The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (2002) by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader)

The old man's eyes struck me first. They rested deep in their sockets, and he seemed unable to take them off me. Granted, everyone in the teahouse was starring at me more or less unabashedly, but he was the most brazen. As if I were some exotic creature he'd never seen before.

💓 Julia Win came to Burma to seek answer. Answer to her father's mysterious disappearance four years ago from New York, and from her and her mother's life. One day his father Tin Win left abroad, but never returned. They found out that he went to Burma, instead of the country he intended to. But there his traces disappeared. Four years later Julia read a love letter to her father written by a Burmese woman called Mi Mi. Who is Mi Mi? And why had her father never spoken about the first twenty years of his life in Burma to anybody, not even his wife? Julia decided to go to Kalaw, Burma, to get to the truth.

💓 In Kalaw, she was met by a strange old man called U Ba. That's the encounter in the opening line. He told her a wonderful story of her father - the first twenty years of his life he never told anyone before, including his relationship with Mi Mi. And what a story that is!

💓 The story U Ba told Julia was, for Westerner even at that time (1960s), extraordinary. Superstition and astrologer were two dominant things in Burmese people in every step of their lives, typical of South East Asian country whose people were poor and low educated. Tin Win was born on the "wrong day", and so their parents expected only bad things to him and themselves. Every calamity was blamed on Tin Win; and he grew up as a sensitive, affectionate, intelligent boy, capable of great love, but never been loved.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Heads Full of Books):

Tin Win's life had not spanned twenty-one days when, at least from his mother's perspective, its whole course had been decided. Lived. Forfeited.

💓 When his mother, who was his only family left, abandoned him, it was too much for Tin Win. I literally wept with him. How could a mother do that to her only child? No matter how stupid or superstitious one is, surely a mother should have had an instinct to protect her child! But she left and never returned, so Tin Win was brought up by a very kind neighbor, a woman called Suu Kyi, as her own son. Then, another calamity came, little Tin Win got a rare cataract on both eyes and gone blind.

💓 A wise monk at the monastery taught Tin Win that human being is capable of perceiving things much better and sharper when he use all his other senses besides the eyesight. And Tin Win began to be aware of even the most imperceptible sounds around him; the flutter of a butterfly's wings, the rustle of certain leaves (every tree made different sound), and even... the heartbeats of people around him. Particularly, that of a girl of his age, named Mi Mi.

💓 Mi Mi is crippled, she couldn't walk due to her stiff legs (polio?), so she crawled on all four to get anywhere. The most undignified way a human being could imagine to move, but surprisingly, Mi Mi always moved very gracefully. She was always patient and never complained of her condition. Soon Tin Win and Mi Mi became inseparable. Everyday, year after year, Tin Win was seen carrying Mi Mi on his back, while the girl is guiding him, becoming his eyes, during their excursions. And just as they are dreaming of marriage, and what they will do to build a future, a summon from a rich uncle in New York came - Tin Win must go away from everything he loved in the world - his Kalaw, his home, and his love, Mi Mi. And that's how he later met Julia's mother. What happened then? Had he ever met Mi Mi again? And will Julia reunite with his father in Burma? Does he live with Mi Mi? You must read this amazing story to find the answer.

💓 Suffice to say, this is a magnificent book. It's been quite a long time since I last read a book that has left deep Impression in me long after I finished it. And I have no doubt this would be my most favorite book of the year. I can't find appropriate words to describe it - it's a humbling experience to read this book. It's tender, deep, touching, and written so beautifully it made me want to cry. I admire the kind of love between Tin Win and Mi Mi. It's not a passionate one that leaves you wretched when you're separated, nor is it a selfish one that you have to have the other for yourselves no matter what. No, it's much deeper and beyond all that; no pain, no jealousy, just contentment that you have loved and been loved, and no matter how far away you are from each other, that love is always in you, no one or nothing can take it away from you.

Two of my favorite quotes:

"And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next. And if these turning points are real, are we aware of them as they happen, or do we recognize the discontinuity only much later, in hindsight?"

"Do we leave the dead behind or do we take them with us? I think we take them with us. They accompany us. They remain with us, if in another form. We have to learn to live with them and their deaths."

