Mini review: the future is here

I guess it is inevitable that with the success of The Hunger Games that many writers will try to emulate the story. So now the dystopian books are all the craze well aside from the vampire books that is. What is dystopian you say? Well if Utopian is a perfect imaginary world then dystopian is the opposite. The world is bleak, depressing, there's violence and apparently not so much personal freedom. And of course being a book nerd, I try to follow this current trend as often as I can. Besides after being blown away by Katniss adventures, I'm so eager to read about other kick-ass heroines out there.

Let's start with Divergent. There's Beatrice or Tris who was born in an Abnegation family but choose to be Dauntless when she turns 16. Tris is pretty bad-ass (please pardon the use of harsh words but really she is) as she has to prove that she's worth it to be in the fearless faction. Of course the countless daredevil stunts and challenges can be somewhat tiring to read and unlike Katniss who's actually thrown into the games unwillingly because she's trying to protect her sister, Tris seems pretty..ehem.. selfish? So okay she left her family voluntarily to be in this cool faction and it reads like a long initiation where she got beat up severely in the beginning and later on prove her mettle. There's a big twist in the end and of course the prerequisite love interest is there.

Verdict: 4 stars.

Let's explore Blood Red Road next..shall we? Now meet Saba. Whoa she's very bad-ass! She's the most bad-ass of all the characters I've ever read. Similar to Katniss, Saba has to rescue her kidnapped twin brother who was taken as a human sacrifice by the Sun King. Unfortunately her journey takes a very dangerous detour when she was held captive and then forced to be this gladiator woman fighting in some sort of arena. The bad guys even shave her head! So bad ass! But I got tired of reading about all the sands and blood in her world that at one point I just abandoned it to read some other stuff. I'm sorry I'm a very picky reader! Dear me..

Verdict: 3 and half stars :) can I give a half star..it is my blog right?

Oh dear.. after reading about all those strong, feminist characters, I was severely disappointed by this one. Across the Universe is NOT a futuristic adventure more of a futuristic romance as oppose to paranormal romance. Amy is just your average red-headed girl who gets frozen and then shipped off into space and then meets a boy who happens to be the future leader of the ship that she's in. So this boy named Elder fell in love with Amy and well the story goes. It's basically your average run of the mill teen love story but the story really made me think about what's going to happen in the future. It basically give me the shivers hoping that humanity will not end up in a ship going nowhere.

Verdict: 3 stars.

Well finally we have Incarceron. Okay so eventhough the main character is a boy, there's a strong female character in here. Claudia is the daughter of the prison warden and she's strong willed and just a little bit kick-ass. But the story is actually about Finn and he's the long lost prince wrongly imprisoned in the vast endless prison that is Incarceron. Oooh..the setting of the book is scary and I feel so morosely unsettled reading about his attempts to escape. Apparently no one can! Quite depressing. I'm surprised they're making this into a movie. They even cast Taylor Lautner as Finn.

Verdict: 1 star - I don't particularly like the main character, he only managed to save himself and not his friends.

So there you have it folks..my review of dystopian books that I've read. Most of them are quite depressing so don't read it if you already feel down yourself (hehe).

Review: Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Published August 31st 2010

My Summary:

Hi..meet Evie. She's sixteen, blond, loves pink and works with IPCA (that's the International Paranormal Containment Agency). So what so unusual about that you say? Well..her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a fairy and she can see through all paranormal glamours which make it kind of tricky for a vampire to bite her..hoho.

So Evie never knew who her parents are and she grew up in IPCA and faithfully do whatever it is that they told her to do which includes tagging and bagging other not so nice paranormal; for e.g: werewolves and vampires. One day a strange creature broke into the IPCA headquarters and Evie being the wonderful employee that she is caught the creature/guy/being/paranormal (one could get so confused with all these fantasy things). This guy is Lend and he's sort of a shapeshifter. So eventually they fell in love but some things are killing paranormals out there left and right so of course our protagonist will eventually be involved in that.

Thoughts:

I absolutely love this book. Yes..it is told from the very tiring first person POV but the character is funny, normal, and not so mopey unlike the other heroines of the popular YA fantasy out there (Bella anyone?). The story is very action paced (thank god) and for once the hero is very nice. There's a big twist in the end concerning Evie's so called history. It's my favourite YA urban fantasy series so far.

Verdict: 5 stars !

which series do you like?

I guess everyone have their favourite book series.

My best friend; Wani loved the J.D Robb in Death series.

My other friend; Ishqi (and I guess a million other shopaholic women out there) absolutely adore the Shopaholic series.

My sister collects Christine Feehan's Dark series.

My young at heart aunt;Junie Octovian have Hlovate books lining up her shelves.

Even my mum used to hoard loads of Mills and Boons which I cheekily and secretly read when I was young (but quickly gored bored with the cliched ending and the very predictable bedroom scenes..zzzz). What's will all the kissing?

