In April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved, it read, but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me...

That same spring Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage -- a marriage to a handsome and successful man. A marriage others emulated. A marriage in which she felt she could do nothing right and everything wrong. A marriage in which she felt afraid, controlled, inadequate, and trapped.

Ten weeks later, Janine Latus had left her marriage. She was on a business trip to the East Coast, savoring her freedom, attending a work conference, when she received a call from her sister Jane asking if she'd heard from Amy. Immediately, Janine's blood ran cold. Amy was missing.

Helicopters went up and search dogs went out. Coworkers and neighbors and family members plastered missing posters with Amy's picture across the county. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. It took nearly two years before her killer, her former boyfriend Ron Ball, was sentenced for her murder.

Amy died in silent fear and pain. Haunted by this, Janine Latus turned her journalistic eye inward. How, she wondered, did two seemingly well-adjusted, successful women end up in strings of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men? If I Am Missing or Dead is a heart-wrenching journey of discovery as Janine Latus traces the roots of her own -- and her sister's -- victimization with unflinching candor.

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I read this book in less than 12 hrs, I can't put it down !!!!!

Honestly, I don't see myself in this book but I learned a lot from it, how vulnerable we are as a woman and how loneliness sometimes made us do the unthinkable.

Great Memoirs ; goodbye Amy.

published 2008 by AKOER
url : http://kenangan-abu-abu.blogspot.com


Ini adalah cerita tentang dunia kita … dunia elu dan gue berdua! Dimana cinta selalu menjadi warna abu-abu yang membiaskan segala kenangan di bangku sekolah ESEMA. Diantara bilah-bilah kurang dari 1.100 hari, emosi, cinta, dan cemburu adalah ramuan yang selalu fatal. Membekas dan tidak pernah mau pergi. Sampai kapanpun!

Ini adalah certa tentang Freya, Moses, Gia, dan Adrian. 2 pasangan idola yang paling popular. Freya yang cerdas dan selalu mendapatkan beasiswa. Moses, sang ketua OSIS yang punya wibawa dan kharisma. Adrina cowok gagah bertipe atlit, ganteng dan digandrungi semua cewek. Serta Gia cewek terpopuler di seluruh ESEMA. Berempat mereka terbelit tali cinta yang serba kusut dan membingungkan. Tapi apapun yang terjadi, inilah masa-masa kejayaan mereka. Merengkuh asmara dalam nadi-nadi darah muda. Inilah masa-masa yang patut dikenang.

Tapi entah bagaimana Moses tiba-tiba bisa melewati kompleks perumahan ini dengan mobilnya, dan melihat Freya dan Adrian sedang berpelukan. Moses masih berdiri memandang mereka berdua, meminta penjelasan. Tangannya terkepal, air hujan membasahi kaca matanya tapi dia tetap berdiri disana, menunggu.

“Gue sayang Freya”, Adrian akhirnya mengakui. Moses membencinya karena telah mengakui segalanya, “Aku membencinya karena telah mengakui segalanya, yang berarti melukai perasaan semua. Aku benci rasa sakit ini, menusuk-nusuk hatiku dan tidak mau pergi. Menusuk hati orang lain dan menambah kebimbangan”.

“Entah sejak kapan, tapi gue sayang dia. Tadi Gia udah tau yang sebenarnya, gue salah sama kalian berdua. Maaf”.

Rahang Moses mengeras, wajahnya menegang, “kalian pacaran di belakang gue dan Gia?”

Akhirnya terbongkar juga ‘perselingkuhan’ yang selama ini coba ditutupi oleh Adrian dan Freya, yang sangat menyakitkan bagi Gia dan Moses.

Ada suatu saat dimana kita tidak bisa memilih yang terbaik. Ada suatu saat dimana kita berbuat kesalahan. dan hidup dalam kenangan penuh penyesalan. Tapi saat ini, kita tidak ingin melepaskannya lagi…

Cerita tentang empat orang sahabat yang menemukan cinta, mencoba mencari diri sendiri dan mengenal arti persahabatan yang sesungguhnya.

