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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Posted by Roses - - 0 comments

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... :)

Mountain T-B-R

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I just finished reading Eragon last night at 12.30 am midnight. It was good and enjoyable, and I will post my review of Eragon on this blog soon.


Now.. one of the hardest question would be deciding which book to read next. The question is, how do you choose your next book?

Gone are the days where I have to go book hunting to the local bookstores whenever I finish a book and are looking for a book to read next. Now, I have about 138 books on my shelf that I bought and haven't read yet, not to mention the few books that I borrowed from friends and from the office. So the question on what to read next should be an easy one. I have a lot of books to choose from my shelf without going to a bookstore to buy for one that takes my interest.

But after reading Eragon, I guess I'm just stuck on what to read next.. Should I read Chic Lit. Contemporary Romance or my favorite genre, Mystery and Thriller..

I'm the kind of girl that takes a book with me everywhere I go. I always have 1 book in my purse to read on the go. So I have to decide real soon..

Find out what I decide to read next tonight..

Book Review: Me and Mr Darcy

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Title : Me and Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter

Date Read : 4 - 8 August 2010
Pages : 352 pages
Ratings : *** (3 out of 5 stars)

Oohhh Mr Darcy... one of the most loved male character of all time. To be completely honest, I have never even read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen or even seen the movie or series adaptation of this book. I'm not a big fan of classical novel or even historical novel. I just stumbled upon this book lent by a friend of mine and since this is actually a modern chic lit, I will read it.

This book is just like any other chic lit that I've read. But I like the heroine very much. She is an avid reader, a book lover (much like me), works at a bookstore (which I would love to do one day), packs a lot of books on a trip (just like me.. ) and a lover of Jane Austen books (which I'm not). Emily has been on a strings of bad dates recently and wonders if she will ever find the right man... don't we all? Her perfect man would be someone like Mr Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She then stumbles across a flyer on a Jane Austen literary tour to England, which she booked out of spontaneity, and then the adventure begins..

This is a love story like no other.. the difference is the reference to the Mr Darcy character. But I enjoyed reading this book, it's funny and romantic.. great to enjoy on a short trip or reading by the beach..

Book Review: How Starbucks Saved My Life

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Title : How Starbucks Saved My Life

Author : Michael Gates Gill
Date read : 30 July - 2 August 2010
Pages : 265 pages
Ratings : ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Okay, yes.. I'm a big fan of Starbucks and it's not a big surprise that I read this book. I've put this book on my wish list ever since I saw it at the book store and finally got around to buying it after coming back and looking at the book for the 5th time, because the price of this book is a bit more expensive that my other reading, but I thought, hey, it's an interesting book and I wanna read it. So rather than just thinking about it, one fine day, I finally got out my credit card and buy it... what do you know, the credit card gave me a 10% discount for this book.. so I was quite happy..

Anyway, I loved reading this book. And reading the story of Michael Gates Gill's working experience at Starbucks makes me like Starbucks even more. And everytime I'm reading this book, all I can think about is my favorite drink there, a Hot Caramel Machiato with Extra Caramel Sauce ha ha.. it's so yummy..

This book tells the story of the author, Michael Gates Gill's fall from his empire I should say. He was the top paid successful advertising executive in New York, who suddenly lost his job because of the need of the company to regenerate with a younger executive, so he was pushed out of his job. And he was in the worst stage of his life, no job, almost broke, divorce, living in a small apartment in New York, and have just been diagnosed with a medical condition, with no insurance to cover it.

Starbucks used to be the place for Michael to do his work and meet with clients. I can imagine he used to go to Starbucks, order a coffee, and then sit at one of the tables and do some work, or read the newspapers, with the cell phone on the table constantly ringing.. that would be like me. But on that day, he was actually to buy a cup of latte, which used to be a necessity for him, now a luxury, when he was offered a job at Starbucks.

I can't sing my praises enough for this book or of Starbucks and how the company treats its employee, or partner, as it is called in the stores. Seeing as I am a regular visitor to my local Starbucks store, it's interesting to actually read about what goes on behind the counter, and to read about Michael's dedication to his work at Starbucks until he's known as the legendary service at Starbucks. I love to read about his interaction with his colleague as well as his excellent service to the customers every day. I would love to have Michael Gates Gill serve me at my local Starbucks :)

This book is also a reminder that the wheel of the world spins, and when you're at the top, you might not always be at the top, the world can spin you so fast that you wake up and suddenly your world is upside down and you're at the bottom, no longer at the top. Therefore you must cherish of your blessings everyday and be grateful for what you have, while still always strive to be the best.


Book Review: Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen

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Title : Killer Dreams by Iris Johansen

Date Read : 28 - 30 July 2010
Pages : 432 Pages
Ratings : ** (2 out of 5 stars)

This is my 35th book that I read this year, towards my 50 Books A Year goal in 2010. This is also the second book from Iris Johansen that I've read this year, loaned by a friend.

I only gave this book 2 stars. It was just okay for me. Definitely a light read, quick thriller. The story is about a doctor, Sophie Dunston, who is researching a therapy or medicine to cure people from bad dreams and insomnia. It turns out that the therapy actually has a side effect, it makes people go crazy. The research was not fully completed and thus Sophie spends her life running from the pharmaceutical giant head that is trying to capture her to finish the research for them.

The book opens with the scene of Sophie's father killing her mother during a vacation and almost killed her son. When I read the first few pages of the book, i thought wow, this would be good. But towards the middle part, I sort of lost interest in the book.

In short, this book was just okay, if you're looking for some light thriller to read. Not one with a complicated plot twists or anything, just an easy read.