So I went book shopping yesterday and it was great to see the staff at the bookstore which I used to frequent before our office relocation. Knowing my reading taste of the books I read, one of them recommended You Against Me by Jenny Downham to me. At first glance, the title caught my attention but it was the one sentence at the back of the book that really piqued my curiosity: "You want this to be a love story?"

There is no elaboration of what this story is behind the back of the book so of course I have to find out more.

Synopsis (from B&N)

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge.
If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him.

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the offense, her world begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.

This is a brave and unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all, it's a book about love.

What do you think? It sounds good, right? Since I couldn't wait, I decided to read this book right now instead of waiting and I hope it would be as good as what it stated from the synopsis.

Another book I bought is Delirium by Lauren Oliver and I don't think I would need to say more about this book since I have read so many rave reviews around the blogosphere. Because of your wonderful reviews, I have to pick this up even though I have yet to read her previous novel, Before I Fall, another book that has received lots of rave reviews. I don't think I need to post the synopsis since I am sure many of you would've know what this story is all about by now.

I also bought three Chinese manga in which I finished reading two of them yesterday in one sitting. One of them is a stand alone while the others are part of a series. I felt like cheating marking the two manga I read for my February read list as they are not novels but hey, they are books right?

Hope you have a great Friday and happy reading!

ISBN-13: 9789571352558
Publisher: Reading Times
Published: October 2010
176 pgs
Illustrator: Marumi Kimura
Translator: Huang Bi Jun
Source: Personal Library



Shocked and speechless. These what sum up my reactions towards this manga after I finished reading in one sitting last evening.

If you were a teacher, what would you do if you found out that the murderer(s) of your child happens to be one of your students? Would you let their fate to be decided by the law, or would you seek revenge yourself? Between ethics and justice, which would you choose?

The story begins with teacher Yuko Moriguchi giving a farewell speech to her class of junior high students on her last day of employment. She talks to them about life and how one should value their life before she move on to her personal history, as she began to disclose how much it has deeply affected her after the death of her 4-year-old daughter. Truth be told, Yuko's purpose of sharing her personal account is not to gain sympathy from her students, for she already has a plan mapped out for two students in the class whom she believed have murdered her daughter. She has successfully planted the seed of fear to these two students by confessing that she had contaminated their milk with HIV virus. At this point, you might be wondering why those two students managed to get away from the crime scot-free. It is because they are under age 14 and they are protected by the law.

If you think she has seeked her revenge right there and put an end to the story, then you are in for a surprise for what happened thereafter I could only describe as explosive and mind-boggling. The story goes on to explore the minds behind these two students, Shuya and Naoki, and how they came about the plan of murdering Yuko's daughter. Reading about their agendas sent chills down my spine, but what most astounded me is finding out about their yearnings and how one circumstances have led to another is beyond my comprehension.

"以憎恨来报复憎恨是没有用的。有一天他们一定会知错的。相信他们，你才有办法重生啊！"
(Translated: There is no use in seeking revenge. One day they would know their mistakes. Believe in them, and you will be able to find and live your life.)

There was one passage (as above) which I liked, as it reminds me of a famous quote by Mohandas Gandhi - "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." But of course Confession is not only a story about revenge, but a psychological one which makes us to think and take a deeper look into humanity and the social problems we face today. Confession has been made into a film and it has been selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. I hope there will be an English edition of this story next. And as for this manga edition, I can only say that Marumi Kimura has totally left me in awe of her work.

English Edition

内容提要:

北村純過著超貧窮、掙扎求生的生活。可是，照顧哥哥英輔撿回來，沒有血緣關係的弟妹們就是她活著的意義。有一天，一名青年救了抱著高燒的妹妹，感到絕望的純。雖然對青年的親切懷抱淡淡情愫，不過為了拯救差點就要被賣掉以便還債的孩子們，她下定決心賣身。之後純被田財閥的少爺‧蒼一郎買下，並為了金錢答應跟他假結婚…

Sumi Kitamura is a simple and a kind-hearted girl. Despite her poor background, she finds joy in life through her younger siblings. To be exact, they are orphans and not her flesh and blood siblings but Sumi's older brother Eisuke brought them home and treat them as family despite they can barely afford of feeding themselves. And on top of that, they have a huge debts of house rental fees they have yet to pay and life became a chore for Sumi. Though Eisuke is a compassionate man, he can be irresponsible and he will spend whatever money was left for his gambling debts and on women.

On an occasion when one of their younger siblings was sick, Sumi went around seeking for assistance but no one wants to help her for they think she has owed them enough. Just when Sumi begins to lose her hope, she received a handkerchief from Nozomu. When she unfolds the handkerchief, she is shocked to find he has left some money for her but before she could thank his kind gesture, he has already left. From that moment onwards, Sumi couldn't help thinking of him and she is hoping she would be able to see him again.

Unfortunately, life does not get better for her and in order to give comfort to her younger siblings, she has to find ways to solve their financial problems. She decided to sell herself but a wealthy, good-looking Soichiro Ashida wants her to marry him instead. Sumi has no choice but to agree to his proposal while on the other end, Soichiro has to marry a girl so that he would have his sickly grandfather's inheritance.