(Source : GoodReads)


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Baca buku ini bikin perasaan mengharu biru, seperti kembali ke jaman-nya pake abu2, inget cinta monyet, inget suasana sekolah ... buku ini BAGUS,bravo untuk sang penulis yang sukses membawaku kembali ke tahun 90-an, serasa pake abu2 lagi hari ini.. berasa awet muda (^_^)

A MUST READ book, seriously.

Patricia Volk's enchanting memoir nails both 20th-century American life and the glorious eccentricities of her relatives with the gift for vivid detail of a fiction writer. (After all, she's published one novel and two short-story collections.) "Our hallway was the color of ballpark mustard. The living room was cocoa, my mother's wall-to-wall, iceberg green," she tells us. Volk begins with her adored immediate family: charismatic father, hypercritical but loving mother ("Mom made me, and now she will make me better"), and older sister Jo Ann, best friend and occasional mortal enemy. But they're only the beginning, just as the garment-district restaurant that rules her father's life is only one of the family achievements. Great-grandfather Sussman brought pastrami to the New World. Grandfather Jake, a demolition expert, was profiled in The New Yorker. "Everybody did one thing better than anybody else. Aunt Gertie sang the works of Victor Herbert. Aunt Ruthie mamboed. Granny Ethel braked with such finesse it was impossible to tell the moment the car went from moving to a stop." Of course, perennially negative Aunt Lil embroidered a pillow with the motto "I've Never Forgotten a Rotten Thing Anyone Has Done to Me"--but maybe she was embittered by the fact that Uncle Al slept with her for 11 years then refused to marry her because she wasn't a virgin. (She sent out wedding invitations anyway, and he fell in line.) All these great stories are arranged along a casual chronological arc ("from Sussman Volk in 1888 to Cecil Volk in 1988"), but nothing is ever really finished. Her father closes Morgen's in Manhattan; her sister's husband opens a trendy food shop in Florida. "We're still feeding people," Volk asserts.

published : 2002 by Vintage
binding : Paperback
pages : 256

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The Author is brilliant, she's writing down her family journey (and herself) in a wonderful memoir. Every time she mentioned food (from liverwurst,spaetzle, sturgeon, cucumber salad to herseyettes) I do get hungry reading it (*smile*) made me wanting to have restaurant family too !!! Not to mention hidden Mattie's chocolate cake recipe inside the book, a little treasure, I will for sure give it a try.

Normally, I'm against spoiler but for this particular book I want to share my favorite part of the book with all of you :

" Family is what we first know of the world. Family IS the world, your very own living microcosm of humanity, with its heroes and victims and martyrs and failures, beauties and gamblers, hawks and lovers, cowards and fakes, dreamers and steamrollers, and the people who quietly get the job done.

Every behavior in the world is there to watch at the dinner table. You study them. You learn. You see how they change and how they stay the same. But if you think you can really know them, you're missing the point. The point isn't how well you know somebody. The point is this : In a family you don't come from nowhere. You enter the world already part of something. The myths and behaviors are allthere to model yourself on our against. You are who you came from. There is no escape, but there is transmutation.

Family is become who you will be. It's through family you learn there are no limits on ideas, nothing is strange if it seems right, and if you believe in what you do, who cares what anybody else thinks. Knowing so much about them, how open hearted can you bear to be ? You were born with the chance to love them. You might as well. They're YOURS."

(taken from Boost - page 230)

I'm totally in agreement with her, this book is all about living and enjoying live with your loved one, great book indeed.

