A book is a collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or additional material, generally fastened together to center at one side. A single sheet inside a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is called an e-book. Books may as well refer to a literature work, otherwise a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is known as a monograph, to differentiate it from serial periodicals like magazines, journals or newspapers. The body of all written works with books is literature.
As a singleton, dating in this modern world is treacherous enough as it is, especially when dealing with complex emotions and delicate issues or baggage that make up the human psyche. Now, imagine agreeing to every single date proposed to you, with no thought on even if you can stand the other half's company for two minutes. Such an indiscriminate dating strategy was exactly what author Maria Headley experimented with for one year in her early twenties. She does set some limits though, excluding all drunks, junkies, violent and/or married men. And she has chronicled her various adventures in dating everything mundane to the bizarre in her book The Year Of Yes.
Heart sick over her dating record, cynical New Yorker, Maria Headley, resolves to start saying an emphatic "Yes" to every man on the street one day. With a buzzer-happy, persistent handyman as her first conquest, things do not seem to get off on a correct foot for Maria's resolution. Locals and foreigners, young and old, straight and lesbian, Maria is letting fate decide if any of these strangers could turn out to be her soul mate. But, as she progresses along, Maria unexpectedly discovers some very important life lessons and that some cliches really do hold true, that fighting for true love is worth the journey.
I first learnt of this book's release via a New York website, Gawker.com, and it intrigued me that someone would dare to open themselves up so widely, with little, or even zero, protection emotionally and physically. Curiosity urged me to pick up this book and I have to say, I'm rather impressed by Maria Headley's courage. People's darker sides surface as intimacies grow and it's disconcerting to know certain weird fetishes abound in our society. I don't think I would have reacted the same way when approached by a homeless man with delusions of being Jimi Hendrix's reincarnation or a cheeky 70-year-old gentleman who keeps repeating the Spanish word "Chupa" on your first acquaintance. Any woman with a fertile, available womb can even be seen as a factory of babies, nothing more, nothing less. And in an ironic twist, the latter view was actually held by a power lesbian Maria Headley briefly dated. Suffice it to say, dating in New York can be a whole other world of horror by itself.
Maria Headley is also a playwright and her theatrical style is somewhat reflected in her writing. Breezy and familiar, her language style will be a hit with the ladies who have had common experiences in disastrous blind dating. Some of the dates may seem a tad outlandish and you might have to suspend belief for a moment or two; did Maria Headley really make out with Marilyn Manson on the dance floor at some random costume party? Was the multi-millionaire Microsoft executive, who still lived with his mother and proposed marriage on their first date, really enamoured with Maria's womanly charms? Once you've taken that proverbial pinch of salt, The Year Of Yes can prove to be quite the inspiration for the single ladies out there. If anything, this book is also an excellent resource for the dos and don'ts about dating etiquette.
This is the first Stephen King book that I have read and I must say I was surprised because I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I know King by reputation - the writer of "horror" novels such as Carrie, The Shining and the like. This is not one of Stephen King's scary novels; there is almost nothing here to the curdle the blood or make your hair stand on end. It is about the supernatural but not of the disembodied ghostly type. The focus is on extra-sensory perception, telepathy and dreams. There are passages that describe violent and bloody deaths. These are vivid and stomach churning at times but they will not make you fear the things that go bump in the night. The title comes from a device, somewhat like a net, that Native Americans sometimes hang in their lodgings to capture their dreams or to weave it into some kind of reality.
Can you name 20 historic places in Singapore? Er, having trouble? Well, that's one good reason to read Singapore's 100 Historic Places then.
Written by the National Heritage Board, this handy-sized book highlights the historic places of Singapore. With information on temples, churches, mosques, museums amongst others, the guide showcases the rich cultural heritage of Singapore.
Even for Singaporeans, there is quite a lot of information that we may not be aware of. One example would be the island of Pulau Sejahat. This island, which is only about the size of a football field, had a military encampment built on it around 1937-38, when the threat of war was looming. However, when the Japanese arrived, they could not find a single gun!
Pualu Sejahat was returned to Singapore in the 1970s when the British withdrew their troops. The military encampment now lies in ruins. However, one can still visit the island to offer incense and joss sticks at a shrine to Tua Pek Kong.
