I was skeptical when I first joined Booksneeze. I thought they wouldn’t send me the book that I’ve requested for review as they’re American based, but to my surprise, I received it today when I checked my mailbox. 😀 It came in a medium sized parcel with an invoice and a small note from BookSneeze. So it is safe to conclude that the review program is available worldwide.
The parcel I received.
Unwrapping the parcel.
Yes! It’s the book that I’ve requested weeks ago. 😀 The Summer Secret by Kathleen Fuller.
The back cover of the book, containing the summary.
God be praised! 😀 I was pretty wary of the bills I’ve been receiving these few days, and a book in my mailbox is a very welcome change. The free book brightens my day, or rather, my night. LOL. 😀
I’m was not compensated for the review, but I get to keep the book, and that’s enough to keep me smiling, as I love books. They make great companion on a quiet night.
I’m gonna devour the book tonight, and you can expect me to review it the latest by tomorrow. 😀 Let’s see if they gave me a good read. 😀
Cleffairy: Books are my best friend. 😀 They don’t lie to me, trick me, or even betray me. Yups. they’re the safest kind of friend anyone could ever ask for. Befriend them.
“I’ve been in love with you all of my life. Couldn’t even change it if I wanted to.”
Those were the words, that made my heart melt and my soul sing. Those were the words, beautifully written in The Time Traveler’s Wife, and made me curl all night long on the bed, beneath the blanket, savouring the good book, in ebook version.
The Time Traveler’s Wife, written by Audrey Niffenegger is a lyrical love story between Henry and Clare, albeit an unusual one suffused with vivid images of the past and the future.
It’s a little bit confusing for me in the beginning, but it’s really a good book, and once I got a grip on the story, I barely take my eyes off from it. The feeling it gave me is absolutely different from Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. While My Sister’s Keeper made me fast-forward a few pages and skip some part, the Time Traveller’s wife doesn’t have such effect with me.
Henry has a rare genetic condition, something that’s fictionally known as Chronus Displacement Disorder. He time-travels within his own lifetime, into his own past and future, yet dwells in the present. Clare has been in love with Henry all of her life…a feeling that has been developed as a result of his time traveling.
Henry and Clare develop a bond that transcends time and logic, bound to memory and promise. Since Henry’s traveling is involuntary, they learn to deal with life’s ambiguity in a deeper sense than most couples. Within this strange constraint, Clare’s affection assumes a mystical tone and she accepts their situation unconditionally, year after year committing her heart into Henry’s keeping.
The Time Traveler’s Wife… a beautiful story of love that transcends time and dimension. Henry and Clare’s lifelong love affair does not come without a cost, for nothing worth having is easily won.
The powerful emotional ending of this novel contains its share of shattering revelations, brutal slashes of real life and its consequences. Niffenegger compassionately develops her unique characters with the grace to accept their difficult circumstances as well as their blessings.
Don’t be deceived by the easy charm of Henry and Clare’s relationship; they will draw you into their small circle, make you complicit with their dreams and disappointments.
They will break your heart. They broke and shattered mine, and they made me treasure and cherish what I have now. Love…is a keepsake. Love is for keep. Love should be unconditional and the present, is truly a gift.. That is what I learned from The Time Traveler’s Wife.
This is one book, that I would not miss for the world. A devastatingly well written science fiction romance.
This book, is something I would gladly share with all of you out there. To get a hold of your own ebook (pdf) copy of this wonderful masterpiece, kindly email me at cleffairy@gmail.com , and I will send it to you as soon as I can.
Anyway, for you lazy bums out there, the novel is also adapted into a movie. Check out the trailer.
And if you’re interested, you can watch the full movie HERE.
The movie is much more lighter than the novel. The novel is much more intense, and while I prefer to read than watch, but I must say that the movie is also captivating in it’s own way. Have a look, and have you own say.
Cleffairy: Love is a keepsake. It’s for keep. Nothing could destroy it if you don’t allow it.
I’ve been curling up with a few good books as of late. Smallkucing and Manglish recommended this book, entitled My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
More or less, I knew the story of the said book. Bookworms everywhere have been talking about it, and they gave thumbs up for the story spun by the author.
It’s a sob story, and I didn’t bother reading it when it was a hot item and the in thing cuz I knew I would be a sobby mess after reading it, but I’m afraid, I finally gave it after reading it’s review by Manglish.
All right, My Sister’s Keeper novel written by Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who sues her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.
Anna was conceived through in vitro fertilization to be a donor who could save Kate’s life. So practically, she was engineered to be Kate’s spare parts by her parents.
When she was born, her parents initially use Anna’s umbilical cord blood to treat Kate, and continue to use Anna as a donor for other bodily substances as Kate cycles through remission and relapse over the years.
Anna is usually willing to donate whatever Kate needs – blood, bone marrow – but a kidney transplant would be a major surgery for not only Kate, but Anna as well.
As much as Anna loves her sister, she began to think that it is time for her parents to stop harvesting organs from her for her sister’s sake. Anna then make a petitions for medical emancipation so that she will be able to make her own decision concerning donating a kidney to Kate, who is experiencing renal failure.
