Totto-chan The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Totto-Chan adores the street musician, and would run to the window and sing along hearty whenever they passed by. Soon after, the rest of the class will do so and putting a sudden halt to the on-going class.

Totto unhandily lifts the lid of her table and take out a easer from her pencilcase and would immedicately return the easer in the drawer, over a hundred times a day. And drawing does not confine within the boundary of her art paper. Untamable and misconstrued, Totto was asked to leave school.

Without much hopes but fortunately Totto got into a school which operates in a train. As fascinated as having classes in a real train and on a rail, Totto was excited about the activities organized by the school headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi.

The children are allowed to start their day doing subjects they liked best and their lunches must be a well-balanced, which is something from the ocean, something from the hills.

Activities includes trekking through the cemetery, field cooking, drawing on the hall’s floor, dancing to express oneself.

Unfortunately, World War II invaded Japan, flatten the school and the jolly old headmaster died before he could rebuild his dream & passion.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Captured for looting a German knife, Lev Beniov was caught and imprisoned.  In the same cell,  Kolya a charming solider who was caught outside his battalion without an order, to meet up with his lovers.

 

Both were then given a directive by an influential Soviet colonel to get a dozen of eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. It is a tall order, to get food during the Nazis siege, where supplies were cut off from the city of Leningrad.

 

To win the single chance to live, both venture into the city and the enemy border to get the eggs.  Within the short week, they came across desperate survivors who became brutal cannibals, the despair children who stay vigil by the corpses of their dead ones,  friends who provide them shelter and comrades who help regain their freedom.

 

With guts and wits, Lev & Kolya got hold of the eggs from the Germans. And also became heros for killing a vital officer of the enemy. 

 

In a twist of fate, on the way back to reclaim their freedom Kolya was shot by their own soldiers, mistaken for a German.  It left Lev alone to fulfilled the order. 

The Gift by Richard Paul Evans

Nathan Hurst had a dark secret. He shot his little brother Tommy.

Living in guilt for the rest of his life, until Tommy appeared infront of a gifted boy Collin, and through Collin he told Nathan to free his mom and himself. 

Nathan killed his bother Tommy accidentally with a gun that their dad had brought for them. Dad blamed himself and eventually killed himself a year later. His mom blamed Nathan and herself of both of their deaths. 

Out on a business trip, Nathan meet Collin and his family while been stranded in Denver airpot because of heavy snowfall. Nathan saw sickly Collin who is suffering from cancer and offered them to shared his suite in a nearby hotel. Collin with his gift could sense that Nathan was a good man and accepted his offer.

Then Nathan miraculously recovered from Tourette and cough. He then knew the boy was special. 

In a car accident, Collin healed his dog, Goldie, and  was witnessed by a couple with a  dying son. They pleaded Addison for Collin to heal his son and eventually Addison agreed as she knows each session will make Collin sicker.  

The boy recovered from his cancer and the whole world get to know about it. Addison and Collin has to go into hiding as people from all over are asking Collin to heal them or their loved ones.  

During the escape, Collin told Nathan that he will die before Christmas as his granddad from the other world is waiting for him. Collin made Nathan to keep it to himself as he doesn’t want his mom and sister to be sad. 

Until Collin was admitted to hospital from fainting out that Addison learnt about it. Upon Collin consent, she signed the DNR. Before crossing over, Collin helped a widow who was bleeding internally from a car accident and had four children with his healing touch and then he left Addison and his baby sister.

Ugly by Constance Briscoe

A true story of a child who was abused and abandon by her own mother. Years after years, she was presented her same old dolly for Christmas. Never a new piece of cloth, all were hand-me-downs from her sisters. Even when given a voucher for a new set of school uniform, it had to be given to her sisters & she would still get their passed on uniforms. 

Wetting her bed still at the age of 13 & balding, because of the anxieties she faces in life, her mother find it hard to bear the sight of her. Mum would ridicule her by inviting her classmate to her foul-smelling room & stripping her bare before bed so that she would not have to wash another soiled nightwear. Dismantle & hide her bed, pulling off her wig in the middle of the street, are some of her mum’s antics Constance had to endure.

One day without notice, her mum moved out together with her stepfather & their children, leaving her & 2 two sisters to fend for themselves. Constance actually see good to this arrangement at least she is now out her mum’s sight. Until her mum pay her unduly visits to demand for the rent & electricity bills. Besides school, she has to take up jobs to pay for her meals & the bills to her mum if not she will be thrown out of the house. Although it was tough, she no longer live in fear.

Once told that only smart kids goe to university, she visit her mum & told mum she had earned her own rights to a law school & would never talk to her again. Constance with a renew life walked out of her loveless childhood.

Beyond Ugly by Constance Briscoe

Clare, Clear or Clearie when her mum is in a good mood. It only much later that she get to learn her proper name is Constance Briscoe. Born to believe that she is downright ugly, her mum wouldnt even buy her a class photo because she looks ugly & that who wants to keep a ugly photo. Constant abuse from her mum & stepfather makes her a nervous child & it causes her to wet her bed even at a age of 13. Her mum would say that one day that Clare will drown in her own pee.