Currently I'm collecting a few YA fantasy series (which I promise to give a review later on) and have completed my No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series..yahoo!

a most peculiar murder mystery

Shamini Flint are one of those rare Asian writers who managed to nabbed a book deal with an international publisher. Lucky lady! And she used to be a lawyer too (no wonder she looks so.. familiar..hmm). Personally, I think that it's great to read something that has an Asian ambiance to it. A breath of fresh air really.. to be enjoying something that is Made in Malaysia. Is she Malaysian? Not really sure..but being an avid mystery fan, I devoured her Inspector Singh series hungrily.

A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder

This is the first book in the series. We are cordially introduced to the fat, irritated, Sikh Inspector from Singapore who was sent over to neighbouring Malaysia to help in the investigation of a wealthy timber tycoon. The main suspect is his ex-wife; a Singaporean who used to be a famous model. For once I really think that the victim deserves to die. He's cruel, vicious man who beat up his wife (gasp), had an affair with his son's girlfriend (gasp) and even convert to Islam just to make sure his wife doesn't get custody of his younger sons (more gasp). Oooh shoot him please! His two brothers are pole opposites. The kind elder brother; Jasper who's a nature lover, harbours some deep secret while the youngest brother; Kian Min is the devil incarnate himself.

I had fun reading this, but just I was about to spot the murderer, the writer cleverly throws another suspect in the path. Damn! The ending is bitter sweet and being a mother myself, I was very touched during the part when the long suffering ex-wife tried to flee the country just so she could keep her kids. The camaraderie between Inspector Singh and his Malaysian counterpart; Sergeant Shukor is sometimes awkward and somewhat amusing.

This book actually reminds me of Agatha Christie's masterpiece; The Murder in the Orient Express where the killer is a disgusting persona and the murderer is actually the victim. So sad. And yes I guess anyone who read this would draw comparison to that other plump Belgian detective whom I love so much.

Verdict: 4 stars

The Singapore School of Villainy

Yes, the Inspector strikes again in book #3 of the series. And once again, I feel kind of sorry for the murderer. Is it becoming of a habit that the writer wants you to take the murderer's side? Oh gosh..there's so many suspects and so little time that sometimes my head goes spinning just to make heads or tail of it. The victim is a senior partner in this big law firm. And the suspects are his other partners and also his two wives. The current sexy seductress Filipino wife and the discarded White ex-wife. Phew! Sadly, I found that Inspector Singh is very overbearing and insufferable this time, what with all the shouting and bullying of his subordinates particularly that nice Corporal Fong. He certainly is very much stressed out this time since one of the suspect turns out to be his distant cousin from New Delhi.

I guess it is the writer's trademark that the ending should be somewhat bitter sweet. The murderer has this Scarlett O'Hara thing going on where she swears that she'll 'lie, steal, cheat or kill' just so she won't be poor again. Dear me..so very sad.
Verdict: 5 stars

free books..anyone?

Oh dear..oh dear..I really need to control my spending habits when it comes to books. I think so far this year I've spend more than 1k on books alone. Dear me!

While contemplating my current sorry state of finance, I was pleasantly delighted to find so many websites/bloggers out there who are willing to give out free books to their followers. These people are amazing! Most of them are Americans and they are soo lucky to get all these Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) books straight from the publishers.

Duh..really wishing Asian/Malaysian publishers are generous like them..but we have a very small market so understandably there's no such thing as free books in Malaysia. Sob..sob..
Check out http://obsessionwithbooks.blogspot.com/ where this amazing blogger is giving away books to commemorate her 500 followers. Dear me..I hope I'm lucky enough to get these books. Please..please..pretty please..
Hmm.. maybe I should giveaway free books to get more followers..eh?

the astonishing antics of an 'angel'

Wow that'll make an interesting title for a book. Don't you think so?

Here we are again on another book tour..this time at the Times bookstore in Sunway Giza Kota Damansara. Very small shop but the location is very nice.

My lil angel marking his territory of the children's section.

There's a toy model that he's particularly enamoured of..ops..

Oh dear now he's starting to climb to get to that nice window..

Oh dear so that concludes our jalan-jalan for now..till then..tata!

mysterious me..

No..I'm not at all mysterious. Grumpy, sarcastic, anti-social are more like it. This entry is about my other new reading challenge..mystery & suspense reading challenge 2011 by http://www.bookchiccity.com/.

so the challenge is:

- to read at least 12 mystery books this year (wah...so kacang).

These are the mystery books that I've read so far this year. 6 more to go..now if only I can get my hands on those No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series..they're so hard to find! I've been to Kinokuniya, MPH, Borders, Times..where are they? Sob..sob..

my new reading challenge

Since I've finished my Goodreads reading challenge, I've been searching for other reading challenge and reading other book blogs out there. Oooh apparently there's so many interesting book blogs out there with the same tastes as mine.

