The Good Earth

I was delighted when Al-Manar wrote a post about The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck a famous noble prize winner author in his blog recently and with his permission I am writing a bit about my copy of The Good Earth. 

 I commented as follows on his posting...

Pakcik...I am delighted to let you know that this same copy of The Good Earth was in our house and I was in my early teens when I read it in the early seventies. It must have belonged to one of my older brothers who were all educated in English School then in the fifties. Pearl S. Buck has been one of my favourite authors since then and now I owned several more of her books. I was in Kinokuniya KLCC in 2009 as usual browsing for more books to read when I came upon The Good Earth in a glass case, without hesitating I bought it at a cost of RM60.17 and to imagine that it only cost you RM1.80 in the fifties! I would like to share here what Pearl S. Buck wrote on a page of the book I bought..."I am always glad when any of my books can be put into an inexpensive edition, because I like to think that any people who might wish to read them can do so. Surely books ought to be within the reach of everybody"...

 Have a nice day Pakcik and you bring a smile to my face mentioning Pearl S. Buck :)

Sun Sep 28, 03:39:00 pm

Al Manar responded back as follows...

Naniasda,

Take a picture of your RM60.17 book and put it side by side with my old RM 1.80 copy. You will write an interesting posting. Of course you have my permission to copy part of this posting. I said the same to puan Nhasobahseliman above. You both have a little interesting true story to post in your blog.

I wonder how that expensive book look like. I think I will tell my readers to order their copies from Pakcik! I will make 'private copies' of my old The Good Earth for about RM 10.00. After all my original copy is more than 60 years old, way past their copy right, I should imagine.

Living where I am I do not have access to good bookshops and book sales which are often held in KL. On the other hand I would be spending on books and books which are stored unread.

So I hope you will have a posting on the strange price of The Good Earth when the author has been long gone. Who benefits from that when it was the writer's wish to see her book in as many hands as possible at low price?

Sun Sep 28, 11:17:00 pm

This is a copy of Al-Manar's The Good Earth purchased on 13th March 1954 for $1.80! 

This is the edition that I bought in 2009 at a cost of RM60.17.  The price is kind of absurd but what choice do we have now when it comes to a good read.

Yes, it has been over 60 years when  the first edition of The Good Earth was published in 1931 and this is Pearl' second novel after East Wind, West Wind published in 1930, her first. It focuses on a Chinese woman, Kwei-lan, and the changes that she and her family undergo.  If I am not mistaken my elder sister bought this book in the seventies and like the original copy of The Good Earth it is nowhere to be found now. 

The Good Earth comes in a trilogy with Sons in the second volume and A House Divided in the third volume, both too cost me a bit of money but then I cannot have enough of Pearl S. Buck...

Postscript: Let it be known to anyone who reads this post and happen to know me personally and intend to borrow these books I am sorry I cannot fulfill that request...can't afford to lose more books which are not returned, if you are a book lover you will know what I mean....cheerio!

A link to Al-Manar's interesting posting on The Good Earth..http://almanar-nuri.blogspot.com/2014/09/books-over-theyears-part-1-pearl-s-buck.html

Life's Little Pleasures...

This is one of my life's little pleasures....

“We all grew up in families, and I think part of the reason my novels have really connected with people is that they’re really family stories…” Watch Khaled Hosseini talk about AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED.

The latest novel by Khaled Hosseini which was waited patiently and eagerly by thousands of his fans has been launched yesterday 21 May 2013.  I had ordered this novel online via MPH early this month and was notified by MPH that it will be delivered in five to six weeks...what a long wait!!  I followed Khaled Hosseini on Facebook and like thousands of his other fans cannot wait to get my hands on his latest masterpiece...

What a surprise when this morning the office boy handed me a parcel and without a doubt I knew what's inside!  Kudos to MPH for the early delivery and now have the time to settle down and enjoy this one of my 'life little pleasures' earlier than expected!

In The Land of Invisible Women

Nope..this is not the continuation of my haj story even though I was there in the Land of  Invisible Women...haj story still pending :).  I have just discovered the joy of buying books online and having it in your hands crisps and new in a matter of days.  Nevertheless for this book I had to wait almost a month since MPH does not have it in their current collections. Most good and latest books are hard to come by here in KB and often times I dreamed  of opening a bookstore here stacked with all the latest bestsellers....just wishful dreaming!

"In this stunningly written book, a Western trained Muslim doctor brings alive what it means for a woman to live in the Saudi Kingdom. I've rarely experienced so vividly the shunning and shaming, racism and anti-Semitism, but the surprise is how Dr. Ahmed also finds tenderness at the tattered edges of extremism, and a life-changing pilgrimage back to her Muslim faith." - Gail Sheehy

The decisions that change your life are often the most impulsive ones.

Unexpectedly denied a visa to remain in the United States, Qanta Ahmed, a young British Muslim doctor, becomes an outcast in motion. On a whim, she accepts an exciting position in Saudi Arabia. This is not just a new job; this is a chance at adventure in an exotic land she thinks she understands, a place she hopes she will belong.

