Pickles n' Tickles by JJ

This is a review of a non-fiction I did recently.  100 Simple Things You Can Do To Prevent Alzheimer's And Age-Related Memory Loss Author: Jean Carper Publisher: Little, Brown, 322 pages WHILE I was purchasing petrol at a station five years ago, a neatly dressed, well-spoken senior citizen greeted me with a cheery hello. His approach came like the morning sun. I was pleasantly taken aback by the friendly stranger and gave him my attention as he began checking directions to a nearby location. As I was half way through giving my explanation to the man who seemed rather confused about the area, a younger version of him came up and politely took him away, saying, “I’m sorry about my dad. Sometimes, he wanders off like this.” Both waved at me as they got into their car while my confused mind was busy putting the pieces together. The old uncle must be suffering from Alzheimer’s – a form of dementia that gradually gets worse, affecting memory, thinking and behaviour, I concluded. From ...

Here is a review of a book that came in my way recently.   A YOUNG woman with a potentially bright future succumbs to an arranged marriage to a man from the same clan to honour her family’s wishes only to be trapped in an abusive union. Woman turns to family for support but is shunned because she is now the husband’s property. By then, it is all too late and her fate is a sealed tragedy. Sounds like an overworked plot? But here’s the thing. It isn’t the plot in Bali Rai ’ s Killing Honour although it is the backbone to the story. What makes the British author’s new book different is that Rai has cleverly approached the common plot from a fresh angle, making it dynamically interesting. I read Killing Honour in one sitting, with minimal toilet and texting breaks. Then I went to bed only to experience parts of the scenes from the chapters being re-enacted in a series of disturbing dreams. It was pretty haunting, not in a nightmarish way but in way that pro...

EVERY person is looking at achieving something. Achievement is liberation I suppose, and yesterday I was reminded of it when I saw someone, whose appearance resembled a common migrant worker in this country, reading through some books at the MPH book sale in One Utama. It was a man, probably in his mid 30s, clad in a striped shirt, a pair of oversized brown trousers and slippers. His skin was tan, not naturally, but maybe due to outdoor activities for too long. His hands looked rough and hard, and the hair, although not unkempt, seemed like he had put some effort into keeping it in place. He stood out from the rest of them at the sale area. So I, who was lurking around the vampire literature corner, moved over to see what he was so focused on.  The book was the Secret ! Oblivious to his surrounding or to the girl who was openly staring at him by then, the man continued reading from page to page. I shouldn't have been surprised at his readin...

IT'S a common practice to look up other books of an author who's written your favourite series of books. That's how I found the Harper Connelly Mysteries (HCM) by Charlaine Harris. After completing all of Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, I moved on to Harper Connelly. Actually, I had already bought all four books under the HCM while I was on the 6th Stackhouse book! When you look at my book shelf, you'll see morbid titles reading from death  to dead and , graves. On the shelf below, you'll see more titles by Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer, and other such books. I have a thing  for paranormal mysteries, provided the characters have tangible sides I can relate to, and the books are easy to read, without being too dark. Reading the HCM has been a pleasure. There are four titles - Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave and Grave Secret . I skipped prime-time TV every evening ...

I now own a Sookie Stackhouse Book 10 - Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris! After I've finished with Book 9 earlier this year, I went to the stores every month to check on the paperback version of Book 10, but since it was and still IS considerably new in this part of the world, there were none. The hardcover copies were plenty but they're double the price. Too expensive. Anyways, months after and still no signs of paperback version, my patience was running thin, and finally I paid RM65.90 and got the 10th edition of the series of books I love so much! Every Sookie Stackhouse(SS) fan would agree that the books are addictive. They JUST are. Once you start on one, you want more of it, much like how V addicts are projected in the TV serie  True Blood , which is also based on the SS books. V refers to vamp blood and it works like the E pills. There were times when I felt a little lost in between books (while waitin...