An autobiography - The story of my experiments with truth.
This is Mahatma Gandhi’s story covering the period(1869-1921)before his life was made public. In his journey seeking the truth in life he discovered freedom and justice. He later devoted his life as freedom fighter which eventually led him to free India from the colonial masters. After reading law in England, Gandhi served the Indian community in South Africa where he saw the Indians there being discriminated. He succeeded in getting better treatment for them. Based on the experienced gained, he eventually brought his trade mark of non-violent movement to India, to gain India’s independence.
The book tells us the qualities that make a good leader.

Brand New Friend.
This is a hilarious funny novel about a young couple, Rob and Ashley who is about to settle down after staying together for several years. Both wanted to maintain their platonic relationships to their best friend after marriage. The problem is Rob best friend is a girl, Joe and Ashley best friend is a man, Neil. It became very complicated when Joe realized she was actually in love with Rob. Her sacrifice in letting Rob marrying Ashley gave the story a happy ending.
The book give us an insight of the promiscuous life style practiced by western society to day where marriage institution is no longer relevant.

DAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.
This is a collection of 50 historical events occurring in the last 2500 years that leave an impact on today’s world. Each event was analyzed by the author in details to explain their causes and consequences. Starting from assassination of Julius Ceaser right up to the destruction of World Trade Center.
If man can learn from history, we will have an everlasting peace on earth but that is not to be so. Throughout the history of mankind we have been fighting culminating with the two world wars.
Many scientific discoveries which changed the way we live were also covered, including invention like telephone and steam engine.
The book make an interesting reading as well as very educational for all ages.

Author: Hywel Williams
Publisher:Quercus 21 Bloomsbury Square London WC1A 2NS

The Memoir of a Geisha. It was a good movie but I felt something was missing. The movie went too fast a pace. There was gap here and there. What attracted me to the movie was the presence of Malaysian actress in the form of Michelle Yeoh. Well, not many Malaysian made it to Hollywood. The ending was a bit artificial. So to satisfy my curiosity I have to read the novel itself.
The story was about a poor girl Chiyo who later became one of the well known geisha in Japan., Traditionally the Japanese looked at geisha as a very respectable profession. That is until after 2nd world war when the Americans, during their occupation of Japan, gave a different definition of geisha. The respectable entertainer now has become nothing more than a social escort or just an expensive call girl.
Chiyo was sold to an akio or a geisha house where she was groomed to become a geisha. The hardship she went trough make us appreciate why they surrendered themselves to become a geisha. They believed that they had an important role to play in the Japanese society at that time. As they grew older, they felt that it was their duty to train others to take their places. Chiyo was groomed by Mameha a well known geisha before the war and took the name Sayuri when she became a geisha.
Some peculiar practices by the geisha make the geisha world very unique. ‘Mizuage’ is a practice where an apprentice geisha surrendered her virginity to the highest bidder before she can become a full fledge geisha. Taking a ‘danna’ is where a geisha become a preferred mistress to a particular patron. A geisha will dress differently if she is no longer a virgin. A geisha is not supposed to fall in love, even if they do, they must hide their true feeling.
Sayuri did fall in love and toward the end find the true happiness
It was a good movie no doubt but the book was even better.

THEN..ooh!
NOW.... wow!

SUZIE QUATRO UNZIPPED.
Suzie who? I bet not many Malaysian know her. When I first learn from WWW that she had written a book about herself, I went all over town searching for it. The guys at MPH, Popular and Border never heard of her. Well I am not surprised . I fell in love with Suzie ( I mean her song) way back in 1975. That long huh! Yeah! I was sporting my shoulder length hair then and did many things that I don’t even dare to write here. In case my children may think that their dad had gone crazy. That was in Sydney, Australia.. He he he ..So many big and little secret safely tucked away down under. Fortunately I have a brother who is a pilot with our national airlines. So he bought me the book on his subsequent trip to London.

THE REVIEW.

Wait! Not so fast. I don’t expect Suzie to write after all she left school at 14 to pursue her singing career. She dropped out from school. She formed an all female band and it was quite popular in the 60s. In this book she tell all, bare all, I guess that is what she meant by ‘unzipped’. Despite owning LPs and CDs and fancying her music I never knew the kind of life she had gone through. Like her eldest sister was born out of wedlock, no big deal but her parent were from strict Italian Catholic upbringing. That was something. She was on the dope. I always thought she was cool like Marie Osmond. She admitted losing her virginity at 18. Even that was revealed in details (ha ha you want to read the book now)…since you can’t get the book here let me tease you… “we undressed, fell on to the bed and made love. It was like floating in the sea of pleasure. I wasn’t a virgin anymore……he touched my mind, my heart, possessed my soul.. and I never gave myself so completely to anyone ever again". Of course you are virgin only once, Suzy and what you do with it, is none of my concern.

The music scene was in UK at that time when the Beatles started making their mark. So off to London she went. It took her another two years before she had her first hit. That too when she almost gave up and was about to return to US, broke. That is what I called perseverance and it pays in the end.

She started her world tour. She was very popular in Australia and Japan. She is the only lady rock singer who played the bass guitar at the same time. She wrote most of her song based on what she had gone through in her life. She got married and started raising her family as a rocking mother. Even when she is on tour she took her family along. That is something that I didn’t know. How difficult that was and her marriage started to suffer. She decided to separate from the husband and raised the kid by herself. She remarried much later.

What can be learned from her is that you will succeed in life if you tried very hard. Nothing come easy in life. She is a grandmother now and still rocking away. When asked when she will put her guitar down. She replied the day when I wriggle my bum to the audience and I only hear silence. That is a long way to go man as she still looked very sexy in her leather jacket. Anyway that is coming from one her ardent fan..me.

It is a book that all Suzie Quatro fan must have, not because of sophisticated language it was written but because how simply it was written from the heart.