Reviews / Books
recent Reviews/Books
by Sarah Maessen | 5:06 am, 10/10/2011
(4/5)
by Sarah Maessen | 4:01 am, 03/10/2011
Author: Chan Koonchung; translated from Chinese by Michael S. Duke Publisher: Doubleday 1/5
by Sarah Maessen | 6:12 am, 19/09/2011
by Feby Idrus | 2:10 am, 12/09/2011
Bound is the fourth book in Vanda Symon’s crime novel series starring Detective Sam Shephard, and it opens with a hell of a bang (kind of literally; there’s a reason why the murder victim’s face is described as “just dripping meat, bone and brain”). In fact, the opening made me think “Wow, she’s really going balls to the wall, isn’t she? This is going to be awesome!”
by Sarah Maessen | 10:32 pm, 22/08/2011
The New Stephanie Meyer?
Mirror
by Jonathan Jong | 4:13 am 23/08/2010
Author: Jeannie Baker Publisher: Walker Books (4/5)
There is something unspeakably happy-making about illustrated children’s books that are unapologetically forthright in their social messages. Jeannie Baker’s latest – Mirror – tells what is decidedly one story in two languages, in two places, with two sets of characters who never meet. The book begins in the middle; the text on the left page is in English, and the text on the right page is in Arabic. The reader then turns both pages simultaneously (as she might open a set of French doors) to reveal glimpses into the everyday lives of two families living halfway around the world from each other. On the left, a family in Sydney: they live in the suburbs and shop in the sprawling metropolis (and endure congested traffic to get from the former to the latter), they surf the Web and buy Moroccan rugs. On the right, a family in Morocco: they live in the desert and trade in the market (and endure the heat and bumpy donkey ride to get there), they surf the Web and make Moroccan rugs. It is, of course, the same story; the story of a family living together, loving each other, buying and selling goods, cooking and eating and chatting over the dinner table, and going to bed and waking up the next morning to do it all over again.
