Tabu

(Source: Fixi)

Author: Shaz Johar

Publisher: Fixi

Genre: Mystery, Love and relationships

Retail Price: RM20

Tabu is written by Shaz Johar, the very same person who wrote Kougar. Now I happened to like the latter story and had placed high expectations on this new one. 

What I liked about Tabu was the balance it struck between mystery, love and relationships. I identified with its lead character Bibi, who is plus sized like me, and has a desire to break free from the constrains of the world but is at the moment stuck with fulfilling the needs and wants of others.

Bibi is a BBL (big beautiful lady) who hates her job as a customer support staff. The only person who makes office life a bit bearable is her best friend Kim. Kim supports her in a lot of things, but has always expressed a dislike for Bibi’s Kenyan boyfriend, Mosi. 

Things are all good until she discovers a misplaced cellphone in the train she used to travel to work. She kept in contact with the person who owns the phone (known as Nadim), unknown to her boyfriend. They slowly develop a relationship that I would, for want of a better word, describe as puppy love.

As the days go by, Bibi realizes that Kim appears affected by something. She keeps taking sick leave and often disappears without contacting Bibi. Mosi also began to ask for money from Bibi, citing a need to settle his college fees. However, Bibi discovered an emerald ring in his possession, which he did not mention to her at all.

After a series of events at the office which eventually led to Bibi quitting her job, she is intent on discovering what exactly was happening. It was soon after this that she received word that Kim had died - apparently by jumping off a building. Bibi, who knows Kim’s courageous spirit, refuses to believe that she had committed suicide and was inclined to call it murder.

Now it is up to Bibi to investigate the real story. What is the connection between Kim, Mosi and her former colleague Anne? What becomes of her relationship with Nadim, and will the arrival of police officer Akil spoil everything?

Perhaps I placed too high expectations on Tabu after reading the synopsis. I was expecting some major syndicate/thriller plot - after all Fixi has the potential to publish such books - but this was more inclined to explore the complexities of relationships in modern times and how wrong moves can mess things up big time.

And considering this, perhaps it is good that it was Shaz who wrote this book. The self-described full-time diva would surely know how to write about love, relationships, backstabbing and the whole shebang without coming up with a soppy love story; the kind that would make some readers produce a bucketload of tears and others, a bucketload of vomit.

I would still vote Kougar over Tabu, but this is still worth reading if you’re, well, inclined to the love/relationship complexity section. For my part, I’ll just hope that in the near future, Shaz produces for Fixi a manuscript that would beat both these stories.

Six Suspects

(Source: About.com)

Author: Vikas Swarup

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Genre: Crime, Mystery

Retail Price: unavailable

From the author of the hugely popular, heartrending story titled Q & A (filmed as Slumdog Millionaire), comes this mystery, whodunnit tale which exposes the human nature of inner evil at its best.

Vikas Swarup’s Six Suspects is, I would say, just as good as commonly known English novels from the West which deal with the same genre. What I love most about it is the way it delves into the stories of each suspect by giving it a personalized touch, but also incorporates a chapter or two where the narrator is detached from the plot altogether.

Industrialist Vivek “Vicky” Rai, son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh Jagannath Rai, was murdered with a gunshot at blank point during a party he hosted to celebrate his acquittal from the charge of murdering bartender Ruby Gill. Six people at the party were found with a gun in their possession, and they had automatically become suspects.

The suspects were as different from each other as chalk and cheese. Former minister Mohan Kumar led a life of vice until he was apparently possessed by the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, who wanted to avenge the murder of Ruby Gill (she had been working on a thesis about his sayings) by killing her murderer Vicky Rai.

Actress Shabnam Saxena is lusted after by every man, including Vicky himself. She has, however, gotten herself into a major mess, and her sister is also involved in the matter. In an attempt to restore her sister’s life to normal, she has to turn to Vicky’s rich and powerful connections.

Eketi is a tribal from the Andaman islands, who had come to recover a stolen shivling (religious sculpture) which had ended up in Vicky’s possession. Helping him was welfare officer Ashok Rajput, but unknown to Eketi, Ashok had a cunning, selfish plan running in his own mind.

