29th June, 2008

Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman

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This would be a good mystery book to read on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Murder, a plane crash, court cases, kidnapping, spying……these are what you can expect from this mystery story. You’ll also follow the heroine, Fifi Cutter and her unemployed, good-looking half-brother, Bosco, who assists her with her investigations.

There are a lot of details in it and it’s quite hard to follow thoroughly, actually. Therefore, my lazy Saturday afternoon wasn’t that lazy after all, as I was figuring out what I was reading. You can also expect twists and turns, so you had better not be sleepy while reading this book, if you want to keep up with the pace.

Anyway, let’s look at the title. Who’s the crazy fool? He was Jim Farnswell, ex-employee of Skyblu Charter Jet Service. What did he do? Well, he apparently hijacked a private plane where there were two Chinese businessmen on it, killed the two pilots, and then crashed the plane. Unfortunately, when it crashed, it also killed an Earl Rayburn, a retiree who was just sitting in his home, relaxing.

Now, the matter has been brought to court. Reginald Wong of Wong, Wu & Chu is representing the families of the dead passengers and VJ Smith, Fifi’s close friend, is representing Earl Rayburn’s widow who’s seeking justice for her husband who did not do anything wrong but only happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. On the defendants’ side, Dan Boatwright represents Skyblu and Janet Porter is for Grund Aviation Technologies who was blamed ‘for not putting a locking door from the cabin into the cockpit’, which may have prevented Farnswell from shooting the pilots.

Let’s go back to Fifi now. In the first chapter, she was hired to tail Steven Burton, an ex-employee of Wong, Wu & Chu. He claimed to have a back injury due to helping out at the office last Christmas and was claiming compensation for it. However, Reg Wong does not believe him entirely. That’s why he sent Fifi to follow him around secretly and get evidence to prove that he does not seem to suffer from back injury. Well, it wouldn’t be exciting if Fifi didn’t land herself in some trouble while on the job, right? Right.

Later, Fifi gets involved in the Skyblu case when she’s hired as a document clerk, Steven Burton’s old job. Her job may seem boring but boring was not in her vocabulary. Someone is out to get her or get something from her. In the meantime, she and Bosco try to figure out the puzzles that appear in this Skyblu case. She also begins an unlikely friendship/romance with the ‘enemy’, Dan Boatwright who’s the opponent, much to VJ’s chagrin.

I mistook ‘Crazy Fool Kills Five’ as a kid’s book because of its bright, attractive cover. But then, the title and the picture on it are certainly not kid-friendly. Nevertheless, I thought the book was just okay and there wasn’t much suspense in it. Fifi didn’t really stand out as a strong character even though she’s the main one. It was a fun read though. You’ll enjoy the conversations/arguments between Bosco and Fifi.

I’d also like to thank Gwen Freeman for sending me an ARC of this book. :)

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Lisa, Kris, Maryann

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Posted in Adventure, Authors F, Mystery/Thriller, Titles C at 2:03 pm | Comments (10)



16th June, 2008

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul by Jack Canfield, et al

If you’re a teen and you’re feeling like it’s the end of the world, don’t fret. The Chicken Soup book is here to help you. My sister gave me this book a few years ago when I was a teenager and the stories did me good. They never failed to lift my spirits up when I was feeling down. Even now, they are still able to improve my mood.

The Chicken Soup books are actually very good, you know. The stories were sent in by real people who wrote them themselves and therefore, their inspiring stories are downright true. Reading other people’s stories of kindness, motivation, miracles, etc can make you feel better. At least it gives you hope that something good will happen to you in time and all you need to do is wait. Good things come to those who wait.

It seems that there are 101 stories of life, love and learning (as seen on the cover). There are some stories which were written by celebrities like Bill Cosby, Jennie Garth, Jennifer Love Hewitt, A. J. Langer and more. Makes the book even more attractive, huh? Well, at least we know that celebrities are human beings like you and I too and they also go through life’s problems, just like anyone else.

My favourite story would be in the On Love and Kindness category and the title is ‘Life Just Isn’t’ written by Katie Leicht. When I feel sad, I read this story. It reminds me of what life is really about and what I should be doing.