Rating: 💓💓💓💓💓

Dean Street December Reading List #DeanStreetDecember

December is just around the corner, and that means, it's time for a reading list for one of my favorite yearly reading events: #DeanStreetDecember, hosted by the lovely Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home. For you who isn't familiar yet, Dean Street Press is a publisher devoted to republishing lost gems of vintage literature, from Golden Age Detective novels to middlebrow novels by twentieth century women writers. And December is always the perfect month to be sucked into those kinds of books, don't you agree?

This year in particular, I don't feel like reading some sappy Christmas-themed books. After an exhausting second semester, both in work and in personal life, I am craving for gentle things, not overexcited and loud noises which Christmas always brings. So, I decided to devote my December mostly with books from Dean Street Press, especially those from the Furrowed Middlebrow selection. Here's my initial list:

Babbacombe's by Susan Scarlet

Near Neighbors by Molly Clavering

Because of Sam by Molly Clavering

Kate Hardy by D.E. Stevenson

A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair

I don't know whether I can manage to read, let alone review, more than five, but I also have Miss Granby's Secret in reserve, if-just if-I'd be able to squeeze one more.

How about you? Would you join Dean Street December? What do you plan to read?

Never Cry Wolf (1963) by Farley Mowat #NonFicNov24

🐺 A nonfiction that reads like fiction - that's how I describe Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves. Farley Mowat is a Canadian writer and environmentalist. Published in 1963, this is Mowat's memoir (some regarded it as fictionalized account of his experiences, but I'd treat it as nonfiction) during his appointment as Canadian Wildlife Service officer to investigate the cause of the declining Arctic caribou populations, and whether wolves are the culprit.

🐺 Mowat left for the Keewaton Barren Lands near Lake Manitoba in 1948. His inexperience in the field (he was a new recruit) provides some of the hilarious accounts; from his arrival by small private airplane, to his first encounter with the wolves. He first stayed with a Canadian named Mike who lives with his huskies in an Eskimo hut. But Mike soon left the hut, leaving him alone.

🐺 As soon as he found a perfect point at Wolfhouse Bay as his quarry, he started his job by following through binoculars, the movements of a family of three adult wolves and their pups who live inside a den not far from Mowat's quarry. He even named the three adults: George and Angeline as the father and mother, and Uncle Albert for the other single male who lives with them, and often share the caring of the pups when their parents are gone. Mowat soon fell to the family routine; George and Uncle Albert are usually go hunting in the evening, and take their leisure naps during the day.

🐺 One day he followed the family approaching a group of caribou who were grazing peacefully, without showing any signs of agitation, though the wolves were only some feet away. Mowat was surprised to witness this; he had expected to see some voracious hunt, but none happened. The wolves just walked away nonchalantly around the edge of the caribous circle. What's happening? That didn't tally what Mowat, what people used to to imagine about wolves - the cunning beasts who ate little innocent children while walking alone, and etcetera (Little Red Riding Hood came to mind). Mowat's observations taught him a rather unsettling truth, that the fast declining of caribou's population isn't caused by wolves, but by men!

"Whenever, wherever men have engaged in a mindless slaughter of animals, including other men, they are often attempted to justify their acts by attributing the most vicious or revolting qualities to those they would destroy. And the less reason there is for the slaughter the greater their campaign of vilification."

🐺 Contrary of common opinion, when they're indeed hunting for caribou, wolves only take the weakest, or most ailing from the pack. The caribous do feed the wolves, but the wolves strengthen the caribous in return, by getting rid of their weakest. In a way the wolves are reserving, rather than endangering, caribous.

🐺 All in all, this was an eye opening, hilarious, but also touching (especially in the end) read about wolves. Some of my favorite moments with Mowat's wolf family are when George saw Mowat when he lowered his pants to pee; then there's Uncle Albert's amorous adventure with a Husky bitch named Kua. Mowat's hilarious moment with Angeline, is when his hungry stomach's loud rumble bemused, then disgusted, her. I just loved how Mowat treated the wolves with respect; that's how we must treat all creatures, flora and fauna.

