Books: Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

So let me tell you a little bit about my experience reading this book:

"It was like a roller coaster. It was one heck of a crazy ride. It started out quite good but that is before you meet the badass high horizontal fall, the crazy loops or the tunnels where you don't know where you'll be heading, what'll happen next or even, what is happening now. But then after all those crazy rides, the rail just stop there. And you fall. Forced to obey the rules of gravity. And while you're floating in the air, you realized that you will never know what might happen next but at the same time, you can't hope for the best either."

Nice metaphor eh, no? Anyway, this is what the story is about:

Handle With Care is a tragic and controversial modern day story about a little girl called Willow who was born with an extremely serious condition known as osteogenesis imperfect (OI) otherwise known as brittle bones. When Willow is born she already had seven fractures and broke a few more bones during delivery. In five years she has had more breaks than she or her mother Charlotte can count which has led to many hospitalisations and the need for specially adapted equipment. The cost, both in money and emotional terms, is very high for all concerned but even so her parents Charlotte and Sean love her greatly and would do anything and everything for her. This is why they are so shocked and stunned when a lawyer suggests that they could sue for wrongful birth based on the fact that the condition was not picked up during the pregnancy until it was too late to seriously consider alternatives.

At first the idea is abominable especially as it would mean standing up in court and saying that they wish that Willow had never been born which is not true. Also, it would mean bringing a lawsuit of malpractice against Charlotte’s obstetrician and best friend, Piper. They can hardly bear think about it but the prospect of a huge settlement would mean that they could meet the crippling cost of things not covered by insurance which will only rise as Willow gets older.

Okay, first thing first. I'm not a professional book reviewer. I don't talk about story lines or plot or any shit like that. I just mumbled whatever I thought about this book. And second, I don't know why I'm explaining this as I don't expect people to expect me to be a pro book reviewer. D'oh.

Back to the book. It's one heck of a good book. Why? Because it's the first book that I read that only took me one week to finish it. It's so absorbing. 

But, I don't know if it was me being emotional or stuff but I remember when I was still young (I still am but  just a teeny tiny little bit older) and I watch a sad movie and I went to bed wondering why and how and why again, questioning myself over and over again to sleep. Well, that's how I feel about this book. It kinda influence me that much I remember after I finish reading it I become a little bit (read: a lot) emotional and what-the-fuckery. It's like those book that kids read and then when they finished reading it they'll go to their mom to take comfort.

Whatever. Let me tell you how the stories goes.

1.  They're a happy family, the O'keefes - Sean, the father, Charlotte, the mother, with Amelia and Willow, their daughters. Willow is the one suffering from OI.
2. They went to trip to Disneyland. Willow fell and broke, like, her ten millionth bone.
3. The doctor treating her found like hundreds of fractures scars including the healing one and accuse the O'keefes to have been abusing their child. Charlotte forgot to bring the letter saying that her daughter has OI so She and Sean became a suspect, taken to custody and Amelia was taken away temporarily until everything is clear.
4. When everything is clear, Sean and Charlotte was released to reunite with their daughters.
5. Sean was pissed.
6. He wants to sue.
7. The lawyer said they can't sue all those people cause they're just doing their job. But they can sue for something else though - wrongful birth.
8. This is where the f**ked-up starts.
9. Charlotte went on meeting the lawyer behind her husband's back. And the person she's suing is her best friend, who's also the obstre-something-something-cian who firstly noticed that there's somthing wrong with Willow when she's still a fetus, Piper. Piper's daughter, Emma, is Amelia's best friend.
10. Charlotte sue her best friend of 8 years without even having the guts to tell her.
11. Charlotte ruins Piper's life.
12. Charlotte almost ruins Piper's marriage too.
13. Charlotte ruins Amelia's life too as now, Emma won't befriend with her anymore and the whole school was on Emma's side because it's Amelia's mother who's being a bitch and go on suing her best friend. Now, Amelia is an outcast in her school. Oh, and she's bulimic too. And she cut herself occasionally. Ah, teenagers.
14. Sean don't wanna go on with the wrongful birth suing because he don't want to sue Piper and most importantly, he don't want to tell the world that he wish his daughter was never born.
15. He went AGAINST Charlotte. Yes, he's on Piper's side.
16. Charlotte ruins her marriage with Sean.
17. The whole world is against Charlotte
18. And Willow starts to question her mom if she was really wanted and loved by her.
19. Willow saw Amelia cut herself in the bathroom.
20. Willow tries to kill herself. And she's only six.
21. Sean and Charlotte was on again.
22. Charlotte finds out about Amelia's eating disorder trough Sean who heard it from Piper who was told by Emma on how she always hear Amelia throws up at school and saw her cutting herself.
23. They want to send Emma away on rehab or camp or... something.
24. Amelia was pissed.
25. She follow the footsteps of her father and go against her mother in the case.
26. Amelia told the court that her mother loves Willow, and this make Charlotte's chance of winning the case and get the money so that Willow can get every equipment and facility she'll be needing in the future and not live in hardships, thinner.
27. Charlotte gets her wakeup call. She's not mad at Amelia because she knew that Amelia was just trying to protect her sister, Willow. Everyone does. 
28. For some reason, they won the case. Maybe the juror sympathized them or something.
29. They get 8-fucking-million dollars.
30. Poper's life is ruin. Now she worked as a nurse.
31. They live happily again as a family but they never cashed the check. Charlotte now write a cooking book, Amelia is recovering and now she's some sorta painter or something and Willow haven't had any broken bones for months.
32. Willow get drown in a freezing pond. There's a big chances that she die. Well, if you pay attention carefully, she did die.
33. What?
34. After all that, she just.... died?

