Dear Mr Pinkton,
This is my last letter to you. You have annoyed me tremendously and I shall never talk to you again. Please do not write me.

Yours sincerely,
I.A.

Ms Adler sealed the envelope carefully and dabbed a rose-scented perfume on the back of the envelope.

There! That should frighten that terrible man a little bit!

She had the maid mailed the letter out urgently.

A week went by and then another, and still no news from a certain Mr. Pinkton.

Ms Adler was highly agitated by now.

Oh that terrible, terrible man! I shall never ever speak with him again!

She sat at her desk and began writing the next nasty letter to Pinkton.

Dear Mr Pinkton,
I was just wondering if you had received my last letter, informing you to never write me again. I hereby, state it again, just in case that last letter was lost, that, You, Mr Pinkton should never ever write me again. I shall burn every last letter that you send my way!

Yours sincerely,
I.A.
Benjamin Pinkton chuckled at the rose-scented letters from Ms Adler. They were stacked neatly in a pile on his desk. He just loved to make that snobbish little woman mad. He pondered for a moment whether to finally write her back. Surely he has had his fun annoying her. He searched around for his stationery...his desk was a clutter of strange items that had no right to be on a desk: a half-eaten sandwich, an empty bottle of scotch, his razor, a bottle of formaldehyde...he finally found a crumpled sheet of paper.

Dear Ms Adler,
I received your last letter...but unfortunately, I couldn't read a word of it. You see my friend's bulldog had mistaken it for his lunch and devoured it. I managed to save some scraps of your lovely smelling letter... and they read," Dear Mr Pinkton, write me!"
Well, since you obviously are in love with me, here I am, responding to your call of desperation. If you would so like, meet me at the café on 21 Baker's street.

Love,
Benjamin Pinkton

Richard matheson- somewhere in time

Finally found the book in the library. It bears some similarity to What Dreams May Come in the sense that the "forewords" of both books were written by the lead characters' brothers. In what dreams may come, Chris' brother received a stack of transcriptions from a psychic, whom Chris had contacted from the afterlife. In somewhere in time, Richard's brother found his diary after Richard had died from brain tumor. I wonder what gives. I think this is a much better read than what dreams may come although it seems a little far-fetched. How is it possible to fall in love with a man, especially in the 1900s, within a day or two?kinda makes you wonder whether it had all been richard's imagination. Nonetheless, I still quite enjoyed the book and the movie.

Seasons of life

This is a collection of stories of women's experiences in life and God. It's really quite inspiring and heartening to read about how God is always looking out for his people and getting them through difficult times- from divorce, to singlehood, to motherhood, to career, to widowhood... It brings to mind a passage in Corinthians that says: "you are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much and will
show you how to escape your temptations."
Many times when we face tribulations on life, we ask God why and sometimes even lose faith. But we must always believe that no tasks are too tough for us to overcome when we can lend strength from God.
That's just about what I had taken from the book. Honestly, the part that affected me the most was on death of loved ones. Whether it's a spouse or a parent. It just saddens me and though I know that I have Him, I do wonder sometimes if I can really be strong enough to bear the passing of someone dear.
Anyway, at the end of the book, it talked about mission trips to china. Recently there had been an opportunity to do this but I was hesitant coz I didn't feel that I was ready. But after coming across this, I was quite moved to join a mission trip. But alas, it did not come to fruition either. To say the truth, this was the third time that my plans to go for volunteering trip has failed. Initial plan was to head to Cambodia, second was to batam. I guess everything is in His time and hands.

The best American travel writing 2008-edited by Anthony bourdain

Didn't read much of the stories in this book Cept for one on Singapore (three chopsticks by calvin trillin).Kinda narcissistic... The story featured KF Seetoh and how he brought the author to taste the best food, aka hawker food in Singapore. I think the story exemplifies again how food brings and binds people together. And very often when one thinks about a place or when someone mentions a place we have been to, we will tend to ask if they had tried a certain dish at a certain place. When friends visit our country, food is not missing the planned itinerary. The story ended with the author imagining what he would say to Seetoh of he ever visits NYC "but you haven't had a calzone yet...... You can't go home without eating a knish, it will knock your socks off." Exact same words that Seetoh used Cept for different food of course.

Aleph- Paulo coelho

I think nothing can compare with the alchemist. It's the same with the Aleph. Aleph is a autobiography of sort of Paulo coelho's travels in 2006. He embarked on a "quest" to find his spirit, as he had felt stagnant in his spiritual growth. On his journey in Russia,Siberia, he met a young woman named Hilal who claimed that she was connected to Coelho based on a story he wrote about a friend keeping a fire burning for his friend. Through some mental invocation, coelho found out that Hilal was a woman who had loved him 500 years ago and who had died because he did not have the courage to stand up for her. Now all he wanted was her forgiveness. It seems all that we do, did, and will do are interconnected. This book will appeal to you depending on what your beliefs are. Although the idea of reincarnation is exciting, how real is it ?

1968 and I'm Hitchhiking through Europe- Joe Mack

A college student's summer vacation in Europe in the 60s. Quite a charming read as the book wasn't so much about what he had seen in Europe but the people he had met. I wonder if the world is as opened as it was back in the 60s, where people were unafraid of inviting strangers they had picked up from the road to their home for dinner. Is hitchhiking a thing from the past or is it still a viable mode of travel? With the world a less safer place than it was, I believe the former might hold true.

Richard matheson-button button

Because I couldn't find Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson, I borrowed the only available book by him in the library- Button, Button: Uncanny Stories 

It was a very good read. Filled with short, obscure stories that sometimes ended abruptly. Some of the stories in this collection included Button, Button (featured in Twilight Zone and a movie entitled The Box), No Such Thing as a Vampire, Clothes Make the Man, etc.

My favorite was No Such Thing as a Vampire. The plot was quite clever. Dr Petre Gheria's wife, Alexis, had turned sickly and was found in the morning with blood spilt all over her body. Gheria discovered two puncture wounds on her neck and was seemingly led to believe that the village was haunted by vampires. It turned out to be a case of revenge and murder plotted by Petre on his wife and her lover, who was also Petre's close friend.
A fun and cute read...