book review

The Orientalist and The Ghost

2008-05-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

Book Review

One year ago, this book might not have reached the shelves. Contents include British colonialists, Communist insurgents, May 13 rioteers and the DAP. Who would’ve thought so much could happen in 365 days? But is it a ghost story, or not? While “ghost” is in the title, the ambiguity of The Orientalist and the Ghost is guaranteed to titillate, or irritate.

Here, Susan Barker delivers a Lemony-Snicketish tale of a dysfunctional British-Chinese family forged in the fires of the Malayan Emergency that crumbles as time marches on. Young Christopher Milnar is an adventurous and somewhat naïve scholar enamoured with all things Chinese who gets shipped to insurgent-era Malaya as an assistant administrator of a Chinese relocation settlement in Yong Peng, Johore. Translated, Yong Peng means “Everlasting Peace”; he would later find out that the British aren’t the only ones with a sardonic sense of humour. He gets no welcome from the locals, especially the resentful Chinese who have been separated from relatives and loved ones under the Communist insurgents.

As the harsh reality whittles down his romanticism, love and hate come in the emaciated form of Evangeline Lim, an older half-Chinese woman with whom Chris has a May-December fling. Evangeline unwillingly betrays Chris’ trust in her and ends up in court where she is sentenced to death, but not before leaving behind a daughter. Chris takes it upon himself to look after the child, named Frances, but the “Yong Peng Irony” continues as Frances becomes estranged from her “foreign devil” father and commits suicide years later, saddling Chris with her children, Adam and Julia. Like mother, like daughter.

However, this tale of woe begins with an ageing Chris being visited by phantoms of his past: his superior officer, colleagues and other memorable individuals from those heady Malayan days. The narration suggests that it’s more hallucination than haunting. I don’t blame him. He’s counting his days, and his grandchildren have inherited that psychological Great Wall of China from their grandmother’s side of the family. Plus, he’s no Jamie Oliver.

It’s not long before Chris himself crosses over, and suddenly, the grandchildren are adults. While Adam becomes a lab technician, Julia falls in with the wrong crowd and ends up a heroine junkie, too stoned to care when a letter from her mother’s old school-friend arrives, asking for a meeting. As Adam sets off to meet the sender, the rest of the Milnars’ sad tale unfolds.

I’m not a fan of non-linear plotlines, even though some stories read well when written this way. I didn’t like the way The Orientalist leaps back and forth between the present and the tumultuous Malayan days. The aged Chris Milnar narrates the beginning, but then someone else tells us that he’s dead, and Adam has the keys to his flat. A couple of chapters later, it’s good old Chris prattling on again, as if he never left. All that bouncing around gave me motion sickness.

Another gripe I had with it was the (perceived) interactivity. OK, there are plenty of clues as to why Frances became estranged from her father, but I had to dig. Surely it wasn’t simply because of her conviction that her dad betrayed her mum? What really happened when she went searching for the teacher she had a crush on in the riot-racked city? Who really was the assailant that drove a rift between Chris and Evangeline? It’s supposed to be literary fiction. If I wanted intellectual stimulation, I’d have done a Sudoku puzzle.

Storywise, it’s pretty authentic. The sounds, emotions and atmosphere of those bygone times are captured very well. In Chris’ narration, there are flashes of Shakespearean melodrama and the famous British wit; too bad his performance couldn’t save this sad tale. And the only ghosts in the book are probably in Chris Milnar’s head all along. Should I feel cheated, or not?

The Logic of Life

2008-05-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

Book Review

In The Logic of Life, Harford tackles prickly issues like prostitution, gambling, racism and crime. He couldn’t resist writing about them, he says.

“The ideas I was reading about in the latest journals, discussing with the top economists and writing about in the Financial Times, are so compelling that the decision made itself,” he says.

Economics is sometimes called “the study of scarce resources”, something Harford believes to be a narrow definition.

“But even that definition recognises that girlfriends and boyfriends are scarce, nice neighbourhoods are scarce, and positions high up the corporate ladder are scarce,” he says.

Both The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life focus on real, practical problems people face every day.

“But The Undercover Economist looks at commercial issues: how shops cleverly set their prices to get us to pay more, for example.

“The Logic of Life looks instead at social issues such as marriage and divorce, discrimination, politics and what makes cities work well or struggle,” he says.

The challenge was deciding what to leave out because there was such insight coming out from the field, and there are so many “astonishing stories and larger-than-life characters”.

“It wasn’t a challenge to write the book but a pleasure. But in the end, you can’t include everything. I left out a chapter about virtual worlds online – it’s a great subject but in the end, I felt better leaving it out of the book,” he says.

His favourite chapter is the second chapter, Las Vegas, where he visits the desert entertainment city to observe its denizens.

“I meet a poker professional called ‘Jesus’ who used economic theory to become world champion, and an economist who advised John F. Kennedy how to avoid nuclear war. The characters and the stories are amazing. But my wife tells me that it’s ‘a boy chapter’ and that the chapters on love and on office politics are better,” he says.

The subject of politics was, however, more difficult to tackle.

“The simplistic position that many economists take is that it is not rational to vote because you will not, as an individual, alter the result of an election. But that is obviously naïve and not a good description of what people do,” he says.

Harford realised that he had to be “more sophisticated and realistic”, and discovered something powerful while writing about the subject.

“It explains why we vote so much based on personalities rather than policies; it also explains why some lobby groups have lots of influence while others, equally rich, do not,” he hints enticingly.

But can everything be explained by economics?

Not really, he admits candidly. Economics can tell us about issues, but it does not tell us everything, he says.

“Economics can tell us about how coffee is priced, but not why coffee tastes good. Economics can tell us how we compete to get a husband or wife. It does not tell us why we love our partner. Economics is everywhere, but it is not everything,” he says.

A normal life

Harford has another radio series to do and he has signed a contract to write two more books.

Despite all this, he insists that his life has not changed much since the success of The Undercover Economist.

“Nothing important has changed,” he says. “My wife and I discussed the night before The Undercover Economist was published, ‘What if this book is a total failure?’ and ‘What if this book sells a million copies?’. And we decided that nothing would really change, either way.”

Harford still lives in the same two-bedroom house, for one.

“I am very lucky that I get to write books for a living and do other interesting things – make TV shows, present a radio series, travel the world – but that is not the most important thing. My home, my family, my job, hasn’t changed,” he says.

BOOK SMART

2008-05-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Book Review

BOOK SMART
By Jane Mallison
Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0071482714

THE thing about mass literacy is that it isn’t just good enough to be able to read anymore. Kids’ books, chick lit, speculative fiction, academic references, dummies’ guides – there are books for everyone, and everyone’s reading. So for the aspiring elitist within each of us, the important thing is to read well.

That’s precisely what Jane Mallison’s Book Smart helps you do. It’s basically a list of good books – good enough to show a lit professor without facing condescending laughter.

Book Smart lists 120 books split into themed sets of 10 per month over the course of a year. It’s up to you to choose one or more of them to read each month. To help you decide, Mallison gives a brief synopsis of each book, along with some historical titbits.

Mallison also gives her own opinions, and her obvious enjoyment of literature is infectious. Reading her summaries is like listening to a kindly genius aunt who’s so down-to-earth and engaging that she almost passes off as a hip older sister.

What’s especially appealing is that, apart from the classic (read: old, very old) English language titles, she also includes translations of great non-English works. She’s selected translations that are usually clear, readable, and quite unpretentious, while still retaining a musicality hopefully true to the original languages but certainly compelling in their own right.

Everyman’s economist

2008-05-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Book Review

For those who are still suffering from nightmares about Economics in school, there is a cure. And, not only is it painless, it is downright pleasurable.

WHEN I was in school, I was hopeless at Economics. You’d have better luck making me solve a complex mathematics problem than getting me to read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

“Accidental economist’ Tim Harford relishes challenging conventional wisdom. – Photo by FRANK MO

But Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist and his latest book, The Logic of Life, cured my phobia. After all, who wouldn’t want to know answers to urgent questions like, “Is divorce underrated?” or, more importantly, “Why is your boss overpaid?” Apparently, economics can be entertaining stuff.

“Economics is not just about the study of commercial transactions but about the way we make choices, especially hard choices – choices about voting, crime, alcohol or the response to racial discrimination,” London-based Harford explained via e-mail. (The very busy author typed his response during his “tenth flight in 10 days” as he toured the United States.)

The busy economist

The Undercover Economist made economics a subject everyone can relate to, not just stockbrokers and finance managers. His reader-friendly prose is full of fascinating case studies and characters, and it’s no wonder that the book has been translated into more than 25 languages and has sold above 600,000 copies worldwide.

Besides being the author of a bestseller, Harford is the economics leader writer for Britain’s Financial Times and writes two columns for the paper: the Undercover Economist and Dear Economist, a “problem page” where he uses economics to find an answer to people’s personal problems. (The strangest question he has ever received: “Should I get a bikini wax?”)

Plus, he was a presenter for the BBC show Trust Me, I’m an Economist (and is in talks to do a second TV show) and is currently presenting a BBC radio show called More or Less.

But Harford nearly didn’t become an economist. He tried philosophy but realised that he wasn’t very good at it. Then he discovered that economics was far more enjoyable because “economists will never accept the conventional wisdom”.

Despite his enthusiasm for the subject, Harford had low expectations for The Undercover Economist.

“I didn’t expect it to be published. When it was published, I told myself that if it sold 7,000 copies I would be happy. In 2008 it is likely to pass 700,000 copies,” he says, saying that he was amazed that the book became so popular.

Life and economics

On the heels of the success of Undercover Economist, comes The Logic of Life, a book he had wanted to write for several years.

“Whenever I came across a new idea, research paper, newspaper article, anything that was relevant to the book, I put it in a crate. When the crate was full I got another crate. When I was ready to write, I started by digging my way through the crates to remember my thoughts and inspirations. It was a very important part of the writing process,” he says.

Still going strong at 78

2008-04-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

Book Review

Nancy Drew’s 78th birthday – April 28, 1930! That was the publication date of The Secret of the Old Clock, the first in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series by Carolyn Keene.

Most readers know by now that Keene is as much a work of fiction as the much-loved girl sleuth. The Nancy Drew books were the brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, founder of The Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging house that also produced popular series like The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins and The Dana Girls (published by Grosset & Dunlap).

Book packagers develop the concepts and plots of books (often series) and find writers for these books, handles the editing and also the cosmetic side of producing a book, like cover design and layout.

The book or series is sold to a publisher, and the packager and the author(s) usually share the copyright of the work.