*I listened to the audiobook, very well narrated by Adam Sims.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by: Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

The Golden Mole: and Other Vanishing Treasure (2022) by Katherine Rundell #NonFicNov24

🦒 In The Golden Mole, Katherine Rundell introduces us to some of the world's most exotic creatures which are also endangered. Among these animals, some are no strangers to us, like the crows, wolves, bear, or elephant. We often hear or watch about hare, giraffe, or hedgehog, though we might not see them physically. But how many of us are familiar with wombat, lemur, narwhal, or pangolin? This book talks about all of them, and several others.

🦀 However, this is not some kind of encyclopedia about exotic animals, it's much more interesting. Rundell slips stories, myths, or anecdotes related to each animal, sometimes even concerning prominent historical personages whose stories had been linked to certain animal. The most fantastic is that of Coconut Hermit Crab. You must have been familiar with Amelia Earhart's story of disappearance over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the world in 1937. One of the many theories believed that some Coconut Hermit Crabs must have eaten Amelia Earhart's body. She was probably stranded on Nikumaroro island, known as home of these crabs. Some human bones were found there many years later, but they're lost on the way to investigation, so we still don't know the truth. But it's an interesting fact nevertheless.

🐨 Another interesting story is involving Wombat. The creature - some says it's a mixture of capybara, koala, and bear cub - was a favorite pet of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the poet. He had sketched Mrs. Morris (Rossetti's model and muse) taking a wombat on a leash, both with halos over their heads. A wombat had also been gifted to Napoleon's wife, Josephine, by a ship's captain. Speaking of gifted exotic animals, do you know that Cleopatra had once gifted a giraffe to Julius Caesar who then brought it to Ancient Rome?

🐻 A funny anecdote came from the inimitable Lord Byron concerning bear. He used to keep a tamed Bear while studying at University of Cambridge, as dogs were forbidden. When he was asked what they should do with it, his answer was, "It should sit for fellowship" 🤣

🦔 But two animals resonated more to me personally than others. The first is Hedgehog. Whenever I hear the word 'hedgehog', an image from my first picture book, which my mother introduced to me when I was very little, comes immediately to mind. It's a hedgehog with an apple stuck on his spikes, stealing it from two animals who picked it from the tree (the apple falls right to its spikes). That image stuck with me, that I always assume hedgehog eats fruits. But this book taught me that it's just a myth, its diet actually consists of insects and worms. Another animal from my childhood picture books about flora and fauna (my parents bought me a lot of these), is Pangolin (Trenggiling in Indonesian). Its name came from a Malay word 'panggiling' which means roller, from the way it rolls its body while in danger. Their scales were used for Chinese medicine.

🕊 Some more interesting bits from this book:

• The unihemispheric sleep in swifts (birds), they are able to shut up half of the brain at a time, while floating in the air inside the clouds. Amazing, right?
• The reclusive creature of Lemur who's able of changing eye color, is another wonder. One of the species is even superstitiously believed to be able to prophecy death.
• I didn't remember this, but the Seal has capacity of learning language. Ahab in Moby Dick recognized the seals' voices.
• The Narwhal's tusk were once mistakenly thought as unicorn's horn. Queen Elizabeth I was presented at least two narwhals by some voyagers.
• The Crows are the Einstein among birds. On an experiment, they punish some boys who're wicked to them, but were known in real life to have rewarded those who fed them.

🐘 Elephants are actually afraid of bees, they sting elephants' soft tissues inside their trunks. Elephants are gentle and caring creatures. When finding bones of dead friend, they will salute it by lightly touching their bones. An elephant returning to its group would get a ceremonial embraces by intertwining their trunks. Seahorse is the only creature that it is the male who gets pregnant (a fact I learned from TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S, when Ross wants to calm the pregnant Rachel down by pointing this fact out. What about the Golden Mole, who lent its name to the title? As a species, it's nearer to elephant than ordinary mole. It is the most mysterious animal from all that is discussed in this book. We know almost nothing about it, other than its iridescent quality, from which we called it 'golden' mole.

⭐ All in all, it's a wonderful book about nature and its wonder, told in an interesting and sometimes funny way that will interest non-biologists reader like me.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Blog Tour: Murder in an English Castle (2024) by Merryn Allingham: Flora Steele Mystery #10

It's my stop today on Murder in an English Castle by Merryn Allingham Books-on-Tour. Many thanks to Bookouture's Sarah Hardy for the invite, and for the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this delightful book.

