Jasmines the flower and Jasmine the lady

It took me three hours to read Jasmines on the 4^th Floor. It’s a love story by Maclean Patrick published by Alaf 21 Sdn. Bhd, between a Chinese lady and an Ibanese man. Happy ending love affairs, but this novel has an element of surprise.

A good first book by the author. A lot to be improved, though.

Synopsis
Jasmine finds solace in her world of flowers on her 4th floor apartment. She dreams of the day she would leave the apartment for Singapore. But all her plans are sidelined the day she meets the mysterious Remy.

Remy is on the run from himself. Desperately trying to find meaning in his life, he hides in the flat complex called Rifle Range (located at Penang). There he befriends Jasmine and immediately takes interest in her. Jasmine, the happy-go-lucky girl is the answer to his problems.

It is a friendship that helps both of them cope with their tortured past and their need to love and be loved. Ultimately Remy’s secret threatens their blossoming love and hopes of a life together.

Could the strengths of their friendship and love overcome the secret that Remy hides?

Publisher: Alaf 21 Sdn. Bhd, 2008
Price: RM 10.00
Pages:208, paperback
ISBN: 978-983-124-336-7

We provide catering services for the following; courses, trainings and seminars, product launching, PR events, birthdays, parties, family day, doa selamat, wedding, etc. Varieties of menus are available; Malay dishes, Chinese & Indian style & Western.

Personal Justice by Ramlee Awang Murshid

When Hilman met his daughter Jeslina in New York, after years of separation, they were both happy beyond compare. However, their happiness were short-lived when they were involved in road accident.

Jeslina went into coma while Hilman was accused of drunk driving. In that chaotic situation, Mia Sara, an officer from Malaysian Embassy in Washington D.C, appeared. With her help, Hilman was advised to appear in court.

But, when Hilman found out about a conspiracy to hide the real cause of accident, he decided to seek justice on his own.

As a sharpshooter in the Malaysian Royal Police, survival was his playground. His investigation on the conspiracy, finally, led him to the White House!

And, Hilman was never in awe standing before its door...

I like all Michael Crichton fictions

I still reading Rising Sun by Michael Crichton by the time this entry published. I’ve been the follower of all Michael Crichton’s fictions and enjoy every single of it. Then I realize that this novel has been filmed, sometimes in 1993. I’ll try to look for the film, if still available.

I already read Timeline, The Terminal Man, State of Fear and Andromeda Strain.

Synopsis from publisher

During the grand opening celebration of the new American headquarters of an immense Japanese conglomerate, the dead body of a beautiful woman is found. The investigation begins, and immediately becomes a headlong chase through a twisting maze of industrial intrigue and a violent business battle that takes no prisoners.

Comment by Publishers Weekly

A young American model is murdered in the corporate boardroom of Los Angeles's Nakomoto Tower on the new skyscraper's gala opening night. Murdered, that is, unless she was strangled while enjoying sadomasochistic sex that went too far.

Nakomoto, a Japanese electronics giant, tries to hush up the embarrassing incident, setting in motion a murder investigation that serves Crichton ( Jurassic Park ) as the platform for a clever, tough-talking harangue on the dangers of Japanese economic competition and influence-peddling in the U.S.

Divorced LAPD lieutenant Peter Smith, who has custody of his two-year-old daughter, and hard-boiled detective John Connor, who says things like ``For a Japanese, consistent behavior is not possible,'' pursue the killer in a winding plot involving Japan's attempt to gain control of the U.S. computer industry.

Although Crichton's didactic aims are often at cross-purposes with his storytelling, his entertaining, well-researched thriller cannot be easily dismissed as Japan-bashing because it raises important questions about that country's adversarial trade strategy and our inadequate response to it. He also provides a fascinating perspective on how he thinks the Japanese view Americans--as illiterate, childish, lazy people obsessed with TV, violence and aggressive litigation.

English novels from Alaf21

Alaf 21 Sdn Bhd, a Malay publisher, is moving forward by publishing English fictions. The company has new line up for English novels, namely Jasmines on the 4^th Floor, Far Away and After the Rain. Prior to this, they already published Norzailina Nordin’s novel, Zuriat, to English version titled Genetics Peril.

For the info, several years ago, Alaf 21 has taken a bold and brave move to publish English fiction books for children. At that time the publisher has three titles in the market; House on Bukit Kenanga, House Of Horror and Mystery Of The Old Mansion all by Zamir Zakwan.

The latest is Personal Justice, an English version of A.D.A.M by the famous local thriller author, Ramlee Awang Murshid.

I personally congratulate both the publisher and author for a very good and rare initiative from local Malay publishing industry. I can’t wait to read all the books, albeit my busy schedule with catering.

There’s something about Aishah that Jones don’t understand

A debate is still going on for The Jewel of Medina.

"I just hope that it is not marketed as an "extensively researched" historical novel about the Lady Aishah, because whatever research Jones did, she certainly does not appear to have used it or benefitted from it. The Jewel of Medina is fiction in the purest sense of the term, with little or nothing of history in it.

I also hope that readers will take it for what it is: an attempt by a Western writer with little knowledge of Arabic, Arabia, Islam, and Muslims using her own Western, 21st century values, ideals and emotions to portray an unrecognizable version of the well-known and well-documented story of Aishah.

If Jones had set out to tell the "untold" or an "alternative" story of the heroism and courage of Aishah, she could have saved herself the trouble. The Lady Aishah has already been seen as a heroine and revered as a role model by Muslim women since the beginning of Muslim history." (Marwa Elnaggar, a writer, a poet, and a consultant to ReadingIslam.com)

Jones is wrong about Aishah, as stated by Marwa Elnagger:

“There's something not quite right about seeing a citation for One Thousand and One Nights in a bibliography for a novel about the Lady Aishah, Prophet Muhammad's famous wife.

What it says about an author who would, in writing about the early Muslim community, use the collection of stories that has given us Aladdin, Ali Baba (he of the forty thieves), Sinbad the sailor, and the wife-killing yet story-loving king, Shahrayar, is a lot that makes any discerning reader uncomfortable.” Full article here.