The San Antonio River Walk The San Antonio River Walk
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!
I climbed back behind the wheel, laying the dress in the back seat, and then I cupped my hands over my nose and mouth, breathing the same breaths over and over again, my elbows braced against the wheel. I sat there for several long moments, looking out over the dash at the left-behind set of shoes.
It had been so much easier when I was the wolf.
(Pg 27, Forever by Maggie Stiefvater)
ISBN-13: 9781442403734
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Published: April 2011
Format: Hardcover , 320pp
Source: Personal Library
I have read many glowing reviews on Deb Caletti’s books but just haven’t got around to reading them yet. Thus I chose Stay while browsing through my bookshelves for my next read and how I wished I had read her books earlier!
Stay is about obsessive love and though it is a fiction, this happens in our everyday’s life and I think it is great that authors create awareness of this issue and not to mention as to tell the victims that it is all right to let the relationship go and to seek assistance should the other party made threats or became dangerous.
Clara Oates thinks she has found the right guy after she first met Christian at her school during a basketball game. After all, Christian is so unlike her ex-boyfriend. Christian is not only attractive but he is also a neat and organised person; and on top of that he always shows much attention towards Clara. At the beginning, Clara is flattered by his attention but the more she spends her time with him and get to know him better, the more she wants to escape from their relationship and most frightening of all, his obsessive love towards her.
Told from Clara’s perspective and with alternating chapters shifting between flashbacks and the present, Clara shares with the readers her close relationship with her single father who is a well-known crime fiction author, her new-love Finn and his family while they are staying in a rented house by the sea in Bishop Rock to escape the past (most of all, from Christian) and the secrets that her father has kept all the while relating to Clara’s late mother. From the opening of the story, Clara keeps the readers intrigued through her captivating voice and the prose used for her story:
In any way, Stay read like a suspenseful story, not the kind where we wonder about the bad and/or evil protagonist but that feeling is just the same. I could sense Clara’s fear and her strong intention of finding freedom and escaping from Christian’s grasp. From stalking Clara and tracking her at Bishop Rock, Christian’s behaviour is considered scary and viewed as a threat to Clara’s life. However, Bishop Rock is not entirely a cheery place either as Clara has heard too many ghost stories surrounding the sea and the lighthouse; are they simply rumours or are they not? And there of course, is the secret that Clara’s father harbour all this while…
Not only I find Stay is well-written but I think what makes this book a must-read is the message behind it - that no victim should feel guilty for the other party’s behaviour and she should seek assistance as quickly as possible should she sense something is wrong with the relationship. Obsessive love is not love and it could endanger one’s life should the other party decides to turn violent and causes harm.
Another thing I wanted to mention is, aside from Deb Caletti’s writing style I also loved she put footnotes on some pages for elaborations/explanations from Clara’s POV, in which I find both original and refreshing for I don’t think I have ever come across any books which did that for fictional purpose. You can be sure that I will be checking out the rest of Deb Caletti’s books in the near future.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Published: April 2011
Format: Hardcover , 320pp
Source: Personal Library
I have read many glowing reviews on Deb Caletti’s books but just haven’t got around to reading them yet. Thus I chose Stay while browsing through my bookshelves for my next read and how I wished I had read her books earlier!
Stay is about obsessive love and though it is a fiction, this happens in our everyday’s life and I think it is great that authors create awareness of this issue and not to mention as to tell the victims that it is all right to let the relationship go and to seek assistance should the other party made threats or became dangerous.
Clara Oates thinks she has found the right guy after she first met Christian at her school during a basketball game. After all, Christian is so unlike her ex-boyfriend. Christian is not only attractive but he is also a neat and organised person; and on top of that he always shows much attention towards Clara. At the beginning, Clara is flattered by his attention but the more she spends her time with him and get to know him better, the more she wants to escape from their relationship and most frightening of all, his obsessive love towards her.
Told from Clara’s perspective and with alternating chapters shifting between flashbacks and the present, Clara shares with the readers her close relationship with her single father who is a well-known crime fiction author, her new-love Finn and his family while they are staying in a rented house by the sea in Bishop Rock to escape the past (most of all, from Christian) and the secrets that her father has kept all the while relating to Clara’s late mother. From the opening of the story, Clara keeps the readers intrigued through her captivating voice and the prose used for her story:
“First off, I’ve never told this story to anyone. Not the entire thing anyway, and not entirely truthfully. I’m only telling it now for one reason, and that’s because an untold story has a weight that can submerge you, sure as a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. I learned that. This kind of story, those kind of things kept secret—they have the power to keep you hidden forever, and most of all from yourself. The ghosts from that drowned ship, they keep haunting.”