Sara, her mother, is an ex-lawyer and decides to represent herself and her husband in the lawsuit. She selfishly attempts to convince Anna to drop the suit and insist that Anna give up her kidney for her sister’s sake, but Anna refuses to do so.
This book promises surprises and unexpected turns. Quite a good read if you have the time to really sit and enjoy it. While many people would give a rating of 10/10 for the book, I’m afraid, I would only give a 4 out of it.
Why? Well, it’s simply it is not good enough for me, and from an author’s point of view, I feel that though this book have a great storyline and plot, the book tend to confuse the reader with too many point of view. When I started to read the book, I was annoyed that the author kept changing point of views, and I would have to say, her creative attempts annoyed me more than touched me. Each characters in the story took turns to describe events and etc.
I sort of get a headache while reading this book and I found it hard for me stay focus on the issues that the author tries to bring out in the open. It would have been a really good read to me if it’s only told in one point of view. I felt that the emotional part could have been expressed better if the author concentrate it on only one point of view instead of giving the limelight to every single characters in her story.
Anyway, the Hollywood made a movie out of this. If you’re not into books, you might want to have a look at the movie. Watch the trailer below.
Anyway, I have an ebook copy of this book. If you are interested to read this book and have yet to get your own copy, you can email me at cleffairy@gmail.com for a a pdf copy of this book, and I will send it to you as soon as I can.
Cleffairy: I’m not a hypocrite person. I wouldn’t pretend that something is good when I think it is not.
Dear John is usually a letter is written to a husband or a lover to inform him that a relationship is over, usually because the author has found another lover.
Dear John Letters are often written out of an inability or unwillingness to inform the man in person about the desire to break off certain relationship. In a reverse situation, in which someone writes to his wife of lover to break off the relationship, is often referred to as a “Dear Jane letter.”
The origin of this phrase is not exactly known, but it’s commonly believed to be started during the World War II by the Americans. You see, back then, there’s large amount of male soldiers who were stationed oversea during the war, and more often than not, it’s always for a long period of time. Not many women could wait for their husband or lover back then. Most decided to move on with their life with another man instead of just waiting for their men to come back from war.
There are a number of theories on why the name John is used rather than any other. John was a common name in America at the time the term was started. John is also the name used in many other terms that refer to an anonymous man or men, such as ‘John Doe’ or ‘John Smith’.
The phrase That’s all she wrote is believed to have originated from Dear John letters. These letters would contain either the words ‘Dear John’ and abruptly terminate, or only contain the words ‘Dear John, Goodbye.’ The phrase ‘That’s all she wrote’ is used to indicate the end of story or an abrupt end of story, especially when the reader has a desire to know more, but the writer does not want to fulfill that desire.
Don’t be alarmed. I am not here today to write a separation note to my husband. I am not the kind who will walk away from a relationship with just leaving the man a note. If I were to break off a relationship and whatnot, I’ll be sure to resolve the issue face to face. And maybe a kick in the crotch or something. I won’t be satisfied with just a letter, a call or even sms.
I’m not the kind of blogger who writes about movies and entertainment really often. I only do so when I think a book or a movie is really worth reviewing, and so here goes nothing. I’d like to talk about a recently released movie known as ‘ Dear John’, an adaptation from my favourite author, Nicholas Sparks. Yup, it’s from the same feller who wrote The Notebook, Message in the Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Lucky One, The Last Song and many more fantastic, tear-jerking and heart moving love stories.
Like his other famous bestselling works, Dear John is adapted into a movie of the same name.
Dear John is about an angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life, until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah during his summer vacation.
Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else.
“Dear John,” the letter read…and with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever. Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still his true love and he face the hardest decision of his life.
Dear John is a good read. For those who wants to read Dear John but couldn’t find it, I have the ebook version of it, and kindly email me at cleffairy@gmail.com to request for it. It would be a pleasure for me to share it with you.
For those who are interested in the movie version of it, however, can watch it HERE.
Below, is the trailer for Dear John.
On the lighter note…want to break up but don’t know how? Write a Dear John letter. Go HERE and check it out.
Cleffairy: Anyone a believer of a long distance relationship? I am not quite sure I am.
I was in Wonderland. The same place where Alice of Alice in Wonderland went to. Or well… it’s not really Wonderland, but I was in Midvalley Megamall on business two days back, and they’re doing this wonderful promotion for Alice in Wonderland movie by Tim Burton by setting up the life size wonderland on the ground floor of Midvalley. The movie is screened in Malaysia on 11th March 2010, and as usual, there’s a mad rush in the cinema.
The was camwhoring to the max as well, and I wasn’t really keen on snapping photos, as there’s too much people over there. I daresay most of them are bloggers, camwhoring like nobody’s business and I daresay, there will be mushrooms of blogpost where bloggers would post up their pictures in the lifesize Wonderland in Midvalley Megamall. There’s huge mushroom and talking roses, as well as the tea party table and stuff.
I apologize if you’re expecting camwhoring picture of me with giant roses or even giant mushrooms, cuz there would be none over here. They are for my eyes only. 😛
What I want to share with you in this entry is Alice’s original story, Alice in Wonderland 2010, and the items that appeared in the movie itself.