📚 About the book

It’s time to rewrite history with amateur detectives Flora Steele and Jack Carrington as they are called to a castle to unearth the clues of a murder most medieval…

Sussex, 1959. The sun is shining on the breathtaking castle as the Abbeymead Historical Society prepare their re-enactment of the Battle of Lewes. But the fun ends abruptly when council worker Alex Vicary falls to his death from the castle ramparts. A shadowy figure runs from the scene, but Alex was a beloved member of the community… who could possibly want him dead?

As Flora and Jack investigate further, they dig up troubles Alex kept buried from those closest to him. Perhaps he was pushed by his money-hungry landlord, Larry Morton, who was trying to sell Alex’s home? Or maybe his oldest and shiftiest friend, Bruce Sullivan, who gambled away the money Alex loaned him? Or could it be his wide-eyed new girlfriend, Diane Croft, who dodges questions about Alex’s death, and hides presents from another suitor?

But when Flora discovers an engagement ring among Alex’s possessions, she is stunned to learn that his relationship with Diane was more serious than everyone thought. With whispers of another man fighting for Diane’s heart, were the battle lines drawn for love?

Then the body of a second member of the society is found, and the pair realise time is running out. Will history repeat itself with yet another death? Or can Flora and Jack catch their killer before the medieval murderer bids them both adieu?

A totally compelling and absolutely charming cozy mystery novel. Fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Joy Ellis will adore this unputdownable series!

📚 My thoughts

🏰 Our beloved amateur sleuth couple is back for another murder case! Set in an English rural village in the 1950s, Flora Steele is a bookshop owner who married a crime writer Jack Carrington after they solved several murders together in the past. Now, a newlywed couple, they spend half their weeks in their own house in Abbeymead, the other half in a Cottage in Lewes, where Jack works as a temporary teacher at Lewes arts school.

🏰 The premise of this story is quite unusual, and a creative choice from Allingham. Hector Landsdale is one of the many recurring secondary characters, friends of Flora and Jack. He's the sous-chef at the Priory, and a fervent member of the local historical re-enactment society, who call themselves Knights of Mercia. Our sleuths were invited to one of these re-enactments, the "Battle of Lewes", and witnessed a horrible accident. One of the "actors", Alex Vicary, fell from the ramparts during the "battle" and died instantly. The police's verdict was accident, but Hector was adamant that it was a murder - someone has deliberately pushed Alex amidst the skirmish.

🏰 Now it's up to Flora and Jack to find the murderer. But first, the motive. Why would someone want to get rid of Alex, if he is as good a man as Hector indicated? Was it a passionate murder, because he had been pestering his girlfriend Diane Croft to marry him - a bit too much - despite of her several rejections? Or did money matter involve - a huge sum of loan to a gamble-addict friend? A greedy landlord who wanted to sell Alex's house is another possibility. Few "accidents" had befallen Flora and Jack during their investigation, who perpetrated it? And then, the second murder happened - another member of Knights of Mercia, one of Flora and Jack's suspects. They are at a dangerous point, now that the murderer is getting desperate...

🏰 This is another delightful cozy mystery from Allingham. The premise and the murder method are well thought of. Pushing someone from high place during an enactment of a battle - that's an easy one. No one would have suspected a foul play. Accidents happen. But I have to admit, that my favorite part of the book is not the murder mystery itself - which is creative and lovely - but the village, Abbeymead. I remember that that was the point where I fell in love in the first place to the first book, The Bookshop Murder. I love everything about Abbeymead - the vibes of the era (1950-1960), the inhabitants - which keep growing each season, and even the establishments (the Priory, the All's Well bookshop, the Nook). The characters with their eccentricity, struggles, and triumph begin to grow on me, that I feel like living for years in Abbeymead. Even Betty, Flora's beloved bicycle, feels like a close friend, that I became rather sad when something bad happened to it.. her! :)) Needless to say, I'm going to miss Abbeymead for I don't know how long, because I think I can guess where the next instalment would be set in! ;)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 Author Bio

Merryn taught university literature for many years, and it took a while to pluck up the courage to begin writing herself. Bringing the past to life is a passion and her historical fiction includes Regency romances, wartime sagas and timeslip novels, all of which have a mystery at their heart. As the books have grown darker, it was only a matter of time before she plunged into crime with a cosy crime series set in rural Sussex against the fascinating backdrop of the 1950s.

