The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

I am totally in love with this book! I felt so satisfied reading it, the same feeling i felt when i finished reading Jodi's other books such as Lone Wolf and House Rules. Lone Wolf basically deals with the lives of wolfs, living in packs, the alpha, beta and such while House Rules deals with a child who has the Asperger syndrome. I love these kinds of books because they filled me with new knowledge outside the world of my own. For The Storyteller, it revolves around The Holocaust, the pain and sufferings that those Jews need to face during that time of war. Every bit of the story was so real, so touching and they moved me.

Do you forgive people who hurt you so bad in the past?

Some quotes:

1) Inside each of us is a monster; inside each of us is a saint. The real question is which one we nurture the most, which one will smite the other. (Smite = defeat/conquer)

2) Desperate people often do things that they normally would not do. If you went to the doctor and he said you had a terminal disease, you'd probably walk out of that office feeling

3) Power isn't about doing something terrible to someone who's weaker than you, Reiner. It's having the strength to do something terrible, and choosing not to.

4) “That's the paradox of loss: How can something that's gone weigh us down so much?”

5) “I don't know what it is about death that makes it so hard. I suppose it's the one-sided communication; the fact that we never get to ask our loved one if she suffered, if she is happy wherever she is now...if she is somewhere. It's the question mark that comes with death that we can't face, not the period.” 

6) “If you've lived through it, you already know there are no words that will ever come close to describing it, and if you didn't - you will never understand.”

7) 

First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

As always, albom's books are always mesmerizing. However, upon realizing then fact that the phone calls are just hoax, i felt a little bit disappointed maybe because in life, we do need some miracles here and there to get us through the day. The tragedy that struck Sully was heartbreaking and i do understand why he felt so loss, so distant towards everyone after the incident. I felt so relieved and happy for him when he was given the chance to see Giselle for one last time, even if it just for a short while. At least he can finally move on and bw the best version of a father to his son :)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The story is set in south caroline, during the time where theres still conflict between the white people and black people. Black people were mostly slaves to those white people. They were even barred from most restaurant, churches. Women's standard at that time was very low, sending them off to colleges seemed like a waste of money. They hold classes for women on how to pluck their eyebrow, how to take iff their gloves, how to shave, how to sit preperly

Okay so ive iust finished reading this book and to be honest, i wish the ending was different. I felt that lily deserved the love of a father. I wished that T.Ray had somehow love her in his own ways. Wventhough hes always mad at lily, asking her to do this and that, never showed her a simple act of love.... However, towards the end, i know that T.Ray, at one point in his life, he did love Lili's kother. But due to the society at that time, he was shaped to be man of that time. Feeling superior, seeing women as their servannts. Hes indeed tha.product of the society at that time. Then when deborah left, he was lost. Thinking that she dis not respect her as her husband. She has no right to leave hik alone and that was when he started to resent her. To make things worse, when the fight occurrd between t ray and deborah, Lili accidentally shot her own kother and inguess. That was when t ray developed hateed towards his own daughter. Maybe he treated lily that way because of this sole reason. Maybe he was mad at lily for taking is wife away. Mornbetter yet, m somehow he saw deborah inclily and h was afraid that his daughter would leave him like his wife once dis.

I dint know. I just feel sad for kucy. She had to bear the hurtful truth. As it was indeed her who accidentally shot deborah. And it was not easy to acept that and remembering the fact dor the rest of her life

The Good Muslim - Tahmima Anam

The story is set after the independence of Bangladesh. We think that the end of the war means the end of the suffering but no, life doesnt simply work just like that

In the story, I've learned that even after the war is over, people could still be traumatized over what had happened in the past. Sohail, for instance, before the war, he was once a happy go lucky guy however, he has changed so much to the extent that his own sister doesnt even recognize him anymore.

I believed that Sohail had become one of the Islam extremists. He abandoned his own son, his mother and sister. It wasnt right. Leaving your son to live his life with an unknown woman, not sending him to school to get a proper education while you are out there claiming to be Allah's follower.

Tteuth be told, i am satisfied with the ending.. It's a depiction of a real life. Sohail went far awar after the death of his son. He didn't get angry with maya. He believed it has been written by The One. Maya continued herblife as usual, got married to Joy, her bestfriend since before the war and got a child of her own named after zaid. 

The thing i like the most about the story is that there's not one character that you could totally blame or hate 100% for the things that happened after the war.

Sohail has his own reasons to be pious and leave the world behind. Henactually beocome very traumatized by the incident which he accidentally slash an old man's throat just because he spoke Urdu,  his enemy's language. Since then, sohail was never the same. He can only find peace when when he's close to Allah. Thats the only way for him to stay sane. Maya, realizing all these felt guilty because she left her brother, her mother in rage for seven longs years without trying to understand her brother's pin. And now maya, eventhough she has '"lost' his brother to the war, she was finally be able to feel content with the way things are now. She understands that the war has taken its toll on their lives and she has to continue living her life non matter what happened.

