Sing You Home (Jodi Picoult)

For those who know me well, you would surely know that Jodi Picoult is not only one of my favourites but she's my all-time favourite author. I can proudly proclaim that I'm her biggest fan in which I have all her books and till the extent that I even wrote to her once telling her how much I love My Sister's Keeper.

What I like about her is that she tackles controversial, if not sensitive subjects which surrounds our lives and with the dedication in her research in every book she writes, I know I'm reading and learning true facts rather purely fiction.

Sing You Home is about gay rights. Knowing that people fear of the unknown, Picoult hopes this book would open the minds of those who have them closed tightly shut. When she was researching for this book, her eldest son, Kyle 'came out' to her but she reveals in an article that she knows her son is gay when he's five years old.

For research, Picoult spoke to several same-sex couples, who shared their relationships and their sex lives and their struggles. Some of these people knew their sexual orientation in childhood; some had same-sex relationships after heterosexual ones. Then she spoke to representatives from a conservative Christian group, Focus on the Family, who oppose gay adoption, and support seminars to ‘cure’ gay people of same-sex attraction.


CLICK HERE to read her talk about her book, how she feels about her son being gay.


424 pages
(Price unknown as this is a gift)
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

The Angel's Game (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, David Martin makes his living by writing sensationalist novels. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at an unsolved mystery.

