Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

Friday, August 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

I remember Beauty and the Beast as the first Disney movie video cassette that my father bought for me. I don’t recall how old I was, probably around six or seven years old. Since then, I grew up only knowing that the heroine in the story was Belle and the hero was Beast. Of course, I disliked Gaston but cheered up whenever the enchanted teapots, cups, clocks and candlesticks in the castle made their appearances. Ohh, and I still drool over the enormous library!

So I was enlightened when I read Beauty and the Beast on my Kindle. Jeanne-Marie wrote an abridged version in 1756 and it was later translated into English in 1757. Not bad, they translated fast, didn’t they?

In this story, Beauty is the youngest daughter of a merchant who had three sons and three daughters. Beauty’s two elder sisters were mean and only cared about themselves. They were jealous of Beauty who seemed perfect in every way.

The merchant lost his wealth and the family were forced to move to a farmhouse. A few years later, in the hopes of recovering his wealth, the merchant leaves for the city. Before he left, the sisters requested for dresses but Beauty only asked for a rose.

Unfortunately, the merchant could not regain his money, leaving him as poor as ever. He loses his way when returning home and finds shelter in a castle. Duh, he landed right in the home of the Beast! He eats and sleeps there for the night. The next morning, he could not resist plucking a rose from the garden for Beauty. The Beast appears and demands that in return, the merchant must sacrifice himself or one of his daughters. The merchant goes back home, tells his sad tale and Beauty offers herself up to the challenge.

That was my abridged version. Well, the story was longer than that but you could read it all under an hour. I enjoyed it somehow and simply ignored most of the stereotypes in the story.

Beauty = good, good, good, perfect!
Beast = kind, a bit stupid but smart at the same time.
The merchant = Loves his children very much but willing to sacrifice youngest daughter to the Beast.
Beauty’s sisters = self-centred, envious, cunning.
Beauty’s brothers = no personality.

Unlike The Little Mermaid, this fairy tale has a happy ending.

Have you read the story? Any thoughts on it?

Popularity: 11%

Filed Under: Authors B, Genre - Fantasy, Titles B

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Sunday, July 31, 2011 By 2 Comments

Lena Haloway can’t wait to turn 18 to undergo a procedure to be cured of a disease called love.

Hey wait, what? Yeah, in Delirium, love has been identified as a disease, which can be deadly for the infected person. When one is ‘cured’, he or she will be married to someone already matched earlier to them and they will supposedly live together peacefully and lead normal lives without the complications of love or heartbreak.

Lena may be impatient for her turn to receive the cure but she can’t help thinking back of her mother who committed suicide when Lena was still a child. Unlike other parents, her mother was as loving and fun as Lena could remember. Her mother even said those forbidden words – I love you – to her.

Still, Lena thinks the cure is the best thing for her. That is until she meets Alex, the guy with hair like autumn leaves. She never expected to fall in love with him but that’s what happened. She has never felt like this before and the days towards her procedure are passing by quickly. Now that Lena’s up in the clouds of love, she’s not so keen in getting the cure after all.

There’s been a lot of hype around this book and I was glad to download it from the very awesome Netgalley. I read the synopsis and thought ‘Wow, a story where love is a disease? Not bad.’ The beginning was interesting. I liked reading about Lena’s life, her family and friends. The government that runs Portland, where she lives, sounds very familiar like the one in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. There is constant monitoring on the daily activities of the people so there is no complete privacy and less opportunity for funny business.

I did not know what were ‘sympathizers’ and ‘resisters’ but I sort of figured them out as I continued reading. Anyway, there was no extra background on how love was called a disease. And did none of them ever traveled to other countries? Or people from other countries traveling and staying in the United States?

Lena’s relationship with Alex was new and unexplored so it should be exciting. But I wasn’t really pulled in to the story during the chapters on the new lovebirds. I was glued back to the story at the last few chapters though, wondering about their impending fate.

As for the ending, it’s a cliffhanger. There will be a sequel, Pandemonium, and its expected publication is on March 6 next year.

