Books & Literature Category Archives - ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery https://www.shaolintiger.com/category/entertain-me/books-literature/ Craft Beer, Travel, Children & Much More. Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:38:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 Book Review – The Five (5) People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/12/20/book-review-the-five-5-people-you-meet-in-heaven-by-mitch-albom/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/12/20/book-review-the-five-5-people-you-meet-in-heaven-by-mitch-albom/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:36:10 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/12/20/book-review-the-five-5-people-you-meet-in-heaven-by-mitch-albom/ Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about […]

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The 5 People You Meet in Heaven

Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park.

I don’t usually read books from the best sellers or top 10 list, I tend not to be a sheep, reading completely different stuff from an eclectic range of genres.

My bookshelves are filled with hardcore hacking tomes, fantasy, sci-fi, biographies, crime books, martial arts manuals, health and philosophy books and so on.

For once the last few months when I was traveling so frequently I decided to devour some of the tops picks, the best sellers..

The first I chose was this, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I thought it was some kind of sappy self-help book, but I wanted to know why fairly sane people kept raving about it.

Mitch Albom got famous with his previous book Tuesdays with Morrie, another massive hit. I might read that too given time.

It’s a cute story, it’s easy to read and it’s enjoyable. It’s well paced, not patronising and kind of sweet in a non-sickly way.

Really though it’s the same old tale, what goes around comes around, karma and all that but told in a slightly different way.

Definately worth a read, easy to pick up and finish in one shot.

It’s not ground-breaking, or fantastic, but it’s good. It’s beauty is in its simplicity, yeah there’s pages of cliches, but its straightforward it’s not pretending to be artsy or intellectual or bourgeois.

It is nice to read a book now and then that is just easy to read and enjoyable.

Worth a try, I give it a good solid 7/10 – A good one to put on the xmas list for people you care about.

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Book Review – Blah Blah Black Sheep by Maggie Gibson https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/07/07/book-review-blah-blah-black-sheep-by-maggie-gibson/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/07/07/book-review-blah-blah-black-sheep-by-maggie-gibson/#comments Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:41:29 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/07/07/book-review-blah-blah-black-sheep-by-maggie-gibson/ ‘Blah, Blah Blacksheep’ is a helter-skelter ride through one week in your average journalist’s life (no, really). Maggie Gibson’s latest offering is fluid and full of Irish humour – the perfect comic beach read. This is another one of those cheapo British trash novels I pick up for around RM5 at Popular/MPH, I always look […]

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Blah Blah Black Sheep

‘Blah, Blah Blacksheep’ is a helter-skelter ride through one week in your average journalist’s life (no, really). Maggie Gibson’s latest offering is fluid and full of Irish humour – the perfect comic beach read.

This is another one of those cheapo British trash novels I pick up for around RM5 at Popular/MPH, I always look for these, and 90% of the time I really enjoy them.

I suggest buying a bunch of these everytime you pass through.

It’s indeed full of Irish wit, twisting and turning, her editor has a nervous breakdown and is replaced with someone nicer..

Following this she is immediately immersed in the dirty, sweaty world of human trafficking, sweat shops, murder and a nasty little extortionist drug dealer with the wonderfully Irish name of Broylan Grillo.

Somehow she ends up friends with Georgina Fitz-Simons who has has just overcome a flourishing cocaine habit, together they go deep into the world of durgs and murder end up in possession of a rather inconvenient corpse, being chased by a Serbian hitman and involved with an ex Glam rocker..

It’s a well written, well paced book. Rather easy to pick up, not hard to put down and can be devoured quickly in a couple of sittings.

If you see it sitting around on the bargain shelf for the price of a drink, do pick it up.

Not much more to say about it, simple book, simple read, simple review.

I give it an enjoyable 6.5/10.

