213. Journeys: Tamils in Singapore, 1800-Present by Murugaian Nirmala

BOOK REVIEW: Journeys - Tamils in Singapore, 1800-Present by Murugaian Nirmala

I'm an Indian and a practicing Hindu. Despite being an adopted child by Indian parents (my fathers deep Chettiar roots in Natchanthupatti, India), I was raised with all the Indian customs, traditions and values. I love the colourful capes that life as an Indian offers me. But how much do we really know about our Tamilian origins? This book is an eye-opener to the history of the first Tamils to set foot in Malaya and Singapore and how the Indians have developed over the years.

From South India to Southeast Asia, they came as seafarers, lascars, labourers, coolies, overseers, potters, traders and merchants. They worked on fields, rubber estates, and construction sites, in textile, the jewellery trade and the civil service. Some started off dirt-poor, others well-off, still others found success in Singapore.

Where they lived and prospered, in the Chulia and Market Street areas and in Serangoon Road, shops, homes and temples sprang up, and the traditions the early immigrants brought with them from Tamil Nadu took route and flourished.

Leaders rose from the comunity to lead not just the Tamils but the young multicultural nation of Singapore itself - personalities like early pioneer P Govindasamy Pillai, veteran union leader G Kandasamy and former president S R Nathan.

As Singapore developed into a first-world country, new challenges arose. How, for example, could under-performing Indian pupils in Singapore be helped? What would be the best way to preserve and promote the use of Tamil? What was the future of the community, given that some Indians were leaving Singapore to settle in other countries even as a new wave of Indian immigrants arrived?

In this book, the author, formerly a journalist and editor of Tamil Murasu, takes a clear-eyed look at the early immigrants, the role Tamils played in the tumultous 50s and 60s, and the issues facing the community in more recent times. 

What's more enthralling is that some of the Tamil pioneers in Singapore were born on Malaysian soil, some hailing from Seremban and even Rawang. They embraced Singapore's rapidly growing infrastructure and economy and never looked back. 

Beautifully written to give true meaning into who we are as Tamils, it creates a sense of responsibility to upholding our own race and identity even in the face of adversity and even discrimination. Vaalga tamil makkalae!

212. Pet Sematary by Stephen King

BOOK REVIEW: Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Death is an all-encompassing syllable. The word, denoting nature's due release of the soul from God's created vessel, brings forth a barrage of meaning and emotions. Death can bring about bouts of sadness, misery, sour memories festering like wounds even after months of a loved one passing on. Death could also proffer wonderful memories with a loved one to be cherished with a feverish fervor, more than how they would have been cherished if they were walking the earth.

But what if death was just a rite of passing like graduating after highschool or maybe even being eligible to a driving license? What if you had the power of breathing back life into an empty vessel, would you do it? If you have conjured up such a thought, this book by Master of Horror Stephen King will set you screaming for the hills.

Dr. Louis Creed moves with his family to Ludlow, Maine. The rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable house looked right, felt right. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Only the occassional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive threat.

But behind the house and far away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully cleared path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.

A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding. Louis's life just about goes downhill when he discovers what the MicMac burying ground beyond the Pet Sematary holds in store, when his pet cat, Church meets with an untimely death. Horror unfolds like a dark shadow as the plot gets thicker with zombified extremities.

Recently I had the privilege of watching the silver screen version of it and truth be told, was honestly dissapointed. The only similarity I could muster up was the name of the characters, and the resurrection of Church and Louis's dead child.

However, the plot was undeniably not as in the book. Louis's family was considered as a dysfunctional family, Rachel and Louis having a strained relationship and Ellie, his daughter, being the princess of all brats. But in the movie they are one happy-go-lucky, picture perfect institution.

Then even the sense of terror is misplaced when Louis tries to bury the dead bodies. In the story, Gage, the baby, gets run over by an Orinco truck but in the movie it's Ellie, Gage's elder sister who gets run over.

The story was more bone-chilling than the movie itself. Sure the movie had scenes where they had the Wendigo (a mythical Beelzebub look-alike in the story) show up through the mist, but it was a terribly miserable excuse of a creature that breathes life into the dead.

Probably the director also thought it more reasonable for a walking, talking child to be resurrected to wreak hell on earth compared to Gage weilding a scalpel in the book.

All in all, there were plenty of discrepancies that put me off the movie but made me appreciate the author's point of writing with a mind bent on the reader's sheer burst of adrenaline to read till the last page.

Hopefully readers who pick up this book have a strong heart and an even stronger stomach to hold in there as each gruesome event in the book conjures up vivid dreams of corpses and all things corporeal.

211. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

BOOK REVIEW: Digital Minimalism - Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport (courtesy of Times Reads)

As a millenial, I have had the privilege to experience for myself the advancement of technology, from owning my first smartphone to updating my profile on Facebook when it newly burst onto the scenes. But even with various forms of social media cropping up, are we truly being the social animals that we were originally created as? 