Merryn lives in a beautiful old town in Sussex with her husband. When she’s not writing, she tries to keep fit with adult ballet classes and plenty of walking.
https://merrynallingham.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MerrynWrites
https://twitter.com/merrynwrites

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Merryn Allingham here:  https://www.bookouture.com/merryn-allingham

Buying Link

Amazon: https://geni.us/B0D12DYX12social
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#MurderEveryMonday: Cover with Victim's Name

Murder Every Monday was created by Kate @ Crossexamining Crime and @ArmchairSleuth. Put simply, the plan is for readers to take a photo of a crime fiction book (novel or short story collection) which meets a given week’s theme criteria and to then share it online, using the hashtag #MurderEveryMonday.

This week's theme is is quite easy, so here they are, dominated by Agatha Christie's:

Cover which has the name of the victim on the title

Have your read any of them? Which cover(s) do you like most?

If you want to participate, here's the list of the weekly theme.

A Single Rose (2020) by Muriel Barbery #NovNov24

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader):

It is said that in ancient China, during the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a prince who, every year, would have a field of a thousand peonies planted, and during the first days of summer their petals would ripple in the breeze. For six days he would sit on the floor of the wooden pavilion where he habitually went to admire the moon, drinking a cup of clear tea from time to time, and he would observe the flowers he called his girls. At dawn and at sunset, he would pace up and down the field.

🌹 From the first paragraph one might deduce that this novella is set in China, or the characters are Chinese. It is not. A Single Rose is a story set in Japan, but the main character is a French girl. So, how that Chinese opening fits in? Apparently, every chapter begins with a Chinese folklore, which is related to what the chapter is about. Interesting, no? Considering that this novella is written by a French author, makes it even special.

🌹 Rose is a forty something French botanist who comes to Kyoto for the will reading of her deceased Japanese father, whom she has never met. The father who left her mother years ago, and apparently never contacted nor acknowledged his daughter. This has wounded Rose and she grew up to be a bitter woman. Her intention of travelling for the first time to Japan is just to know what her father left her, and then go straightly home. But what awaits her in Kyoto is beyond her imagination, and that's the backbone of this novella.

🌹 Apparently, her father had tasked his trusted assistant Paul, also a French man, to guide Rose through some journeys for days before the will reading. Everyday Paul takes Rose from temples, Zen gardens, galleries, rivers, to tea houses and restaurants. And during those journeys Rose is getting to know more of her father, why he had left her, and most importantly, that he truly loved her and she's always on his thoughts. Little by little these excursions soften her heart, and she begins to embrace the Japanese culture, and with that, her own identity and root.

🌹 This was pretty unexpected read for me. I thought this was only a story about a daughter getting to know her father after his death, a reconnecting to her past. In a way, it is that, but there's more to it. It is a life-changing journey for Rose; she had been lost before, her life was stalled. But now that she reconnects with her past, Rose finds herself, what or who she truly is. A brighter future awaits her, a happier and more wholesome existence.

🌹 What I love most of this novella is Barbery's writing. I often forgot that it's written by a French author. It reads like a Japanese book; it feels like one. Like most Japanese literature, A Single Rose is tender, Zen, comforting, inspiring; and Barbery wrote it so beautifully it touched my heart and stirred something deep in me. The element of nature is pretty strong too. The flowers (azalea, peony, roses, and many more) seem to be living characters. So, too, the weather. These elements are not there as a background, but they have huge influence in reshaping Rose.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Heads Full of Books):

In the silence broken only by sips of beer, somewhere in a tenuous, immense place, as invisible as the sky, something changed position. She could sense rain coming, a smell of thirsty soil, grass in the wind. There was yet another shift, a scent of undergrowth and moss. She began to weep, huge sobs, tears of sparkling pearls. She could feel them forming, flowing, and bursting into the world, adorned with light.

