For The Love of Books

For The Love of Books is a blog that I dedicated for my love of books, my everyday journey of reading books, sharing recommendations on books to read and just share a review of what I thought of the books that I've read. And occassionally, there will be some things unrelated to books, but it will mostly be about my love of books.. Enjoy..

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Lazy Sunday

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What better way to enjoy a lazy Sunday than to curl up with a good book, accompanied by a steaming cup of good coffee while listening to soft jazz music in the background? Sundays are almost always a lazy day for me. I don't tend to go out of the house on Sundays, preparing for what lays ahead in the next busy 5 weekdays.

My favorite thing to do on a Sunday is to read a book. I have a lot of to be read books and it feels like it would take a lifetime to finish them, but I'm happy with it.

Another way to enjoy a lazy Sunday (if I have to go out of the house) is to make a trip to the bookstore. Luckily, the largest and most complete English bookstore in my town is in a mall near my house. I can spend hours and hours in the bookstore, browsing and seeing what other people buy in the bookstore, and of course at the end of the trip I came out with a book or two (or sometimes more LOL).

As for today, I am enjoying re-reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the second time. It's as good as reading it the first time and even better I think. So, for now, I'm going to make a cup of coffee and curl up with my book and hope that Sunday doesn't end too soon.

Happy Sunday reading everyone..

Book Review: Edge of Evil

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Title : Edge of Evil

Author : J.A. Jance
Date Read : 25 - 26 October 2010
Ratings : ***1/2 (3.5 stars out of 5)

You know you're reading a book you like when you can hardly put that book down. I read this book in less than 24 hours. I only managed to put this book down to have dinner, take a shower, sleep (at 2 am in the morning), and work the next day. I read the last 40 pages as soon as I finish work, and manage to finish it in 20 minutes.

This is one of those books that keeps you wanting to read the story more and more. It was really hard for me to put this book down from the start. If it were not because of sleep and a couple of hours of no electricity at night, I would have been able to finish this book last night.

This is my first book by Judith Ann (J.A.) Jance and I believe I'll read many more by her. I like her writing, short chapters, and fast paced read.

This is also the first book of the new series from Jance. The main character is Alison Reynolds, who is a reporter/news caster for a local TV network, who was recently fired because she's over 40 and is considered too old to appeal to a younger audience (aahhh Hollywood and its image crazy audience). She then finds herself out of a job, with a rocky marriage, a cheating husband, and a best friend from her hometown in Arizona who went missing and is presumed dead by suicide.

The story follows Ali's return to her hometown in Sedona, Arizona, to a parents who own a little family diner called Sugarloaf, who is famous for its sweet rolls for the breakfast crowd. Reading the way Jance tells of this story makes me want to visit Sedona, go to Sugarloaf and try one of the sweet rolls made by Mrs Edie Larson, Ali's mother. It just sounds so yummy.

That's just the way Jance writes the story and the characters, whom I like and I can connect with. I hate Ali's husband's character, Paul Grayson, who is the type of guy that I absolutely despise. Ali then start writing a blog created by her son, to vent her story to her audience, called cutlooseblog.com, where it deals with not just her own story, but of ALS (which Reenie is diagnosed with before she died) and of domestic violence.

Overall, I would have given this book a 4 stars, but there are several things in the storyline that were a little loose and went unresolved until the book ends. Maybe it's going to be continued in the second book, Web of Evil, I don't know. I have to find out. But this is definitely an enjoyable read that I would recommend to lovers of mystery thrillers out there.

Oh My Little Town...

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For the past two days, this is what happened in the little (or maybe not so little) town that I live in. Rain, flood and traffic make a lethal combination in my city. It took people at least 3 hours to get home. Some even took 8 hours to get home from work.


