Jiaying

Like all autobiographies, you are essentially reading a person's very subjective thoughts. A very absorbing read not because of the writing but simply because of the wealth of experiences Mr Anandan has amassed in his lifetime, be it his personal life as well as the nature of the cases he has taken on. I began reading from the centre of the book, which are the criminal cases which I presumed would be the most juicy. I was wrong when I got to the other section because his life was really interesting! It is fine whichever section you begin with. You also get an insight into the backstories behind many of the trials for capital crimes.

The book read like I was watching TV. I know this is written based on the TV series, which is why the author needs to be conscious of that when writing. There was too much description that relied on sensory information. I felt like I was watching for afar rather than being fully immersed in the characters and settings.

There are some nice juxtapositions in the words but some minor feedback about the poetry:
1. The rhythm is a bit chunky at times
2. Style changes at different sections. Whether by intention or not, maybe the transition felt a little abrupt.

Nice piece of local graphic novel capturing the unique pandemic times in Singapore.

I didn't rate this book as I don't know what to rate it. It is really much more like a diary than a book. The author pens down his raw and vulnerable feelings of his health battle, and previously unpublished thoughts about his career. As such I didn't feel right to rate it as a book, because you'll be disappointed to find that it won't be a coherent prose. But it is an additional insight to the man's life, one of Singapore's most prominent lawyers.

5 stars! A child bunny is being carried home by mama bunny on the street, and wonders about the lives of the various people he sees in the windows. Call it childlike wonder or innate human curiosity that kids and adults alike possess, but the ending punchline (which I shall not spoil here) nails how life is finding ordinary in the special, and the special in the ordinary. Illustrations were amazing - the charcoal drawing style really brings out that night stroll feels!

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

4 stars. Don't judge a book by its cover! Or rather, by the daunting amount of text. It's a cute book with some nice pictures and shares the message of the simple joy of through the not-so-simple act of reading. It is an encouraging story giving non-picture books a try. For me, it made me reminisce my own transition to books with no pictures
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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

5 stars. An eloquent narration of the thoughts of a dying man, Chulkaturin, as he reflects on how he never seemed to belong, and how his love for a woman cemented that narrative. Turgenev fleshed out every possible emotion from Chulkaturin's thought with the most precise descriptions. Kudos to both Turgenev and Patterson, the translator. The prose read beautifully and I was enraptured.

My second Russian literature, but similar to The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the format is in a diary of a dying man. Both fictional narratives explored a particular philosophical concept. In this case, it was the superfluous man. Yet I find that in both, the dying main characters look back on their pitiable consequences, yet do not leave with bitterness and anger at others. As Chulkaturin declares in conclusion, “Live on, ye who live!”

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

4.5 stars.
You begin reading, thinking it is a book about death, but it is a book about life... (and I shall not finish the second part of the sentence because one has to read it for themselves).

Its core message is nothing new, but it brings what we probably already knew in our subconscious to the surface. Told in a narrative that takes you by surprise the first few times it happens, then you come to expect it without understanding, and the final section explains it all. The twists may feel a little raw, but be patient, it gets better.

My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

3.5 stars. A good introduction to this Greek classic, keeping it short and action-packed. It was an easy read yet kept the pace and most of the essence of it. One small feedback would be that it was occasionally difficult to figure out which person is who because they are drawn pretty similarly.

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

An ode to Impressionism (my own take). An ode to living life not perfectly, but enjoying life-ishly.

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

My first high fantasy book and I am glad Brandon Sanderson chose to write in easily understandable language, and introducing characters in a way that does not overwhelm unlike many other books of the genre. Despite its length, there was little fatigue in reading it. Well-paced, action-packed and with a rather interesting premise of Allomancy and Feruchemy. Enjoyed it very much.

2.5 stars. Plot felt like it went from point-to-point than an arc. Writing is debatable because I think that perhaps in the Japanese language, it is normal to be written like this but in translation, it feels simplistic. One of those books where I felt perhaps something was lost in translation. I also wondered if there are translation errors. There was a line where Momoko was speaking in first person, then right after, Takako thinks that Momoko is weird for talking to herself in third person?

What I liked is that the characters each had their journey to find that place, whether physical or internal, that they felt safe and belonged to. Something we can all relate.

Quote:
“No matter where I went, no matter who I was with, if I could be honest with myself, then that was where I belonged.” - Satoru

My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2.5⭐️: Enjoyed some minor parts only, but mainly forgettable ⬅️⬅️⬅️
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

Gorgeous illustrations! The kind I would want to read again to admire it. The story is straightforward, touching on a historical fact that animals were often taken from their homes and given to rulers.

For some reason, the text on my ebook version (borrowed from Overdrive) was totally off in the formatting. The words were all stuck together with no spacing, which is a huge bummer and prevented me from reading it with ease.
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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Wouldn't have read it

It's difficult for me to rate what is essentially the daily diary of a man.

As a fellow journaller of daily life, my own takeaway was how he journalled - he showed me the true art of writing. Even the most mundane was described with such humour, wit and flair.

I wanted to see his thoughts about Harry Potter and boy, did I get them. They made me feel a little guilty that his private thoughts were being published though.

3.5 stars. Easy graphic novel to introduce the concept of end-of-life conversations. Would recommend to read as it is a necessary topic which is foreign or maybe even taboo to many, and this novel explored it through the lens of the doctor. The plot was nice but I didn't give 4 stars because it hadn't reached its full creative potential to be memorable.

My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

You know what makes a great picture book? It makes you wonder about the world, and you want to share it with your nearest kid. Brendan Wenzel has a way with pictures and playful rhymes, and inspires observation about the world around us and its beauty in all shapes and sizes.

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

3.5 stars - I enjoyed the story but lacked a little for what I considered a great read (see my rating system below).

Here are some areas I felt could be better:
- Quantity of description: The author provided nice descriptive sentences in almost every sentence. However, there was too little about the environment or the characters' feelings. I felt like I breezed through them and was unable to form a deeper impression. Some key turning points in the characters' feelings and thoughts could be much more fleshed out.

- Variety in structure and tempo: there was little variety in the sentence structures. Sentences were mostly in the most basic structure “he did this”, “there was that”. Sentences in general were pretty short too. I would not want to attribute it to target audience because there are many examples in books targeting elementary readers that prove otherwise. Because of this, it honestly read a little monotonously to me. It could be an intentional stylistic choice but it wasn't for me.

What I enjoyed:
- The plot was interesting, and as an East Asian I really appreciated a book based on elements I was familiar with - dragons, kirins, architecture and Sea God lores
- looking forward to what the author puts out in future still!

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Wouldn't have read it

4.5 stars. The Chinese name of this book is 在谎言拆穿之前 or “Before the Lie Gets Exposed” (which I believed is a direct translation of the Japanese name). I think this name gives a better indication of the type of stories in this book. The first book was more about the people who time-travelled, but this book was also about the owners of the cafe and more about the ghost. I cried less in this book, but I enjoyed the unfolding of the stories behind the regular characters. As per the previous book, this was a healing read, and nudges readers towards liberation from grief, regrets and guilt through the stories.

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.

4.5 stars. One of the most unique and immersive reads I've had. It was very hard to get into at the beginning because it was so different. And the descriptions were difficult to wrap my head around but it mirrors the experience of the characters themselves in this strange world. Once the plot thickened, it had me at the edge of my seat.

My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read ⬅️⬅️⬅️
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Didn't enjoy and had serious issues. Will suggest to avoid.