Questions like ‘How would you get rid of a murder weapon without causing suspicion?’ and ‘What if you found out the tattoo on your back was worth over a million pounds?’ on the back cover of Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl could make the reader hungry for more dark tales with unexpected endings.

This book has a collection of 11 short stories, each with its own eccentricity and uniqueness. I particularly enjoyed reading some of them like Skin, Lamb to the Slaughter, Galloping Foxley and My Lady Love, My Dove. The others were all right but some of them had endings which I wasn’t satisfied with.

In Skin, a miserable old man called Drioli came across a painting in a picture gallery and was shocked to know that a boy he used to know had become a very famous painter. Drioli had requested that the boy paint a picture of a woman, Josie, on his back. Now that painting is worth a lot of money and Drioli made the mistake of announcing it to the visitors of the gallery. A few men have made generous offers for him but can they be trusted?

As for Lamb to the Slaughter, it is my favourite story! The ending was totally brilliant and unpredictable. Well, that was how it’s like for me. Who would have thought that Mary Maloney was such a smart, cunning woman? Out of the blue, her husband told her that he’d be leaving her, for what reason, we don’t really know. Mary was in a daze and went downstairs to the cellar to get a leg of lamb, presumably to make supper. Instead of putting the lamb into the oven first, she decided to whack her husband on the head with it. He fell down, dead.

In Galloping Foxley, William Perkins recalls his school days where he had to be a slave to a senior student named Bruce Foxley aka Galloping Foxley. Perkins usually encountered nothing unusual and met the same people while on his way to work. The arrival of a newbie at the train station had disrupted Perkins normal routine. He then thinks that he sort of knows the new guy and suspects him to be a former bully.

Stories such as An African Story and Beware of the Dog have military elements in them which reflect Dahl’s background in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

He also wrote a number of other short stories and you can view the list here. I also have The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of Dahl’s surprising tales!

The title itself is captivating and I can definitely say the same about the stories compiled in the book. There are 17 stories altogether and 16 of them have been published 65 times in 10 countries. Incredible, isn’t it?

Malaysia is a multiracial country where the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, Punjabis, Kadazans, Ibans and other races live together in harmony and tolerance. Each group has their own customs and traditions and it’s fascinating to learn about them in addition to learning about ourselves.

I’m impressed with how Raymer managed to write so well about the real essence of being a Malaysian. He certainly knows and understands the various races in the country along with their customs and beliefs. Well, he has lived in Penang for over 20 years and also married a local woman. So he had time to get to know the country. Some of the stories are based on his previous experiences here.

My favourite story is The Future Barrister where a young Indian man who looks like Clark Gable gets drunk in a local bar and starts telling shocking things to a new American friend. The ending of that story made my jaw drop literally. Haha!

The story Smooth Stones also had an ironic and yet predictable ending. A Malay woman buys three “magical” stones from a stranger who claimed that the stones had healing powers. Thinking that the stones could heal her dying husband, the woman paid a large sum of money for them, which looked like they were picked up from the nearby river.

Meanwhile, in The Watcher, a grumpy great-grandfather waits for his great-grandchildren to arrive for Chinese New Year. Sitting on an old wooden bench, he recalls the Japanese invasion into the country while watching the neighbourhood children play with firecrackers. He’ll also occasionally shout out warnings to the children.

In Lovers and Strangers, a writer meets a young woman who looks and talks the same as his former lover who committed suicide. I was waiting for something creepy to happen but then the entire story spells out CREEPY!

I enjoyed reading all the stories in the book. I enjoyed reading about typical Malaysians and our habits that we overlook every day. Raymer must have spent a lot of time writing, editing, and re-writing them. I know because it’s not easy to produce a good short story that wouldn’t let the reader get bored.

This book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in getting to know Malaysians and also Thailand (Transactions in Thai is set there). If you also need great short story samples, then Lovers and Strangers Revisited is certainly one of the best ones.

After battling with some desert raiders, Alanna and Coram meet Halef Seif, the headman of the Bloody Hawk tribe who are of the Bazhir clan. They all then return to the Bloody Hawk village where they were eventually adopted by the tribe.

