Translated books are generally not my cup of tea. I usually don’t like them because the nuances of language are often lost in translation, and they end up reading in a stilted fashion.

However, when I first picked up The Neverending Story, I did not realize it had been translated from the German. The story was just too captivating and exciting for me to notice.

A young boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, steals a book from a bookshop and sits in an isolated alcove during class time to read the tale of Atreyu, whose quest is to find a cure for the Childlike Empress. As Atreyu’s quest progresses, Bastian realises that his actions are affecting Atreyu’s world, and that it is he, Bastian, who is needed to save the princess.

He enters the realm of Fantastica, but slowly starts to forget who he is, and it is only with the help of Atreyu and Falkor the Luckdragon that Bastian manages to return to the human world.

The history and characteristics of Fantastica’s inhabitants are richly imagined – be it Grogaman, the lion known as the “many-coloured death” who turns to stone every night, causing the forest Perilin to rise; or the Amarganth, the silver ship city built by a race of ugly creatures whose tears form the lake on which the city floats.

What I like about the book is that the amazing stories told are not oddities thrown  together to form a hodgepodge of a story. Rather, they form a single cohesive tapestry of a fantastic realm, all woven together skillfully by Michael Ende’s masterful storytelling. One wonders how much more wonderful the book would have been if read in its original German.

I enjoyed the book very much, and I think you would too.

Contributed by Lim Heng Liang, Tampines Regional Library

Honestly, I’m pumped just writing this. Two reasons:

1. This post marks the start of  High Browse news, reviews, and opinion pieces on films related to books or films that can be found in Public Library collections.
2. I love movie trailers, especially the ones that augur great, memorable films.

So, from now on whenever I do a post on movies, the old saw “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” actually holds absolutely true for as long as I’m writing it. (It sort of holds true for books, but I love movies more. Yeah, yeah, I’m a librarian, and I just said I like movies more than book. Yadda yadda. Sue me.) Enough said.

Now, when it comes to books, I don’t consider myself a fan of science fiction. Sure I’ve heard of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game; it’s hard not to notice when a novel wins both the Nebula Award (1985) and Hugo Award (1986), the highest honors in the field of science fiction. And considering it’s targeted at teens and young adults, Ender’s Game is a serious literary achievement. And I have not read it.

When I first heard about the film adaptation, I naturally didn’t think too much of it. Great books have a way of turning into mediocre (and sometimes just plain lousy) films and vice versa, plus Gavin Hood’s last outing, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is positively underwhelming. Hood has proven himself adept at drama (check out Tsotsi and also Rendition) but seems less sure-footed with action and sci-fi.

With Ender’s Game Hood is trying his hand once again at action and sci-fi. Backed by producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who gave us Transformers and Star Trek) and a very formidable cast including Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and a Maori-inspired Sir Ben Kingsley, Hood looks set to score his first major box-office hit. Take a look at the trailer and fire away in the comments box.

Previously I wrote about novellas – short novels. Pitted on a continuum, short stories are on one end and novels on the other. Fundamentally, the short story is a form that precedes the novel and even written language. History, fables, folk tales, fairy tales, recollection; they are all stories, the oldest ones being the ones passed down by word of mouth. Even recounting your arduous morning commute can be considered a story. One early short story collection is Aesop’s Fables (2nd Century), a collection of moralistic animal stories. The Romantic era also fueled the short story/fiction trend, with the likes of the Brothers Grimm and Edgar Allan Poe. These stories remain popular today. Sometime towards the late 19th century and nearer the Great Depression, writers wrote more Realist short stories, moving away from fairy tales. Some of these writers include John Steinbeck, James Baldwin, and Alice Munro.

Nonetheless, the short story remains a diverse form of writing that is difficult to define and pin down. The following is a list of short story collections published recently:

Middle Men
Jim Gavin

Something Like Happy
John Burnside

Tenth of December: stories
George Saunders

There once lived a girl who seduced her sister’s husband and he hanged himself: love stories
Liudmila Petrushevskaia

We live in water
Jess Walter

On another note, in conjunction with Short Story Month, over at Goodreads, 15 authors are teaming together for a game of Exquisite Corpse, where each contributes a line solely based on the previous line. Go check it out!

Contributed by Lo Wan Ni

And I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles

To fall down at your door

- The Proclaimers, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)

Don’t be thrown off by the quote from the Proclaimers’ infectious pop hit. While Rachel Joyce’s debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, is not exactly the ultimate post-apocalyptic downer (Yeah, Cormac McCarthy, I’m talking to you), it’s not going to put a smile on your face; at least, not one of insane or inane happiness. And the main protagonist doesn’t walk 500 or 1,000 miles either; to be precise, Harold Fry walks 627 miles in 87 days. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start over.