And the disastrous condition continues today. It started raining at midday and I was already worried. I was very lucky yesterday because I stayed home all day yesterday, I was on leave and didn't go to work. But today, it took me 3 hours to get home, from a meeting place that normally takes around 40 - 60 minutes, even with normal rush hour traffic. The traffic started to move very slowly to a stopping point in one area, then it started to move slowly again. We had to cross the normally one way road, in order to reach home early. Otherwise it may take another hour for me to reach home.

As I sit quietly in the car, I start to get very frustrated with the road condition in Jakarta. Every time it rains a little, traffic usually gets worse. So you can imagine if it rains really heavy for more than 1 hour, traffic will be ridiculous here. People just don't follow traffic rules anymore, everyone wants to rush home and is very impatient, which I think is making the traffic worse, instead of better.

It's also common to see accident during these traffic condition. Imagine that!! Accidents when you can hardly move an inch between cars!! That's how crazy people in Jakarta is!!! If the this situation is not improved, we won't even be able to get anywhere under 1 hour within Jakarta next year.

Book Review: Serpent's Tooth by Faye Kellerman

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Title : Serpent's Tooth

Author : Faye Kellerman
Date Read : 21 - 25 October 2010
Rating : ** (2 out of 5 stars)

This is my first book by Faye Kellerman, although I've read quite a few books by Jonathan Kellerman, her husband. However, I have to say that I didn't like her books as much as Jonathan's. Her writing was okay, but the plot was simple and predictable and I didn't particularly relate and connect to the main character, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Part of that was because this is the 10th book in the series, but I didn't find myself liking the characters.

The book tells the story of Lieutenant Peter Decker from the LAPD's investigation into a mass shooting murders in an upscale restaurant, where it kills 13 people and left 32 wounded and left the shooter dead in a suicide shooting. However, there are developments in the case that leads to Lieutenant Decker's suspicion that there is a second shooter and he's determined to investigate a case that seems simple, but turns out complicated.

I enjoyed reading this book for the first few chapters and was thinking of giving it at least a 3 stars rating, but towards the middle part of the book, the story just gets boring and predictable and I can't wait for it to end. And I also found many references to Orthodox Jews, especially the words and rituals, which I don't understand at all, so that kind of takes the enjoyment out of the book as well.

However, the writing is quite fast paced, which makes this book a good book for holiday or a beach read. But I have to say that I'm not going to read any of Faye Kellerman's books at this stage, although I do have another one on my Owned-Not-Yet-Read shelf which I got only because it was on sale for $2, that I'm considering to donate unless someone else convince me that the other book is a much better one than this. I'm definitely not a fan of Faye Kellerman.


Birthday Splurge Book List

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In continuation to my previous blog on my birthday splurge yesterday, I just bought another book to add to the splurge. The 15% discount is valid for the 2 days after my birthday, so I thought better buy what I found now rather than buy them full price later. And what made me buy all those books was also that living in Jakarta - Indonesia, we don't have quite a full collection of English books that I can hunt for older published books. If it's there, it's there... and if you don't grab it now (even though I have a mountain of To-Be-Read books), you won't find it anymore, except for those books that are very popular that they keep ordering them and shelfing them.