(^_^)

Aku ingin mendaki puncak tantangan, menerjang batu granit kesulitan, menggoda mara bahaya, dan memecahkan misteri dengan sains. Aku ingin menghirup berupa-rupa pengalaman lalu terjun bebas menyelami labirin lika-liku hidup yang ujungnya tak dapat disangka. Aku mendamba kehidupan dengan kemungkinan-kemungkinan yang bereaksi satu sama lain seperti benturan molekul uranium: meletup tak terduga-duga, menyerap, mengikat, mengganda, berkembang, terurai, dan berpencar ke arah yang mengejutkan. Aku ingin ke tempat-tempat yang jauh, menjumpai beragam bahasa dan orang-orang asing. Aku ingin berkelana, menemukan arahku dengan membaca bintang gemintang. Aku ingin mengarungi padang dan gurun-gurun, ingin melepuh terbakar matahari, limbung dihantam angin, dan menciut dicengkeram dingin. Aku ingin kehidupan yang menggetarkan, penuh dengan penaklukan. Aku ingin hidup! Ingin merasakan sari pati hidup!

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I can't put the book down, I'm reading it in super slow mode so I can digest every single word. This is a great book, he is a talented writer .. LOVE the book, a lot !!! Its easier reading in my mother tongue obviously but also his way of writing the story is a job well done. I haven't read book in Indonesian back to back with great expectation like this, I'm looking forward for his 4th book launching (Maryamah Karpov), just can't wait.

A MUST read book ( do I need to say more ?)

Sang Pemimpi adalah sebuah lantunan kisah kehidupan yang memesona dan akan membuat Anda percaya akan tenaga cinta, percaya pada kekuatan mimpi dan pengorbanan, lebih dari itu, akan membuat Anda percaya kepada Tuhan. Andrea akan membawa Anda berkelana menerobos sudut-sudut pemikiran di mana Anda akan menemukan pandangan yang berbeda tentang nasib, tantangan intelektualitas, dan kegembiraan yang meluap-luap, sekaligus kesedihan yang mengharu biru.

Tampak komikal pada awalnya, selayaknya kenakalan remaja biasa, tapi kemudian tanpa Anda sadari, kisah dan karakter-karakter dalam buku ini lambat laun menguasai Anda. Karena potret-potret kecil yang menawan akan menghentakkan Anda pada rasa humor yang halus namun memiliki efek filosofis yang meresonansi. Karena arti perjuangan hidup dalam kemiskinan yang membelit dan cita-cita yang gagah berani dalam kisah dua orang tokoh utama buku ini: Arai dan Ikal akan menuntun Anda dengan semacam keanggunan dan daya tarik agar Anda dapat melihat ke dalam diri sendiri dengan penuh pengharapan, agar Anda menolak semua keputusasaan dan ketakberdayaan Anda sendiri.

“Kita tak kan pernah mendahului nasib!” teriak Arai.
“Kita akan sekolah ke Prancis, menjelajahi Eropa sampai ke Afrika! Apa pun yang terjadi!”


“Tanpa mimpi, orang seperti kita akan mati ….”
~Arai

published 2006 by Penerbit Bentang
binding Paperback
pages 292

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For me,this book is much better written than the first one (Laskar Pelangi), I like the plot better on this one (maybe I got used to his way of writing by now *winks*) but definitely enjoy reading it a lot ( wish I'm not so busy these days, I could read the 3 of them nonstop *grin*).

It is a MUST read book !!!!!

Begitu banyak hal menakjubkan yang terjadi dalam masa kecil para anggota Laskar Pelangi. Sebelas orang anak Melayu Belitong yang luar biasa ini tak menyerah walau keadaan tak bersimpati pada mereka. Tengoklah Lintang, seorang kuli kopra cilik yang genius dan dengan senang hati bersepeda 80 kilometer pulang pergi untuk memuaskan dahaganya akan ilmu—bahkan terkadang hanya untuk menyanyikan Padamu Negeri di akhir jam sekolah. Atau Mahar, seorang pesuruh tukang parut kelapa sekaligus seniman dadakan yang imajinatif, tak logis, kreatif, dan sering diremehkan sahabat-sahabatnya, namun berhasil mengangkat derajat sekolah kampung mereka dalam karnaval 17 Agustus. Dan juga sembilan orang Laskar Pelangi lain yang begitu bersemangat dalam menjalani hidup dan berjuang meraih cita-cita. Selami ironisnya kehidupan mereka, kejujuran pemikiran mereka, indahnya petualangan mereka, dan temukan diri Anda tertawa, menangis, dan tersentuh saat membaca setiap lembarnya.

