The Magician's Assisstant - 357 pages (1 book)

This is a novel by the award-winning author Ann Patchett.

Sabine was an assistant of the magician Parsifal, who also happened to be her in-name husband. But Parsifal was gay; he loved Phan, the Vietnamese software designer who shared Parsifal's life and who became Sabine's dearest friend. Despite this, she maintained with Parsifal a 20-year vehement yet platonic relationship. However, at the beginning of the book, both main male characters were dead of AIDS, leaving the disconsolate Sabine behind with a plethora of memories of the time they had together. She is also left bewildered with the flabbergasting news that Parsifal wasn't all he claimed to be - that his family wasn't dead at all like he told her. It's a discovery that sets her on a journey to find out about the truth, and to claim a surprising new love of her own - with Parsifal's sister, Kitty.

In general, I think this book is okay, and would give it a 6/10. The story is mildly intriguing and the characters are generally well-crafted. However, there are something irritating about this book. First off, the most frustrating thing is about this book is that it lacks CHAPTERS, making me find it hard to decide when to put the book down for the night! Secondly, the ending was just too abrupt, unsatisfying and anticlimactic. What I mean is that I expected the book to have an exceptional ending but all of the sudden it was over, leaving me go "what?" with the ludicrous and predictable ending that I didn't anticipate. However, overall, this is a good read for those who enjoy those kinds of poignant, heart-wrenching love stories. :)

Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan

Malgudi Days is a book written by R.K. Narayan. This is about a small, imaginary town, called Malgudi. The author has set this town in South India, so he gets an idea of what the people of that town are like and what different cultures are in that town. It is a book of the author's collection of short stories. The stories are written in simple style and show the color of Indian life.

I like this book because it sets examples of motivating characters and role models, which helps the reader understand the various different personalities every day people go through in their daily life. The author has used very rich language to show many of the daily life stories in a town. I would give this book 9 out of 10.

Bad Dreams by Anne Fine

Bad Dreams is a book written by Anne Fine. The genre of the book is friends. It is about a girl called Melanie, also known as Mel, who is a class bookworm. She likes to read books more than talk with other people. Mel was the first-week minder of a new-comer girl called Imogen, which was something Mel did not look forward to. There was something about Imogen, that was very strange... Mel slowly finds out about this and begins to realize that stories can happen in real life.

I like this book because it shows a whole new world. The characters in this book have very different personalities than the normal ones. They interact with different situations, which end up in a very difficult condition. The author has used interesting, descriptive language in the book for describing language in the book for describing the characters, the setting and background. I would give this book 7 out of 10.

Gentle reminder to Year 9 Happy Bloggers!

Please remember that you should always attempt to write in a formal manner - even on the blog. Remember simple things like capital letters, appropriate punctuation and spelling. Otherwise, superb job all!