Books Love Me – Reviews

I would give ‘Does My Head Look Big In This?’ a rating of 7 out of 10. The whole story is told from Amal’s point of view. Amal is 16 and she considers herself as a young Australian-Palestinian-Muslim girl. A few days before the start of a new school term, she contemplates whether to don the hijab or not.

To help her decide, she compiles a ‘To Wear or Not To Wear’ list with 2 columns. The column on the left contains the names of people who will not treat her like an outsider whilst the names in the right column are bound to make her life a living hell if she wears the hijab. Well, so far, the list looks balanced but it’s still a huge decision. Wearing the hijab is not a small matter. In her new school, it’s probably social suicide if somebody wears that every single day.

Anyway, I think you know that she does wear it on her first day of school and got a lot of stares from her schoolmates. Luckily she has the support of two close friends, Simone and Eileen. However, she’s disappointed when her crush, Adam Keane, failed to strike up a conversation with her during the first week of school. Tia and her obnoxious friends, on the other hand, are not exactly kind to her.

Amal also turns to her other two best friends from her old Hidaya Islamic College, Leila and Yasmeen. Leila is extremely intelligent but her mother can’t wait to marry her off while she’s still young. Therefore, there’ll be eligible suitors coming to dinner every time. Yasmeen is the carefree one and simply adores shopping.

As the story goes on, Amal, Simone, Eileen, Adam, and another boy, Josh become fast friends in school. They’ll spend lunch time together, joking with one another, and of course, waiting to see how things will turn out. Simone likes Josh but isn’t sure if he feels the same way. Adam seems to be giving Amal the signals and she’s giving them back.

I enjoyed reading about Amal’s grumpy Greek neighbour, Mrs. Vaselli and how she accuses Amal of doing things like throwing empty cigarette packs in her garden. Amal insists that she doesn’t smoke but Mrs. Vaselli will only repeat what she said. But as Amal gets to know the old lady better, she sees that there’s sadness behind her grouchiness.

It’s impressive that the author has managed to write about a serious issue like wearing the hijab in a light-hearted way. There are hilarious moments at the beginning of the book but as it progresses, it becomes serious as we follow Amal through her trials and tribulations. In the place where Amal lives, the act of covering one’s head in the name of religion is frowned upon as it is not part of their culture. However, in Malaysia, it is normal to see tudung-clad (tudung = headscarf) Muslim women walking around and nobody bats an eyelid.

So, to sum it up, being different is a tough thing and being ridiculed for being different makes things even tougher. In Amal’s case, even her parents fear for her if she chooses to wear the hijab full time. This book tells the story of a gutsy young girl who is determined to stick with her own beliefs even though it’s in a place where not everyone approves of them. Well, we don’t need everyone’s approval, do we?

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Culture Squad, KittyCat, Alessandra

Buy Does My Head Look Big In This?

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, KittyCat

The first book of the popular Shopaholic series, Confessions of a Shopaholic! 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

Mark Haddon’s second best-selling novel isn’t anything like his first. I enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time but I can’t say the same for A Spot of Bother. However, it’s an easy book to read because Haddon wrote in short sentences and small paragraphs. Plus very short chapters too.

The story is about George Hall’s and his family’s adventures. I say ‘adventures’ because the things happening to them sound like that. George is a retired guy and he’s in the middle of building his own studio in his garden so that he has his own space to draw and paint. He also has some lesion on his hip, which he thinks is cancerous and he also thinks he’s lost his marbles.

Then, his wife, Jean, is having an affair with George’s old friend from work, David. Sometimes she feels guilty about it all and feels bad betraying her husband. One day, David poured out his feelings to her and asked her to be with him forever. To leave George and be with David, that is. But Jean doesn’t think she’s ready to take such a huge, drastic leap.

Besides that, Katie, their daughter, is about to get married a second time. She already has a little son, Jacob, from her first marriage. This time, she’s going to marry Ray. Unfortunately, her parents and brother don’t think that he’s quite suitable for her. Also, Katie isn’t sure if she’s in love with him or not.

Finally, there’s Jamie, Katie’s brother. He’s a homosexual and he’s having trouble with his partner, Tony. Jamie is also trying to get his life back together, trying to rebuild the perfect life he created for himself. Anyway, things don’t always go to plan, do they?

Well, doesn’t it sound like a pretty exciting book? I find that things got more exciting after about 60% of the book. My favourite part of the book was when Jamie’s mother and sister greeted Tony after a very unexpected scene, which shocked family and friends.

Actually, most of the book is about George. Yeah, it’s quite pitiful for him. He admits he’s afraid of death and yet he doesn’t get a thorough medical check-up. His family’s too busy to take any notice. They took it for granted that he could take care of himself, like he always did.

