The Pensieve

The 5th in the Thursday Next Series, I feel that it’s less tightly constructed then previous series, but I liked it better than ‘Something Rotten’, cuz the chronoguards and that whole concept was just too difficult to assimilate. Haha… The current issue has lot of subplots but no one main story so it’s kind of like a pleasure-reading thingy rather than a race to finish in order to find the ending… It talks about Thursday’s experiences with Thursday5 and Thursday Next1.4 both aspiring Jurisfiction agents, her troubles with her son Friday and her continuing of SpecsOp under the cover of Acme Carpets.

Ok by now, I think non-Fforde readers will be well and truly lost… Shall just share an interesting riddle in the book:

You have two identical doors. Behind one is safety you seek, and behind the other is a… tiger. Guarding the door of each is an individual, one who always tells the truth, and the other who always lies. You can’t know which is which, nor which door is guarded by whom - and you have one question, to one guard, to discover the correct door… to safety.

So what’s the answer to this riddle?

(answer ’s in the comments)

Ellie Simmons faces what seems like a trip to purgatory when she is confronted by an invitation to her ancestral home… Armed with no significant other but plenty of cellulite she decides to hire a ‘boyfriend’ from Eligibility Escorts to ease her trip. Little does she know that her seemingly harmless pretence would bring about such an interesting story…

Her relative passes away and leaves behind the weirdest/queerest of all wills… One that stipulated that she and she ‘fiancee’ live at the ancestral home for 6 months, she lose all her cellulite (requiring her to loose like a pound or two per week) and for them to discover the ‘treasure’ within the house by the end of 6 months or all the fortune would go to her money grabbing, nasty relations.

What follows are six months of hard work, self discovery, and a charming romance-mystery awaiting readers…

This is by far Reichs’ most intriguing work in her series that features Dr Temperance Brennan, anthropologist. In this latest novel, Dr Brennan sets about to uncover the identity of a young girl’s remains, from a region familiar to her and her best friend, who’d mysteriously disappeared years ago. We also see more of her sister, who is just about the opposite of Tempe, being frivolous, flamboyant and decidedly rash. The story is about 6 missing girls and an investigation which introduces us to the world of child pornography. Quite grotesque, really, but the ending is one of Reichs’ best, as there is such a delightful twist and an interesting insight into human nature.

‘Lord Of the Flies’ was a book which had a title that chilled me to the bones even when I was a 12 year old ravenously devouring horror stories. The notions of savages and cannibalism which were the two words jumping out at me from the synopsis were enough to cause my guts to churn. This strange feeling persisted, till recently when I came across the book dressed up in an innocently colourful hard cover at our splendid newest library.

I’ve always been intrigued by the title, wondering what or who that ‘lord’ was.

A group of British schoolboys on an expedition get marooned on a sunny tropical island, with no adults, no survival skills and no experience of island living except for what they’ve read in Robinson Crusoe and the likes of such tales. Initially, they are civilised, organised and even hold assemblies to decide upon what to do. But as the days past, a savagery starts to emerge in them, they talk about hunting, killing and drawing blood from their prey, to the extent that they even start painting their faces and living in a tribe. Eventually, there is a power struggle as Ralph, the former head, who is level-headed and focussed on rescue is pitted against the blood thirsty Merridew and Roger, who are concerned about hunting, about using violence to resolve disputes, who steal fire from the others and build their own fort against the others.
The initial quarrels gravitate to the death of Simon, one of their own. He is clubbed and speared albeit accidentally, when the tribe is caught up in one of their almost ritualistic play-acting of the hunt.
Soon, the entire tribe turns against Piggy, the only one with brains in this group, and against Ralph. The conch, which bears the representation of order and civlisation amongst them, is crushed into smittereens, signifying the final descent into savagery.
Following the two unfortunate deaths, the rest turn against Ralph, and start hunting him with promises of ‘a spear sharpened at both ends’. Chilling indeed, as we see such innocent children playing by the lagoon transformed into painted faces welding spears and attacking fellow human beings.

I feel that Golding uses this novel to portray that men are inherently evil / savage / primal and that if there weren’t any civilisation or technology to bring us forward we would be stuck in a rut – killing, hunting and fighting each other to assert power over one another. I’m not sure whether I agree or not. Remember how there’s this Chinese Idiom that says that people are innately innocent? Or perhaps we are not born evil but circumstances force us to become ‘evil’ in order to survive? That would explain for office politics wouldn’t it? Of backstabbers and whistle blowers, and the whole myriad of undesirable characters…

Nevertheless, I’m glad I finally read it, that’s one less thing in this world that creeps me out. :D

Rating: ***.5/*****
Genre: Fiction
Summary: Entertaining and engaging story about a multimillionaire in the advertising business who decides to retire to the country side, set up his own hotel with a charming French lady and his ex-butler… He aims to create a different sort of life for himself, but little does he know that his happy little bubble is about to be endangered by the arrival of a band of thieves executing the perfect bank robbery who chance upon his hotel…

Sue Townsend writes about the British prime minister in a most impudent way, which is both entertaining and exhilarating. I can’t imagine such a book on our prime minister would ever get published in Singapore, and even if it did, I wonder what would happen to the author. Hah. It’s sad when a society isn’t open-minded enough (or confident) enough to laugh at herself.

In this daring satire of the British royal family, Edward Clare, the PM, crossdresses and transforms into Edwina St. Clare. Accompanied by Jack Sprat, policeman, they traverse across England, into the suburbs, the rural areas, the crime-filled areas… As he bumbles his way through life as commonfolk, he learns the value of family and personal life, and discovers for himself who he really is and what he really wants. In addition, he discovers the impracticality of many of those policies that he agonised over, and also learns to address the ‘bread and butter’ of his own nation.

