Sepulchre (Languedoc Trilogy #2) - Kate Mosse

Details:
TITLE: Sepulchre
AUTHOR: Kate Mosse
GENRE: Supernatural- Fantasy-Adventure
PUBLISHER: Orion Books (2007)
ISBN: 978-0399154676
PAGES: 732


Synopsis:
Welcome to Sepulchre, the sequel in the Langeudoc Trilogy. Basically the place is still the same, most of the story happens in Carcassonne, to be exact, an estate called Domaine de la Cade located in Rennes-Les-Bains.

The style of the writing is still very much like the first book, Labyrinth. The book involves two main protagonists, Leonie Vernier from 19th century, and Meridith Martin from present. The biggest difference is, instead of the present protagonist being the reincarnation form of the past, Meredith is actually a direct descendant of the Vernier family.

In fact, one of the main reasons Miss Martin decided to travel from America to France is to find her family history (Meredith is adopted since birth). In Paris, she was intrigued when she was handed a flyer of a Tarot card reading. On it, there was a Tarot card, La Justice, and the illustration looks exactly like Meredith herself.

The reading of the Tarot is somewhat puzzling, which the reader only understood in the end of the novel. After the reading, Meredith went to the present Domaine de la Cade, now a hotel run by a family, to find some clues.

In the 19th century, Leonie and her brother went to Rennes Les Bains on behalf of the invitation of their aunt, Isolde Lascombe. It was at there they heard of these folklores on a demon, who dwells in a sepulchre near the estate and could be summoned using a deck of Tarot cards. Leonie accidentally found the sepulchre, and experienced some strange incident there.

It was not until the middle the readers found out that Isolde is actually Anatole Vernier's lover and she is forced to stay there because of a villain, Victor Constant, who won't rest until he found them and kill them.

The story flips back and forth and overall it's about how a deck of Tarot cards could use to summon a demon in a sepulchre, and the relationship between the cards and the characters (8 major cards referring to 8 characters in the novel), and the life of Leonie.

The climax of the story is on 31st October, 1897 and 2007. The Eve of All Saints. Everthing is related, as it turned out. And although some supernatural elements are involved in it, I have to say this book is slightly better than Labyrinth, in terms of the ending. Though Labyrinth's progression of storyline is much better and not so boring.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai-

-UNTITLED-

Why BAD guys always end up dying/disappearing/jailed in the end of the show? Be it in the movies/cartoons/dramas and etc etc.

BUT WHY?

Is just so unfair at the thought of it. So disturbed.

1. I admit that antagonist characters get shortcut most of the time. For example, when they wanna get into some secret HIDEOUT, poof, they just miraculously appear! GOD KNOWS HOW THEY GET IN!
   
2. While the protagonist characters need to squeeze their brain juice figuring out how to get in!

BUT that's the only advantage of being the bad guy. Your takes are lesser, hence less talking or action and the biggest drawback is NO PRETTY GIRL!

How come bad people no need pretty girl? Is it because bad guys don't deserve pretty girls? Which law states that bad guys are prohibited from having pretty girls in shows!

Even if they have, they end up getting stolen by the good guy

**updates

WHY BAD GUYS ALWAYS MISS IN SHOOTING!

Usually is one hero versus ten armed bad guys, but they still lose wtf.

Pull the trigger and kill the hero. What usually happens is that, the hero can take on ALL OF THEM and still unharm.

poor bad guys. sigh.

one day im gonna stand up for all the bad guys and let them triumph over the good people.

such despicable act, to keep letting the good guy wins.

but in reality, good guys always lose to bad guys. because bad guys are filthy rich, filthy influential and surrounded by super hot girls.

sometimes movies are just plain delusional.

Labyrinth (Languedoc Trilogy #1) - Kate Mosse

Details:
TITLE: Labyrinth
AUTHOR: Kate Mosse
GENRE: Fantasy-Adventure
PUBLISHER: Orion Books (2005)
ISBN: 0752860534
PAGES: 544

Synopsis:
Basically this book is so thick because two related stories are weaved into one. In 1209, in Carcassonne a seventeen-year-old Alais Pelletier was given a mysterious book by her father, which he claims contains within the secret of the True Grail. In 2005, Alice Tanner discovered two skeletons in a forgotten cave in the French Pyrennes. Puzzled by the labyrinth symbol carved into the rock, she began her adventure to find out what exactly happened 800 years ago in the cave.

The stories are related. Kate Mosse would put in a few chapters of stories of 13th century, then the scene will cut to the modern times. For example, at the ending of chapter 15, Alais from 1209 is going to bed. Then in chapter 16, the story will cut to Alice Tanner from 2005 waking up in the morning. Such closely knitted storyline is rather well-written, although sometimes one might get confused.

