The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I am close to the end of the book, Christopher has found out that his mother is still alive and that his father has been lying to him. His father told him that his mother had died of a heart attack but really she left him for another man who is also their neighbours husband. The mother has been writing Christopher letters everyday but the father has kept them hidden. So after feeling betrayed by his father, Christopher decided to go and find his mother, which is really challenging as he has Aspergers Syndrome and doesn't know how to communicate with other people. I am really excited to find out about what happens at the end of the book. 

Great expectations

I reached to the point where Pip goes to Miss Havisham's house. In the last chapter I read, two new characters were introduced. I was shocked by the description of the house as it was explained as a very big, but dark place and in my opinion, a bit creepy. What was even creepier was that when Pip entered Miss Havisham's room, SHE WAS DRESSED UP IN HER WEDDING DRESS, CRYING. I still haven't reached the part where this is explained, but I'm really starting to get to the interesting [part.

The fall of the European powers and the Japanese 'Cleaning'. (2nd World War)

2nd World War in Southeast-Asia

Personally, I find this part of History the most fun and interesting. It's like the movie 'independence day' in a way.
After the 1st World War, the Europeans was still has control of most of the region and thought that the region would still be in their hands forever. This statement was about to be challenged... From 1918 (the end of world war 1) to the 1930s (known as the 'illusion years'), Southeast-Asians started studying abroad and gained a lot of knowledge. They wanted independence from these alien rulers. They became nationalists. They started small revolt against the Dutch, British and the French. However, the nationalists did not succeed.. until 1941.

The Japanese Conquest and 'liberation' of Southeast Asia.

In 1941, the Japanese joined the war on the Axis side. The Japanese had interest in the southeast asian region for their rich rubber plantation and small mines. At that time, the European powers were still in place. The Japanese invaded and attacked the allied forces that were in control of the Southeast-Asian region. It turned out that the conquest was extremely easy for the Japanese troops. The nationalists that were shut in prisons by the Europeans Rulers were liberated by the Japanese. People were celebrating throughout the region as the Japanese annihilate the Allied force. Thailand, which was an independent country let the Japanese use their territory as a free passage to Burma, where the Japanese wiped the country off the British. The Dutch would still resist the new power of Japan, but in the end, the Japanese took over Indonesia. By the end of 1942, the Japanese 'cleaned' the region and was in charge of the whole Southeast Asian region. This created huge humiliation towards the European powers. After, the Japanese installed their own type of government into the region.

The tide of war turns...
The American counter-attack in the pacific made the Japanese very weak. In 1945, the Japanese Empire started to crumble. The British counter-attacked and reconquered Burma. Down in the south, British navy started an invasion onto the Indonesian Islands. By August 1945, Japan surrendered and left the southeast-asian region. Some of the Europeans came back to control the region. Soon, the nationalists will rise against the alien power once again.

Allied troops reconquest of Rangoon, Burma

THE SECRET SCRIPTURE 3

I have Finally reached the 100th page Mark and so far I am pretty happy with my results as I am a pretty slow reader ! 

The book is advancing well but their has been a huge secret the main characters dad (Roseanne)  during her childhood KILLED 128 GIRLS IN A ACCIDENTAL FIRE AND THEN LATER ON HUNG HIMSELF so poor Roseanne is left with a CRAZY MOTHER AND A DEAD FATHER ! The  local priest of Sligo also wants to marry off  Roseanne a 16 year old innocent girl to A 55 YEAR OLD MAN WHO'S JOB IS BURYING PEOPLE . 

The Catcher in the Rye pt2

I love this book!!! I am completely taken by it!! Even though it was written back in 1951, it is still very relatable and resembles an adolescent story from nowadays. I am almost half way through and for now the main character, Holden is roaming the lonely streets of New York late at night and getting into messy situations, after having gotten expelled, and escaped before the end of the semester from boarding school.
Throughout this first part of the novel, Holden keeps asking himself and others where the ducks that live in a certain pond of Central Park go in the winter, and I find that important in some weird way.

Sexual experiences and the break up

Ever since I last updated to Blogger there have been lots of things going on, the relationship between Hanna and the "kid" got to a point where they made love on just about every single page. They have made love about 60-70 times so far and I am only on page 85.
But sadly, just when I was enjoying reading the scenes the most, Hanna and the "kid" have broken up. She has left to another place without leaving any description of where she was going. Since the book has been revolving around them so much I have no idea where the book is going to go or what is going to happen. I am still however looking forward to reading on to find out if he ever meets her again.

So far i am reading two books, the first one is called "Silas Marner" by Goerge Eliot, its an extremely hard to understand since its written in a very old style and to be honest i have to look up A LOT of words so its not a easy going/relaxation book, i have to concentrate very much to understand even half.

The other book is called "Casual Vacancy" by Jk. Rowling, at first it seems like a book which gets better and better the more you get into it but I'm afraid I'm on page 65 and its not. The author introduces way to many characters way too fast in my opinion and you can hardly follow with the names or what the setting is or even whats happening. Im a little annoyed with this book so i think I'm going to try to find a book which i will enjoy more since there is clearly no point forcing yourself to read a book your definitely not interested in.

European Influence and colonisation. Good or Bad?

European Influence and colonisation 

Hi guys! I hope you all are doing well. Peter here. Today I am bringing up a topic about the the naughty but mighty Europeans in the Southeast-Asian region. The Europeans were the ones to bring to spotlight of History back onto this region after it's dark age.