Munna Mobile is an adept mobile phone thief who stumbles upon a briefcase of cash, more than he’s ever had in his lifetime. He makes full use of this money to live the rich life he’d always wanted, and ends up in love with rich girl Ritu. But Ritu’s high-profile connections leave Munna in a dilemma over the future of his life with Ritu.

Larry Page cursed the day his parents named him after the great inventor of Google. The Texas-based forklift operator at Wal-Mart had found his perfect match online - Sapna Singh from India. After giving much of his savings to her to prepare for their wedding, he flew to India to meet her, and only upon landing there realised that the photo of Sapna is actually that of Shabnam Saxena. In the hope of marrying her, he stays back in India.

The last suspect happens to be Vicky’s own father, Jagannath Rai, who was willing to get rid of his own son so he could become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Hot on the heels of Vicky Rai’s antics and subsequent murder is investigative journalist Arun Advani, who is certain he will uncover the real killer among the six. The question now is, who is the real murderer? Will that person be implicated, or will someone else become a scapegoat?

I consider Six Suspects as a racy whodunnit story, complete with various facets that highlight the gap between India’s glamour society and its slum community. Love the way it delves into each character’s dreams and aspirations, their arrogance and attitude, their wants and needs.

Like Q and A, this story also touches reader’s emotions by including stories of love, friendship and selflessness. These help balance out the injustice and cruelty done by some characters in the story, and make it a memorable read.

Unlike most stories of this genre, I was actually taken by surprise when I discovered who the REAL killer was. Obviously I won’t spoil it by giving it away here, so you’ll have to go read it yourself.

Zombijaya

(Source: gerakbudaya.com)

Fixi books are just not your typical Malay novels. Love the selection panel who choose which manuscripts to publish, as the considerably new publishing house has ten awesome novels to its name now, none of which are the least bit boring.

After a long time, I finally had the time to visit a bookstore to look for three Fixi books which I still did not have in my collection. I was a tad disappointed that Kelabu was out of stock, but I managed to get my hands on Zombijaya and Tabu, which made up for the situation.

Stories about alien attacks in Malaysia and other parts of the world are a dime a dozen, but don’t be fooled into putting Zombijaya into your mind’s category of “I’ve seen it too often it’s just not fun anymore”. Because this story looks beyond terrifying zombies - it looks into the hearts and minds of a eclectic group of humans trying to survive the apocalypse. 

It’s New Year’s Eve and fireworks are about to be light up the night sky near Sunway Pyramid. Nipis, a gangly youth with no ambition in life, is content to live in his own world. His twin sister Ana will soon begin life as a teacher in a primary school, while her lover Kamarul is slated to appear in a reality TV show. Their friend Aliff had just proposed marriage to his lover Sofia, who accepted.

All is good and well until a stray dog bites Aliff, throwing back the group’s plans for a bit. Here we learn a few secrets about the characters, which I still can’t figure out why they were included in the first place, but that does not matter. We read on as they settle into their daily lives again, but there’s just a feeling that things are going to change soon.

One by one, the people around them become zombies and start attacking the humans for their flesh. Once bitten by a zombie, it is only a matter of time before the bitten become zombies themselves. As the friends are now in their separate ways, each chapter deals with a different character’s experience as they fight for survival, and possibly a way to end the spread of zombies in the nation.

Nipis ends up with Sofia’s friend Nora and his sister’s former students Lisa and Sanjiv. He decides to make his way to the country’s administrative capital of Putrajaya. He claims to have read of a theory that Putrajaya houses a hidden base originally built as protection in case of nuclear war, and if they could get there they would be safe until the zombies were gone.

Nora had her doubts, but they decided to try heading that way. An occurrence in Bukit Jalil brought Nipis and the two children in contact with a group of humans who, like them, were also trying to survive the zombies. The eclectic group is led by Azman, a policeman who held a grudge against Nipis, and had Dr Siva, a foreigner named Taylor, national athlete Elizabeth Paul, and Sofia among others.