But not everyone was welcoming or accepting Alanna as she walks around wearing men’s clothes and her face unveiled unlike good Bazhir women. The one who is openly hostile towards her is the shaman, Akhnan Ibn Nazzir who believes that she was sent by the devil to corrupt them all. In a later event, both of them fight where Alanna triumphs over the unfortunate Akhnan. As a result, Alanna is expected to become the next shaman for the Bloody Hawk tribe.

Besides having to worry about her duties as the new shaman, Alanna is also bothered with the evil magic in a crystal sword that she’s using and also having to train her three young apprentices to be the next shamans of the tribe. Kara and Kourrem are obedient students while Ishak, the hot-headed one who also shows extreme interest in Alanna’s crystal sword.

Let’s also not forget that Alanna is somewhat caught in a love triangle with Jonathan of Conte and George, the King of Thieves. Jon plans to make Alanna his wife while George has promised to wait for her no matter what. Jon will always be Number One in Alanna’s heart but she’s not ready to walk down the aisle.

This book was alright where we meet new characters from different cultures and customs. You can expect a lot of events happening but don’t worry, you won’t get lost in the plot. Pierce has cleverly written out the story so readers don’t confuse themselves.

So who are you voting for to end up with Alanna? Jon or George? I know that some of you know how the story ends but don’t let it out, okay? If you ask me, I’m all for George. Jon just didn’t impress me much I guess.

Can’t wait to get started on the final book, Lioness Rampant!

Buy The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (The Song of the Lioness)

The story starts with Anna in class, learning about the play, Macbeth, when a new boy enters the classroom. He’s not dressed in the school’s uniform, has a shaven head and looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than there. Anna is the only person to introduce herself to him after class.

Anna doesn’t really belong to a particular group or clique in school. So when a girl from her class, Karen, invites her out for the night, she was quite happy to go. Finally, some plans with friends! She found out later that Karen was only using her as a substitute friend. She then left the club and went home, feeling that there wouldn’t ever be anyone who would genuinely want to be friends with her. That’s how she was mugged on her way home. By the new boy.

His name is Craig Ritchie but Anna calls him Ritchie. Instead of reporting him to the police, she kind of bonded with him. He told her stories of his life, his perspective of the modern world and she was utterly fascinated by them. Perhaps this boy was her gateway to a much more exciting and fulfilling life.

Ritchie and his pals are thieves. They steal stuff from other people because they feel that they deserve to do that. They are like the outcasts in society: one has been bullied, Ritchie has been ridiculed in school, abandoned by his father who left his mother, etc. So they think that robbing from rich people is like taking back what should be theirs.

And suddenly Anna pitches plans and ideas to Ritchie about how both of them can steal something from a store and later give away their ‘earnings’ to somebody who needs them. They’d steal from stores that have branches and franchises all over the world. Since these big companies are already making millions, a few lost pounds wouldn’t hurt them. Anna saw themselves as Robin Hoods. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

I am familiar with the saying ‘Crime doesn’t pay’ and I’m sure most of you have heard of that too. Well, I was wondering how these two kids will end up in the end. It is interesting to read how they tried to steal from a bookshop without getting caught. But I was skeptical. Wouldn’t they be caught on the CCTV? I doubt that the shops would leave any area unguarded especially if it’s some huge store like Borders or something.

This book does make us reflect on issues like exploitation and consumerism. You should read the part where they talk about shoes and the Third World. Who made them? How much were their wages? How much are we paying for the shoes?

All right, I thought Anna really went through an extreme transformation. Since she met Ritchie, she’s become braver and in a way, happier. But not necessarily wiser. Ritchie is also another complicated character.

I can’t say that I enjoyed this book. It was a slow start but it did pick up pace when Anna and Ritchie go Robin Hooding. I guess this book tells us that we learn things by making mistakes.

Buy Something Wicked

In Hunky Dory, the narrator is Dorian Jones or Dory and he’s “having terrible trouble with girls”. According to him, girls in his form keep acting weird around him. For example, a girl named Amy Wilkerson sat next to him in Geography class and kept getting cosy leaning up to him while talking to her friend who was sitting on his other side. And another girl kept beaming at him in class.