Buku ini dipersembahkan buat mereka yang meyakini the magic of childhood memories, dan khususnya juga buat siapa saja yang masih meyakini adanya pintu keajaiban lain untuk mengubah dunia: pendidikan


published 2005 by PT Bentang Pustaka
binding paperback
pages 534

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Gara - gara Ariel sakit mata kita grounded selama seminggu dirumah yang ada buku - buku baru yang masih bersampul mendapat perhatian, secara tiba - tiba jadi punya banyak waktu untuk membaca di tempat tidur, nungguin Little Princess yg nonton DVD kartun :o)

Buku ini bagus banget, kudos untuk pengarangnya .. alur ceritanya penuh makna dan selalu mengagetkan, setiap chapter barunya mengemban misi yang tidak mudah ditebak, bener - bener salut pada pemaparan ceritanya.

Mendapat 4 bintang menurut saya karena saat membaca buku ini imajinasi saya sering terpotong setiap penulis menggunakan bahasa latin untuk menggambarkan flora & fauna di Belitong .. memang terjemahannya bisa dibaca pada bagian terakhir buku tapi agak mengganggu (begini nehh kalo pelajaran Biologi sering madol .. hahaha).

Buku ini kategori buku yang HARUS dibaca, kalo gak percaya silahkan intip MP pengarangnya disini sastrabelitong, fansnya buanyak banget (termasuk saya) *winks*

Next on my list 'Sang Pemimpi' masih oleh pengarang yang sama ... ketagihan Bo' !!!

(^_^)

Ada banyak kisah menarik yang dituturkan dengan gaya bahasa yang santai dan ringan oleh Trinity dalam buku ini. Lucu, sedih, mendebarkan, bahkan menyebalkan. Semua itu menjadi bumbu sedap dalam pengalamannya menjadi " Backpacker " yang melanglang buana ke berbagai tempat, baik di dalam maupun diluar negeri.

Membaca buku ini, kita akan memperoleh bermacam informasi tentang kebudayaan berbagai bangsa yang unik, tempat-tempat yang "harus" dikunjungi atau dihindari, serta tips dan trik saat travelling ke sebuah negeri. Pada akhirnya, setelah menutup buku ini, bisa jadi kita semakin mencintai negeri sendiri.

Happy Traveling!

Published 2007 by C Publishing
Pages 282

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Bukunya lumayan menghibur, secara ini kisah nyata tapi pengalamannya banyak yg lucu .. buat yg berpikir mo back-packing di Indo atau keluar negri mesti baca buku ini dulu .. banyak tips bagus untuk pemula ;o)

Start:	Feb 1, '08
End:	Feb 29, '08
Location:	Lantai 7 Pasaraya, Jakarta

Sale Up To 50%

Periplus, Gramedia, Penerbit Erlangga, Star Books, Gagas Media, Lestari Book, Darwis Triadi Photograpgy & many more.

(^_^)

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

*About Author*

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

Awards:
ALA Alex Award
Pennsylvania School Librarian Association (PSLA) "Top Ten (Or So)" Young Adult Books
Virginia Readers’ Choice Award Master List

(source : SimonSays)

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Back after the movie last night (ehem .. Rambo IV ) I couldn't sleep so I pick-up this book at 11 pm and finished reading it by 2.30 AM, yes... I couldn't put it down, the writer vividly telling her life stories made my eyes glued to 269 pages of it. Such a wonderful book, I'm not the same person after I read it ... I felt ashamed of myself, how lucky I am for my Parents raised me well, this is a true story, a real life experience and compare to hers mine was walking in the park (sort of *smile*).

A MUST read book, you will not regret it ... it is AWESOME !!!!!