In any way, Stay read like a suspenseful story, not the kind where we wonder about the bad and/or evil protagonist but that feeling is just the same. I could sense Clara’s fear and her strong intention of finding freedom and escaping from Christian’s grasp. From stalking Clara and tracking her at Bishop Rock, Christian’s behaviour is considered scary and viewed as a threat to Clara’s life. However, Bishop Rock is not entirely a cheery place either as Clara has heard too many ghost stories surrounding the sea and the lighthouse; are they simply rumours or are they not? And there of course, is the secret that Clara’s father harbour all this while…
Not only I find Stay is well-written but I think what makes this book a must-read is the message behind it - that no victim should feel guilty for the other party’s behaviour and she should seek assistance as quickly as possible should she sense something is wrong with the relationship. Obsessive love is not love and it could endanger one’s life should the other party decides to turn violent and causes harm.
Another thing I wanted to mention is, aside from Deb Caletti’s writing style I also loved she put footnotes on some pages for elaborations/explanations from Clara’s POV, in which I find both original and refreshing for I don’t think I have ever come across any books which did that for fictional purpose. You can be sure that I will be checking out the rest of Deb Caletti’s books in the near future.
Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by A Sea of Books.
Here's what I received last week:
1) Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (bought from The Book Depository)
2) The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (visited MPH Bookstore on Saturday and found this! I've got The Snowman in my pile so I figured it is best to read in order)
What books came into your house last week?
I found this Harry Potter meme at Rebecca’s and Tasha’s blogs and thought it sounds fun (originally from Tif Talks Books). Plus, I am feeling nostalgic now that the Harry Potter movies instalments are over but I know he and the rest of the characters will stay in our hearts forever.
When and Where (when you first discovered the series): Believe it or not, it was actually the first movie that made me take notice of this series. Till today, I still regret that I didn’t read the books first before watching the movies.
Favorite Character: Hermione Granger. She is intelligent yet humble, and not to mention she is furiously courageous and loyal too!
Most Hated Character: Delores Umbridge and Bellatrix LeStrange. Both women are different characters wise but they are equally annoying and hated.
When and Where (when you first discovered the series): Believe it or not, it was actually the first movie that made me take notice of this series. Till today, I still regret that I didn’t read the books first before watching the movies.
Favorite Character: Hermione Granger. She is intelligent yet humble, and not to mention she is furiously courageous and loyal too!
Most Hated Character: Delores Umbridge and Bellatrix LeStrange. Both women are different characters wise but they are equally annoying and hated.
Favorite Book: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I thought the premise is very, very clever!
Favorite Movie: Can I say I loved all of them?
Rank the Books (1 = favorite, 7 = least favorite): Can you believe that I haven’t read the whole of the instalments yet? As to date, I have only read till Book 4 and I think one reason for this is that I didn’t feel the rush of reading the books after having watched the movies. I know, the books are supposed to be better and more detailed but… oh well. I guess it is a matter of time that I will get to the rest of the books.
Most Memorable Scene: Professor Dumbledore’s death. How could a wise and humble man like him (and not to mention being Harry Potter’s mentor) be dead?
What You Will Miss the Most: The characters, as well as the anticipation of waiting for the new book or movie to release. Oh the excitement!
What You Are Looking Forward To (even despite the end): Pottermore. And I hope J.K. Rowling will write a new series quickly!
* * * * *
Now that we are on the topic of Harry Potter, I saw a Lego box last night while shopping for a shirt for my daughter for her school play. I wanted to buy it because it has a Harry Potter theme but then I was hesitant because the price said S$129.90. My husband shook his head at me and said, “Well, it’s a Lego. What do you expect?”
Ended up we left the store empty-handed, except for the shirt we bought for my daughter. But the thought of having a Harry Potter Lego never leave my mind, so earlier this morning I visited Lego’s website and found the same model which cost US$49.99 excluding shipping and handling. I will then make a decision whether or not to buy it after getting a response from their customer service regarding the shipping cost outside the US.
Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by A Sea of Books.
Here's what I received last week:
1) The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy (bought from The Book Depository)
And the following books are bought from Books Kinokuniya which I visited on Saturday:2) Forgotten by Cat Patrick
3) Chain Letter by Christopher Pike
4) Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist
What books came into your house last week?
