Author Archives: xuelin

Behind that Shiny Resume

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One glance at Jasmine Yow’s resume and you know that she has it all. Academic achievements? Check. Co-curricular awards? Check. Community service? Check. Musical abilities and skills? Check. To top it all, she was an ASEAN scholarship student, with all promises of a bright future before her.

Such a student must be in an enviable position. Who wouldn’t love a chance to receive such honour and recognition, and to be looked upon by friends and family members with such high esteem? And yet, we humans have a tendency to admire the accomplishments of others, not knowing what they have been through to get where they are.

For Jasmine has a story, one that has been brought to light through the pages of this book–”Behind that Shiny Resume–Jottings of a Troubled College Student”.

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Playing The Hunger Games With Katniss?

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The Hunger Games. Love it or hate it, this trilogy is now one of the hottest books of the year. Browsing through the book reviews in Goodreads, it’s interesting to note that most of the reviews are positive. (The book got an average of 4.51 stars) However, it’s the negative reviews that really caught my eye–and it made me think again. Despite my initial liking for this book, I began to nod and think , “Oh well, what the reviewer said does really make sense. I felt the same way too.”

Okay, I’m not saying that reading the reviews totally made me hate this book. No, I do like it, despite several disappointments and confusion. There were parts where I could not put the book down, and parts where I read on out of sheer willpower. If I were to rate it, I would give it a 65/35. 65 for the things I liked, and 35 for otherwise.

What I liked about this book: Katniss. I like Katniss. The author has created such a compelling lead character that gives the book much of it’s spirit. For a start, Katniss is a girl. Okay, I know it makes me sound like a feminist or a sexist (I only admit to being the former), but I’ve often bemoan the lack of strong female characters in action/fantasy novels. The lead of Harry Potter is, obviously Harry. The same goes to Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Twilight was from Bella’s point of view–and oh, please don’t get me started on Twilight. To be fair to the author, I have to admit that I’ve never really read the book. Thus, I have no right to criticise it. However, the reason to as why I have never read the book is that I could not even get past the first few chapters.

Forgive me for detracting from the main topic. My point is that I’ve noticed that many books and movies feature guys as the main heros, with girls as the sidekicks/whiny-wimps /love interest. Hence, it was interesting and refreshing to have such a popular book which features the main character as a strong, independent and sometimes wilful girl.

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Louisa May Alcott’s Blood And Thunder Tales

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Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, is famous for her ‘sentimental’ stories, or what she calls ‘moral pap’ for the younger readers. Most of her stories are preachy; that is, they talk about various virtues, the goodness of simplicity, modesty, frugality—well, you get the idea. “Rose in Bloom” features a rich and beautiful heiress, who is kind and generous despite her wealth; “Kitty’s Class Day” is about a young girl who insists in imitating other girls and dressing up in ridiculous fashions that was unsuitable for her. She comes to grief when a young gentleman accidentally stepped on her long dress, ruining it and humiliating her in front of public. Initially I enjoyed reading such stories very much, for it gave me a glimpse into Victorian life, including the way they dressed and the moral ideals they upheld; but at one point all the ‘moral talk’ became too much to bear, and I started to wonder if Alcott only wrote such stories, and nothing else.

Louisa May Alcott

Then, scrolling through my book list in my e-book reader, I came across an interesting title –Behind the Mask/A Woman’s Power. I thought that it is a book about feminism—but no, it wasn’t. It turned out that I have stumbled upon one of Alcott’s ‘blood and thunder tales’, which, in other words, are sensational stories (by the standards of those days, of course). These stories feature deceit, twisted love and obsession, manipulation, and even murder.

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