PS. Thank you for the book Ani, you are the best *besos*

(^_^)

Our travelling book for Argentina & Buenos Aires are from them, its called 'Top Destinations' series. We got English edition but they also have others language,very accurate and up-dated too.

Good one !!!

It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby — and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance. So she travels to Rome, where she learns Italian from handsome, brown-eyed identical twins and gains twenty-five pounds, an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor, and Bali where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her.

About Author:
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of a short story collection, Pilgrims (a finalist for the Pen/Hemmingway Award), a novel, Stern Men and a book of non fiction, The Last American Man (nominated for the National Book Award and a New York Times Notable Book for 2002). She is a writer-at-large for American GQ where she has received two National Magazine Award nominations for feature writing. Elizabeth Gilbert lives in Philadelphia.

***

I read it with huge curiosity, considering the very last place mentioned in her book is abot Bali. Must admit that she's very witty and charming ... wish the ending plot is different hence 3 stars from me, just my own opinion obviously. My favorite part of the book is when she's in India (won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read it yet).



(^_^)

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?

As a child, Charley “Chick” Benetto was told by his father, “You can be a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both.” So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.

Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.

He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother -- who died eight years earlier -- is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened.

What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.

*About the Author*
Mitch Albom is the author of the international bestsellers The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie, as well as six other books. He also writes screenplays and stage plays. Albom serves on numerous charitable boards and has funded three charities in the Detroit area. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan.

For more information, please visit www.mitchalbom.com.

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I have high expectation over this book since I really enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People you meet in Heaven by the same author, must say that this one didn't impressed me as much as the previous 2 books. Yes, he did wrote some 'nice reminder' about how important family is and stuff but nothing WOW, hence the 2 stars from me.

(^_^)

In SCAR TISSUE Anthony Kiedis, charismatic and highly articulate front man of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recounts his remarkable life story, and the history of the band itself. Raised in the Midwest, he moved to LA aged eleven to live with his father Blackie, purveyor of pills, pot, and cocaine to the Hollywood elite. After a brief child-acting career, Kiedis dropped out of U.C.L.A. and plunged headfirst into the demimonde of the L.A. underground music scene. He formed the band with three school friends - and found his life's purpose. Crisscrossing the country, the Chili Peppers were musical innovators and influenced a whole generation of musicians.
But there’s a price to pay for both success and excess and in SCAR TISSUE, Kiedis writes candidly of the overdose death of his soul mate and band mate, Hillel Slovak, and his own ongoing struggle with an addiction to drugs.
SCAR TISSUE far transcends the typical rock biography, because Anthony Kiedis is anything but a typical rock star. It is instead a compelling story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption.

Author Information:
Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer of the rock group The Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of the most beloved bands in the world. He lives in the Los Angeles, Ca. area. Visit www.redhotchilipeppers.com for further information on the band and its history.

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Miguel lent me this book to read first (since I read faster than him *grin), I remembered vaguely bought the RedHotChilliPeppers Californication Album in 1999 cause I kinda like some of their songs (Under The Bridge & Give It Away) but it doesn't prepare me enough to read about the lead singer of the band.

He lived such a crazy, dope filled and promiscuous live that at some point I started to putting down the book, hesitating to continue on. Then I took it to Bali with me,finished reading it there but he didn't impress me at all... especially after I learned that he's been to Jakarta (hated the place apparently) and Bali (its really an over crowded cluster f*ck of traffic with some air pollution thrown in - quoted words by words from his book), these comments are a bit nasty, coming from a person that idolized by so many people out there, that probably reading his Biography, hence only 3 stars from me.

Anyway, like they say... whether its recollecting the influence of women who have been his muses, or retracing his journey that's included appearance as diverse as a performance before half a million people at Woodstock or an audience of one at the humble compound of the exiled Dalai Lama, this book is compelling reading. A story that could only have come out of Hollywood.

(^_^)

This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other with grace and humour.
Their struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control is intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.


