My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My Sister's Keeper, in my opinion, was definitely written from the heart. From the first moment I picked it up, three days ago, I couldn't seem to put it down. To me, the book was not written to impress scholars and geniuses. It wasn't filled with big words or clever little cliches, and yet, it was beautiful. I didn't have to use contextual clues, or pick up my dictionary to understand what she was trying to say, and yet, somehow, the way the single words fell into sentences and the sentences, into paragraphs made the story so enticing and so easy to read.

Normally, books which are not chronological, or skip from the point of view of one character to another would make bore and and confuse me, and I usually end up giving up on understanding or trying to get through it altogether. Yet, My Sister's Keeper has both of those, and managed to keep me hooked until the very end.

I loved it. The ending, ironic and heartbreaking at the same time, took me by surprise and made me cry. The only thing I could think about as I was reading it were my two beautiful little sisters and how it would kill me if anything like that happened to any of them.

It's safe to say that from now on, I'll probably be picking up more books by the author for my little collection. I'm gonna end this post with one of the most beautiful lines in the book:

"I have only known her for two years. but if you took every memory, every moment if you stretched them end to end - they'd reach forever." -Sara, about Kate

p/s: I know the book was made into a movie, but I'm not sure I want to watch it, because I found out that they cut out one of the major characters from the book and changed the ending. We'll see.

TV Shows

A few weeks ago, my mom-in-law was telling me about a show she was addicted to on TV. Nur Kasih, katanya. Obviously at that time, dengar acuh tak acuh aje la, because I thought that I was too cool for Malay series (ayat berani mati, memang nak kena sumpah kot). No offense to anyone, but I found a lot of them cliche and plot dia somehow susah nak lari, mesti orang2 kaya yang corporate yang dengki mendengki antara satu sama lain, make up and hair wajib over the top, sampai nak tidur pun rambut 'big hair' the nanny cantik gila and make up 3 inci.

And so my mum-in-law asyikla remind me to watch because she loves it so much, but I kept putting it off, expecting the same things that are always on tv. On Raya Haji, we made our way back to my husband's kampung in Muar, and it turns out that everyone there are Nur Kasih addicts and it just so happened that they were airing the last episode that day, and everyone was excited about it so I finally decided to see what the hype was all about.

The moment I saw that the director was Kabir Bhatia, I realised the folly of my earlier judgments. I had watched Sepi earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. Similarly, Nur Kasih was indeed a wonderful tv drama.

The cinematography was awesome. I thought each scene was filmed carefully, and the effect? beautiful and breathtaking.

I loved that instead of the usual 'oh help me I'm a damsel in distress and I'm just gonna keep quiet when someone does something bad to me' protagonist, this one had spunk and while she was the poster girl for the type of woman every muslim man would want to marry, she did not let anyone step on her head and is known to deliver lines akin to a slap in the face.

I loved the storyline as well. It made me cry, laugh, smile, in fact I probably went through all the emotions I have stocked up during the whole 26 episodes. Oh and for the absolute FIRST time, I LOVED Jalaluddin Hassan's acting. First time ever. I've always thought he was ott and stiff, but this time around, it was effective enough to make me cry.

I rarely ever sing praises for Malaysian made films, but I have to admit that the quality of our films are improving a tremendous lot. I find this particular series meaningful, and, for the first time, considering this is a Malaysian made tv series, when i watched the last episode I felt the same way I usually do when I finish reading a great book or get to the end of a wonderful movie. The feeling of slight sadness that it had to end.

So, Team Aidil or Team Adam (boleh tak apply Twilight punya kat sini? ;p )?

One Tree Hill

Now, I know a lot of people wil scoff at this, but I absolutely love this show. I didn't watch it from the start, not really, but I started watching it around season three and have been obsessed with following it throughout.

I just finished watching an episode from season six, and for some reason, I loved this episode enough to feel like writing something about it.

The lead character is basically making a movie out of his book about their lives, and, as predicted, goes through all the politics that one has to eventually face (i guess) in show business.

But what got to me was the last part. The part where they had found all the actors and was doing a table reading of the movie. They showed each actor reading out their lines, interlaced with the real character and his/her life at that particular moment. I don't even know how to describe it in words. But the scenes, coupled with a song that happens to be one of my favourites at the moment (which was a pleasant surprise for me) are perfect.

I thought that is was so powerful that the series could end right there, and I wouldn't be left unfulfilled. It was just that beautiful. It sounds corny, I'm very much aware of that, but it's just how I feel and it's my blog, and I'm always corny.

So yeah.