For all the Haruki Murakami's fans out there, his much long-awaited new release, 1Q84 would be published in October (Yes, I'm so excited and I'm sure many of you do too!). I also checked out the covers from the UK and US publishers and think that both editions look absolutely gorgeous! What do you think? Which edition would you buy?
(US edition)
Book 1 & 2
(UK edition)
There is another cover for Book 3 under the UK edition so click the link below (Haruki Murakami's site) to view it.
Blurb from Haruki Murakami's site:
The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.
Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a stand-still, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.
Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?
Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!
I should have stayed in that moment and moved on from that moment, when Shakti grabbed my arm and squeezed. Instead, I watched him as he headed through the crowd, and he looked back at me and our eyes met again before he disappeared.
(Pg 5, Stay by Deb Caletti)
ISBN-13: 9781933633770Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Published: May 2011
Format: Hardcover, 208 pgs
Translated by: Michael Emmerich
Source: Personal Library
I first came across the name of Banana Yoshimoto when I read about Iliana's review on one of her books, Kitchen. Intrigued by the three factors (Iliana's lovely review, the author's name and the title as well) I decided to pick it up and read it. The end result of that decision have made me fallen in love with Yoshimoto's prose and I began to seek her books thereafter.
In this novel, Yoshimoto delves into the relationship between a mural painter and a student. Before your mind wanders anywhere else, let me assure you that the relationship between these two protagonists didn't fall into the 'forbidden' category. In fact I want to share with you that the encounter and the relationship between Chihiro and Nakajima is one of the most unique and 'strange' among all the books I read thus far.
30-year-old Chihiro paints murals and she has been living with her mother all the while until her passing. Being born out of wedlock and raised single-handed by her Mama-san mother, it is no surprise that Chihiro's childhood isn't all that happy. Although she still sees her father occasionally, there is no deep bonding between them as she knew her relatives, in particularly her father's family, don't treat her as their own. Despite this, Chihiro didn't feel much sense of resent towards them but she does feel sorry for her mother. The death of her mother affected her much in a way that she lives her life numbly, until she befriends a young man who lives across the street. You can say their encounter is rather special as they knew each other after they caught each other staring out from their windows.
Chihiro and Nakajima eventually live together in her apartment, but their romance is rather hesitant and a distant one. There may be times they feel they knew nothing much about each other, but yet they also feel they need each other at the same time. Chihiro has not much idea about Nakajima's past life except that he excels in his advanced program in genetics studies. It is only one day that he mentioned about visiting his two friends living in the countryside that Chihiro began to catch a glimpse of Nakajima's past and understand the trauma that he has gone through during his childhood which what shaped his life and make him what he is today.
Without spoiling the story, I won't indulge you with the details but I have to say hearing his side of the story astounded me. But aside from this (which I feel is the core of the story), it is also very much about redemption, the love of a mother and well, loneliness. I didn't mention much about my mother or her passing in 2006, but I just want to say that reading this book has evoked all the memories and emotions I had of my mother. Through Chihiro's narrative, I can totally relate to her and shared her grief. Towards the end, there is also a scene which made me think of the great love of a mother towards her child. However, is too much love and being overprotective a good or a bad thing? Will it lead to self-defeating results? (And no, this is not a spoiler.)
The Lake is a powerful story filled with emotional depth and will haunt you after finishing the book. Once again, I was mesmerised by Yoshimoto's lyrical prose and her ability in weaving a terrific, thought-provoking story out of the mundane, and that is no easy feat in my opinion.
I tend to forget my blogiversary for the past few years but not this year; after all today marks the 5th year of my blogging with this blog and though it may not deemed to be a long time, it means a lot to me throughout these years. When I first started blogging in 2006, I didn't know there is such a bookblogging community. At that time, all I thought was to put my thoughts into words on the books I read since I don't own a journal. Plus, I am not particularly a journal person so I thought turning to an electronic tool would be ideal to me. That first book I mentioned on this blog was Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It is not even considered a review but merely my thoughts after finishing reading the book and looking back, I just want to cringe at my writing. However, the thought of blogging is both new and exciting to me, so I figured I would continue to blog my thoughts on the books I read and to hone my writing at the same time.