(Currently, the most famous book packager in the business is Alloy Entertainment, responsible for series like Gossip Girl, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The A-List. Alloy, by the way, started life as 17th Street Productions in 1987 and produced the Sweet Valley High series.)

But back to Nancy Drew and The Stratemeyer Syndicate. I had only a sketchy idea of how the series was created and written until I happened upon Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her, by Melanie Rehak. This is a absorbing book for anyone who grew up admiring the girl detective and wishing that their lives were as thrilling as hers.

My third sister introduced me to Nancy Drew with The Clue in the Old Stagecoach. The copy we had was a hardback with a picture cover, published in 1960, seven years before I was born.

By then, the series had been revised a few times and the books, as well as Nancy herself, undergone several makeovers. Her hairstyle and wardrobe continued to be updated every decade or so, to suit new generations of readers.

The text of the books were also revised. Later books (from volumes 35 to 56) were shorter than the first 34, with fewer descriptive passages, the plots and characters less developed. However, in 1959, volumes one to 34 were also edited and shortened.

Content was also changed - for example, in The Secret of Shadow Ranch (volume five, published in 1931), Nancy’s friend George Fayne explained that her parents did not think they would have a son and named her after her grandfather.

But in The Clue in the Old Stagecoach, George declares that her name is short for Georgia. Accordingly, her explanation about her name has been removed from current editions of Stagecoach. Sadly I have never read any of the pre-revision editions of the books.

Twenty-three of the 64 original Nancy Drew Mystery Series books were written by Mildred Wirt Benson, hired by The Stratemeyer Syndicate to flesh out plotlines devised by Edward Stratmeyer and, later, his daughter Harriet.

Walter Karig and other writers wrote several books in the series, while the rest were the work of Harriet Stratemeyer who, when it was first revealed that Carolyn Keene did not exist, claimed that she wrote all the books.

According to Nancy Drew experts, there are distinct differences between Benson’s Nancy and Harriet Stratmeyer’s version. In a 1999 salon.com interview with Benson (who died in 2002), she said, “She (Harriet) made her (Nancy) into a traditional sort of a heroine. More of a house type. And in her day, that is what I had specifically gotten away from. She (Nancy) was ahead of her time. She was not typical. She was what the girls were ready for and were aspiring for, but had not achieved.”

In the late 70s, The Stratemeyer Syndicate sold the rights to future Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins titles to Simon & Schuster.

Grosset & Dunlap retaliated by filing a lawsuit for copyright infringement and breach of contract. However, all it got was the rights to publish the hardcover versions of pre-1979 Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys and Dana Girls books, which is why bookstores now stock Nancy Drews with glossy yellow hardback covers featuring art from the 1970s edition of the series. Each copy costs RM13.90 – a steal really, but as there are 64 titles, it’ll still cost you to get the entire set.

Daphne Lee has a huge book collection that goes back more than 30 years and is still growing. Her dream is to own a bookstore and write good children’s books. Send e-mails to the above address and check out her blog at daphne.blogs.com/books.

The Secret of Chimneys

2008-04-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Book Review

The Secret of Chimneys
(ISBN: 978-0007250592)

Anthony Cade never suspected that a simple errand for a friend would embroil him in a deadly international conspiracy involving the monarchy, Scotland Yard and the French Sûreté. This is one of the few titles not featuring either of Christie’s more famous detectives.

Book Review - Worlds of Wonder

2008-04-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Book Review

Worlds of Wonder by Kaleon Rahan

Lone Ranger and Tonto # 1 (Dynamite)(US$4.99)

Writers: Brett Matthews & John Abrams

Artist: Mario Guevara

ORIGINALLY conceptualised as a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, who fights injustices with the aid of an American Indian sidekick named Tonto, the Lone Ranger made his radio debut on Jan 30, 1933. Lasting 2956 episodes, its impact is significant, making “Hi-yo Silver, away!” a household phrase and setting a benchmark for Western/cowboy-based comics.

From a novel-based approach in 1936, followed by newspaper comic strips, it was only in 1948 when Dell Comics published the first full-fledged Lone Ranger adventures in comic book format. Lasting 145 issues and mainly consisting of reprints from the newspaper strips, the adventures continued under the Gold Key imprint in 1962. However Gold Key’s demise in 1977 pushed the Lone Ranger into limbo. Various start-stop attempts (by Hemmets Journal AB and Topps Comics) failed to resuscitate interest in the classic character.

In today’s environment, with cosmic powers and technology much cooler than silver bullets, there is little reason to idolise a gun slinging masked man ... unless he’s a mutant or has cyborg implants. Here’s where Dynamite Entertainment makes a point to never underestimate the power of nostalgia. The company’s first attempt at re-packaging the Lone Ranger for a 21st century audience was met with great success – as its originally planned six-parter ended up as a regular series and buoyed by multiple printings of the first four issues. The icing on the cake came in the form of The Lone Ranger receiving an Eisner Awards nomination for 2007’s best new series, despite the backlash received from classic Lone Ranger fans for its graphic depictions of violence.

With cowboys back on the comic fan’s radar, Dynamite is hard pressed to maintain the regular series’ sterling run as well as induct new readers. Here’s where this week’s Lone Ranger and Tonto one-shot comes to mind.

Functioning as an entry point, this 32-page special sports a John Cassaday cover and also a story about a ruthless killer that our heroic pair unwittingly unleashed on a peace loving community. If you have watched those Lone Ranger TV reruns or listened to the radio episodes, the mood here is similar.

Buy this for nostalgia-sake or for someone who enjoys the Wild West adventures.

The Mystery of the Blue Train

2008-03-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Book Review

The Mystery of the Blue Train
(ISBN: 978-0007250608)

Poirot is on a train again – and you know what that means – murder and mayhem! This time, a passenger has been killed by a blow so powerful that it has disfigured her beyond recognition. When everyone jumps to the obvious conclusion that the estranged husband did it, our devious detective is not convinced. But the only way he can catch the killer is to stage an eerie re-enactment of the journey.

The Murder on the Links

2008-03-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Book Review

The Murder on the Links
(ISBN: 978-0007250578)

An urgent plea for help from a client takes Poirot to France, but he arrives too late – he finds his client brutally stabbed and lying in a shallow grave on a golf course. Then a second victim turn ups, murdered in the same way ...

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

2008-03-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Book Review

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
(ISBN: 978-0007250615)

Roger Ackroyd has secrets: the woman he loves poisoned her cruel first husband. He suspects someone is blackmailing her, but before he can act, she kills herself ... but Ackroyd’s fate is no better. He ends up stabbed to death and become’s Poirot’s latest case.

The Man in the Brown Suit

2008-03-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

Book Review

The Man in the Brown Suit
(ISBN: 978-0007250622)

Anne witnesses a thin man, reeking of mothballs, losing his balance on the platform at Hyde Park Corner station and then electrocuted on the rails. Scotland Yard pronounces his death an accident, but Anne is not satisfied. Who was the mysterious man in the brown suit who examined the body before running off? Follow Anne on an international hunt to find out.

Murder on the Orient Express

2008-03-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Book Review

Murder on the Orient Express
(ISBN: 978-0007246588)

A snowstorm halts the luxurious Orient Express in its tracks in the middle of nowhere. Trapped on board is an interesting assortment of passengers – along with a murderer. An American tycoon has been found dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times and it is up to the Belgian detective to find the killer before he or she escapes or, worse, strikes again.

WHY MARS AND VENUS COLLIDE

2008-02-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Book Review

The latest from ‘Mars-Venus’ relationship guru John Gray offers profound and practical ways and means to reduce relationship stress.

WHY MARS AND VENUS COLLIDE
By John Gray
Publisher: HarperElement, 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0007247455

HE says: “There is always something that I haven’t done.” “She wants everything done right now. Why can’t she just relax?” “When I offer to help, she always finds something wrong in my suggestions. Why bother?”

She says: “We both go to work. When we get home, why doesn’t he pitch in and help more?” “He sits in front of the TV while I do everything. I am not his personal maid.” “When I try to talk to him, he is either distracted or he continues to interrupt with solutions.”

Sound familiar? Then read on.

Why Mars and Venus Collide, the latest in a long line of best-selling books from the Mars Venus series (15 in total, to date) written by John Gray, PhD. There is a Mars Venus book for every aspect of your relationship, from compatibility to communication and commitment to maintaining a good connection.

You must be from another planet if you have not heard of Gray and his Mars Venus universe. Fifty million of his books have been sold in 40 different languages. He has also diversified into wellness centres, Nutritional Super Cleanse products, MarsVenus Dating.com and MarsVenus Coaching.

In his 20s, Gray was personal assistant to transcendental meditation guru to the stars, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and was a Hindu monk for nine years. He was living as a monk in Switzerland when his bipolar brother committed suicide. This event led to Gray returning to the United States to earn a doctorate in psychology. His theories are based on his work as a certified family counsellor. Aged 56, he has been on Oprah 16 times, is married to Bonnie, 57, his second wife of 22 years. They have three children. His dad sold nutritional products and his mother ran a spiritual bookstore.

The Mars-Venus metaphor was first conceived in 1983 when Steven Spielberg’s E.T. was the big movie. Gray happened to say in a talk, “Imagine if your husband were E.T. You wouldn’t be correcting his behaviour. You’d be studying him. He thinks differently. He feels differently. Treat him like he’s from another planet.”

Everybody loved it. Someone later asked, “What planet are men from?” He thought, “What planet would I want to be from? Mars. We (men) are warriors, protectors. What planet are women from? Venus.” Using this metaphor to illustrate the commonly occurring conflicts between men and women, Gray’s interplanetary gospel cleverly avoids allegations of gender stereotyping.

Gray notes that, “Over the last 50 years, life has become more complicated. And in spite of the new technologies designed to connect us, our communication has been reduced to the equivalent of text messaging. We are often stretched to the limit with little energy for our personal lives and are often left with a sense of isolation and exhaustion at home.”

Why Mars and Venus Collide is based on the premise that stress predisposes us to be hypersensitive and defensive. The fact that men and women cope with stress differently is at the root of our conflicts.

The most interesting insight his new book provides is the central concept that in order for men and women to understand and appreciate each other, they must first accept that they are hardwired to be different. Being equals does not mean we are the same.

However, understanding the biological reasons for the different ways we perceive and behave in the world enables us to be realistic about what to expect from our partners and to be more tolerant. Without this understanding, men and women are adjusting their actions and reactions to no avail. Women expect men to react and behave the way women do, while men continue to misunderstand what women really need.

In the past, there was “men’s work” and “women’s work”. The lines have been blurred as women now work outside the home. However, “in our collective fantasy of an ideal relationship, men still want to return home to a happy partner who has prepared dinner in their magazine perfect home.”