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Book Review – Midnight Cowboy – James Leo Herlihy https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/06/21/book-review-midnight-cowboy-james-leo-herlihy/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/06/21/book-review-midnight-cowboy-james-leo-herlihy/#comments Wed, 21 Jun 2006 04:48:22 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/06/21/book-review-midnight-cowboy-james-leo-herlihy/ Midnight Cowboy is the powerful and unforgettable novel of the compelling need of human beings for one another — a wrenching story of pain and loss. Freewheeling loser Joe Buck arrives in New York City and embarks on a quest to live the American dream. Along the way he meets street hustler and petty criminal […]

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Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy is the powerful and unforgettable novel of the compelling need of human beings for one another — a wrenching story of pain and loss.

Freewheeling loser Joe Buck arrives in New York City and embarks on a quest to live the American dream. Along the way he meets street hustler and petty criminal Ratso Rizzo. Together, the two form an extraordinary relationship full of heartbreak and hope, resulting in a compelling American novel about the bonds of friendship.

An academy award winner in 1969 in spite of having an X rating, this is one of those classic films that I guess many of you have watched (Midnight Cowboy Movie), I saw the book in popular so decided to pick it up (it’s the UK paperback edition).

This is a very well written and well-paced book, it has excellent character development and has a certain way of strolling along that keeps you firmly in its grip.

It raises some interesting moral issues, and a lot about self-perception and ego.

Genital Joe as we could call him is the epitomy of lost youth losing his virginity to some Annie Rottencrotch, he has all the wrong ideas about sex and sexuality.

Being a good looking lad, tall and well built he goes out to make his millions in the world. Like most of us, he ends up finding reality stinks and not much more than that.

The book rolls along and it’s hard to put down, it’s not lightning fast but it sucks you into the dirty seedy world that Joe falls into.

I finished the whole thing in about 3 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The writing may seem a little simplistic to some, but that’s what gives it such a raw and honest charm. It’s very real, real people and a real story.

It’s gritty at times, explicit, violent and raw but can also be touching showing interesting aspects of humanity.

If you want to read something ‘different’ than all the pop shit churned out a the moment, take a look at this.

I think it cost me the grand total of RM5.90.

I give it a solid, well-paced 9/10.

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Book Review – Sorting Out Billy by Jo Brand https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/01/18/book-review-sorting-out-billy-by-jo-brand/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/01/18/book-review-sorting-out-billy-by-jo-brand/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:08:32 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2006/01/18/book-review-sorting-out-billy-by-jo-brand/ Martha had never progressed much beyond hating her father for being cruel to her and her mum, even though he was supposed to be a man of God. Martha was now 38 and eight months pregnant. She told everyone that she didn’t know who the baby’s father was, but she knew perfectly well it was […]

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Sorting Out Billy

Martha had never progressed much beyond hating her father for being cruel to her and her mum, even though he was supposed to be a man of God. Martha was now 38 and eight months pregnant. She told everyone that she didn’t know who the baby’s father was, but she knew perfectly well it was Ugly Ted, who owned the lapdancing club.

Jo Brand is a pretty famous comedienne in UK, deadpan, lesbian-ish humour with classic one liners like “I’m anorexic, everytime I look in the mirror I think I’m fat”.

Hilarious.

Jo Brand

So when I was back in UK, I saw this book in one of the discount book shops and decided to pick it up as I love her Jo Brand’s style of humour, I guessed this book would be right up my street.

The basic premise of the story is of 3 close female friends and the trials and tribulations they go through with the men in their lives (or lack of men in some cases), the weird relationship one has with her parents, the hippy lifestyle of another (with her overly paranoid boyfriend) and the bimbo-ish nature of the 3rd with the anti-hero in the story ‘Billy’ as her boyfriend.

It’s a very easy to read book with the story flowing along nicely at a good pace, the character development is a bit iffy sometimes as it seems to be based well upon stereotypes, but I enjoyed the sarcasm and social commentary anyway!

More info on Jo Brand here and here.