Although I didn't give much thoughts on readership then, but still there are times that I felt a bit self-conscious by the overall blogging stuff but that feeling was overcome by time and the fact that I have came to know many bookbloggers as I go along. This is what a book community is, and what most matters to me is many of these bookbloggers who I have not met have become my friends. Because we share the same passion in books and that I trust your opinions on the books you read, my TBR pile has now grown to a horrendous tower and I am sure no matter how many bookshelves I acquire now or in future, they will never be enough.
I wish I could express my feelings more eloquently, but at this moment all I can say is: Thank you, thank you and thank you! To all my bookblogging friends, thank you for your book recommendations and for being you! To the publishers/publicists/authors, thank you for sending the books to me for review! And to the readers who lurk at my blog, thank you for reading and I hope that after reading this post you will decide to leave a comment (a simple "Hi" will do if you have nothing to say).
Happy reading all!
Although I didn't give much thoughts on readership then, but still there are times that I felt a bit self-conscious by the overall blogging stuff but that feeling was overcome by time and the fact that I have came to know many bookbloggers as I go along. This is what a book community is, and what most matters to me is many of these bookbloggers who I have not met have become my friends. Because we share the same passion in books and that I trust your opinions on the books you read, my TBR pile has now grown to a horrendous tower and I am sure no matter how many bookshelves I acquire now or in future, they will never be enough.
I wish I could express my feelings more eloquently, but at this moment all I can say is: Thank you, thank you and thank you! To all my bookblogging friends, thank you for your book recommendations and for being you! To the publishers/publicists/authors, thank you for sending the books to me for review! And to the readers who lurk at my blog, thank you for reading and I hope that after reading this post you will decide to leave a comment (a simple "Hi" will do if you have nothing to say).
Happy reading all!
My husband told me he took these pictures from a restaurant but he couldn't remember the name of it. I thought the view was beautiful!
Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by A Sea of Books.
Here's what I received last week:
1) Shadow of a Quarter Moon by Eileen Clymer Schwab (from the publisher)
2) 在晴朗的日子分手 - 陳德賢作品 (from the author)
Self translation: Breaking Up on a Sunny Day by Takyin Chan
3) 愛在三度空間 - 江澄作品 (from the author)
Self translation: Love at Three Dimensional Space by Jiang Cheng
What books came into your house last week?
TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
- Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!
I had a habit of standing at my window, looking out, and so did Nakajima, so we noticed each other, and before long we started exchanging nods. I guess it must have been pretty rare in a busy city like Tokyo for two people in two windows to nod to each other when their eyes met, but where I come from, out in the boonies, that was the most natural thing in the world, and Nakajima isn't the sort of person to bother about such things.
(Pg 27, The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto)
Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by Bluestocking.
Here's what I received last week:
1) Asylum by Patrick McGrath (bought from The Book Depository after reading Matt's review)
2) Brother/Sister by Sean Olin (bought from The Book Depository)
3) Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy (from the publisher for review)
What books came into your house last week?
Jean Kwok is the author of Girl in Translation (my review here) and I was thrilled to have invited her to write a guest post on my blog through the help of her publicist (Thanks, Erin!). Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Jean to Melody's Reading Corner and I hope you enjoy reading the post as much as I did!
Photo credit: Hielco Kuipers
One of my earliest memories is of riding on the back of my brother’s tricycle in Hong Kong. We were speeding along and I was urging him to go faster and faster when we crashed into a fruit stand. Mangos, lichee nuts and star fruit flew everywhere. One of our servants found us and dragged us home to our parents, after paying for the fruit peddler’s losses. Not long after that, my entire family would move to New York City. I never imagined how much my life would change.
I was five years old at the time, younger than my heroine Kimberly Chang in my novel Girl in Translation, and I did not understand a word of English. Like Kimberly and her mother, we lost our money in the move to the United States. My family started working in a sweatshop in Chinatown. My father took me there every day after school and we all emerged many hours later, soaked in sweat and covered in fabric dust. Our apartment swarmed with insects and rats, and in the winter we, like the characters in my novel, kept the oven door open day and night because there was no other source of heat.
Fortunately, like my heroine Kimberly, I also had a talent for school. As I slowly learned English, I started doing better in my studies, even though I was still working at the factory with almost all of my free time. Most of my homework was done on the subway, traveling to and from the factory. Years later, I was accepted to Harvard and it was there that I made the decision to risk following my true calling, writing. I paid my own way through Harvard, working up to four jobs at a time to do so. I graduated with honors, then started trying to be a writer.