Read for:

Novellas in November 2024 #NovNov24

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books & Rebecca @ Bookish Beck

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (1996) by Frances Mayes #NonFicNov24

🌞 Under the Tuscan Sun is a memoir by Frances Mayes, an American university professor, who were just through a divorce. She'd been in love with Italy, and accompanied by Ed, her current significant other, she began to hunt for a house in the countryside. Tuscany was their final choice, in particular an abandoned villa called Bramasole, in a hill town of Cortona.

🌞 Bramasole was named from two Italian words: braemar (to yearn for), and sole (sun); which literally means something that yearns for the sun. What a proper name for an Italian house! Like any other memoir of foreigners who move to European country, Under the Tuscan Sun follows, first the many doubts and indecisive moments Frances and Ed must have endured before finally deciding to buy the house. That part was the easiest, really. After that, came the relentless struggles to make the house and land to be habitable, while they are adapting with new culture, new language, and all.

🌞 The renovating of the rural abandoned villa took them years of dealing with Italian people, with their habits and eccentricities. But this memoir isn't entirely struggles, there are triumphant moments too, like when they found an ancient slab of stone while digging for a well (they finally use it for garden table). Or when renovating walls, they unexpectedly found a beautiful fresco. But maybe the most triumphant moment was when Frances realized how Italian she has been becoming at one point, and how Tuscany and Bramasole become, eventually, her true home that she loves.

"When you're falling in love, everything is lit from within."

🌞 Besides describing how much energy Frances and Ed had poured to make Bramasole home (they loved doing it), Frances also entertained us with her travelling journals - the small town they visited, complete with little historical background, local churches with their religious fervor, local cafe, and landscape. Last but not least, Italian food. Dishes Frances has becoming expert of cooking, and wines they taste and collect, what they serve for visiting guests. Frances even include several recipes in between chapters.

🌞 In short, it's a pleasant memoir to read with perfect proportions between struggles and pleasures, historical background and daily life, and between their personal routine with the interesting characters of their neighbors.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Mini Reviews for #AgathaChristieSS24: November

THE GIRL IN THE TRAIN

A young man called George Rowland who has just been disowned by his rich uncle, decided to seek a better luck at Rowland House (he shares the name, it must be a good sign, right?) On board the train a beautiful girl asked his help to hide her, apparently from an angry "uncle". She asked him further to tail an anonymous man and to keep a mysterious parcel for her. Stimulated by the mystery, Rowland did all these. Staying at a hotel, he's confronted by some men accusing him of hiding a royal princess of a small Balkan country. Furthermore he found that the small parcel is missing. What's really going on? Is the beautiful girl really a princess? And what was in that parcel?

It's an exciting story to read; light, humorous, full of action, with a touch of light budding romance, the style of which reminded me a little of Patricia Wenthworth's Benbow Smith mysteries.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

THE DEAD HARLEQUIN

When visiting a painting exhibition, Mr. Satterthwaite found a painting titled The Dead Harlequin; a man is looking from outside the window to a dead body lying on the floor inside the room. The man resembled his friend, Mr. Harley Quin, and the room reminded him of one death in Charnley House. Curious, he bought the painting and invited the painter for dinner, which is also attended by a Colonel who investigated the death. A man shot himself fourteen years ago. 

The dinner was interrupted by two women who insist on buying the painting from Mr. Sattherthwaite - two women who no doubt are familiar with what the painting depicted. The question is, was the death really suicide? If not, who was the murderer?

It was unexpectedly an entertaining story with a clever plot. Something that left me thinking hard after finishing it.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Wigs on the Green (1935) by Nancy Mitford #NovNov24

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader):

No, I'm sorry,' said Noel Foster, 'not sufficiently attractive.'
He said this in unusually firm and final accents, and with a determination which for him was rare he hung up his office telephone receiver.

💚 After a high brow spiritual novella I've read earlier, a witty satire from Nancy Mitford seems like a perfect option to get into next. And it was pretty hilarious - its comical quality isn't unlike P.G. Wodehouse, but with a center theme of British fascism, Mitford is unbeatable. Fun fact: Mitford was actually inspired by her sisters' political enthusiasm, and the book caused a rift between the sisters.

