Her Fearful Symmetry-Audrey Niffenegger

Seriously, I can never get this author's last name right! Sheez... Loved Niffenegger's writing to death. As usual, her book starts off a little stale but as the story progresses, you just can't put the book down. I admire her for the novelty and obscurity she brings into her stories. Stories, that you can never imagine or expect. This is a strange story of Elspeth and Edie, twin sisters and Edie's daughters, Julia and Valentina, who were twins too. Elspeth died of leukemia right at the beginning of the story, leaving her lover, Robert, behind.
What happened after is, depending on your beliefs are, incredulous. Elspeth became a spirit, lingering behind in her old apartment, unable to leave. Came Julia and Valentina, one vivacious, loud, and bossy, the other timid and mousy, to take over Elspeth's apartment.

Robert and Valentina, fell in love, shortly after, and despite their age difference. Julia, of course, felt jealous, to have Valentina "leave" her for Robert, the ghost of Elspeth felt the same and started getting ideas, when she realised she has the power to take another's soul away.

The story is strange but hauntingly beautiful. It makes you sad, makes you gape in incredulousness... leaves me despising Elspeth, feeling sad for Valentina and Julia, and then applauding what happens to Elspeth at the end of the story.

Julie and Julia

Finally managed to find some time to do some catch-up reading, in between school assignments and 9-hours of sitting in the office. I have not much to say about this book, just that it is quite an interesting read about a slightly crazed woman, who risks her husband, her cats, her job to cook the 524 recipes in Julia Child's famous book: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". You have to admire her determination and guts to do that, especially when you have read MtAoFC. Incidentally, I have a copy of MtAoFC and I can tell you that it is no mean feat to cook the dishes in there. I have only done 2 recipes from that book, and both were relatively easy, and thats the reason why I have only done them, and not the rest of the 522 recipes. Everything else is just too darn difficult and time-consuming! And you probably will not be able to find most of the ingredients in Singapore...and I guess the ingredients needed may be a tad expensive as well. So yes, it took a lot for her to manage all 524 recipes in a year, no less (especially when the recipes call for killing lobsters, making aspic with cattles' calves, yikes!).

A bit like Julie, myself, I am the sort that never does finish up projects. I often start something with gusto, but nearing the end of the project, I would start to feel bored and find the need to do something else. Yes, i can name many things I have started learning on a wimp and quit halfway through: French, Japanese, Spanish, piano, knitting, scrapbooking, etc.

Committed- Elizabeth Gilbert

If you had enjoyed Eat Pray Love a little too much, then this book might not be for you. The book is quite a disappointment, with a lesser raw feel to it. It’s more like a social discourse on marriage, while “Eat Pray Love” is more of a memoir, which feels so much more private and "real".
I definitely didn’t enjoy this as much as EPL, and I would classify Committed as more of an educational reading and it does read kinda like someone’s dissertation on the history and culture of marriage. What I found interesting is the description of the Hmong's (a small tribe in Laos) wedding practice, which is very very similar to a typical Chinese wedding in Singapore.
 
For instance, the wedding couple would invite tons of people to their wedding dinner, even people they do not know. These people would give money in a packet to the couple during their wedding dinner, which were then collected in a box. After the dinner was over, the couple would stay up all night to count the money they had received, and document the amounts and from whom the money was from, in a book.
 
This amount would be returned to the person who had given it to them, when it was his/her turn to get married. And this amount would often be more than what they received from this person, taking into account inflation/interest rate.
 
Exactly like our practice.
 
It's kinda funny how a lot of people yearned to get married, when marriage is not necessarily beneficial to them. Most women are still expected to be in charge of the household chores, taking care of the kids, etc. In our moden society, this expectation also comes with the additional stress of having to contribute to the household income, due to so-called EQUALITY of the sexes. So you see, marriage, most often, do not benefit women. Men always get the longer end of the stick. But of course, I am not saying this is always true. I, for one, do not do as much homework or contribute as much to the household income. I guess, I did get the longer end of the stick.

Daisy Miller- Henry James

Decided to read this book after it was featured in "Readling Lolita in Tehran".

This is a very short story written by Henry James, a well-known American writer, in 1878. It is a rather fun and interesting read. The portrayal of Daisy Miller is so real, that you can't help falling in love with her (I will, if I were a man). Daisy Miller has the art of flirtation so fine-tuned, that she came across as a subtle, innocent, yet charming young lady. Mr Winterbourne was so captivated by her and pursued her relentlessly against the better judgement of his snobbish, high society aunt.

Against societal norms, Daisy Miller went out on dates alone with young men and late at night. After meeting Mr Wooster for just half an hour, she went out on a date with him, alone, to a Chateau in Switzerland. Such behaviour was despised upon by the high-society women, who felt such behaviour loose. But Daisy did not seem to care for one bit. The story ended quite sadly though- with the very frivolous and nary a care character of Daisy Miller, causing her death.

It's kinda funny how Aunts always seemed to play a major and imposing role in stories from the late 19th/ early 20th century. It reminded me a lot of PG Wodehouse's Mr Wooster and his aunt, who was his source of income. And whom, Wooster was terrified of and often had to bend himself over to his aunt's will.