At that point, I was already quite surprised at how far my life had taken me from first Hong Kong and then my childhood in the Chinatown clothing factory, but life had a few more twists waiting for me. I fell in love with a Dutch guy. He was studying to be a clinical psychologist and his main possession was his second-hand bicycle. When I visited him in Leiden, the Dutch town where he was studying, he took me on tours of the city. I would balance on the tiny luggage rack of his bike while he peddled us through the cobblestone streets. As we bounced along, he would wave his arms around and say, “This wall is very old. And this house, it is also very old.” At least that’s what I remember of his tours. Somehow I was charmed enough by him (and his accent) to move to Holland after finishing my MFA in Fiction at Columbia.
I didn’t think of it as a permanent move. We were trying things out, I thought, and since I was a teacher and a writer and he was a psychologist whose degrees weren’t valid in the United States, it made more sense for me to go to Holland first.
The first thing I noticed about Holland were the bicycles. They are everywhere and if you don’t look both ways before stepping onto the street, you are likely to be run over by one. Lawyers in suits ride on bikes with their briefcases strapped to the back. Mothers balance one child in front and one behind. People haul their groceries, pets, and walking aids on their bikes, while eating an apple and chatting on their cell phones at the same time. During the Christmas season, I saw bicycles whizzing by where the riders were holding their trees under their arms or balanced on their shoulders. Since the Dutch often start biking without side wheels at the age of four and then spend the rest of their lives on the bike after that, they can do anything on a bicycle without breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, that means they tend to assume that my biking skills are just as good as theirs, which is not true. I first realized this when I was riding my own little bike to my new job teaching English at Leiden University. My building was located on the banks of the lovely Rapenberg canal. I went past a group of students who were relaxing outside their house, and as I passed them, one enormous male threw himself onto the luggage rack of my bike. This idiot and I wobbled for a split second and then crashed into a tree. Thank goodness because if we hadn’t hit the tree, we would have gone right into the canal. In Europe, unlike America, they don’t tend to protect you from your own stupidity so there was no guardrail. If you kill yourself by riding into the water, well, that’s too bad for you.
As we lay there in a tangle of limbs and twisted bicycle parts, I glared at this hulking guy. He was over a foot taller than me, and must have weighed twice what I did. “What were you thinking?” I demanded.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, red-faced. “I wanted to come along.”
After I managed to close my mouth that had dropped open in astonishment, collected my bike and the shreds of my dignity, and stalked off, I realized that I had unwillingly participated in a Dutch courting ritual. You see a likely-looking candidate biking by, you hurl yourself onto their luggage rack, and the two of you ride happily into the sunset. A Dutch girl would have kept her balance, and probably been able to wink at him at the same time.
Now, years later, I too carry our kids and groceries and cats in my own bike – but mine has three wheels. The factory I worked in as a child is still as vivid as ever in my memories but my life is now quite far from that reality. My trying-out of Holland has turned into a second immigration experience. My debut novel’s been published in 15 countries and translated into 13 languages, and when my husband and I drive somewhere in our car, he waves his arms around and says, “This is old, very old.”
I was five years old at the time, younger than my heroine Kimberly Chang in my novel Girl in Translation, and I did not understand a word of English. Like Kimberly and her mother, we lost our money in the move to the United States. My family started working in a sweatshop in Chinatown. My father took me there every day after school and we all emerged many hours later, soaked in sweat and covered in fabric dust. Our apartment swarmed with insects and rats, and in the winter we, like the characters in my novel, kept the oven door open day and night because there was no other source of heat.
Fortunately, like my heroine Kimberly, I also had a talent for school. As I slowly learned English, I started doing better in my studies, even though I was still working at the factory with almost all of my free time. Most of my homework was done on the subway, traveling to and from the factory. Years later, I was accepted to Harvard and it was there that I made the decision to risk following my true calling, writing. I paid my own way through Harvard, working up to four jobs at a time to do so. I graduated with honors, then started trying to be a writer.
At that point, I was already quite surprised at how far my life had taken me from first Hong Kong and then my childhood in the Chinatown clothing factory, but life had a few more twists waiting for me. I fell in love with a Dutch guy. He was studying to be a clinical psychologist and his main possession was his second-hand bicycle. When I visited him in Leiden, the Dutch town where he was studying, he took me on tours of the city. I would balance on the tiny luggage rack of his bike while he peddled us through the cobblestone streets. As we bounced along, he would wave his arms around and say, “This wall is very old. And this house, it is also very old.” At least that’s what I remember of his tours. Somehow I was charmed enough by him (and his accent) to move to Holland after finishing my MFA in Fiction at Columbia.
