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Showing posts from December, 2021

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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The Graveyard Book By Neil Gaiman 312 pages Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (2008) The Graveyard Book began with... death. Three of a family – the father, the mother, and the daughter – were assassinated by a man called Jack. But the youngest child – a boy barely two years old – escaped Jack’s knife when he crawled out of his cot and out the door, which had been left open by Jack. The baby crawled and tottered away into the night, unaware of Jack who was desperately trying to trace his whereabouts in order to finish him off, too. The infant eventually arrived at an old graveyard, where he was found by Mr and Mrs Owens, the spirits of a childless husband and wife who were interred in the graveyard some two hundred years ago. The couple was thinking of leaving the baby as he was, but an apparition of the slain mother appeared at that moment to plead Mrs Owens to protect her baby, indicating that someone was out there to harm him. Without much information regarding what really hap

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

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Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy By Ally Carter 236 pages Published by Hyperion Paperbacks (2008) Apparently this story is a part of a series called the Gallagher Girls , centred around the lives of girls studying at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. The Gallagher Academy, to an outsider’s eyes, is an exclusive private school that catered to the snobbish elite community. But in reality, it is an exclusive school to train the next generation of spies and government operatives. They studied covert operations, surveillance and counter-surveillance, foreign language and culture, and history of espionage, among others. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy began with Cameron “Cammie” Morgan’s debriefing session with the CIA; apparently she had landed into trouble after committing some sort of security breach by getting involved with a boy named Josh (anyone who had not read the previous title in this series can only wonder what had happened).  Cammie is the daughter of great CIA op

The Ugly Princess and The Wise Fool by Margaret Gray

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The Ugly Princess and The Wise Fool By Margaret Gray 167 pages Published by Scholastic Inc. (2003) The Ugly Princess and The Wise Fool was a truly unconventional fairy tale: the book had highlighted the importance of loving one's self and being true to yourself - especially that other people had already love you for who you are. This book also underlined the fact that when we did not get something we wished for, sometimes it was all for the best. Once upon a time, at a time where everyone used to be very beautiful (beautiful princesses and princes, beautiful tailor’s daughter, and such), the Kingdom of Couscous was left in a shock after an ugly princess was born. Princess Rose was a third-born daughter, and it baffled everyone how she became a skinny, freckled, buck-toothed girl with bristly hair. Her parents, the King Irwin and Queen Julia, as well as her two older sisters, improperly named Asphalt and Concrete, were all beautiful people. However, despite her non-conventional loo

Antologi Suamiku (Terfaktab Media)

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Antologi Suamiku 176 halaman Diterbitkan oleh Terfaktab Media (2015) Antologi Suamiku terlahir daripada niat penerbit indie ini untuk melantunkan ide yang lari daripada kebiasaan yang diketengahkan oleh novel-novel cinta ‘ mainstream ’ masa kini seperti cinta romantis, suami yang berbicara manis, ‘ happily ever after ’ dan yang sewaktu dengannya. Antologi ini menampilkan 18 buah cerpen berkonsep parodi novel-novel cinta popular, yang berhasil membawa pembaca kembali ke alam ‘realiti’ tentang perkahwinan orang kebanyakan di Malaysia ini: suami berhati kering, suami nak kahwin lagi, isteri curang, realiti andartu, atau paling kurang pun kisah kehidupan suami isteri yang normal (yang tidak seperti jalan cerita novel cinta terlaris). Beberapa karya dalam buku ini turut membawa kisah ‘bukan realiti’ yang berbaur ‘pulp fiction’, namun tetap membawa impak yang serupa. Ringkas kata, hati pembaca yang bujang dijamin tidak akan berbunga-bunga cinta dan tidak akan timbul angan-angan untuk berkah

Heaven’s Hero by Colleen Shannon

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Heaven’s Hero By Colleen Shannon 390 pages Published by Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc. (2000) Heaven’s Hero is connected to Heaven’s Rogue , in which case, characters from one book also made appearances in the other. The happenings in Heaven’s Rogue preceded Heaven’s Hero , but I personally opined that there is no necessity to read them both, for each novel can be enjoyed on its own. However, if you wish to be more in-depth with the character background stories, then reading Heaven’s Rogue first would certainly help. Nicco “Nick” Escavido felt like a total loser after his wife left him a few years back to be with another man, and more so when he screwed his job as a police officer while trying to do the right thing. Nick had thought that exposing a corrupted fellow officer was the right thing to do, but he made an enemy along the way and the episode had left him feeling apathetic. Nick then left his job and lost his self respect altogether. Nick lived with his younger brother Ernie

The Sultanate: Lord Empero oleh Elvroseth

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The Sultanate: Lord Empero Oleh Elvroseth 883 halaman Diterbitkan oleh Suara Hati Publication (2021) Dalam novel setebal lebih 800 halaman ini, garisan masa yang berlalu adalah lebih daripada satu tahun lamanya. Sejujurnya terlalu banyak perkara yang berlaku dalam tempoh tersebut. Namun malang sekali di penghujung novel ini, hampir kesemua watak boleh dikatakan kembali ke status quo asal sejak halaman pertama. Kisah mereka masih tiada konklusi – kerana segalanya hanya bakal terjawab dalam sekuel novel ini nanti. Dalam buku pertama ini, semua watak berputar-putar ibarat bermain merry-go-round – dan bila-bila sahaja, salah seorang daripada mereka boleh terjatuh dari merry-go-round itu, menuju ajalnya.  Novel ini sepatutnya mengambil latar masa hadapan yang bersifat distopian, namun ada kemungkinan juga novel ini lebih berupa ‘ alternate reality ’ berbanding distopia masa hadapan. Ini kerana novel ini mengandungi rujukan kepada budaya popular masa kini (seperti Blackpink dan Ji Chang Wo

Camellias For Caroline by Angela Morel

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Camellias For Caroline By Angela Morel 221 pages Published by Mills & Boon Limited (1985) This novel, set in the 1860s, told the story of Caroline Emerson, who went from being a respectable heiress to a penniless woman after her father’s business took a downward turn. When she had been the pretty daughter of a successful shipping magnate, Caroline was wooed by the nobleman Edward Lockwood. But as soon as Cedric Emerson’s business began to suffer losses, Edward began to doubt his relationship with Caroline and decided to cancel their wedding. Cedric passed away soon after and Caroline was left to live with her aunt’s family, who looked down on her and always humiliated her regarding her cancelled marriage to Edward. Cedric left no money for Caroline; almost all their belongings had been sold away to pay off the debts he incurred. One day, Caroline decided to leave England and start a new life in India as a governess. She had been corresponding with Hugh Merton, her late father’s goo