this doesn't contain sadness. seriously.: Agustus 2011

Running With Scissors – Augusten Borrough

An Object of Beauty – Steve Martin

Let The Great World Spin – Calumn Mc. Cann

Hector & The Search for Happiness – Francois Lelord

The Guy Not Taken (stories) – Jennifer Weiner

Madre- Dewi Lestari/Dee

Winnie The Pooh – A.A. Milne

Housekeeping vs. The Dirt – Nick Hornby

Running With Scissors has been made movie – and i haven't watched it. I bought the book at omuniuum because i find the cover (i love paperback) cute. Staring at the legged scissors i thought “this must be crazy.” and it is. Burrough opened the 'explanation' of his situation (this is his autobiography, fyi) as her mother gone crazy. Sometimes i just stared at the pages and thinking how Burrough could have written this. It must be hard, - i can't imagine, without all the humor, how the book would come out. Is it gonna be a self help, or just random anonymous autobiography only read in psychological purpose? I think it's the humor that brings the book to the world best sellers and finally, the major motion picture (with lots of nominations). Humor in the book is the way to lighten the actual issues, for the reader sake or for Burrough himself, i can't tell. But for a autobiography of a 13 years old, this is not suitable reading for the age. Burrough finds himself gay when he was still a little, and adding the craziness of her mother, he moved to her mother's even crazier psychiatrist - and even more crazier family. That's where he 'had relationship' with Dr.Finch's 30 years old adopted son. And then he finds out later about her mom being gay as well with their fine-christian neighbour who has the most perfect family. If i didn't know it was autobiography, i'm gonna think this is the craziest family ever created by an author that actually stepping the line between 'real' and 'surreal'. But knowing this is an autobiography, i could only say “and where is Burrough now? Is he okay?” because this is too much for a 13 years old. This is not a delight read. This is disturbing, uncomfortable read. Yet, i still laughed hard, cried, and touched. It is extremely moving and it's insightful. The craziest part was that we can still feel Burrough's love to the Finch family, eventhough they've done a lot of damages to his childhood. It doesn't even sounded as he disturbed by that fact. That, man, was the perfect closure of every feelings the book has given you from the beginning. Knowing that it's all alright after all. It's not crazy, they're just being more honest to themselves and others. And we're not. :))

An Object of Beauty was bought at the airport's Times purely because i love Shopgirl – previous book by Steve Martin which was filmed (and it was great). But somehow i didn't finish reading it because, it was boring, for me. Maybe the contemporary art based novel is not really my thing. Surely Martin knows and loves it, and also very good at writing it. Well, i stopped reading somewhere between the adorement of the narrator (bestfriend of the lead character – the rutheless and ambitious young woman – i forgot the name) and her breezy summer dresses she wears that take men's breathe away.

Let The Great World Spin by Mc.Can i found very breathe taking. I think he's the most talented young writer after Jonathan Safran Foer. I find the concept of the book surreal, but in a very realistic way. It's a 9/11 related book, but not about what happened, or what happened after. This is pre-9/11. Colum tells us about freedom. It's about people on the ground watching something unbelievable – a man walking on a wire on the higest high top of the building, and watching the fate of the man without really doing anything. It shows us – the watchers from the ground and the readers, what it is to be implicated in a freedom we can never attain. I can never find myself writing the perfect words for a praise to this book. It's just too amazing.

Hector and The Search for Happiness, is a simple third person narrative book about Hector, the unhappy psychiatrist with bunch of unhappy clients. This book made me want to do the happiness searching myself, and i did. You can read what i wrote about it on my www.diantra.tumblr.com page. Hector was travelling around the world for this little happiness journey. From China, Africa, to America (he never really write about the exact countries he was at, only littlest clues.) and i think this Hector lives somewhere in Europe. He met the most happiest people including monks and papas, the most unhappiest people like his business man bestfriend, and learned a lot from them about what happiness it. He wrote down everything he learned, and visited a monk, and also a Happiness Theory professor who told him he did a great job, went home, and finally can be happy (little by little) and make others – his lover and his clients happy too. - or less unhappy. I love the book that changes your perspective, teaches you lessons, and push you to do your own searching.

