To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee in 1960. This novel has won a Pulitzer Prize and become one of the American literature. British librarian said that the book is 'a must read book for every person before he/she die'. And the number of copies is ahead from Bible, I heard an issue that this book entered Guinness Book World of Record for the enormous selling. I tried to search it everywhere when suddenly, out of the blue, my friend, Dela, lent me this book.

The events took place in Maycomb County, Alabama. It's about the people there, their opinions about black people, racial attitude, and racial inequality. The main character there are Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch, Atticus Finch, and Jeremy Atticus 'Jem' Finch. Jean Louise is a six year old girl who lived with her older brother Jem, and her father Atticus. She is a boyish girl, always wear boy clothes everywhere, has no doubt to fight the people who bully her, and doesn't care about other people's opinions that 'a girl should wear girls clothes'. She hates school very much and often make problems for Atticus so she can stop going to school. She has a fiancee named Dill who comes to Maycomb every summer and will ask her to play something about Boo Radley, the never-go-out-from-his-house neighbor. Jem Finch is her older brother who loves football and Dill's best friend. He's the one who always protect Scout everywhere and unlike Scout, he always tries to remain calm when people bully his father and say bad words about his father. He's four years older than Scout.

While Atticus, their father, is a lawyer who choose to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused for a rape of Mayella, Bob Ewell's daughter. Ewell family is famous for their dirty and stubborn attitude, the children only appear for several days in school then leave and won't come back to school. It happens for generation. Meanwhile Robinson family has better reputation than them. They're innocent. Actually, Atticus is a great man, he's famous for his shooting skill, eventhough he never shoot anymore for 30 years. And he's also a great father too. He's wise, and when there's an argumentation, he always listens to both sides and see from both sides point of views. Many Maycomb people admire him for his shooting skill and his other skills although he stays humble, down to earth, and never brags about them. There's one person in their house, a black one. His name is Calpurnia. He's like butler, more like family to the Finch family. He always cooks food for them, and often makes Scout's favorite food. Unlike other family in Maycomb who will treat black people as slaves, Atticus, Scout, and Jem never treat Calpurnia as slave. They even treat him like he's one of the family member. What they get, Calpurnia shall get it too, and what they eat, Calpurnia shall eat it too. There's no racial inequality in that family. Despite the fact that most Maycomb people are racial, Atticus never teach his children to do that, and I admire him for that. This book has got taken into a film, and this is the film's trailer

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1222941977/

My most favorite quote is

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Kisah Tragis Oei Hui Lan

Kisah Tragis Oei Hui Lan  is a true story novel based on a girl named Oei Hui Lan, the second daughter of Oei Tiong Ham, a man who called "The Sugar King from Semarang". Since she's still a little girl she always get a great facility, good food, big house, beautiful clothes, and many more. But eventhough from the outside she looks like a happy person, but from the inside, it's so different. Her father has so many mistresses, while her mother just want his money. Because her ambitious mother, she entered the high class European aristocratic and became part of it. While her husband, Wellington Koo, whom she married just because her mother's ambition was a Chinese's official and one of the successor for PBB. And her sister, Oei Tjong Lan, married to a man named  Ting Liang. Her perfect world ends when her father decided to be with Lucy Ho, her mother's cousin. And since then she lives separately with her father. And there's still more. When her father died, which she believes that he's poisoned by Lucy Ho, he left money for about 8 mistresses and more than 42 children in his will. And Hui Lan, once again, get the biggest amount of money, even more than her mother and her sister. But until now, the intrigue hasn't end. This book shows us that money and wealth can't buy everything. But those 2 things can turn a human into a monster. The most famous quote there is No Feast Last Forever.

Thirteen Reasons Why

I used to read this book, and personally, this book is one of my favorite. This book became the best seller in July 2011. This book is about a girl, named Hannah Baker, who committed suicide for 13 reasons from 13 different people. And after she died, she released one set of 7 cassettes containing the 13 reasons. And her almost be boyfriend Clay Jensen got them too, in the package in front of his door. The message there said that he needs to listen to the cassette until his name come along and after he listen he needs to pass the cassette to the next person. If he choose to throw the cassettes someone whom she asked to, and later be discovered by Clay, will release the second set of cassettes for public. And he keeps listening the reasons one by one, which becomes more and more surprising and heart-wrenching for him, until his name come along. But, what Hannah said in the cassette about Clay is different from what did she said about the other people when she mentioned their names. And after he finishes listening to those cassettes, he found the fact why she chose to end her life and the fact about the people around him in the school. Well I think this book, eventhough it's fiction, somehow it's the same like our society, full of drama and intrigue. This book can change our view about our society, about the world. Thanks to Jay Asher for writing such a cool book like this. And I, will be glad to read this book again. Can't wait til the film is out..!! :D

Here's the interview with Jay Asher, the author of this book
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2008/02/author-interview-jay-asher-on-thirteen.html

Here's the official website
http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/book.php

Here's the book review
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-thirteen-reasons-why-by/

Official facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/thirteenreasonswhybook

The Thirteen Reasons Why Project
http://www.13rwproject.com/#/reviews

If you want to read it online
http://www.onread.com/fbreader/191453