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shopaholik

Just finished a book by Alice Hoffman, White Horses.
Comment: Menarik tapi pacing cerita die agak slow and sometimes would even border upon boring. I would rec this to those who are already familiar with her works because if you are new it's wiser to choose and read "Here On Earth" or "Practical Magic" first.
Lagipun ader incestous realtionship so to those who couldn't stomach (I would just skip those parts) such taboo, better not pick this book up.

azaleena

baru je habis baca buku Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden


lepas ni, baru nak tgk VCD citer ni ..

here's editorial review from

Amazon.com
According to Arthur Golden's absorbing first novel, the word "geisha" does not mean "prostitute," as Westerners ignorantly assume--it means "artisan" or "artist." To capture the geisha experience in the art of fiction, Golden trained as long and hard as any geisha who must master the arts of music, dance, clever conversation, crafty battle with rival beauties, and cunning seduction of wealthy patrons. After earning degrees in Japanese art and history from Harvard and Columbia--and an M.A. in English--he met a man in Tokyo who was the illegitimate offspring of a renowned businessman and a geisha. This meeting inspired Golden to spend 10 years researching every detail of geisha culture, chiefly relying on the geisha Mineko Iwasaki, who spent years charming the very rich and famous.
The result is a novel with the broad social canvas (and love of coincidence) of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen's intense attention to the nuances of erotic maneuvering. Readers experience the entire life of a geisha, from her origins as an orphaned fishing-village girl in 1929 to her triumphant auction of her mizuage (virginity) for a record price as a teenager to her reminiscent old age as the distinguished mistress of the powerful patron of her dreams. We discover that a geisha is more analogous to a Western "trophy wife" than to a prostitute--and, as in Austen, flat-out prostitution and early death is a woman's alternative to the repressive, arcane system of courtship. In simple, elegant prose, Golden puts us right in the tearoom with the geisha; we are there as she gracefully fights for her life in a social situation where careers are made or destroyed by a witticism, a too-revealing (or not revealing enough) glimpse of flesh under the kimono, or a vicious rumor spread by a rival "as cruel as a spider."

Golden's web is finely woven, but his book has a serious flaw: the geisha's true romance rings hollow--the love of her life is a symbol, not a character. Her villainous geisha nemesis is sharply drawn, but she would be more so if we got a deeper peek into the cause of her motiveless malignity--the plight all geisha share. Still, Golden has won the triple crown of fiction: he has created a plausible female protagonist in a vivid, now-vanished world, and he gloriously captures Japanese culture by expressing his thoughts in authentic Eastern metaphors. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
"I wasn't born and raised to be a Kyoto geisha....I'm a fisherman's daughter from a little town called Yoroido on the Sea of Japan." How nine-year-old Chiyo, sold with her sister into slavery by their father after their mother's death, becomes Sayuri, the beautiful geisha accomplished in the art of entertaining men, is the focus of this fascinating first novel. Narrating her life story from her elegant suite in the Waldorf Astoria, Sayuri tells of her traumatic arrival at the Nitta okiya (a geisha house), where she endures harsh treatment from Granny and Mother, the greedy owners, and from Hatsumomo, the sadistically cruel head geisha. But Sayuri's chance meeting with the Chairman, who shows her kindness, makes her determined to become a geisha. Under the tutelage of the renowned Mameha, she becomes a leading geisha of the 1930s and 1940s. After the book's compelling first half, the second half is a bit flat and overlong. Still, Golden, with degrees in Japanese art and history, has brilliantly revealed the culture and traditions of an exotic world, closed to most Westerners. Highly recommended.
-?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description by MPH
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.
Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction梐t once romantic, erotic, suspenseful梐nd completely unforgettable

Price RM34.90
Page : 500++


Well, this is my comments on the book:
1. It keep me stuck to the book for the entire 2 days. Just, can't let go ... the way the stories been wrote, memang best giler, u can imagine the scenario & it has all the details require utk imagine and as if, you are there to witness the whole thing.

2. It seems so real, till the end, then only you realize, it's actually just a novel. Citer dari dia kecil sampai being a geisha, till retire di New York.

3. All i could say, the best so far yg i penah baca ..... no wonder, it's one of the best seller.

[ Last edited by  azaleena at 17-7-2006 09:50 AM ]

periwinkle..