This book has made me even more sympathetic with those who have been in war or those who are still in war. Countries like palestin and syria. They dont get to live like everyone else does. They have to face the loss of lives everyday. It feels like impossible for a humanbeing to endure so much pain from young. I hope things get better for them, for us all.

Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck - Hamka

To be honest, i never thought that a malay novel could move me this much😅 the last time i felt so affected by malay novels was years ago when i read ramlee awang murshid's books.

Well, it's indeed a sad ending for both zainuddin and hayati.

How heartbreaking it must be for zainuddin having to lose hayati for the second time😭

For me, i do understand why Zainuddin rejected Hayati's pleading after she had been divorced by Aziz. Promises are not meant to be broken. Hayati took an easy way out 2 years before, by leaving Zainuddin just like that and got married to another guy whom she barely knows. Just because that guy is rich, shes willing to sacrifice her love towards Zainuddin in order to live a wealthy life.

however... Looking from Hayati's perspective....it is also understandable though...she had to do that because at that time, women are dependent on the men. She put herself first, hoping that she could be happy and lead a comfortable life..

Another thing is.... This book actually got me thinking about grudge.... When we've been hurt by the one that we love the most, it feels like it is the end of the world.. And of course.. I dare to say that most people would hold some grudge.. It's not easy to forgive.. However......zainuddin could probably have a happy ending with hayati though...if he chose love over grudge..if only

The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald

"All the money he has acquired, and all the parties he throws are about one thing and one thing only : winning back Daisy Buchanan."

"Daisy Buchanan doesnt have to be likable to be interesting, most of what makes her unlikeable -her sense of entitlement, her limited empathy, her inability to make difficult choices -are the very things that make YOU unlikable."

"Wealth was the American Dream. But the foul dust that trailed in the wake of those dreams -the casual destruction, the cyclical violence, the erosion of altruism make it clear that at least to Fitzgerald, wealth isn't simply good."

"Nick : You can't repeat the past." "Gatsby : Can't repeat the past? Well, of course you can. I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before."

"Romeo and Juliet want to extend the present into forever because they know their future is bleak; Gatsby believes that the key to the beautiful future is a perfect restoration of the beautiful past."

-Crash Course English Literature

Vocabs

1) Underhand : Acting or done in a secret or dishonest way:

2) Bona fide (adj) : genuine/real

3) Highball : A drink consisting of a spirit, especially whisky, and a mixer such as soda, served with ice in a tall glass.

And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Husseini

Separation is sometimes inevitable. We could love someone so much but the universe might have a different plan for us and in the blink of an eye, our loved ones could be gone.

Quotes:

1) "It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want."

2) "I learned that the world didn't see the inside of you, that it didn't care a whit about the hopes and dreams, and sorrows, that lay masked by skin and bone. It was as simple, as absurd, and as cruel as that." 

3) "It was the kind of love that, sooner or later, cornered you into a choice: either you tore free or you stayed and withstood its rigor even as it squeezed you into something smaller than yourself.

4) "A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later."

5) "The rope that pulls you from the flood can become a noose around your neck." 

6) "But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you. Like a puzzle. Vous comprenez? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand."

7) "He said that if culture is a house, then language was the key to the front door; to all the rooms inside. Without it, he said, you ended up wayward, without a proper home or a legitimate identity."

8) "I've read that if an avalanche buries you and you're lying there underneath all that snow, you can't tell which way is up or down. You want to dig yourself out but pick the wrong way, and you dig yourself to your own demise." 

9) "She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups."

Vocabs

1) Benevolence : any kind act, but it can also describe the desire to do nice things. When you're feeling selfish, you probably won't show benevolence, but if benevolence comes through in spite of your crankiness, then you know you're really a good person.

2) pomegranate : buah delima (an orange-sized fruit with a tough reddish outer skin and sweet red gelatinous flesh containing many seeds)

3) labyrinth : a complicated series of paths, which it is difficult to find your way through

4) opaque : Not able to be seen through; not transparent

5) inscrutable : Impossible to understand or interpret

6) boulevard : A wide street in a town or city, typically one lined with trees

7) gnomon : The projecting piece on a sundial that shows the time by the position of its shadow.

8) aplomb : Self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation.

9) askance/suspiciously (adverb) : With an attitude or look of suspicion or disapproval. (looked askance/looked suspiciously)

10) chafe/chafing : (With reference to a part of the body) make or become sore by rubbing against something. (rubbed some ointment to prevent chafing)