The main puzzle is, of course, the labyrinth symbol. Now this is not the labyrinth from the Greek mythology involving Deadalus and Theseus, instead this labyrinth refers to the puzzle of the true Holy Grail, which means it actually originated from 1AD.

Sorry for the long introduction. I shall now briefly talk about the plot.

Alais Pelletier is the daughter of this second in command man in Carcassone. Hence, she is sort of like a princess in her place. However, the enemy of the city would siege the city soon. Hence she is trusted with a ring and a mysterious book written in Hieroglyph and was forced to flee the city with Sajhe, her young friend and a commoner.

Little does she knows that her sister is actually the main villain, and together with Alais' own husband, they are plotting to get the book from Alais at all cost. Alais found a long time friend of her dad's, and was explained of the history of the book and the ring.

Years have passed living in the mountain hiding from her sister, finally came a night where she has to go to a cave and protect the book and the ring from her sister.

Back to the future. Alice Tanner found two skeletons in the cave. There was supposed to be a ring, however Alice failed to see it and the ring was brought by a young police officer whose mother is an ally of Audric Baillard. The identity of Audric Baillard is perhaps the key to solving the mystery of Holy Grail.

In the modern world. the villain is a group of secret society which is ran by a mother-and-son duo. They already possess two of the three books and is eager to get the final book, which whereabouts is still unknown since 1209.

In the end when the two stories converge, it became clear that what can the three books do, when combined. And how the rings played a role there.

What's exciting about this book is that the author doesn't just tell you what happens next. She told you 70% of what has happened, in a narrative way; then the story will move to the modern world, where the protagonist there discover some artifacts or ruins, and you the readers can complete imagining what happened to the other 30%.

Overall this is an OK book, the plot is fresh, the writing style is somewhat unprecedented. Just that the book is a little bit too long, over 500 pages. I heard the sequel is even longer, more than 700 pages. OMG.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai-

The Nostradamus Prophecies - Mario Reading

Details:
TITLE: THE NOSTRADAMUS PROPHECIES
AUTHOR: MARIO READING
GENRE: FANTASY-ADVENTURE
PUBLISHER: ATLANTIC BOOKS (August 2009)
ISBN: 9781848871243
PAGES: 428

Synopsis:
Nostradamus, the most famous prophet in the past, wrote 1000 prophecies (quatrains). Of these 1000, only 942 survived. What happened to the other 58? What prophecies could be so terrible that they had to be hidden from the society? No one really knows.

Nostradamus, besides accurately predicting the happening of the 2 World Wars, The 9/11 incident, Katrina Hurricane and much more, also predicted the Second Coming (of Jesus) and the Third Antichrist (who is like the biggest villain who could cause unrest in the world, the first is Napoleon, and the second is Adolf Hilter). The identity of the Third Antichrist remains unknown.

Until Sabir, a journalist whose career is on the edge, tries to revive his career by writing an article on it.

He approached a Gypsy, who sold him some clues. These clues, however, happened to be the keys to retrieving back the missing 58 quatrains. Although the book revolves around the missing 58 quadrants from his 10 centuries, it was more like a hide-and-seek game. Almost half of the book describes how Bale, the antagonist, was chasing/stalking/watching over Sabir, Yola and Alexi (both Gypsies) the trio. Sabir and his gypsies were, on the other hand, trying to avoid both Bale and Captain Claque while trying to recover the prophecies.

Based on the ending, I think Mario would write another sequel, which would revolves around Sabir's new shaman ability, and probably Yola's son. It might also involves the Second Coming and the Third Antichrist as well. Corpus Malefius/The Countess might play a bigger role in the sequel.

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai

Photography #2

Is it true that grass is always

greener on the other side?

Politics

Let's get political today!

to be more precise is Malaysia Political Affairs. your very beloved tanah air that you're currently living in.

I would say none of us would actually care about politics because it has minimal effect on our daily lives.

And to be detained without trials for up to 60 days (WITHOUT TRIAL!) so is like, you defame someone from the government, and they start taking you in as a "threat" and ISA you.

To top the list, you can be further detained for another 2 years ! now would you scream your way out for justice or stay silent to live a peaceful but injustice life?

we constantly live in petulant fear that one day, the government will topple and new power will reform and we're so afraid of changes and we stay passive.

when things stay passive, well, it gets stagnant and stale hence no improvements and only to leads more corruption.

often caught ourselves with this quizzical look when all our money has been laundered through some scam or massive corruption by political figures or the government, but there's no one out there to question the rights for us.

but as years gone by, people have come to such realization that all our hard-earned money has been lavishly used by the government without any significance changes. and the media has been fabricated with twisted facts and lies in order to keep the public from knowing the truth.

this disheartening fact, is now over! gone were those days where we stay completely oblivious to what's happening around us. why "other people" can afford to drive big cars and when we could only afford a local one.

