Random Book Review: The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling takes you to a picturesque and fictional town of Pagford. When Barry Fairbrother the Councilor of Pagford suddenly died of an aneurysm, the council seat is left vacant. With this premise, the author delves into the social implications of personal and secretly covered agenda, social illnesses and choices, and how each choice to fill one owns personal vacancy whether in life and the consequences stemming from it.

The new book is a far departure from the magical adventure of Harry Potter. The bulk of the story focuses on  the secret agendas of some of its people, to fill in for an empty seat in the Parish left by Barry, with the  addition of problems such as drug addiction, raped and family secret that will be a catalyst to the biggest war the town have even seen. I just one to point out that the book is about people living in a town with real jobs and real problems. So you have things like swearing in most of the conversations that takes place or teenagers having sex. Don't be shocked- it happens in real life.

The strong point for me when reading the book is the ability of J.K Rowling to give life to each of the characters is this book, detailing their problem efficiently and properly  giving meaning to their predicament. 
Maybe this strong ability that Rowling has to describe places and her character is a flaw by itself. The juiciest part are somehow lightly disperse across the book and the big finale will be way long into the book. I almost gave up, but she tied up the ending nicely, hence had redeemed herself from having a bad book.
So overall, the Casual Vacancy is a well written book but a strong will and patience is needed to get through to the very end. If you like digging into something more suspenseful or with more mystery or fun, than Rowling latest literature, then this will not be your cup of tea.

Random Book Review:Devices and Desires

Sypnosis
When Commander Adam Dalgliesh visit Larsoken, a remote headland community on the Norfolk coast in the shadow of a nuclear power station, he expects to be engaged only in the sad business of tying up his aunt's estate. But the peace of Larsoken is illusory. A serial killer known as the Whistler is terrorizing the neighbourhood and Dalgliesh is drawn into the lives of the headlanders when it soon becomes apparent that the Whistler isn't the only murderer at work under the sinister shadow of the power station.

Review
Reading and going further into the book is like peeling off the layers personal human experiences. The deeper you go, the more you will  will discover about the people that are in the book. Furthermore, what is enjoyble for me is that the author writes about characters that have tragedies in their lives and incorporates them into the main plots and subplots and to the suspense and mysteries. Cohesiveness is important when writing a novel and glad to say this author did well in keeping the story tight and plausible from page to page. The book also keeps trudging along without the feeling of being a drag to read.

Overall, is a good quality and well written crime novel. a recommendable read.

The Big Bad Wolf

Venue: Melacca International Trade Centre

Date: 9 May-13 May

Time:10am-10pm

 Apparently this is the biggest book fair in Malaysia and you can see why.

 In the midst of browsing through the books, there is this one book with a heart shape hold in the middle. Such a waste though. Besides that I'd  found two Spanish language novel and one German language Encyclopedia.Talk about lost in translation.

 So this is the pain one needs to go through.

 

And one of the simplest solution to avoid breaking your back is hauling a luggage along. Hahahaha.

The total amount of haul on the 10th of

 May 2013

 And if that wasn't enough, this is the total amount of haul on the 11th of May 2013

Total amount: RM114.00

Verdict: The books are cheap as hell, but the choices are surprisingly limited. I am going to the one held at Kuala Lumpur in the near future, which a lot of my friends said, is way bigger and with more choices.

The Casual Vacancy

For fans of J.K Rowling, the famed author of the Harry Potter series is back with an a new book written for adults.

  
Release date: September 27th

Little, Brown Book Group described the plot on their website:

Plot

 "When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations.

The publisher says the The Casual Vacancy will be "blackly comic, thought provoking, and constantly surprising".

Related websites and articles:

• http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/home ( Little, brown book group)

I am excited of this news. The last time we read about her fantastic work is back in 2007, when the last of the Harry Potter books is being released.

Any J.K Rowling fans out there? Are you guys excited?

Book give away

Listen readers of Random Dot FM. Here is your chance to win yourself a book by Jonathan Safran Foer titled, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 

You can participate in anyone of the following:

1. In the most creative essay that you can write, tell me something loud and incredibly close that happen to you in real life. ( It's an open essay, it could be something sad, happy or funny that happened). 
2. Since it is going to be the new year, take a picture of yourself planking with something Chinese New Year related. ( Planking with a mandarin orange, planking with a cheongsam, be creative)
3. Create a Chinese New Year video. It might be a choreographed video of you and your friends dancing to a Chinese New Year song, or perhaps miming to a Chinese song comically-anything creative and related). Upload in on youtube and send me the link of the video.

