12
Feb 2011

Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange

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%

Categories: Authors G, Genre - Historical Romance, Titles M
21
May 2010

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

By 6 Comments

I thought it’s going to be some sleazy book with inappropriate graphic details in it. But it’s not like that at all. Memories of My Melancholy Whores is actually quite a sad story and the reader will wonder if the main character has been fooled of his money and his heart.

A 90-year-old journalist wishes to give himself a birthday treat by requesting for a virgin girl to sleep with. He’s always been a frequent visitor to the brothel and although the lady pimp has kept offering him virgin prostitutes, he’d decline them. But now that he’s already 90 and probably felt that his time is almost up, he decides to have a wild night of love with an adolescent virgin.

The lady pimp, Rosa Cabarcas finally managed to find a 14-year-old girl who has to take care of her crippled mother and also her younger siblings. When the old man arrived at their room, he finds the girl sleeping and doesn’t wake her up. Instead he only observes her and sings into her ear. He names her Delgadina. When he woke up in the morning, the girl is still sleeping.

It continues like that for the rest of his ‘appointments’ with the young girl. He always never finds her awake and has never spoken to her. But one thing’s for sure. He has fallen in love for the first time in his long, lonely life. He even changes the style of writing for his column with the newspaper that he works with. From dry, old-fashioned topics, he turned his columns into some sort of ‘love letters that all people could make their own’. Of course, love struck readers began responding to his column which had never sparked such interest before.

But could a 90-year-old man find love with a 14-year-old girl whom he has never spoken to at all? If so, does she love him back? She’s probably just there for him because she’s paid to do it. As a poor young girl who has to support her family, she doesn’t have much choice but to turn to where the money is. And the pimp, Rosa must know that the old man is hopelessly devoted to the girl and she could be cheating him out of his money.

The 115-page novella is told from the man’s point of view. He reveals himself somewhat completely to the reader, why he’s never fallen in love, why he has only slept with women he’s paid and more. The first line of the novel is interesting enough to pull the reader in.

The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.

From there on, it’s been an intriguing read. The novel was originally written in Spanish but has been translated into English. If it weren’t for my English class, I would never have picked up this book to read despite its stimulating title. Sorry to disappoint but no, there weren’t any erotic scenes at all. The story only explores the loneliness of a very old man who thinks he has found love at the age of 90.

The author, Gabriel García Márquez is known as ‘Gabo’ throughout Latin America and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He has written two other famous novels which are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. I would sure love to read more of his books!

Other reviews: Literary Musings

Popularity: 7%

Categories: Authors M, Genre - Literature, Titles M
04
May 2009

Malarkey by Keith Gray

By 3 Comments

It’s already bad enough worrying about grades and exams during high school without having to add peer pressure and other juvenile issues like bullying and picking on new kids. Have you ever been the new kid in a new school before? How did your school treat the new ones? Were your classmates nice or nasty to them?

16-year-old John Malarkey is the new kid in town and in school, Brook High. He and his mom have just moved to this new town and his mom decides to open a store selling second hand books. (Wouldn’t I like to live near that one!)

Before this, I have never come across the word ‘malarkey’ before. On the cover of this book, the definition given for the word is ‘bullshit’. Yikes! Imagine having such a name! But I also just looked up Answers.com and it also means ‘exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive’, which in short means ‘bullshit’. Returning to the book, it suits well as the title and the name of the boy. John Malarkey did more than once tried to talk himself out of trouble.

So one day, a beautiful classmate speaks to John and points him out to two other boys who decide to nab his school bag and run away with it. He naturally chases the boys to try to get his bag back. He failed to catch them but needn’t worry because his bag showed up on his desk in his next class. With a stolen teacher’s wallet in it. John is then accused of stealing.

With John taking the blame for a couple of thefts in school, a shady group called the Tailors who loves to wear Adidas shoes, runs the school like never before. They sell stuff like cigarettes and drugs at the tuck shop but the teachers know nothing about it. They also sell signed report cards without teachers’ comments – meaning the students can be their own teacher and write out their own comments!

They don’t even spare the smart kids out of their cunning schemes. The brainy ones make up the Homework Club and they’re forced to do the Tailors’ assignments with no time to concentrate on their own. John then tries to enlist one of the Homework Club kids’ help. What he plans to do is to clear his name as a thief and also to bring down the Tailors. Both in less than 24 hours.

