I love Amy Tan's style of writing. The flow's smooth. Reading her books is like reading our best friends' letter. So simple.
I've read many of the her books, among others, "The Joy Luck Club", "The Kitchen God's Wife", "The Bone Setter's Daughter", the style's almost similar. I found it's interesting.
This latest novel is a bit different, the setting is in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and the story's about 12 American tourists who join art expedition, started at Himalaya mountain, headed to Myanmar forest.
Suddenly the tourists' leader's found dead in a mysterious way. Their plans felt apart. But, still they moved on with some troubles here and there.
Finally, on Christmas, the tourists left their floating island resort and sailed away on a foggy lake to chase for sunrise and out of sudden, they disappeared, all of them. Gone with the wind.
They found themselves deep in the jungle, where they encountered a tribe awaiting the return of the leader and the mythical book of wisdom that would protect them from the ravages and destruction of the Myanmar military regime.
The story is engaging. I'm curious about the source of the story. Truth is always stranger than fiction which may account for this very bizarre tale. Great job. My favorite of Amy's books so far. Can't wait for the next.
Saving Fish From Drowning
Inacraft 2008
I'd just come back from visiting Inacraft this afternoon. Although this is the 10th exhibition, but as usual I always felt so...excited to be there, looking at the gifts, housewares, and all other cute materials made me feel so happy.
So many things to see, so many materials to purchase, he...he...shopaholic' s in action. Time seems never enough, I can't wait to get back there and walk along the place the whole day!!!!
(kayaknya harus ambil cuti & dateng ke sana lagi *sambil mikir2 bisa nggak ya cuti???*)
Kartini's Day
Last night, on my way home, as usual I took train (yes...I'm a rocker a.k.a rombongan kereta), I heard an announcement made by PT KAI officer, he said, "...since today is a Kartini's day, we really hope that all gentlemen could give their seats to ladies, please...we repeat again, gentlemen kindly give your seats to ladies."
All men, some of them, reluctantly got up of their seats and gave them to women. Yippie...all women laughed, felt happy, meanwhile the men were upset, emang enak???? hehe...
I wish everyday is a Kartini's day.
Najla's Sandals Collections
My hubby is a kind of quiet person. He gives comments very rare. Totally different with his wife who keeps commenting on everything, hehe...God's fair, a quiet man meets a witty woman.
This conversation took place last weekend when we're ready to attend a relative wedding party in Serang.
me : "Ayah, please get Najla's sandals."
ayah : "Okay".
He went to the sandals rack and suddenly shouted.
ayah : "My goodness......".
me : "What?"
ayah : " I'm just wondering...Najla's sandals collections are soooo...many, as many as her mom's collection".
me : @#$%&*@#
I never thought that my hubby realizes that his wife is a sale-addict, hehe..
Moral of the story:
Never ignoring a quiet person.
Silence does not mean not knowing.
Dedicated to Ayah, istri tetep boleh belanja kan???? hihi.....
New Things
New unpredictable things happened in the beginning of this month.
New assignment.
New cubicle.
New subordinate.
All's new.
Hopefully, the new spirit also spread all over here.
Amien.
Kafka on the Shore
This is the second book of Haruki Murakami that I'd read. The first one was "Norwegian Wood". I must say that Murakami san is truly a genius. His books are great. I've lost words to describe it...yes, beyond our imagination.
Look at the characters appears in this book, Kafka Tamura (Kafka in Czech means Crow), a-fifteen-year-old-boy who run away from home, to escape from his father's curse, Koichi Tamura, a sculptor who had a frightening hobby, killing cats and arranging their cut-off heads neatly in the freezer, jeez....
On his runaway journey, he arrived at Komura Memorial Library, where he met Mr. Oshima, the library assistant who declared himself having a-gender-identity-disordered, meaning he had a physically female body but his mind 's completely male. He also met the Library chief, Miss Saeki who turned out to be Kafka long missing mother.
Beside Kafka, there's also Mr. Nakata who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is able to talk to cats, therefore people claim him as a cat finder.
As their paths converge and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where fish fall from the sky and spirit slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. This book displays one of the world's great story tellers at the peak of his powers.
I read the book in English version, but actually the Indonesian version already available. Although some people complained for the book's cover, they said 'nggak banget', nevertheless the translation's good enough.
After finishing this book, one thing for sure is I really want to go quickly to Periplus and grab all Murakami's books and read them all.
Happy 6th Anniversary
72 sabit sudah jadi purnama dalam perjalanan ini
saya jadi istri, kamu sebagai suami
karena setiap langkah adalah janji
perjalanan ini harus ditepati
perjalanan ini akan selalu dinikmati
demi sebuah kiblat di ufuk baratmu nanti
selamat 6 tahun pernikahan kita, Ayah
(inspired by "Doa Mempelai", Joko Pinurbo)
beautiful cake's ordered from here
