Raising Your Family EQ
By: Christabel Hong and Lisabel Ting

Reviewed by: Colin Ong Tau Shien | 23 September 2005

Review:
This book by Christabel and Lisabel is a must-buy workbook for all families who want to cultivate family EQ. Through its short and relevant stories, it is very effective in getting families together and apply the 4Ts(Tale, Talk, Think, Task).

Its clear approach and simplicity belies the great importance in reaching out to families of varied background.

An example in this approach can be seen in Tale 39 about Martin, who was addicted in computer games.

The authors ended the tale with Martin's mother abruptly stopping him from continuing after persistent warning.

This situation is constantly played out in Singapore families and this tale allows both parents and children to think through and find a collective solution.

There is no guided answer for this situation - thus it forces both parties to come to terms with the problem.

Good work!

Favourite Excerpt:

Zen Computer
By: Philip Toshio Sudo

Reviewed by: James Seah | 02 August 2005

Review:
Written in the format and structure of a computer user manual for hardware and software, this book promises to change our perception about the computer users' relationship with the machine which is part and parcel of our modern day life.

Favourite Excerpt:
Zen Computer will not function unless its users make a commitment to learn and teach, teach and learn throughout their lives - to maintain an empty cup to the very end. The moment we lack such a commitment, we step off the path of growth. Too many people seem unwilling to enter the computer age, not because they lack intelligence, but because they cannot empty their cup of ego and say, "Please teach me."

The Secret Life of Bees
By: Sue Monk Kidd

Reviewed by: Sharon | 29 July 2005

Review:
Lily Owen is a 14 year old girl who lives on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, whom she calls T Ray because she felt that “Daddy” never fit him. She has memories of a fateful day when she was only four, when her mother was anxiously clearing the closet and packing away. Her father had returned home, and the adults had had a fight. Lily vaguely remembers picking up the gun which had fallen on the floor, and her mother had been shot dead.

This is a vividly touching story of a white girl with a good heart who grew up feeling guilty and unloved, and how she eventually found maternal love, friendship and acceptance before in a coloured community at a time when racism was deep. When Lily and her black domestic help, Rosaleen, ran away from home after getting into trouble with the authorities, they took refuge in the home of 3 black sisters. The sisters ran a honey business, and it is here that Lily learnt about bee keeping, love and relationships.

When one of the black ladies, May, committed suicide because she was “tired of carrying around the weight of the world”, there was a pall of sadness in the community. But May left with all of them, in particular, Lily, some wise words in her suicide note to her sisters, which struck a chord in my own heart too. She had told them that “when it’s time to die, go ahead and die, and when it’s time to live, live. Don’t sort-of-maybe live, but live like you’re going all out, like you are not afraid.”

At the end of the novel, Lily finally found peace in her heart. She found the sign she had been seeking all her young life - that her mother had actually loved her and had not simply abandoned her as her father had told her. She found the wisdom to understand the hurt and betrayal her father had felt when her mother left him, which contributed to his bitterness and cruel coldness in his relationship with her, his only daughter.

The Secret Life of Bees is a beautifully written story that is heart-warming and sensitive yet injected with brilliant humour. I laughed and cried when reading this compulsive, hard-to-put-down book.

Favourite Excerpt:
But I will tell you this secret thing, which not one of them saw, not even August, the thing that brought me the most cause for gladness. It was how Sugar-Girl said what she did, like I was truly one of them. Not one person in the room said, Sugar-Girl, really, talking about white people like that and we have a white person present. They didn't even think of me being different.
Up until then I'd thought that white people and coloured people getting along was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colourless together was a better plan. I thought of that policeman, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I'd lowered myself to be in this house of coloured women, and for the very life of me I couldn't understand how it had turned out this way, how coloured women had become the lowest ones on the totem pole. You only had to look at them to see how special they were, like hidden royalty among us.

Skyva's Story - The 8 Rings of Legend
By: Daniel Tay

Reviewed by: Juliana Tay | 13 June 2005

Review:
Written by a budding Singaporean author and beautifully illustrated by 2 first-time artists, this is Singapore's contribution to the world of sci-fi fantasy. The first in a series of 4 books, it features a quest of a young man in search of his identity and the adventures, friendships, betrayal and love he encounters on the way. Excited? Then read more about it @ www.geocities.com/chryskyva/

Favourite Excerpt:

Da Vinci Code
By: Dan Brown

Reviewed by: Hazel Fernandez | 10 June 2005

Review:
I bought the book after the rather intriguing documentary featured on CNA. I feel the book doesn't live up to its hype. The plot and writing is pitched for a teenage audience...and I find myself very disappointed that it wasn't as mystifying as I expected it to be.

Favourite Excerpt:

Kite Runner (Movie Tie In)
(Hosseini, Khaled)

Afghan
(Forsyth, Frederick)

Quest
(Smith, Wilbur)

Exit Music
(Rankin, Ian)

On Chesil Beach
(McEwan, Ian)

Nineteen Minutes
(Picoult, Jodi)

Treasures Of Khanl
(Cussler, Clive)

Short History Of Tractor In Ukraine
(Lewycka, Marina)

Anybody Out There?
(Keyes, Marian)

Alchemist
(Coelho, Paulo)

Extreme Future
(Canton, James)

New Earth
(Eckhart Tolle)

Innocent Man
(Grisham, John)

Secret
(Bryne, Rhonda)

Persuasion
(Borg)

Yajyza Moon
(- )

Ten Day Mba
(Silbiger, Steven)

Logic Of Life
(Harford, Tim)

One Page Project Manager
(Campbell)