Just finished this book last night. It's been a while since I last stayed up late just to finish a book, but this one really worth it. Intriguing, well crafted  story, a great read. Kisah seorang budak yang adopt a book from cemetery of forgotten books, and since than, his life has changed. Memang best cerita ni, ada misteri, tragic love and interesting characters (walaupun agak banyak - kadang-kadang terlost track nama-nama characters ni). Interesting quote from this book, "a book is a mirror: you only see in them what you already have in you",..hmm...something to ponder upon.. :hmm:

Reviews on the net on this book..
"The book is written by someone witty and knowing enough to spoof himself while still being able to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. It is also a quasi-Freudian biblio-adventure, looping and twisting through the streets of post-war Barcelona and in among the pages of books, in search of lost fathers and sons, mothers and daughters. (...) He swathes his story in atmospherics: no one is without his wreath of cigarette smoke, no recess without its shadowy figure. Barcelona becomes a place of doors opening into dark interiors of the mind." - The Economist

"(W)rapping those concerns up in a thriller and a love story, whose very natures are conventional and straightforward, gives his tale a dramatic tension that so many contemporary novels today seem to lack. This is highly sophisticated, fun reading that keeps you gripped and tests the brain cells all at the same time. What more could you ask for ?" - Amy Mathieson, The Scotsman

reyne

Just finished reading Fourplay by Jane Moore - the short sypnosis :

Jo is trying to run a business, a home and a family when her husband falls in love with someone else. So much so, that he wants to leave his family for his very young, very pretty secretary. But Jo isnt a bad catch herself. Suddenly single again - with the added complication of children in tow, she has four different men bussing around her. But does she really need anyone?

Story about relationship - husband and wife, father and daughter, friends, deception, love, and children.....

Good read for the weekend, I simply love it!:love::love::love:

bonita

Originally posted by mrs~solis at 23-5-2006 11:43 AM
Oprah's Book Club

She's Come UndoneShe's Come Undone
by Wally Lamb
Announced in January 22, 1997

About the Book
"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and trouble ...

Bon jumpe buku ni kt Payless booth semlm kt Book Fair PKNS, shah alam...rm6 jer...terus grab & beli....last nite baca dh a few chapters...

so far so good...

mrs_livingstone

just finished 'tell me no secrets'
ending dia hampeh la

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[ Last edited by  mrs_livingstone at 13-9-2006 01:58 AM ]

KRUfan

Still reading Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn...biler la nak abes? citer best tapi byk interruptions in reading..bz..byk keje..

periwinkle..

Just finished this book recently, another great read.  I really have high expectations on this book due to its good reviews and popularity. Well,  the first half of it is very good but towards the end, a bit dragging and losing its earlier charm especially when most of interesting characters are no more in the picture. In overall, a well written story about friendship, father &  son relationship and also about redemption. Moral of the story, always choose and do the right thing no matter what the consequences are, or else, you'll live with the guilt/regret for the rest of your life...   

Review from amazon..

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.
The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

limau_nipis

review kat historical romance thread..

i have finished reading Minx by Julia Quinn yesterday.. excellent giler! fabulous.. sebab heroin defy the society, kelakar oo.. henreitta aka henry tu mmg macam lelaki, pakai seluar dengan baju lelaki.. pakai breeches etc.. and dunford (the hero) jadi pulak guardian si henry ni, mmg kelakar la, since it is a known fact that dunford is a rake, and it is very funny when he realised he is the guardian of henry..

the book is linked with Splendid and Dancing at Midnight.. lepas ni nak baca cerita Emma & Alex dengan Belle & John pulak.. Dan watak Dunford tu exist in both stories.. sure sweet cerita Emma dgn Belle.

I noticed JQ ni suka buat cerita bersambung-sambung, mungkin dia taknak watak sampingan dalam buku dia takde stand alone story.. bagus gak kembangkan cerita watak-watak dalam buku dia..



William Dunford is stunned to learn he's inherited property, a title... and a ward bent on making his first visit to his new estate his last. Henrietta (Henry) Barrett likes her life just fine and wants nothing more than to watch Dunford crawl back to London and stay there. But Dunford is convinced he can turn this tomboy into a lady -- he just never expected to fall in love...

seribulan

O'Henry Stories...an anthology of his stories that were usually interesting but have endings dat r twisting...e.g The Gift of Magi...superb...

nhuda

semalam habis baca Hati Yang Luka - Norhayati Ibrahim

Assalamualaikum,

I am just wondering you all baca buku apa yg the latest, and komen about the book(s).

