One of my favorite authors whose storytelling style always pulls me into the dreamland.

An astonishing story about an animal's perspective on humanity. I know it sounds like a children's fairy tale, however the author is keen, and has succeeded, to spread out with this essay a very strong and serious message about civilization accross the world.

Ishmael is a gorilla teaching a human about how to save the world before it's too late. Why gorilla? Quinn is talking about human civilization here, and in order to gain an objective point of view, it needs to come from something non-human. It is more effective to look at the subject through the eyes of those from the weaker side than from the aggressor himself.

I was quite sceptical myself before I read this book, whether it was not again one of those books that bring up non-sense. But after the first few pages, I couldn't put this book down. Every page is a brand new view on human civilization, something that we've known already and with which we live our lives every single day, but yet it looks so different when you look at it from the other side. In some extent it even manages to touch the deepest part of my heart. Very well written.

The movie "Instinct" (starring Sir Anthony Hopkins) was made based on this book. However I find that "Instict" has not succeeded to bring the full message accross. The book is by far a lot better.

Read and be prepared to feel quilty to take part in the human civilization.

This review has also been posted on my Friendster account.

Buku ketiga Cecelia Ahern yang gue baca. Ceritanya dimulai dari persahabatan Luke Egan, anak laki2 berumur enam tahun dengan imaginary friendnya, Ivan, yang berasal dari tempat yang namanya Ekam Evelieb (go figure!).

Setelah beberapa lama bersahabat ma si Luke, sesuatu yang aneh terjadi. Ivan ternyata juga bisa diliat sama Elizabeth Egan, ibu adopsinya si Luke, dimana seharusnya para imaginary friends ini hanya bisa diliat sama anak kecil yang bersangkutan aja.

Elizabeth dan Ivan lalu mulai membina persahabatan, yang lama kelamaan membuka mata hati Elizabeth yang tadinya dingin karena harus melewati masa kecil yang tidak terlalu bahagia.

Gue sih baca buku ini sampe abis juga, walaupun menurut gue dua romannya Cecelia Ahern yang terbit duluan lebih bagus, apalagi yang kedua, Where Rainbows End. Tapi buat penggemar sweet story gak ada salahnya deh baca buku ini. Apalagi kan emang Cecelia Ahern punya gaya tersendiri yang membuat pembaca tetap lanjut ke halaman berikutnya sampe ceritanya selesai :)

Coelho describes in "Eleven Minutes" the human side of a prostitute. Telling us, that women with this profession pursue exactly the same dreams as their other fellowmen with a so-called normal job like lawyer, bus driver, artist, office-clerk whatsoever, namely to be happy and be loved. Having a disrespectful profession does not make you less human.

This book is basically beautifully written, yet the author seems to have two messages in one story to bring across. Which I find as one too many. The second message is about Maria's (the main role in this book) sexual exploration and her search for her own sexual satisfaction. Is actually not a bad idea for a theme, just that it makes the author looks a bit confused, in which direction he actually wants to go.

I'd say, it's better to focus on one single theme at a time. But still, this book is worth the read. Especially for those who enjoy Coelho's beautiful wordings and sentences.

This book has the power to inspire people to listen to their heart, to read the omens and to follow their dreams.

I must admit, "Where Rainbows End" is not exactly meant for deep-thinkers, or those who are searching for something really meaningful for us to learn. So it's superficial, but still kind of entertaining. A book with which you don't have to do some serious thinking game; a book with which you can temporarily shut down from a thinking game we anyway have to deal with in our real life whether we like it or not.

What I really enjoy is the way the author wrote the plots; in forms of written correspondence, mostly through emails and some through snail mails. I find it really cute. Everytime we move from one point of view to another (depends who was writing at the very moment), still it ties everything up together in harmony and builds one complete story. Actually not a really easy thing to do, so thank you goes to Ms. Ahern for sharing with us her good work