I dont really know why i bought The Guy Not Taken in the first place. I just bought it. I've never read any of Weiner's book, and didn't know what to expect. But i love short stories in one book and the trying to connect the dot. This begins with a story of a very young girl, and ends with a story of a very old woman. I just finished reading the book about a week ago and still having mixed feeling of it. Every one of the stories tells the adventures and thoughts of people (mostly women) in their lives. More or less like our own ordinary lives. But it makes you realize that no live is as ordinary as it seems. It's the littlest drama; the loss, the daily lesson, and the people around you that make it special, extra ordinary. A very light reading that touches deeply.

Madre is the new book from local author (a very talented one) Dewi Lestari a.k.a Dee. I loved her previous short stories and novels so i bought the book. I didn't know what Madre was before, and i know it now that it's a spanish name for Mother. In this book, Madre is the basic ingredient in making bread (the older the better). The first story about the young man without much aknowledgement about his own family, got a heritage (by the man he didn't know – who turned out to be his grandmother's love affair – this got mixed racial issue at the time in Indonesia) which is Madre, changed his no maden – without any strings attached kind of life. He finally brought up the hiatus bakery into life again and changes the lives of people he didn't know moment ago. The stories after aren't too memorable for me, there are some poems and a really short mumbles Dee's typical of showing her emotions in writing.

I read Winnie The Pooh to my baby daughter every night for 4 days in a row. I don't need to review the book to tell you how simple the way of Milne teaches children (and also grown ups) to do things with heart, with love, with tolerance. The every different characters of Pooh, Piglet, Tiger, and Christopher Robin have one connection; a naivity, a pure heart, and humanly mistakes that teach you how to live together nicely.

The last book in reading – The housekeeping vs. The Dirt, i haven't finished reading, but you can tell how it affects me to write this. I'll update the book review for this one separately. Or not, at all. :)

Enjoy the review, and i really hope everyone start making their own review and collect the wisdoms and lessons and emotions in their own writing. It's so enjoyable and actually, a bit learning also.

Keep reading!

Running With Scissors - Augusten Burrough (re-read)

omuniuum

An Object of Beauty - Steve Martin (abandoned)

times

The Great World Spin - Colum Mc. Cann

periplus

Hector & The Search for Happiness - Francois Lelord

times

The Guy Not Taken - Jennifer Weiner

omuniuum

Madre - Dewi Lestari/Dee

gramedia

Winnie The Pooh - A.A Milne

omuniuum

Housekeeping vs. The Dirt - Nick Hornby

omuniuum

The moment i'm writing this, i haven't finished Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby. In fact, i just started reading it an hour ago. But this book has a very big impact on me writing this now, because the book is not a book about tips on cleaning a house - as the title implies. The book is actually a book about -well, books. Hornby written a witty review about books he's been reading every month for a year. So, that's when this comes from. The idea is Hornby's idea, (just like the happiness lessons on my tumblr page was Francois Lelord's idea) i'd loved to do great inspiring ideas people have, in fact, that's why they're writing it, no? To inspire people to take the best of it, and just do it? :)

i love reading so much and i could read 5 to 10 books a month. i buy books based on the back cover review, or just curiosity of the nice covers, or the stamp written "best seller", or more often books by my favorite authors. Sometimes i have themes for books i want to read every month. Last month was "Classic". I read Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and they were fun adventures in plots, characters, and drama. :))

i have no particular theme this month, it was just a lot of waiting (for a sound checks, photo shoots, etc) so i bought a lot of books. i bought most of the books at Omuniuum, Periplus, Times, and Gramedia. So it's a random souvenirs from my favorite stores.

I also found my old stacks of books recently when i'm rearranging daddy's library upstairs. So, i think i'm gonna be re-reading some of them - also some of my dad's books this month and try making essay/review one of each month or each stacks of books i've read.

starting now.