What makes it even more interesting is that Dory’s younger sister’s friend, Linzi, has a crush on Dory. Dory’s younger sister, Annabel or Microdot (Dory’s nickname for her) regularly gives Dory personality quizzes to do so that she can write his profile to tell what kind of person he is. She also hints to him about why he keeps avoiding Linzi. Dory just goes along with these tests to humour his sister.

Dory cannot understand why other girls can’t be like the Herb, his good friend. Her real name is Rosemary but the Herb is her nickname. I don’t know how she got it anyway. Dory, the Herb and Dory’s other good friend, Aaron, spend their free time in Dory’s garden, digging a hole to look for artifacts. Dory is passionately fond of dinosaurs and hopes to become some sort of dinosaur archaeologist when he grows up.

When Dory finds out that his best friend, Aaron, is going out with a girl, he becomes even more confused. He had always thought that his friends were never into girls and that they think girls are quite silly. He is also puzzled when the Herb acts weird sometimes. Once when he suggested inviting another girl over to help dig the hole, the Herb went quite ballistic.

I like the illustrations that go with the story. They’ll appear after every few pages and it helps the reader to visualize what’s going on. A quick, funny and perfect read if you want to know what young kids are up to nowadays.

Buy Hunky Dory

16-year-old John Malarkey is the new kid in town and in school, Brook High. He and his mom have just moved to this new town and his mom decides to open a store selling second hand books. (Wouldn’t I like to live near that one!)

Before this, I have never come across the word ‘malarkey’ before. On the cover of this book, the definition given for the word is ‘bullshit’. Yikes! Imagine having such a name! But I also just looked up Answers.com and it also means ‘exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive’, which in short means ‘bullshit’. Returning to the book, it suits well as the title and the name of the boy. John Malarkey did more than once tried to talk himself out of trouble.

So one day, a beautiful classmate speaks to John and points him out to two other boys who decide to nab his school bag and run away with it. He naturally chases the boys to try to get his bag back. He failed to catch them but needn’t worry because his bag showed up on his desk in his next class. With a stolen teacher’s wallet in it. John is then accused of stealing.

With John taking the blame for a couple of thefts in school, a shady group called the Tailors who loves to wear Adidas shoes, runs the school like never before. They sell stuff like cigarettes and drugs at the tuck shop but the teachers know nothing about it. They also sell signed report cards without teachers’ comments – meaning the students can be their own teacher and write out their own comments!

They don’t even spare the smart kids out of their cunning schemes. The brainy ones make up the Homework Club and they’re forced to do the Tailors’ assignments with no time to concentrate on their own. John then tries to enlist one of the Homework Club kids’ help. What he plans to do is to clear his name as a thief and also to bring down the Tailors. Both in less than 24 hours.

It’s quite an exciting read and felt suspenseful. I also didn’t realize that a few hours in school could feel like a few days! The first 89 pages were focused on what John did after having his bag stolen by the Tailor boys. I thought it went on for days but it’s only hours actually.

You can say that John’s the high school James Bond. A group of trouble makers pick on him, he comes up with plans and tactics, faces the leader of the pack and then figures out on how to proceed from there. Pick up this book to read about how a new kid fights off the bullies in his new school.

Other Reviews: Chicklish

Buy Malarkey

It begins with Jane who had to move to suburbia Kent Waters. She and her parents were living in Metro City until an unexpected bomb exploded in a café in the city. Jane was strolling past the café when it happened. She wasn’t hurt but she didn’t look forward to entering cafés anymore.

She was surrounded by dead bodies but she managed to save a young man’s life. He’s known as John Doe throughout most of the story and is in a coma. Jane tries to visit him often and tells him stories of her everyday life. John Doe appears to be an artist since he had a sketch book with him. As Jane is also an artistic person, she keeps the sketch book with her and fills it with her own sketchings.

Afraid that another bomb would explode or some other disturbing event would occur in the city, Jane’s parents moved the family to peaceful Kent Waters. Jane attends the school over there and awkwardly befriends the reject group of girls: Jane, Jayne and Polly Jane. That’s how Jane got the idea for P.L.A.I.N.

