Good and Bad (Why does it feel like I've used this before?)

I managed, on a one hour train ride, to finish a good amount of books, and curiously, I noted that two of the fluff books were by Holly McQueen. Strangely, I liked one and hated the other.

Let's start with the negative:

The Fabulously Fashionable Life of Isable Bookbinder was terrible. Really awful. I only finished it because I wanted to be fair to the book and because I had nothing else to read (made myself bring only one book). It's not because the book is mindless fluff; I like reading such stuff too ok? It's because the titular character - Isabel Bookbinder is so annoying. She starts off by trying to get into a fashion graduate course without a portfolio, experience or even filling up the application forms. I don't know if it's because I'm a semi-anal Asian or something, but that attitude seriously annoys me. How do people expect to be likable and succeed by not doing anything? And why should I dislike the admissions officer for rejecting her?

Although this book is clearly modelled after the Shopaholic series, it somehow misses the humour inherent in the series and just annoys me. Becky Bloomwood nee Brandon might be ditzy and spend time hiding her purchases, but at least she's serious about what she likes and I don't know, in some way, I would like to spend time with her as a character. Maybe it's because Isabel keeps changing her career (apparently she wanted to be a novelist previously), yet feels "upset" when others doubt her choices, but somehow, I have little respect and liking for her.

So to recap: This novel annoys me. I don't want to recommend it, unless you feel that despite all my negative words, it's worth reading. In that case, since this IS fiction, I can't really disapprove or anything (and why would you care anyway?) because this is really all quite subjective.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed reading There Goes the Bride. All the characters are likable, even though they don't like each other. The plot of Polly calling off her wedding is really not that important, because I feel the main characters are Bella (her older sis) and Grace (her best friend) and their respective lives. It's a very clear romance-feel good kind of book, but it is entertaining.

Actually, my favourite character has got to be Grace. Her description of the Miranda's (the ever competitive mom's) were really entertaining, and she has such a good heart. But I suppose I empathised with Bella more, because I'm like her. And that's what I really like about the book - it has likeable characters(:

So weirdly, the negative review is longer than the positive review. I don't know why though.

Jane Austen January!

The Literary Shack has created a Jane Austen January Blogfest. Well, I currently have a lot of books to read, so instead of re-reading Austen and properly participating, I'll just be doing one post on Jane Austen, or to be very specific, the Jane Austen Spin-offs/Sequels.

Now, Jane Austen is one of my favourite authoresses, especially for her wit and humour (I'm sorry Mr Mark Twain, but YOU are the one that bore me). One of my favourite books are Pride and Prejudice, which has numerous sequels, and a very interesting retelling - Pride and Prejudice And Zombies, with its sequel Dreadfully Ever After.

Despite being almost heresy to some Jane Austen purists (One of my friend's mom was visibly disturbed), I think that Pride and Pejudice And Zombies is a really interesting book. In the first book, the writing blends well together, and the additions of Zombies hasn't dulled the wit in the story. One of my favourite quotations comes from the Mr Collins Proposal (by Mr Bennet):

"I will not have my best warrior resigned to the sercie of a man who is fatter than Buddha and duller than the edge of a learning sword."

The sequel: Dreadfully Ever After, is equally entertaining, although I think the style of writing has somewhat deviated from Austen's original style. But what I enjoyed the most is the characterisation of Kitty (and of course, Mary). She has been said in the ending of Pride and Prejudice to be less silly without the influence of Lydia, and this is wonderfully continued in the sequel, especially when she starts to deals with her feelings. Of course, having substantial parts of the narrative in her point of view helps a lot.

Another interesting Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons. At first, I was a little unsure about the level of sacarsm in the text, especially the footnotes, which is why I went back and re-read the original. Now, I'm convinced that most of the text is keeping in tone, as long as you avoid the footnotes. Somehow, I feel patronised whenever I read the footnotes, which is why in the end, I ignored them (It's a shame really, because after I was introduced to Terry Pratchet, I love reading footnotes).