Women feel that if “she” is now doing traditional “men’s work”, then “he” should do traditional “women’s work” too. In fact, “women today are so tired and stressed, they too want a happy, loving and supportive ‘wife’ to greet them at home” while most men, to some degree, “want their partners to be the domestic divas their mothers were”.

In a Martian’s world, rest and relaxation come before routine duties. Testosterone is usually generated by both genders in situations involving goal setting, risk, danger, dominance etc, ie in a typical “work” environment. However, testosterone also stimulates stress reduction in men; but by the day’s end, his testosterone levels are depleted. With low testosterone, he is less able to deal effectively with stress and becomes moody and grumpy. A switch turns off in his brain and his body must rebuild testosterone by taking a nap or doing simple, entertaining activities like watching TV or reading a newspaper.

Women do not instinctively understand this need, and often think their husbands are lazy when in fact they have a biological imperative to rest.

Similarly, oxytocin, the “cuddle hormone”, stimulates stress reduction in women. Too much testosterone (built up at work) in women can lower oxytocin’s effectiveness. Hence, when a woman returns home, her stress levels go up as she is starved of oxytocin. Under stress, women feel the pressure of a never ending “to do” list and need to talk. Oxytocin only increases when women bond through social contact as well as caring, sharing, and nurturing activities (eg, going for a massage, getting a haircut, shopping). Oxytocin decreases when a woman feels alone, ignored, rejected, unsupported, or insignificant.

In short, women now need more of their partners’ time and support just at the time men are running out of energy. Consequently, they both have less to give – causing Mars and Venus to collide.

Why Mars and Venus Collide gives men and women many good tips on how to phrase things better. You may laugh out loud reading the author’s analogies (eg: “Men shopping with their partners may feel exhausted as if they are wandering in the desert”). Perhaps the most surprising advice is for women to talk over problems with female friends before presenting it objectively to their men. We cannot get all of our needs from the person in bed with us, as it is an impossible burden.

When tension arises, we should take a “time-out”. To restore harmony after a time-out, we can schedule Venus Talks and Mars Meetings. A Venus Talk allows a woman to discuss her feelings without any problem-solving attempts. A Mars Meeting is strictly for problem solving.

Another therapeutic solution is to write yourself a letter saying the words you need to hear to feel better; and then write what you would say in response.

There are a few cheesy clichés as well as chunks suspiciously similar to Gray’s other books, but this offering, written in plain English, provided many profound and practical points. It was a refreshing and fun read. It also harnesses well the typical self-help strategy of repeating and summarising lessons with catchy one-liners so that key points stick.

What I like best is that the book can give people some real insight and relief. By updating our skills, our relationships can be a solution to help lower stress rather than being another source of stress. The two celestial bodies can then come into closer orbit with each other and enjoy some close encounters of the heavenly kind.

The Big Four

2008-02-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

Book Review

The Big Four
(ISBN: 978-0007250653)

One day Poirot finds an uninvited guest standing at the doorway of his bedroom. The man, gaunt and dishevelled, stares at him ... then falls unconscious. Who is he? And why does he have the number 4 scribbled on a sheet of paper over and over again. In his quest for the truth, Poirot finds himself in the middle of an international intrigue, his life at risk.

Death on the Nile

2008-02-25T12:18:00.000-08:00

Book Review

Death on the Nile
(ISBN: 978-0007250585)

A cruise on the river Nile in Egypt is rudely disrupted by the discovery of Linnet Ridgeway’s body. The beautiful young girl has been shot through the head – and, intriguingly, Poirot had earlier overheard, though not seen, a fellow passenger say the damning words, “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger”...

NO RESERVATIONS:Around the World On An Empty Stomach

2008-02-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

Book Review

NO RESERVATIONS:Around the World On An Empty Stomach

By Anthony Bourdain

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 288 pages

ISBN: 978-0747594123

WHEN I managed to get my hands on an unwrapped copy, I eagerly went through the pages. Why were they so thick, I wondered. Then, as I encountered page after page after page of pictures, I understood. It didn’t help my disappointment, though.

Why, Tony, why? I mean, you used to ... write! You know, making words with a pen or word processor? What’s with this glossy Technicolor travel scrapbook? You don’t even cook anymore! What went wrong?

To the uninitiated, “Tony” is Anthony Bourdain, that acerbic, trash-talking chef who made a splash in the entertainment biz with his book Kitchen Confidential.

He’s currently the host of the travel/food show No Reservations, who has traded his sauté pan for a word processor, occasionally writing articles for food-related publications in between his travels and appearances on other food-related shows.

His latest book, No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach, is a collection of snapshots from the series of the same name.

Many of the pictures have appeared on the show’s web site; the article on his Beirut show (rudely interrupted by the Hizbollah-triggered Israeli invasion of Lebanon) was published earlier on salon.com. It is a departure from his previous works, which he acknowledges and apologises for.

Sorry, Tony. It’ll be a while before I can forgive you.

We are introduced to the members of the filming crew, before being taken on a whirlwind tour of the best and worst places of the series. There’s even a list of addresses, which includes “The Place Under The Big Tree” (a steamed fish head eatery in Sungai Besi).

Rounding up all that is a travel tip section, food pictures, and a list of essentials for the typical travel show host.

Even though light on words, the commentary still retains its edge. The placement of some pictures also hint at the darker side of his personality.

In one photo he’s holding a piglet with a strange smile on his face and a gleam in his eye. On the opposite page is a breakfast platter with eggs, sausage and bacon. “No piglets were harmed in this production.” Yeah, right.

Another example of his wit is a helpful tip on finding the absolutely best place for your favourite food: start a flame war in a food forum.

Local fans would be pleased to know Bourdain has nothing but nice words for Malaysia (in addition to neighbouring Indonesia and Singapore).

The Malaysian episode of No Reservations, he enthuses, was among the nicest in the series. He also has nothing but praise for the durian. Who could hate a gwailo like that?

That being said, he is neither shy nor evasive about the things and places he doesn’t like. Uzbekistan wasn’t particularly pleasant while Iceland was boring. Then there was this one nasty meal he had in Namibia. Graphic examples of hazards encountered while filming (mosquito bites and mysterious welts) have a section of their own, as well as a small sample of bathrooms he and his crew have visited.

For those who appreciate the kind of writing Anthony Bourdain does, this book is a disappointment – at first, anyway. The pictures are nice, as are the captions, commentaries and whatever writing is available.

But, somehow, it still feels ... incomplete. He has voiced his doubts (in another book) about his ability to translate the beauty and sensory wonders he’s experienced into words.

No Reservations (the book and the series) feels more like a personal project than a profit-making venture. For all his bluster, sarcasm and profligate use of the f-word, Bourdain’s a pretty honest, friendly and sentimental guy.

And, of course, he loves food, and the people who make it. He may have left the kitchen, but his heart’s still there.

Never mind that half the material has already been published. If anything, it gives a much clearer picture of Bourdain and his new life’s mission.

So clear in fact, a friend of mine actually felt inspired to follow in his footsteps. Looking at a picture of Bourdain, smiling beatifically with the ruins of Machu Picchu behind him, I couldn’t blame her. He looks like he’s having the time of his life.

A COMPANY OF PLANTERS

2008-02-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

Book Review

A COMPANY OF PLANTERS

By John Dodd

Publisher: Monsoon Books, 336 pages

ISBN: 978-9810575694

IT’S such a shame that A Company of Planters failed to plant any sentiment in this reviewer. I’ve recently embarked on a new writing project, and having enjoyed memoirs such as Tales From The South China Seas by Charles Allen and Michael Mason, I was expecting a rollicking good read about young and old English planters who worked and settled in pre-independence Malaya.

John Dodd was a young, and eager planter who came to Malaya in 1950s. His adventures and musings were captured in his diary, and letters to family and from friends provide the reader a picture of an engaging past.

Dodd, like his other planter friends, sought more than just increasing rubber output; there was time to drink, chase women and observe the local culture. Being a planter then was not all one romantic adventure, though – they had to cope with Communists living in the jungles, strikes, riots, etc.

All in all, the book promised the reviewer a glimpse of her nation when it was a mere “baby”, but somehow failed to enrapture her.

Writing a memoir is not easy. There’s the argument that perhaps one’s nostalgia and memory of a time long gone isn’t that precious to a reader and historian.

Like fiction, memoirs need to tell a story. True, memoirs are about facts, or rather the writer’s version of the truth, but at the end of the day, to get a reader to be hooked on a writer’s history, there must be a story.

Perhaps it is because the book is written in diary form and published letters. If the initial intention is to grab the reader into the writer’s world, somehow the format of Planters disengages the reader.

What makes a great memoir? Allow me to quote fellow writer and editor, Eric Forbes, “A successful memoir brings about an intimacy or affinity between two perfect strangers: the reader and the memoirist.” Planters did not have that intimacy.

For sure, the tales about getting drunk, local “comfort women” and Dodd’s eye on local and expatriate culture were interesting. They were funny, intriguing and sharp. But after a while, everything seemed repetitive.

A superb diarist or memoirist would be Anais Nin. Her infamous diaries may seem self-indulgent and rather obsessed with self-analysis and psychiatric analyses, but they truly pinned down the essence of 1940s Paris and America.

She was a writer who saw herself as a subject that needed to be deconstructed and understood, and in between segments of her trying to understand her relationships with the men around her, she would also write about discourses about war, politics, culture, sex, nothing was taboo.

The reader wants to be there with her, and experience it all. Likewise with Charles Allen’s Tales From The South China Seas.

A grand social history in print, Allen takes the reader back into an exotic and dangerous time of British Governors and expatriates, living in the region. There are laugh-out loud moments with surprised tigers in jungles and romantic romps in sweltering heat. It is a book the reader will read again and again.

Mind you, Dodd’s book is not a total write-off. He has a keen eye, and isn’t a condescending writer. His memoir would have benefited greatly from the energy of an editor who would have turned the book into a must-read.

Orang -Utans -Primate in peril

2008-02-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

Book Review

A new book highlights the beauty and plight of the red ape.

ORANG utans are said to be man’s closest relatives genetically, but our knowledge of them could be rather limited save for those who take wildlife documentaries seriously.

Furthermore, the educational content in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, where most people have their first encounter with an orang utan, is dismal.

Human baby-sitters and orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng rescue centre in Central Kalimantan. Orang utans are increasingly faced with disturbed forests and scarcity of food.

So a book covering every aspect of the primate that is found only in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo is a welcome sight on bookstore shelves.

In Orang-utans: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, the latest collaboration between New Holland Publisher and World Wide Fund for Nature, the threatened species and its life stories are told in plain language and stunning pictures.