What she discovers is vastly different. The Kingdom is a world apart, a land of unparralled contrast. She finds rejection and scorn in the places she believed would most embrace her, but also humor, honesty, loyalty and love.

And for Qanta, more than anything, it is a land of opportunity. A place where she discovers what it takes for one woman to recreate herself in the land of invisible women.

As I flipped over the early pages of the book  a paragraph caught my attention, the writer was describing the situation at The King Khalid Airport upon her arrival in Riyadh and observing other passengers... "As I wondered who would be sent to meet me, I looked on at hundreds of Malaysian Muslim women quietly squatting on the marble floor by a silenced baggage carousel.  All were fully veiled.  Even buried in material, each emanated resignation, defeat.  They huddled, eyes downcast, silently awaiting their employers.  I heard no laughter, no muted chit-chat.  Piled like the uncollected baggage around them, they were silent and inanimate.  Yet their inertia was much more than just the pounding fatigue of jet lag; these were women stripped of hope."

Oh my! oh my!  I think she got the facts wrong here..... are there Malaysians women being sent as maids to Saudi Arabia?  She must have mistaken Indonesia for Malaysia and most probably has never traveled to the Far East.  As a patriotic Malaysian I do feel belittled coming across such a description of our women, we in 'the land of endless possibilities' (PM's words hehe) would not resort to sending our women, Muslims for that matter to be maids there or elsewhere. Its not that working as a maid is degrading, far from that except for that maniac indon maid who tossed a baby boy (and he is the same age as my cucu..feel like tossing her too till her bones break!) like tossing a roti canai. 

  I have yet to finish reading this book and yesterday received another package via poslaju containing the two books below... light readings suits me and heavy thought provoking books don't excite me...happy reading to me :)

My Mary Higgins Clark Library

  The idea to gather all of Mary Higgins Clarks books in my collection when on the author's wall on Facebook was posted this announcement earlier this month...

"Announcement time! Many of you have mentioned that you've collected many or even all of my books. Well, for the next two weeks, I want you to send me your photos of your own Mary Higgins Clark personal libraries! Also, be sure to enter the sweepstakes to win a SIGNED copy of THE LOST YEARS! Button is at the top of the timeline, third box over!"

but alas it was only for her US readers/fans who can enter the sweepstakes to win a signed copy of her latest book 'The Lost Years'. 




I started reading MHC in the early 1980s when sis Teh presented me with a copy of 'A Cry In The Night' and I was hooked from then on. 

Known as "The Queen of Suspense", Mary Higgins Clark is a "master plotter" who has the ability to slowly draw out the tension while making the reader think everyone is guilty. Her novels feature strong, independent young women who find themselves in the midst of a problem that they must solve with their own courage and intelligence. The heroines come across as real people who make sensible decisions, which makes it easier for readers, who sometimes think " "that could have happened to me, or to my to daughter," to relate to the situations. Her  books are written for adults, yet because she chooses not to include explicit sex or violence in her stories, they have become popular with children as young as twelve.

Most of the title of her books have been adapted into movies and telemovies but were not  as suspenseful and exciting as the books itself. 

Cindy pun suka jugak MHC!

Buku...Buk...Books...

A trip to KL means a trip to bookstores there namely Kinokuniya and MPH to browse for books mostly fictions, light and easy reading.  I am not into reading heavy stuffs, leave those heavy stuffs for intellectuals cos I'm not one of them  he he..  It is a pity because non of the bookstores in my hometown cater for these kind of books or else i would not be going to KL to buy the books in the picture above.  Once I even dream of owning a bookstore to satisfy my reading needs...geram sangat sebab susah nak dapat buku-buku terkini di sini.  But only the two books below belong to me while the rest belong to my kids.  The boy is into the Wimpy Kid Diaries since last year and has collected all the present series and I had fun reading them too...no age barrier to enjoy reading them.  The girl loves malay novels (which i can't even finish one when i borrow one of  them to pass the time) and Sophie Kinsella do not interest me at all (buku entah apa-apa!) but still can be a bestseller.

Now here is my kind of book...been a fan for over 20 years and has most of her books in my collection.  The Queen of Suspense is back with her thirtieth and most spine-chilling suspense fiction about the newest and most up to date of crimes : identity theft.  Mahal-mahal pun beli jugak in hardcover. 

Latest MHC Novel

 And lastly A Doctor In The House is a must read because this autobiography reveals the workings of that extraordinary mind (Tun Dr. MM), which has witnessed every major development in Malaysian history from the 2nd World War and the MacMichael Treaties, to independence, industrialisation and the making of modern Malaysia, culminating in the political and financial crises of the late 1990s and the challenges of  the new millennium (copied from the front book flap..).  I have always wondered how his mind works so now the book is the answer.

I have never regarded buying books as a waste of money because it enriches one's mind in all ways. Take me to a bookstore anytime rather than to a shop selling materials (kedai kain) hik hik....and it also helps to increase my tax exemption (which is important!).