So, in total, here's the new addition to my to-read list:
1. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia
This is the second book in the Caster chronicles. I own the first book, so I figure that I have
to get the second book and I've heard that it's even better than the first one
2. Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
I've read one of Lee Child's books and completely enjoyed it. I thought it was one of the
books that keeps me reading until late at night, and I like the character Jack Reacher.
This book is part of the Jack Reacher series.
3. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
This is the prequel series to the Mortal Instrument series, which I've heard so much about it
on Goodreads, and people have been waiting for this book to come out. I got this one quite
reasonably priced, so I bought it with the 15% discount..
4. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Another book by Rick Riordan. Many have also been waiting for this book to come out.
His Percy Jackson series is so popular, recommended by a lot of Goodreads member.
5. Burned by P.C. Cast
The seventh book in the House of Night series. My friend told me that once I start with the
first book, I would want to have the next book and the next after that ready because the
story is so good.
6. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Now, this is another Vampire series that I read synopsis and review of in Goodreads and
other websites and I like it. So I decided to go for the whole series. I like stories on vampires
with Twilight being an exception.
7. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Another book in the Vampire Academy series. I'm on a YA series roll..
8. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
Another book in the Vampire Academy series.. I'm excited to get the whole series..
9. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The second book I think in the Vampire Academy series.
10. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
What interested me to buy this series is the cover of the book. I know, I shouldn't judge the
book by its cover, but still, the cover of this book is so nice, love the dress.. And I checked
out Amazon has a better deal on this book, the first 3 book in a package, so I got it.
11. Rumours by Anna Godbersen
The second book in The Luxe series. The story is about socialites and rich community in
New York in the 19th century. I'm not a fan of historical fiction, but I heard that this is much
like Gossip Girl, and in that case, I do love the intrigues..
12. Envy by Anna Godbersen
The third book in The Luxe series, which I think is not the last book in the series.
Depending on how much I like the series, I might go and buy out the fourth book :)

So.. there you go, the complete list of my splurges for my birthday this year. I feel so happy, like a kid in a candy store :)

My Birthday Book Splurge

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It was my birthday yesterday... Happy birthday to me..


And like all book addicts, I decided to splurge on more books to spoil myself on my birthday. As a member of the local bookstore in Jakarta, where I lived, I'm entitled to a 15% discount all items on my birthday. And my points have also qualified for a $25 voucher to spend as I like at the bookstore.

The bookstore sent me a text message in the morning, saying that my $25 voucher is ready to be picked up at the store... And I went happily to the store to pick up the voucher, armed with a list of books from the series that I'm following... And I managed to come out of the bookstore with 8 books in my hand!!! Awesome splurge.... On top of that, I recently placed an order on amazon.com for The Luxe boxed sets and it arrived on my doorstep 1 day before my birthday!! What a perfect timing..

So despite being $50 poorer, I'm a very happy book addict and have 11 more additions to my collection.. I guess I need a new bookshelf, with no more space to place the second bookshelf.. But I'm happy and it was a good splurge.. It feels to me as if the bookstore is giving me a birthday present in the form of a gift voucher...

Book 1 of the challenge

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A few postings ago, I mentioned about the challenge that I've set out with a friend of mine: To Read 60 books in 10 months. My first book that I chose was the second book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I've been meaning to re-read the series in preparation to read the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, before watching the movie.


This is the second time that I read this book, but it feels as good as reading it for the first time. I'm still amazed at the magical world that Harry lives in when he's at Hogwarts and to read tales of Harry's adventure is a satisfying read for me.

J.K. Rowling is indeed very successful with her creation of Harry Potter. It is the number one bestselling series of all times and has set the benchmark for other series to follow. So far I haven't found any other series that's as good as Harry Potter.

So, if any of you have any suggestions for a good series, either adult or young adult, feel free to recommend them to me in this blog.


Book Review: The Magician's Apprentice

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Title : The Magician's Apprentice

Author : Trudi Canavan
Date Read : 14 - 19 October 2010
Pages : 770 pages
Rating : *** (3.5 stars)

I rarely read adult fantasy books these days because it takes a lot of concentration, which I don't usually have in my daily life. There are a lot of interruptions on my reading time. I find that to read fantasy books you really need to have full concentration, to be able to imagine the world, the character, down to the smallest details of the world, the magic and the buildings.

However, The Magicians Apprentice is quite light, but enough to make it interesting. It has the usual Good vs Evil scenario, Magics and a little bit of romance. The writing is enjoyable, making the story flows, which makes reading this book easy, despite its fantasy genre.

This book takes us to the world of Magicians in Imardin where there exists a young healers' daughter named Tessia, who aspire to be a healer, much like her father. But in Imardin, female healers are not common, which makes it hard for Tessia to become what she wants to be. Then suddenly she discovers that she has some magical ability and her world as she knows it changed and she then becomes a Magician's Apprentice and is included in the world of politics and magic and war.