Popularity: 10%

Filed Under: Authors O, Genre - YA Science Fiction, Titles D

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Thursday, July 7, 2011 By 4 Comments

Ten-year-old Mary Lennox, who has lived in India all her life, is sent to stay with at her uncle Lord Craven’s Misselthwaite Manor in England when her parents died of a disease. Mary has never had a friend all her life and her parents had never bothered much about her. This makes Mary an obnoxious, sullen little girl who always expects her servants to wait hand and foot on her.

As Mary tries to adapt to the strange new ways in her new home, she improves in physique and character. She passes the time by exploring the gardens and trying to make conversations with an old gardener Ben Weatherstaff. Martha, a young chambermaid, is also the only other person who usually speaks to Mary.

Soon, Mary befriends Martha’s younger brother Dickon who has a way of charming animals around him. She lets him in on a secret that she found out a little earlier. She has discovered a garden which was abandoned for 10 years with the door’s key buried somewhere. By some stroke of luck, she found the key, entered the secret garden and felt that she was in a whole new world. So together with Dickon, they begin to work to bring the garden back to life.

Besides the garden, Mary uncovers another secret in the manor that has a hundred rooms. She stumbles upon her 10-year-old sick cousin Colin one night when she followed the sounds of his crying. From then on, she would visit him every day to talk and play, without them realising that they were making each other better and learning to enjoy their childhood at the same time.

I have watched the 1993 movie version of The Secret Garden when I was a kid and loved it till now. While reading the book, images from the movie would constantly pop into my head and I would compare how the characters were portrayed in both versions.

Descriptions were abundant in the book and it made me a little more knowledgeble about gardens and flowers. I was also a bit puzzled but tickled when I read that Dickon has a funny face. How can a person’s face look funny? But Dickon is a good-natured boy and it would be difficult not to like him.

The book got off to a great start but it slowed down for me halfway. It thankfully got better after three-quarter of the book until the ending. I’m glad that I have finally read the book as I have watched two movie versions of it, and like I mentioned earlier, I really liked the 1993 one starring Kate Maberly.

Popularity: 11%

Filed Under: Authors B, Genre - Children's Classics, Titles S

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Thursday, June 9, 2011 By 4 Comments

Taylor Lily Markham was abandoned by her mother at a 7-11 outlet six years ago. She was found by a young woman named Hannah who then becomes her guardian. Taylor has little memory of her father.

Now at the age of 17, Taylor is a house leader in her boarding house at Jellicoe School on Jellicoe Road. She is also in charge of all the boarders in the territory wars with the Townies (kids from town) and Cadets who are Sydney boys who come to Jellicoe for training. The leader of the Cadets also happens to be Jonah Griggs, who Taylor ran away with a few years ago to go search for her mother. However, the attempt was not successful and Taylor never wanted to see Jonah again.

Now, not only does she have to face Jonah after all these years, Taylor has to stand up to other house leaders who are unhappy with her leadership in the wars. To top it all off, Hannah disappears without an explanation and Taylor can only look for clues in some of Hannah’s manuscripts that tell a story about five kids.

I was lost when reading the first few chapters of Jellicoe Road. There was the boy in the tree in Taylor’s dreams, the Hermit and then in came the five kids named Webb, Narnie, Tate, Jude and Fitz from Hannah’s manuscripts which ran as a parallel story. I went like, ‘Who are all these people???’

There were so many names that I could not keep track of who was who and what were their roles in the story. I almost gave up after a few chapters but I kept on reading as I’ve come across many reviews that praised this book to the skies. I loved Marchetta’s Looking For Alibrandi so I felt that there should be something mind-blowing in this book as well. True enough, there was.

I was not disappointed. If you feel like quitting the story halfway, I suggest that you don’t but to continue reading. Whatever that you did not understand in the earlier part of the book will all be answered in the coming chapters. After that, you will want to keep on reading till the end! That’s how it was for me. When I finished the story, I went back to the first chapter and read it again, with a better understanding the second time around.

In a nutshell, the story is mainly about Taylor trying to find her own identity, to know why her mother left her as well as to understand her relationships with Hannah and Jonah.