Yes, if you ask me, that's kinda how the book goes.

The only other Jodi Picoult's work that I know is 'My Sister's Keeper' and that pon because I watch the movie. So did Jodie like to kill her main character? Will Jodi become my next favorite author? Well we'll see about that later.

What I like about this novel is how Jodi can elaborate the whole situations in details - what it feel like to find your real mother if you're adopted, what it feels like to be bulimic, what it feels like to have a daughter with fatal illness. I kinda respect author who only writes their novel after doing months or maybe even years of researches. It just feel so damn real. I don't know about her - if she's bulimic, or adopted - but the way she tells the story is like as if she's been trough all of that and now she's telling back the story to us.

I also love the emotion in this novel - the love, sadness, anger, confusion. I especially love when Charlotte describes how much she loves her daughter and how she's doing all this for her own sake - and that's why I can still feel for her although she had messed up a lot of other people's life, especially that of her best friend (I even hope that she'll win the lawsuit). And I also love how they bahasekan Willow as 'you' troughout the whole story, to show that she's the main point of the story and how she had affected the lifes of all the characters.

Well I can go on and on and on but that'll be too much words and my English is not that good and I've still got a report to do so I'll just stop here. Well, overall I think this novel is good. It's great. I'll say it's the second best novel I've ever read - after The Memoirs Of A Geisha.

Oh and talking about that, I'll get to that book's review later #procrastinate :p

xoxo

Just Read: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Honestly, the only reason I read this novel is because my sister love the movie.Me? I think the movie is so-so. Actually, it's kinda boring. I just watch the movie because I thought romantic movies supposed to have lotsa quotations in it. But because my sound system (not my lappy, but my ears) is a little fucked up, I can't barely listen to any words they're mumbling (subtitles, people. Subtitles!). And because the ending in the movie is not a good one (I freakin love un-happy ending), I decided to read the book.

But first lemme tell you a little bit about Mr Nicky's works here. Most of his novel has been made into movies like A Walk To Remember (you know, the one where Mandy Moore, the heroine, DIED because of leukemia), The Notebook (where the hero and heroine both DIED together while they were sleeping), The Last Song (the one where the heroine's father DIED because of cancer) and Dear John (well, I haven't finished watching this but I'm pretty sure someone will DIE in this movie). So now you understand why I'm excited to read this one right- UN-FREAKING-HAPPY ENDINGS.

So I read the novel. It's about Noah Coulhoun and Allie Nelson, how they met back after years of seperation yadda yadda yadda snooze. Maybe that's why they call'em a one-night read, because you just can't wait to go to the good part. You know like when you're watching some videos or movie and then you skip the boring part to get to the good part.

Anyway.

Then I finally reach the good part-the last chapter: Winter For Two.