Life isn’t about keeping score. It’s not about how many people call you and it’s not about who you’ve dated, are dating or haven’t dated at all…………

………….But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It’s about how you feel about yourself. It’s about trust, happiness and compassion. It’s about sticking up for your friends and replacing inner hate with love……

It’s not only stories in this book. You will find cartoons, poems, famous quotes, inspirational quotes, etc. I am glad that there are books like the Chicken Soup ones around. I have no doubt that they’ve probably saved people’s lives! Yeah, it’s that effective. If you don’t believe me or if you haven’t read any yet, I strongly recommend that you do it soon.

When you’re physically sick, the real chicken soup is good for you, right? Well, I do know that chicken soup makes you healthy and strong! Anyway, I believe that this Chicken Soup book can be your best friend when you’re lonely.

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Posted in Authors C, Nonfiction, Self-help, Titles C at 5:15 pm | Comment (0)



5th December, 2007

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Probably this book became even more popular after a movie based on this story came out in cinemas. Unfortunately, I did not watch the whole movie yet and I think that Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka is quite suitable. After all, Mr. Wonka is an eccentric character and I’m sure Depp plays the role to perfection.

Anyway, the hero is Charlie Bucket and his family is extremely poor. His father is the only one in his family who is working but his pay is not enough to buy the proper amount of food for his whole family. Also, Charlie’s grandparents are very old and they stay on their bed all day and night. But, everyday, Charlie will sit on the bed and talk with his grandparents. This cheers them up despite having to live in such poor conditions.

And every day on the way to school, Charlie passes Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. When Charlie’s birthday was coming up, something exciting happened too. After so many years since he’s reopened his chocolate factory, Willy Wonka is inviting 5 children to visit his factory. He’s inserted 5 golden tickets in 5 random chocolate bars and the lucky 5 kids who find those tickets can see what it is like inside the factory.

As luck would have it, Charlie is the fifth person to find the last Golden Ticket. The other four lucky finders are Augustus Gloop – a boy who loves to eat, Veruca Salt – a rich, spoilt brat, Violet Beauregarde – a girl who likes to chew on chewing gum, and Mike Teavee – a boy who always watches television. Aren’t they an interesting mix?

The day of the visit is on Feb 1. Charlie is accompanied by his Grandpa Joe. As they enter the factory, all the visitors are overwhelmed by the beauty and the heavenly chocolatey smell there. Wow, wouldn’t I want to drink a cup of melted chocolate from the chocolate river? How I wish there’s a real Chocolate Room somewhere like the one in Wonka’s factory!

Besides that, the children got to see Willy Wonka’s secret workers, the Oompa-Loompas! These Oompa-Loompas are small people who love singing and eating cacao beans. It’s certainly a magical chocolate factory and new surprises lie in wait for all the visitors. Good and bad surprises.

The book that comes after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Oh, Dahl probably doesn’t like the television very much. The joy and wonders of reading is clearly stressed in one of the Oompa-Loompas’ songs!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Tatiana, 20223banana, Alice

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Posted in Authors D, Children's Books, Fantasy, Humour, Modern Classics, Science Fiction, Titles C at 12:04 pm | Comments (10)



28th November, 2007

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Published in 2000
ISBN: 0440241413

The first book of the popular Shopaholic series! It has another title, too, which is ‘The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic’. Yup, we meet Rebecca Bloomwood and in this book, she and Luke aren’t together. Yet. I wanted to know how they met and boy, it’s all absolutely exciting. I couldn’t stop reading last night and just kept turning the pages to know what happens next!

Rebecca or Becky is 25 years old and she completely adores shopping. She’s a financial journalist at Successful Saving magazine. Although she finds her work hopelessly boring, she sticks to it because it’s a job and she gets paid. Oh, she also gets bombarded with numerous letters from her bank and Visa. Why’s that? Well, she’s spent too much and hasn’t paid the bills yet, that’s why!

Finally, taking her dad’s advice, without his knowledge, she tries to C.B. which means ‘cut back’ on her spending. However, she ends up spending more money instead. When she felt like there’s no more hope, her flatmate, Suze, suggested that she tried to Make More Money so she can pay off her bills.

Somehow, Becky applied to be a Saturday shop assistant at a clothes store. Sure, she loves clothes and all, but hiding a pair of jeans from a customer??? That’s hilarious! You never know what she’ll do next. She makes up lies and all kinds of stories just to get her own way and to me, she comes across as a very selfish person.

