The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2012 06:18 AM PDT Life Through My Eyes THIS book started out as a blog by Muhamad Hafiz Ismail to document his beginnings as an educator when he was posted to an orang asli school in a remote part of Perak. It was a daunting task, so his blog helped him to stay positive. Along the way, he came up with clever ways to get the orang asli children interested in school by making the lessons fun. In teaching the children, he also learned a few things about himself and also grew to love his profession. Beyond Human Nature IS it nature or nurture? Biology or culture? What is it that shapes our lives? This book explores that question, taking into account all aspects of our behaviour. It looks at everything from our intellects and emotions, love and sex, morality and madness. Instead of debating the traditional way, philosophy professor Jesse Prinz seeks to understand, explain and celebrate our differences. Why is there a type of mental illness in South-East Asia that is not found in the West? Why do people of the Far East perceive things differently from those in the West? Prinz shows that our diversity is not a biological matter. I Change – The Truth We Need to Face EVERYONE seeks happiness. But how many of us know how to get on the right path to discover true joy? This book wants to help its readers to "face the truth and find true happiness". It offers ways to break away from old habits of thinking to empower oneself. It advises that for real change to happen, one must first start with making changes in one's life. It provides principles that one can use in interpersonal relationships, whether at home or at work. This is Business! My Life as a Singapore Gangster II A GRITTY account of a man's life in the gangster underworld of Singapore, this book tells the true story of the author's rise as a gang leader. In this second part, he is now in charge of his gang's online gambling and money-laundering activities. But he has a plan. He wants to further expand his gang's territory, and in doing so, he is given recognition by his boss and feared by a rival gang. But in a world driven by money and power, how long will he last? Very soon he finds himself having to protect the ones he loves in a raging turf war. 365 Stories to Make You Rich ONE inspiring story for each day of the year to help you become wealthy. But this is not just wealth in monetary terms, but wealth in body, mind and spirit. How can one achieve financial success and at the same time not be stressed out by it all? This book offers six keys to unlock that secret. To begin with, one must think positive and believe that one deserves money and can get it. Also, one should seek balance and enlightenment and promote peace and prosperity for all, starting with oneself, of course. Inspire, Motivate, Lead THE author offers eight essentials of effective leadership. He gives us a lesson on how to be a true leader. To be one, we must know how to make ethical judgments whenever we are faced with real-world challenges. We must recognise all that it takes to earn respect and loyalty from our employees. There must be positive relationships, and motivation must be through passion. Open communication must also be encouraged. This practical guide to leadership provides lots of real-life stories and also workable advice from the top leaders of today. |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2012 06:18 AM PDT A girl faces an uncertain future when she is found to be genetically predisposed to depression in a society that separates the Pures from the Crazies. The Glimpse IN the future, the class system in England will be determined by one's mental health status. By 2042, science will have identified the genetic mutations for 304 mental illnesses, all dominant. What is called the Big3 – schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and depression – affects 42.9% of the English population. And while these three conditions are caused by multiple interacting genes, any child with one parent affected by any of them is a Carrier at best, but is more likely to develop some form of the illness during their lifetime. However, a DNA test has also been discovered that can determine if a person is carrying any of these genetic mutations. Those who are found not to carry them are called Pures, and are considered the elite of society – living in gated communities with the very best of facilities. They are also highly "encouraged" to only join with (i.e marry) and have children with fellow Pures, in order to preserve the purity of their genetic heritage. Those who are proven to have mental illness mutations are known as Crazies, and live in the towns and cities that contain the Pure communities. Crazies can be divided into Sleepers – similar to a Carrier as they have yet to develop the illness they supposedly carry, and Actives – those who actually have a mental illness. Seventeen-year-old Ariana Barber is not only a Pure girl, but also the daughter of Ashby Barber, the discoverer of the test that results in the Pure-versus-Crazies society. However, a simple request for her mother's death certificate triggers off an inquiry into her Pure status, as