Garden Spells
GARDEN SPELLS by Sarah Addison Allen is a book I owned since July last year but only started reading this year. It is an enchanting story of two Waverley women of Bascom, North Carolina. The sisters, Claire and Sydney, were abandoned by their mother when they were young and brought up by their grandmother. Like the magic in this story, the pages of this novel turned effortlessly too.
Claire is the center of the story and she is very much a reserved woman.
Hari Raya Haji with My Taxi Driver’s Family
Hasan, my taxi driver invited me to his house today to celebrate Hari Raya Haji. He lives just across the road from my apartment. At 10 a.m. his wife and almost-2-year-old daughter were waiting for me downstairs at their block and ushered me up to their home. They are no strangers to me because sometimes they accompany him when he fetches me or his other customers.
The phone in the house rang. When she’d hung up, she informed Hasan called and sent his apologies for not being there because he has customers. Public holidays are the best time for additional income, I remember he told me this some time ago.
I’m bowled over by the simplicity of their living space. No furniture—[...]
Dogs and Goddesses
If you like stories with dogs and interesting men, you would like this novel. I sure did! DOGS AND GODDESSES is a fun read, full of smart dialogues and dogs that talk. You would understand dog-talk after taking the temple tonics offered by the risen-again ancient goddess, Kammani Gula, as in the case of the three female protagonists in the story.
Abby Richmond, Daisy Harris and Shar Summer are three women who crossed path at a local dog obedience-training school. The dog trainer is the now-risen Mesopotamian goddess Kammani […]
Let the Right One In
The story begins in Part One on 21 October 1981 and ends in Part Five on Friday 13 November. A lot happen in that slightly more than three weeks’ time—dark and disturbing. I am glad I read the book because it is so different from the vampire books I have devoured (oh yes, I’m quite fond of vampires and the paranormal world).
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is about a child vampire living in Blackeberg in the suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. But this child, Eli, is actually a 200-year-old vampire [...]
Savor the Moment (Book Three in the Bride Quartet)
SAVOR THE MOMENT by Nora Roberts is the third book in the Bride Quartet. In the Bride Quartet, we meet childhood friends Parker, Emma, Laurel, and Mac, and their love stories. Together, they are the co-owners of Vows, a wedding planning company.
In Book 3, we savor the love and tension between wedding baker Laurel McBane and Ivy League lawyer Delaney "Del" Brown who also happens to be Parker’s older brother. Parker’s story will be the last one in the quartet, Happy Ever After.
Laurel has had a mega crush on Parker’s older brother Del for the longest time from childhood.
Page 69
"Marshall McLuhan, the guru of The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), recommends that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Rule One, then: browse powerfully and read page 69."
The above is an extract from John Sutherland's HOW TO READ A NOVEL: A User's Guide.
Interview with Author Joan Hon
Today, I have the great honor of hosting an interview with Joan Hon, a remarkable author and academician. Besides writing books, she also taught Physics to Junior College students and mentored Olympiad students in one of Singapore’s top Junior Colleges.
The Penang-born Singaporean author, already in her sixties, was here in Penang on Tuesday, October 12 to share about her journey as an author. The engaging Book Talk was held at Precious Ones Collections. Now she shares more on my blog! She wrote a science-fiction romance STAR SAPPHIRE (1985) under the pseudonym Han May, which won a High Commendation Award from the Book Development Council of Singapore in 1986, the same year she was awarded a Commendation prize for her book RELATIVELY SPEAKING on her father and childhood memories in Penang. Please join me in welcoming Joan Hon!
Joan Hon Book Talk
I’ll be taking a day off from work on 12 October to attend a book talk and meet with author Joan Hon. Such bookish events are rare in my part of the world (Malaysia), so when Jo Lau contacted me about the author, I was excited! The Internet brought Jo and I together in July this year in a blog event. She is a Singaporean living in Penang with her husband. Jo told me she found me through my blog and I’m really glad!
Here’s more on the bookish event: […]