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…

The style of illustration is one of the most unique I have ever seen. Jillian Tamaki definitely brought her Japanese influences into her drawings. It reminds me of Japanese old paintings with its fluid lines. Not only that, the main character is also one of the most unique in graphic novels, or any medium really.

She is Kimberly Keiko who is called Skim, a Japanese descendant girl, who is chubby, gothic, and a bit into witchcraft. One of her popular schoolmates committed suicide and it was rumored that he did so because he was gay. It caused an uproar in the school and the students and teachers work on “save life” campaigns (of which the use is arguable). Meanwhile Skim has her own problems. She happens to have a crush on her female teacher, which forces her to question and figure out her sexuality.

The book captures the moodiness of adolescence, which is probably the most difficult phase of anyone’s life, when everything doesn’t seem to make sense and you don’t quite know where to put yourself. It touches on the issues of depression, love, peer pressure, sexual identity, and just the whole the pain of being young and different.

Skim is rather sad and melancholy, but I think it is an important book to understand what the teenagers might be facing in our time. Also, it would be a perfect book for GLBT challenge (IF I were joining :). Talking about GLBT challenge, Nymeth recently posted about her recommendation for LGBTQ graphic novels on the challenge site. Michelle also just recently posted her review on Pedro and Me by Judd Winick which sounds fabulous. I have Fun Home by Alison Bechdel waiting be read at home. It’s so great how graphic novel is used as medium to discuss serious issues. I hope and feel positive that we will have more in the future.

Sample of illustrations:

2008, 140 pp

Authors’ Sites
Mariko Tamaki | Jillian Tamaki

Awards (from Jillian’s site)
2008 Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel
2008 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books List
2009 Doug Wright Award Winner, Best Book
2009 Eisner award nominee (Best Publication for Teens, Writer, New Graphic Album, Penciller/Inker)
2008 Best of Books of the Year, Publishers Weekly, Quill & Quire

Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #4), Book Awards IV (book #3), Women Unbound (fiction #6)

Also reviewed by
Regular Rumination | In Spring it is the Dawn | The Written World | Chasing Ray | A Striped Armchair | Stuff as Dreams are Made On

Blogging-wise, I’m trying my best to catch up too. I’m not able to comment to your every post or even five posts, but rest assured, I’m trying to read all that I missed during my being away. Be kind to me? :)

Meanwhile I just watched an awesome flick just last weekend that I need to share. So I might as well do my movie mini-reviews that I seem to have abandoned for a while!

Always: Sunset on Third Street (Always: Sanchōme no Yūhi)

Winner of 12 Japanese Academy Awards in 2005.

“In the shadow of that symbol of Japan’s post-war economic boom, Tokyo Tower, is Third street. It is a drama that follows the highs and lows, the romance and adventure of growing up in Tokyo in the Shōwa period of the 1950s.”

I laughed and I cried along the movie. Like many Japanese movies, it is often subtle, but I absolutely loved the daily life portrayal of the Japanese post-war, spiced with many unique heartfelt characters on Third Street neighbourhood. The movie is taken from a long-running manga so it is very comical at times (you decide whether that’s good or bad). The half-built Tokyo Tower always hovering in the background, it is a very beautiful, meaningful film.

Rating: 9/10

I couldn’t find a trailer with good quality, so here it is to tease you.

The Road

2009, from the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I read The Road in 2008 and wasn’t really impressed with the book, though many people swear by it. I kinda expected to appreciate the movie more, but alas, my mind stays exactly at where it is. I’m still not impressed with the story and I still did not buy the ending. The visual stays very true to the book, where everything is grey grey grey (a good thing) and even one part of the book where it gets really gory is shown as well (not a good thing, because it was too disgusting). In conclusion, if you love the book I’d recommend the movie, as long as you can stomach it. If you don’t really like the book, well, don’t expect your mind to be changed.

Rating: 6/10

Bright Star

2009, nominated for Oscar 2010 – Best Costume.

The drama is based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats’ untimely death at age 25.

I sooo wanted to post about this film when I watched it months ago, because the first time I saw the trailer, my thought was “How great is the costume?!” I quickly pointed that out to my husband. Soon after, I found out that it has been nominated for Oscar for Best Costume. How good my eyes were?! Today though we knew that The Young Victoria won for that category so my excitement got a bit stale. But to reiterate, the movie features great costumes (very fitting because the main female character is a seamstress), great setting (gosh the lavender!), and beautiful poetry. It almost made me want to read Keats’ poetry straight away (no, I haven’t picked poetry up since it’s not my thing, but very possibly in the future!) I can see myself re-watch this movie if only for the beautiful language, story, and setting. Well, isn’t that everything that makes a good movie? The downside is that it’s rather slow at times and for me personally the language needs some getting used to to digest (hence a re-watch is needed).

