Monday, April 25, 2011

Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet

Title: Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet
Author: Yangzom Brauen
Publisher: Harvill Secker Random House
ISBN: 9781846553455




Back Cover Text
Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of Tibet's youngest nuns, she grew up in a remote mountain village where, as a teenager, she entered the local nunnery. Though simple, Kunsang's life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature, a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk, had two children and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long.

There was a saying in Tibet: 'When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.' The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything for Kunsang. When Chinese soldiers began destroying her monastery, she and her family were forced to flee in a hair-raising trek across the Himalayas in winter. She spent several years in Indian refuge camps. Both her husband and her younger child died. Then came an extraordinary turn of events: the arrival of Martin Brauen, a cultured young Swiss man with a fascination for Tibet, who fell in love with her daughter and took both of them to Switzerland where Yangzom would be born, the author of this remarkable book.

Many important stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. Yangzom Brauen has rescued the story of her inspirational grandmother, writing a book full of love and endurance, and giving us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese.

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About the Author:


Born in 1980 to a Swiss father and Tibetan mother, Yangzom Brauen is an actress and political activist. She lives in both Los Angeles and Berlin and has appeared in a number of German and American fils. She is also very active in the Free Tibet movement, making regular broadcasts about Tibet and organising public demostrations against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

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Why I Read The Book?
I just love any stories that is told about Tibet. The first and second chapters already make you really get a sense of what it would feel like to live in Tibet during the occupations of Chinese while fleeing in such horrible conditions to India.


 (Sonam, Kunsang and Yangzom)

Fleeing home can never be easy especially when you are six plus your shoes are roughly hand-sewn, stuffed with hay, it turned to some "ice-cake" under such low temperature and your route is over the world's highest mountain range. This was the journey that author's mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet during the Chinese occupations in Tibet. They were leaving everything behind and all that they knew are traveling to India in hope that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile.

Even though they do manage to get into India but their impressions of the country (the heat, the sickness, lack of clean water, and the inequalities making them have second thought. Being refugees over there are tough. They spend years on road-building sites smashing stones with their bare hands with hammers. But the author's mother, Sonam manage to get an education, alongside trying to work to survive. Then her life takes a fairytale turn.


(Yangzom and her mother)

Kunsang, the author's grandmother, who has journeyed to a Western country, yet she is still a strong faith Buddhist nun, days and nights she pend her time chanting and praying on her own made little altar. If the Chinese had not invaded, she would be living in the small village of Pang in southern Tibet.

All in all, this is a collection of the author's memories, memories of Yangzom’s tribute to her grandmother and mother, as well as to her lost homeland. It tells of what daily life was like in Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese, showing how religion informed every aspect of people’s lives and at the end it is a love story between Yangzom and her extraordinary grandmother, the love between Sonam and her Swiss rescuer and most importantly the love for a country that no longer exists.
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Angry Bird Rio


Damn, haven't finish playing the original Angry Birds and now the Rio edition is out...Downloaded the free edition and it's cute...in the end, beli juga...now have 2 versions in my iPhone...





Watch the trailer HERE
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Monday, April 18, 2011

Feels Good When It's Busy

Finally I am back to update my blog. It seems like I feel better when I keep myself constructively busy. Not pretend one ok but is really busy, super busy. Since my senior resigned two weeks ago and now I can really feel that one person doing 2 person jobs. And I need congratulate myself for having so much pending jobs on hand. But come to think of it, I really did learned a lot of things. Plus my time in office past super fast. Sekejap saja lunch, then balik liao.


But sometimes cannot tahan some people lor. When your are busy with all the workload, some people happily shaking their legs and they got all of our credits nia.

Sorry lar, no mood to talk on people's back plus I don't like it too. I am hoping tomorrow will be better and things get done, at least 60% of my current pending jobs. So tired, need to sleep now..Nitey.

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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Sing You Home

Title: Sing You Home
Author: Jodi Picoult
ISBN: 9781451620986
Publisher: Atria International


Back Cover text
Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen. Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter's life. There's the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant. For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love. In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people—even those she loves and trusts most—don't want that to happen. Sing You Home is about identity, love, marriage, and parenthood. It's about people wanting to do the right thing for the greater good, even as they work to fulfill their own personal desires and dreams. And it's about what happens when the outside world brutally calls into question the very thing closest to our hearts: family.

Short Synopsis
Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and after multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, it looks as though her dream is about to come true - she is seven months pregnant. But a terrible turn of events leads to a nightmare - one that takes away her baby and breaks apart her marriage to Max. In the aftermath she throws herself into her career as a music therapist, using music to soothe burn victims in hospital, to help Alzheimer's patients connect with the present, to provide solace for hospice patients. When Vanessa, a guidance counsellor, asks Zoe to work with a suicidal teen, their relationship moves from business to friendship and then, to Zoe's surprise, blossoms into love.

When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of having a family again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that were never used by her and Max. Meanwhile, Max has found peace at the bottom of a bottle, until he is redeemed by an evangelical church whose charismatic pastor has vowed to fight the 'homosexual agenda' that threatens traditional family values. But this mission becomes personal for Max, when Zoe and her partner say they want permission to raise his unborn child.

Sing You Home an honest and moving story of contemporary relationships and the consequences when love and desire collide with science and the law. From tragedy, to self-discovery and joy, Zoe, Vanessa and Max will realise the undeniable truth-that you can't choose who you love.


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Why read this book?
I didn't read all of Picoult's books but only watched The Sister's Keeper movie. So I am thinking this one is just not for me. But when I got this book, I read it more like a research book rather than a fictional stuff and it's actually a well put together novel. I learned a lot though with all the research Picoult's did on the
Gay/Lesbian community and music therapy.

Have nothing much to say about this book but beautifully written, kinda suspenseful and the very first book I have read by this author. Hope I will be finding the other works of Jodi's are better than this......
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For more info about the book:
JodiPicolt
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Friday, April 1, 2011

Cave of Tigers

Title: Cave of Tigers: The Living Zen Practice of Dharma Combat
Author: John Daido Loori
Publisher: Shambhala
ISBN: 9781590305652



Back Cover text
"Daido Roshi challenges today's Zen students with quotes from sages who lived a thousand or so years ago. The deep, unrehearsed life questions that these words evoke in the students are answered with often practical, funny, or mind-shattering responses. yet Daido Roshi offers those who come forward nothing to hang on to. This book is important for students and novice teachers alike. It is a testimony to the vital relevance of alive Zen practice in our time.' - Roshi Bernie Glassman, author of Bearing Witness and Instructions to the Cook

"In this unique book we get a rare glimpse of the face-to-face, intimate encounter of earnestly questioning student and accomplished Zen master. Each exchange has the potential to bring insight, even to the reader." - Jan Chozen Bays, author of Jizo Bodhisattva

"Cave of Tigers brings the age-old practice of Dharma combat into a modern context. Daido Roshi's grasp of the historical material and his long experience of teaching through these Zen encounters with students make this a valuable presentation of an otherwise neglected subject. I recommend it to anyone wishing to learn about this traditional and still very vital practice." - Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi, author of Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way

John Daido Loori is the spiritual leader and abbot of the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, New York, and founder of the Mountains amd Rivers Order of Zen. He is the author of numerous books, including The True Dharma Eye. 
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