How’s her relationship with Luke in this book? He’s deemed a genius and he built his company, Brandon Communications from nothing. Also, he’s in the list of the 100 Richest Bachelors. Tarquin, Suze’s cousin, has also made the list. He’s interested in Becky but she’s not that into him, unfortunately. Anyway, things changed after she spotted him in the richest bachelor list.

Becky thinks that Luke Brandon likes her. But, she’s not quite sure. She even had a good time choosing a luggage bag with him. Apparently, the luggage was for his girlfriend! Was she furious when she found out! And all the while she thought that he actually liked her. Since then, she’s never trusted him and decided to hate him.

At the beginning of the book, only bad things happened to her. Partly because she caused them to happen. You feel sorry for her and yet you just want to laugh out loud at her silliness! It’s like the other Shopaholic books I’ve read. And I have two more books to go – the one where she gets married and the other one with the baby!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: BookChica

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Posted in Authors K, Contemporary, Girls/Women, Humour, Titles C at 10:17 am | Comments (4)



11th June, 2007

Carrie by Stephen King

This book really gave me the horrors! After reading the first 20 pages I felt tired and took a nap. And had a bad dream! But, I still continued reading the book nevertheless.

Carrie was Stephen King’s first horror novel and it definitely does its job. Carrie is just a plain girl with the gift of telekinesis. Nobody else knows about it except her mother. The most frightening character in this book is Carrie’s overly religious and completely paranoid mother, Margaret White. Carrie’s father, Ralph, passed away when she was small so, it’s only Carrie and her mother at home.

Their house is decorated with numerous religious pictures (mostly biblical characters in trouble) and also a huge crucifix with the dying Jesus Christ. Carrie’s mother is also always praying for her and her daughter’s sins. To her, it is already a sin for being a woman and also a sin for a woman to have her menstruation.

That was why she never explained to Carrie about the monthly cycle. While cleaning up after playing volleyball in the girls’ locker room at Ewen (U-win) High School, Carrie found blood dripping down her legs. She doesn’t know that she’s begun menstruating and the other girls weren’t any help. They only teased and bullied her.

Carrie was always the butt of jokes in school and she doesn’t stand up for herself. Anyway, one of the girls, Susan Snell, felt badly for Carrie and regretted teasing her in the locker room with the other girls, asked her boyfriend, Tommy Ross to bring Carrie to the prom.

Tommy nervously asked Carrie and she accepted. However, her mother was not very happy about it. In fact, she got hysterical and ordered Carrie to pray for her sins in the closet.

Then, there’s Chris Hargensen, the spoilt daughter of a rich lawyer. She’s forever making Carrie’s life like hell in school and she’s upset that she’s not allowed to go to the prom, as punishment for teasing Carrie in the locker room. No, she won’t sit down quietly of course. She’s going to pay back to Carrie. On Prom Night, too.

Initially, Carrie’s prom night was magical and thrilling. The popular Tommy Ross is her date and she looks stunning in her homemade dress. Lo and behold, Tommy and Carrie were even voted Prom King and Queen of the 1979 Spring Ball. Both went onstage and sat on the special ‘thrones’ for the King and Queen of the prom and Carrie felt terribly overwhelmed when something splashed all over her. Pig’s blood.

From then on, the terror began in the town of Chamberlain.

For the faint-hearted, no reading this book alone at night.

I’ve watched Carrie (1976 film) starring Sissy Spacek as Carrie. My sister did warn me about the chilling sound effects and Carrie’s mother but I watched it anyway. Don’t watch it alone, I’m warning you! =D

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Erin

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Posted in Authors K, Horror, Titles C at 3:46 am | Comments (4)



22nd February, 2007

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

This is the fourth Diana Wynne Jones book that I have read and it is also much better than Hexwood. Maybe because Charmed Life was a lot easier to read, as the language was simple and there were not many complicated names.

Eric and Gwendolen Chant were most unfortunate when their parents died during their family day trip. Then, they were sent to live with their neighbour, Mrs. Sharp. Mrs. Sharp was a certified witch and she was glad to have the children to stay with her. She was also interested in Gwendolen because she was a witch too. Eric, or Cat, as Gwendolen calls him, seems like a normal boy with no magical powers.