It is not all depressing though as there are a few funny parts that you will laugh at. I tell you, this is one book that I will be thinking about for a while. I’m also definitely going to get my hands on a copy of another book by Marchetta! Maybe either Saving Francesca or Finnikin of the Rock or her latest one, The Piper’s Son!

Popularity: 12%

Filed Under: Authors M, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles J Tagged With:

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 By 7 Comments

Lara Lington is a 20-something girl and life isn’t looking all that rosy for her. She just broke up with her boyfriend, her business venture with her best friend does not sound promising and she needs to assure her parents that everything in her life is just fine.

Twenties Girl begins with the funeral of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie Lancaster. Lara attends it with her parents and other wealthier relatives including her famous uncle Bill Lington who owns a successful coffee business.

Halfway through the funeral ceremony, Lara discovers that she can hear, see and talk to the ghost of her great-aunt Sadie. Now this is not a creepy ghost story. The ghost Sadie is 20-something like Lara, and she is very fashionable and flirtatious.

Sadie cannot rest in peace until her precious dragonfly necklace is found and returned to her. This is where Lara needs to help Sadie find the missing necklace so that she will be free from the constant presence of Sadie’s ghost.

I was sad when I got to the last page of the book. I really enjoyed the entire story. It was an easy, fun read and I liked the silly things that both Sadie and Lara get into. Lara, who still refuses to get over her ex-boyfriend, would get Sadie to spy on him and report to her. In return, Lara would woo an American guy to go out on a date just so Sadie can dance with him. Of course, the guy does not know about Sadie. He will be communicating with Lara but Sadie would be the one prompting the pick-up lines.

However, I could not help noticing that there were similarities between the characters Lara and Becky Bloomwood from the Shopaholic series, also by Sophie Kinsella. Not that Lara is a shopaholic but there is the familiar optimism in her which is in Becky’s character too.

But other than that, I loved the book. If you haven’t read any of Kinsella’s books, I highly recommend Twenties Girl. It may be 400-plus pages long but you will just fly through the book because the story pulls you in and make you want to know what happens next.

Popularity: 10%

Filed Under: Authors K, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles T Tagged With:

Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange

Saturday, February 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

Oh, wouldn’t you like to take a peek into the diary of every woman’s dream man, Mr Darcy? If you don’t already know him, he’s that pompous guy from Jane Austen’s novel, Pride And Prejudice. He’s rich, handsome, intelligent, well-mannered but has problems making new friends.

My friend told me that Mr Darcy came out tops as the perfect man for women in a voting poll! Love struck girls worldwide have long been swooning over him after drooling over hotshot actors Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen who played this unforgettable character in two different film versions of P&P.

So, Mr. Darcy’s Diary is written entirely in the form of a diary where Mr Darcy pens down all his thoughts and ‘secrets’. Yay, right??? I mean, you must want to know how he felt the first time he met Elizabeth Bennet and how he dealt with his feelings for her. When did he even start liking her? What did he think of her? You can find the answers to these questions in his diary.

The flow is similar to P&P but this time, the story is from Mr Darcy’s point of view. From reading it, we know that he does not find Elizabeth beautiful at first (oh my gosh) and he just couldn’t help falling for her despite unsuccessful attempts to put her out of his mind. But no matter what he tries to do, he’s always thinking of her or sneaking peeks at her when she’s around. It’s almost like reading the diary of a teenager in love!

There are even instances where you can sense some jealousy on his part. Well, he does have reason to be jealous since Elizabeth had been defending the colourful Mr Wickham vehemently on one occasion.

Wait, there’s more! Mr Darcy continues updating the diary after being married to Elizabeth. This new development is certainly interesting.

The author may have stayed really close to the book but I’m not an expert on the similarities and differences to the original version as I read P&P a few years ago. I can say that this diary would no doubt pique much interest among P&P fans who just can’t get enough of the ‘most disagreeable, horrid man’, as how Mrs Bennet once described him!

I can’t wait to read two other books by the author – Mr. Knightley’s Diary and Wickham’s Diary.

Popularity: 12%

Filed Under: Authors G, Genre - Historical Romance, Titles M
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