The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 26 May 2013 06:27 AM PDT What book jacket design trends are taking bookshelves by storm? Here is a quick look at some of them. HAVE you ever looked at the books on the shelves in a bookstore? Not individually, to pick out a book, but generally, as a collection of books? The next time you're in a store, run your eye over the shelves and you might find that some of the book covers look curiously familiar. You see, just as there are seasonal fashion trends, we've discovered that there are trends in book cover design too. A sweep through some of the bigger stores in the Klang Valley quickly showed up certain repeated looks. Some designs, we find, have been around the block a couple of times but they're still going strong. Some are particularly apt for the story behind the cover while others seem to have nothing at all to do with the contents. Some are eye-catching while others are more retiring.... Eye see you This book wants to catch your eye by staring at you with its eye. Although the one-eye book cover seems to be the most popular on the shelves now, there are some covers where the eyes come in pairs. You know, just in case the one-eyed stare isn't good enough. Remember, Big Brother is watching you, even from your bookshelf. Run on Damn the vertical layout of the book cover! But I don't want to make my font smaller, so let's just let split that one word into three lines. Get literal Reinforce through repetition. Put an image to your book title. Or put a name to the image. No one will know which came first, the text or the picture. Put an image of an umbrella on the cover and call the book Umbrella. The Help shows, well, the help. The world's strongest librarian is really, really strong. A snoozing cat says "I am a cat" and we see that Meowmorphosis is cat + transformation. Yes, we get the picture. Defining silhouettes The famous E.T. movie poster shows the lead characters on a flying bicycle, silhouetted against the moon. Want to inject that same dramatic effect into your book cover? Make Emily Dickinson more secretive, trees more melodramatic and expatriates citizens of any country. Here's where it doesn't matter if you are black or white, because this design feature will make any person or inanimate object appear black. Box it up! Working with text and images within the confines of a neat little box can yield quite lovely results. It can be orderly, bold, dramatic, fun, or all of the above. It can also be boring, like This Close. Authors, don't forget to think outside the box even when you have to be in it. Instruct and command Stop What You Are Doing And Read This! This book cover has never learned how to say please and thank you. It doesn't tell you what it offers; it simply demands that you drop everything and read it/him/her. With an exclamation point! Readers can choose between this and its more polite (or timid?) neighbour, Please Read (If At All Possible). Lovely legs If the entire body and face of the person representing the protoganist in the story is on the cover, it will give the reader a preconceived idea of what the character looks like. And not everyone wants that. They might want the freedom to conjure up their own ideas. But does sticking a pair of legs on the cover help or detract from this? Head chop Here is a fill-in-the-blanks activity for you. None of the people featured on this book covers have their heads intact. It is like a badly taken photograph where the top portion of the face is not in the frame. Even The Ideal Man is not spared – he has no eyes and is missing half his head. Perhaps the author didn't want to force her idea of the ideal man on her readers. Thoughtful of her? Back again Are you the last Caesar? Are you Elizabeth Bennet from Pride And Prejudice? Are you Bond, James Bond? In the world of book covers, they all have one thing in common. They all have their backs to the reader. Irate readers have taken to ranting online that this often happens when the protagonist is black. But it seems that this phenomenon goes beyond this – hey, even William Shakespeare and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins have turned their backs on us. Big and bold Is bigger really better? In all caps with a simple typeface and no flashy images to distract, people won't remember anything but (hopefully) the only two things that matter: the author's name and title of the book. Hopefully. |
| Posted: 26 May 2013 03:00 AM PDT Frozen In Time "... WE are poor little lambs who have lost our way / Baa, baa, baa!" In those lines from the opening sequence of the old TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep (aka, the Black Sheep Squadron), one feels all that's heroic, heartwarming, harrowing and horrific in World War II. The book I'd finished in just one night had the same effect, albeit with a few chuckles. While rummaging through old newspaper archives, former journalist, and now professor of journalism at Boston University, Mitchell Zuckoff uncovered lots of hidden gems. One of these became Lost In Shangri-La, an airplane crew's story of survival and salvation in the dense jungles of Papua New Guinea during World War II (which I reviewed in 2011: tinyurl.com/na8r5my). Now Zuckoff is back with another, similar epic: Frozen In Time. This time, he became more involved with the story he was writing, going so far as to visit plane-crash sites in freezing cold weather and giving a stranger his credit card. The things authors do to write books these days.... Greenland, according to Zuckoff, was a source of natural cryolite, used in processing the aluminium that went into American and Canadian warplanes during World War II. That, and Greenland's potential as a staging area for a blitzkrieg-style attack on Europe, led to the US setting up bases there. Greenland was a tough posting. It's cold, of course, and layers of snow hide deep gaps in the glaciers underneath. When fog or a storm rolls in and covers the horizon, the ground becomes indistinguishable from the sky. Even experienced aviators can't tell which way is up when caught in this hazardous phenomenon, known appropriately as "flying in milk". This book is about not one but three plane crashes. In 1942, the crash of a C-53 Skytrooper in Greenland sent planes in the air in a search operation. One of those planes, a B-17 bomber, crashed while searching for the C-53. Much of the story revolves around the crew of this B-17. Unlike Zuckoff's other war tale, some of the people involved perished. One of the rescue planes that didn't make it home was a Grumman J2F-4 piloted by Coast Guard members Lieutenant John Pritchard Jr and Radioman First Class Benjamin Bottoms. The plane, also known as the "Duck", crashed while carrying a crew member of the crashed B-17. Zuckoff not only unearthed the story of the three planes and their crew, he also learned about the people who were trying to bring the Duck