Gwendolen was then sent for magic lessons at Mr. Henry Nostrum’s place. He was very proud of her because she’s a very gifted witch and has the potential to rule the world. Well, that was what he told her.

One day, Chrestomanci paid the Chants a visit and invited them to live with him at Chrestomanci Castle. Gwendolen was ecstatic to be going there and it was her who wrote to him in the first place, telling him about her parents’ death. It seemed that Chrestomanci was somehow related to the Chants. Cat was not that excited to go there at all. He would miss Mrs. Sharp terribly.

The young Chants arrive at Chrestomanci Castle to find its surroundings were filled with magic. I like the way Jones described that you could smell magic or feel the magic in the air. I wonder how it’s like to smell magic!

Anyway, Gwendolen expected to be treated like a queen and waited on hand and foot. However, she was thoroughly disappointed when they did not fuss over her like how Mrs. Sharp and Mr. Nostrum did. Furthermore, she was not allowed to have magic lessons with Chrestomanci’s children, Roger and Julia.

I found that things got very interesting when nearing the end of the book. I also believe that this book is the first part of the Chrestomanci series. In other words, this book should be the first book in the Chrestomanci series to be read. The next one to read would be The Lives of Christopher Chant.

Buy Charmed Life

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Posted in Authors J, Fantasy, Modern Classics, Titles C at 9:35 am | Comments (7)



5th February, 2007

Calvin & Hobbes - The Best Cartoon Ever!


I started reading Calvin & Hobbes when I was in my primary school years mainly because it was a comic! The comics are colourful, humorous and incredibly entertaining. I used to read C&H for hours. Calvin is smart yet stupid at the same time.

He uses big, bombastic words but he is frightfully hopeless in Math. His best friend is a stuffed tiger toy, Hobbes, which he imagines is a real and talking tiger.

He detests girls and loves to bully his classmate and neighbour, Susie Derkins. I truly enjoy the ones where there are Calvin and Susie. Susie is smart and friendly. Unfortunately, Calvin stubbornly remains unfriendly and hostile towards her. However, it may be possible that he likes her!

He frequently gives his teacher, Miss Wormwood, lots of headaches. He is also afraid of Moe, a big but not-that-smart bully who always asks him for money. Moe calls Calvin ‘Twinky’.

Calvin is also afraid of his teenage babysitter, Rosalyn. Rosalyn also considers him a little monster but she baby-sits him because she needs the money for college. Something always goes wrong when she comes over to baby-sit him for the evening.

His mom loves to throw him out of the house as he is always making a mess in there. His dad tells him things, which are not quite true. It seems that Calvin’s dad is a resemblance of the comic’s author, Bill Watterson.

The characters in Calvin & Hobbes never grow old. Calvin will be 6 years old forever. It would be awfully interesting if he did grow. But, I guess Mr. Watterson had no plans of making him older!

It’s still fun reading the comics anyway. =D I wonder how many Calvin & Hobbes books are there in total. There is a box set - The Complete Calvin and Hobbes - that includes ALL of Calvin & Hobbes comics and would be a must-have treasure for any Calvin & Hobbes fans. It is also priced at a whopping $90.00!

Buy The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin & Hobbes)

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Posted in Authors W, Comics and Graphic Novels, Humour, Titles C at 10:39 am | Comments (4)



11th December, 2006

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

This is the second time I’ve read this particularly hilarious book about a 15-year-old boy, Christopher who has Asperger’s Syndrome or autism. He lives in Swindon with his father and attends a special school. Christopher is brilliant at Maths and Physics and he aims to sit for the A Level Maths exam. He dreams of taking more A Level exams and then getting a degree to eventually become a scientist.

The story begins with the death of a neighbour’s dog, Wellington. Someone had intentionally stuck a garden fork through the poor dog and since Christopher had been quite fond of the dog, he is determined to find out who killed the dog. Thus, he writes a book with interesting illustrations to tell his story.

As he goes on his journey to find out the dog’s killer, Christopher finds out some secrets, which his father had hid from him. He has also started talking to strangers, something he never does because to him, strangers could be dangerous. Christopher finds comfort in familiarity.

This is a different kind of book and written in an unusual but likeable style. Definitely worth reading again!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Amanda, Bibliolatry

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Posted in Authors H, Humour, Mystery/Thriller, Titles C at 4:03 am | Comment (1)


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