My Jane Austen Summer: A Season in Mansfield Park on the other hand, was not as good as I expected. I'll probably be keeping the book but only because I bought it on a trip to the US and I have memories linked to it. This book has the least to do with Jane Austen, instead descending (for too much of the time) into a pity party for the protagonist, Lily. Plus, the mention of, how to put this delicately, looser morals (she slept with the guy. Who had a girlfriend) makes this hero fairly unlike Austen's hero. I found very little, if any resemblence to Mansfield Park, or even Austen in general, except for the fact that the whole story took place at a Jane Austen re-enactment.

The last Jane Austen book that I have is not fiction, in fact, it's Jane Austen for Dummies. Now, I normally avoid the Dummies series like the plague, but this one is actually really really good. What I like is it's comprehensiveness, especially with regards to the culture and social mores of that time. It also has information on Jane Austen's background, the books (even the books she read) and so one. I suppose for the extremely dedicated, this is nothing, but if you're just starting the Jane Austen fever, then this is an excellent introduction to the world around her, and I think it really enhances the reading experience if you know about the time period in which she wrote. Plus, if you subscribe to literary theories like New Historicism, cultural studies or really any literary theory that tries to look at the text in a specific way (such as by gender studies), this book is a really useful introduction. Although I'm not sure how impressive it'll look if your bibliography cites the Dummies book.

NB: Due to the many books, I decided to start bolding the titles to make it easier.

Footnote one: What does NB mean anyway? And why am I using it if I don't know (you'd think I have enough sense not to use it in case of misuse)?

IB Results Out Today!

ACS (Independent)

In my over-achieveing school, the average IB score is 41.36 points. If this doesn't seem remarkable, consider this two other facts: one, the highest possible score in IB is 45 points; and two, my cohort has 454 candidates.

To add to more good news, we managed to do the impossible (Addidas: Impossible is Nothing) and not only maintain the number of perfect scorers (29) but increase our average points. We also increased the number of students who scored above 40 from 71.4% to 78.2%, which is to say (not really), we now have over 70 students with 44 points. That's one less the full score!

All this makes my 41 points, which would be great in any other school, feel like I'm below average. But I'm doing my best to remember that I did my best already, and that it really is a wonderful score. I know God has a plan for my life, and no matter how hard it is, or how easy it is to feel disgruntled when those that do less work score better than me, I will, and must remain grateful.


We are all special, even when we don't feel like it.



A Minor Indescretion by Carole Matthews

I said before that I wanted to read more of Carole Matthews and my wish was granted. A Minor Indiscretion is the second book of hers that I read, and although I didn't like/love it nearly as much as The Only Way is Up, I still enjoyed it a lot.

A Minor Indiscretion occurs when Ali decides to pon a day at work to meet a new admirer. Events compound and she's quickly turned out by her husband (who in a very strange sense of logic, refers to this as Ali having "left him" - please, the dude threw her out) and goes into a full-time relationship with her new, younger boyfriend while her husband simultaneously has two young women after him.

Basically, it's a romance novel with relationships so confusing it may rival A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Although, truth be told, this book does contain more substance than a normal fluffy book. It at least explores/looks at a few topics, such as the possibility of love between an older women and a younger man.

But to me, the main strength about the book are its characters. Christian is charming, although I didn't like him at times, and I quite liked Ali most of the time. Ed (Ali's husband), on the other hand, was very irritating. Maybe he wasn't given enough word count to explain himself, but I found him extremely selfish and someone who says one thing and does another. But at the very least, he 'redeemed' himself at the end by changing for the better.

The only issue I have with this book is one of it's endings (there is at least one sub-plot so there needs to be more than one ending). -Spoiler Alert- Neil (Ed's brother), ends up with Orla (Ed slept with her a few times during the novel). I thought Orla wasn't a likable character and their manner of meeting and getting together was highly implausible. It rang false even within the fictional domain of the novel. And (I think), because of this, two other characters are denied resolution (or simply forgotten about).

Apart from that, this is a really enjoyable novel. Despite the subject matter, it's not graphic, but rather, deals with the day-to-day life of a couple in crisis. Still, this is probably only for slightly older/more mature readers, because of the rather complex issue that is being dealt with.