and its crew and passenger home. To write a complete account of the three plane crashes, the author joined the 2012 quest to find the Duck. As I see it, the "Duck Hunt", as the search was called, was primarily driven by two figures. Zuckoff is wary of photographer and explorer Lou Sapienza whose "default posture" reminds the author of a certain windmill-tilter, especially after Sapienza gets him to pay for a shared taxi. And "Don Quixote" wanted Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame) to write this story. The other guy, retired Coast Guard captain Tom King collects Coast Guard relics to preserve them and keep them away from profiteering wreck-hunters. As Grumman Ducks were rare WW2 planes, the Greenland Grumman may be worth several million. Tom King has another, more personal reason: "I don't want to see John Pritchard's wallet being sold on eBay." Those who read Lost In Shangri-La can expect a similar kind of narrative from Zuckoff here, except with even more testosterone. Imagine the Band Of Brothers set in an icy landscape and made by National Geographic. There's plenty of drama to keep the pages turning, and heaps of background information to slow things down, too. Zuckoff has done his homework, as attested to by over 20 pages of source references. As we follow the travails of the B-17 crew and their rescuers amidst dangers that lurk in the white, we are taken back to each major character's beginnings in relatively fairer climes and times and told how they got to Greenland and, later, learn of their ultimate fates. Back in the present, we see how the search is hampered by inaccurate maps, a lack of thorough planning, expertise and funding, a clash of personalities, and the harsh Greenland winter. Zuckoff helps out by giving Sapienza cash and, later, his credit card number. "In no time, Lou (Sapienza) blows past the limit I set." The author's sacrifices provide much of the humour in the latter-day part of this saga, for which I was grateful. Too many names to mention this time around, as we go from the crash victims' makeshift weather-beaten shelters against the cold to the meeting rooms where creases in the Duck Hunt are being ironed out and, finally, what may be the Duck's final resting place. Throughout his potentially quixotic mission to bring us the tales of these brave men – in the past and present – Zuckoff is at times asked, "How does the book end?" Not in the way you would think. History buffs, however, will thank him for getting this story out of the ice. |
| Posted: 26 May 2013 03:01 AM PDT This compelling tale paints a picture of a China bent on desecrating and sterilising both its earth and its people. The Dark Road MA Jian is a bestselling Chinese writer based in London whose earlier books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. The Dark Road is his sixth novel. Although he is a fervent proponent of freedom of speech and a vocal critic of China's authoritarian regime, it is clear from his writing that he loves his native China deeply, despite the fact he has been denied the right to enter the country since 2011 and that China has banned every single one of his books. In a way, this is understandable. After reading even the first page of Ma's latest book it immediately becomes apparent that it will also be banned in China. Like all his previous work, The Dark Road is politically engaged and exposes the disconcerting reality of modern China. The modern China it depicts is a cruel and harsh place, profoundly damaged on every level imaginable. Ma's touching story of a family forced to flee their home to save their unborn child is an exploration and indictment of China's one-child policy. While researching The Dark Road, Ma posed as a journalist and witnessed some of the horrifying scenes he describes in such unflinching detail. He also spent time living among family planning fugitives, and this experience gives a ring of authenticity to the story. It is a thoughtful and sensitive book, the characters are well developed and sympathetic, but Ma certainly doesn't pull his punches or spare the reader any details of the banal routine of forced abortions, sterilisation, and police brutality – all set against a background of poverty, squalor, corruption and environmental destruction. Kongsi is a village school teacher who traces his lineage back to Confucius. His wife, Meili, has already had one child (their daughter Naanan) but now, against government regulations, she is pregnant again and guilty of carrying an illegal foetus. The villagers revolt against forced abortions and sterilisations done by the Family Planning Committee and the army are called in to quell the unrest. Kongsi and his family flee their home, mirroring his ancient ancestor's forced exile, and the family join the ranks of the countless family planning fugitives who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Kongsi hopes the unborn child will be a boy who will carry the family name. Mei Li wants this child to be her last, even if it is a girl. A friend has told her of a place called "Heaven" in Guandong province where there is plenty of work available sorting electronic waste, and where the air is so polluted that men become impotent. Mei Li's plan is to travel there with her family and thus avoid any future pregnancy. At first it seems that Kongsi might be the hero of this book, but in fact it turns out to be his wife who assumes that role. Through her character, Ma reveals the role of women in Chinese society and the limitations and restrictions imposed on them. Kongsi finds work as part of a demolition crew destroying ancient homes to make way for the flooding of the Three Gorges Dam, while his family make their home on a boat in the river. The themes of destruction of the old and the killing of the unborn run throughout this often harrowing book and Ma depicts a country that is systematically destroying both its past and its future, desecrating and sterilising both its earth and its people. At times, it seems Kongsi sees his wife as little more than a receptacle to produce a son who will carry on his family name. When he isn't off watching porn movies with his co-workers he uses his filial duty to produce a male heir as an excuse to force himself upon his wife on every possible occasion. Kongsi's fall from grace as a respected school teacher to a drunken, sex-obsessed fugitive (though still capable of reciting Li Bai or Confucius) is an analogy of China's moral decline. This book leaves you feeling raw and somewhat soiled by the dreadful knowledge it contains. The title, The Dark Road, definitely delivers on what it promises – a bleak journey through modern China. While it is an excellent and compelling story and Flora Drew's translation makes for a fluid read, it is most decidedly not recommended for expectant mothers or those of a nervous or sensitive disposition. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan