Lucky No. 14 March Round Up

Tags

challenge, lucky 14, march, non review, round up

Welcoming April… People said this is one of the most hopeful months of the year, where the weather is getting nicer and warmer and people are ready for crazy summer plans. Even in the non four seasons country like Indonesia, April is an exciting month since we will have our first round of election. I just wish the weather is getting nicer too, and the rain is not as heavy as the previous months.

I hope everyone is doing well with their challenges. How’s March treated you? How many good books have you encountered and how many have caught your heart? I am sorry I haven’t got a chance to visit all your reviews. But I read some here and there, and of course, still many interesting reviews and new books to put on my wishlist 🙂 Here are some of the highlights from March:

Visit a Country: Tara Road (Maeve Binchy), posted by Indah (Books Dreamland)

walaupun di bagian2 belakang ada secuplik adegan yang membuat gua bisa ‘mengerti’ apa yang dimiliki bernadette yang ngga didapatkan danny dari ria, tetap aja gua ngga mau ‘membenarkan’ tindakan danny yang berselingkuh ituuu..

anywayy.. 4 bintang untuk “tara road”.. simply karena rumah ria itu setingannya di irlandiaa.. huaa.. my dream country! alasan lain karena udah lamaa bangets gua ngga baca cerita romans, apalagi yang in english, jadi bisa menyelesaikan nih buku (tebeell! *cateett* :p) merupakan suatu pencapaian tersendiri buat gua, ahahaha :))

Cover Lust: The Espressologist (Kristina Springer), posted by Afifah (Lady Books)

Saya membeli novel ini karena tertarik dengan covernya dan sinopsisnya. Dalam bayangan saya, saya akan menemukan sosok perempuan berusia minimal 25 tahun yang bekerja sebagai barista. Saya mengira saya akan diberikan kebingungan dari seorang perempuan 25 tahun, tetapi jomblo. Ditambah lagi, saya sedang ingin membaca novel dengan tokoh yang memiliki kisaran umur segitu. Waktu itu, saya masih suka membaca teenlit.

Once Upon a Time: Haiene/ The Sharks (Jens Bjorneboe), posted by Malin (Malin’s Blog of Books)

Written in the 1970s by Jens Bjørneboe, it’s basically a big ol’ metaphor for how the author sees the world in general, and how he’d like the ideal society to be. The ship, with all the disparate crew members from all races and creeds, complete with a rigid class division and a lot of tensions is how he pictures the world. The sharks swimming along side the ship are metaphors for pure greed and thoughtless evil, which is ever present. The mutiny on board as a huge tropical storm is threatening is the revolution that the author clearly feels needs to happen, and the aftermath of the mutiny and the storm is clearly how the author wishes society could become.

Movies vs Books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum), posted by CJ (To Do: Life)

Although there are a few distinct differences between the book & the movie, I feel that I can enjoy both as separate pieces. In my mind, however, the characters all looked like their movie counterparts. I don’t think that detracted from my reading of the tale, though at points I did have to remind myself that the Cowardly Lion is indeed a real lion. I enjoy that in this story, there is no “She woke up and it was all a dream” aspect to it. Oz is very real and the adventures that Dorothy has keep her away from Kansas for quite a long time. And perhaps the most important distinction is that the Wicked Witch’s ruby slippers are actually silver shoes. (Which, lets be honest, makes a lot more sense with her outfit!)

It was interesting to learn more about the wizard Oz, the Emerald City and about the different places in the countries ruled by the witches. This was a very easy read and is perfect if you want a quick getaway to somewhere over the rainbow.

Freebies Time: Saving Francesca (Melina Marchetta), posted by Tammy (Tea Time and Books)

Saya sebetulnya jarang membaca teenlit, malahan kadang memang menghindar genre yang satu ini. Karena dulu, beberapa teenlit yang saya baca itu berkesan cheesy dan biasa saja. Sampai saya baca buku ini.

Well, buku ini sebetulnya buku yang saya temukan di antara tumpukan buku yang tidak saya punya ataupun saya pinjam. Dinoy menitipkannya pada saya untuk nanti dikembalikan ke Mbak Yuska, pemilik aslinya. Nah, karena sayang banget kan kalo bukunya gak dibaca dulu, jadilah saya mulai membacanya… dan menyelesaikannya.

….

