Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Book Lust (again!)

I'm currently on a mission to read as many Man Booker prize winners as I can possibly get my hands on. Last year's winner, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall has been taunting me for ages ! ... I.NEED.IT ....... *sulks, mopes, whines, remembers age and comports self with a little more decorum ... 


Wally Lamb's The Hour I first Believed is another one of those books high on my To-Possess list. It's based on the fateful Columbine High School shooting in April 1999, the story's told from the perspective of two survivors. I've heard great things about Wally Lamb's I know This Much is True and I'm thinking this one should live up to it's predecessor's reputation.




Someone recommended Ken Follett to me a while back, and I've been looking at a few of his books, hoping for something that'll catch my eye. I picked up The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End sometime back in Popular and was forced to put it back looking at the price. New releases are a great tease !! Now I know that BookXcess is selling them for a steal, and my greedy heart is dancing a rapid tap dance of ill-concealed lust. Perhaps I shall lift my book-buying ban for a while. Just this once .... (something tells me this won't be the last time I'll say Just This Once ..)



16 comments:

smallkucing said...

Aiyo...no wonder i saw everyone was grabbing Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall from BX la.

Joanna said...

Kathy : Grabbing??!! Which means that by the time I get there, there won't be any left :( HAhaha...memang takde jodoh ...

J.Teoh said...

Historical fiction is always iffy for me - I don't particularly care for it, and I don't know why she won the Man Booker Prize. Now that they're making a movie out of it you know it's more or less garbage, like the Kite Runner (I ALSO don't know why everyone loved that - please tell me you don't.) If you want good Man Booker fiction I recommend Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger and Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things; Life of Pi is original as well, if you haven't read it. Ken Follett is John Grisham/Dan Brown for me, I'm afraid - only page turners not worth spending money on. My humble opinion :)

suituapui said...

Btw, do you re-read your books? My daughter does. She may read the books that she likes again...and again. I thought that's kind of strange. I wouldn't wanna do that - like watching the same movie again and again.

Joanna said...

Jac : I've always wondered how a historical fiction won the Man Booker especially when the rest of the shortlisted candidates were great talents i.e A.S Byatt, Sarah Waters, J.M Coetzee, so I thought Hilary Mantel must have packed something extra..now you've got me wondering. I have read The White Tiger, (now this one convinced me to go chase the rest of the Booker winners) and Life of Pi. God of Small Things is high on my wishlist! I've never read Kite Runner, I tend to steer away from over commercialized books and the synopsis on the back just wasn't interesting enough .. I loved his Thousand Splendid Suns though ..

Joanna said...

STP : LOL. Guilty as charged, sir! I do like re-reading books I like, each time I read it, I tend to see something different, a different view, perspective and mood. Whenever I come across prose that has been so perfectly structured, I tend to go back and re-read that line, paragraph and even page.. heh, neurotic reader that I am ..

JoV said...

Found your blog through "A Guy's moleskine notebook" matt's blog. One of the best thing about blogging is the serendipity that I cherish. I'm a Malaysian living abroad in the UK, and real name also called Joanna! I'm sure we have a different last name. For this reason I can't help but to bookmark your blog. :)

I don't know about Wolf Hall, just couldn't get into it very quickly, so I gave up after a long queue at the library. I reviewed Wally Lamb's "This much I know is true" last year:

http://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/this-much-i-know-is-true/

and I don't think his other work would live up to this.

Glad to stumble upon your blog! keep blogging.

JoV said...

Oh and I finished White tiger, God of small things and kite runner (much better than 1000 splendid suns). I must say it is very unconventional for the booker prize judges to pick "White Tiger".. as most booker prize winners' books almost require super concentration and focus to read them, White Tiger, as compared to that, is such an easy read.

owl_order said...

ah. now i know where to look for book recommendations. here. haha. sigh. makes me wanna just curl up in my bed and read for the rest of the night.

Melissa Wee said...

Hi, I have been a follower of your blog for sometime now and I find it great that you have all these book reviews cos I am pretty much a bookworm myself ;) Heheh. Btw, Sui Tua Pui is my dad and I have met your mum, Elin while on a day trip to Ipoh last Nov. I can't help but drool over the pictures posted on your mum's blog. The food looks so good!

Joanna said...

@ JoVenus :
Well hello Joanna! (boy, it does feel weird calling someone else by one's own name doesn't it.. in a good way though ) Thank you so much for dropping by my blog.I'm bookmarking yours too !!

And yes, White Tiger does seem like an unlikely winner for the Booker prize, but I've gotta say that it's one of the most original books I've read in a long while. The blend of humour and tragedy and how in the end, the message that the author wishes to put across is made so very clear.

@ Wen Qi :
Oh yes yes yes!! Do curl up with a good book before you sleep. I read somewhere that you should always read something funny/nice before you sleep. Great way to keep the nightmares at bay :P

@ Melissa :
How lovely of you to drop a note here :) I've been reading so much about you on your dad's blog so it is indeed an honour to finally hear from you ! I love the fact that you're a bookworm and I hope that you'll continue dropping by, perhaps to add some recommendations or opinions on the books that I'm planning to continue writing about ...

Hehe, my mum the culinary expert has got lots of people drooling over her delicacies, me included, back in those days when I was still away at school :)

JoV said...

It sure seems weird to call another with the same name! I know how you feel, I have another Joanna in my office too! So call me Jo, JT, JoV, if you prefer. :)

Your post got me thinking about J.M Coetzee and I maintain "1001 books you must read before you die" list, so there is more good books from where they come from.

Let me know about your mom's culinary website (URL)! I love this one:

www.rasamalaysia.com

she has got great food pictures, you and your mom would love it.

besides the book blog, I maintained a blog to vent pent-up frustration, like you said, my occasionally "tempestuous rage", I'd love to hear from everybody back home..

www.upeupo.wordpress.com

have fun wherever you are!

owl_order said...

really? hmmm good tip. i've been having some rather weird nightmares every now and then since few weeks ago. including one where i returned to malaysia and found KL totally different from what i remember. and another one where a Jedi swung a lightsabre at me while i attempted to parry with mine. both (strangely, despite what people say) in colours.

Joanna said...

@Jovenus :
Hi there again JoV :) I went to immediately check out your 1001 books to read list and I must say my wishlist is getting much much longer now !!! I'm going to be following your personal blog too from now on.

My mum's blog is at www.elinluv.blogspot.com .. do hop on over and say hi, she'll be delighted ! RasaMalaysia is indeed a pioneer in the food blog community and her pictures are drool worthy !

@Wen Qi :
Aw, your Jedi dream is just adorable ! ( ok, I don't mean to make you seem like a 3 year old but I hope you get what I mean..) And I can see how coming back to a Malaysia that has completely changed can be a nightmare ... to be robbed of the familiar is always an unnerving experience :(

JoV said...

Your mom's blog is drool worthy too, such a cool mom you've got.

She blogged 221 posts last year! OMG, you have a mom who blogs almost every single day! how cool is that? :)

Joanna said...

Haha ... my mum is indeed one of those modern mums out there ... hehe ...