💚 When Noel Foster came upon a small fortune, he retired from boring clerk job to hunt for wealthy heiress to marry. His biggest mistake was to boast about it to his sycophant playboy scheming friend of Jasper Aspect. The later knew of an unworldly but rich and beautiful Eugenia Malmains who lives in the countryside. They find her to be an ardent supporter of Union Jackshirts movement, headed by a Captain Jack.

💚 Also coming from London are two young women, one Miss Smith and one Miss Jones. They are in fact Poppy Saint Julien, who's considering to divorce her unfaithful husband, and is accompanying her friend Lady Marjorie, who's running away from a Duke she's just jilted on the altar. A fourth young woman who was to complicate the story is a local beauty, Mrs. Lace. The two friends from London represent their generation and background, the 1930s of metropolitan city like London, when young people, especially the rich, were reckless, irresponsible, and ignoring moral conventions.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Head Full of Books):

"There's nothing radically wrong with your nature, darling, but your upbringing and environment, so far, have been lousy. I never met anybody more invited to cope with the ordinary contingencies of life - especially the emotional side of it."

💚 As expected, Jasper turned out to be a rival rather than assistant to Noel's cause. And their whole wealthy heiresses scheme is thwarted by many unforeseen but hilarious events, from falling in love with the "wrong" women, to the appearance of mysterious detectives, to Union Jackshirt fanaticism. It is the latter aspect that provided this story with loads of incredibly foolish, but witty at the same time, humour, and comical scenes that will make you laugh. Like I said, the story feels like a mixture of Mitford's sharp and witty satire and Wodehouse's slapstick comic; a thoroughly fun and hilarious read!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Novellas in November 2024 #NovNov24

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books and Rebecca @ Bookish Beck

Maud Martha (1953) by Gwendolyn Brooks #NovNov24

🔸️The titular Maud Martha is an African-American girl lives in Chicago in the 1920s And through this novella we follow her life, her views from little girl to adulthood. It feels like reading a personal memoir, with vignettes of seemingly unimportant everyday life. It is from the character, personal struggles, and the glimpse of the outer world, that we are able to form an idea of what was really happening.

🔸️ Maud Martha was born from a respectable parents, and was brought up with her sister Helen and her brother Harry From childhood she felt insignificant and always came after the others. Her father, for example, loved her sister Helen more than her. She realized also that the color of one's skin determine one's quality of life. Helen is always more liked than her because of her lighter skin. The same with her husband, who was much lighter than Maud Martha. He even enjoyed a semi-normal social circle when he attended these events alone. The darker your skin color is, the more marginalized you are.

🔸️ During her childhood, Maud Martha and her family almost lost their house, and it left a deep impression in her. After she's married, Maud Martha dreamed of having a proper house, but what they ended up was a kitchenette (only a little above a studio apartment?) These seemingly unimportant vignettes brought us to understand the extend of what African-Americans at that time must endure.

🔸️ As a story, it lacks a plot and cohesion. The charm lays in the writing. Gwendolyn Brooks is a Pulitzer winning author, and it is her poetic prose that lent this otherwise monotonous novella its sharp tone and impeccable beauty. One more thing: it is one of the books which, I think, is best enjoyed in audio version.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/5

Read for:

Novellas in November 2024

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books & Rebecca @ Bookish Beck

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024: NOVEMBER #AgathaChristieSS24

The last month but one of this year, and I have been pondering whether to continue this Agatha Christie Short Stories challenge for 2025 or not. I decided to do it again next year! Right now I am curating the twenty four titles we'll be reading, and will probably make the formal announcement around next month or early December. In the meantime, here are the two stories we will read in November:

THE DEAD HARLEQUIN

Mr Satterthwaite stumbles across a painting depicting a Harlequin, with his friend Mr Quin, standing in the scene where a man shot himself fourteen years earlier. Mr Quin observes the events from both the picture and the present. Is this event a coincident? We know the answer....

The story was first published in book form in the collection of The Mysterious Mr Quin, published by Collins in 1930.

THE GIRL IN THE TRAIN

A young man, who just fired from the family firm, jumps on a train. As with many an Agatha Christie story, a train is never merely about the destination, the real interest lies in the passengers. The young man meets a girl who is being chased by a mysterious bearded man.