Author Junaidi Payne is no stranger in the conservation circle of this region, having spent a significant part of his career as WWF-Malaysia conservation biologist in Sabah, and with numerous nature-related publications to his name.

Together with Filipino Cede Prudente, an accomplished nature photographer who has also made Sabah his base for the longest time, the duo deftly illustrates issues concerning orang utans.

The biology, evolution, behaviour, distribution and population densities of the red ape, so regarded after its hair colours which range from light orange to dark brown, are amply discussed.

One piece of new knowledge which I gained from the book is the intriguing phenomenon called bimaturism among male orang utans. It seems that only one adult male in a particular locality will develop full, massive body size with cheek flanges. Other sexually mature males in the vicinity will remain in a less-developed form until the big male dies or disappears.

The chapter on evolution, history and links to human, as the author suggests, “will force us to reflect on what exactly are the unique features of humans with ethical and theological implications.” This chapter also deals with man’s fascination with orang utans, manifested in numerous myths and folklores. These make for a fascinating read.

Another interesting chapter tackles the ethical debate of keeping the ape in captivity. Here, Payne opined that “zoos help provide new information on the species and are not a drain on wild populations.” He argued that many zoos contribute towards conservation of the species in the wild. The Frankfurt Zoological Society, for instance, plays a huge role in rehabilitation of the Sumatran orang utan (Pongo abelii).

A significant number of pages are fittingly dedicated to the home of this creature – the equatorial rainforest. Under the deceptive green and brown canopy expanse that gives an illusion of monotonous and homogeneous vegetation, the prime habitat of the orang utan actually varies from peat swamp to freshwater swamp forests, riparian forests and lowland dipterocarp forests.

Payne noted that two small and highly endangered remnant populations of orang utan exist in the mountainous Kinabalu Park and Crocker Range Park. They are assumed, for the time being, as belonging to the sub-species Pongo pygmaeus morio, occurring more abundantly in the lowlands and swamps of eastern Sabah.

And there is the almost extinct population in the patchy heath forest (kerangas) east of Barito River in south-eastern Central Kalimantan, which has never been investigated scientifically.

Far more important and relevant, however, is the attention given to the issues of shrinking habitat, displacement and the future of rescue centres. Digging into his knowledge of the politics of forestry, Payne boldly told a story of wanton deforestation and multiple threats. Orang utans are increasingly faced with disturbed forests – logged, burnt and replaced with alien species like oil palm and fast-growing trees – and scarcity of food.

Being fruit-eating specialists that reproduce slowly and yet able to tolerate extreme privation, but living for years in degraded or infertile land, Payne warned that “wild populations could reach a tipping point whereby chronic poor nutrition, stress and a subtle trend of increasing mortality may combine to cause rapid local extinction.”

The final chapter aptly raises the question: What can be done? Payne reckoned that a conceptual marriage is needed, between making degraded forests economically valuable again as well as retaining and restoring orang utan habitats.

For people who are moved by the plight of the orang utan, Payne suggested that they write letters to key people or institutions as “repeated constructive engagement, again and again, may achieve results.”

For those eager to catch a glimpse of the creature in the wild, the book has a list of places for that, as Payne believes eco-tourism can be a considerable force for conservation.

Priced at RM150, the book is available at major bookstores.

Daddy’s Little Girl

2008-02-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Book Review

Daddy’s Little Girl
Author: Julia Latchem-Smith
Publisher: Headline Review, 304 pages

THE author’s father started sexually abusing her when she was eight and continued until she was 13. Julia was terrified that revealing the truth would tear her family apart. Most of all, she was terrified of what it would do to her mother whose obsessive compulsive tendencies caused her to neglect Julia.

Indeed, when Julia finally found the courage to speak up about the abuse, her mother urged her to retract her statements. But years later, her father confessed, was charged and sentenced to eight years in prison. Now, although estranged from her mother and brother, Julia is a wife and mother and able to rebuild her life and look to the future with hope.

Tuk-Tuk to the Road

2008-02-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Book Review

Tuk-Tuk to the Road
Authors: A. Bolingbroke-Kent and Joanna Huxster
Publisher: The Friday Project Limited, 288 pages

TWO British girls travel in a tuk-tuk (Bangkok’s infamous three-wheeled taxi) from the Thai capital to ... Brighton, England! Best friends Jo Huxter and Ants Bolingbroke-Kent embarked on their adventure to raise funds for Mind, the mental health charity.

The pair crossed two continents and 12 countries, and braved earthquakes, traffic jams, curious locals and overly-friendly policemen, proving that with a little bit of determination and lots of good humour, everything and anything is possible.

Mother’s Ruin

2008-02-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

Book Review

Mother’s Ruin
Author: Nicola Barry
Publisher: Headline Review, 256 pages

NICOLA Barry’s mother, Monica, was a trained medic and the wife of a consultant anaesthetist. A beautiful, bright woman with three children, Monica led a secret life behind closed doors, drinking herself unconscious, transforming herself from a beauty to a wizened old lady.

Nicola suffered the most – forced to play nursemaid while her brothers were away at public school, she grew to both love and hate her mother. Deprived of care and love from Monica, who drank herself to death, Nicola also has her own struggle with alcohol. However, determined to avoid the same end as her mother, she manages to overcome her addiction and emerges a survivor.

Beyond Ugly

2008-02-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Beyond Ugly
Author: Constance Briscoe
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 238 pages

IN Ugly, Constance Briscoe described a childhood spent being beaten, starved and verbally abused by her own mother. Beyond Ugly continues Briscoe’s story, in particular exploring how Briscoe was deeply affected by her mother’s constant derogatory comments about her looks.

Although Briscoe is a brilliant student and is resourceful enough to put herself through university, she is unable to accept that she is ugly and her part-time jobs also finance plastic surgery. Nevertheless, she earns her law degree and is offered a place in prestigious chambers. Unfortunately, she does not receive the support she craves there, and so her struggle to find love and acceptance continues.

THE CRUELLEST MONTH

2008-02-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

By Louise Penny
Publisher: McArthur & Company, 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0755328956

I LAUGHED aloud while I was reading this book over lunch in the staff canteen. A colleague passing by asked what was so funny and flipped the book over to look at the cover. He became silent, gave me a strange look, and muttered something about strange taste before walking off.

I was nonplussed at first, and then I had to laugh again when I studied the cover thoroughly for the first time.

As you can see, it says The Cruellest Month, and “Murder, an attractive detective and terrific atmosphere”, as well as “Winner of the CWA New Blood Dagger”.

And all these dire-sounding words are set against a creepy looking red-washed image. My colleague must have been wondering what I could possibly find to laugh about in such a book.

But that’s the thing about Canadian author Louise Penny’s books: murder mysteries they may be but they can still bring at least a smile to your face, if not an outright laugh from your throat.

It’s all down to her characters. They are wonderfully drawn, fully rounded people with complications, idiosyncrasies and phobias, all of which lend themselves to some hilarious situations and great lines.

The good Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté (police force) in Québec’s largest city, Montreal, might be the putative hero but he’s just one figure in a wholly engrossing cast.

In fact, he doesn’t even appear until chapter nine; Penny has no qualms at all about not referring to her main character until it is logical for him to appear, after a murder has been committed. She has a whole village full of people to introduce to the reader first and she does so entertainingly in the first eight chapters.

This, of course, brings Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries to mind. Remember that prim and proper Englishwoman who seemed to live in the middle of a constant crime wave despite spending most of her life in Britain’s villages? I’ve only recently discovered Penny and haven’t read her other books yet; I wonder if she’s better than Christie in plausibly setting crime after crime in one small village?

Where Penny differs greatly from Christie is in the treatment of her characters – Penny is nowhere near as genteel as Christie. She puts most of her main characters through the mill, from Armand Gamache and the murdered woman (who has a spectacularly spooky death scene!) to the other main voice that shares the book with Gamache, that of Clara Morrow, an artist and relatively recent addition with her painter husband to the arty Three Pines community.

I was very taken by both Armand and Clara; both suffer greatly in the course of this tale but remain graceful throughout.

Armand is a little too graceful, perhaps, at first, as the book’s second, parallel plot involving conspiracy and corruption at the highest levels in the Sûreté unfolds – I find him irritatingly cryptic and saint-like at one point!

But as his family comes under attack and he hangs on to his temper and his career with his fingernails, he becomes much more human.

Clara’s test comes not from outside her family but from within; from her husband, in fact, who she calls the “other half of my soul”.

The episode in which her husband, the well-known “great artiste”, is confronted with Clara’s blooming talent and realises he is jealous had me squirming in discomfort, as it is so searingly painful for not only the husband but, later, Clara as well – and me, the onlooker. It really left a rank taste in the mouth.

This powerful scene, by the way, has no connection with the crime. Well, perhaps only peripherally, when a link is made with the crime at the end of the story.

Sometimes, I even forgot about the crime as I was drawn into the minutiae of these characters’ lives. Even the cops who travel from Montreal to be on Armand’s investigative team at Three Pines are all so interesting!

That, perhaps, is one weakness in The Cruellest Month: the characters, even the village itself, almost seem to overwhelm what is supposedly the main point of a murder mystery, the crime and its solution.

In fact, I felt the solution – revealed in typical Hercule Poirot style by gathering all the suspects at the crime scene – was not handled very well.

Underlining the importance Penny places in creating believable characters, in the end, the solution to the mystery also revolves around a character study. Even the parallel plot of police corruption boils down to the characters and their relationships.

Penny has said that, in Armand Gamache, she created a “nice” protagonist because she plans on living with him for many years to come.

Well, I say, excellent! Forget the crimes, let’s have more on these wonderful people. Well, okay, we can’t exactly forget the crimes, they are after all the novels’ raison d’etre. But I’m going to be anxiously following developments on Armand and Clara and her husband in Penny’s next book rather than wondering who the killer is.

The Learning Annex Presents Feng Shui

2008-01-31T09:12:00.000-08:00

Title: The Learning Annex Presents Feng Shui
Author: Meihwa Lin
Publisher: Wiley Publishing

Intrigued by the art of feng shui, but confused over just how to make it work for you? Then this book is a godsend, providing you with the tools and knowledge needed to create spaces that will enhance and improve your life.

Meant to be digested over a single evening (which is the way The Learning Annex series is intended to be read), this is one of the simplest guides to feng shui I've come across in recent times.

The layout is very reader-friendly, and writing by Meihwa Lin, an accomplished feng shui practitioner, teacher and mentor, is clear and concise.

The book is designed in a "seminar in print" style, and divided in lessons, of which there are 12 in all.

Each lesson can be completed in 15 minutes, and there are also tips in the form of notes from the instructor, and student experiences.