*About Author*

Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and a professor at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, where she teaches writing,letterpress printing and fine edition book production. She shows her artwork at Printworks Gallery in Chicago. This is her first Novel.

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This book is is full with surprises, I read it with a huge question-mark in my head, totally un-predictable and pure fantasies.... all of my questions answered at the end, like a big puzzle solved.

A beautiful story about love, how we shouldn't take things for granted in life, we can't change what happened in the past and we cannot see our future, we must live in the moment.

On that note, I'm not gonna wasting my time anymore, every single second counts, better do something good and meaningful so I can remember it with a big smile in my face.

A MUST READ BOOK.

(^_^)

As a typically slender French girl, Mireille went to America as an exchange student and came back fat. That shock sent her into an adolescent tailspin, until her kindly family physician, "Dr. Miracle," came to the rescue. Reintroducing her to classic principles of French gastronomy plus time-honored secrets of the local women, he helped her restore her shape and gave her a whole new understanding of food, drink, and life. The key? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy. Following her own version of this traditional wisdom, she has ever since relished a life of indulgence without bulge, satisfying yen without yo-yo on three meals a day.

Now in simple but potent strategies and dozens of recipes you'd swear were fattening, Mireille reveals the ingredients for a lifetime of weight control–from the emergency weekend remedy of Magical Leek Soup to everyday tricks like fooling yourself into contentment and painless new physical exertions to save you from the StairMaster. Emphasizing the virtues of freshness, variety, balance, and always pleasure, Mireille shows how virtually anyone can learn to eat, drink, and move like a French woman.

*About Author*
Mireille Guiliano (Meer-ray Julie-ano) is a long-time spokesperson for Champagne Veuve Clicquot and for more than 20 years has been a senior executive at the world’s leading luxury goods company, LVMH, including as president and CEO of Clicquot, Inc., the US firm she helped found in 1984 and was its first employee.

A native of France, she grew up amidst cooks, chefs and restaurateurs in provincial France and was educated in Paris, where she studied French and English literature at the Sorbonne and languages at the Institut Supérieur d'Interprétariat et de Traduction. Mireille holds the French equivalent of a master's degree in English and German and a certification as a translator/interpreter. She also has a command of Italian and several other languages. She first arrived in America as an exchange student in Boston and came back for good early in her professional career. She currently resides in Manhattan with her husband, Edward, president and CEO of New York Institute of Technology, and makes frequent trips to their homes in Paris and Provence for business and pleasure.

******
Bought this book when I was 7 months pregnant and planning to read it when my Baby is out to the world, didn't realize that I won't have any time to sleep or eat properly let alone to read a book!!! So, when Ariel was 6 months old I started to read it slowly, trying some of her recipe (The Leek Soup is a must try, everyone !!!!). Apparently the essence of French gastronomy is to have a little of several things rather than a lot of one or two.

Must say I didn't follow her practical advice right away since I'm still breastfeeding (excuses, excuses....) but I do remember her watchword "Portion Control" especially after polishing a big sliced of chocolate cake or a tub of ice cream... hiiiiiikkkssss.

Anyway, I didn't attached the cover of the book for this review 'cause you might be wondering (like me at the beginning) how she looks like, voila.... got her picture right here ;-)

This book is highly recommended for those of you that planning to lose weight as well as for those who simply want to eat better and maintain a healthy shape.


(^_^)

One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.

Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.

*About Author*
Gabriel García Márquez was born in Colombia in 1928. His many books include The Autumn of the Patriarch; No One Writes to the Colonel; Love in the Time of Cholera; a memoir, Living to Tell the Tale; and, most recently, a novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Gabriel García Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

*****
"The first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race."
— William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review

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Read this book when I was pregnant with Ariel, my imbalance hormon made me getting involved with every character, I remember woke -up one morning dreamt about them having live conversation with me !!! Reading this fascinating tale of The Buendía Family pretty much remind me how a family tradition is playing an important rule of our lives, no matter where we come from and what we do. Kudos for GABO (his nick name), I love this book !!!!


