[Review] Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy

Title: Nights of Rain and Stars

Author: Maeve Binchy

Publisher: Orion Books

Published: 2005

ISBN: 9780752865362

Bought at TBD ($6.93)

Synopsis : “Fiona is trying to make her family understand her need to follow her own path. Thomas desperately misses his son and fears that his ex-wife will come between them. Elsa abandoned her career, but someone from her past refuses to let her go. And shy, quiet David is determined to make a stand against his overbearing father. Nights of Rain and Stars is the story of one summer and four people, each with a life in turmoil. With the help of Vonni, an Irish woman who lives in the village, they find solutions – though not necessarily the ones they anticipated”

Nights of Rain and Stars bukanlah tipe buku yang bisa membawa pembaca seperti menaiki roller coster, tidak ada plot yang meletup-letup atau kisah romantis yang membuat penyuka romance terbuai. Buku ini berjalan dengan tempo agak lambat karena mengambil latar tempat yang punya ritme hidup cukup lambat. Maeve Binchy menceritakan kisah orang-orang yang break sejenak dari rutinitas, menepi sebentar dari kehidupan orang-orang yang dicintainya dengan alasan ingin memberi mereka ruang, orang-orang yang terkadang dibutakan oleh cinta. Orang-orang ini meninggalkan sesuatu dibelakang mereka dan menepi ke Aghia Anna, sebuah desa kecil di Yunani. Di sebuah restoran kecil di atas bukit, dimana pemandangan laut Yunani bisa dinikmati sambil menyantap makanan ala Yunani, empat orang turis duduk bersama dan mulai saling mengenal. Sebuah peristiwa menyedihkan mengumpulkan mereka disana dan mendorong mereka saling berbagi beban hidup. Mereka datang dari belahan dunia yang berbeda, tetapi memiliki sebuah kesamaan. Ada sesuatu yang menghalangi pandangan mereka dalam menentukan langkah kedepan sehingga mereka tidak bisa membuat keputusan. Sayangnya, orang lain disekitar mereka justru dapat melihat masalah mereka dengan lebih jelas ketimbang diri mereka sendiri. Maeve Binchy menggunakan sudut pandang orang ketiga, sehingga pembaca bisa mengetahui pikiran dan perasaan setiap tokoh secara detail.

[Review] The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

Title: The First Phone Call from Heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher: Sphere

Published: June 2013

Pages: 312p

ISBN: 978-1-84744-226-0

Bought at Asia Books (525 Baht)

Does heaven really exist? Some people keep asking some question like that. Why they so curious about something like that? Exist or not, does it really matters? Maybe people desperately want to believe something, something beyond us.

“If you believe it, you don’t need prove” – page 280

This book begins with so many stories about different people lived in Coldwater, Michigan. It is a small city, so everybody knows each other. There is a military-pilot named Sully Harding who hadn’t expected the assignment to fly an airplane, so he got an alcohol a night before. The rule is you shouldn’t have an alcohol 12 hours before your duty. At the time he was about to land, he received incorrect instruction from ground control resulting a collision. Too bad, he’s wife that rushed to see what happened to him has a car crash of her own, hit by the ground control officer that on the way to escape from his mistake. Sully’s wife got totally injured, Sully pled guilty and sentence to prison because his blood report contained an alcohol and there is no flight recording that can prove his innocent. He’s wife died when he was in prison. After 10 months imprisoned, Sully changed into heartbroken, skeptical, atheist, and hopeless man, he tortures himself everyday with the same sentence “he wasn’t there” when his wife passed away.

[Review] The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova & Giveaway

Title: The Historian

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Publisher: Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Published: January 2007

Pages: 768p

ISBN: 978-979-22-2389-7

Review ini seharusnya menjadi penutup dalam rangkaian Read along the Historian yang dimulai sejak awal Januari sampai akhir February, sayang sekali ada beberapa hal yang membuat aku tidak bisa catch up dengan jadwal yang telah kutentukan sendiri. I feel bad for it, so please forgive me. Ada beberapa orang yang ikut mendaftar dalam event ini, dan aku sangat menghargai semua yang telah berpartisipasi dalam event ini, sekali lagi please forgive me for being a bad host for this read along. Meskipun terlambat, aku tetap ingin menuliskan pendapatku tentang buku ini.

