Thing of Beauty (Stephen Fried)

This book is given to me by YT in exchange of the book Don't You Know Who I Used to be.

Reading now...review later...

Tales from the Court (Matthew Thomas)

Reading now... review later....

My Guantanamo Diary (Mahvish Rukhsana)

Mahvish is an Afghan girl who was born in the US. She's a law student and was helping as a pro bono in Guantanamo Bay. Actually I don't know if this book should be categorized as biography or autobiography. On one hand, she writes about her account in Guantanamo which revolves around the life of the prisoner.

When I read this book, I found out the reason why so many innocent people got thrown into detention camp. There are advertisements everywhere promoting for people to hand in any suspects and in return, the US government would pay them a good price. So many people got "sold" into the camp although they have done nothing wrong.

I cried a few times while I was reading this book. I can't imagine good people got treated so badly in the detention. Not only they were tortured and humiliated, their human rights were denied. I showed the book to my grandmother and he said, it's amazing that those people still struggle to keep themselves alive, yet some people who has all the luxury in the world complaining of having not enough.

One of the stories that I particularly remember is the capture of an al-Jazeera's journalist. He showed his protest by not taking any meal. The authorities force feed him and I can picture that vividly in my mind what they did to him. The explanation was quite graphic on how they poke the pipe into his lung. Sometimes they did it so badly that his nostril bleeds.


Some of the detainers stories are quite a happy ending. They've been sent home and reunited with their family after so many years living in hell. What I admire Mahvish the most is, she still keeps in touch with those people she had contact with in the detention. She visited them after their release.


I recommend everyone to read this book. You'll never regret. Seriously. It's facts. It's drama. It's sad. It's happy. It's reality. It's more than you could ask for from a book.

Don't you know who I used to be (Julia Morris)

I've been so lazy to write this blog. But I haven't stop reading.

Well, this book is written by Julia Morris (duh!). But do you know who she is? She's an international comedian. An Australian moved to England, and now she's back home again.

Julia Morris writes like Sue Townsend. It's really hilarious, probably it flows from that comedian gene. It's really a light reading. I especially like the chapter where she talks about her crazy neighbour. At the end of the day, the crazy neighbour drove her crazy. She was trying to sell her house when she was in need of some money. So she hide from the buyer the fact that the neighbour was psychotic. When the buyer found out about the crazy neighbour, Julia went crazy too.

I gave this book to a friend YT who loves funny stuff. In return she gave me a biography on Gia (the model) and also its DVD. I think it's totally cool idea to exchange books. Thanks to Paulo Coelho, he said books have their own journey. Knowledge is destined to be pass around instead of sitting on the shelf. I'm sticking to this idea. So far, it's been really great to do that. I think people appreciate it when I pass some books to them. It feels that I'm sharing apart of my knowledge with my friends. You should really do that.

On reading break now. Well, not exactly. But I can't choose what to read. I have a thesis to submit by April. So I have to dedicate my time on the research. 10,000 words thesis, my darling... If the thesis is about myself, that wouldn't be a problem. But I have to write about Iraq War. Wish me luck!

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie)

reading now, review later......

The Henson Case (David Marr)

Available at Fullers Bookshop (AUD 24.95)

reading now, review later...

Boy: Tales of Childhood (Roald Dahl)

Available at Fullers Bookshop (AUD 8.95 that's half price!!!!)

I would give a standing ovation for this book. It is really good. And hilarious. This is a story of Roald Dahl's very own boyhood. As you read, you'll find that most of his children books are inspired by his own life during his boyhood. Although this book can be fit perfectly well as an autobiography, but Roald Dahl says, "An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. This is not an autobiography".

I love the part where he talks about his teacher at school, Captain Hardcastle. He had been a soldier in the army in the Great War. And a man who always twitch. Roald Dahl writes:

Rumour had it that the constant twitching and jerking and
snorting was caused by something called shell-shock, but we were not quite
sure what that was. We took it to mean that an explosive object had gone off
very close to him with such an enormous bang that it had made him jump high
in the air and he hadn't stopped jumping since.

There are a few interesting events that happened during his childhood. One of it was the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. His Holiness was Roald Dahl's headmaster at Repton. And not long after that it was he himself who had the task of crowning our present Queen in Westminster Abbey. Can you imagine how it feels to see your headmaster crowning the Queen? I can't.

I give this book 15/10!

The Ersatz Elevator (Lemony Snicket)

Available at Hobart Bookshop (AUD 19.95)

I know I've been reading a lot of children books lately. I can't help it, they are more interesting than adult fiction. Besides, I'm really anxious of what is going to happen to the Baudelaire's children (and now the Quagmire's children).

Reading now, review later...

Further Under the Duvet (Marian Keyes)

Available at Angus & Robertson (AUD 27.99)

I got to know about this book from my friend's blog. Before that, I used to come across this book in the store. But I didn't know that it is a personal reflection. Judging from the author's name, Marian Keyes, I thought it was a chic lit. That's why they say, never judge a book by its cover.

I really love personal reflection books from great authors. They write with great charm and with no string attached. Brilliant ideas just poured out into the book.

In this book, Marian wrote of her thoughts of being a lady. Like how my friend put it in her words, there are many things book that reflect what we ever thought. While your eyes following word to word between the pages, you will tell yourself oh, yes I came across that.

My favorite piece in this book is on the first chapter. No 'chapter' ain't quite right. It supposed to be used on story. What I meant is the first content. The title is The Nicest Thing That Ever Happened To Me. Marian was hired to be a beauty product review for a female magazine. Hence, she got all the new released beauty product for free. Please scream Oh, my God! with me.... OH, MY GOD!!!! That's one of my dream. Not so much on the review job, though. But the free beauty products is like dreams come true.

However, towards the end of the book, she includes a few short stories. I didn't bother to read
that part. Chic lit bores me. I wish she could write more about her own thoughts, though.