As children, we sat wide-eyed and listened enthralled to 'once-upon-a-time' fairytales. In these stories, good and evil are always represented in stark monotones of black and white. Good always triumphs over evil and the wicked get their comeuppance. And children snuggle down in bed secured and comforted with the thought that 'everyone (except the nasty witch or wicked step-mother of course) lived happily ever after'.
Somehow during the growing up process, we discover that life never quite fits the formulaic fairytale mould. Naivete, trust and guilelessness are slowly displaced and disappointment, jadedness and cynicism creep in little by little. We experience reality in multi-varied hues and infinite shades of grey. Nothing is quite as straightforward as good is good and bad is bad. Sometimes when all these negative emotions become too much, we seek escape in the familiar comforting stories that used to lull us to sleep when we were kids.
This book was my attempt to escape into fairytale land. I flipped the pages and was magically transported into Pierre's world. The product of 'an unlikely liaison between a bumbling botanist and a ravishing yet distant Italian soprano', Pierre, 18, abandoned by her toy-boy-obsessed mother and her equally plant-obsessed father, begins working for kind, regular Guinness drinker, Mr Beaney, at his antique book shop in London.
Like strangers whose eyes meet across a crowded room, Pierre meets her man with the dancing eyes at Mr Beaney's annual fancy dress party. Wafting along on champagne, sweet peas and poetry readings on balmy nights, the couple became inseparable. When he looked at her, he saw her "surrounded by a troop of bonny babies. (His.)". He was a painter and she became his muse, posing for hours on end as he filled blank canvases with portraits of her.
"Alas, as it's been said, all good things must end (WHY?)."
The man betrays Pierre and she flees to the "city of her conception", New York seeking solace for her broken heart and healing for the cruelly inflicted emotional scars.
She makes friends with her downstairs neighbour, hairdresser Hubert, adopts a lovely dog, Froggy, goes on a string of dates, goes to see Ernest, a psychiatrist, makes merry with the Italian mafia in Brooklyn and hangs out in the mummy room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But images of him still invade her dreams and hearing Bob Dylan's "I want you" (their song) still reduces her to weeping.
How does the story end? Do they meet again and declare undying love for each other? With my penchant for stories with happy endings, dare you think otherwise?!
There is nothing new in this story, really. The story is as old as time, in the "girl meets boy, they fall in love, they break up and they get back together" pattern. Yet the fluid and poetic text and the stylish surrealistic ink drawings give the book a delicious flavour. It's almost like eating chicken rice and discovering that the cook has added a certain ingredient X that suddenly makes this simple common dish taste a little bit different, a little less ordinary and a lot more mouthwatering.
The Library's Lifelong Literacy campaign in conjunction with the Ad Council is taking a new step forward as we roll out a series of radio public-service announcements. To give a listen, click here, then scroll down for MP3s.
The spots all follow a basic premise: A narrator reads a pivotal or climactic passage from a popular young people's book. But instead of having everything given away, the listener is directed to the book itself to find out what happens next.
Such enticement is, of course, an effective if transparent way to encourage the love of reading. (That is, at least until they start writing books that can be read in 60 seconds or less. But I kid.)
We'd love to know if you hear any of the ads in your own area and, even better, if they compel you on a journey to a library of bookstore.
Heartlands Book Club is pleased to invite poet Mr Takalah Tan Kok Liang for their book discussion in July. A victim of a horrific accident at his prime of his career and personal life - Mr Takalah had to relearn everything again due to the severe brain injury. His poems are raw truths and deep reflection of life values and how to cherish them. One of his poems "Against the Wind" was included in a USA compilation of best poems of 2003. A short snippet of this poem: Against the wind, older, but no wiser. I still find myself inextricably running against the wind. Whilst it could have been easier Rowing with the tide. Something within me beckons! "Do it otherwise!" Defying instincts, & Rejecting the norms. Living my Life on its edge, I refuse to conform. Perhaps one day when my time is done. Laid down to oblivion, my life has just begun! Mr Takalah's courage to overcome his ordeal resulted in him changing his name to Takalah or in Malay "Cannot lose". A Mediacorp documentary featured his life under the "Amazing Courage" series.
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