You can check it out on Amazon now here:

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Deception Point – Dan Brown https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/06/29/deception-point-dan-brown/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/06/29/deception-point-dan-brown/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:16:07 +0000 Dan Brown[/url] seems to have mastered the whole suspense/thriller for the masses thing, he writes gripping books with good fast paced stories, nice plot twists and excellent character development. I’ve also read DaVinci Code (who hasn’t?) and Digital Fortress, I’m just left Angels and Demons. Catching the LRT does have it’s advantages, time to read […]

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“Deception Point” opens in Washington, DC, during a tight Presidential campaign. The incumbent, a man of strong principles, is a major NASA supporter. His opponent, who is basing his campaign on turning NASA into a private, non-governmental agency, thus saving the US taxpayer billions of dollars annually, is way up in the polls. He is also accepting enormous illegal campaign contributions from private aerospace companies who have billions to gain from the privatization of NASA. After many failures & much spending, NASA is badly in need of a success.

Dan Brown[/url] seems to have mastered the whole suspense/thriller for the masses thing, he writes gripping books with good fast paced stories, nice plot twists and excellent character development.

I’ve also read DaVinci Code (who hasn’t?) and Digital Fortress, I’m just left Angels and Demons.

Catching the LRT does have it’s advantages, time to read every day, which is nice for a change 🙂

This is, again, a very well written book, suspenseful, twisting, turning, full of political intrigue, trickery games and as in the title, deception..

As the synopsis above says, it’s mainly about NASA and 2 other main parties, the president of the United States and his people and a power hungry Senator fighting for the Presedential slot..

Both are playing games that are out of their league.

The characters are very well developed, the lead being a female similar to those in his other books, sexy and smart, Rachel Sexton this time, daughter of the senator fighting for the presidents room..By the end you feel like you know them, as you should, you feel emotion, puzzlement, betrayal and intrigue..

Dan Brown seems to have mastered the art of writing screenplay style books, flawless dialogue and action scenes which you can easily translate in your head into real live motion, this makes his books very accessible and you never find yourself struggling with obscure words or weird ‘poetic’ similies. He’s intelligent but doesn’t try and baffle you with nonsense, he researches every topic he writes about very thoroughly, if you are an expert in the field he is talking about, of course there will be differences, it’s a work of fiction after all, but for the majority it’s convincing enough.

He deals with the dark arts of religion, politics and science with a perfect balance, now that in itself is a hard feat (DaVinci Code got the religion, Digital Fortress mostly science, Deception point Politics and Science).

This is a good book no doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed it and at points I couldnt put it down, kinda dangerous when you’re driving on the highway (just kidding :P)..

If you haven’t read it, do it!

If you haven’t read it, and you know me, ask me and I’ll lend it to you.

I give it a well worth it, 8 out of 10.

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About page, DaVinci Code and John Q https://www.shaolintiger.com/2004/11/08/about-page-davinci-code-and-john-q/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2004/11/08/about-page-davinci-code-and-john-q/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2004 19:01:10 +0000 Woohoo I finally bothered to do the about page[/url]…was kinda bored last night..If you know me and think I should add anything else give me a hint. Also…I suck at bowling, I knew it before, now I know it again.. Actually at one stage I used to be quite decent, now I fear all past […]

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Woohoo I finally bothered to do the about page[/url]…was kinda bored last night..If you know me and think I should add anything else give me a hint.

Also…I suck at bowling, I knew it before, now I know it again..

Actually at one stage I used to be quite decent, now I fear all past bowling skills have evaporated.

Also I watched John Q[/url] last night, awesome…really emotionally charged film with another stunning performance from Mr Denzel Washington..I’ve been meaning to watch this film for some time actually, I heard it was good, but never actually had chance.

I also finished reading The DaVinci Code[/url]….

Really sometimes I hate books that gripping…hmm just read a couple of chapters before bed…turns into OMFG it’s 2.30am and I have to get up in 5 hours!

Honestly a rollercoaster thriller, if you haven’t read it yet, DO IT.

Seriously a good book, especially for those of you that think religion is mostly bullshit (especially those religions that follow 2000 year old values and standards which are no longer relevant in modern society and follow these values and standards that were made by humans to control other more naive humans..)

Ok this could turn into a religious rant…but I am a little short for time now…so perhaps I’ll save it for later.

Hmm anything else new? I fear not…afterall I am still in Brunei.

Praise the lord anyway, Suanie[/url] got a new desk and perhaps has re-kindled her zest for writing abstract bullshit in a way only she can.

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