Here are a few simple rule and steps you should follow:

1. In order to participate in this contest you need a blog/website or youtube account.
2. Include your full name, mailing address, contact number( for Malaysian contestant) and also the link  of the entry you had done) so that I can verify the authenticity of the entry and also to send the book to you via mail. ( E-mail:  gurgle_86@yahoo.com).
3. Include a link of this entry  on your website or blog with the Title of the link, "ITS EXTREMELY LOUD AND CLOSE"
4. Only one entry is allowed in any of the the following stated above.
5. The last date of submission will be on the 29th of February 2012.

Random book review: The Chamber

Publication date: 1994

Publisher: Doubleday

Sypnosis

The FBI recorded almost four hundred bombings in Mississippi from 1964 to 1968, virtually all related to the civil rights movement, and almost all involving black churches or black homes.

In 1967 in Greenville Mississippi, known Klan member Sam Cayhall is accused of bombing the law offices of Jewishung civil rights activists Marvin Kramer, killing kramer's two sons. Cayhall's first trial, with an all-white jury and a Klan rally outside the courtroom, ends in a hung jury; the retrial six month later has the same outcome. 

Twelve years later an ambitious district attorney in Greenville reopens the case. Much has changed since 1967, and this time, with a jury of eight whites and four blacks, Cayhall is convicted. He is transferred to the state penitentiary on death row.
In 1990, in the huge Chicago law firm Kravitz & Bane a young lawyer named Adam Hall asks  to work on the Cayhall case, which the firm has handles on a pro bono basis for years. But the case is all but lost and time is running out: within weeks Sam Cayhall will finally go to the gas chamber. Why is the world would Adam want to get involved?

Review:
Another court room legal thriller written, The Chamber touchy subject on the death penalty is an interesting subject matter throughout the whole book. You can help but root for the death row convict in spite of his wrong doings in the past and especially Adam Hall who has to deal with his past life.
I won't spoil much of the plot here, but I would say that the chamber is a good read. As usual, John Grisham is a writer that has the ability to put you right into the action. Not  as gripping as a Time to Kill but the pacing on this one is fluid and good enough for wanting to know what will happen at the end.
At the end of the day, it makes you question this: Why the death penalty? Are we as cruel as the convicted if we do so passing the judgement and killing? Would forgiveness be the better way? and why all that racism at the first place?
Highly recommendable read for its grim subject matter and the way its written.

The random book review: The client

Author: John Grisham
Publication date: 1994
synopsis
Eleven year old Mark Sway and his younger brother Ricky were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sough-after dead body in America


Now Mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only ally is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for all but four years


Prosecutors are willing to break all the rules to make Mark talk. The mob will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. And Reggie will do anything to protect her client- even take a last desperate gamble that could win Mark his freedom ..... or cost them both their lives.
Review on the book: 
I love how the plot goes as Mark is in deep trouble for knowing such a live changing secret. How his world is turned upside down by a desperate and group of legal prosecutors and a bad bullying mafia head. Even though Mark is eleven in the book, John Grisham tells him in such a way that his a very real and functioning character, when in truth he is only a kid.
The energy from the first page to the last is relentless- truly gripping that you wouldn't want to put the book down. The narrative just flows from one chapter to another seamlessly


randomdotfm book rating:
*Highly recommendable read*

something freak me out!!...in a bad way

One day, a book reading enthusiast did his normal visit to the Bookstore. Upon looking at books at the book shelves, he stumble upon a book so nauseating that he had to see how nauseous inducing the book really is..

totally a himbo

how one excitement for girls has gone off limits, he just like what 9 years old?

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OMIGOSH!! vomit yet??? I do? Please someone, pass me the meds...

The Book Review: Dan Brown- The Lost Symbol

The pace of this book is so excellent that I was totally hook by it from the moment I turn to the first page (The pace of the story which he writes will give you a heart attack) . The subplots are awesomely put together and it is Dan Brown's canny ability to write in detail the historically facts and also the fictional underpinning that makes this book an interesting and engaging book to read

P.S: Don't like at all the religious innuendos mentioned on this book. I think that is the irony, a good book with lots of religious innuendos.

When hamburgers attack!!

With a cheesy book title and an even cheesy book illustration to go with it.

I find it rather amusing. Do you??