Photography

shit now i sound so dark/emo/depressed.

fret not!! i'm just updating well for the sake of updating!

a picture a month ain't that bad right?

House Rules - Jodi Picoult

Details:
TITLE: HOUSE RULES
AUTHOR: JODI PICOULT
GENRE: REALISTIC-FICTION
PUBLISHER: ATRIA (March 2nd 2010)
ISBN: 978-4391-7751-8
PAGES: 532

Synopsis:
House Rules is one of the best books I have ever read. And trying to summarise it here is virtually impossible. Especially its ending is not what a few paragraphs here can explained. Hence you must read this book.

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS
"The night Henry left us, Jacob and I sat at the kitchen table and played a game. I made a face, and he tried to guess which emotion that went with it. I smiled, even though I was crying, and waited for Jacob to tell me I was happy" - Emma Hunt


★★★★★
-KarWai

The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1) - Rick Riordan

Details:
TITLE: THE RED PYRAMID (KANE CHRONICLES #1)
AUTHOR: RICK RIORDAN
GENRE: ADVENTURE-FICTION
PUBLISHER: Hyperion Books
ISBN:9781423113386
PAGES: 516

Synopsis:
The setting has changed from Greek mythology to Ancient Egypt mythology, and the centre myth revolves around the Osiris-overthrown-by-Set-and-Isis--revived-Osiris story.

The main characters this time, are the Kane siblings, Carter Kane 14 and Sadie Kane, 12. The siblings are not close at all, having being raised separated since their mother's death 6 years ago. However things changed when their father, who is a famous Egyptian archeologist cum Magician, caused an explosion in the British Museum and released 5 Ancient Gods, ie Set, Osiris, Horus, Isis and Nephtys.

Set imprisoned Dr Kane and the siblings were forced to run for their lives. They must stop Set's evil plan to take over the world on the 3rd Demons' Day, ie sunrise of 29th December, which is also Set's birthday. They got help from various parties, Amos Kane, Bast the Cat Goddess, Isis, Horus, Magicians like Zia and Desjardins and Iskandar and many more.

The ending closes some mysteries and things that set the readers confused, also at the same time foreshadows the adventures in the next book, that is to find Zia and reunite the House of Life and the Gods.

The adventure is comparable to Percy's, however I personally feel that Percy's adventure is more exciting. However I must say I am being biased, cause Percy has 5 books in total and The Kanes only has 1.

Nonetheless, The Red Pyramid is a nice book and I strongly recommend it to Percy fans (that's you Benjamin Button!) and other friends who are being so boring at home with nothing to do.

★★★★☆
-KarWai-

PS, I Love You - Cecelia Ahern

Details:
TITLE: PS, I LOVE YOU
AUTHOR: CECELIA AHERN
GENRE: ROMANCE-FICTION
PUBLISHER: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9780007263080
PAGES: 512

Synopsis:
The story started after Gerry's death. Gerry and Holly has been a couple since very very young age. All their lives they live together, in love. After Gerry is lost to cancer, Holly seemed to dont know how to live her life anymore.

Then it turned out that Gerry has a secret plan. He sent 10 letters to Holly. Holly can only open 1 letter a month, the last letter will end on 31st December.

One letter a time, Holly was told/forced by Gerry to pull herself together and start living and move on.

The plot is nice. In fact the plot is one of the best plots I have ever seen for the past few years. However Ahern's writing is somewhat highly elaborated. Only Holly's breakdown has used up at least 1/3 of the book. The ending, with Gerry's last moment on earth intersecting in between, would have been better if Cecelia could add in more dramas into it.

★★★☆☆
-KarWai-

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow

Details:
TITLE: THE LAST LECTURE
AUTHOR: RANDY PAUSCH & JEFFREY ZASLOW
GENRE: NON-FICTION
PUBLISHER: Hyperion
ISBN : 9781401323257
PAGES: 206

Synopsis:
Basically it talks about appreciating life and people around you. Realising your childhood dream is the main theme in this book. A good read, but the get-you-teary-eyed part is not as powerful as For One More Day

★★☆☆☆
-KarWai-

Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life - Donald Trump and Meredith McIver

Details:
TITLE: TRUMP: THINK LIKE A BILLIONAIRE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SUCCESS, REAL ESTATE, AND LIFE
AUTHOR: DONALD TRUMP AND MEREDITH MCIVER
GENRE: NON-FICTION
PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books
ISBN:9780345481405
PAGES: 288

Synopsis:
Like the title suggested, this book is about everything you need to know about, well, how to be a billionaire.
This book goes as detailed as teaching you how to pick an apartment, which I think is completely unnecessary.

Despite the book has no strong element in it, it is still a motivating book if you feel unmotivated.

★☆☆☆☆
-KarWai-