I love it because it focus more on a long loving relationship between Noah and Allie, in their old age, with Allie being an Alzheimer sufferer. I admit I almost cry when I read this chapter. This is my favorite part from this chapter, Noah describing their relationship now, with Allie not remembering who he is at all:

Dusk, I realized then, is just an illusion, because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are; there cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time. How it would feel, I remember wondering, to be always together, yet forever apart.

I also love this part:

And when the nurses came in they see two people they must comfort. A woman shaking in fear from demons in her mind, and the old man who loves her more deeply than life itself, crying softly in the corner, his face in his hand.

If you watch the movie, this is the part where Allie says "It's us! The people in the story. It's us!" and she suddenly remember everything back, she remembers Noah and stuff like that. In this novel, it's more intense; the way Allie is scared that she'll forget everything again, and the way Noah soothe her. Well this part happen soon after Allie forget everything back. She, again, became a stranger, to both herself and Noah.

So tgah2 sedeyh tu I can't wait la to get trough with it already. There's only one thing that drives me madly to finish reading that book- THE UN-HAPPY ENDING.

But instead, it ends with Allie magically recovered from her disease and this:

For at that moment, the world is full of wonder as I feel her fingers reach for the buttons on my shirt and slowly, ever so slowly, she begins to undo them one by one.

 (-_____________-)

I don't feel like reading The Last Song or A Walk To Remember after that. I mean, NO DEATH!? Do you know how disappointed I am? *sigh*

Anyway, these are some few quotes that I find interesting in this book

~It's just that sometimes, our future is dictated by what we are, as opposed to what we want~ Allie's mother on her relationship with Noah.

 ~"Poets often describe love as an emotion we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense"~

 ~"For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory"~ Noah answered Allie when she asked which part of the summer he actually remembered the most.

 ~"Yes," I say "I'm here for you." And always will be, I think to myself~ Noah.

~No drowning man can know which drop of water his last breath did stop..~ Noah.

 ~Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking~ ....................... awkward.......

 ~...for with knowledge comes pain.~

 ~And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time.~

 ~But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to an ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.~

 ~With splendid dawn your face aglow, I reach for you and find my heart.~

 ~I am nothing but a passerby on a busy street, forgotten forever.~

Well that's it guys. I've just finished reading Memoirs Of A Geisha and I'll be posting it later. Bye ^^

I Mumbled: Just Bought New Books!!!

So seblom tgok movie tadi I wandered around BP Mall and went to my favorite store- Popular Bookstore. Heh. And then ternampakla dorang jual buku nih scare 'bundle'. And what make me excited the most was that buku yg diorang jual scare bundle tu trmasokla buku yg I've been looking for all this while: Mary Shelley - Frankenstein. Excited gilakkk!!!

I remembered dedulu mse kat high school sume org g rhat n ak g library bace buku (cam baek sgt tpi citer sbnarnye is that my library tu trletak depan kantin so seblom g library tu g kantin dulu untuk beli jaja untuk dseludup dlm library. Muahahahahahahahaha!!) and I remembered the first book that I read is Frankenstein. Sbab ak ade mslh ngan kad library ak (read: trhilangkan buku) so ak tableyh la pnjam buku trsebut. So tiap2 kali habes rehat ak akn ltak buku tu kt satu tmpat spesifik n smbung bace blk time rehat besoknye.. And guess what? Tiap2 kali ak dtg library rehat esoknye tuh, msti buku tu mseh ade kat situ. Huh. Nmpak sgt librarian mkn gaji bute. :p

So I've told you earlier that I bought all those books bundle-y kan, so let see what else I bought

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Never read this one. But I read the synopsis and it's kinda like Lost or something. But I'm pretty sure no smoke monster will be involved.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

This one is a sad case. I know it's a good book but thanks to Jack Black, I've already had a bad impression about it.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

I've read this one too but I don't remember it being that long. 52 chapters!! ><

Ah..... For collection's sake...

And if you're wondering why I'm writing this post in bahasa pasar, that's because I'm feeling happy right now. And when I feel happy, I don't give a fuck about what other people think about my language.

Next: Movie The Priest

Just Read: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

I've finished reading this quite a long time ago. Actually x minat pon nk buat review about this book sbab to be honest, aku x brminat sgt pon dgn buku ni. Taw x btape trseksanye ak nak habeskan buku nih? ><

Anyway, before I get to the bitchery and stuff lemme tell you, buku ni xdela baru sgt. I think it's published in 2008 or something like that la. Lets get to the synopsis first shall we?