Malarkey is quite an exciting read and felt suspenseful. I also didn’t realize that a few hours in school could feel like a few days! The first 89 pages were focused on what John did after having his bag stolen by the Tailor boys. I thought it went on for days but it’s only hours actually.

You can say that John’s the high school James Bond. A group of trouble makers pick on him, he comes up with plans and tactics, faces the leader of the pack and then figures out on how to proceed from there. Pick up this book to read about how a new kid fights off the bullies in his new school.

Other Reviews: Chicklish

Popularity: 8%

Categories: Authors G, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles M
13
Dec 2008

The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty

By 3 Comments

I thought it’s just an ordinary book about Bindy Mackenzie and how her life is at school. How she’s like a genius and takes her schoolwork seriously. She even takes life a little too seriously. If you had met her, she might seem a little bit odd and perhaps a little unemotional. I guess she rarely shows her emotional side. All that come out from her mouth are hard, scientific facts so it could be like talking with a walking encyclopedia.

Bindy is a student at Ashbury High, in Year 11 which she thinks is the year that will determine her whole life. Yeah, I guess she’s kind of an extremist too. Anyway, there’s a new self-awareness course called Friendship and Development or FAD. Meetings are held every Wednesday in the storage room at the back of the gymnasium. Bindy’s FAD group consists of 8 people: she, Finnegan, Sergio, Emily, Astrid, Elizabeth, Briony, and Toby. Their teacher is Try Montaine from Ohio. Finnegan has been chosen to be Bindy’s FAD Buddy.

It all started from the Name Game where the members of the FAD group were supposed to write a comment on somebody on a piece of paper with the person’s name printed on it. Everyone knows Bindy is a high achiever, has weird social skills and is always ready to lend a helping hand although it’s sometimes rejected. So for the Name Game, Bindy thinks that the other seven students wrote unkind remarks about her. She has promised herself that they’ll pay for it.

Bindy chose animals to represent the members in her FAD group. For example, she compares Toby to a cane toad. She then lists out the unpleasant characteristics of the cane toad and indirectly refers them to Toby’s personality. She does this to all seven of them. However, when things got too far, Bindy deeply regrets her actions.

She decides to make up to them and begins to spend a lot of time watching their whereabouts. She keenly observes them and thinks of new animals to compare them with. Since this new personal project takes up a lot of time, her assignments and schoolwork are neglected. For the first time in her life, she thinks she might fail Year 11!

Furthermore, Bindy loves writing memos, e-mails, philosophical musings in her diary, entries in her dream diary, letters, and also transcripts. She listens to people’s conversations around her and types them out in her laptop. In other words, she loves to eavesdrop but not with bad intentions. She happened to witness the argument between two supposedly substitute teachers. When one slapped the other, Bindy quickly rushed to the victim and offered to testify about the assault. There’s your Bindy, always ready to offer help to the needy.

The book is meant to be funny but I think I only started laughing at page 387. And during the final pages of the book, it’s no laughing matter though. There are 491 pages and I can say that I enjoyed reading almost every one of them. Bindy’s fellow schoolmates were likeable enough. I thought Bindy likes Toby but she also pays a lot of attention to Finnegan. Toby seemed a little retarded in the beginning because nothing he said seemed intelligent. But later in the story, he appeared to be mature and thoughtful.

I have read reviews on Amazon that this book was really boring but I beg to differ. It is far from boring, I assure you. I like it probably because it’s a school story and I like school stories! By the way, The Kool-Aid Mom sent me this book as I was one of the winners in her book giveaway.

Other reviews: Liz B, Bibliovore

Buy Murder Of Bindy Mackenzie


Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors M, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles M
21
Nov 2008

Mo’ Dirty: Still Stuntin’ by Darrell King

By 3 Comments

Peter ‘Whiskey’ Battle or just Whiskey, as called by friends and family, makes his money by being a hired killer. For a large sum of money, he can easily wipe out anyone from the face of the earth without leaving any obvious traces to lead back to him. Yeah, he’s that good.