The three Janes only allowed Jane into the group after she suggested a seemingly brilliant idea that’ll somehow make their voices be heard. They were the rejects in high school and it was thrilling to leave eccentric messages for the people in an anonymous way. It’s as if they weren’t that invisible after all. Soon, they go on to leave their P.L.A.I.N. marks all around their neighbourhood. P.L.A.I.N. stands for People Loving Art In Neighbourhoods.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story now. There are only around 100+ pages of the story with great graphics and great storyline. I was simply hooked till the last page. The sequel to this book is Janes in Love! I’m definitely looking out for that.

A few graphic novel titles such as Re-Gifters, Clubbing and Good As Lily were advertised on the final pages of this book and they do seem fun to read. If you’ve read them before, please tell me all about it!

You can check out the preview for this book here.

Buy The Plain Janes (Minx)

Yanyan is not a girl who bows down to conformity. She is fascinated by science, the treating of wounds and health improvement. That’s why she wants to study medicine so she can become a doctor and save other people’s lives. Lucky for her, her father fully supports her decision considering it’s 1921 in China where women rarely attend university.

Yanyan’s Eldest Brother is taking martial arts lessons and Liang Baoshu is his classmate. Baoshu and Yanyan got better acquainted while on a trip to Shanghai where she was going to say goodbye to a friend who’s going to work in America. After an unpleasant incident at a dangerous Shanghai alley, Liang Baoshu became even more impressed with Yanyan’s courage.

When he asked her to accompany him on his quest to restore the Manchu’s Qing Dynasty, Yanyan has to decide fast. If she were to follow him, she’d need to ditch her plans of studying medicine. It would also break her parents’ hearts if she went off with Baoshu. Her father has high hopes of seeing his daughter succeed in the sciences and to bring about changes for the development of the country.

She finally made up her mind to refuse Baoshu’s offer and prepared to sail off to America to Cornell University. For her, it’s career first, love put on hold. In America, she managed to make a few new friends who helped her overcome her culture shock.

I found this an entertaining and informational book. It’s a small paperback and cost only RM12 at Popular. I found it at the Bargains’ section. It was indeed a lucky find!

Issues of prejudice and stereotype were also cleverly incorporated into the story. For example, Chinese girls were expected to be good at cooking and embroidery. Well, Yanyan can’t cook a simple dish to save her life. She doesn’t even know how to cut vegetables!

Another assumption is that Western men with big noses can’t speak a word of Mandarin. Yanyan, her Eldest Brother and Baoshu discovered the contrary in an embarrassing situation on the train to Shanghai. Eldest Brother and Baoshu were insulting the Westerner in Mandarin without knowing that he can understand every word they said! Lesson to be learnt: Never speak ill of others in their presence, even if you think that they can’t understand!

I found the ending quite unfinished actually. I’ll have to read ‘Ties That Bind, Ties That Break’, which is the companion novel to this one.

Buy An Ocean Apart, a World Away

This is a story of a mousey hero who saves a princess’ life. This is the story of a mouse that was different from the others. This is the tale of Despereaux.

When Despereaux was born, he was the only baby who survived. The other babies whom his mom gave birth to did not live. That was why his mom, a French mouse, was also skeptical of his survival rate. He was such a tiny mouse with abnormally large ears.

I find Despereaux’s mom an utterly pessimistic female mouse whose favourite word is ‘disappointment’. Hence, she named the poor fella ‘Despereaux’, symbolizing the tragedy happening around them.

Despereaux grew to be a mouse who could not easily please his family. His brother tried to teach him the art of scurrying in the castle that they lived in. His sister attempted to show him how to nibble paper but he started reading the book instead. That was how he knew his first story of a knight in shining armour who rescues a damsel in distress.

Anyway, Despereaux discovered music and from there, he met the Princess Pea. He immediately fell in love with her. It sounds cute, doesn’t it, a tiny mouse falling in love with a human princess? Or what do you think? I thought it would be a case of unrequited love but one should never stop dreaming and hoping.

The second part of the book introduces us to a rat called Chiaroscuro. It’s an odd name but it’s a new word to learn. In my dictionary, it means ‘the treatment of light and dark parts in a painting, etc’.

