Why We Broke Up – Daniel Handler [DNF]

Handler, Daniel. 2011. Why We Broke Up. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Rating 2 bintang

(review in English, click here)

Saya berhenti di 32% dari buku ini. Dan, ya ampun, untuk sampai di 32% itu aja udah perjuangan banget.

Judulnya yang intimidating bikin saya menunda baca buku ini sejak lama. Tapi, setelah mengalami putus hubungan romantis baru-baru ini, saya merasa inilah waktu yang tepat untuk baca buku ini. Jadi bisa dibilang, harapan saya cukup tinggi sebelum mulai baca Why We Broke Up.

Buku ini berupa surat panjang (banget) yang ditulis Min untuk Ed Slaterton, mantan pacarnya. Isinya menjelaskan kenapa mereka akhirnya putus. Selain mengirimkan surat, si Min ini juga ngirim barang-barang memento mereka berdua selama ini. Ada macem-macem. Dari tutup botol pas mereka pertama kali ngobrol, tiket nonton bioskop, robekan poster, mainan mobil truk, dan barang-barang kecil lain yang semuanya dimasukkan ke satu kotak. Untuk setiap barang, Min menjelaskan cerita di balik barang itu dan semuanya diakhiri dengan “and that’s why we broke up”.

Why We Broke Up – Daniel Handler [DNF]

Handler, Daniel. 2011. Why We Broke Up. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Rating 2 stars.
(review in Indonesian, click here)

I stopped at 32% of this book. And, boy oh boy, it was a real struggle to get to 32%.

Its intimidating title kept me away for quite a long time. But, after breaking my own romantic relationship very recently, I guess there’s no better time to finally start reading this book. You can say, I held my hopes high before reading Why We Broke Up.

This book form is this (very long) letter written by Min to Ed Slaterton, her ex-boyfriend. Its content explains why they broke up in the end. Not only sends him a letter, Min also sends some goods that she acquired in the meantime of their relationship. There are many random things. From a bottle cap when they first talked, a movie ticket, a rip of a poster, a truck toy, and other small things that she fits in in a box. For each thing, Min elaborates the story behind it and she closes her stories with “and that’s why we broke up”.

Mara Dyer Trilogy (Book 1-3) – Michelle Hodkin [SPOILER, obviously]

Hodkin, Michelle. 2011, 2012, 2014. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Evolution of Mara Dyer, The Retribution of Mara Dyer. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Overall Rating 2,5 stars.

Sigh. Another stellar debut, another love to give. I decided to pick it up and read it, solely because of the amazing cover on the first book of this series, the other two are not very satisfying but I couldn’t care less after I finished the first book. I think that is the kind of cover that will always attract my attention. You know, mysterious, dark, sharp picture, and doesn’t show any particular face to be judged. Totally my type of cover, yes. Safe to say, I knew nothing about this book until I read it, I even didn’t know its genre.

I know now, I should never judge a series if I don’t read its whole series. By that, maybe I did an unfair judgment with Marked, but that is one awful book though, ugh. I love the first two book of Mara Dyer Trilogy, but after reading the final installment, my love was fading pretty fast. I’m bumped because I can’t give more than 2,5 stars for this series, believe me, I really want to love this more. But the last book crushed me, and not in a good way either. Despite the failed ending of this series (I’m getting to that later), I really like Michelle Hodkin’s writing style (she has good humor) and I still will pick up her future novels, I guess. Now, shall we talk about who Mara Dyer is?

ChinAlive - Bob Jonas

Jonas, Bob. 2013. ChinAlive. Charleston: Vagabond Librarian Publishing.

Rating 2,5 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

I received this book from GoodreadsGiveaway.

Sets in China where the 2008 Olympics is being the biggest project for its government, the adventure of Charlie Evers begins. Charlie, a 12 years old American boy, has been living in China for years with his parents and has acquired to learn the local language fluently. To complete his school assignment, Charlie needs to do a research about the Yangtze River, therefore he surfs the internet using his father’s computer. After so many clicks and links, Charlie is stranded into a pro-democracy group chatroom, it’s a secret movement and obviously illegal in China. The ever curious Charlie asks questions that eventually will have him takes major part in the history of remaking China.

ChinAlive - Bob Jonas

Jonas, Bob. 2013. ChinAlive. Charleston: Vagabond Librarian Publishing.

Rating 2,5 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Saya mendapatkan buku ini melalui Goodreads Giveaway.

Berlatarkan Cina yang akan menyelenggarakan Olympiade 2008, petualangan Charlie Evers pun dimulai. Charlie, remaja Amerika berusia 12 tahun, sudah bertahun-tahun tinggal di Cina bersama keluarganya dan sudah mengusai dengan baik bahasa setempat. Dengan maksud meneliti tentang Sungai Yangtze untuk tugas sekolahnya, Charlie berseluncur di internet menggunakan komputer ayahnya. Akhirnya, dia malah jadi terlibat di chatting room yang membahas tentang gerakan rahasia di Cina, gerakan pro-demokrasi. Charlie yang selalu ingin tahu, mengajukan pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang pada akhirnya mengakibatkan dia nantinya terlibat dalam sejarah pembentukan Cina yang baru.