There's also plenty of diagrams and charts to help you along, especially in the positioning of furniture to allow the flow of good chi through the room.

Each lesson ends with a few questions that test your understanding of the chapter, and extensive appendices to guide you through other, related topics. Ideal for beginners.

What Teens Need To Succeed

2008-01-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Title: What Teens Need To Succeed
Authors: Peter L. Benson, Judy Galbraith and Pamela Espeland
Publisher: free spirit Publishing

Teenagers generally have the power to shape their future, change their lives for the better and make a difference in the lives of people around them. And this book teaches readers how.

Open this self-help book anywhere to learn about assets and how to build them. When speaking of assets, bear in mind they are not of the financial sort.

What's meant here are development assets -- good things that teenagers need in their lives and in themselves.

These assets, which can get you where you want to go, include a loving and supportive family, a neighbourhood where people care for one another, a school where everyone is safe and free to learn, self-esteem, creativity, integrity, conflict resolution skills and a sense of purpose.

According to this book, it is essential to build assets as they form a strong foundation for your life and positively influence your choices and actions, protecting from risky behaviour and building a person that people look up to, trust and respect.

In What Teens Need to Succeed, readers can find more than 1,200 ideas for building assets, more than 120 true stories of asset-building, hundreds of facts, lists of things to try, checklists and quizzes.

This book is intended as a collection of advice on various topics. Some will help readers get things they want or need, while others may be a description of things they already possess.

Office Feng Shui -- Creating Harmony in Your Work Space

2008-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Title: Office Feng Shui -- Creating Harmony in Your Work Space
Author: Darrin Zeer
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC

A compact miniature book on one of the popular topics of our times -- feng shui. And it's a practical guide to creating harmony in the office too.

Best-selling author Darrin Zeer (his other works include Office Yoga and Office Spa) who is a relaxation consultant for corporations, takes the ancient wisdom of feng shui and updates it for contemporary application at the workplace.

There are more than 50 techniques outlined here with cute and interesting illustrations provided by Frank Montagna for effect -- to help increase efficiency, productivity and of course, harmony -- whether your space is an office, a cubicle, or at home.

For those who travel a lot, there are some helpful tips in the chapter, Feng Shui on the Go.

Easy to understand and presented in a compact booklet format, Office Feng Shui is a useful tool to regain composure and peace of mind in the workplace, with just a few rearrangements and some placement of auspicious objects.

Model Business Letters, E-mails & Other Business Documents

2008-01-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Writing the right way

COMMUNICATION expert, speaker and author Shirley Taylor gives her views on modern-day correspondence and its pitfalls

What motivates you to write so many books?
I guess one led to another and another. The reason I decided to write in the first place is because when I was teaching in Singapore in the 80s, there weren't any good books on business communication to use as a class textbook -- hence my first book Communication for Business, which I'm happy to say is now in its third edition.

I am presently in the process of revising this book so if anyone has any comments, please write to me at news@shirleytaylor.com.

Model Business Letters, E-mails & Other Business Documents is now in its 6th edition -- this was just published in November 2003 and it's already sold more than 10,000 copies. This book is an evergreen -- written originally by Leonard Gartside in 1971, I was asked to revise it after he died.

A mammoth story

2008-01-27T09:05:00.000-08:00

Title: Oscar and Arabella -- Hot, Hot, Hot
Author: Neal Layton
Publisher: Hodder Children's Book

Smarties Book Prize Winner, Neal Layton has managed to present the story of Oscar and Arabella, both woolly mammoths that lived during the Ice Age, with an interesting storyline.

They both enjoy the winter season but hate summer because of the heat and dust and insect attacks.

One summer, it's exceptionally hot and both Oscar and Arabella try all efforts to stay cool, but without much success. They even have a hair cut!

Their new look seems to inspire the other animals -- they, too, decide to do the same. For a while, the animals manage to stay cool until the hot summer is over.

By the time winter arrives, the animals grow back their woolly coats.

At the end of the book, there is a short brief on the Ice Age for the benefit of the readers. But Layton has one confession to make, though. She made up that bit about the combs, mirrors and scissors!

An educational and amusing bedtime story for kids.

Celebrity Sells

2008-01-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Title: Celebrity Sells
Author: Hamish Pringle
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Pop quiz. Do you think celebrity endorsements sell? Does the sight of David Beckham kicking a football to unlock a crate of Pepsi make you want to chug down a sixpack?

Would you rush out to get a new shade of lipstick, just because Halle Berry was seen wearing it? Actually, whether you answered yes or no is immaterial. The evidence is in -- celebrity sells!

Hamish Pringle's fascinating study reveals just how "celebrity sells" and is an essential read for those in the media, advertising and marketing line.

He gives plenty of examples of celebrity selling at work, new insights, costs to brands, plus interviews with top creative talents such as Peter Souter, David Abbott and John Hegarty.

Everything you need to know about using celebrities for endorsements is covered here. Brilliant!

Singled Out

2008-01-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Title: Singled Out
Author: Trisha Ashley
Publisher: Piatkus

You so want a happy ending for 44-year-old single horror writer Cassandra "Cassie" Leigh.

With kooky religious despot parents who call her spawn of the devil and a jerk of a long-time (married) lover, she tugs at your heartstrings as she goes through life seeking to belong.

However, things seem to head in the right direction when long-time lover's wife Max finally kicks the bucket and Cassandra realises that she doesn't want anything to do with him.

Meanwhile, old friend Jason has developed a crush on her and the owner of a spooky mansion, Dante Chase, is pursuing her with all intentions of getting her.

Who Cassie chooses and how she finally gets around to overcoming her childhood trauma at the hands of her horrible parents makes for good reading. Cassie is likeable and you'll want to cheer her on.

Girl Meets Ape

2008-01-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

Title: Girl Meets Ape
Author: Chris Manby
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

DR Jennifer Neiderhauser becomes the head of the chimpanzee project at the impoverished Prowdes Animal Sanctuary.

She not only has to put up with the staff who hate her rigid style of working but the growing attraction towards head keeper Guy Gibson, who moonlights as a male stripper.

To make things even complicated, her ex-lover, the pompous Dr Timothy Lauder, is brought in by a TV production crew to do a story on Prowdes.

The book starts off well and you actually get rather fond of egghead Jennifer. The book has its funny moments and the best is saved towards the end.

Having it all ... and making it work

2008-01-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Author: D. Quinn Mills with Sasha K. Mattu and Kirstin R. Hornby
Publisher: Pearson/Prentice Hall

THE title of the book is exactly what it says and the author together with his co-authors share with the readers a six-step plan that aims to help them stay on course with the things that really matter -- their career and personal life.

The book is both simple and profound. It provides the tools and step-by-step guidance for making the change needed to move forward. Readers can also find useful tips to manage the workplace culture to give themselves space and inspiration or involve loved ones in finding a balanced and fulfilling life.

Among the topics covered are:

How to have a fast-track career and a fulfilling personal life
A look at some realistic and workable techniques
Sacrificing what you can live without and living with the consequences
Finding space for your life in a challenging business environment
Reassessing, refining and rebalancing to stay on track

This is a useful guidebook for all professionals.

Winning habits

2008-01-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

Winning habits: Four secrets that will change the rest of your life
Author: Dick Lyles
Publisher: Pearson/Prentice Hall

THE book may appear simplistic with its 100-odd pages. But best-selling author of Winning Ways Dick Lyles brings a wealth of corporate experience and business savvy to Winning Habits.

Using an anecdote to elaborate his points, Lyles creatively embeds the four principles that can help make us more effective not only at work but also in our personal lives.

As the title proclaims, the book attempts to teach readers and those who want to effect positive changes in their lives the factors embodied in our daily habits -- positive habits, that is.

Lyles, who has over 30 years of experience in consultancy, public speaking and appearances, consistently repeats the four principles throughout the book to drive home his message.

According to him, anyone can benefit from applying the four basic principles in their lives -- whether they are struggling to jump-start their career; or lead their team to greater height; or to turn their company around in terms of better performance, etc.

Winning Habits has the tools in which to help them do it.

To find out what the four principles are, read a copy of Winning Habits and put them to work for you.

Digital photography for beginners

2008-01-21T08:53:00.000-08:00

Title: 40 Digital Photography Techniques (2nd Edition)

Author: John Kim
Publisher: Youngjin.com Inc.

SO, YOU'VE jumped into the digital photography bandwagon, having chucked your trusty point-and-shoot analogue camera for a spanking new multi-megapixel beauty in brushed stainless steel. Armed with a cursory look at the manual and a 128MB SD/MMC/xD/CIF/SmartMedia card, you're ready to take picture-perfect photos, which you plan to "upload" on the Internet (after "tweaking" them with Photoshop, of course) so that your friends will be able to enjoy your digital snapshots.

And that's right about when you hit your first hurdle - the photos you take are invariably blurred (due to camera shake), and the time lag between pressing the shutter and the picture actually being taken means your subject is no longer in the centre of the frame, like you wanted. Also, your new camera is very juice-hungry, and you end up having to keep changing batteries faster than you can buy them. Okay, switching to rechargeable batteries does help solve the problem, but for the rest (like camera shake, for instance), there's really no shortcut to taking good photos.

The basic principles are much the same for all kinds of photography - composition and framing, light or flash, white balance, when to resort to aperture or shutter priority, and select or pan focusing, among others.

But the real advantage of digital over conventional cameras is the ability to seen instantly the image you've captured (via the LCD screen), and to take as many shots you like, knowing that you have the power to delete the ones that are not up to scratch.

This book is a boon to digital camera owners, and is written in an easy-to-understand manner, with plenty of colour photographs as guides. It combines technical instructions with creative ideas to help boost your skills, and offers practical step-by-step instructions, explanations, shortcuts and tips.

Designed to help you get the most out of your camera, 40 Digital Photography Techniques answers the frequently asked questions (for instance, which resolution to choose, and when, as well as how to download the pictures into your computer and set up your own photo gallery, printing options, managing your files, etc.).

The 2nd edition also offers some tips on camera phones, and there's a very useful companion CD-ROM (for Windows only, sorry) that is packed with digital camera utilities for organising, publishing, and having fun with your photos, plus various images from the book. Bundled inside is the trial versions of Adobe Photoshop Album, ACDSee 6.3, Screen Saver Builder 3.30, PrintPilot 1.32 and Coverxp 1.65.