I guess this book would be perfect to pick up to read if you’re having a particularly rough day. While reading, imagine you’re in the shoes of any one of the characters (except little Jacob, though), then perhaps you might feel a little bit better.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Bibliolatrist

The story in this book occurs before Shopaholic and Sister but I don’t mind because it’s quite fun when you know what’s happened already. All I needed to know was HOW it all happened.

It’s still about Becky Bloomwood, excessive shopper. As usual, she buys stuff she fancies and then forgets all about it. She can’t pack light and is just an incredibly unrealistic person. I feel she’s an over-confident person and when disaster befalls her, she’s landed in total shock. Not good.

Anyway, she managed to land herself in a huge debt and what’s worse, it’s been splashed onto the Daily World newspaper, for all in England to read! She only found out about it while on a holiday weekend with her career-obsessed boyfriend, Luke. Haha! She’s obsessed with shopping while Luke is obsessed with making it big in his career and in New York!

Her flat mate and best friend, Suze has tried to warn her to control her shopping but Becky is such an impulsive shopper. Becky even bought numerous frames made by Suze even though Suze insisted that she’ll make one especially for her. However, Becky bought the frames because she wants to encourage the other customers in the shop to buy them as well.

I was quite annoyed at the part where Becky’s neighbour, Tom, who was getting married to Lucy. She came to the wedding alone, so what? Why should the bride and the other guests keep asking her where’s her supposed boyfriend, Luke? That was simply childish. Well, it was partly because all of them thought Becky is in love with Tom and they were expecting her to break down any moment during the wedding. I felt sorry for her then!

It’s titled Shopaholic Abroad because Becky goes to New York with her boyfriend, Luke. He might be transferring his business there. She then meets his mom and it was indeed a memorable experience for her albeit a horrible one! And are TV people always making empty promises even though they sound so darn convincing?

It’s an entertaining and light-hearted book. The ending was as sweet as sugar as it’s a happy ending.

This book is also published as Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: bethany

Buy Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

Published in 2004
ISBN: 0385338090

My first Shopaholic book! No, I didn’t buy it but I was extremely lucky to have borrowed it from my university’s library. Usually, popular fiction books such as this Shopaholic book would have flown off the shelves in the blink of an eye!

I’ve quite enjoyed reading her Undomestic Goddess book, so I was looking forward to a nice and easy read with Shopaholic. And easy it was!

The word ‘Shopaholic’ sounds interesting enough and it’s almost become a frequent usage in daily conversations and jokes. Well, for me though!

I think I should have read the first book in this Shopaholic series, which might be The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. But, it doesn’t matter now which book I read first as it’s really easy to understand the story and also to understand Becky Bloomwood who adores shopping completely!

In Shopaholic & Sister, Becky’s already married to Luke Brandon and the story starts with their traveling around the world kind of honeymoon. They planned to travel around for one year but after ten months of living like nomads, the Brandons decide to go back home in London.

Becky got the idea of going back home unexpectedly and surprise her parents and friends as well. She doesn’t know that there would be a surprise waiting for her at home, too.

Anyway, all did not go as planned. She expected everyone to be eager to hear stories of her travels but so much has happened at home that her stories had to take a back seat. The surprise her parents gave her was: She has a sister! Half-sister actually. Becky’s dad had a relationship with another woman way before he met Becky’s mom. And the sister tracked them down!

Since Becky’s best friend, Suze, has found another friend to hang out with, she looked forward to spending quality sister-time with Jess, her newfound sister. To me, I feel that Becky is too overconfident and expects other people to find her ideas and activities useful and fun.

But it’s probably because she’s enjoyed spending time with Suze so much before that she thinks Jess would have the same interests, too. For example, shopping! To Becky’s great dismay, Jess hates shopping! In fact, Jess is the total opposite of her. While Becky buys almost everything and anything she lays her eyes on, Jess is quite a spendthrift. She tries to save money whenever she can and thinks before buying, unlike Becky, who buys stuff on impulse.

Then, things start to go wrong. Jess hates Becky and said they might not even be sisters. Becky thinks her husband, Luke, is starting to hate her, too for spending too much money and not thinking rationally. She also thinks that Luke wants her to be more like Jess.

So, when Luke goes to Cyprus on a business trip, Becky hastily packed her stuff and heads off to Cumbria to find Jess. To apologize and to ask for help. And also to learn to be more like her, if possible!

However, when she reaches Jess’ front door, she is SO NOT welcomed there. What do you think will happen then? Will Becky just give up and go home without reconciling with Jess? Is Jess really her half-sister?

This book tries to be funny but at some parts, I am just annoyed. For example, how can Becky not know the exchange rates for money? She is a financial journalist! She should know. And Becky’s quite childish for a grown-up, too. All in all, I like this book for its simple storyline and that makes reading it easier and faster!

Buy Shopaholic & Sister