His friends consist of rich dudes who earn money in ‘unusual’ ways, just like him. His close friend, David Ambrosia, is in the music industry and is doing what he can to make his fiancée, Godiva, a singing superstar. He’s also connected to drug dealers and such. Then, there’s Whiskey’s father, Snookey and his younger brother, Alonzo. Snookey’s stuck in jail but can still run operations from in there. Alonzo frequently lands himself into trouble of some kind.

Whiskey is also protective of his older sister, Tasha, and her kids. She took care of him and Alonzo since they were young when their mother was too busy doing drugs or going after men. Therefore, Whiskey and his family are tough characters who have been through a lot. In fact, most of the characters in this book are tough people.

Anyway, Whiskey’s biggest job is to murder a Police Chief, Mickey O’Malley, who’s determined to eradicate drug trafficking and other drug-related crimes. Whiskey and his cronies find this worrisome because they’ll be losing a lot of money if O’Malley is successful. Therefore, lots of them want to see O’Malley dead and gone.

Mo’ Dirty is definitely different from all others that I’ve read in my life. Initially, I wasn’t used to the street language being used but as I kept reading, I got the hang of it. I wanted to stop reading halfway because I got kind of bored with it but continued because I’m curious to know if O’Malley will be killed or not!

The main characters are all bad-a$$ guys who are impossibly rich and treat women like objects but they’re undeniably loyal. Those who snitched on others to the cops will obviously be murdered. People who don’t keep their promises will likely get their ‘punishment’ too.

I’m guessing that there’s a second book after this one as the story wasn’t quite finished. There’s a “To Be Continued…” on the last page. For those who’d like to read from the bad guys’ point of view, then you can try reading this book. It’s certainly been an extraordinary reading experience.

***Thanks to Tracee Gleichner from Pump Up Your Book Promotion for sending me this book.

Other Reviews: gautami tripathy, April

Popularity: 2%

Categories: Authors K, Genre - Contemporary, Titles M
03
Feb 2008

Maggie Again by John D. Husband

By 11 Comments

When I read the synopsis for Maggie Again, I knew this was going to be a one-of-a-kind kind of book. And I was right! This book was an enjoyable and easy read. Great for reluctant readers.

From the title, it’s obvious that the story revolves around Maggie, an active and vivacious 16-year-old country girl from Cobblers Eddy, Indiana. She enjoys spending time with her three best friends, Tom, Gordie, and Alfie. She and Tom have some romantic thing going on. Alfie is some kind of psychic. Sometimes, he knows what’s going to happen in the future.

Maggie’s world was turned upside down when she found out that her dad was going to move to New York and she and her mom are going too. Initially, she hated the idea of going to live in New York but later she understood how much it would mean to her father to work there. So, they did move to New York.

Maggie also wrote a letter to Tom, asking him to come visit her as soon as possible. After that, Tom, Gordie and Alfie hopped onto a boxcar, which they thought was going to New York. Alfie began to hear some strange music and before they knew it, they arrived in New York. But they arrived in the year 1984. They left Indiana in 1926. This means that they had travelled through time. Interesting, huh?

Meanwhile, in 1926, Maggie found out that the three boys had left Indiana to visit her. But they never came to New York. After weeks of their disappearance, they were declared dead and Maggie moved on with life. She got married and had a son. But she was not happy. She still wished she could see her 3 childhood friends again.

Well, she did meet them in 1984 when she’s already an old lady and the boys are still teenagers. The whole thing seemed completely bizarre for them. Totally unbelievable but it was hard to not to believe since they were all right in front of one another.

So, how do you think it’ll all work out? How will the relationship between Tom and Maggie develop? While reading, I wondered if Maggie will become young again. I wondered if it’s just all a dream for Maggie, Tom, Gordie, and Alfie. That kept me turning the pages.

Maggie Again is John D. Husband’s first novel and not a bad one either. I enjoyed reading it and if there’s a second novel, I’ll surely put it in my list of books to read.

Alfie looked down at her and answered her question in a low and somber voice: “You’re Maggie again.”

***I’d like to thank Lisa Roe for sending me this ARC to review. My very first ARC too! :)

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Mrs S, Lauren

Popularity: 4%

Categories: Authors H, Genre - YA Science Fiction, Titles M
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