A delightfully breezy read indeed!

Peter Mayle, acclaimed author of ‘A Dog’s Life’, entralls his readers once more with ‘Anything Considered’. In a desperate attempt to earn some money to ensure his continued stay in St Martin in France, Benito Luciano, decides to advertise himself in the newspapers.

“Single Englishman seeks jobs. Speaks fluently in several languages, anything considered except marriage”.

He draws the attention of a multi-millionaire Julian Poe who wishes him to impersonate himself to live in Monaco so that he could evade the taxes, ‘a bit of harmless deception’ which would do both them good, as Poe had put it. Unfortunately, things aren’t as simple as both had hoped. In no time, Benito becomes deeply entrenched in a plot to lay hands on this secret serum to grow truffles, enabling its owner to control the truffle market, which would be tonnes more financially-rewarding than the oil market.

It’s an exciting read, which makes one loathe to put the book aside after embarking on the adventure (which accounts for why I finished it in less than a day).

The story is based in a society where deviation from the norm is frowned upon, where ‘deviants’ are sought out, persecuted and driven into the wilderness. Any plants that are too big, too small, too many leaves, of the wrong colour, go up in flames, and any animal that might have a extra toe, a missing ear would be slaughtered. All these done to ‘appease’ the Lord. It is a world where people are close to being fanatics are ‘preserving the true image of God’ ie, anyone who unfortunately had any physical difference would be persecuted.

David, who has grown up as one of the ‘true images’ has secretly known himself to be different. He, and a group of select few are able to communicate in thought images. As these children grow up, they learn the terror of being found to be different, even if they were superiorly different. They manage to keep this special talent (what I would call it) hidden from the rest, until one of them marry a Norm and the secret leaks out.

What follows is an exciting escape into the Fringes and a journey of self discovery. They learn that everything is merely a difference in perspective. Interesting enough, in the Fringes, there are communities of people where everyone is ‘different’ in the same way, and the resultant Norm, is considered an abomination of nature.

Beneath all the excitement of a good adventure, this novel brings out everyone’s desire to fit in with the rest, it’s not easy to be different, even in a good way. It takes loads of courage and confidence in oneself to be able to choose one’s own route in life and persevere in it no matter how different and ‘abnormal’ others might perceive it to be.

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham

Rating: ***.5/*****

Somerset weaves a sad but beautiful story about a woman, who, for fear of being ‘left on the shelf’ and wanting to escape the pressures from her mother at home, marries someone so unlike herself that we would know the marriage to be a tragedy even before it started. Kitty is a social butterfly, ravishing and superficial, who’s main worry in life is marrying off poorly and not being invited to important parties. Her new husband, Walter, is a serious, introverted bacteriologist, bound for HK in the course of his job. Over in HK, Kitty meets the glib-tongued and handsome Charlie Townsend, and starts a torrid love affair with him, this was unfortunately discovered by her husband, who then makes her accompany him to somewhere akin to the ‘end of the world’ - - - mei tan fu, a poor village striken with cholera.

Practically quaking in the face of certain death, and heart broken by the ruthless rejection from her lover, Kitty picks up the pieces of her shattered heart and looks forward to a certain sort of death. As expected, life in those areas is hard, but Kitty soon finds solace in the convent, where she becomes caught up with care of the orphans and the sick, more important than nursing a broken heart for someone who didn’t even treasure her. The convent was also her place to atone for what she’d done to Walter, who was really devoted to her.

The story takes a sad turn as Walter himself dies from cholera. Kitty attempts to obtain his forgiveness at his deathbed but is replied with this: The dog it was that died. (the last line of ‘Goldsmith’s Elegy’) (I’ve got to figure this one out.) Kitty returns to HK and during her stay with the Townsends (er-hem), she commits her folly yet again, despite knowing by then the true colours of Townsend. Eventually she takes flight back to London, where she finds her mum dead from cancer while his dad finally becomes Chief Justice (a position her mum had yearned for but never realised while she was alive). Kitty, then pregnant, sets out to carve a new life for herself, and vows to teach her daughter the importance of making her own, informed decisions and life her life like a free person.

To me it’s a story of a girl growing into a woman, of human nature and foibles, of not wallowing in one’s miseries but to find a way out of them, to have hope and courage and be at peace with ourselves.

Yea, which means I shouldn’t be complaining about my current posting. I’ll look forward to my bed every night and to the weekends which I’ll spend decadently with shopping, friends and lots of fun. I absolutely refuse to let work take over or cast a shadow over my precious weekends!!!

“Where The Heart Is” is a story of a seventeen year old pregnant girl (Novalee Nation) who’s abandoned by her boyfriend at a Wal-mart store where she hid and lived till the birth of her child. Alone and a stranger in the city, penniless and homeless, she meets various people who accompany her on this journey of self discovery and growth.

Forney Hull, the librarian, who teaches her the value of wisdom, who encourages her to pursue studies, Sister Husband, the charitable neighbour who eventually takes her and Americus (the newborn) in, Mr Whitecotton, who taught her a different world, one through the lens of a camera.

Slowly begins a new life, where she learns to treasure herself, to convince herself that she does deserve good things, and that though she had a bad early start in life, it didn’t mean that she was condemned to such a life in the future.

All in all, this book might not have the oomph or the excitement like ‘Life of Pi’ (Yann Martel), nor does it have the gut-wrenching quality of ‘Once We Were Orphans’ (Kazuo Ishiguro) but in its own special way, helps readers nourish their souls. It’s a close second to Dodie Smith’s ‘I Capture The Castle’.