book to take seriously about.  Even then, it has it's moment of seriousness (although in a very light degree) and will be worth your time if you have them to spare.

So, for a cup of tea or a glass of sparklie, here's to Perfect Strangers.

Time After Time

The saying that time flies can certainly be very true.  In this case, it certainly did as I just realized that I have been doing one review after another and it was in April (which felt like only yesterday) that I had my last post on a non-review post.

May, June and July seems to just speed by and I am wondering if someone out there is speeding up time.  If there is, it would be good if they can slow down time a bit too don’t you think?

I went on a short holiday to the capital city with the princess for some quality time.  It was a great trip.  I visited a couple of bookstores there one of which I will write about sometimes in the near future.

On the reading front, things are looking good.  I have enjoyed my reading session and the books I decided on seemed to be the right one most of the time.  My favourite read these few months would be BeautifulLies and Prospect Street by Emilie Richards.  Beautifully written, well researched, they were a surprised but pleasant find.  I will certainly keep my eyes for this author in future.  On the other hand, I surprised myself by reading the whole Percy Jackson Series from The LightningThief to The Last Olympians (5 books in all) as well as Mockingjay (the final book of The Hunger Game Series).  I am still thinking if I should read Divergent or not as I do not have all the books in the series - just the first book.

I added a few books in my collection as well.  Was gifted Heaven Is For Real and bought Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green just a few days ago and generally I have been quite good in not purchasing too many as I still have lots and lots in my collection that I have not read – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series, a few titles by Dorothy Koomson still sit pretty in my shelf and my desire to re-read My Best Friends Girl has not been successful.

I took part in flea market in throughout the months of May to July in selling part of my collection and they have been great.  I was able to ‘expand’ by business *ehem* as I was blessed with a couple of boxes of books from a book exchange centre as well as from a private library in Klang Valley that I managed to bring over and let me tell you, the collections are/were great.  Why the present and past tense? That’s because some has been sold already while some are still with me waiting for the next sales.  There are some great fiction titles as well as motivation books and books relating to the Christian faith that should have someone wanting them as they are by great authors such as Rick Warren, John Maxwell, Max Lucado, Joyce Meyer and such.  God willing, I shall continue with my flea market book sales the next few months to come before the end of the year.

I also have some new books (as in never been read books) that I bought over from an event organiser who received the books as lucky draw prizes and they didn’t want them as prizes for the draw so I bought them instead.  It is certainly a win-win situation as the books include titles by James Patterson among others and I will be putting them in my flea market.  

Such, if you’re interested in any of the books that I have and if you’re in Kuching, do come by the forthcoming flea market.  I will announce the dates at the forthcoming post.

Until then, happy reading and stay healthy.  

Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian (Book #5 of the Percy Jackson Series)

Synopsis :

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of a victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows.

While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

Finally, I read the final book the the Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series.  All in all, it has been a great adventure with Percy and his friends.

I started with The Lightning Thief which was good, followed by Sea of Monsters which was slightly more enjoyable.  After that come The Titan's Curse which wasn't really that great and my least favourite but Battle of the Labyrinth was fantastic and finally The Last Olympian which was just a wonderful end to this particular series.

The Last Olympian is an amazing and exciting end to all that has been built up so far.  The book is just full of action and battles between the heroes and the monsters let by Kronos. Percy stands up to being a leader and let everyone in defending of Month Olympus,

Everyone play a role in the last book, even Percy's mum were involved in the battle and Percy certainly lives up the the expectations of being the son of Poseidon.  I really enjoy this book with Battle of the Labyrinth being my favourite but this a close second and in time to come, after I see the movie (I am sure there will be a movie), I might like it even more.

While this is the last book in this series, it is not the last adventure for Percy and his demigods friends.  There is another series entitled Heroes of Olympus which I am deciding where to read or not.  That charts the adventures of seven heroes including Percy and Annabeth as per the Oracle of Delphi's prophecy at the end of this series :

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall,An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death 

Sounds exciting? 

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Synopsis :

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

This book has 331 pages.  I read until about 70 pages and realized that I can't really go on.  This book is very scientific especially biological warfare which is something that I am not keen on.  However, in the light of books written by Michael Crichton like Congo and Jurassic Park and the one book that I read not too long ago, I am quite certain that the suspense is there...but it's been slowly built up.

For all I know, I am still at the introduction section and if I have persevere on, I would be have really enjoyed the thrill of what this book as to offer.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really keen to persevere on and for all I know it would be my lost but somehow this book just doesn't call out to me. 

Maybe another time, another season then.

Percy Jackson and The Battle of The Labyrinth (Book #4 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series)

Synopsis :

Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.
In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.

After a rather disappointing book #3, The Titan's Curse,  The Battle of the Labyrinth certainly picks up the pace and I can say that it's my personal favourite book in the series thus far.

Finally Annabeth has her turn to her quest.  If you have read the series, you would remember that in The Lightning Thief, it was Percy's quest. In  book #2, The Sea of Monster, the half-blood who really went on the quest is Clarrisa, daughter of Ares and in book #3, The Titan's Curse, it was actually Zoe, one of Artemis hunter's, who went on the quest.  Of course, Percy went along in all those quests, whether he was invited to or not.   In going into the Labyrinth, Annabeth invited him along together with Glover and Tyson.

There's quite a lot that went on in Battle.  The pace was fast and the battle was furious throughout the book.  I love the twist and turn of the labyrinth.  The author introduced more characters, some are rather loveable while some are loathed.    There were lots of excitement and certainly picks up from a rather mild Titan's Curse.

Rachel Elizabeth, the girl that Percy met in book #3 played an important role in this book.  I wonder if she would do the same in the next book which is also the final book in the series, The Last Olympians.

I can't wait to start it.