We Are All Weird – Seth Godin

Godin, Seth. 2011. We Are All Weird: Saatnya Menjadi Orang Aneh. Bandung: Penerbit Kaifa.

Rating 2 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

Between normalcy and weirdness, there are mass and time period. That’s the whole point I got from We Are All Weird, and I think that’s one of the most interesting points from this book. The idea is refreshing and explained very well in the beginning of the book. Yes, the whole point is explained in the beginning. The social community where we are belong can be seen like a bell curve below,

The amount of people in the normal group (in the box) is bigger than the weirdo (outside the box). But, as time goes, the normal is getting less and less, they are stepping outside of the box and became weird eventually. There’s this time when slavery towards black people is perfectly normal, there’s this time when women with zero right to vote is normal, and further more in Indonesia there’s this time when mass people killing is considered heroic AND normal! (Have you seen The Act of Killing?) But again, the time flies, and some things considered as normal in the past is perspectively changing, and it will be very weird now if those things still exist. The point is, normalcy and weirdness are not absolute.

We Are All Weird: Saatnya Menjadi Orang Aneh – Seth Godin

Godin, Seth. 2011. We Are All Weird: Saatnya Menjadi Orang Aneh. Bandung: Penerbit Kaifa.

Rating 2 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Antara normal dan yang tidak normal hanya dibatasi oleh jumlah massa dan lajur waktu. Itu ide utama yang saya dapat dari We Are All Weird, dan saya rasa itu yang paling menarik dari buku ini. Ide ini cukup mencerahkan saya karena dijelaskan dengan baik sekali di awal buku. Ya, ide utama buku ini dijelaskan di awal buku. Komunitas sosial tempat kita berada dapat digambarkan seperti ini...

Kelompok normal mempunyai jumlah yang lebih banyak dari orang aneh dan itu ditunjukkan pada bagian tengah di gambar di atas. Namun semakin waktu berjalan, yang normal semakin terpangkas, melebar ke samping, menjadi semakin aneh. Ada masanya di mana perbudakan orang kulit hitam dianggap normal, ada masanya di mana wanita yang tidak punya hak suara dalam pemilihan umum dianggap normal, bahkan di Indonesia ada masanya membunuhi orang secara massal dianggap tindakan pahlawan DAN normal! (Sudah nonton The Act of Killing?) Namun, seiring berjalannya waktu, yang tadinya dianggap normal mengalami perubahan hingga di saat sekarang akan dianggap benar-benar aneh jika masih berlaku. Intinya, kenormalan dan keanehan itu tidak mutlak.

Taman Api – Yonathan Rahardjo

Rahardjo, Yonathan. 2011. Taman Api. Jakarta: Pustaka Alvabet.

Rating 2,5 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

Thank you, Pustaka Alvabet, for giving me this book in exchange for honest review.

We live in a world where being normal is to be attracted toward opposite sex. So, generally any human being who is attracted toward the same sex, known as gay, is considered as abnormal. ‘Normal’ is a situation that is usual compared to most others. In that case, those who are attracted to the same sex are unusual and considered as abnormal. But, what if the normal situation is the contrary from what happened now. What if being normal is when people attracted to the same sex, and those who are attracted to the opposite sex are forced to ‘repent’ and must to be attracted to the same sex. Well? Kind of nauseating, isn’t it? Perhaps that’s what gay people feel all this long. Moreover, how does it feel for those who choose the ‘rougher’ path by becoming gender benders or transsexuals? What are their stories?

Taman Api – Yonathan Rahardjo

Rahardjo, Yonathan. 2011. Taman Api. Jakarta: Pustaka Alvabet.

Rating 2,5 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Terima kasih kepada Pustaka Alvabet yang telah memberikan saya buku ini sebagai ganti ulasan yang jujur.

Orang yang mengajak kenalan lewat sms biasanya tidak saya waro (Sunda: pedulikan, memberi perhatian).

Tapi, karena beberapa hari yang lalu saya masih sedang membaca novel ini, saya jadi iseng.

Dia: Mlem.. ?

Saya: ya?

D: Blh knln nich.?

S: ini siapa?

D: Sya deni,lw situ cpa namanya..

S: kalo malem namaku bintang kejora, kalo siang jadi abdullah.

D: Ouh gitu,kalo pg,

S: kalo pagi panggil apa aja boleh. kamu waria juga? dapet nomor aku drmana? pasti dari si flora yah.

D: Astagfiruloh mit amit dech..

S: kenapa den?

D: Gk...

S: dapet nomorku drmana den? kamu mau pesen servis?

D: Sory ya gwe msh normal gk jd dech.

101 Creative Notes – Yoris Sebastian

Sebastian, Yoris. 2013. 101 Creative Notes. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Rating 2,5 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

Why I read it in the first place?