Akhir bukunya seperti yang diharapkan oleh saya. Membuat saya terharu. Bahwa cobaan atau masalah seberat apapun, semua pasti ada jalan keluarnya. Kita jangan pernah putus asa dan kehilangan harapan. Bersyukurlah dengan apa yang kita punya.

Not My Cup of Tea: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan), posted by Margot (Joyfully Retired)

Have you ever known me to read a book containing a dungeon master, programming code and loads of geeky computer stuff. Yes, totally outside my comfort zone, but I picked it up from the library shelf and brought it home to read. You guessed it – I read it because of the title. How cozy to spend a whole book’s reading time in a book store, I thought.

And I was right. I did spend a lot of time in Mr. Penumbra’s quaint little bookstore. However, the bookstore is unlike any other bookstore. First of all, there doesn’t seem to be many customers. It is the Great Recession, but still, the store sits on pricey San Francisco real estate. How is the owner going to pay the rent with just a few customers? The people who do visit the store want the old obscure books, and they seem to be just borrowing them – with permission.

Happy reading, hope you all have a wonderful, warm and shiny April 🙂

 

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Tags

america, animals, BBI, dramatic, english, family, fiction, lucky 14, name challenge 2014, realistic, review 2014, special needs

Judul: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Penulis: David Wroblewski

Penerbit: Harper International Edition (2009)

Halaman: 611p

Beli di: Aksara, Pesta Buku Jakarta 2011 (IDR 50k, bargain price!)

Edgar Sawtelle lahir dan tumbuh besar di sebuah peternakan anjing di dekat hutan Chequamegon, Wisconsin. Sejak lahir, Edgar tidak bisa berbicara dan hanya berkomunikasi dengan bahasa isyarat. Namun ia menikmati kehidupannya yang tenang bersama ayah dan ibunya, merawat dan melatih anjing-anjing mereka yang dikenal sebagai Sawtelle Dogs. Edgar juga bersahabat erat dengan salah satu anjing betina yang sudah menjadi teman setianya sejak kecil, Almondine.

Suatu hari, Claude, adik laki-laki ayahnya yang sudah lama pergi dari rumah, mendadak muncul kembali dalam kehidupan mereka. Dan kemunculannya ternyata membawa banyak tragedi dan misteri untuk Edgar. Ketika suatu kecelakaan terjadi, Edgar memutuskan untuk kabur dari rumah, membawa serta ketiga ekor anak anjing yang sedang ia latih, menyusuri hutan Chequamegon.

Edgar banyak belajar selama perjalanan itu, terutama untuk mengkonfrontasi ketakutannya, dan mengungkapkan kebenaran. Akankah Edgar berani pulang ke rumah untuk menghadapi resiko kehilangan hidupnya yang dulu?

Ketika BBI memutuskan untuk mengadakan posting bareng buku-buku Oprah, saya sangat excited, karena ternyata banyak buku di list Oprah yang ada di dalam timbunan saya 🙂 Setelah menimbang-nimbang, akhirnya saya mengambil keputusan untuk membaca buku Edgar Sawtelle ini, karena memang sudah cukup lama terkubur di dalam timbunan buku yang kian meninggi. Dan ternyata, saya cukup menyesali keputusan itu.

Kenapa?

To tell you the truth, I didn’t enjoy reading this book. Dan saya cukup kaget, karena menilik dari daftar buku-buku pilihan Oprah yang sudah saya baca, rata-rata mendapat rating 3-4 bintang dari saya. Dan sejujurnya, saya memang berharap lebih dari si Edgar Sawtelle. Apalagi ada premis kisah tentang anjing-anjing, yang merupakan topik yang selalu menarik bagi saya.

Penuturan yang lambat adalah salah satu alasan utama mengapa saya tidak bisa menikmati buku ini. Mungkin untuk menegaskan kesunyian dunia Edgar yang tanpa suara, David Wroblewski sengaja membuat kisah didominasi oleh narasi berkepanjangan dari sisi Edgar, meski tidak menggunakan sudut pandang orang pertama. Terkadang, untuk mendeskripsikan suatu tempat atau suasana, Wroblewski bisa menghabiskan satu halaman sendiri.