REPTILIA

2008-01-20T23:24:00.000-08:00

Book Reviews

REPTILIA
Story and art: Kazuo Umezu
Publisher: IDW Publishing; 320 pages
(ISBN: 978-1600100413)
For ages 16+

THE story begins innocently enough in a hospital where young Yumiko’s mother is recuperating from a head injury. And for some strange reason, Yumiko’s mother decides to scare her daughter with the tale of a “snake lady” that supposedly resides in a secret part of the hospital. After visiting her mother, Yumiko then decides to explore the hospital because she “won’t be coming to this hospital anymore”.

Truly, when one stumbles on a section of a hospital that appears eerie, abandoned, and whose walls have the words “Off Limits” scrawled on them, one should get a clue. But Yumiko presses on until she finds a cell with a beautiful woman in it. Yumiko wonders what an apparently healthy woman is doing in this part of the hospital, but she stops questioning why the woman is behind bars when the woman grabs her textbook and tears out a page with the picture of a frog.

She runs away, thinking that the mad woman is safely behind bars. Or is she?

The mangaka behind The Drifting Classroom (about a school transported to a nightmarish dimension) is also responsible for this ghoulish tale of a snake lady that terrorises, first, a hospital, and then a Japanese village.

The art is typical of the 1960s, and the monsters, unfortunately, appear more comical than scary. Still, the actual scare factor of Reptilia is how one ends up fearing the people you love; best friends, family members, mothers, and loyal servants end up betraying each other in Reptilia.

Like in many of Kazuo Umezu’s works, the manga’s characters are often panic-stricken and dissolve into hysterical fits – this could get on your nerves after a while, but my advice is to press on as Kazuo crafts the story in a surprising manner.

At first it appears as if Reptilia is made up of unrelated stories of a snake lady terrorising hapless young women. However, towards the middle of the manga, the stories begin to form a connection with each other. And when the manga ends, the story of the snake lady comes full circle ... and you really can’t help but feel sorry for the evil creature.

Although the art is dated, and the panicky heroines may be annoying, Reptilia has a few worthy scares up its sleeve. Another plus is that it ends on a very satisfying note.

I, OTAKU: STRUGGLE IN AKIHABARA Vol.1

2008-01-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

Book reviews

I, OTAKU: STRUGGLE IN AKIHABARA Vol.1
Story and art: Jiro Suzuki
Publisher: Seven Seas; 200 pages
(ISBN: 978-1933164762)
For all ages

THERE seems to be no end to the series of stories poking fun at otaku-dom. There is Comic Party, Genshiken and now, I, Otaku, which takes an over-the-top approach to presenting the struggles of an otaku.

The main character is Enatsu Sota – a seemingly normal high school kid in all aspects; he even has a girlfriend. But Enatsu hides a secret from his friends and girlfriend: he is actually a closet otaku who is obsessed with a manga meta-series (series within a series) called Papico.

Despite him not being the stereotypical otaku – socially awkward and with no chance of getting a girlfriend – Enatsu remains highly conscious of his image, and thus, carefully guards his otaku side. It all changes when he visits a mysterious shop named Otakudo and meets its boss Mano Takuro.

Mano, the self-proclaimed “Chairman of the Closet Otaku Extermination Committee”, forces Enatsu to “come out of the closet” (so to speak).

As he awakens the true otaku in him, Enatsu struggles against his devotion towards Papico, his feelings for his girlfriend Eri, and the madness of Mano, who makes him help out at his shop as well.

I, Otaku takes a dig at otaku culture; it’s light, enjoyable and very funny, yet, at the same time, it manages to subtly criticise certain aspects of the culture, such as the divide between an otaku’s attention towards 2D and 3D.

The art by Jiro Suzuki is detailed and flowery – a mix of shoujo and shounen styles that gear towards moé (endearingly cute) as well. The first volume also comes with a number of extras including character concept art and a one-shot manga, Sweet Fairies.

I, Otaku is entertaining and will most definitely provoke a few laughs. It may make fun of otaku-dom but it does not demean. A worthwhile buy if you’re into this genre.

TOUCHY SUBJECTS

2008-01-19T23:20:00.000-08:00

Book reviews

TOUCHY SUBJECTS

By Emma Donoghue

Publisher: Little, Brown, 277 pages

ISBN: 978-1844083015

THERE are some things we just don’t talk about. Like being gay (in Malaysia, anyway) or being in love with someone you’re not supposed to fall for. Emma Donoghue dishes these issues out, without a blink, in 19 stories about life, love, and relationships.

Team Men tells the tale of a schoolboy who discovers his sexuality on the football pitch. In Oops, a man feels responsible for accidentally mucking up his friends’ contraceptive devices! And in Expecting, a woman fails to correct a man who thinks she is pregnant, and the consequences start to hound her more than she expects.

In all these stories, Donoghue strives to illustrate the crazy things people do in life. The situations are bizarre but they’re also highly believable. Think Seinfeld but with characters as varied as a woman with a hair on her chin, a man who wants to pull it out, a pastor, a couple that loves dogs more than children, and lesbian writers in love.

Donoghue has a knack for depicting the absurdities we face in everyday life simply by describing that slice of life. The result is a collection of parodies that makes us laugh at ourselves and makes us consider ironies that we often only notice in hindsight.

The book is divided into five sections: babies, domesticity, strangers, desire, and death. The plots don’t run deep but they capture the essence of the human condition. Stories that stand out are those on relationships, babies and writing (in the strangers section), the last perhaps drawing draw on the author’s own experiences.

As a literary historian, Donoghue wrote Passions between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. And in lesbian fiction, she has a string of awards to her name. As for children, she has two of her own. So she knows of what she writes, obviously.

Speaking in Tongues is a love story of sorts between a thirty-something woman writer and a 17-year-old girl described through an unusual series of flashbacks and poetry. While Donoghues’s style is sparse and crisp, her sentences sometimes bring out qualities in her characters that make you want to stop and listen to them.

As the woman protagonist prepares to give a reading to an audience that contains her admirer, she says, “I knew the poem off by heart, but tonight I had to look down for safety, every few lines.” Of their subsequent encounter, she says, “There was a script, of course. No matter how spontaneous it may feel, there’s always an unwritten script.” While the story may be about lesbian lovers, the theme Donoghue puts forth is that of loss and love, and what could have been, which could apply to any relationship, conventional or not.

In the title story, a woman travels half way round the world to fulfil her dreams of becoming a mother – with the help of her friend’s husband. A seemingly sticky subject, but Donoghue handles it with the ease of someone who knows her stuff, particularly when it comes to matters of “self-insemination”.

WritOr, a story about a writer-in-residence, and his struggle with the novelist wannabes he sees every day is just as insightful. “Clearly, writing was not an ordinary hobby like winemaking or kung fu,” the protagonist notes. “It attracted the most vulnerable people: the strange, the antisocial, the sad. Some were struggling with addictions or mysterious debilitating illnesses; others wrote endless versions of their childhood traumas.”

In the foreword to one of his collections, acclaimed short-story writer and novelist, Kurt Vonnegut points out “the peculiar and beneficial effect a short story can have on us, which makes it different from a novel or movie or play or TV show.”

In not so few words, he suggests that the short story is a kind of meditation “catnap” during which a person fires his brains up to make sense of the “26 phonetic symbols, 10 Arabic numerals and perhaps eight punctuation marks” – like you are doing now – and then for 10 minutes or so, finds an escape from the day’s anxieties. “His pulse and breathing slow down, his troubles drop away.”

Similarly, Donoghue’s Touchy Subjects provides the reader with an escape – and an entertaining one it is, into a world where people do the darndest things. The simplistic style may not garner bouquets from literary purists, but it’s an easy and entertaining read.

These 10-minute tales serve as good fillers when you’re waiting for someone or sitting in a train. You may smile, you may cringe, or you may discover some deep revelation about life. But even if you do not, you’ll find some kind of solace in knowing you’re not alone when it comes to embarrassing moments, difficult questions and situations that make you go, “Oops!”

FENG SHUI FOR APARTMENT BUYERS-HOME OWNERS

2008-01-19T23:18:00.001-08:00

Book reviews

FENG SHUI FOR APARTMENT BUYERS-HOME OWNERS

By Joey Yap

Publisher: JY Books, 376 pages

ISBN: 978-9833332540

PROPERTY developers have long been stumped by apartment buyers who play the numbers game, not just the one in which they total up monetary figures but those numerology and feng shui enthusiasts engage in.

You might have heard that we’re now in the period of eight, so we should get a number eight apartment on the eight or 18th floor to best harness all manner of prosperity energies. Or you might be one of those apartment hunters who have been avoiding units numbered four or those located on the fourth, 14th or 24th floor because of the association the number four has with death in the Chinese language.

If so, then Feng Shui for Apartment Buyers-Home Owners has all the answers you need. Written by Joey Yap, best-selling author and world-renowned feng shui consultant and trainer, this is an ideal handbook for apartment hunters who want a simple, systematic guide to buying a new apartment that would be feng shui-compatible.

Read this book and you will discover that apartments numbered eight or located on the eighth floor are not necessarily good for everyone. Similarly, apartments numbered four or located on the fourth floor are not necessarily unlucky.

Whether you’re a feng shui newbie or well-studied enthusiast, you will be sure to find something helpful in this book.

It has interesting new tips and ideas not available in other feng shui books in the market. Some of these easy-to-use yet powerful tips were first unveiled by Yap at the very insightful National Feng Shui Congress he hosted late last year.

Using the guidelines in the book, apartment buyers should be able to eliminate properties with unfavourable feng shui and identify those with favourable feng shui features. At the very least, readers would be able to ensure that they avoid bad feng shui.

Stencils with grids for the Nine Palaces as well as the Eight Pie Chart have been included so that readers can attempt DIY feng shui assessments of their selected properties.

Whole chapters are dedicated to the critically important external forms and the use of flying stars, the former fascinating and the latter intriguing in their own unique significance. Take it from me, it’s very exciting to do the feng shui for your own apartment!

The final section, chapter eight (hmm, is that a coincidence?), is a step-by-step walk through that helps readers to do a complete feng shui assessment on any property. Yap generously shares key methods and techniques employed by professional consultants when they do feng shui audits.

Lest you think this book is for advanced practitioners and professional consultants only, let me assure you that it has neither jargon nor complicated calculations. So if you are a newbie or just someone who is too keen about poring over long texts, this makes quite a speedy read – and is practically impossible to put down if you’re truly interested in feng shui.

Apart from being easy to read and straight to the point like Yap’s other books, this book is well illustrated with coloured pictures, diagrams, and charts.

I won’t be surprised if half the apartment buyers in the Klang Valley actually went around hunting for their prospective properties armed with a copy of this book and renewed confidence in finding a good apartment with favourable feng shui....