Harold is retired and lives an uneventful life at the southern end of England. When his wife hands him a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an ex-colleague, that informs him that she is dying of cancer in Berwick (the northernmost town in England), he inexplicably decides that he has to see her, and that he must walk there and by so doing he would save her life. (Still with me?) While it is never really explained why he thinks his walking there would save her – then again, isn’t life  filled with inexplicable human motivations? – we are given little crumbs of psychological insight all the way to the end such that we finally understand why things are the way they are with Harold and his wife Maureen, and of course Queenie’s role in the whole thing.

Joyce’s writing is supremely readable, the kind that will keep you turning the pages even when the story isn’t particularly compelling. There’s a portion of the story that I’m very sure is inspired at least in part by Forrest Gump (I only saw the film); if you’ve read that book or seen the film you’d know what I mean. I had some trouble getting through that part of Harold Fry as a voice inside my head kept lamenting that I’d seen it all before. Also, there’s a reveal at the end of the book that I think is supposed to take my breath away, but I kind of saw that coming halfway through, so it was a bummer for me. But other than these two aspects of the novel, Joyce’s debut is a fairly competent one, and in the emotional department, it easily hits all the high notes. Those with active lacrimal glands will need to have a few kleenexes handy.

Title:   The Fault in Our Stars
Author:   John Green
Publisher: New York: Dutton Books, c2012.
Call number:  Y GRE

It has been quite a long while since I last read a fiction book, so imagine my trepidation of having to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I ended up asking a fellow bookworm for a few recommended fiction reads and without missing a beat, she started gushing over this book. I had my initial reservations but the title did catch my fancy. (On second thought, the bright yellow circle strategically placed on the understated turquoise cover proclaiming that it is “#1 New York Times Best Seller” probably did help a little too.) ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ sounds rather beguiling and it prompted me to give the book a try.  It turns out that the inspiration for the title comes from a line of Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar where the nobleman Cassius says to Brutus, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves”. How apt, that is.

We are first introduced to the main protagonist, Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen year old battling with stage four thyroid cancer in her lungs. Hazel comes across as your average teenager, immediately likeable, but with just the right dose of weary cynicism and angst to make her interesting. The only palpable difference is that when she leaves her house, she has to wheel around an oxygen tank attached to a tube that delivers oxygen to her nose. Her well-meaning but overly smothering mum insists that she is suffering from depression and persuades Hazel to attend weekly Cancer Support Group sessions. Hazel, who much rather watch past marathon reruns of America’s Next Top Model, grudgingly attends the sessions just to pacify her parents. As fate would have it, a certain handsome and charming Augustus Walters, who is in remission, makes his sudden appearance in her life.

Sparks fly immediately and intensely between them and as we can probably already guess, Hazel’s world changes forever. They develop a special bond while dissecting and ruminating the abrupt ending of Hazel’s beloved book, An Imperial Affliction. Augustus gallantly sacrifices his one ‘Wish’ that they grant to dying young Cancer patients to bring Hazel to meet the book’s solitary author, Peter Van Houten, in Amsterdam. However, it turns out to be a terribly disappointing encounter with the abrasive and alcoholic Peter Van Houten.  Hazel learns the hard way that sometimes when a wish comes true, it does not turn out the way we have always dream it to be.

A thought that came to my mind was whether this book would be yet another typical tedious tale of two star-crossed young lovers. No one can argue that ultimately, it is. But at the same time, the book is much more than merely a fodder for young love fools. The book effectively blends a poignant mix of heart and cheeky humour while exploring the sensitive topic at its core, cancer.  I was apprehensive as I often steer clear of books that deal with similarly depressing themes on death and dying. Reading is after all an escape from my own petty little problems and reading about characters (even fictional ones) grappling with life-threatening ailments, would only make me more miserable. While ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ sometimes takes alternative routes, the book hardly makes any strong attempt to deny certain clichés of the cancer novel genre.

Let this be a warning- this book is not one which ends with a happily ever after. In fact, the title would have already served as a strong premonition. With its plot twist and the myriad of melancholic yet memorable lines, it will make you cry at the end, or at the very least, make you feel a slight twinge in your heart. There is no escaping it, but then again perhaps, it is for the better. As a line in the book goes, “That’s the thing about pain…it demands to be felt.”