This book is a stand alone book and is not part of a series, which I like. Sometimes fantasy series goes on for too long with too many characters and plots to remember that I loose interest.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to beginners of fantasy readers and just the general fantasy readers who likes a bit of light reading once in a while ;)

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This movie was just playing at the local theatre in Jakarta, so I went out and see it. This is based on a book which I've read around 5 months ago when i was traveling to Australia.


When I read the book, my favorite part was when Liz Gilbert was in Italy for the first 4 months of her travel. I enjoyed reading her adventures in Italy, trying out delicious Italian food, learning the beautiful Italian language. Reading this part makes me want to go to Italy to eat and learn the language as well. And in the movie, as expected, the view was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the culinary sessions and Liz's adventure in Italy.

When she gets to India, like the book, I didn't like it so much.. In fact, I didn't like it at all. I even said to my friend who's watching the movie with me, I could actually have a toilet break during her travel to India, because I didn't like it in the book. It's boring and a snooze fest. And India is one part of the world that I have no interest and intention to visit, unless it's for work and I absolutely have to, but not by choice. And the India that the movie showed was not far from my imagination of what India would be. It's dirty and messy and smelly. But I wasn't able to take my toilet break because my seat was not close to the aisle.

When it gets to the Indonesia part, I quite enjoy it because it was funny. And although my country's poverty and cleanliness may not be as far off from India, at least Bali is one of the most beautiful area that Indonesia has. And it's somewhere close to home. The Bali part was funny, mostly because of Ketut Liyer. That old man was funny and hearing him speak English with an Indonesian touch and accent just got me laughing so hard.

Overall, the movie version is not as long as the book version (thank God for that.. ) But the scenery is worth it to look at in Italy and Bali. I wouldn't endure watching this movie for the second time though.


Book Review: Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff

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Title : Smoke and Shadows

Author : Tanya Huff
Date Read : 11 - 13 October 2010
Rating : *** (3 stars)

Finally finished this series. This is the third book in the series. A friend of mine lent me these books. The first one, Smoke and Shadows, was just okay. I've never read any of Tanya Huff's books, where the main character Tony Foster first appeared, so I'm not too connected with him yet, but I found that it was quite a light read, so I decided to continue to the second book.

The second book, Smoke and Mirrors, was better in my opinion. I get to know the main character, Tony Foster better. He's a production assistant at one of the Syndicated TV shows in Canada on vampires. He's gay and he has a crush with one of the actors in the show. The story is definitely more interesting with the second book.

And I figured, since I have finished the second book, I might as well read the third and last book in the series. And I was halfway through the book in just one day. It's a light read and full of action that will keep you reading until the middle of the night. In this third book, Tony Foster has been promoted to TAD (I think TAD stands for something Assistant Director..... haha) and he has the task to keep a stunt woman safe, because she holds the demon gate on her, where the demon will enter and take over the world if she dies. Then the adventure begins, where mysterious things started to happen again, which calls Tony's attention.

I finished this book in just 2.5 days, which is quite quick within my busy schedule. If you like stories on wizards and vampires and supernatural things with a bit of twisty humor, you would definitely find this book interesting and will enjoy it.

Book Review: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

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Title : The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

Author : Stieg Larsson
Ratings : *** (3 stars)

I have been putting off reading this book for as long as I can after reading the first and second books. The reason is because this is the final book in the Millenium series and also because there won't be anymore stories on Lisbeth Salander and Kalle Blomkvist.

But I really want to know what happens in the end, so I decided to read it before the year ends. Although this book provides a good finale to the series, I like the third book the least. It gets a bit too historical and political and gets away from the mystery and twists that I loved about the first and second book. It is also not as fast paced as the previous two, kind of boring in parts.