I love the girl who played Fanny. What a breath of fresh air among too many skinny girls on screen.

Rating: 7/10

As I assume the main plot of the book is no secret to most people, I’m going to write my thoughts with no worry of possible spoilers.

Pride and Prejudice is my very first Jane Austen and it took me some time to get used to her style. I found the beginning was very very slow. I didn’t care much for the characters and thought their conversations were inconsequential.

After what seemed like the longest 50 pages of my life, it started to flow, and the pace picked up after 70-80 pages. The rest got easier, which means I started to enjoy it as a novel, not just as a piece of classic that I felt the need to tackle.

I watched the movie adaptation with Keira Knightley years ago on the plane, but couldn’t remember anything about it. So I basically entered the book knowing almost nothing. Preconception that I had before reading: Darcy and Elizabeth hated each other, and only at the end that they realized they actually loved each other, ended with dramatic running and chasing Hollywood style.

Result: WRONG! Darcy takes interest in Elizabeth very early on in the book. What I believe as their very first flirt:

“‘I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,’ said Darcy.

‘Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may.–Every thing nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.’ [Elizabeth]” ~ p40

Not to say that it is smooth for Darcy and Elizabeth at the beginning. Darcy is aloof and that pisses everybody off, including Lizzy.

“‘Nothing is more deceitful’, said Darcy, ‘than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.’” ~ p43

Elizabeth felt very distant to me at first. I found it hard to connect to her. Only after the event between her friend Ms Lucas and Mr Collins did I started to feel for her, with her. I got her shock, her disdain, her defeat, and her hit of reality.

“‘I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr Collins’s character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.’ [Charlotte]

It was a long time before she [Elizabeth] became at all reconciled to the idea of so unsuitable a match. The strangeness of Mr Collins’s making two offers of marriage within three days, was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted. She had always felt that Charlotte’s opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she could not have supposed it possible that when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte the wife of Mr Collins, was a most humiliating picture!–And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added to the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen.” ~ p116, 117

I almost felt sorrowful at this point and wasn’t sure why. Then it hit me that something similar has happened to me in the past. Not to the extend of marriage of course, but it did involve a loser of a guy, a rejection on my behalf, a few days gap, and acceptance of a dear friend to the aforementioned guy (then her broken heart not long after).

“You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger, security for happiness.” ~ Elizabeth, p125

I saw Elizabeth as an idealist, a perfectionist–characteristics that I could relate with, and so I started to get a grip of her character.

“‘But that expression of “violently in love” is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea. It is as often applied to feelings which arise from an half-hour’s acquiantance, as to a real, strong attachment.’” ~ Mrs Gardiner, p129

Few characters can be as amusing as Mr Collins. He has the knack to insult people in dignified way! One of my favorite insults of his:

“‘Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about your apparel. Lady Catherine is far from requiring that elegance of dress in us, which becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest, there is no occasion for anything more. Lady Catherine will not think the worse of you for being simply dressed. She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved.’” ~ Mr Collins, p146

It’s very hard for me to rate this book as it is, as I know that it is one of the most widely read books and is studied as a piece of literature at many schools. The language is no doubt articulate and classy. The plot however, is not my kind of story. The basic plot about the richest prideful guy in the county falling head over heels with a lively girl from a lower class seems to be too Cinderella-like, and especially overused in these modern days, though it might have been ground breaking at the time of writing in the 18th century. On the other hand, it was really insightful for me to learn people’s lifestyle during the time. The inheritance laws and marriage financial settlement always amuse me.

A few things I never quite understood:
What is Lady Catherine’s profession? How does she have so high of rank? I understand that it’s something to do with church. But what is it exactly?
Who determines how Mr Bennet should divide his inheritance? Why doesn’t he have any control over who he inherits his fortune to after he dies?
When does Mr Darcy actually propose to Elizabeth the second time? One of the most important event and I seem to have missed it. I was only aware of it when Lizzy tells Jane about it. How? Which sentence exactly?

I’m not sure if P&P made me fall in love with Jane Austen, but I quite enjoyed it and plan to read another book or two of hers. I have Emma in mind for my next Austen. How about you? Was P&P your first Austen? Did it make you a fan?

If you’re a long time fan of Austen, which book of hers is your favorite? Why?

I would love to watch the BBC 1995 adaptation as lots of people said it’s really really good. I have reserved the DVDs from the library, so more on that soon.

