Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop

Author: Abby Clements

Publisher : Quercus (May 2013)

Paperback: 400 pages

A book with an ice cream theme is always tempting. Just like this book written by Abby Clements. At the moment I finished the book, I felt  warm and....hungry lol. Yep it's been for quite sometime I never read any book with food theme. This book is just a perfect read for a lazy weekend. It might be more special if you make sure that you have a nice (hopefully homemade) ice cream on your hand while you're busy flipping the pages of  the book.

It's a story of sisters, Anna and Imogen. They have different characters but very close and support each other. When their grandmother, Vivien, dies, the sisters unexpectedly inherit their grandmother's ice cream parlour. It turns both their lives upside down. They have to face many inevitably problems along the way from enhancing new customers, building relationship with the other business owners around the area, dealing with a lousy former employee while at the same time they also have their own personal problems such as trying to cope their way to their career, countries and love life.

But they move on. Instead of looking back, Anna and Imogen think a new way to promote the shop. Anna then heads to Florence, Italy to learn how to make a genuine-Italian-gellato and this trip at last changes her life forever.

I never read any books of Abby Clements before. But from this book, I think her works are worth to read. She just has the ability to deliver a simple story into a sweet and wonderful tale. Honestly when I reached the last page of this book, I was quite reluctant to leave a Anna and Imogen's awesome world. 

A deliciously romantic tale.

Ooops..I almost forgot, there  are also five delicious  ice cream recipes at the back of the book which are definitely worth to try.

The Racketeer

Title: The Racketeer

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Paperback. 2013

387 pages

John Grisham used to be my favorite author. In the old days especially during my days in law school reading his works was a must. I enjoyed every single moments of reading his works moreover I think he's one of the reasons why I wanted to be a lawyer.  However when I graduated and experienced how to be a lawyer myself (and found out that the reality was not that exciting), I just stopped reading his books and felt that they were not very engaging anymore.

After so many years, out of the blue when I visited a bookshop I suddenly wanted to get into Grisham's work again. I guess this is also related to my teaching subject since I teach Legal Studies therefore I need to get new insights about all legal issues and share them with my students. 

In The Racketeer (racketeer means one who obtains money illegally, as by fraud, extortion, etc.), Grisham narrated his story through the protagonist Malcolm Bannister, an African American lawyer who finds himself unexpectedly in a legal trouble due to FBI set up. When judge Raymond Fawcett is found dead and the police have  no witnesses, no fingerprints, no evidence, Bannister knows this is his ticket to freedom and revenge. The story then continues and shows how Bannister leads his pursuers on a long and winding chase. 

Tell you what it turns out that I enjoyed this book. All in all I found it's definitely insightful in its description of the legal and penal system. Besides its enigmatic puzzle of the plot and how it's twisted are absolutely awesome. Perhaps after you stay away from something for a certain period then you will miss it and finally you're able to enjoy it again.

A (Never Too Late) Valentine's Quote

Ginger Factory Souvenir Shop at Yandina Qld, Australia*

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

--Charles M. Schulz via brainyquote

*The Ginger Factory is one of the best places I visited in Oz, find more about the factory here

A Look Back

This past one week I am busy watching my friends Facebook movies. As you know that Facebook is turning 10 this year and to commemorate it they turn their members' timelines, shared photos, etc into a movie. So everyone might have kind of biographical personal movie depending on what stuff he posted and shared on Facebook.

From my video I just realized that I joined Facebook in 2008, gosh it's been 6 years now. I still remembered the reason I joined this social media was because of my friends. At that time the urge to conduct a reunion and get together with old friends were so high and they got upset at me since I was always late in knowing the info. Yep..as a gaptek (technology illiterate) person, I am not into the latest gadget, social media, instagram, path, etc, you name it. There it goes, I joined it up until now. I do get lots of excitement from it. I finally found my long-lost friends. I even got entertained by witty status yet upset a bit for provocative status but still I could live with that.  I even learned people characters from the way they update and comment on their status. Never realized that before but it happened.

Therefore after a couple of years I need to select my friends list. Choose the ones who are really close to me or the one who are not too close but having an informative, friendly, warm or even funny updates. If people have more and more friends on Facebook, on the contrary mine is less or at least stable numbers. I guess it's just the age (is it?). The older I am the more selective I become. If at young age it's just great to make new friends, get together with everyone, share everything, but at the end of the day I finally realized my bunch of truly best friends. The ones that I embrace. I also feel that for some personal moments with my beloved family are better kept for me. Perhaps since I realize that I live for myself, not to impress others but to make myself happy. Therefore it's better to just keep quiet here, enjoying my time with my little family while checking the Facebook account once in a while.   

Then again from the video I also learned. If at the beginning I was still excited to update my status, to comment my friends status, to share the videos of many occasions but lately it's getting very rare. No more updated status and I only shared pictures related to my friends. Therefore when I watched my videos I just found that it's full of Najla and Zea's photos at the beginning and lasted with my yoga activities photos at the ending. But still I enjoyed watching these look back videos, some are  really touching whereas others make me smile. Salute to Facebook for its creative idea if only Blogspot has this kind of thing, I think it's going to be fun as well, don't you think so?