[Review] The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova | PART 1

Setelah membaca bagian pertama dari buku ini dan berniat menuliskan kembali apa yang kuingat sepanjang membaca, aku sulit menemukan nama narator yang menceritakan kisah dalam buku ini. Elizabeth Kostova menuturkan kisah ini langsung dari sudut pandangnya sebagai penulis sekaligus narrator,  hanya saja ia mengambil bentuk seorang gadis berusia 16 tahun yang hidup bersama ayahnya, Paul, seorang Professor sejarah yang telah meninggalkan aktivitas akademisinya di Amerika dan melanjutkan hidup sebagai pengelola yayasan di Amsterdam.

Kisah ini bermula ketika narrator menemukan sebuah buku yang hampir seluruh halamannya kosong dengan gambar naga dan tulisan Drakulya di bagian tengah buku, serta setumpuk surat, di rak buku, di rumahnya sendiri. Buku itu ternyata memuat kisah yang melibatkan ayahnya dan seorang Professor lain bernama Bartholomew Rossi yang menjadi mentor Paul semasa ia mengambil program master. Rupanya kisah dibalik buku tua bergambar naga dan surat-surat itu menghantui Paul puluhan tahun bahkan ketika ia telah memiliki seorang anak gadis. Pembaca akan melihat kisah ini dituturkan oleh narrator yang menceritakan kembali apa yang akan diceritakan ayahnya setelah penemuan buku bergambar naga tersebut. 

2014 TBR Pile Challenge

Last year, I failed to read all books that I submitted to TBR Pile Challenge 2013, and I felt so sad about it, that's why I join this year again to make things better, I will try my best and I will do it better definitely, thanks to Adam for continue to host this challenge 2014.
 

TBR Pile Challenge always makes me excited because as a reader and someone who always buy books more than my own ability to read all those books, this challenge makes me look back to the pile of books that have been on the shelves for years. Sometimes I surprise myself like "Oww..I have this book and that one and the other one", you see I often forget couple of books on my own shelve, so this is the time to find them again.

And for 2014, here are list of 12 books that I plan to read during 2014 along with the 2 alternate books,

1. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova (Indonesian translation)
2. Great Expectation - Charles Dickens
3. Kim  - Rudyard Kipling (Indonesian translation)
4. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck (Indonesia translation)
5. Germinal - Emile Zola
6. The Hunch Back of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (Indonesia translation)
7. Pompeii - Robert Harris (Indonesian translation)
8. Rahasia Meede - E.S Ito (Indonesian author)
9. Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling (Indonesian translation)
10. The Kite Runner - Khalled Hosseini (Indonesian translation)
11. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (Indonesian translation)
12. Madam Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (Indonesian translation)

Alternates:

1. The Panderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall (Indonesian translation)
2. Gulliver's Travel - Jonathan Swift

If you care to join this challenge, you always can find the details master post at Roof Beam Reader.

Read Along "The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova" [Jan - Feb 2014]

Button courtesy of Yuska Vonita

Periode Read Along : 1 January 2014 - 28 February 2014

Setelah berada lama ditimbunan para pencinta buku, saatnya buku bantal ini dibaca rame-rame. Baca buku bantal itu memang lebih asik kalau bareng-bareng, ada teman diskusi, tanya ini dan itu yang membuat proses baca tidak terasa panjang dan berat. Setelah perbincangan dengan beberapa teman di group whazzap, jadilah aku pun berinisiatif untuk menjadi host read along buku ini. 

Berikut aturan mengikuti Read Along ini:

1. Silahkan SIGN-UP dengan mengisi Mr. linky dibawah postingan ini. Linky SIGN-UP dibuka sampai selesai periode Read Along, jadi kamu bisa join kapan saja selama bisa ikutan.
2. Jangan lupa mencantumkan button Read Along The Historian pada blogmu.
3. Read Along ini dibagi menjadi 3 bagian sesuai dengan isi buku, dengan pembagian jadwal baca dan posting sebagai berikut:
• Bagian pertama (hal 1-216)* : 1 January 2014 - 17 January 2014, posting review ditunggu sampai dengan 24 January 2014
• Bagian kedua (hal 217-494)* : 18 January 2014 - 4 February 2014, posting review ditunggu sampai dengan 14 February 2014
• Bagian ketiga (hal 495-768)* : 5 February 2014 - 21 February 2014, posting review ditunggu sampai dengan 25 February 2014
• Posting Final Review paling lambat tanggal 28 February 2014
4. Apakah harus posting sesuai jadwal per bagian? Tidak harus, namun linky untuk masing-masing bagian ditutup sesuai dengan batas akhir yang telah ditentukan. Jika kamu mendaftarkan link review kamu sesuai jadwal di Mr. Linky masing-masing (dibawah postingan ini), kamu mendapat nilai masing-masing 1 poin untuk setiap bagian. 
5. Kalau cuma ikutan posting final review gimana? Boleh saja, jika hanya mendaftarkan link final review, kamu terhitung mendapatkan 1 poin saja. Trus kalo posting review per bagian melebihi jadwal yang ditentukan gimana dong? Silahkan saja, tetapi mohon maaf Mr. Linky sudah ditutup dan itu berarti postinganmu tidak terhitung mendapatkan poin.
6. Trus poin itu gunanya untuk apa? Jika kamu mengikuti jadwal posting seperti pada urutan 3, maka diakhir periode kamu mendapatkan 4 poin (jika link review didaftarkan ke Mr. Linky ya). Dengan memiliki 4 poin berarti kamu punya 4 peluang untuk memenangkan pengundian Giveaway diakhir periode Read Along ini.
7. Setelah Final Review (28 February 2014), aku akan mengundi 2 orang yang beruntung memenangkan paket buku senilai masing-masing Rp. 100.000 (ongkir aku yang tanggung)