1813, 352 pp

First line
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Challenges
Women Unbound (fiction #5), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

The Read-along

I made a call to Pride and Prejudice first timers to read the book in February and a few people have expressed their interests. Let me know if you do end up reading it and I’ll link to your posts below. Or you could just drop a comment about your reading experience!

What happens to the Other P&P First Timers?

They finished it!

Vivienne @ Seredipity: “I really did love this book and will be over the moon to read more of Jane Austen’s books, though I have been told that this is the best of the bunch.”

another cookie crumbles: “I really did enjoy the book, although, maybe not the story in itself, if that makes sense? Again, I attribute that to me already knowing the way the plot would turn, and hence, missing out on the feel-good factor. Also, some of the romanticism and mushiness was a little much for me, but, I guess that was part and parcel of the nineteenth century, and maybe, in another lifetime, I was Elizabeth Bennet. Well, a girl can dream. :)“

David @ Absorbed in Words: “I should say, it is not the kind of story that should generally hold my interest. But it’s a fine piece. And the fact that the author was a woman impressed me immensely.”

Not yet, but going to! I hope.

Jackie @ Farm Lane Book Blog

Even Cthulhu, Satan, Dracula, and Darth Vader read it!

Thank you all for joining! I will update the links to your review once you post it! Let me know if I miss you!

In my case, we either have family gathering on Christmas, Chinese New Year, or Lebaran. (oh, and New Year)

I’m going back to Indonesia for Chinese New Year so I’ll be offline for 2 weeks. I’ll see you all in March!

Image from Sydney CNY

Gong xi fat chai, xin nien kuai le!

A new venture has begun. A new book group has been formed. My partners in crime are David of Absorbed in Words, Michelle of su[shu], and Claire of kiss of cloud. We are going to pick a book every quarter on Asian literature–books set in Asia or by Asians. Hence the name: The Asian Book Group.

I’m hosting the first book of this year’s quarter: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, winner of 1932 Pulitzer Prize.

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) is American writer who spent the majority of her life in China. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces.”

We’d love to open the invitation to you who are interested to read it too. We’re going to post our thoughts some time in late March, say, between 25-31 March 2010. No official sign up. Just a good old fun “read together”. Hope to see you then :)

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: Love Quarrels from Anton Chekhov to ZZ Packer, Selected by Kasia Boddy, Ali Smith, and Sarah Wood — from Basement Books for $9.95. Isn’t the cover the cutest?! I first saw it at Paperback Reader, and Claire later reminded me again about it, so I was so happy to see it with slashed price!

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa – from Basement Books for $4.95! Another amazing finding! I can’t believe they sold the new ones for $4.95 ea when the RRP in Australia is about $25.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel — mooched from bookmooch.com. This book is not available at my libraries, so I’m so happy to be able to mooch it!

I got the next 3 books from last year! I feel bad that I have not acknowledged them!

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick — won from Dewey’s 24 hour read-a-thon. No, not the October one. The April one! Kathrin had been very nice to send it all the way from Germany. But it was sea-mail, so it took about 4 months to arrive to Australia. It was an interesting wait :)

Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize by Kathy by Jo Wargin and Zachary Pullen – won from Dawn @ 5 Minutes for Books, it is a hardcover large picture book. It would be nice to learn about Alfred Nobel from a picture book!

I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume — bought from bookdepository.co.uk, which I have started reading for tanabata’s read-along, but it lays dormant after the first part (out of three).

Apart from these, I went to Sydney Japanese Foundation last Tuesday to find that they withdrew some book from the library and gave them away for free! I weeded through the pile pretty quickly and went back to the office with 2 bags of books. Oops! A lot of them I had never heard before and many are short stories collection. But who knows, I might be able to find some gems. I left the books at the office and will only bring them back home slowly, so more details will be on my next Mailbox Monday post (whenever that is).

Like all good adventure story, Bone is ended with a great battle between good and evil ala The Lord of the Rings (not that I’ve read or watched LOTR). Bone series has been such a fun journey and I’m sad that it has ended, though the ending is pretty open to possibility of a sequel. But really, Jeff Smith has spent almost 10 years to complete Bone, so let’s give the guy a break.

To recap, I wrote some sort of reviews for almost every single volume, except no 2: (Well, if not full review, it’d be an exclamation “Hey, another great volume!”)

