"The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory

Introduction to the Book can be found here, courtesy of the good people responsible for Wikipedia.

This is an entirely engrossing piece of historical fiction; I started on it during the last few days of my trip in London, and was devouring it, at the expense sometimes of not wanting to venturing out of the house, to finish the book. It also gained more meaning to me since I visited one of the homes of Henry VIII, being Hampton Court Palace, and saw a temporary exhibition about Henry VIII and his women, the king who is featured in this novel.

A bit about this novel without which, I guess my later ramblings may not make much sense. The novel is set in the time of Tudor England, where Henry VIII is king. He is married to Katherine, the Spanish princess, but Queen Katherine's inability to bear him a son to succeed his dynasty increasingly drives a rift between the couple. Into this scene enters the Boleyn siblings, Mary, Anne and George, of the Howard family, jostling for political favours from the King.

The story is told from Mary's voice one in which she starts off being the King's mistress, before she is supplanted by her more devious older sister, who eventually becomes Queen through her scheming (Henry VIII divorced Katherine by setting himself against the Church, claiming that the marriage was a sham).

"The Other Boleyn Girl" is a reference to the intense sibling rivalry between Mary and Anne. Although the Boleyn siblings (George included) banded together when it came to external foes and their political ambition, there was always competition between Mary and Anne. In the waxing of one's fortune, the other's star inevitably waned. Hence when Mary was the King's mistress, whilst Anne hated her sister's rising star with a virulence, she nevertheless assisted her and was there for Mary in her time of need; in that period, Anne was the other Boleyn girl, the sister who was nothing and only a hanger on to her sister's rising fortunes as the King's bedmate. Anne's discontentment with being the unfavoured one eventually leads her to grab at the opportunity to supplant her sister when the King starts to lose interest. So it was that Mary became the other Boleyn girl, the girl that history all but forgotten in favour of her more scandalous sister who was executed for adultery.

I liked the play of sibling relations in this book which is set against the wider court intrigue that takes place in the King's circle. I found the depiction of the complex emotions, of familial loyalty interlaced with personal happiness, sisterly love interwoven with intense sibling rivalry, and many others a thoroughly interesting read. The plight of well-born females in Tudor England who are treated little better as political pawns to be traded for the King's favour is also well-documented, and rings as a bitter peal throughout the book. The fates of the aristocratic females in this book are all bad; in Mary, who eventually chose to become a simple farmer's wife and mother, the book perhaps hints at the best fate for women of that epoch.

The friend who lent me the book recommended the film to follow-up, though she cautioned that the film is definitely not as richly-textured as the read. Still, I'm rather game to give it a try: back when the film came to the big screens, I missed it because I couldn't find time to go. Now that I've read the book, getting my hands on the show suddenly seemed imperative.

Geek rating: 5 out of 5

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Nation, as the author says so himself, is pretty impossible to summarise.
But he does so anyway in the following video, which is much better than any other description I've come across on the interwebs. Do have a listen if you have 3 min to spare:

Though aimed at young adults, Nation is a fantastic read for all. I enjoyed the island setting, which, if not treated carefully, can be campy and stale. But Pratchett made it as enjoyable as it can come, and the political and religious satire got me contemplating on our modern world, as well as what Pratchett himself might be contemplating on his own personal level.

As you might already know, I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series, and I wonder from time to time how is his battle against a rare form of Alzheimer's disease. I really hope that he can somehow overcome the illness. All the best Mr Pratchett!~

9 out of 10 papervine cannons for Nation.

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui

My first book by Yasutaka Tsutsui was the short story collection Salmonella Men on Planet Porno. I was really amused by Tsutsui's wild imagination and zany stories, so I picked up Hell next, which I finished on the extended remix of a bus ride to Melaka. While Tsutsui's concept of Hell was interesting, there were too many Japanese characters in the plot that I got pretty confused and kept having to flip back to check who was who.

But there was still positive energy spilling from the Planet Porno experience, so I gave Tsutsui a third try - Paprika. My first encounter of Paprika was the anime film which, after watching the first 20 minutes, I gave up on completing cos everything seemed rather surreal and random.

The Paprika novel wasn't such a mindfuck as the anime, the story generally flows well and the idea of dream monitoring and intervention to treat mental disorders was rather intriguing. Towards the end however, the mindfucking began, where Tsutsui applied a complex algorithm to the lines that divided reality and the dream world that the characters were in - and everything was turned inside out/upside down/round and round.

Luckily, my brain has a self defence mechanism to cope with such random weirdness (so that it doesn't explode and turn to mush), it steps back and swims along with the current instead of trying to fight back with logic. Oh, a horrifying giant Japanese doll with blood red lips just turned up from nowhere in reality/the dream to kill everyone. Right ho.