All the same, just call the rat ‘Roscuro’. Roscuro is an unusual rat who’s obsessed with light. It is in rats’ nature that they should always be in the dark but not Roscuro. Because he wants to be bathed in light, he ventured into the castle’s banquet hall where the royal family was having a party. Something terrible then happened and it caused Roscuro to be vengeful.

Another important character in the book would be Miggery Sow who was sold when she was a child. Her father was poor and traded her for a hen, a red tablecloth and some cigarettes. Poor Mig was sold to a man who kept giving her many “a good clout to the ear”. As a result, she became almost deaf and one would need to shout to her in order to be heard.

All these characters will eventually meet somewhere in the book and I’m not going to tell you how. This book is easy to read and you can finish it in a day. You can also enjoy the beautiful black and white illustrations that accompany the story.

It’s a book meant for children but it’s definitely a book for everyone. I thought the rat rather evil and disturbing, so perhaps you might need to be there to comfort your child if he or she begins having nightmares of menacing rats!

Love, courage, treachery, regrets, dreams and hopes are the themes found in The Tale of Despereaux. Enjoy reading this 2004 Newbery Medal award winner!

Other reviews: Nymeth, Girl Detective

Buy The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread

Gemma and friends are back at Spence Academy and under the watchful eyes of their headmistress, Mrs. Nightwing, they learn decent manners, curtsies, and everything else ladylike. Gemma is unable to fit in with the mindless chatter and gossip of the other girls at her school. She feels that there’s more to life than just attending parties and dancing with men.

Now Gemma holds all the magic of the magical realms where she and her friends, Felicity and Ann have been going. She’s expected to share the magic with all the tribes in the realms but not so soon. Since Felicity desperately needs a Lady Markham to sponsor her debut in order to claim her inheritance, she needs some of Gemma’s magic to make it happen. As for Ann, well, she needs some magic to escape from being a miserable governess.

What about the beautiful Pippa who’s stuck to wander in the realms forever? Felicity is always delighted to spend time and play with her best friend. However, Gemma feels that there’s something suspicious about Pippa and that she must be careful around her.

In the meantime, Gemma keeps having dreams/visions of a lady in a lavender dress. The lady seems to be trying to tell her something but no sound comes out from her. Who is she? Is she dead or alive? What is she trying to say? What is the Key and what in the world is the Tree of All Souls? Absolutely mysterious and frustrating!

Gemma also needs to find out why the school is restoring the ruined East Wing now. Many years ago, two girls supposedly perished in a fire that destroyed the East Wing but they survived anyway. One of the girls was Gemma’s mother. The other girl, Circe, became an enemy and murderer. It is also said that the then headmistress, Eugenia Spence, sacrificed herself to the Winterlands. The Winterlands is an evil place, by the way.

Oh no, I did not forget the handsome and elusive Kartik. He returns to stay with the gypsies and occasionally has little secretive chats with Gemma. He keeps telling her that he’ll leave someday which only irritates and saddens her. His old brotherhood, the Rakshana, is also on the lookout for him as he failed to kill Gemma in the previous book.

That’s quite a lot to digest, isn’t it? Well, you can expect much more than that from this 819-page book. There are five acts and there is a quote at the beginning of each act. In truth, I enjoyed reading every page of this book even though it took me more than a month to finish it.

Some things I just didn’t like though. I thought Gemma’s friends selfish, especially Felicity. Most of the time, I felt that Felicity’s only using Gemma to enter the realms so she could be with Pippa. I’m also quite surprised at Ann who eventually leaves Gemma alone in her troubles too. Like Gemma, I thought that perhaps her friends are only her ‘friends’ because she has magic which can reduce or wipe out the unpleasantness in their lives. Well, nobody’s perfect.

Besides her school chums, Gemma has to deal with Kartik, Pippa, Miss McCleethy who’s watching her every move, Fowlson who’s working for the Rakshana, her father who’s addicted to laudanum, and her obnoxious brother, Tom. She definitely has a lot on her plate.

I’m quite sad to see the end of the Gemma Doyle trilogy. It’s been a thrilling journey following Gemma, her friends and their battle against being helpless women in a rigid English society that expects little and yet so much from them.

Other reviews: Debbie, Susan B. Evans, Emily, Em

Buy The Sweet Far Thing (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)