[Book Review] Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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Title : Landline

Writer : Rainbow Rowell

Publisher : Orion

Format : Ebook, 248 pages

Publishing date : 3rd, July 2014

Language : English

Genre : Adult fiction, contemporary, marriage life

Read on July, 3rd 2014

My rating : 3.5 of 5

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.
Maybe that was always besides the point.
Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.
When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .
Is that what she’s supposed to do?
Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

“Marry me,” he kept saying.“I will,” she kept answering. “I think I can live without you,” he said, like it was something he’d spent twenty-seven hours thinking about, “but it won’t be any kind of life.” p.202

Finally...saya khatam membaca karya terbaru Rainbow Rowell yang terbit awal Juli lalu. Untuk pembaca yang belum tau, hingga saat ini Rainbow Rowell telah menerbitkan empat buku.

#1 Wishful Wednesday

Ini adalah pertama kalinya saya mengikuti meme wishful wednesday, dan keinginan saya untuk mengikuti meme ini tidak tertahankan ketika melihat penyelenggara meme ini (Books to Share berkolaborasi dengan The Black in the Books) berbaik hati membagikan giveaway voucher buku. Momen ini pas banget karena saat ini saya memang lagi ngincer salah satu buku yang sudah lama saya idam-idamkan dan ternyata baru-baru ini penerbit Bentang Pustaka telah menerjemahkannya dalam bahasa indonesia. Yap...buku tersebut adalah "The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" karangan Jonas Jonasson. Buku ini awalnya diterbitkan di Swedia dengan judul "Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann" (Nah lho,gimana bacanya?) yang secara tidak terduga menjadi fenomenal bestseller. Saya sudah mengincar buku ini sejak 2013 lalu ketika berbelanja di periplus, awalnya suka karena judulnya yang aneh dan covernya yang cantik namun niat untuk membeli terlupakan karena banyaknya buku yang belum terbaca. Hingga akhirnya beberapa minggu yang lalu saya mengetahui bahwa buku ini terlah diterjemahkan dalam bahasa indonesia.

Ini buku yang saya lihat di periplus

versi Indonesia, tak kalah mengagumkan

Well...supaya makin menambah rasa penasaran akan saya sertakan blurbnya.

Allan Karlsson hanya punya waktu satu jam sebelum pesta ulang tahunnya yang keseratus dimulai. Wali Kota akan hadir. Pers akan meliput. Seluruh penghuni Rumah Lansia juga ikut merayakannya. Namun ternyata, justru yang berulangtahunlah yang tidak berniat datang ke pesta itu.

Melompat lewat jendela kamarnya, Allan memutuskan untuk kabur. Dimulailah sebuah perjalanan luar biasa yang penuh dengan kegilaan. Siapa sangka, petualangannya itu menjadi pintu yang akan mengungkap kehidupan Allan sebelumnya. Sebuah kehidupan di mana—tanpa terduga—Allan memainkan peran kunci di balik berbagai peristiwa penting pada abad kedua puluh. Membantu menciptakan bom atom, berteman dengan Presiden Amerika dan tiran Rusia, bahkan membuat pemimpin komunis Tiongkok berutang budi padanya! Siapa, sih, Allan sebenarnya?

[Book Review] Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

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Title : Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Essays, Etc.

Writer : David Sedaris

Publisher : Little, Brown and Company

Format : Ebook, 205 pages

Publishing date : 23rd, April 2013

Language : English

Genre : Non fiction, memoir, humor

Read on July, 3rd 2014

My rating : 4 of 5

A guy walks into a bar car and...
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved. 
Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy. 
With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called "hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving" (Washington Post).

“One person doesn't eat meat, while another is lactose intolerant can't digest wheat. You have vegetarians who eat fish and others who won't touch it. Then there are vegans, macrobiotics, and a new group, flexitarians, who eat meat if not too many people are watching.” from essay titled #2 to Go pg. 145

Ketika membaca judulnya, jangan berharap kalian akan membaca buku yang bertemakan kesehatan, atau cerita tentang pengalaman si pengarang mengalami diabetes. Hha... sama sekali tidak ada hubungannya dengan hal yang saya sebutkan tadi. Tapi jika kalian sudah mengenal David Sedaris, mungkin kalian akan paham kemana buku ini akan mengarah. Well... meskipun di judulnya terselip kata Diabetes, tapi tidak ada satu pun essay yang menyinggung penyakit diabetes, ada sih tentang penyakit-penyakit gitu, tapi cuma sakit gusi sama Tumor dan itu pun hanya bagian dari lelucon Mr. Sedaris.

[Book Review] The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Title : The Lovely Bones
Writer : Alice Sebold
Publisher : Little, Brown and Company
Format : Paperback, 328 pages
Bought : Kuala Lumpur Book Fair '13 (RM 8)
Publishing date : Movie tie-in ed, October, 2009
Language : English
Genre : YA fiction,contemporary, fantasy, mystery, drama
Read on June, 22nd 2014
My rating : 3.5 of 5

The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder -- a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting, you say? Remarkably, first-time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family's need for peace and closure. The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished. Sebold creates a heaven that's calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive -- and then some. But Susie isn't ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watches her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part. To her great credit, Sebold has shaped one of the most loving and sympathetic fathers in contemporary literature.

Susie, begitu ia disapa. Usianya 14 tahun ketika ia tewas dibunuh oleh tetangganya sendiri George Harvey, seorang pria pshyco penyendiri. Meskipun telah membunuh Susie dan membuang anggota tubuhnya di tempat pembuangan, Harvey sangat profesional menutup jejaknya. Kematiannya menjadi misteri bagi keluarga, lingkungan, dan sahabat yang ia tinggalkan. Susie mungkin sudah tewas, tetapi dari surganya dengan senantiasa dia mengikuti setiap orang-orang yang dicintainya bahkan pembunuhnya. Dengan seluruh kenyamanan yang dia dapatkan di Surga-nya bukan berarti Susie menikmati tinggal di Surga itu, dalam hati terdalamnya adalah kehidupan di bumi yang ia impikan.

“Heaven is comfort, but it's still not living.” - p.

[Book Review] Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the New World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

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Title : Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the New World

Writer : Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Format : Ebook, 273 pages
Publishing date : February, 21th 2012
Language : English
Series : Stand alone
Genre : YA fiction, LGBD
Read on May, 23rd 2014
My rating : 4 of 5

A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Aristotle menginjak usianya yang ke 15. Hidupnya masih sama membosankan seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya, Ayahnya masih terjebak dalam kemelud perang Vietnam, kakak-kakaknya masih menganggap dirinya anak kecil, dan Ibunya tidak mau membicarakan tentang Kakak laki-lakinya yang dipenjara. Dalam kebosanannya Ari bertemu dengan Dante yang menjadi awal mula persahabatan mereka. Bersama Dante, Ari mulai menyingkap rahasia-rahasia kehidupan.

"Boring game, Dante. Are we interviewing each other?"

"Something like that."

"What position am I applying for?"

"Best friend."- ebook, p.80 -