If you ever ended your compo with "...Then George woke up with a start, his clothes drenched in sweat. Phew, it was all just a dream." maybe you should take a crack at Paprika. You might have a new found respect for how far 'just a dream' can take you.

6.5 out of 10 ninja cracker snacks.

"Profit from the Panic" by Adam Khoo & Others

I know my friends, Gary, Ju and Lays, will take digs at me for the long interim since my last review. But what the heck, the drought has got to stop sometime and today's it. This book is not fiction as you can tell. It actually straddles between the genres of self-help and financial guidance. Anyhow, it talks about how any recession, especially a big one, offers an opportunity for us to literally profit from the panic.

His premise, which is copiously backed up by 50 years of economic data, is that when things are at their worst, its time to pay serious attention to picking up stocks that are oversold but are fundamentally sound and viable. Of course, one needs to do the usual due diligence, such as knowing what the company does, whether it has comparative advantage and if its seriously under-valued. And of course, we need to at least know how markets work, how to find market bottoms and tops, and which sectors generally outperform the market in a recovery etc.

I find it an easy read, notwithstanding all the charts and analyses. In fact, anyone with some knowledge of basic economics and the stock market can dive in and be educated fairly quickly. In fact, I've been paying heed and putting to work some of the things I've learnt. And although I've always known that there's a way to comprehend and make the market work for you, I used to trade and invest on rumours and hear says. Now, I make sure I do the necessary homework before I go in. Not that there's much to play with cos I didn't divest on the way down last year, but I can at least start recouping some of the losses.

On the whole, I give this book a 3.8 out of 5 for its easy read and applicability. Go ahead and try if you don't believe me ; )

"Exit Ghost" by Philip Roth

Cut to Wikipedia's plot synopsis.

Roth's books alone have the power to depress me by the sadness of the human condition. For this reason, while I admire his books for provoking further thought, I deliberately introduce intervals between the time I read one book to the next.

I think it has been about a year since I last read a Roth book (before this). The title of which I forgot, and I believe I didn't finish the book. I think it disturbed me.

"Exit Ghost" is no different. Nathan Zuckerman's desire to enter into mainstream life, then eventually running away from it, as told from the first person perspective, is a compelling and depressing one. At the end of it all, he eventually realises about the inexorability, the utter futility, of running against life.

I can't say I liked Roth's books, but the feelings they stir in me always last beyond the time I close the book at its final page.

Geek rating: 3 out of 5?

Books by Walter Moers

When a book passes the 'So-So' to 'Good' mark in my books (pun intended... teehee), I usually try another book by the author. It's my way of assessing whether the author will rank it up there as one of my favourite authors, or will just drop to the reserve team - which I will only choose from when I run out of ideas.

Case in point - The City of Dreaming Books and The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers.

Found in the science fiction section of Kino, Moers' books have always stood out for me amongst the wild eyed orcs and hooded mysterious heroes-adorned covers of other sci-fi books amongst the shelves. The cost was prohibitive however, over 30 bucks, but one time, during a 20% sale, I took the first plunge with The City of Dreaming Books.

The big fat book had illustrations interspersed throughout the story. By the author himself. I was sold. And I was subsequently bowled over by Moers creativity and imagination. He came up with a zany world called Zamonia, filled with colourful characters such as literary dinosaurs and a sinister shark grub (think shark head and worm-like body).

So top marks for Moers' critically acclaimed novels?
Not quite, at quite a few points along both stories, Moers went a little overboard with descriptions, which sometimes stretched for pages. Sure, the very original world and characters he created were great, but it did feel that he could be overindulgent at times. I ended up glazing over some sections of the text to move along with the story.

I guess Moers will have to settle for the reserve team, though he does feature quite high at the top.

"Mort" by Terry Pratchett

"Mort" has been a long time coming -- at least 6 months since I started reading TP I would think. I was frustrated because the office's Library Delivery Service (LDS) has refused to deliver the book to me since last year; each time I selected the book, somehow there was some administrative rule blocking me.

Sometime in end Feb this year, to my unalloyed delight, LDS finally came around to the idea that I was determined to have the book and granted my wish. (Whoever were the administrative powers that be that facilitated this, and if you are reading this, thanks!!)

I had a good time reacquainting myself with the fantasy world of Discworld in this book, and had a grand time laughing at the antics of Mort the bumbling hero, and also Death, who is not quite the stuffy eternal old man I always imagined him to be when reading other Discworld books.

TP's humour is spot on as always, and I find in finishing his book how I always like how he takes manages to give familiar themes his unique stamp of humour and insight.

Nothing earthshaking, but always good for a read, is TP. Geek rating: 3 out of 5