The story appeared in the UK collection The Listerdale Mystery in 1934, and was later published in the US in The Golden Ball and Other Stories (1971).


I'm really excited to read the second one, what about you? Actually, I've had enough with Mr. Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite, that I decided to not included their stories for next year!

Warrior of the Light: A Manual (1997) by Paulo Coelho: A Special Read #NovNov24

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader):

Just off the beach to the west of the village lies an island, and on it is a vast temple with many bells," said the woman.

⚔ I rarely talk about politics in this blog, as I'm not a political person. But just for once I'll make exception, because we have just got a new President! Mr. Prabowo Subianto has been sworn in as Indonesia's eighth president on October the 20th. Not only that he is an avid reader like me (his library is an enviable room for every bookworm!), his favorite authors include Alexandre Dumas (one of mine too), Sir Walter Scott, and Paulo Coelho.

⚔ Coelho is a well known Brazilian novelist who has penned more than a dozen international best-sellers, the most well known is The Alchemist. He might not be ranked as my personal favorite, but he has a special place in my life, because he happened to be one of two authors (the other is J.K. Rowling) that tied a special literary bond between me and my late father. Like me, Papa adored The Alchemist, and we both had read and discussed few more books together; By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, and The Devil and Miss Prym were our favorites.

⚔ You can imagine, therefore, how delightful I was when learning from one of our president's interviews, that his personal favorite book, which has also become his main inspiration, is one from Coelho: Warrior of the Light. Now, though the book was published in 1997, Papa and I have never read it. When I read the interview, I instantly thought of Papa; of how thrilled we would have been that we shared a favorite author with our president. At that moment, I knew instantly that I must read that book, Warrior of the Light. Partly because I wanted to know what had inspired our president, and partly, to connect with the memory of my beloved father. And today I proudly report that I had achieved both.

⚔ A mysterious veiled woman told a boy that there is a vast temple with many bells on an island "just off the beach", can he hear the bells? The boy listened but heard nothing. Local fishermen said there used to be a temple, which was longtime ago swallowed up by the sea on an earthquake. But sometimes they heard the bells. The boy became obsessed. He's no longer a boy now, but he keeps coming to the beach though never hears any bells. And just when he becomes used to the beach, the sound of waves breaking on the shore, and the seagull's cry, one day he hears the bells!

⚔ The mysterious woman returns just at that moment, and begins to teach him about the Warrior of the Light. It's not something endowed by others, but something that we work ourselves. Everyone could become a Warrior of the Light. Some key "ingredients" which makes a Warrior of the Light are adept, humble, free, persevering, honorable, courageous, reflective. A Warrior is not without flaws, he did foolish things in the past, made bad decisions, humiliated and defeated. But instead of regretting it, he lets it strengthening him in his fights to achieve his dreams.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Head Full of Books):

A Warrior of the Light always keeps his heart free of any feelings of hatred. When he goes into battle he remembers what Christ said: "Love your enemies." And he obeys.
But he knows that the act of forgiveness does not mean that he must accept everything; a Warrior cannot bow his head, for if he did he would lose sight of the horizon of his dreams.

⚔ In short, this is a manual book that instructs us to be happy, to be a better person, to overcome our fears, to prepare us for a good fight, and encourages us to achieve our dreams. It also works as a companion book to The Alchemist. It's such an inspiring little book that is quite doable and not at all preachy. Almost every instruction is useful or inspiring, that I could have highlighted them all along the way! I'm grateful of having read this, and feel honored to have shared this inspiration with our president. Now I am confident that he will do good for our country, as I recognized from his speeches or gestures, that traces of Warrior of the Light are in him. I pray to God I'm not wrong.

More quotes:

"The Warrior respects the suffering of others and does not try to compare it with his own. The cup of suffering is not the same size for everyone."

"Even though he fights against oppression, at no point does he attempt to judge the oppressor. Each person will answer for his actions before God and so, once the Warrior has completed his task, he makes no further comment."

"A Warrior of the Light is on in the world in order to help his fellow man, not to condemn his neighbor."

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read the book for:

Novellas on November 2024 #NovNov24

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books & Rebecca @ Bookish Beck