Serein Choo's Blog, page 23

The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner

By Terry Pratchett

I think many have heard of the author. He has produced so many books over the years. I think everyone who is an avid reader would have come by one or two of his books. I have a love hate relationship. I like some but dislike another. Anyway let’s get into it.

For this book, there’s a total of 7 short stories. Some hit the mark with me while some didn’t but overall I do quite enjoyed all of the stories that I read.

Out of all of them, I prefer the last story of Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor. I found that it was the most funniest one.

I really like how she played with the font in the book – it gives some fun in them like the stories itself. A great collection of short stories.

“Teach yourself to Drive,” he read aloud v e r y s l o w l y, partly working out the words by looking at the picture of the human on the front cover, sitting in the front of a car.

Quoted from Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor. The Witch Vacuum Clearner, Terry Pratchett

Disclaimer

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not a professional in anyway. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences/my writing journey and my personal views on certain subjects. If you are seeking a professional opinion, on how you should proceed to achieve your personal goals, please consult a professional. (Aug, 2023)

A book of untruths

A memoir by Miranda Doyle

Sometimes, I really would like to step into another’s shoes and discover other people’s life. It’s always an interesting read, because everyone have different lives, perspective on things. So I was curious about this book and bought it and started reading on the author’s life, a memoir. The book introduces us to lies, through her perspective she talks about it and how it relates to her life. The truth of lies, the expectations of lies, and lies in general.

“Perhaps then the answer is to drop the ‘memoir’ label and throw myself in with ‘creative non-fiction’.

Here truth is no longer the measure. Anything underwhelming can be overcome by imagination. Or is creative non-fiction really just an excuse to lie?

And I don’t want to lie.

A book of untruths.

A book about lies/untruths but in the book the author mentioned about how she didn’t want to lie (mentioned in part/above in the book) yet it’s not about lying, it’s leaned more towards the memories as she mentioned.

How we are unable to remember somethings and our brains made something up to fill in the gaps in our memories (false memories) – in a sense it was something like a lie too. One event, can only have one truth, yet there’s are many versions of it but we can’t say that everyone is lying since everyone might remembered the same events differently. It was truth for them until someone talked about it and different versions came around, were argued and rejected since no one could prove their versions were correct. Everyone keep to their own versions.

One part of the book – mentioned how she was arguing with her father, how they remembered it as her being at everyone’s throat.

While the author saying how she remembered it as her family was the ones who was being at hers.

The disparity of memories.

There were more exploration in the early chapters of the book and slowly you get into the flow of her life in the latter.

In summary, I would recommend it to those who likes biography and those who would discover slowly the layers of a person’s life.

Nothing fancy (like world war, famine) just a person’s life and their struggles.

But it got me thinking a lot.

Marriages are made in Bond Street

True stories from a 1940s Marriage Bureau

By Penrose Halson

Marriage was something elusive to me, even more so the pre-marriage stage aka. matchmaking process. I know about modern dating but not so much on past practices so when I saw this book, I thought I should learn more.

The setting is in British, just before Second World War started, it tell the tale of two women who set up the Marriage Bureau and helped men and women alike to find The One.

It amusing and endearing at the same time to discover, regardless of time, all sorts of people come together and with a little bit of the discerning eye, they will see each other’s strengths and learn to love them.

Other than that, matchmaking in the past, people got together much faster and with the help from the Marriage Bureau everything also move along better and more smoothly (but one case still took 48th tries to get their beloved).

The Marriage Bureau helped to sort out eligible men/women and matched them to you. Reducing the hassle of finding it yourself. It’s Tinder but with installed filters so you don’t have to filter them yourself.

Of course their work is not free but paying a fee to get The One, doesn’t seem bad.

I really enjoyed the book – if you interested in matchmaking process 1940s I do suggest to have a read to this book.

Mr Paul took one look at Angela, the forty-eighth young woman he’d met, and knew, definitely, assuredly, incontrovertibly and for ever, that she was the one. Angela reserved judgement a little longer, but was courted with such seductive conviction (not for nothing was Mr Paul in advertising) that she was won over.

Penrose Halson

If Cats Disappeared from the world

by Genki Kawamura

It was a curious pick for me. I don’t usually choose books from Japanese writers, not being racist or anything, just that sometimes what they write doesn’t resonate much with me. However when I saw the title, curiosity still took over and I took it from the shelves and read the blurb.

“What would you sacrifice for an extra day of life?”

If Cats Disappeared from the World.

That one line was what captured me and I checked out the book and began reading it at home. Truthfully, it was an interesting.

It’s nothing complicated, if you are a fast reader, you could finish it really fast (like maybe a day) but this book, it provided great meaning to life, how one face death and the realization between living and death. It gave out an interesting perspective.

I would recommend it.

“So there’s really no such thing as too late or too soon.”

“That’s a nice way of thinking about it.”

“Don’t you think so? Anyway, I just thought I’d throw that in as an extra freebie since this is the last time we’ll be seeing each other. Make sure the last thing you do is done with passion. Go all the way! Well, it’s time now. Goodbye.”

A snippet of conversation from the book.