Sebenarnya banyak hal yang bisa membuat kisah ini menjadi menarik, salah satunya adalah detail saat Edgar melatih anjing-anjingnya. Proses bagaimana ia membuat mereka percaya, lalu menurut padanya, awalnya terasa menarik, mengingatkan saya pada acara TV Cesar Milan si ahli anjing. Tapi saat adegan ini diulang-ulang dengan deskripsi detail yang sama seolah baru pertama kali diceritakan, saya jadi merasa bosan dan kehilangan minat.

Wroblewski seakan-akan terjebak dalam keasyikannya menulis sepanjang dan selama mungkin, tanpa memperhatikan perasaan para pembaca. Buat saya, jumlah 611 halaman bukanlah kisah yang singkat. Namun bila menilik isi buku ini, sepertinya Wroblewski bisa memangkas setengah panjang buku tanpa kehilangan esensi yang berarti.

Kelemahan lain Wroblewski yang sangat suka dengan deskripsi tempat dan suasana adalah kurangnya penggambaran karakter yang kuat. Saya cukup kesulitan untuk merasa relate dengan Edgar sang protagonis, dan membenci Claude si antagonis. Buat saya, tidak ada bedanya siapa protagonis dan antagonis dalam kisah ini, saking tidak jelasnya karakterisasi yang digambarkan oleh Wroblewski. Kalau tujuannya ingin membuat pembaca menabak-nebak ke arah mana cerita akan dibawa, untuk kemudian memberikan twist besar di akhir cerita, bagi saya usaha Wroblewski ini gagal total. Yang ada, saya hanya bisa merasa kebingungan dengan inti keseluruhan cerita.

Kisah yang berpotensi penuh drama pun tidak berhasil mewujud dengan baik, karena terlalu banyak narasi bertele-tele yang digunakan. Bahkan endingnya pun tidak berhasil membuat saya terharu atau tersentuh atau apapun yang dimaksudkan oleh sang penulis.

Oprah’s Book Club pertama kali dibentuk oleh Oprah Winfrey tahun 1996, di mana ia memilih buku (biasanya novel) untuk didiskusikan dalam acara talk shownya. Sampai show tersebut berakhir tahun 2011, Oprah’s Book Club telah merekomendasikan 70 buah buku. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle adalah pilihan Oprah untuk bulan September 2008. Tahun 2012, Oprah kembali membentuk Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, di mana interaksinya dengan pembaca buku dilakukan melalui online. List lengkap buku pilihan Oprah bisa dilihat di sini.

Submitted for:

Posbar Tema Oprah’s Book Club bulan Maret 2014

Category: It’s Been There Forever

 

Lucky No.14 February Round Up

Tags

challenge, february, lucky 14, non review, round up

I can’t believe that it’s already the third month of 2014. I felt like I haven’t done anything worthy my time, so many things to do but I can’t quite catch up with everything. I even haven’t read all the February reviews in Lucky No.14 linkies 😀

Anyway, I hope your February went well, many great books and memorable bookish moments passing your way. In February, the participants of Lucky No. 14 Challenge was still rising to 136 people. Wow.

And the number of reviews so far? Until I write this post, there are 300 reviews in 14 categories. The number is almost double up from last month! This is so impressive, and I guess everyone is doing really well with their challenge 🙂

So I checked on some interesting reviews and these are the highlights:

Visit a Country: Melbourne, Rewind (Winna Efendi), posted by Alfindy Agyputri (Occultatalentum)

Latar yang digunakan, sangat menarik dan jarang diangkat. Melbourne, salah satu kota di Australia yang jarang dimasukkan dalam destinasi travelling (menurutku, sih, karna seringan Sydney, kan), tapi justru itu yang membuatnya menarik. Kak Winna menjamah setiap sudut kota Melbourne, memperkenalkan kota yang tak kalah indahnya ini pada para pembaca. Pendeskripsian dan research yang luar biasa, membuatku merasa seperti sedang berada di sana. Bahkan, jadi pengen pergi ke sana juga.

Chunky Brick: Name of The Wind (Patrick Rothfuss), posted by Kari (know-it-not-so-much)

This book is what one might also describe as a brick.  The paperback that was lent to me is a cool 722.  It’s no The Game of Thrones, but it’s pretty long nonetheless.  It was recommended to me by a friend and has been sitting on my shelf for many, many months.  It took me awhile to get into the book at all.  I’m not a big fantasy reader, especially not these sort of epic high fantasy books (I just learned what the term high fantasy means!) so I was a little lost until I found the rhythm.  Then the pages seemed to fly by until I got to the last 20-30 pages.  Then it sort of slowed down.