So it's basically about Gus Simpson (it's a shortage from Gustavo). Die ni ade la ala2 Martha Stewart gitu. So die ni is a host and chef of a cooking show; ala2 Chef Wan punye yg org dah x tgok lagi skarang tuh. So tu la her main problem. People just don't watch that kind of show anymore, except for some really die-hard fans. So along the story she have to struggle with her demanding boss, her competition, ex-Miss Universe, Carmen Vega, and kerenah ank2 die yg da mningkat dewasa skarang, Aimee and Sabrina. And then there's the climax when Gus's money was being lesap by one of her trusted errr... org yg uruskan hal2 duit ni la. I can't remember his name though. And then her love conflict with her new culinary producer, Oliver yadda yadda yadda. Kinda like that la story die.

So basically I think this book is boring. Well I heard Kate's previous book, The Friday Knitting Club will be made into a movie featuring Julia Roberts as the main character. To be honest, reading this book, I also think it's a potentially will-be-made-into-movie kinda book. I can easily picture Helen Mirren or maybe Meryl Streep or even, as I said earlier, Martha Stewart playing Guz and Sofia Vergara playing Carmen Vega (but this maybe because of the similarities in their name, Sofia is a Columbian and Carmen was Spanish). I even picture Howie Mendel playing Oliver (mainly because they're both bald and gay kinda happy guy).

Oh yes, and the ending SUCKS. It's like one of those Disney movie's ending where no matter how f**ked-up your story/life is, it'll always end well. Almost magically.

The only thing that caught my interest here is Gus's two daughters - Aimee and Sabrina. Aimee was the oldest one. She's matured and stuff like that; you know, eldest child stuff but at the same time she's very vulnerable and sensitive. I especially like the part where she broke down during their group therapy session (or whatsoever you wanna call it; if you have read the book) and I love the part where she said she'd be really upset if her mom punish her by not letting her eat her vegies in alphabetical orders. How OCD!

Then there was Sabrina. I'd call her the Taylor Swift of this story. Nope she's not a virginal. innocent-looking country singer. Let me put it this way - she's a playgirl. But not in a bad kinda way, more in a good kinda way. You know, like Taylor Swift. When I read this novel I really thought she'd dump Billy and go with Troy instead. When that didn't happen, it struck me as "Hmm. Interesting." To make it more interesting, there's a chance Troy is going to hook up with Hannah, Gus reclusive neighbor.

Oh and talking about Hannah, I really love the part where she and Carmen had a little chat. Almost like a heart-to-heart chat. I kinda like it cause it's like a different side of Carmen, because she's been bitchy and stuff all this while, it's kinda interesting to see her softer side.

Enough with my opinion on it. Lets go to my favorite part: the quotes.

-"God only give us what we can handle." It's a shitty line that people tell you so you don't fall apart and make things messy. For them-

-And in her heart she could hear a drum beat: Trust will lead to hurt. Trust will lead to hurt.- Sabrina's thoughts when Troy wanted to know her more.

-"Sometimes suffering is just suffering. It doesn't make you stronger. It doesn't build character. It only hurts"-

-Never knowing enough to be scared- Carmen on her childhood dream.

 -"Part of playing childhood games is to remember the freedom and exhilaration from long ago. Before stresses and ambition eroded our sense of teamwork and loyalty."

-What she hated most of all was the knowledge, deep within her bones, that he had taken so much of her happiness away with him- Gus on her husband, Christopher's death.

 -"It's unexpected," admitted Aimee. "You swear like a sailor."- -"Well what do you expect," Carmen said. "I spent years in beauty pageant dressing room."- My favorite quote so far.

-"I have this funny thought sometimes," admitted Gus. "That the people who die young get to escape the pain while the rest of us are left picking up the pieces."-

 -"And her boobs aren't fake!" Gus shouted at the retreating duo as the elevators door began to close. She turned to Carmen. "Are they?"- Note: You have to read this part: last part of chapter 22. It's kinda cool.

 -One person made it a party, but two guests made it an occasion.-

Ok. That's all for now. I'm supposed to be watching movie now (because Thursday supposed to be movie premiere day) but something else occur so I have to cancel it. I'll be posting my commentaries and views on the novel The Notebook later. ;D