Saved up enough she moved out, got herself cosmetic surgery to correct her nose & lips & enrolled into a law school in Newcastle. Things start to get rosy, she feels better & more confident, got herself a boyfriend & became a pupil of a famous solicitor. But things ain’t all smooth sailing, Constance wasn’t granted a place after her pupilage because of jealousy. To make things “balanced” again, the tenants throw her out of the chamber. But that not the end of the road Constance Briscoe.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

What on earth are we here for?! All his life, Eddie blames his father for his pathetic existence.

Slogging away at Ruby Pier as a ride maintenance, earns him the name-  Eddie Maintenance as his badge reads. A job that was once his father, than his without much a choice. 

Days, Months, Years goes on & people around him passed on – his mom, his dad, his wife. Life seems totally meaningless as it goes. All he could do is getting busy at work, checking for lose bolts, repairing brakes, fixing rides. 

Hell broke lose at Ruby Pier one day, when one of the cart threaten to snap. He lost his life while saving a little girl from the fatal incident. In his last waking moment, he felt a pair of small hands and then slipped into eternal unconsciousness.  

Eddie meet 5 people in heaven, a blue man, his captain, his dad, his wife and the small girl who guided him to heaven. He learnt from them things he never knew. He sought forgiveness, accepted them and learnt that he has lived for a reason and a noble one too. He learned the love story behind Ruby Pier, the another side of his dad that he never knew, he learned that he have prevented tragedies and possible lost of lives at Ruby Pier.

Upon understanding the significance of his earthly life, his wife welcome him home to heaven.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

“Someone who saw you as a raw but precious thing … that could be polished to be a proud shine”, that was how Morrie and Mitch bonded.

Morrie, a professor, saw special things inside Mitch, a student then and sixteen years later they found each other again.

He found Morrie through the Night-line show, with daunting headline – “A Professor’s Final Course: His Own Death”

Mitch has lost himself in the merciless culture, lost his dreams and became slave to economy. Ever seeking for more materialistic things – begin to accept subsitutes, ’substitutes’ for love. His career collapsed one day and he was stunned how easily things when on without him. Depressed, he reached out to his ‘coach’, Morrie. 

He flew weekly to Morrie and witnessed how he fast Morrie withered away, but his character shone on more brightly. “We can die without every really going away… all the love you have created is still there. You live on.”

Tuesdays with Morrie, taught Mitch life’s lessons, compassion and responsibility towards each other, and the community we lived in. 

“Seek Success or Simplicity, Just Say No or Just Do It?” Until we can find perfection in an average day and see the inherent good in people, we shall know. 

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

 

It is a non-fiction made almost like a fiction, immensely readable & gripping.

Randy the author has only months to live, he is dying from pancreatic cancer. A professor at Carnegie Mellon, he was asked to give “The Last Lecture”, for him to mark what matters to him most & leave a legacy.

After much deliberation & eventually with the support from his wife, he decided to devote his time to preparing for his last lecture,  which means precious time taken away from his family.

The lecture titled – “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. Instead of dying the lecture is about living, he recounted how he lived his childhood dreams, one including a imagineer at Disneyland.

One of his “cliches”, “the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”. There are much more insights in this book about achieving your dreams and how about going for it. 

And came the truth behind Randy’s Last Lecture:
  1st head fake:  ”it is not about how to achieve your dreams, it is about how you lead your life”.
  2nd head fake: “the talk isn’t for those in the room (the lecture hall), it was for his kids”, whom would not have much memory of him as they are older.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Seeing the world through the eyes of a 15 years old autistic boy, Christopher the narrator, brings in fresh perspectives to old things.

It goes through the intensive thought process of the young narrator, like why he find people confusing.  

He also mentioned, “if you see 5 red cars in a row, it is going to be a super good day for you, something special is going to happen. “

Gifted with a bright, logical mind & memory like a “film”, Christopher discovers a series of truths, the wrenching truths, how did his neighbor’s dog die & that his mom is still alive.

Dad killed the dog. Dad lied that mom is dead.

Frighten & terribly upset, Christopher had to get away from his dad & find his mom. He had his wits to count on, to get some money & travel the complicated train network to London, along with his pet hamster, Toby. 

Eventually, Dad found him & had to show Christopher how to trust him once again.

The book will put a smile on your face at the end of the read.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

A book about the love a mother has for her child.

For the umpteen times a child had erred, Mom’s love is undying even when she is gone. “They will come back to you even at the unlikely times…”

Charley was living in guilt for not been there with mom on the day she died, to be away for business that he lied about. To see through the lie, he had to lie to his wife, lie to his young daughter then. He loses himself. Ultimately, he loses his wife, his daughter.

On a borrowed day with his departed mom after plunging off a tower, a failed suicidal attempt, Charley reestablished his relationship with mom, learnt about the hidden truths & learnt to forgive himself. 

Upon regaining his conscious, he made peace with his ex-wife, daughter & himself.

His mom, gave him One More Day that had changed his life – ” a day to listen, to love, to apologize & to forgive”. 

“You can’t lose your mother…” they are alway there somewhere.

A heartwarming book dedicated to mother’s unsurpassed love.