Let’s start with Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll first, shall we? Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, or usually better known as Alice in Wonderland was not quite my favourite as a child. It’s a good bedtime story, as it tend to bore me. My daddy’s stories are much more interesting to me than Alice’s adventure. In a way, Alice in Wonderland is a literary gibberish. And rightly so, as Alice’s in Wonderland’s genre is actually literary gibberish/literary nonsense, as many scholars would classify it.
The tale itself was written for a girl named Alice Liddell. It was told by Lewis Caroll to Alice Liddell and her sisters merely to pass time, but Alice Liddell likes the story, and asked Lewis Caroll to write it down for her, and thanks to this girl, Alice in Wonderland was published for the whole world to enjoy.
Alice in Wonderland, literally is a literary nonsense, where there’s no actual plot. The story is about a girl, wandering from one character another, and one place to another, and the author had told the story as he goes. That explained why Alice’s in Wonderland story is rather queer. People would either love it or hate it. But most would love it, as it played with logic. I kinda hate the story, though I would really love to go to Wonderland like Alice.
My daddy used to read Alic’s story to me, and I would either fall asleep almost instantly, or I’d begged him to tell me his own stories. Anyway Alice says something in the original story in the first chapter that most bloggers would agree. Below is what she said:
“What is a book without pictures and conversation?”
In modern era, that would definitely be this:
“What is a blog without pictures and camwhoring?”
LOL… fine, that’s not really a tasteful joke. I know loads of bloggers out there works with picture more than they work with words. 😛 Oh, well, many people have something in common with Alice- the love and fondness for pictures. And since most of you have something in common with Alice, maybe you should watch Alice in Wonderland (2010) by Tim Burton.
The movie is more to my kind, fantasy-like filled with dark action. I’ve watch it online, and I can assure you it would be entertaining. In my opinion, better than the original story, as there’s plot, and one could relate with the story-cause and action. The book may send me to sleep, but surprisingly, the movie didn’t. Perhaps it’s because it’s filled with action.
In the movie, an adult Alice attends a party at a Victorian estate shortly after the death of her father. She then discovered that the party is actually an engagement party to wed her into the Ascot family, who now own her father’s trading firm. Unsure of an answer to the proposal, Alice runs away and follows the White Rabbit, but falls down a rabbit hole into a weird world she previously visited as a child, although she has no memory of it. From there Alice’s adventure begins, and she then tries to free the weird world from the clutches of an evil queen who stole the throne from her sister.
Don’t let me spoil you… watch the movie for yourself. Below is the trailer for Alice in Wonderland 2010.
When I was in Midvalley Megamall earlier on, I managed to snap some picture of the life-size Wonderland. They did quite a good job recreating Wonderland, and being claustrophobic around people, I only went back there at about 11pm to snap some photos. I just can’t stand the crowd and camwhoring. 🙁 So pardon me for the poor pictures, as they had already turned off the lights when I went there to snap pictures.
Giant mushrooms and giant, talking roses as featured in Alice in Wonderland. They are huge, mind you. Much more bigger than me.
Huge, giant mushrooms that populates almost the entire Wonderland/Underland.
The ghostly giant tree, sure to give nightmares to naughty little children.
The mushroom trails…
And then there’s items from the movie exibited over there…
It’s the Mad Hatter’s Hat
The description for Mad Hatter’s Hat that’s worn by Mad Hatter.
The Mad Hatter’s Sword.
The description above made me think that sometimes, people failed their spellings because of looking at too much pictures. Tsk tsk tsk! Malaysians!
The teapot that’s used in the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. Tea is my kinda thing. I would have tea anytime. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t invited for the tea party.
So yeah, Alice hid inside the teapot when she was as small as Thumbelina.
And then there’s the heart shaped padlock and chains.
And no, the chained wasn’t used to tie me up at the bedpost. Keep your bondage fantasy to yourself, please.
The Eat Me Box…
So yeah, it’s supposed to be cakes inside the glass box, ladies and gentlemen, not praline or chocolates.
One item that really caught my attention is this beautiful shield that’s supposed to be Alice’s.
The shield’s description.
I brought these back home as something to remember Wonderland by. It’s actually vouchers cum character’s profile cards, but not many bothered to look at these freebies, as they were too busy snapping away.
Nice, isn’t it? They are beautifully printed on glossy cards. Too bad not many are interested in the character’s profile cards.
And since I’m in the mood of Alice’s in Wonderland and in need of sleep… I think I’ll just read this book tonight.
*grinz* The original complete and unabridged Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll.
Gosh… it’s been ages since I last read this book. It must be almost a decade… and boy, the pages are so yellowish and the book has an awful old book smell.
Cleffairy: Off with her head! Off with her head and things get curiouser and curiouser. Gosh, we’re all mad here. And do you know that even though Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty and the Jabberwock are often thought to be characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, they actually only appear in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass?
Huge, giant mushrooms that populates almost the entire Wonderland/Underland.
The ghostly giant tree, sure to give nightmares to naughty little children.
The Eat Me Box…