Jika ada pertanyaan, silahkan mengisi kolom komentar ya.

*) pembagian halaman mengikuti versi The Historian terjemahan Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Sudah siap? Ayo kita mulai perburuan Dracula bersama Elizabeth Kostova dan jangan lupa keep contact ya...asiknya baca bareng itu kan karena bisa sambil diskusi
Happy Reading

SIGN-UP

BAGIAN PERTAMA

BAGIAN KEDUA

BAGIAN KETIGA

FINAL REVIEW

Lucky No 14 Reading Challenge

We almost arrive to 2014 so it's time to make a plan for anything including reading plan. I always join reading challenge every year, so when i read about this one in Astrid Lim blog, i decided to jump into it. If you want more details information about this reading challenge, then you can find it here. 

Here are the 14 categories:

1. Visit the Country : Read a book that has setting in a country that you really want to visit in real life. Make sure the setting has a big role in the book and it can make you know a little bit more about your dream destination. --> Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy because the number one place that i always want to visit is Greek 
2. Cover Lust : Pick a book from your shelf that you bought because you fell in love with the cover. Is the content as good as the cover? --> Neverending Story by Michael Ende
3. Blame it on Blogger : Read a book because you’ve read the sparkling reviews from other bloggers. Don’t forget to mention the blogger’s names too! --> Fanda makes me wanna read this one badly --> Germinal by Emile Zola
4. Bargain All the Way : Ever buying a book because it’s so cheap you don’t really care about the content? Now it’s time to open the book and find out whether it’s really worth your cents. --> I found this one just $1 at Brash Basah Singapore --> Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
5. (Not So) Fresh from the Oven : Do you remember you bought/got a new released book last year but never had a chance to read it? Dig it from your pile and bring back the 2013 --> And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
6. First Letter's Rule : Read a book which title begins with the same letter as your name (for me, Astrid means A, and I can read anything that started with the letter A). Remember: Articles like “a”, “an” or “the” doesn’t count --> Anne of the Green Gables by Louisa May Alcott
7. Once Upon a Time : Choose a book that’s been published for the first time before you were born (not necessarily has to be a classic book, just something a little bit older than you is okay. You can read the most recent edition if you want to) --> The Hunch Back of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
8. Chunky Brick : Take a deep breath, and read a book that has more than 500 pages. Yep, the one that you’ve always been afraid of! --> The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
9. Favorite Author : You like their books, but there are too many titles. This is your chance, choose a book that’s been written by your fave author but you haven’t got time to read it before --> The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom
10. It's Been There Forever : Pick up a book that has been there on your shelf for more than a year, clean up the dust and start to read it now --> Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
11. Movies Vs Books : You’ve seen the movie adaptation (or planned to see it soon) but never had time to read the book. It’s time to read it now, so you can compare the book vs the movie --> The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
12. Freebies Time : What’s the LAST free book you’ve got? Whether it’s from giveaway, a birthday gift or a surprise from someone special, don’t hold back any longer. Open the book and start reading it now --> To be define
13. Not My Cup of Tea : Reach out to a genre that you’ve never tried (or probably just disliked) before. Whether it’s a romance, horror or non fiction, maybe you will find a hidden gem! --> Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
14. Walking Down the Memory Lane : Ever had a book that you loved so much as a kid? Or a book that you wish you could read when you were just a child? Grab it now and prepare for a wonderful journey to the past Comic books or graphic novels are allowed! --> Matilda by Roald Dahl

Wanna Join this Challenge, visit Astrid Blog to see the rule