I've stumbled upon this reading challenge quite accidentally while trying to search for other Malaysian women who blog about books with my partner in crime ; nurul blueyes. (Sorry Nurul I've been sidetracked..hoho)Unfortunately not many Malaysian females blog about books. They're into cooking instead. Maybe Malaysian ladies are more ehem..traditional in their tastes.

My new reading challenge is:

to read at least 24 horror and urban fantasy this year courtesy of Book Chic City ..wohoo..
so here goes...so far I've read

some of them are courtesy of my kind sister. I have read other fantasy books but I'm not sure whether they fit in this urban fantasy/horror genre..have to check first. By the way check out the cool creepy vampire button for the challenge. Hehe..

I LOVE LAT

So..it is raining outside,my kid is watching cartoon again (sigh), I have run out of books to read (more sigh), nothing to do but stare at the messy bookshelf and then I found these: several LAT books or graphic comic as they called it nowadays. My whole family are really into LAT cartoons. They were so funny and it honestly depicted the Malaysian lifestyle. It was even made into a musical last April.

I found these scribbles in the books.

This one is my brother's writings when he was 11 and I was 9. Sorry that the pictures are so blurry. My Blackberry camera is totally worthless. If only I have an iPhone (sigh). Apparently my brother has a habit of jotting down his name and date on his books when his younger. Kind of possesive..huh?

This one was written by my mum in Lat and Gang. Translated into English it says:

"To my children whom I love:

Shahrul Nadia Khalid

Shamsul Nirwan Khalid

Shahrul Natasha Khalid (me)

signed by my mum 1987-August"

Such fond memories..

a little bit of trivia

Do you remember a little tv show called Murder She Wrote? I remembered watching it with my family when I was really young and was really into it. Yup that's the start of my love affair with mysteries.

So apparently the mystery genre is subdivided into several categories and the sub genre that I'm into is cozy mysteries. (Wow..never knew that). The mystery genre is actually very wide, it includes crime, thriller, cozy mystery, whodunnit, noir (ooh an image of the brooding 007 came into mind) and much much more.

According to this website (http://www.cozy-mystery.com/) cozy mysteries generally have these characteristics:

- the crime solver is an amateur sleuth (meaning she's quite nosy in nature)

- she's a woman (surprise, surprise)

- she's likeable

- the books are funny and clean (without sex, swear words and all)

- set in a small village or town

- the books are funny and cozy

Hmm.. is it a sign of an impending middle age that made me favour cozy mystery? Dunno..but it's nice to read something that made you unwind once in a while. And my idea of unwind is to find some murdered person killer..(a sign of an overdose 0f CSI/Bones/Criminal Minds..huhu).

my precious..

Alhamdulillah..I've finally finished my Goodreads reading challenge of reading 100 books this year! Yay! Seriously while people are busy shopping for eid-ul-fitri (Malaysians are crazy when it came to holidays..stampede is more like it) I was holed up in a bookshop somewhere with my faithful 'angel' poring over books, buying them in bucket loads (to the dismay of my husband..it's my money.. damn it) trying to read as much as I can. So in just 3 months I've read more than 100..although I have to really edit out the challenge to only include books I've read for the first time this year..whatever!

So since at first I was tempted by my sister to read YA fantasy/paranormal romance, now I really need a break from that genre. It's so tiring to read books in the first person POV. All that I saw..I smell..I think..gah..is driving me crazy. Why must everyone copy Stephenie Meyer?Honestly people!

My dearest aunt kindly borrowed some of her romance books. Such positivism is clearly what I needed. So I turn to my first passion. The love of my life. Mysteries!

I actually stumbled upon this quirky HBO series a while back and was not really following it due to my busy work schedule and chasing after that 'angel'. To my dismay, it's already cancelled after only 7 episodes due to poor ratings. Apparently not many people are into mysteries...gah! It reminded me of Agatha Christie's fat Belgian detective; Hercule Poirot. There's something about plump detectives that I found endearing. So sue me..haha!

Precious Ramotswe in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is certainly precious! She's kind, smart, sharp and all around a very good detective indeed. Although according to Batswana (Botswana people are called Batswana), Precious is a traditionally bulit (meaning plump) woman who sold her father's cows to set up a detective agency. Along the way, she attracts the attention of the finest mechanic in the city of Gaborone; a certain Mr. J.L.B Matekoni. Her secretary/assistant is a Mma Makutsi. (In Botswana apparently they called Miss/Mrs. as Mma). A graduate of Botswana Secretary College with a 97 score on her final exams. Phew! The characters are refreshing and different from the American physical perfection of characters.

The books are a gem. With its witty lines, human analysis and a rather positive outlook on life set against Botswana..it can do no wrong for me. I was smiling and grinning the whole time reading this. Now I have 6 of the books in the series and are planning to complete it. Please give this a try..it's not dark at all like Agatha's but a rather cheerful journey into social human behaviour. I'm sure you'll like it!

eid mubarak

Mama take my picture!
Eid-ul-fitri day 2: at the zoo


Selamat Hari Raya to all!