15.Mar.2010 Mailbox Monday: Surprise!
So I came back from my 2 weeks holiday to find a package at home of… what else? Books!
The card on the left there was from hubby :)
My book fairy was Jessica from Allen and Unwin. Thank you Jessica! When Jessica told me she was going to send me Tender Morsels with the cover illustrated by Shaun Tan, I was so over the moon! Regular readers would know that I adore Shaun Tan. No, I worship him! I had been waiting for this edition since last year when Margo Lanagan announced it on her blog. Not only that, she also sent me Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine, a graphic novel that I’d been coveting, because my libraries don’t stock it!
If there’s such a thing as blogging career, this must be my highlight!
But apparently a girl can’t have enough books, so I’ll have to share the books I brought back from Indonesia. I bought them when I was in Singapore years ago and for some reason that seemed reasonable at that time they got transferred to my parents’ second house in Jakarta, so I hadn’t seen them for more than a year since I went back to Australia because I got too much stuff and they were left behind. It’s so good to be able to bring my babies back with me to Sydney! (Note: these piles are only less than half of what is still left there. I’m gonna need another around to bring everything back..)
So starting from the left pile:
Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
A Japanese learning book (wasn’t meant to be displayed, and I brought more too but not shown)
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2 comic books (Smurf and Police Agent 212 — my childhood comics that just got republished)
The right pile:
The Trial by Franz Kafka (got in the mail from a bookcrosser a day after I arrived)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Wild Swans by Jung Chang
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Good Women of China by Xin Ran
3 Cinta 1 Pria (3 Loves 1 Man) by Arswendo Atmowiloto (an Indonesian book)
I was excited to find Pramoedya Ananta Toer‘s books (a whole shelf of them at the bookshop). I first heard of him from people around the net (who do NOT even live close to Indonesia) just in recent years. Apparently he was one of the most prolific Indonesian authors, even nominated for Nobel Prize. But for a while my reaction was “Who?” What a shame. How could you not know one of the most prolific authors from your own birth country? And it’s not like there are many of them. He’s probably the only one so far.
Further investigation led me to find that his books had been banned since the 60s in Indonesia, even though they were still translated all around the world into many languages, and have only been republished in Indonesia back in the past couple of years. He had a hard life for criticizing the government with his works and was imprisoned many times. He passed away in 2006. His most famous books are The Buru Quartet (first published in the 80s). The book I have above is the first in the series: Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind). I thought it would be nice if I could read them in their original language.
Now if only I could find more shelf space to put them in…
mee 
Jess P 