1. Bone Vol 1: Out from Boneville
2. Bone Vol 2: The Great Cow Race
3. Bone Vol 3: Eyes of the Storm
4. Bone Vol 4: The Dragonslayer
5. Bone Vol 5: Rock Jaw Master of the Eastern Border
6. Bone Vol 6: Old Man’s Cave
7. Bone Vol 7: Ghost Circles
8. Bone Vol 8: Treasure Hunters
9. Bone Vol 9: Crown of Horns

If I can encourage you to read one post, it’d be the first one! I wrote a rather lengthy post when I first read Bone in late 2008, in which I compared the Bone brothers with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy (I’m so surprised nobody else has!), the comparison between graphic novels and comics, and Bone the game.

It’s hard to give rating for individual volumes at this late stage of a series, but as a whole I would give it:

Took half a star off, just because some parts of storyline left me confused near the end. But the humour and characters are great, the drawings are always amazing. It’s a fantastic series and very well worth reading!

I guess this means goodbye to Bone for now… *sob*

Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #2, 3)

Also reviewed by
Beth Fish Reads: Treasure Hunters | Crown of Horns (I’m so impressed that Beth managed to properly review each volume!)
Things Mean A Lot | nothing of importance (the entire series)

Mark David has recommended The New Yorker Fiction Podcasts to me for a while. In fact he has written a post on it last month. But only last week after he shouted at strongly encouraged me to try one when I talked about Borges’s The Library of Babel,  did I manage to listen to two of them.

In each episode, a contemporary writer reads a short work by a classic writer. There’s a bit of talk and discussion before and after the reading of the story. I loved the discussion parts of the podcasts, but I’m not sure if I got much out of the two stories being read. I’ve mentioned before how I’m a poor listener, and it doesn’t help when the story is not very listen-able. (We have word for readable! How about listenable?)

Without further ado, the two I picked were:

The Gospel According to Mark by Jorge Luis Borges, read by Paul Theroux

I’m not sure if I got it. I repeated the ending about 5 times and each time it made me go “huh?”. But I continued on and luckily Paul explained more about what’s going on in the story. Originally published in 1970, it is about a young man who visits a friend’s holiday house in Argentina. He meets a family of illiterate workers to whom he reads some books, but the only one they’re interested in the most is an old Bible. He reads the gospel of Mark which contains the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness He granted to the world. When he was found to lay with the daughter of the family, well…

Paul Theroux actually read to Borges when he was alive (and blind). And that’s awesome because Paul is a fantastic reader. I’d never heard of him before this. Apparently he has written many novels and travelogues. After quick wiki-ing, I found that he won James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981 for The Mosquito Coast (join win with Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children) and Whitbread Prize for Best Novel  in 1978 for Picture Palace. Have you read any of his books before?

My Russian Education by Vladimir Nabokov, read by Orhan Pamuk

I feel kinda bad to say this, but most of the words read by Pamuk went over my head, because I had problem with his accent. Therefore I’m unable to rate this in any way. But I’m sure I will (re)read the story in text format in the future, because it’s Nabokov’s autobiography, though published as fiction. The story is based on how his father was shot dead. It was originally published in 1948 by the New Yorker and it is one chapter out of 12 that was later published in 1951 as a book titled Speak, Memory (My Russian Education is Chapter 9 in the book).

I loved to listen to how Pamuk loved Nabokov. I always love the whole writers speaking very highly of other writers. It’s very adorable. I read Lolita by Nabokov in 2008 and I really admired how Nabokov used English language. Sure, I didn’t understand a lot of the passages, but that’s beside the point… because I admired the ones that I did understand! :)

Did you read any short story this week?

Can you believe we have gone through the third round of Japanese Literature Challenge, and it has again, ended?

I did a lot better this time around than last year. Funny. Last round I intended to read a lot and ended up reading much less. This round I intended to read one or two, and ended up reading 4 books by Japanese authors and 3 books by non-Japanese, which is uum.. 5-6 books more than planned.

Books of Japanese origin:

1. Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara (finished 08/09, )
2. Strangers by Taichi Yamada (finished 09/09, )
3. I Am a Cat (Vol 1) by Soseki Natsume (finished 12/09, )
4. Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki (finished 01/10, )

Books about/set in Japan by non-Japanese authors:

1. Squeamish about Sushi by Betty Reynolds (finished 08/09, )
2. Kabuki: The Metamorphosis by David Mack (finished 08/09, )
3. Clueless in Tokyo by Betty Reynolds (finished 10/09, )

The first three books of Japanese origin were on my original list, so really, I can’t be happier with the result.

I love Japanese Literature Challenge. Not only because of the challenge itself, but also because I seem to meet a different bunch of people that I wouldn’t normally meet anywhere else in the blogosphere. Do you think so too or is it just me?

Thanks again Bellezza, for such a wonderful challenge and for being such a wonderful host. I look forward to sharing more Japanese works in the future with you! And of course, with all of you.