I didn’t think of it as a permanent move. We were trying things out, I thought, and since I was a teacher and a writer and he was a psychologist whose degrees weren’t valid in the United States, it made more sense for me to go to Holland first.
The first thing I noticed about Holland were the bicycles. They are everywhere and if you don’t look both ways before stepping onto the street, you are likely to be run over by one. Lawyers in suits ride on bikes with their briefcases strapped to the back. Mothers balance one child in front and one behind. People haul their groceries, pets, and walking aids on their bikes, while eating an apple and chatting on their cell phones at the same time. During the Christmas season, I saw bicycles whizzing by where the riders were holding their trees under their arms or balanced on their shoulders. Since the Dutch often start biking without side wheels at the age of four and then spend the rest of their lives on the bike after that, they can do anything on a bicycle without breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, that means they tend to assume that my biking skills are just as good as theirs, which is not true. I first realized this when I was riding my own little bike to my new job teaching English at Leiden University. My building was located on the banks of the lovely Rapenberg canal. I went past a group of students who were relaxing outside their house, and as I passed them, one enormous male threw himself onto the luggage rack of my bike. This idiot and I wobbled for a split second and then crashed into a tree. Thank goodness because if we hadn’t hit the tree, we would have gone right into the canal. In Europe, unlike America, they don’t tend to protect you from your own stupidity so there was no guardrail. If you kill yourself by riding into the water, well, that’s too bad for you.
As we lay there in a tangle of limbs and twisted bicycle parts, I glared at this hulking guy. He was over a foot taller than me, and must have weighed twice what I did. “What were you thinking?” I demanded.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, red-faced. “I wanted to come along.”
After I managed to close my mouth that had dropped open in astonishment, collected my bike and the shreds of my dignity, and stalked off, I realized that I had unwillingly participated in a Dutch courting ritual. You see a likely-looking candidate biking by, you hurl yourself onto their luggage rack, and the two of you ride happily into the sunset. A Dutch girl would have kept her balance, and probably been able to wink at him at the same time.
Now, years later, I too carry our kids and groceries and cats in my own bike – but mine has three wheels. The factory I worked in as a child is still as vivid as ever in my memories but my life is now quite far from that reality. My trying-out of Holland has turned into a second immigration experience. My debut novel’s been published in 15 countries and translated into 13 languages, and when my husband and I drive somewhere in our car, he waves his arms around and says, “This is old, very old.”
ISBN-13: 9781594485152Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: May 2011
Format: Paperback, 320pp
Source: Publisher
Do you know what's so great about coming-of-age stories? They tend to tug at your heartstring but yet at the same time, allow you to think of life in general and how one would overcome difficulties through hard work, persistence and sometimes with a bit of luck.
Kimberly Chang and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn from Hong Kong after her father's passing. They are not well-off so it is Kimberly's Aunt Paula who funded for their trip. Paula had left Hong Kong after she got married and together with her husband, they manage a clothing factory. Kimberly and her mother work at their factory but despite their kinship, they are paid miserably and the apartment which Paula got them is in poor condition and is infested with roaches.
Knowing they are mistreated, Kimberly and her mother chose to stay mum as they felt they are indebted to her. As fate allows, Kimberly is an intelligent girl and she is one who is persistent and not afraid of hard work. By day she goes to school and in the evenings she joins her mother at work in Paula's clothing factory. It is also at this time that she gets to know a Chinese boy named Matt whose life is very similiar to her but he shares none of her passion in her school work or ambition. While other students at school focus on materialistic stuff and popularity, Kimberly thinks of freedom and getting good grades so she and her mother could live a better life.
At its core of this story is the relationship between Kimberly and her mother, and how Kimberly is face with a dilemma between love and her dreams. Jean Kwok skilfully weaves this unforgettable coming-of-age story through her experience as a young girl emigrated from Hong Kong and growing up between the two cultures. Through Kimberly's eyes, I came to understand more about the life of an American immigrant and the various challenges and/or difficulties she encounters. It evoked all the emotions in me as I laughed and cried for Kimberly while reading it. Girl in Translation is not only moving but is inspiring and thought-provoking as well. I look forward to Jean Kwok's future releases.
Note: Look out for Jean Kwok's guest post tomorrow as she will share with us about cycling in Holland and a Dutch courting ritual!
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