My Book Reviews

The Charm Bracelet by Melissa Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review will consist of a bit of a back story, so forgive me for ranting a bit.
As I got to know the characters in the book, I could already figure out the basic ending, and I was right. But there was something so addictive about Hill's writing that made it almost impossible to put the book down.
For some reason, I knew that for the Chinese New Year holidays, I had wanted to read this particular book. Weeks before I went on holiday, somehow, I had this book planned in my head already. For some reason, I had wanted this particular book. I went through the other books I had, but in the end decided on the original book that I had in mind. (It was a conflict between a Nicholas Sparks' piece and The Charm Bracelet.) If I had wanted to, I could've finished in a week, but when I was on holiday, I dragged a bit because I didn't want to finish the book so quickly and not have anything else to read after.
Anyway, though a slightly, typically cliche plot, I must admit the ending surprised me a bit and left me a bit confused about Cristina (without giving too much away). When Karen made such a big deal (for all the wrong reasons too, in my opinion) when Greg quit his job, I didn't really like her starting then.
The moment the ball dropped about who the lost bracelet belongs to, I could pretty much affirm how the story would obviously end, and I was right.
However, Hill's writing style kept me engrossed in every page. I managed to finish the book in a little over 2 weeks, which is good considering the usual time constraints in the remaining of my days after work.

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The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

FINALLY I've finished this book! It's the longest I've EVER taken in my life to finish a 180-page book. And truth be told, after finishing it, I still think the price of it (RM42) is a bit too much. That's saying something, as I managed to find a website selling it at the lowest; other sites were selling it at about RM80 for paperback.
It feels like a great weight off my shoulder, finishing this book. It has been dragging on because most times I never felt pulled enough to pick it up and finish it; yet I wanted to get it over and done with as soon as I could, so I would be able to finally pick up another book. (I have this thing where I have to finish a book I started before going on to the next one)
I first got to know about this book through an Oprah video where she interviewed the author. Back then, the topic they were discussing intrigued me, and I read an excerpt of it on the Oprah Book Club website, and it sounded interesting too.
I admit I was disappointed though. Don't get me wrong, there were some good bits here and there that I've taken to practicing, but what I found especially annoying was Singer's tendency at starting sentences with "If you were wise, you would...", "People who are wise would/would not do so-and-so" and "It's really that simple". I dunno about other readers, but those words made me feel like I was stupid. After all, he mentioned that 'if we were wise' we would do it. And we as readers obviously haven't, because well, we bought his book to learn how, didn't we? And when he mentioned that it was 'really that simple', it somehow felt like a bit of a mockery to me.
See, Singer's methods require constant repetition of practice. It requires concentration and dedication to follow through it at all times. Sure, when you've become used to it, it feels routine, but TO LEARN TO PRACTICE IT takes time. So when I read lines like that, it makes me feel as if I'm dumb for not finding it as 'easy' as he claims it to be.
Singer also, I noticed, had the tendency to repeat his points. He would repeat a point several times over, just changing the sentence structures (active-passive, passive-active etc). While repetation is good in some ways to get it in your head, it gets frustrating when you have to read the same points 2-3 times over.
While I admit that certain of Singer's good points were, well, good, I wouldn't have paid that much for the book. Initially I hadn't minded as much because I thought it would be a very good book, seeing as it was so expensive everywhere else.
But eh.. I guess I don't regret the knowledge I got from this book (knowledge is never bad, no?) . Just.. not much my cup of tea.

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