Also called The Name of the Wind: Day One, the book is Kvothe’s telling of the story of his life to the Chronicler while they are sitting in his deserted inn.  He takes us from his childhood days all the way through his teens.  I think by the time he takes a break for the day he is about 17 or 18 years old.

Favorite Author: Sycamore Row (John Grisham), posted by Sarah (The ChicReader)

I used to love John Grisham and for me, one of his best book is A Time To Kill. Knowing that the main character in this book is the same with A Time To Kill, I’m really anxious to read this book. All of the characters rerun from the first book. Jake Brigance a lawyer who at times seems to be in way over his head. Lucien his his alcoholic landlord and somewhat mentor. His pal and fellow lawyer Harry Rex, and Ozzie the sheriff of Ford county.

Too bad, Sycamore Row is not a great followup to A Time To Kill. The beginning is good but it gets bored in the middle. I continue reading because I HAD to know who won the settlement. It is decent but way too long. Many sections of the book drag and the payoff is entirely predictable. As a sequel of sorts to A Time to Kill it is nothing special. Not too much In the way of excitement and the plot unfortunately fails to truly engage. For me, it is truly a forgettable read. Sorry, Grisham, this is not your best book.

It’s Been There Forever: One Day (David Nicholls), posted by Hanna (Booking in Heels)

One Day has been on my TBR since Spring 2011 – that’s almost three years, people. Numerous people have told me that it’s a literary masterpiece, it’s featured on almost every TBR list I’ve ever written and it was made into a film that actually looks pretty good.  Now I have actually read it and it is a literary masterpiece. So there.

Freebies Time: Under The Jeweled Sky (Alisan McQueen), posted by Yuska (Lust and Coffee)

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley.

Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen is a beautiful novel about India, where the country is one of the integral characters. Set at the time of Partition and a decade or so later, the author brought us back to the mid 1900s, when the British was about to leave.

Besides telling about vibrant India , the author was successfully portray a realistic character through Sophie. Her father is a physiscian at the palace. She builds a friendship with Jag (one of my favorite characters as well), the son of a servant. In that era, such relationship was kind of forbidden.

Walking Down The Memory Lane: STOP, Panik di Sirkus Sarani (Stefan Wolf), posted by Opat (Bukufamufamu)

Setelah bertahun-tahun, saya baru baca serial STOP ini lagi dan saya senang sekali. Waktu kecil dulu, buku-buku tulisan R.L.Stine atau Enid Blyton saya pinjam dari perpustakaan (Yes! I am proud I was such a book geek!) tapi satu hari Ibu saya membelikan saya STOP, dan saya langsung jatuh cinta pada serial ini. Sudah besar gini, akhirnya saya kesampain beli beberapa buku STOP lainnya, tapi mungkin bacanya nanti saja

I wish you the best for March – prepare for a warmer weather and some good spring books to come 🙂

Cheers and see you next month!

Lucky No. 14 January Round Up

Tags

challenge, january, lucky 14, non review, round up

One month had passed us by, and how are you doing with your reading challenges? I hope everyone enjoys doing their reading challenges – including the Lucky No. 14. So far there are 125 participants who had joined this challenge. More than I’ve imagined before. Hopefully everyone is having a good time.

There are total of 155 reviews had been posted in the linkies, most of them went to Freebies Time category (26 reviews so far), while the category that has the least reviews is Once Upon a Time (only 4 so far).

I’ve compiled several interesting posts for several categories. Maybe this could inspire you if you still need to add your reading list. So many books and so many reviews had been posted for Lucky No. 14, and I wish I could read all of them. Well, I tried to do that but probably not as fast as I wanted to 🙂

Here are some round ups from January:

Visit a Country: In The Shadow of The Banyan (Vaddey Radner), posted by Jen K (Notes from The Officer’s Club)

I would like to visit Cambodia one day, mostly to visit Angkor Wat, and a friend of mine lives there.  As a result I was very interested to read about this darker period of Cambodian history which I had only a vague inkling of.

Ratner is a descendant of one of the Cambodian kings so this novel is very much drawn on her actual experiences when the Revolutionary soldiers took over Cambodia.  However since she was five when they took over in 1975, she chose to fictionalize her experience which would allow her to streamline her story and simplify the large family she had.  Overall, I think the real life story is fascinating, and there are certainly parts of the novel that were riveting, but in the end, I think I was hoping for more from this.