Little did Sumi know that Nozomu and Soichiro were childhood friends and as much as she likes Nozomu, she is bounded by the fact that she is Soichiro's wife. The story began to take a turn when Sumi gets to know more about Soichiro and his tragic past and soon she would find herself torn between these two men. Would she be a proper lady and fit into Soichiro's glitzy and glamourous life, and most of all who should she choose to be with in the end?

I finished reading the above volumes by Rinko Ueda yesterday (I read the Chinese edition) and I've to confess I was totally blown away by Rinko's beautiful illustrations! Besides that, I was also drawn by the plot and the characterisations. I've to admit I disliked Soichiro from the beginning but I think there's certainly more about him than meets the eye, and I cannot wait to read more about Sumi's marriage life in Soichiro's family and not to mention the interesting love triangle. Oh, I hope volume 3 will be released quickly!

ISBN-13: 9789861031446
Publisher: 东立出版社有限公司
Published: April 2009


I must have bitten by a manga bug lately, because this is the third manga book I read in a week (I had finished reading Momoko Typhoon #2 but have yet to draft a review). Anyway, I found this series while browsing through the manga section and I was attracted by the cover art and the blurb. I took the risk and bought the series because I have not read anything by this artist (and the books are sealed with plastic covers to prevent anyone from reading). There were times I was misled by the cover illustrations but funnily enough I just had the feeling that I might enjoy this series and my instinct was right because I really enjoyed reading this book!

Ren Cai Zi (the names are translated from the Chinese since I do not know the actual Japanese names of all the characters) is a high school student and has never fallen in love before though childhood friend, Da Shu fancies her but she does not know his feelings towards her.

However, an incident gave her the opportunity to meet Lian, the most good-looking and popular boy in school. What he did thereafter greatly touches her heart and from that day onwards, she knew she has fallen in love with him. When Da Shu has finally muster his courage to confess his feelings towards her, Ren Cai Zi told him she could not accept his love because she has fallen in love with somebody. Even when she later found out that Lian already has a girlfriend, her feelings towards him did not waver and she told herself that she is satisfied admiring him from afar and that they are friends.

A girl friend of Ren Cai Zi, Xiao Bai He took this opportunity to confess her love towards Da Shu and a complex love story begins this first installment of Strobe Edge.

What can I say? I was so drawn into the story (not to mention the wonderful illustrations as well) that I picked up the second installment and read it right after I had finished reading this book. I am currently reading the fourth installment and I have to say the story is getting more complex and intense than I have first anticipated. Needless to say, I have neglected the other books which I am also reading and this made me feel bad. To break free of my guilty conscience, I brought a novel instead of the manga with me to work today so hopefully I will be able to catch up on my reading and read a few more chapters.

So what are you currently reading?

Note: There is no Teaser Tuesdays post today since I am still reading the same book as of last week.

ISBN-13: 4711552447392
Publisher: 长鸿出版社股份有限公司
Published: October 2009
217 pgs



I participated in Rhinoa's Manga Challenge some time ago but I have yet to read and review any manga so I thought I would read/review at least one before the end of the year.

I chose Momoka Typhoon (by Fujita Kazuko) because I enjoyed watching the first two episodes of Momo Love, a Taiwanese drama based on this manga series and I want to read them aside from watching the drama as well. Anyway, this is a story about Tian Zhong Tao Hua (a Chinese girl's name translated from the Japanese) and her relationship with her five elder brothers and a guy whom she loves.

Being the only girl in the family, she is most well loved and is always the center of attention in the Tian Zhong family. This is no surprise considering their parents wanted a girl and as for the rest of the siblings, they felt the need and responsibility to protect her because they love her so much. Though Tao Hua appreciates her brothers' love, she feels she has no control over her freedom because whatever she does she is being scrutinized.

Yu Yi, being the youngest brother in the family is often being bullied by the other brothers and they have assigned him to spy on her. Tao Hua and Yu Yi share the closest bond and though she feels sorry for him, there is nothing much she could do about it.

When Tao Hua started to fall in love with Shi Lang, who is also a friend of Yu Yi, the rest of the siblings began to plot ways to split them. Torn in between the older brothers and Tao Hua, Yu Yi has never felt so helpless in his life but he feels there should be a resolution to all these so he lied to Tao Hua that Shi Lang already has a girlfriend, hoping that this news would shatter Tao Hua's dreams so that she would forget about him. Unfortunately, things do not go as anticipated as Tao Hua has other plans and the rest of the siblings vowed they would not leave this matter rest.

I have to say I enjoyed reading the manga more than the drama, not that the latter is not nicely done, it does and it has my favourite actor in it (Jiro Wang). I think the main issue lies with the different culture and certain scenes in the drama have to change to suit the chinese audience. I have nothing against this and I feel both have succeeded in creating a wonderful comedy. However, I am disappointed with the cast of the role of the third and the fourth brother because they are not featured as twins as originally seen in the manga but I suppose that is not a big issue since I understand it could be difficult to find artistes who are twins (I have thought of two actors who are twins but I am not telling).

(Image taken from Asianpopcorn.com)

Note: There will be no Teaser Tuesdays today since I am still reading Fishing for Bacon by Michael Davie and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. I cannot promise that I will finish them by this week but I will definitely try!

Book Bloggers Holiday Swap is here once again! For those who are not aware of what this is, it is an annual Secret Santa gift exchange between book bloggers and BBHS is in its third year now!

Please visit the link for more details (and registration) and please note you have until November 12th to do so! So what are you waiting for? I know you want to participate!