PS. Read in Kompas this morning that Klub Sastra will has a dicussion about this book in MB Book Point, Jakarta Selatan today at 3 PM onwards.

Publisher : Atria Books
Paperback Edition, 2006.
Artwork by Dustin Weaver.

When Daniel Stone was a child, he was the only white boy in a native Eskimo village where his mother taught, and he was teased mercilessly because he was different. He fought back, the baddest of the bad kids: stealing, drinking, robbing and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush – where he honed his artistic talent, fell in love with a girl and got her pregnant. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself – jettisoning all that anger to become a docile, devoted husband and father. Fifteen years later, when we meet Daniel again, he is a comic book artist. His wife teaches Dante’s Inferno at a local college; his daughter, Trixie, is the light of his life – and a girl who only knows her father as the even-tempered, mild-mannered man he has been her whole life. Until, that is, she is date raped…and Daniel finds himself struggling, again, with a powerlessness and a rage that may not just swallow him whole, but destroy his family and his future.

More about the book :
When the hardcover of Tenth Circle was released the week of March 17, 2006, it debuted at #2 on the NY Times bestseller list, was ranked #1 on the Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists!

About the Author
Jodi Picoult, 40, is the bestselling author of fourteen novels: Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992), Harvesting the Heart (1994), Picture Perfect (1995); Mercy (1996), The Pact (1998); Keeping Faith (1999), Plain Truth (2000), Salem Falls (2001), Perfect Match (2002), Second Glance (2003), My Sister's Keeper (2004), Vanishing Acts (2005),The Tenth Circle (2006) and her newest novel, Nineteen Minutes. In 2003 she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction.

She was born and raised on Long Island… something that she believed at first was a detriment to a girl who wanted to be a writer.

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This book is about rape and murder, very sensitive issues for every parents. When I saw this book I was not sure if I'm ready to read it but afterwards Im glad that I did..... a story of a flawed family on the brink of destruction grips from start to finish, I was desperate to know how they dealt with the problem !

The other thing I like about this book is Dustin Weaver comic artwork in it... very thoughtful of the author, brilliant artwork !

Will look for her other book soon, I'm hooked !

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Sedang berjalan-jalan di metro Plaza Senayan bersama Wenni & Tiyas.

Pertanyaan bodoh :
Saya : "Bo, gue nggak ngerti deh ama Superman baru. Kenapa ya ketika dia jadi Clark Kent itu rambutnya gonjes,tapi kalo jadi Superman teh cepak. Ga' berantakan lagi kalo terbang. Edan yah!"

Tanggapan tolol pertama:
Tiyas: "Mungkin pake hairspray"
Tanggapan tolol kedua:
Wenni: "Ih kalo gue mah gak mikirin rambutnya. Yang gue gak ngerti.... Superman itu kenapa matanya pake infra red ? hari gini jamannya udah bluetooth gitu looohhh..."

*catatan redaksi : Wenni bekerja di bidang telekomunikasi.

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Percakapan diatas hanyalah salah satu bagian dari kumpulan blog Miund (ya, ini nama orang),seorang perempuan twentysomething di Jakarta. Masih banyak lagi berbagai bahasan ringan, lucu dan tajam tentang kehidupan sehari-hari dalam buku ini. Disajikan dengan idealis tanpa menggurui. Kadang tampak "termehe - mehe", naif, bingung dengan langkah yg diambil, yang akhirnya membuat tulisan pekerja kreatif ini jadi lucu,dalam,sekaligus.... gokil !!!

Cetakan I, Mei 2007

My MP friend Efi wrote about this book in her journal and recommended me to read it (thanks,jeng!), with foreword by Farhan (talkshow presenter in local TV, apparently her boss at work), this book made me laugh, endlessly... she is witty and charming, luuuv it !!!!!!

PS. For those of you that live in land far,far, away from Indonesia you can read Miund mumbles at www.miund.com

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