Cover Lust: Rhapsody (Mahir Pradana), posted by Siro (Review Siro)

Saya suka novel ini mulai dari sampulnya yang didominasi biru muda dan ilustrasi sampul yang benar-benar unik. Ada gambar tangga, cincin yang terjalin di tangga, amplop, burung dan Gerbang Brandenburg. Unik. Benar-benar unik. Sampai sekarang saya masih sering membulak-balik sampul ke atas ke bawah. Soalnya bingung ini gerbang kok terbalik, tapi pas dibalikkin jadi tangganya yang terbalik. Haha I love this cover ^_^.

 

 

Bargain All The Way: Kecantikan Mengundang Maut (Kate White), posted by Ren (Ren’s Little Corner)

Buku ini saya beli di obralan Gramedia Plaza Semanggi, dengan harga yang cukup murah yaitu 15000 rupiah. Karena saya menyukai mistery, dan pengen baca yang ringan – ringan, maka saya ga pikir panjang saat tahu buku ini diobral :P.  Sebenarnya buku ini menarik ceritanya kok, kalau saja alurnya ga lambat banget. Saya bahkan sampai berhenti di bab 4 dan ganti baca buku lain buat meningkatkan mood membaca. Butuh waktu yang agak lama juga untuk menyelesaikan buku ini. Misterinya sendiri aslinya cukup bagus dan lumayan ruwet. Saya bener – bener ngga bisa nebak siapa pembunuh Anna, sampai akhir cerita. Dan, klimaksnya, saat siapa pembunuh Anna terungkap bikin mulut saya menganga. Karena sama kayak Bailey, bukti – bukti yang mengarah ke pelaku itu mental semua. Dengan kata lain, ngga mungkin banget gitu dia yang melakukannya.

Once Upon a Time: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare), posted by Kristi (Books and Needlepoint)

I chose this book to read as it is a Newbery Award winner.  I was pleasantly surprised how a book written in 1958 – about 1687 – still touched on many issues that can be found in today’s society – prejudice, religious freedom/persecution, trying to find out where we fit in, love and loyalty.  Why is it that the more things change, the more they stay the same?  The persecution of the Quakers in 1687 – Jews in Hitler’s Germany – and some would say Christians in America today. And I bet that everyone could name at least one person who had suffered prejudice in some way, shape or form.

Not My Cup of Tea: Penunggu Puncak Ancala (Acen Trisusanto dkk), posted by Dion (Baca Biar Beken!)

Bisa dibilang sebuah keganjilan ketika saya begitu ingin membaca buku ini. Saya yang terbiasa tersesat di dunia fiksi fantasi entah kenapa seperti “ditarik-tarik” untuk membeli buku ini. Padahal, bisa dibilang saya jarang sekali membaca buku genre horor, apalagi horor dalam negeri. Lebih anehnya lagi, saya kok tenang-tenang saja membeli buku ini di Gramedia dengan harga utuh, ya harga utuh tanpa diskon! Baru kali ini saya beli buku tunai tanpa diskon! Ini diluar kewajaran saya, aneh sekali, tapi, buku yang saya beli dan akhirnya kelar dibaca dalam sehari (saya membacanya siang hari, di kantor, biar rame banyak temennya) ini memang aseli serem. Bukan, bukan horor ala monster trus terjadi pembunuhan begitu, indak. Hantu dalam buku ini hanya sekedar “menampakkan diri” di sudut mata para pencerita. Hyaaaaaa …

Movies vs Books: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote), posted by Ratih (Morning Dew)

Cerita Breakfast at Tiffany’s di novel dan filmnya memang sedikit berbeda. Dan tentu saja, lebih menyenangkan di filmnya, karena jalan ceritanya mengikuti selera Hollywood. Cerita di novelnya, terutama akhirnya, agak lebih pahit, karena penulis membuatnya menggantung. Berbeda dengan di film, yang ditutup dengan adegan happy ending. Tapi, walau bagaimanapun, menurutku, baik film ataupun novelnya tetap bagus. Mungkin, karena aku nonton filmnya dulu, baru baca bukunya kali ya? Jadi, bukan mempertanyakan kenapa tokoh ini nggak ada atau kenapa adegan ini nggak ada, malah, oh jadi ini alur cerita aslinya, oh, jadi mereka begini kenalannya. Yah, seperti itulah, hehehe…

I enjoyed reading all reviews and found some really good books that eventually slipped into my wishlist or reading list. And I’m sure I’ll find more along the way 🙂

Have a great February and good luck with your reading plans for this lovey dovey month and hopefully you can tackle more of your TBR piles than you did last month 🙂

Cheers!

 

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Tags

america, bargain books, contemporary, dramatic, english, fiction, lucky 14, new york, review 2014, secondhand books, tragedy

Title: Let The Great World Spin

Writer: Colum McCann

Publisher: Random House

Edition: Trade Paperback (2009)

Pages: 375p

Bought from: Yuska (IDR 20k)

It was August 7, 1974, and a man named Philippe Petit walked a tightrope wire between the World Trade Center towers. From this focal point, Colum McCann has woven several beautiful stories into one wonderful book.

There was an Irish man came to New York City, visiting his brother, Corrigan,  who devoted his life as a monk and lived among the prostitutes in Bronx, tried to help them having a better life. There was a rich housewife living in Park Avenue, mourning for his beloved son who was dead in Vietnam War. This lady, Claire, tried to find solace from women liked her, who also lost sons in the war, only to find that she felt more lonely than ever.

Then there was a woman living in upstate New York, a fading artist whose life started to ruin because of drugs, and a fatal accident opened her eyes that this was not the life she’d imagined for her to live in. And there were of course the prostitutes, the brazen Tillie and her daughter Jazzlyn, both were helped a lot by Corrigan the Irish monk. But one ugly accident in that faithful day, changed their lives forever.

Colum McCann masterfully wrote pieces by pieces of the lives of these ordinary people, with their ordinary problems. But among them, there was one eventful thing: the tightrope walk between the highest tower on Earth. While the New Yorkers surrounding the towers with their heads held up high, hoping for the best or for the worst to happen to the walker, our characters in this book tried to hold on to their everyday lives. Tragedy and accident changed their lives, but the city kept on vibrating, the people kept on moving. And the stories kept on going, with or without them.

I fell in love with this book because of two main things:
1. Beautiful stories and flowing words. This is my first time reading McCann book and I can tell that he’s a killer writer. He can use any word he wants, and weave it into a wonderful sentence without being pretentious or boring. I enjoyed his choices of words and flowing sentences. I admired his description of the characters, are all ordinary people, but every one of them is important in their own way. What can I say, it’s talent. Not everyone can write something like this.

2. The description of New York City. I’ve only been to NYC once (or twice if you counted a short transit in Bronx couple of years ago) and it had always become my personal favorite. I love the vibrant energy of the city, the lights and buzzes of people, the feeling that even in the crowded streets you can be a part of the city – but also not a part of anything. I love the complications and the chaotic atmosphere. I love NYC and this book made me wanted to visit it again and again. Colum McCann can describe the city really well, not only the good things but also the dark sides of it. He can dig into the soul of the city, and that is the one thing I love the most about this book.

Check out the excerpt below if you want to know what I mean:

The city lived in a sort of everyday present. It had no need to believe in itself as a London, or an Athens, or even a signifier of the New World, like a Sydney, or a Los Angeles. No, the city couldn’t care less about where it stood. He had seen a T-shirt once that said: NEW YORK FUCKIN’ CITY. As if it were the only place that ever existed and the only one that ever would.

New York kept going forward precisely because it didn’t give a good goddamn about what it had left behind. It was like the city that Lot left, and it would dissolve if it ever began looking backward over its own shoulder. Two pillars of salt. Long Island and New Jersey.

Submitted for:

Category “Visit a Country”

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Tags

bargain book!, BBI, english, fable, fiction, lucky 14, politics, review 2014, secondhand books

Judul: Animal Farm

Penulis: George Orwell

Penerbit: Penguin Books (1980)

Halaman: 119p

Beli di: Pesta Buku Jakarta 2012 (IDR 15k, bargain price!)

Animal Farm bercerita tentang sekelompok binatang yang hidup di Manor Farm, pertanian milik Mr.Jones yang kejam dan tidak menyenangkan. Suatu malam, Major, babi hutan yang sudah tua dan sangat bijaksana, mengumpulkan para binatang untuk bercerita tentang mimpinya. Dalam mimpinya, Major mendapat penglihatan mengenai sebuah revolusi besar yang dilakukan para hewan terhadap manusia, dan sebuah dunia utopia di mana hewan akan berkuasa atas dirinya sendiri, dan bukan dikuasai oleh manusia.

Tak lama kemudian, Major mati dan visinya tersebut segera diwujudkan, dipimpin oleh dua ekor babi paling cerdas di pertanian tersebut, Snowball dan Napoleon. Mereka mengajak para hewan untuk mengusir manusia dari Manor Farm dan mengubah nama pertanian itu menjadi Animal Farm. Dan setelah revolusi besar tersebut, para hewan mulai memimpin dirinya sendiri, membentuk sistem pemerintahan yang -katanya- berbasis kepentingan para hewan.

Namun perbedaan visi antara Snowball dan Napoleon menimbulkan masalah baru, dan menyebabkan perpecahan di antara mereka. Dan tak lama kemudian, golongan Napoleon membentuk kekuatan baru yang tak kalah tiran dibandingkan Mr. Jones. Bahkan visi yang mulia pun bisa berubah menjadi neraka, bila para tokohnya sudah dipenuhi keserakahan menjadi penguasa.

Animal Farm adalah jenis buku yang aku harap bisa kubaca di saat masih sekolah dulu. Tidak seperti kebanyakan fabel yang diperuntukkan bagi anak-anak, Animal Farm memiliki tema yang cukup berat, sarat akan muatan politik, moral dan bahkan kekerasan.

Banyak teori yang menyatakan bahwa George Orwell menulis buku ini sebagai bentuk kritiknya atas Revolusi Rusia dan bangkitnya kekuasaan Stalin. Ia menggambarkan Manor Farm sebagai Rusia saat dikuasai oleh kaum aristokrat dan kerajaan. Sementara Napoleon dan Snowball mewakili sosok Stalin dan Trotsky, yang meski sama-sama menginginkan Rusia bebas dari cengkeraman pemerintahan kerajaan, namun memiliki visi dan cara yang berbeda bagi negara tersebut.

Untuk seseorang yang tidak terlalu paham kisah sejarah Rusia, aku banyak mendapat pencerahan dari Sparknotes. Memang sifat-sifat manusia tergambar cukup jelas lewat tokoh binatang-binatang yang ada di Animal Farm: misalnya Benjamin, keledai tua yang sangat skeptis dan menganggap perubahan macam apapun tetap akan berdampak buruk pada rakyat, atau Boxer, kuda yang sangat setia pada Napoleon dan menganggap perintah sang penguasa adalah harga mati.

Buku yang kubaca ternyata bekas punya anak sekolahan, banyak catatannya 🙂

Namun untuk mengaitkan alur cerita, ideologi dan karakter dalam buku ini dengan sejarah Rusia, banyak yang harus dipahami lebih dalam lagi. Untukku pribadi, Animal Farm bisa mewakili apa saja, tidak hanya Rusia. Ide dasarnya sangat klasik- bahwa orang-orang yang mencetuskan perubahan, pada akhirnya seringkali menjadi tokoh-tokoh yang setelah berhasil mencapai puncak, justru mengembalikan keadaan menjadi sama buruknya (atau bahkan lebih buruk) daripada kondisi di masa lalu.

Indonesians, are you familiar with that? 🙂

Submitted for:

Tema Fabel bulan Januari 2014

Category “First Letter Rules”

Lucky No.14 Reading Challenge

Tags

challenge, linky, lucky 14, master post

Period of the Challenge: January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014

Yep, we almost welcome 2014, the year of anticipation. There will be the World Cup in Brazil, Presidential Election in Indonesia – and tons of great books to be published (and read) for sure!

This challenge will require you to read 14 books (or more) from 14 categories below. You can combine the books you read with other challenges, but can not use the same book for different categories in this challenge.

Try to match the categories from your TBR piles 🙂 But if you don’t have any suitable books in your TBR – and want to find an excuse to buy a book for this challenge, that’s totally fine too!

Here are the 14 categories:

1. Visit The Country: Read a book that has setting in a country that you really want to visit in real life. Make sure the setting has a big role in the book and it can make you know a little bit more about your dream destination.

2. Cover Lust: Pick a book from your shelf that you bought because you fell in love with the cover. Is the content as good as the cover?

