I revisited this book again in August this year for a book discussion with my colleague, Eugene Foong. He was preparing a presentation for his Masters degree based on the same book. One day during lunch, he asked if I’ve read Nassim Taleb’s FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS and I answered yes. That’s how the book discussion came to be.

It is interesting to note Taleb’s observations on how chance plays a part in success. Luck is democratic and hits everyone regardless of original skills, he says. Take the example of millionaires: […]

GOSSAMER is my first Lois Lowry book and definitely not the last. It’s an interesting and delightful read. I’m intrigued by the dream-givers, especially Littlest One. I could almost hear her tiny soft voice whenever she speaks, or asks this and that while she follows her teacher on duty to bestow dreams.

Littlest One is a tiny creature slowly learning her job of giving dreams to humans. Where do dreams come from? What makes the stuff of nightmares? In this story, two people—a lonely, sensitive woman (we do not know her name) and a damaged, angry boy named John—face their own histories. […]

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Roald Dahl is my first Roald Dahl book and I must say I love it! This highly imaginative book is a gem and one that’s full of lessons. I like the little boy Charlie very much and like most children, he is full of curiosity. He is also obedient for he listens to his parents, Mr and Mrs Bucket, and his very old grandparents. His family is poor and the seven of them live in a tiny, worn-down house. It is heartbreaking to read his family situation.

One day, Mr Willy Wonka, a well-known chocolate maker who has been missing in action for a long, long time comes back into business. […]

WARNING: Do not read this in public. Please also be ready with a box of tissues because NIGHTS IN RODANTHE is a tear-jerker. Nicholas Sparks always makes me cry.

Adrienne Willis is a 60-year-old divorced woman and a mother of three grown children. She retells her story—a flashback of love and redemption, loss and grief—out of concern for her widowed daughter who is going through depression after the death of her husband. This is a story that has resided in the deepest corner of her heart for 15 years: Two middle-aged people met by chance in the small North Carolina coastal town of Rodanthe.

Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer-winning critic and longtime columnist for Washington Post Book World shares his love of literature and books in BOOK BY BOOK. This book ignites the passion for classics in me and in my opinion, is an effortless read. In BOOK BY BOOK, Dirda speaks not only of classics but he also covers contemporary works ranging from Cicero to Dr. Seuss.

I had a wonderful time pondering Dirda’s observations and the quotations he lavishes on his readers. Needless to say, my copy of the book is filled with markings and scribblings. He did encourage readers to do the same and perhaps from our own reflections, we create our own reader’s guide as well.

The Haunted Bookshop draws me straight into its story. I’m intrigued by its title and this American classic first catches my attention when I read Wendy’s review Musings of a Bookish Kitty. It’s a story book-lovers will enjoy—a romance with books and a mystery to be solved—and there’s nothing haunted or spooky about it.

Roger Mifflin owns the second-hand bookshop on Gissing Street, Brooklyn. The bookshop operates under the name “Parnassus at Home” and is known as the Haunted Bookshop. He has a loving wife, Helen, and she is a fantastic cook. Her signature dish is the chocolate cake […]

INDIANA JONES AND THE HOLLOW EARTH by Max McCoy takes us on an adventure with Indy traversing the Arctic to retrieve a canister that contains the crystal skull. With a team of military folks, they fly the B-18P (P for Polar), also affectionately called the Penguin by Indy’s copilot friend, Clarence. The name seems to rub off on the others too.

THE HOLLOW by Nora Roberts (NR) is the second book of the Sign of Seven Trilogy.

In the first book, the story romantically links Caleb and Quinn together and in this one, we see Fox and Layla together. Book 2 builds on the suspense from book 1 and the nightmare is about to begin.

Fox O’Dell practices small-town law with an ability to read minds. Coincidentally, Layla shares the same ability.