On many an occassion, I have come to realize that social media is robbing us of enriched face-to-face socializing and decreasing communication skills, both of which are immensely valuable in a work environment or even in the family living room. Personally, I have taken several instinctive measures of my own to decrease the use of social media that distracts more than anything else. This mind-boggling read has come at a precise time, justifying the need for us to go offline and enjoy life while you're at it. 

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones (something I know is pretty unavoidable in the current smartphone generation). They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the outing (think tons of selfies on Instagram and Facebook or even Snapchat. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them with meaning and satisfaction.

Now, this tome's bestselling author gives us a title for this silent movement - digital minimalism - and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips like turning off notifications, or occassional rituals like observing a digital Sabbath (similar to a crash diet but for social media usage), don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Drawing on a vast selection of real-life examples, the author identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a 30-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way. I have seen the benefits that going offline can do for myself, including being able to ravenously go through a minimum of two books a day. When you start to segregate real life and the virtual world, that's when social media's benefits may be reaped.

210. The Second QI Book of General Ignorance by Lloyd and Mitchinson

BOOK REVIEW: The Second QI Book of General Ignorance by Lloyd and Mitchinson

As an avid reader who reads about anything and everything, factual tomes are something I lay back on when I have read one too many fiction books. A balance is in order to add some mind pizzazz back into the reading nook. So this time around I picked up this book which debunks myths into true facts that will blow you off your feet.

Just when you thought it was safe to start showing off again, the QI team are back with another lorry-load of common mistakes and understandings. For example, we have always known that the saltiest water is in the Dead Sea. WRONG! It is in Don Juan Lake in Antarctica. Jaw-dropping isn't it?

Whether it's history, science, sport, geography, literature, languages, medicine or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong.

Playfully written with jokes peppered throughout the book, the authors have manged to compile all the facts in a fun-filled manner, making it a jolly read despite it being a non-fiction book. Readable by medium to advanced readers, it makes a great gift for those brainiacs who just seem to think they know just about everything (or do they?).

209. Always and Forever Lara Jean by Jenny Han

BOOK REVIEW: Always and Forever Lara Jean by Jenny Han

How many hands can I see up in the air who have watched the movie To All The Boys I've Loved Before? A true tear-jerker and a tickle to the funny bone too, it portrays the teenage love story of an Asian American and an all-too-familiar high school jockey character.

The movie which originated from the first book by the same name, this last book in a series of three (the second book being PS I Love You), concludes the love story of Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky.

Lara Jean is having the best senior year and there's still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her sweetheart Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad's wedding to Ms. Rothschild. 

Then she'll be off to college with Peter in UVA, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends. Life couldn't be more perfect. At least, that's what Lara Jean thinks until she gets some unexpected news that she got admitted into UNC.

Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans - but when your heart and your head are saying two diferent things, which one should she listen to?

The most emotional one in this series, it truly makes one understand that love definitely stands the test of time, age and distance being a tiny hurdle to let the essence flow through. The story also portrays that culture is held close to one's heart in the case of Lara Jean observing her Korean roots despite being born and raised in America.

A wonderful read that will make your heart a-flutter, this book is a pick-me-up at any moment for your reading pleasure. I received this book in a Christmas Book Exchange and my humble appreciation goes to Ms. Atiqah for this read which syncs with my emotional personality.

208. The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly Harper

BOOK REVIEW: The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly Harper

Bookshelves in bookstores (and my own library alike) are chock-full of vampire rom-coms and plain lusty vampire romances too. But what happens when you put a girl who does vampire services and a half-poisoned vampire who looks like a Greek god on a kitchen floor? Poof! You get fireworks dearies and plenty of chance (or should I say set-up encounters) with the clothes off?

Iris Scanlon is Half Moon Hollow's only daytime vampire concierge and she knows more about the undead than she'd like. Running their daylight errands - from letting in the plumber to picking up some chilled Faux Type O - gives her a look at the not-so-glamorous side of the blood-suckers. 

Her rules are strict; relationships are purely business, not friendship - and certainly not anything more. Then she finds her newest client, Cal, poisoned on his kitchen floor, and her simple life turns upside down.

Cal - who would be devastatingly sexy, if Iris thought vampires were sexy - offers Iris a hefty fee for hiding him at her place. And eventhough he's imperious, unfriendly, and doesn't seem to understand the difference between "employee" and "servant", she agrees.

But as they search for who wants him permanently dead, Iris is breaking more and more of her own rules...particularly those about nudity. Could it be that what she really needs is some intrigue and romance - and her very own stray vampire?

This book is definitely the one for those who love their dose of vampirism, hunky ones at that, as well as some good action scenes where the light always wins over evil. Humorically written and touching at some points, it's highly readable content is to hunt for.