'Re-living' Holocaust horrors

I find Berlin a very compelling city, a  city of contrasts; hundreds of years old bombed out cathedrals juxtaposed against new shopping malls, busy streets with fast cyclists ringing bells to pedestrians who would have strayed into the cyclists lane against the slow sluggish Spree  River with tourists taking a lazy boat ride and some Berliners sun-basking on the banks.

Heat-wave,melting Eis and nudity.

It is a lovely Thursday evening, a little after 1800 hours and according to European summer days, it is still very much light outside.  Actually, the sun is blazing on us, it seems there was a heat wave in this beautiful Bavarian city of Munich, or München as they call it here.

Book 4: A book and its prequel – If you deceive – Kresley Cole

The third MacCarrick Brothers book, after If You Desire. 

Book about sex, vengeance, more sex, blood, love, love, lust, forgiveness, love and a happily ever after.

Ethan MacCarrick, the Earl of Kavanagh, so handsome and reckless, until he is caught in bed with the wife of a nobleman. Though Ethan had not tupped this faithless woman (Sylvie Van Rowen) she cried rape to save herself from her husband and to settle scores with MacCarrick who had refused to bed her. The powerful nobleman ordered his thugs  to brutally beat Ethan and to scar his face.

Ethan manages to get his revenge from the Van Rowens and everything seemed to be on track, till on a fateful night, he met a girl at the masquerade, whom her maidenhood he took away.

Ethan surprised himself by falling in love with this girl, the destitute Madeline; daughter of the Van Rowens, his sworn enemies.

Through their fights, their  ‘love making’, Maddy finding out the truth about Ethan and her mother, cholera epidemic in France, which almost claimed Maddy’s life, losing her baby and meeting Fiona, Ethan’s mother, the book ends in a fairytale-like happily ever after, with their 'bairnes' all around them.

I enjoyed this book, Ethan’s Scottish ‘accent’ and his lapse into Gaelic swears and curses, Maddy’s French lilts, their kisses, their love-making, their fights, their sacrifices for each other. *sigh, I’m such a hopeless romantic*

Yeah, I recommend this one to fellow romantics. I would give this one a six out of ten.

Book 3: The first book you see in a bookstore – So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

So I did not see this book in a book store, but I stumbled upon it in my soft copies novels library.

 I do not know what drew me to it, but I found myself ‘eating’ greedily through the pages immediately after finishing my second book.

So Yesterday. A book about the latest fashion, cool hunting and chasing trends. I found it a little ‘silly’ or kinda shallow but the funny thing is, I could not put it down. Has the appeal of pink gum, it does not satisfy your hunger but you keep chewing, savoring that saccharine, chewing and swallowing, but no filling.

 The protagonist is a young ‘cool hunter’ named Hunter, son of an epidemiologist and a perfume designer. He gets paid for cool hunting with pairs of shoes and a single day in his cool hunting life, he meets Jen, an ‘innovator’ whose shoelaces catch Hunter’s eye from the on set.

 Hunter and Jen, throughout the book are set out to solve a suspected 'kidnapping mystery'. Here the book has a shadow of a thriller, the danger Hunter and Jen get into as they tried to find the missing woman.

Maybe I identified with Hunter because of his love for shoes. I love shoes and I collect and hoard them, they seem to call out to me the same way the bootleg shoes called out to Hunter and Jen forcing Jen to go through the pile of burning shoes to retrieve the untouched one.

 I would give this book a 4 out of 10, felt really tepid to the palate though I learnt one or two (or slightly more) from it. Would recommend it to primary school children, if we censor the kissing scenes (very few though).

Book 2: A book about a culture you are unfamiliar with - The Godfather - Mario Puzo

The Godfather, I really loved this one. I read the book after watching the film and understood it better.

Book 1: A book set in Europe - Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights. An intense love story. A story heavy with the theme of death. And revenge.

It took me ages to convince myself to read the book, and when I eventually decided to, I was pleasantly surprised.

The story follows the life of Heathcliff, adopted into the Earnshaw family, how he runs away as a young man to return rich and educated, to revenge on the Earnshaw and Linton families, he thought had wronged him.

The heavy theme of death and the changing of seasons marked the passing of time and the changing of lives and things at the Heights and the Grange.

There is the senior Earnshaws’ death, Catherine Earnshaw Linton’s death, Hindley Earnshaw’s death, Isabella Linton Heathcliff’s death, Edgar Linton’s death, Linton Heathcliff’s death and Heathcliff’s death.

It seems like Heathcliff’s own death restored order at the Wuthering Heights, allowing Catherine Linton, daughter of Catherine Earnshaw Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, son of Hindley Earnshaw (Catherine Earnshaw Linton’s brother) to be free and happy and enjoy what rightfully belonged to them.

Catherine Earnshaw Linton and Heathcliff, who could not be lovers when they were alive, seemed to have reunited in death, as suggested by the ghosts of the two seen by the people in the community. Towards the end of the book, there is a small boy in the moors, with a sheep and two lambs, who was crying terribly and the lambs were skittish and would not be guided. The boy said he had seen Mr Heathcliff and a woman (Catherine Earnshaw Linton).

Joseph, one of the servants at the Heights was to remain at the Heights, using the kitchen whilst the rest of the house was to be shut down, to be ‘inhabited’ by the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw Linton.

Catherine Linton Heathcliff and Hareton were to move to Thrushcross Grange, which formerly belonged to the Linton Family.

The story is told through Mr Heathcliff’s tenant at Thrushcross Grange, Mr. Lockwood as well as Ms. Ellen Dean, the housekeeper at the Grange and former servant at the Wuthering Heights when the senior Earnshaws were alive and then at the Grange when Catherine Earnshaw Linton married Edgar Linton.

The ending of the book made me both sad and happy. Heathcliff dying was a little sad, dying alone, refusing to have a church minister coming for him and not having the whole community to come mourn and bury him. I was happy that the two young lovers were now free from Heathcliff’s grip and could be happy and claim their positions as the rightful master and mistress of the house.