The Camel Club: Stone Cold

2008-01-19T09:08:00.000-08:00

Book Reviews

Author: David Baldacci

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 400 pages

The Camel Club is the name of a group of political watchdogs who are the stars of David Baldacci’s series. In Stone Cold, the latest instalment in the story, Oliver Stone, the leader of the Camel Club, is threatened by someone who intends to expose his former connections with the CIA. Honorary member of the club, Annabelle Conroy also has her own problems as the man she cheated of $40mil in the previous book in the series (The Collectors) is out to destroy her. Stone Cold also introduces a new character, Harry Finn, a loving father and husband, whose day job involves testing people for terrorist vulnerabilities and who moonlights as an assassin who specialises in killing assassins!

Escape from Amsterdam

2008-01-18T09:08:00.001-08:00

Book Reviews
Publisher: Granta Books, 208 pages

LAZY undergrad Aozora is deep in debt as a result of losing one too many games of mahjong. But then he and his sister, Mai, inherit an obscene amount of money when an old aunt dies. Unfortunately, Mai, can’t be found and Aozora can’t claim the cash without her. And, so, he goes off to find her, journeying to the south of Japan, a theme park called “Amsterdam” and an adventure of a lifetime.

Burial Ground

2008-01-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

Book Reviews

Author: John Rickards

Publisher: Penguin Books, 400 pages

WHEN ex-FBI agent Alex Rourke receives a note that reads “You have to find the crosses. Find them or other people could die...”, he feels compelled to obey. His search leads him to an isolated valley in the American Mid-West. A thunderstorm forces him to take shelter in a bar along with a dozen others. Then a nearby riverbank collapses and reveals the bodies of a man and woman. As tension mounts, secrets are revealed and accusations start to fly, Alex races to find the “crosses”. But, as the deaths occur, he may be too late.

The Rose Of Sebastopol

2008-01-18T09:05:00.001-08:00

Book Reviews
Author: Katharine McMahon

Publisher: Phoenix, 416 pages

AT the height of the Crimean War, young and beautiful Rosa Barr leaves the comforts of her London home to go to Balaklava to be a nurse. She leaves behind her cousin, Mariella, whose fiancé, Henry, is a surgeon on the battlefield. When Henry is taken ill and sent to recuperate in Italy, Mariella goes to him. However, on her arrival at his lodgings, she receives news that Rosa has disappeared. Mariella’s subsequent decision to learn more about her cousin’s disappearance takes her to the city of Sebastopol where she meets Rose’s stepbrother, a cavalry officer whose life becomes inextricably linked with her own.

When She Was Bad

2008-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

Book Reviews
Author: Jonathan Nasaw

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 304 pages

TWO psychiatric patients meet at the Reed-Chase Mental Institution with devastating results. Both Lily de Vries and Ulysses Maxwell suffer from a condition which causes its sufferers to adopt alternative personalities or “alters” to help them cope with great personal trauma. Lily and Ulysses’ “alters” are not only charming and seductive, but also vicious and cruel killers. When they come together, horrifying violence can only be expected, especially when they escape from Reed-Chase.

Stalked

2008-01-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

Author: Brian Freeman

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, 356 pages

IN the dead of a winter’s night, police officer Maggie Bei reports a terrible crime. The scene of the crime is her own home and her reluctance to talk about what happened fuels her partner, Lieutenant Jonathan Stride’s suspicions that Maggie is trying to hide something. His investigation leads Stride on a twisted trail and the discovery of lurid secrets and acts of violence and voyeurism that someone is willing to kill to keep hidden. Even his lover, Serena Dial, a homicide cop, is caught up in the web of viciousness as she hunts for a blackmailer whose knowledge of the city’s dirty secrets includes Maggie’s deepest and darkest. And as Stride and Serena proceed in their investigations, a predator is hunting them with deadly intent.

The Amateur Spy

2008-01-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Book Reviews

Author: Dan Fesperman

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 425 pages

FREEMAN Lockhart is working for his old friend, Omar, in Jordan. However, hoping to suppress secrets about his own life, Freeman is also spying on Omar for a clandestine agency interested in Omar’s finances. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Aliyah Rahim is watching her own husband, Abbas, closely. The death of their daughter has pushed Abbas over the edge of reason and he blames their loss on the post-9/11 American-Arab hostility and is planning a violent and terrifying act of revenge. Both Aliyah and Freeman are forced into a situation where the stakes are high and doing the right thing may be something which they would regret their whole lives.

Do You Want What I Want?

2008-01-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Author: Denise Deegan

Publisher: Penguin Books, 368 pages

HANDSOME, successful young doctor Rory is happily attached to Louise, a sassy, funny and smart career woman. Together they lead a busy, productive and relatively worry-free life. But when Rory has a near-fatal, his priorities suddenly change and he realises that what he really wants is to have a child. Louise, however, does not see children in their future and she has her reasons. As Rory’s desire to be a father mounts, Louise must decide whether to tell him the truth. Will their love be enough to give them both what they want without tearing them apart?

IN GOOD FAITH: Articles, Essays and Interviews

2008-01-15T01:27:00.000-08:00

IN GOOD FAITH: Articles, Essays and Interviews
By Zaid Ibrahim
Publisher: Zaid Ibrahim
Publications, 364 pages
ISBN: 978-9834352107

POLITICIANS should be good for something besides the art of compromise,” observes the author in his foreword to In Good Faith.

And indeed, throughout his book, Kota Baru MP Datuk Zaid Ibrahim does not compromise and spares no one – not Barisan Nasional; not judges, “who need to be brave” and “need not be politically correct”; not MPs, “who serve as the voice of the electorate”; not the press; and not Umno, in which “the no-contest practice for party president and deputy president should be abolished”.

If at all he dealt kindly with anyone, it was the ordinary Malaysian whom he enjoined to reflect on what the next 50 years would bring.

The author takes an honest look at a spectrum of issues with characteristic equanimity, including the Subashini case (where a mother sought to have her young son’s conversion to Islam by his now-Muslim father re-examined) and the “close one eye” saga involving the Jasin MP that prompted a discussion of the concept of parliamentary privilege and immunity.

The book is a very readable compilation of articles, interviews and excerpts from speeches, although exposure to some of the controversies of the past two decades would be helpful in understanding nuances.

Zaid shows himself to be a thinker, a pacifist, and passionate about unity and the Constitution. Through his words, we see an idealist: On the Interfaith Commission and the Article 11 Forum, for instance, he urges those who opposed both to engage with the organisers.

They might better understand the forum’s objectives, which, like its organisers, were not anti-Islamic, he writes.

Some of Zaid’s ideas do fly in the face of convention. For instance, his proposal that all the component parties within the Barisan Nasional merge to form a single entity that accepts direct membership of all races is thought-provoking even if not strikingly new. As a lawyer, Zaid is passionate about the judiciary. Something, he feels, must be done to shake it out of its current malaise. He claims that the country has not recovered from the 1988 judicial crisis, the sacking of then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and Supreme Court judges Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawan Teh and Datuk George Seah.

“The selection (of judges) must be based on transparent criteria,” he writes, and should not be “shrouded in secrecy”. He questions why 85% of Malaysian judges come from the Judicial and Legal Service Department of the government and not from the ranks of practising lawyers.

Every now and then, we catch a flash of sardonic humour. Zaid finds the notion of collectively describing a Sikh, a Bengali and a Tamil as Indian “laughable” given the ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity of the sub-continent where wars have been fought along communal lines. Looking at the direction the Barisan is taking, Zaid observes that “the BN machinery puts enormous pressure on opposition parties,” citing the experiences of the Parti Bersatu Sabah, Semangat 46 and Gerakan prior to its entry into the BN in 1969.

Applauding the emergence of local, especially urban, groups that transcend ethnic boundaries, he says, “It’s not as if you get a discount at the tolls or have cleaner water piped into your home just because you’re of a certain race”.

His conclusion on race relations says it all: “One day, I hope all Malaysians feel they belong in this country”.

Out of this world

2008-01-08T01:41:00.000-08:00

Out of this world

KANNA Vol.1

Story and art: Takeru Kirishima

Publisher: Go! Comi; 200 pages

(ISBN: 978-1933617558)

For ages 16+

KAGURA Sakaki is a ronin (failed university applicant) who works part-time while studying for the next university entrance exams. His mundane life is thrown into turmoil when he wakes up one day to find a little girl sleeping next to him. As if that’s not shocking enough, when she awakes, she promptly calls him “Father”!

And his bad day has just begun.

When he arrives at his workplace, he finds it to be the scene of gruesome murders. As the assailant turns his attention on him and the little girl, Kagura is saved in the nick of time by his other self – the true father of the little girl named Kanna.

Kagura next finds out the existence of another world where his counterpart and his childhood crush are married and are protectors of Kanna, who has the power to violate the laws of Heaven and Earth. Stuck with his “daughter”, Kagura must now defend her from the evil gods who are trying to kill her, and also unearth the truth behind everything.

Kanna is quite a confusing series because many concepts are introduced in the first volume itself. The story moves at a frenetic pace initially, but slows down after the first two chapters to deal with Kagura and Kanna’s daily lives and how Kagura tries to adapt to having Kanna around.

Undoubtedly, the selling point of this series is Kanna herself, portrayed as a poor child lost in a place where she can’t even speak the language and only has her “father” to depend upon.

The series takes advantage of that and incongruously tosses in a running joke of Kanna doing a cosplay of many famous characters from games and anime, which provides some comedic relief.

The art by Kirishima-sensei is rather crude but it works well, even if it gets a tad confusing at some points. The character designs are pretty stereotypical and are nothing much to shout about. However, the fight scenes are good and bloody.

Kanna has a weird blend of moé (an anime style which inspires attraction thanks to its cute characters) supernatural elements and action.

If only the manga’s premise had been better explained, then the many concepts featured in the series would have been less puzzling.

Of love and life

2008-01-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

Of love and life

SUPPLI Vol.1

Story and art: Mari Okazaki

Publisher: Tokyopop; 224 pages

(ISBN: 978-1427803146)

For ages 18+

SUPPLI is a manga where you seriously consider the possibility that the publisher may have made a mistake. The manga is rated “M” (mature) but has absolutely nothing explicit, violent or even remotely sexual in nature (well, at least for this volume). In fact, it contains less explicit material than some supposedly tamer stuff such as the dark, gothic shojo manga Godchild, and even Paradise Kiss. However, I still would not recommend this manga for readers younger than 16 because it deals with more mature issues.

Suppli revolves around 27-year-old Minami Fuuji, an ambitious and driven advertising executive. Her story is one of love lost and love found anew, of ambition versus love, of life and coping with it. When her boyfriend of seven years leaves her, she finds herself shutting out everyone and everything in her life except for her career. She throws herself into her work, forgetting about her heart.

When an opportunity for love comes knocking, she is torn between her past hurt and her future happiness. Will she finally open her heart? Or will she shut it out?

These questions and more are slowly answered in this rather confusing though very involving manga. The plot takes off and builds up in a painstakingly slow way. Half of the manga’s story meanders around Minami and her job and the people around her. The reader is left pretty much in the dark about the point of the whole manga until it begins to pick up somewhere through the later half.

When it does, however, the story takes on a whole new depth. The characters begin to flesh out and the conflict becomes evident. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself liking the story for how it depicts the real situations one may face in life (job conflicts and relationship problems among them).

The artwork is a different matter altogether. It is neither good nor bad, and very clumsily executed. Proportions are rather off at some parts, and although the artwork is somewhat reminiscent of Ai Yazawa’s in Paradise Kiss, it fails to meet the same detail and uniqueness. The only plus point of the artwork is that it is certainly different from your typical shojo manga.

I did, however, adore Minami as a lead character. She is very real, with all her flaws, misgivings and doubts. She makes mistakes and faces disappointments. She has quirks and little oddities which make her seem that much more human.

So, despite the clumsy, so-so artwork and slow-paced plot, I rather liked Suppli. And given that I enjoy manga with real characters in real-life situations, I will surely look forward to Vol.2.

Crazy and colourful

2007-12-25T01:42:00.000-08:00

Crazy and colourful

ST LUNATIC HIGH SCHOOL Vol.1

Story and art: Majiko!

Publisher: Tokyopop; 184 pages

(ISBN: 978-1598169447)

For ages 13+

FIFTEEN-year-old Niko Kanzaki and her older brother Atchan live in poverty. The girl believes that her luck is finally changing when Atchan lands a teaching job at the prestigious St Lunatic High School and she is allowed to enrol in the academy, albeit only for night classes.

What she doesn’t know is that the night classes are (quite literally) devilish in nature; it’s not a stretch to say that some of her classmates are rather inhuman.?

Majiko! draws her characters in super-deformed style, with their heads appearing much larger than their bodies. The cute chibi (characters that are drawn to look cute and child-like) approach is used to complement the wackiness that ensues in the manga. However, there are also several scenes which seem too rushed, resulting in a series of confusing panels. One may even need to backtrack to understand what’s actually happening.

St Lunatic High School features a large cast of colourful characters. Besides Niko and her brother, there’s the cool, human-looking demon Ren-kun – the crazy cosplaying chairman of the school – and the school nurse who happens to have a crush on Ren-kun. And I’ve not even mentioned Niko’s classmates!

To spice things up, Vol.2 promises to introduce even more characters to the already saturated pool.

I found St Lunatic High School to be quite an interesting read, despite the sometimes-awkward artwork. If anything, it’s a nice, relaxing manga to read on a laid-back Sunday, and it should pretty much appeal to everyone out there.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS

2007-12-20T01:38:00.000-08:00

THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS

Publisher: Puffin Books; 32 pages; ISBN: 978-0140544510

THE classic fairy tale of the three pigs (who looked down their snouts at sty-living) is re-told by the wolf (Alexander T. Wolf) who, if he’s to be believed, was just a victim of circumstance.

For a start, he was not stalking pigs, simply trying to borrow a cup of sugar. And can you blame him if a bad cold resulted in a sneeze powerful enough to bring a house crashing down? (I wonder if Alex Wolf is also given to wearing nighties and impersonating grandmothers!)

THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES

2007-12-20T01:37:00.000-08:00

THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES

Publisher: Viking Children’s Books; 56 pages; ISBN: 978-0670063000

SCIESZKA parodies favourite fairy tales and storybook characters like Little Red Riding Hood (Little Red Running Shorts) and the Gingerbread Man (the Stinky Cheese Man). Instead of the sky, it’s the book’s table of contents that Chicken Licken thinks is falling. In the meantime, Red Running Shorts finds out what’s in store for her at Grandma’s cottage and refuses to participate in her story! In 1993, this book won The New York Times’ best illustrated book award and was a Caldecott Honor book.

MATHS CURSE

2007-12-19T01:36:00.000-08:00

MATHS CURSE

Publisher: Viking Children’s Books, 40 pages

ISBN: 978-0670062997

FOLLOWING her teacher’s (Mrs Fibonacci!) observation that, “Almost everything in life can be considered a math problem,” a young girl finds it impossible to do, think about or look at anything without making a sum and dance out of it: a pizza lunch becomes a case of fractions; she solves her ugly plaid shirt problem by subtracting it from her wardrobe; and, finally, faced with an infinite number of math problems and armed only with a piece of chalk, she snaps it in two, puts the two halves together and escapes through the “whole”.

COWBOY AND OCTOPUS

2007-12-15T01:35:00.000-08:00

COWBOY AND OCTOPUS

Publisher: Viking Books; 40 pages; ISBN: 978-0670910588

COWBOY and Octopus (both cut-out figures whose poses are fixed throughout the story) are an unlikely pair, the situations are absurd and the conversations bizarre and random, but all the better to stress the book’s message that true friendship transcends differences, the strangest quirks and most trying habits and scenarios. Sure, it doesn’t always make sense but then neither does life. Scieszka and Smith’s latest collaboration is one of my favourite picture books of 2007.

TOTS TO TEENS

2007-12-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

TOTS TO TEENS

By DAPHNE LEE

JON Scieszka has been named the United States’ first ambassador for children’s literature by the Library of Congress.

Scieszka’s job, a two-year appointment that comes with an annual stipend of US$25,000 (RM82,500), is to promote reading and literature among the young. He was a popular choice, as the selection committee felt that the author is someone that children can easily relate to.

In an interview with The New York Times, Robin Adelson, executive director of the Children’s Book Council of America, said, “There are a lot of phenomenal writers and illustrators out there, but we wanted ? somebody with charisma, who is comfortable travelling and speaking and who could reach children, parents, educators and speak to a roomful of librarians.”

Scieszka (pronounced Shess-ka) has already had considerable experience actively promoting reading as he founded and runs Guys Read (guysread.com), a web-based literacy programme, which aims to motivate reading among boys (boys are biologically slower to develop reading and writing skills than girls) by connecting them to books they want to read: often, reading material that interests boys (non-fiction, joke books, comics, magazines, manuals) are not considered “worthy” by parents or educators.

As children’s literature ambassador, Scieszka will be able to reach out to an even wider audience. In The New York Times, he said, “People say, ‘All my son will read is Captain Underpants,’ or ‘My son is crazy about shark books, is that okay?’ I want to be the person to say, ‘Yeah, that’s really okay as long as he’s motivated to want to read.”

Scieszka is best known for children’s books that are funny, irreverent, silly and include fairly disgusting moments, which tend to endear them to young readers.

Here’s a brief guide to my four favourite Scieszka books, all of which are illustrated by Lane Smith:

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN

2007-12-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN
By Sherman Alexie, Art by Ellen Forney
Publisher: Little, Brown, 240 pages
ISBN: 978-0316013680

NO, this isn’t a book about Muthusamy a/l Prabakaran who likes to use “Yo, man!” as a greeting. This is a book about Arnold Spirit Junior, Native American Indian, like the ones in old cowboy shows.

Junior, though, isn’t exactly a brawny, broad-chested warrior sporting a six-pack and a tomahawk; he’s an excruciatingly thin 14-year-old living on an Indian reservation (“the rez”), with more medical issues than a hypochondriac on crack.

He gets fits, has clown feet, wrong teeth, weird eyes, a fragile, planet-size head, a stutter, a lisp – among other things. Basically, he’s someone born with a big bulls’ eye on his back.

Despite being nature’s designated victim, though, Junior is one brave kid, with dreams even bigger than his problems. Hoping to get a good education and eventually become a cartoonist, he switches from Wellpinit to Reardan High School.

For anyone else, switching schools would just be an inconvenience; but Reardan is a school that’s 35km away from the rez; a school that’s one of the best in the state; and, most importantly, a school that’s all white. And so, the Indians end up picking on him for being a “traitor”, while the whites pick on him for being, well, Indian.

Those are painful odds, and while Junior doesn’t win – anymore than anyone really “wins’” at life – he definitely gives it his best. Author Sherman Alexie shows us how Junior tackles all the highs and lows of friendship, family, teen love (or lust), gains and losses with passion, perseverance, and a painfully plucky sense of humour.

And it is a painful sort of humour, because most of the time you aren’t sure whether you’re supposed to laugh or cry or do both at the same time. Somehow, Junior manages to turn his suffering into entertainment; he talks about his very real and very many problems with a raw, honest, self-deprecatory wit that works on the heart as much as the funny bone, often quickly alternating between the two.

You’ll laugh, especially at the goofy cartoons scattered throughout the book that graphically, hilariously, and sometimes sentimentally bring whatever point he’s making to life and help flesh out the cast of quirky characters.

This is one of those books you can’t read in public because you’ll look like an idiot who can’t stop smiling, and if you end up simultaneously crying, you’ll look like a lunatic.

The writing is deceptively easy to read. Alexie uses short, sharp, and simple sentences loosely linked together in a very chatty style, so you can almost hear Junior talking to you.

It’s not actually written in diary form; it’s more like one big dramatic monologue, which luckily avoids sounding like a sermon since the messages are masterfully coated with that wry, offbeat humour.

But anyone looking for messages will definitely find them. Alexie uses Junior to make astute observations about the world, and especially about the Indians, who are portrayed as simply drinking their quiet, grey lives away on “death camp” reservations.

There are some heartfelt moments when he rails against their failings and diagnoses their problems with sociological exactitude, yet in a way that’s true to character.

In fact, his characters are always edged with psychological truth, no matter how bizarre they are, such as Junior’s alcoholic father, romance novel-obsessed sister, or his emotionally scarred best friend.

Alexie excels in concisely and insightfully bringing out truths about things like racism, sexuality, poverty, and identity through the characters’ interactions with each other. Heavy themes, yes, but written in just the right way for a young adult novel. Although, like most good books, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian can’t really be confined to one age group.

Sure, you might not want to recommend it to your seven-year-old niece, since it does have a teenager’s choice of expletives (actually more tame than the average teenager since they’re never worse than b-words), but I’d say that “old” adults would actually get more from the book than teens.

A lot of things are left unsaid, simply because Alexie’s 14-year-old narrator wouldn’t even think them, which leaves plenty of room for the reader to pick up on these things and make their own judgments.

The beauty of the story is that it can be as light or as serious as you want it to be. Clever, heart-warming, and original, this is a tale of growing up that belongs on the bookshelves of the growing and grown-up alike.