In the end, this book made me laugh out loud at some parts thanks to the clever wit and then it made me tear a little. And for me, that should be one of the hallmarks of a genuinely good book.

By Idzhana Kailani, Bedok Public Library

Murder is a messy business. The motivations behind committing murder can be complicated. The murder weapon needs to be considered, a pistol perhaps? Or, the ubiquitous blunt instrument? The location and the timing of the murder need to be carefully planned. Witnesses are to be avoided. An alibi has to be constructed. Then, of course, the question of what to do with the body must be answered.

If murder is so difficult, why is it so fascinating?

Crime fiction is the world’s largest genre. One of the reasons for this is that crime fiction writers have so successfully capitalised on the appeal factors of reading: character; language; setting; and story. #crimeread books are available in such a wide range of subject matter, settings, characters, plot and cross-genre books, that there is, quite simply, a dead body for every reader.

Here on High Browse Online, many of us are crime fiction aficionados. Here’s a look back at just some of our many past crimereads on this blog (with links to our past posts):

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino: Set in Japan, this is “not your typical whodunit mystery”.

The Devotion of Suspect X – Keigo Hegashino

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde: The first of the Jack Spratt Nursery Crimes series, which deals with reinvented nursery rhyme characters.

The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fforde

Death by Dickens by Anne Perry: New York Times bestselling crime author Anne Perry’s anthology of stories where Dickensian characters find themselves in freshly-spun, mystery-laden plots.

Death by Dickens – Anne Perry

Murder on Bank Street: A Gaslight Mystery by Victoria Thompson: Steampunk meets mystery. ‘nuff said.

Murder on Bank Street – Victoria Thompson

The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson: What would you do if you were the tenant of the famous address, 221B Baker Street, and received mountains of fan mail for the legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes? Using this novel premise, Robertson brings a story of intrigue and suspense revolving around the brothers Reggie and Nigel Heath.

The Baker Street Letters – Michael Robertson

The Fallen Curtain by Ruth Rendell:  “An awesome collection of thriller short stories”, so say our librarian and High Browse Online editor.

The Fallen Curtain – Ruth Rendall

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson: Book 2 of the series that brought Scandinavian crime fiction to the attention of the world.

The Girl Who Played with Fire – Steig Larsson

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason: Since we mentioned Stieg Larsson above, you should also check out this Icelandic crime fiction and other Scandinavian crime writers listed in the linked post.

The Draining Lake – Arnaldur Indridason

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson: “…three hours later, I was reeling from one of the most powerful stories I had read in a while about the broken and the brittle, which just happens to feature a private investigator, murder and missing persons.”

Case Histories – Kate Atkinson

Some of our other crime-related posts, with more crimeread recs, include:

New British Mysteries (Part 1)

Fiction Alert: Weekend, Be Goode – feat. Sue Taylor and her Gumshoe Detective

Fiction Alert: Whodunnit?

Mystery author Dick Francis dies, aged 89 – a homage to one of the most successful British post-war authors.

This April, do take the time to read a work of crime fiction (or even true crimes, if you dare). If you’re new to crime fiction then close your windows, lock your doors and curl up in bed with a killer…

Already a lover of #crimeread? Tell us! What are your favourite crime-related reads? Any films or games? What are the blogs, twitter streams or magazines you read for #crimeread? Any apps which form part of your #crimeread environment?

Join the international Read Watch Play community in a live twitter discussion on 30 April starting at 6pm in Singapore on #crimeread.

Use the tags #crimeread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of crimeread, so others can join in the conversation too!

We are honoured to meet ex-banker Edwin Lim of “The Ultimate Banker” who is coming down to share his writing experience.  The details:

Date/Time:  Friday 5.00pm, 26 April 2013

Venue:  Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library

Title of book/Call No.:  “The Ultimate Banker” by Edwin Lim. Call No.:  SING  332.1 LIM

Facilitator:  Kweh Soon Huat,  Librarian

About the book: Part self-help career guide, part introduction to the banking industry and part biography, The Ultimate Banker is the culmination and condensation of Edwin Lim’s 23 years of experience in the industry which saw him rise from trainee to Chief Operations Officer of several multi-national banks. The author has been diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease three years ago and given his medical condition, completion of this book took on a sense of urgency. He wanted his two sons (who are in their late teens) to use the book to chart their career in the event he is not around.

About the author: Edwin Lim, with more than 23 years of international experience in the banking industry spanning Retail, Corporate and Investment Banking, has held COO positions with top European and Asian banks, including OCBC Bank (China) Ltd., Credit Agricole (China), Calyon (Taiwan), and has worked in countries like London, France, Norway, Finland, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from the viewpoint of the corporate world.