Well, it is a self-help book, so I did buy and read it in hoping to enrich myself with inspirational material. Once in a while, I like to urge myself to read non-fiction books. Actually, there was this time in my life when I kind of avoided reading fiction (what??? It’s true though). At that time, I was in a campus press in my uni, where I was demanded to know lots of facts and variety of information. And I obtained some of them in my objects of reading which were mostly non-fiction. Anyway, I was interested enough to buy 101 Creative Notes because of its simple and light writing style. I am not into a slow-pace and very-detailed self-help books. Before I read this book, I have no idea who Yoris Sebastian is. Clearly, I didn’t buy this book because of his popularity (which I was not aware of, but I guess he’s pretty popular, maybe?), I was purely interested with its theme about creativity.

101 Creative Notes – Yoris Sebastian

Sebastian, Yoris. 2013. 101 Creative Notes. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Rating 2,5 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Kenapa saya baca buku ini?

Ini kan buku yang tujuannya untuk pengembangan diri, jadi memang saya beli dan baca buku ini karena mau memperkaya diri sendiri saja dengan bahan bacaan inspiratif. Sekali-sekali saya memang suka baca buku non-fiksi. Eh, malah sebenarnya ada masa di mana saya benar-benar membatasi membaca buku fiksi. Waktu itu masih aktif di pers mahasiswa, secara enggak langsung saya dituntut untuk banyak tahu tentang fakta dan ragam informasi, yang sebagian saya dapatnya dari buku-buku non-fiksi. 101 Creative Notes ini saya pilih karena saya lihat format penulisannya yang ringan dan singkat. Karena pada dasarnya saya kurang suka juga sama buku self-help yang bertele-tele. Tapi, saya enggak tahu siapa tuh Yoris Sebastian sebelum baca buku ini. Jadi bukan karena dia (yang sepertinya orang hebat yah?) saya beli buku ini, memang cuma tertarik saja dengan tema bukunya.

Emerald City and Other Stories – Jennifer Egan

Egan, Jennifer. 2012. Emerald City and Other Stories. United Kingdom: Corsair.

Rating 2 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

 

Don't judge a book by its cover (reminding myself).

Why I read it in the first place?

Somehow, I never too fond of short story. I don’t have a valid reason why is that, and it bothered me a little (I’m annoyingly a reasonable person). And when I stumbled on this book at Periplus, I thought I’d give it a try. One, it’s on the bargain section, means I got this book much cheaper than it should.  Two, I like the cover, it’s really pretty. Three, I didn’t buy any romance book lately and I THOUGHT it is a lovey dovey romance book just like what I was looking for. Come on, from a cover like that you’ll judge like I did. But, I learn not to judge a book by its cover anymore. Such an old saying but I need to keep reminding myself that. Four, I saw this book gets high rating and great reviews in Goodreads. But from my rating, you know I kind of disagree with them. Five, its author, Jennifer Egan, is a Pulitzer Prize winner for her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. I haven’t read that (now I don’t intend to) but she seems legit, people in Goodreads (again) repeatedly praised her for her works. So, why not, right? I have FIVE excellent reasons to buy it, I must not regret and beat myself too much (sigh).

Emerald City and Other Stories – Jennifer Egan

Egan, Jennifer. 2012. Emerald City and Other Stories. United Kingdom: Corsair.

Rating 2 bintang
(review in English, click here)

 

Jangan nilai buku dari sampulnya (ngomong sama diri sendiri).

Kenapa saya baca buku ini?

Enggak tahu kenapa saya enggak terlalu suka baca cerita pendek alias cerpen. Iya, enggak tahu kenapa. Artinya saya enggak punya alasan jelas itu tuh kenapa enggak sukanya, dan hal tersebut cukup mengganggu saya (soalnya saya tipe orang menyebalkan yang selalu menuntut alasan). Makanya ketika melihat buku ini di Periplus, saya merasa ingin memberi kesempatan lagi kepada cerpen untuk memikat hati saya. Satu, buku ini ada di bagian buku-yang-murah-sekali, dan memang saya jadi bisa beli buku ini jauuuh di bawah harga aslinya. Dua, saya suka sampulnya, menurut saya sangat cantik. Tiga, belakangan saya tidak pernah beli buku-buku romantis dan saya TADINYA mengira ini buku romantis seperti yang saya sedang cari. Lagian dari sampul kayak begitu, orang pasti bakal berasumsi sama dengan saya kan? Ah, tapi saya mesti ingat-ingat lagi ke depannya supaya enggak menilai buku dari sampulnya. Empat, saya cek di Goodreads, buku ini dapat rating bagus dan ulasan-ulasan bernada memuji. Tapi, dari rating yang saya berikan, jelas saya agak berbeda pendapat dengan mereka. Lima, si penulis, Jennifer Egan, adalah pemenang penghargaan Pulitzer untuk karyanya berjudul A Visit from the Goon Squad. Belum baca itu (dan sekarang memang enggak ada niat untuk coba baca itu) tapi kelihatannya Jennifer Egan ini boleh juga. Orang-orang di Goodreads yang sudah membaca karya-karyanya (berkali-kali) memuji-muji dia. Terus, saya butuh alasan apa lagi coba? Saya punya LIMA alasan bagus untuk beli buku ini waktu itu, jadi lebih baik saya enggak usah terlalu merasa sesal sekarang....