Archive | March 2011

A Leap of Love and The Leap Year

I borrowed this movie from the library on a whim and I’m so glad I did. I ended up loving it. It was such a feel good, romantic and happy movie. Obviously since it’s a Singaporean movie and I thought they are all made in either Chinese or a non-English language. But surprisingly this is in English although it’s about a Chinese woman and her search for love.

Li-Ann is a young girl when she boldly asks a stranger for a date on 14th Feb. Li-Ann and Jeremy, the stranger, end up spending a few blissful hours together and Jeremy catches a flight back to Canada. It was fun seeing a movie set in Singapore and recognizing the places I had already seen. Without giving away the story though, they meet every leap year and we get to experience Li-Ann’s tangle of emotions through the years. Be it happiness of finding the right man or the disappointment when he doesn’t feel the same. Over the next few years we get to see how every leap year affects Li-ann’s life.

I enjoyed it so much that I looked up for more information on the internet. It’s actually based on ‘A Leap of Love’ by Catherine Lim who is a Chinese Singaporean (although she is from Malaysia) author in her 80′s and a firecracker of a woman. I watched her interview on YouTube and I was so intrigued that I’m planning to read all her backlist.

Anyway, so I found A Leap of Love in the library and ended up loving it too. The movie is very similar to the book where the character sketches and the basic plot are concerned. But there are a few changes in the movie which make for better viewing. The writing in the book is funny and sarcastic and fun to read. It’s a love story, but it’s not the mushy type nor does it have a chick-lit feel (which the movie has).

I cannot recommend the movie to romantic or chick-flick fans. The book is something that can be enjoyed by all though. Highly Recommended.

The book A Leap of Love is for the East and SouthEast Asia Challenge.

Hi again…

I feel like I’ve been away from my blog for too long. Sure, I post once in a while but I don’t have the time to go read all the blogs I love on a daily basis which is part of why I love blogging so much.

Anyway, remember I mentioned it takes more than 3 hours for me to commute to and from work. I left that job and I found another. So now I’m working pretty close to home which is such a plus point. Besides the company is much better too. I’m glad I left at the right time.

I will still take some time for me to settle down into the routine and then manage to blog and read on a regular basis. Since most of the sites are blocked at work including Google Reader, blogging when I don’t have much work is not possible. Since I hate iphones, I am planning on buying a Blackberry which could probably help.

We went to a pub yesterday which is very close to the second hand bookstore I frequent. So we dropped by to check if there was anything new and to my surprise there was an awesome book fair set up. Obviously I bought a few books which is probably another post.

I am reading Steve and me by Terry Irvin and thoroughly enjoying it.

Last but not the least, Happy Holi!!!

Posted on March 20, 2011, in Uncategorized. 14 Comments

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Title: Candor
Author: Pam Bachorz
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult (dystopian)
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: EgmontUSA (September 22, 2009)
Rating: 4 out of 5

My thoughts:

Candor is a dystopian novel that reminded me of The Stepford Wives, but thankfully the author has a unique take on it. Candor is a town in Florida which is supposedly a heaven for parents. It’s a town where children don’t disobey, they don’t drink or smoke or do drugs, they do their homework and they maintain a respectable distance from girls. Only this heaven is creating by messing with the kids brains, by feeding messages to their unsuspecting minds. The founder of Candor thinks everything is going well but there is one person who knows about it and is doing everything to save himself from it. And it’s none other than his son, Oscar.

Oscar protects himself by creating his own messages and feeding them to himself so he does not turn into the Condor robot kids. He also helps rich kids realize they are being manipulated and help them escape for a huge fee. All his plans start falling apart when a rebellious girl Nia comes to town. He is completely smitten by her and her uniqueness and he wants to keep it that way. He does not want Nia to change.

The story was pretty slow up to this point. I was reading and wondering what is about this book that people are raving about so much. I honestly didn’t get it for the longest time. But the last 100 pages more or less made up for it. It was awesome and mind-blowing if only for that part. But it was worth it.

I liked Oscar and loved that he was not perfect. He wasn’t a caricature, he did what he could to stay sane. He also learned to profit from it. For me that was refreshing. Nia was forgettable, I couldn’t really get her appeal but it could be that she was still an original among so many robots. Did I tell you the end was amazing? Pam Bachorz’s second book Drought has just released but it’s not a sequel to Candor. But there has to be a sequel to this and it has to release soon.

Book Loot aka Monday Mailbox

I am writing a Monday mailbox post today itself instead of Monday.

I had an awesome book month (February). I bought a few books at the Border clearance sale last weekend. They are not really very cheap if you convert them to Rupees but as far as Singapore Dollars are concerned, they are pretty cheap and I have to learn to not convert Dollars to Rupees every time I shop. The best part was I got a lot of books that were already on my Wishlist. Here are the books

expand for a close up

Lost in the Jungle by Yossi Ghinsberg
Map of Ireland by Stephanie Grant
The confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street
Bone China by Roma Tearne
Skin by Mo Hayder
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Berry
Steve & Me by Terri Irwin
Life to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Into the Beaituful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi

At the beginning of February I went to my favorite second hand bookshop and bought a few books
as well. They are each under $3.

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
Bound by Napoli
AK by Peter Dickinson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle
Beijing Doll by Chun Sue
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
The Flame Tree by Yang-May Ooi
The Haunting Hour by R.L.Stine

I also got a handy pouch from the Borders sale. I don’t know what it’s meant to be used for but I will use it as a makeup pouch as most of my make up fits in pretty well and its fold-able too. It’s not very pretty looking but I love it anyway.

I got 2 books for review

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran and
Amazir by Tom Gamble

How have you all been? What books came into your house?