For a time they had nothing much to do, but they realized something had to be done eventually. After much discussion and more events along the way, they decided to follow Nipis’ idea to head to Putrajaya. Yet how many people have to be sacrificed for the trip? And does Putrajaya really hold solutions to the zombie problem? Who will be the next victim among them?

Zombijaya deals with a much explored topic of zombie attacks and an impending apocalypse. I can only speculate that it was released in time with the whole 2012 end-of-the-world theory discussions, but still it makes for a good read as it gives a near-realistic description of how Malaysians would cope in the face of a sudden zombie attack.

A word of warning though - don’t expect this book to be a laugh, nor will it be a bore. It will keep you reading on to the end to discover who lives, who dies, and what happens next.

Selamat datang ke Zombijaya.

Starting Over

(Source: guardian.co.uk)

Author: Tony Parsons

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Love and Relationships

Retail Price: RM29.90

Tony Parsons is one of those few male authors who can write so well about love and relationships without churning out soppy, rotten stories from the jumbled up Archive of Romance.

George Bailey, 47, is a police officer who has long left the field job, now confined to a career of processing reports at a desk in the station. He is extremely worried about his strained relationship with his teenage son Rufus, and often puts him on a breathalyzer to check if he had consumed alcohol. He keeps an eye on his daughter Ruby, and shares the household chores with his wife Lara. In short, the responsible middle-aged family man. 

One fine day, his long-time buddy Keith - the typical boisterous American police officer - sneaks him out for a field assignment, and the two cross paths with criminal Rainbow Ron.

During this time, George suffers a sudden heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He eventually had to undergo a heart transplant with a donated organ from a 19-year-old.

When a person’s heart is changed, is he or she still the same person? Post operation, George does some research online and discovers that some people who have undergone heart transplants tend to unconsciously develop traits that were prevalent in the donor’s character. In George’s case, he began developing a teenager’s reckless traits - the drinking parties, the hangovers, a desire to change the world.

Starting Over would be very relatable to those who have lived through their youth. Certainly they would recognize the ultimate gift George had received - the chance to live life again. 

He became a friend to his children, and a lover to his wife. But if you think that would have ensured George lived happily ever after, well, Tony Parsons begs to differ.

Lara soon tires of his carefree youth habits, and warns that he must share family responsibilities again. A series of events later, George finds himself bunking in his parents’ home, with a part-time job as a pool cleaner and a chance to rethink what he had become, and his plans for the future while the people close to him are being affected by different things.

Readers would be entertained by following George as he stumbles through his recovery, discovers things about the people around him that he previously did not notice, and towards the end rediscovering himself in a new light. 

Through the book, Tony Parsons kept me wondering what would happen to George’s well-constructed family life should he develop every inch of the donor’s teenage character and mentality. He also presents readers with a difficult stand to take - which life should he live; the one he had before or the one he lived now?

As with the author’s previous works, I like how he takes contemporary emotional issues faced by most relationships in modern times and address it in ways rarely seen in other books. Parsons’ books also have the ability to show readers that we often go all out in search of love, commitment and the like, yet we fail to see that what we really need in life was with us all the while.

In the aftermath: sale!

(All photos in this post courtesy of Big Bad Wolf Facebook page)

If you missed out on the world's biggest book sale, fret not as the folks at Big Bad Wolf are back to give you another chance.

All the books remaining from that sale is now going to be sold at the BBW Aftermath Sale, which starts today (24 Nov) up to 28 Nov at South City Plaza, Seri Kembangan, Selangor.

If that's not enough to tempt you into heading there, here's another piece of information - the books are  being sold for RM5 and below each! Now that's what I would call a REAL bargain (does it really matter if the books are not all in pristine condition?)

Also add some local literature to your purchases with these four brand new books by Fixi - Pecah, Dendam, Kougar and Kasino. They are each worth approximately RM20 in the market, but for this sale they are also going for RM5 each!

Ready to go now? It's South City Plaza, Seri Kembangan from today till 28 Nov folks! Have fun book-shopping :)