the Board of Psychiatric Testing and Evaluation discovers that her mother suffered from depression and committed suicide – a fact her father tried to cover up. Now considered a Sleeper, Ariana's only hope of staying in the Community she has grown up in is to join (i.e marry) Jasper Taurell, a Pure boy she has had a crush on since she was 11. However, Jasper, the son of the CEO of the pharmaceutical company that produces the miracle mental health drug Benzidox, is kidnapped before they can do so. Desperate, Ariana goes into the City outside her Community to try to find Jasper. There, she not only discovers a much larger conspiracy surrounding the test her father created, but also meets Cole Winter, a handsome young man involved with the mysterious Enlightenment Project. I found the scientific underpinnings of The Glimpse quite dodgy as author Claire Merle oversimplifies a complex medical area in order to form the basis of her story. I did, however, appreciate the way she envisioned how this particular future developed from our current time. Other than that, she tells a fair tale of a teen girl trying to hold on to what she's familiar with, and eventually learning that there are more things out there than her own personal issues. There is a lot of build-up to a potentially big conspiracy plot throughout the story, which unfortunately, kind of just fizzles out at the end of the book. Perhaps Merle is saving some revelations for the sequel, The Fall, expected to be out next year, although her ending hasn't exactly inspired me to look forward to it. Part of the problem is Ariana herself. Despite being set up to be some sort of role model/hero by the end of the book, she puts her own desires first, which is just selfish, especially considering what happened to her best friend Tamsin. As is typical of so many Young Adult books, there is a sort of love triangle going on in the story. But at least Merle makes Ariana's choice obvious, rather than having her moon about indecisively about which wonderful guy to choose. Overall, an alright read, interesting more for its slightly more original setting than its main characters. |
| Posted: 14 Sep 2012 06:18 AM PDT The Choke Artist – Confessions Of A Chronic Underachiever THE author David Yoo, an American Korean, claims to be a failure in life and that is the premise of this book when, in fact, he is an award-winning and published writer. That's the contradiction one has to grapple with when reading this book. He paints not too pretty a picture of being an under-achieving Asian American growing up in a mainly white neighbourhood, thwarted by his over-achieving sister at every bend of the road. Even his parents seem to give up on him, when his hopeful start as a tennis prodigy at a young age quickly dwindles into a mess of insecurity and self-sabotage. And that sets the tone of the book. He takes one step forward and five steps back. Every key point in his life is marked by failure, or at best, mediocrity, and high school was a tortuous rite of passage. With self-deprecating humour, he makes you laugh out loud quite a lot. This is an extremely funny book. The only thing is, halfway through the book, you start to ask yourself: how is this guy ever going to gain any kind of self-esteem with the blows that are dealt him? Is he never going to get a break? Well, apparently he did, when he won NYPL Best Book Teen Age Selection and Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best for his young adult novels. But reading this book, you would just be laughing at Yoo's misadventures and thinking what a loser he is. Perhaps that is what he wants to get across. That a loser like him can win. That the human spirit triumphs. But this is far from being a motivational book. On every page, Yoo talks about his inadequacies and failings. Depressed yet? Yoo is fully aware of the circumstances of his failures or almost successes – laziness. He admits so throughout the book, so much so that you would feel like slapping him. If he knew he was being lazy and not trying hard enough, why does he not do something about it? I think Yoo taps into a basic fear that everyone has: we're all just frauds waiting to be found out. In the context of the American readership, where flamboyant success and outspokenness are celebrated, Yoo speaks to the vast majority – people just like him who are coasting along the mid-line, neither outstanding nor really bad. They will read this memoir and sigh in relief that someone out there is even worse off than they are. But the clincher is, he's really not. He's a talented writer, one who has won awards. He will be receiving book royalties for the rest of his life, despite having spent his entire working life temping. The last few pages of the book show him arriving at his epiphany, that he can write. These pages show a shift in his mind-set. He has finally found something to latch on to that would not categorically make him a failure. Reading this book is like watching a good old slapstick comedy. You would laugh a lot and at the end of it, if someone asks you what the story was about, you would not be able to tell. You would just say it was funny. |
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