OK I go first alrite!!

1) The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger) - agak boring and buku tebal sangat! But yg best leh tahu a lot about dunia fashion

2) Blink (Malcolm Gladwell) - The power of thinking without thinking. Best sgt, it's a self help book and really change my perspective about the world and I am able to make deduction about something in an instant.

3) Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (John Gray) - Hehe a bit too late for me to read this book but I like it so much. Will be my relationship reference book.

4) Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) - A page-turner, I think it is even better than the Da Vinci Code

lady_nF

hehehe
baru abis baca blink jugak
i prefer tipping point lagik...blink cam tak convincing sangat
but good book though

limau_nipis

I will be merging this with Book Log later. Pls reply on the sticky topic of Book Log.
TQ

periwinkle..

Baru habis baca buku ni,  memang bestlah.. menghabiskan buku ni rasa macam buat jigsaw puzzle pulak.. sebab, in the end, bila every pieces dah put into place, you sit back and tengok the whole picture, then you can marvel at the beauty of the piece..

Not really a page turner macam Da Vinci Code, tapi a page turner nevertheless, sebab once you read, it's dfficult to stop, and also this book tak sesuai dibaca in small doses dan tak sesuai untuk diskip - even a paragraph, and do be patient, don't peek the ending, or you'll miss the fun.. oklah.. enough merapu, i highly recommend this book untuk sesiapa yang rasa nak memeningkan kepala, tetapi in the end tahu segala kepeningan tu sangatlah berbaloi.. i will definitely read more of her work..

Amazon review..
The Blind Assassin is a tale of two sisters, one of whom dies under ambiguous circumstances in the opening pages. The survivor, Iris Chase Griffen, initially seems a little cold-blooded about this death in the family. But as Margaret Atwood's most ambitious work unfolds--a tricky process, in fact, with several nested narratives and even an entire novel-within-a-novel--we're reminded of just how complicated the familial game of hide-and-seek can be:

What had she been thinking of as the car sailed off the bridge, then hung suspended in the afternoon sunlight, glinting like a dragonfly, for that one instant of held breath before the plummet? Of Alex, of Richard, of bad faith, of our father and his wreckage; of God, perhaps, and her fatal, triangular bargain.

Meanwhile, Atwood immediately launches into an excerpt from Laura Chase's novel, The Blind Assassin, posthumously published in 1947. In this double-decker concoction, a wealthy woman dabbles in blue-collar passion, even as her lover regales her with a series of science-fictional parables. Complicated? You bet. But the author puts all this variegation to good use, taking expert measure of our capacity for self-delusion and complicity, not to mention desolation. Almost everybody in her sprawling narrative manages to--or prefers to--overlook what's in plain sight.

And memory isn't much of a salve either, as Iris points out: "Nothing is more difficult than to understand the dead, I've found; but nothing is more dangerous than to ignore them." Yet Atwood never succumbs to postmodern cynicism, or modish contempt for her characters. On the contrary, she's capable of great tenderness, and as we immerse ourselves in Iris's spliced-in memoir, it's clear that this buttoned-up socialite has been anything but blind to the chaos surrounding her..

limau_nipis

i have finished reading it's in his kiss..
my comment, not up to the expectation, i am quiet disappointed with hyacinth's story. the bridgertons are one big family, but there is no mention on them.. except on gregory... mana suasana keluarga bridgerton? maybe JQ was too busy to think about building the chemistry between hyacinth and gareth, and the book lost grasp on being witty and fun. reading the book makes me think hyacinth is still the young hyacinth that constantly nagged her siblings..

funny how the character's behavoiur never outgrown.. and i can't see the chemistry connection between the hero and heroine. This should have been a great story, but JQ did not dwell deeply in her characters..

my rating: 3/10.. i had to force myself to read the book.



MEET OUR HERO

gorgonz

tengah baca...



best jg...chic lit

limau_nipis

catherine coulter tulis chic lit? interesting

Nara_Gaara

Baru abih baca A Brother's Journey by Robert Pelzer dan satu lagi buku dari Dave Pelzer(lupa la tajuk apa...)...
Teringin nak baca karya2 awal Dave Pelzer coz nak tahu camner dia boleh didera sebegitu rupa.

Nara_Gaara

Semalam abih baca Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama.Kisah tentang Hana yg menghidap sindrom Werner.Agak bosan,tapi aku suka watak Max,ayahnya si Hana.