Then he receives a letter from a reclusive French editor who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike any other -- a book with the power to change hearts and minds. But as David begins the work, he realises that there is a connection between this haunting book and the shadows that surround his home...

~~~~~~~~

If you like mystery, detective thriller, supernatural horror tale, magical fable and heartbreaking love story, it can all be found in this book.

Written in Spanish, this novel is translated into English by Lucia Graves, whom also translated the author's previous book The Shadow of the Wind. In an interview, Carlos Ruiz Zafón says he visualize scenes in his books in a cinematic way which you can see the scenes and characters vividly in your mind as you read it.

If you have read and like The Shadow of the Wind, then you MUST read The Angel's Game. It is not only beautifully written but the plot will bring the reader to many subplots which will leave you in awe with the genius and rich imagination of the author.

Conclusion, I love this book. It is so different from the novels I read written by American authors. From now on, I'll be looking out for new books from this author.

504 pages
RM35.90
Publisher: Orion
Kinokuniya

Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler)

Mein Kampf (English: My Struggle or My Battle) is a non-fiction autobiography written by the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1924. Consisting of two volumes; Volume 1 was written during his imprisonment for 13 months and the book was published in 1925, and Volume 2 was written after he was released and published in 1926. The book combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political theology.

Hitler originally wanted to call his book Viereinhalb Jahre (des Kampfes) gegen Lüge, Dummheit und Feigheit, or Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice. Max Amann, head of the Franz Eher Verlag and Hitler's publisher, is said to have suggested the much shorter "Mein Kampf".

Interesting facts about this book:

Sweden: it has been reprinted several times since 1945; in 1970, 1992, 2002 and 2010. In 1992 the Government of Bavaria tried to stop the publication of the book, and the case went to the Supreme Court of Sweden which ruled in favour of the publisher, stating that the book is protected by copyright, but that the copyright holder is unidentified (and not the State of Bavaria) and that the original Swedish publisher from 1934 had gone out of business. It therefore refused the Government of Bavaria's claim.

Turkey: It was widely available and growing in popularity, even to the point where it became a bestseller, selling up to 100,000 copies in just two months in 2005. Analysts and commentators believe the popularity of the book to be related to a rise in nationalism, anti-US and antisemitic sentiment "because of what is happening in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian problem and the war in Iraq".

Canada: Though it is available in Canada, Heather Reisman, owner of the Chapters/Indigo chain of bookshops (Canada's largest and only national book chain) has banned the book from being sold in her stores or ordered via the chain's website.

France: Available and legal, but a front note is compulsory

United States: can be found at almost any community library and can be bought, sold and traded in bookshops. The U.S. government seized the copyright during the Second World War under the Trading with the Enemy Act and in 1979, Houghton Mifflin, the U.S. publisher of the book, bought the rights from the government. More than 15,000 copies are sold a year.

Australia: the book is legal to buy and trade, and available in most libraries as a historical text. It is also available free online as part of Project Gutenberg Australia.

Austria: the possession and/or trading of Mein Kampf is illegal.

People's Republic of China: Mein Kampf is forbidden and only available in selected libraries for research purposes.

Argentina: its publication or import in significant numbers is illegal, as well as second-hand trade, since it falls under the article of the Penal Code regarding "anti-semitic and National-Socialist propaganda". Possession and lending are legal. In spite of the law, it is readily available in many bookstores, generally asking for it and sold under the counter. These copies are smuggled from Chile, where its publication is not banned.

Netherlands: selling the book, even in the case of an old copy, may be illegal as "promoting hatred," but possession and lending is not. The matter is generally handled as a matter of copyright infringement against the Dutch government, who owns the translation, though it refuses to allow any publishing. In 1997, the government explained to the parliament that selling a scientifically annotated version might escape prosecution. In 2015, the government's copyright on the Dutch translation becomes void.

USSR: the book was published in a small number of copies for senior members of the Communist Party in Karl Radek's translation but was otherwise unavailable and de facto prohibited. In the Russian Federation, Mein Kampf has been published at least three times since 1992; the Russian text is also available on a number of websites. In 2006 the Public Chamber of Russia proposed banning the book. In 2009 St. Petersburg's branch of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs requested to remove an annotated and hyper-linked Russian translation of the book from a historiography web site. On March 26, 2010, it was announced that Mein Kampf is outlawed on grounds of extremism promotion.

Japan: Japanese version of Mein Kampf (わが闘争 waga tōsō?) in manga form is produced by East Press, as part of its Manga de Dokuha (Read it via manga) series. It has been dismissed by the Bavarian Finance Ministry as the wrong medium in which to tell the story.

Bolivia: the book sales rose in high numbers after the pass of the law against racism 2010 and the subsequent rumour that racist books would be banned.

I was so excited when I saw the book in MPH (Mid Valley Megamall) and was shocked to see such a low price for an autobiography book and without much hesitation, I grabbed the book and paid at the cashier's counter.

When I started to read it yesterday, I found several flaws which explains the cheap price. Here are the imperfections:

1. The size of the font could be a little larger for easier reading. The irony part is that the size of the page number is big. Who needs such big size for page numbers?

2. The wrap-up words in some paragraphs is untidy leaving a long empty space in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes one sentence is broken up into to lines making me wonder if the typist accidentally hit the ENTER key.

3. On page 14, 2nd paragraph, the word 'honor', 'favorite' shocked me. Since this book is published locally (Yes, the publisher's address is at Alam Damai (God knows where) and it's printed in Puchong), I'm sure you know Malaysia adopts the British English but why did they print it in American English spelling?

4. On page 24, last paragraph, the punctuation of a full stop is missing after the word 'child' because I have downloaded and checked other versions online to which every source has a full stop after the word 'child'.

5. On page 25, 1st paragraph, 2nd line, typo for the word 'they'. In the book I bought, it's printed as 'the)'. The publisher omit the letter 'y' in exchange with the symbol of a bracket.

6. On page 25, there is no empty line between the last two paragraphs. Every other paragraph has a blank space to indicate the end of the a paragraph and the start of a new paragraph. In this case, the typist has forgotten to press the ENTER key.

Now, I know why it's cheap because not only it's published locally but there are so many unnecessary flaws in the book. The most horrendous thing is that the book didn't state the name of the translator because Hitler wrote it in German and it was translated into English. As there are many different English versions translated by different translators, without a name you won't know which version you are reading.

If you don't mind all these imperfections then you may buy the book as it's cheap but you can also the exact version online. Yes, I searched and finally found the online version but this online version has no such flaws as I seen in the book I bought. So, is this the publisher or the printing company's fault?

If you want to read online, click on the link: http://www.crusader.net/texts/mk/

467 pages

RM39.90

Publisher: YLP Publication

MPH Bookstore