However, this trilogy is still one of the best books that I've read so far this year. The book is full of action, mystery and a little bit of romance between the main character. Lisbeth Salander is also a fascinating character. She's feisty, smart, with a bit of dark background. There are parts of the books in the trilogy that may be offending at times, but overall, I would definitely recommend this book to all you thriller lovers.

These three books in the series have been on the best seller lists in the New York Times. It's even on the top selling lists on most bookstores where I live, in Jakarta. It is such a pity that the author, Stieg Larsson died before his book was published and became a best seller.

I wish there are more stories on Lisbeth..

Reading Challenge

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Okay, since I have finished my reading goal for this year, a friend of mine and me started to discuss on other ways to keep me read more books. And we then decided that we would start a challenge between us to read 60 books for the next 10 months. Whoever loses gets to buy the winner a meal when we get together next year.


The idea is to keep each other challenged on our reading and to read more books. I have developed another blog that both of us can access, to monitor our progresses. The idea is also to have the other know what we're reading and to give a brief summary or review of the story so we get to know about more books that are interesting.

Since this is just a reading challenge for fun, we decided that we don't limit ourselves to the type of book that we should read, no particular genre is off limits and page numbers doesn't have to be above a certain number for it to qualify. Once in a while we may read books that are thicker and harder to read, but we can also compensate our next read with a lighter reading. So there's absolutely no restrictions. This is just for fun.

The challenge will begin on Monday, October 18, 2010 and will finish on August 18, 2011.

5 more days till the challenge begins....

If you would like to follow our progress in this challenge, you can have a look at our blog http://60bookschallenge.wordpress.com

Enjoy.... :)

Book Review: I am The Messenger

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Title : I Am The Messenger

Author : Markus Zusak
Ratings : ***** (5 stars)

I am The Messenger by Markus Zusak is one of the best books that I've read this year. Some people classified Zusak's work as young adult fiction, but I think this is more to adult fiction, as the story is sometimes too vulgar for young adult.

I was introduced to Markus Zusak from the forums that I've read on goodreads where people raved about The Book Thief, Zusak's other work. Then, one day I came across this book at the office cafetaria, so I decided to read this one first.

I managed to finish this book within 3 days. I was so engrossed in the story and I read it every chance I have.

Zusak's writing is beautiful and it makes the story flows and you won't want to put this book down (although it's not a thriller LoL).

I am The Messenger tells the story of Ed Kennedy, a young cab driver in the town of Sydney, who has a bad relationship with his mother and in love with one of his best friend. One day, he accidentally becomes a local hero for failing a bank robbery. The next day, he begins receiving the first Ace card in his mail with people's addresses on it.

This book is inspirational. It teaches you that you can do good to strangers and it doesn't have to be in the big scenario. Little things that you can do to help matters. In a way, this book reminds me of the movie Pay It Forward, with a similar lesson to learn.

This is the kind of book that you can read over and over again. I would definitely recommend reading this book. I'm looking forward to reading Markus Zusak's other work, The Book Thief, soon. And will keep the review posted on here.

Goal Achieved...

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I haven't been posting in this blog as diligently as I should have. I know, I know.. that's bad of me. But between, work, play and my reading target, I sometimes get very little time to write. Plus I spent a lot of times on goodreads.com and posted my reviews there.


Anyway...... (drumroll please...) I have completed my target of reading 50 books this year by early October 2010, with 2 months to share. Since my last post, I managed to read 14 books up to now, which makes a total of books read so far to 53... During these times I have read the following books:

- Eragon by Christopher Paolini
- Things I Want my Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
- Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly
- Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff
- The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong (which I love, by the way)
- The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
- 4th of July by James Patterson
- Pandora's Daughter by Iris Johansen
- I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (I love love love this book.. will post a review of this book soon)
- Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff
- The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Enemy by Lee Child
- Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui
- Diary of Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (a re-read)

And I will keep reading until 31st of December 2010 to see how many books I can actually read in a year, and maybe upped my goal for next year... :)