As per Edwin’s current condition, it will be appreciated if you can email me the questions you like to ask him so this will allow him to prepare the answers which will be shared on the day of the discussion.  Your questions to be sent by 15 April.

To participate, please send an email to:  soon_huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg

Join us for a stimulating discussion!

This is what an actual State of the Union Address by POTUS looks like.

Yeah, yeah, what self-respecting blog would have a state-of-the-union piece at a conspicuouly insignificant time of the year? I have a couple of excuses explanations. First, when 2013 came around, we didn’t really have much to report, so we decided not to waste your time reading (and our time writing) some new old BS and go all rah-rah over it. Second, we now have some new new BS that’s actually worth getting a little excited about. Hence, I present to you High Browse Online’s first state-of-the-union post.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Don’t worry, you’re not going to get hit by Gantt charts, spreadsheets, and an ocean of numbers; I’m just gonna give you the greatest hits. Comparing the number of visitors and page hits for High Browse Online between January to March in 2012 and 2013, our business (if getting people to read book reviews and recs qualifies as a business) on average has more than doubled. Not too shabby, eh? So here’s a big “THANK YOU” to all our readers. Don’t touch that dial, ’cause we have some great new features coming your way.

DVD reviews

Yes, we have more than just books in our public libraries. I’m sure a lot of library users are already aware of this, but there’s the general impression that most of the good stuff is housed at library@esplanade. Well, that’s all beginning to change. From Hollywood hits (Captain America, Mission Impossible) to animation favotites (Brave, The Secret World of Arrietty) to acclaimed documentaries (History Channel’s The Universe), these audio-visual titles are making their way to various public libraries in Singapore. So we thought we’d start doing reviews of these DVD titles to clue you in on what’s good and available at your nearest library.

Bookyeared

You would probably have come across the Bookyeared post by Wan Ni earlier. To quickly reiterate, this new feature is both an initiative by the librarians at Public Libraries Singapore  and a new partnership with Read Watch Play, a reading group formed by the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group in Australia. This partnership promises all kinds of good stuff related to related to reading, and those guys down under have an admirably broad view of what reading is. Do check out their website, and look out for upcoming #bookyeared posts.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2013

I’m sure most of you would remember my laughable goal of reading 12 books in 2012. To nobody’s surprise, I accomplished it. I’m at it again this year but I’m not going to read 13 books in 2013. (Bet you thought that, didn’t you?) Oh no, this year I’m really going to challenge myself with – drum roll, please – 15 books! Impressive,huh? Stop sneering; I am currently on track.

In addition, for this year, I’ll post my reviews of the 15 books I’ll be reading this year. Oh wait, that means I’m three reviews short already! So look out for for reviews of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Ready Player One, and The Sisters Brothers.

So that’s all, folks; for now at least. Once again, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check  back for our first DVD review  that will be coming up in next couple weeks.

Three easy steps to exchange your books for new reads:

1. Bring your used books* to any NLB Public Library (except library@chinatown) from 27 April to 12 May, 11.00 am to 8.00 pm. From 12 May to 18 May, used books will be accepted at the Central Public Library only.
2. Drop off your used books* and get a book exchange coupon indicating a one-for-one exchange for each of the books accepted. In the meantime, you can share your stories about books and reading at www.facebook.com/BookConfessionSG
3. Bring your coupons to The Plaza, National Library Building, on 18 May to redeem other books.

Click here for FAQs and more information.

Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb is a graphic novel detailing the birth of the first atomic bomb, from the reasons for its being to the processes behind its creation, the bombing, and the implications of the act. Most people would probably be familiar with this story, but  Jonathan Fetter-Vorm makes good use of the graphic novel format to communicate difficult concepts and emotions connected with this part of history.

Fetter-Vorm, a Stanford history graduate, conducted a good amount of research by poring over various pictures and historical documents and even going on a road trip to the various sites. Personally I’d say the extensive research and his academic background have made this graphic novel an engaging one.

Not only can readers learn about the first atomic bomb, this book also provides scientific explanations  to help readers to relate to the story better. Given that I am a science idiot, I truly appreciate Fetter-Vorm’s efforts to write about and illustrate  physics concepts in an easy-to-understand manner.

It would be easy to dismiss this work as a graphic novel filled with historical facts, but this is not  the case. Fetter-Vorm injects the human element into the book by highlighting the emotional struggles of the various characters.

And like any good story, this book will leave you pondering the double-edged nature of the human ingenuity and its effects on the fate of the human race.