3. Blame it on Bloggers: Read a book because you’ve read the sparkling reviews from other bloggers. Don’t forget to mention the blogger’s names too!

4. Bargain All The Way: Ever buying a book because it’s so cheap you don’t really care about the content? Now it’s time to open the book and find out whether it’s really worth your cents.

5. (Not So) Fresh From the Oven: Do you remember you bought/got a new released book last year but never had a chance to read it? Dig it from your pile and bring back the 2013.

6. First Letter’s Rule: Read a book which title begins with the same letter as your name (for me, Astrid means A, and I can read anything that started with the letter A). Remember: Articles like “a”, “an” or “the” doesn’t count 🙂

7. Once Upon a Time: Choose a book that’s been published for the first time before you were born (not necessarily has to be a classic book, just something a little bit older than you is okay. You can read the most recent edition if you want to)

8. Chunky Brick: Take a deep breath, and read a book that has more than 500 pages. Yep, the one that you’ve always been afraid of!

9.  Favorite Author: You like their books, but there are too many titles. This is your chance, choose a book that’s been written by your fave author but you haven’t got time to read it before.

10. It’s Been There Forever: Pick up a book that has been there on your shelf for more than a year, clean up the dust and start to read it now 🙂

11. Movies vs Books: You’ve seen the movie adaptation (or planned to see it soon) but never had time to read the book. It’s time to read it now, so you can compare the book vs the movie.

12. Freebies Time: What’s the LAST free book you’ve got? Whether it’s from giveaway, a birthday gift or a surprise from someone special, don’t hold back any longer. Open the book and start reading it now 😀

13. Not My Cup of Tea: Reach out to a genre that you’ve never tried (or probably just disliked) before. Whether it’s a romance, horror or non fiction, maybe you will find a hidden gem!

14. Walking Down The Memory Lane: Ever had a book that you loved so much as a kid? Or a book that you wish you could read when you were just a child? Grab it now and prepare for a wonderful journey to the past 🙂 Comic books or graphic novels are allowed!

RULES:

1. To complete the challenge, you have to read at least one book for each category, or total of 14 books during the challenge period. You can set your own pace and do not need to follow the categories in particular order. You can also read more than one book for each category. You have to write your reviews in your blog/FB note/Goodreads page/tumblr/etc.

2. Please write a master post about this challenge in your blog/Goodreads/FB notes/etc, and submit your link below for signing up. You can use this master post to sort down the book(s) that you’ll read for each category, and edit them later if necessary. The sign-up linky will be opened from November 12, 2013 throughout the year until December 1, 2014.

3. There are also linkies for each category of the challenge. Please submit your link of review posts for each category in their respective linkies. These linkies will be opened in January 1, 2014 until December 31, 2014.

4. At the end of the challenge, write down a wrap-up post and submit the link in the linky too. The linky for wrap-up posts will be opened until January 10, 2015 to give you more time for wrapping things up. It’s okay if you don’t finish the challenge but you are not eligible to be selected as the winner.

5. After the wrap up post linky is closed, I will pick two lucky winners who had completed the challenge for winning great bookish prizes (including book vouchers, novels, and other exclusive bookish gimmicks/goodies 🙂 ) The prizes will be revealed soon, so please stay tuned. You must have delivery address in Indonesia to be eligible for the two grand prizes.

6. If you are an international participant who doesn’t have Indonesian mailing address, don’t worry, I’ll also choose two winners, each winner can pick any book from The Book Depository for maximum of $ 10.

7. I’ll try to write a round-up post every month and pick some of the most interesting reviews. And who knows? Probably there will be some surprise gifts and giveaways throughout the year 🙂

Now, let’s start this wonderful 2014 and get ready to tackle some great books!

ps: If you have any questions, please shout it out in the comment below. Reviews/questions/comments can be in English or Bahasa Indonesia 🙂

Master Post, To Read List & Sign up Linky:

Gateway to linky for each category:

1. Visit The Country

2. Cover Lust

3. Blame it on Bloggers

4. Bargain All The Way

5. (Not So) Fresh From The Oven

6. First Letter’s Rule

7. Once Upon a Time

8. Chunky Brick

9. Favorite Author

10. It’s Been There Forever

11. Movies vs Books

12. Freebies Time

13. Not My Cup of Tea

14. Walking Down The Memory Lane

15 Wrap-up Post