Here is a map of Siam (Thailand) losing land to the Europeans for

the sake of their independence. In fact, they were the only country

that survived the colonisation as an independent country.

So... during the 17th-19th century, the mighty Europeans expanded their empire around the world. The most well known European power during this period is of course, Britain. Britain has the largest empire in the world at that time. Of course, part of Southeast-Asia fell under its control. There are other European countries that came as well like; France, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. I will mention the 3 most important.

The British: Before the colonisation of Southeast-Asia, Britain owned part of India bordering Burma. Driven by their greed and ambition, they invaded Burma. They won 2-3 wars and completely conquered the burmese. The British also gained Malaya in the region. At the same time (around 1850s), the British took Hong Kong and Guangzhou from China. The plantations of the southeast-asian region made a lot of profit for Britain. Britain also created a wealthy state of Singapore at the tip of the Malaya peninsula. So of course, Britain developed the region exceptionally well.

The French: The naughty French envied the British and sent their army to Vietnam. Poor Vietnamese put up resistance but it was useless against the French elite 'Foreign Legion'. The French also took Laos and Cambodia from the Siamese Empire in the Sino-French War (the Siamese lost the war). Afterwards, the French created a government inside the 'French Indochina' (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). They built railroads and infrastructures to the region. The government worked extremely well creating wealth and development to the region.

The Dutch: At that time, the dutch was very very very very rich. They looked for wealthy colonies. Indonesia was perfect for them because of its exotic resources and spices. At that time, Indonesia was divided into many small states. This was easy for the Dutch. The dutch quickly conquered the entire region. The spices and resources were sent back to the Netherlands. The Indonesian nationalists and natives were treated very badly in the colonial empire.

In conclusion, I think the colonisation was pretty bad for my country (Siam) since we lost a lot of precious land and had to pay the Europeans for the sake of our independence. However, the Europeans did make the neighbouring countries develop at a very fast speed. Without them, our region would probably be very very backwards. So, there are up and down to this 'imperialism'.

So far, I like my book more than the other one. It's not confusing. Right now i'm on the part where Charles Dickens is taking the boat to America, it's not a book for people that are looking for action but its a really slow calm book and can get boring.

I am reading a 'new' book called: "The cuckoo's calling"
The author on the cover is "Robert Galbraith" but he is actually a completely made-up author. This book is 'truly' written by J.K. Rowling, she just wanted to see if the book would be successful without her name on it. This book in many people's opinions is very successful and I can see why, I whizzed through the first 40 pages without even realizing.
 The book is a 'murder mystery', it's about a private detective who gets put on the case of a very famous model who apparently committed suicide. It's thrilling so far...

                             

So far in "The road" the father and his sons quest to the coast has got them through mountains and past the river. They had to survives many days on the freezing mountains with no shelter and it was almost costly. Each day it seemed the last but it was never ending. When they finally reached the river it was so amazing it distracted them and they stayed a couple of nights until they noticed that they had ti keep moving. Its an amazing book once you get into it.

The Necropolis

I am already half way through and its already taking a turn for the worst the old ones who are the evil people in this book know everything that the gatekeepers want to do and so they are preventing them from achieving their goal however the gate keepers keep striving to achieve their goal.

I have finished the book The Fault In Our Stars. It was very sad, although it was a great read. I would recommend it to everyone.

I changed my book and I got a book about Charles Dickens's journey to America in 1842. It's a non-fiction book. I read a couple of pages and it's quite interesting so far.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

In my book, Christopher’s perception of the world is very interesting; he is very unaware of people’s feelings, emotions and thoughts but he loves math and is amazing at it, as he really likes that there can only be one, straight forward answer. He doesn’t like to be touched or laughed at and he can be quite aggressive sometimes if he doesn’t understand a situation or what a person is saying. At school he was shone different faces (happy, sad, angry) so that he could understand which emotions people are feeling. He is a very clever boy and wants to do his A levels in maths and physics. He is a very interesting character and it is fascinating to see the world from his point of view.

The Necropolis

This is the next book in the Anthony Horowitz series which i am reading right now, its a really interesting book and now there is a girl involved in everything that is happening. This makes it really confusing to what this is leading to.

The Great Expectations

I started reading "The great expectations" and I like it a lot so far. I haven't read that much yet, because sometimes the vocabulary is challenging and I have to look up the meaning of some words, or go back and read a part of the text more than once, but the story has started to develop already. What happened until now is that the main character, named Pip, saw a convict, who escaped from prison. The man begged him for aid and scared to say no, Pip decides to help. He steals food from his sister's house as his parents have died so he lives with her. Later on in the story, the convict is found by the police, but decides to protect Pip by saying he stole the food himself...
What I really like about the book is that I'm only on chapter 5 (I haven't even read 1 quarter of the book) and there is already a conflict and that makes reading more interesting.

Im reading the road however i have not got far yet. It is a really good book about a boy and his father who are making their way through an abounded and burned america trying to get to the coast. they are recovering whatever they can such as blankets or food and are sleeping outside in the cold and all they have is a pistol. The boy is very scared and keeps asking if they are going to die.

The Reader 2

So far the book I am reading, "The Reader", is a great book. I've not read that much yet but am already loving it! It is a great book to read. So far the book has talked about a sexual romance between a 15 year old boy and a 30 year old woman, and things are getting quite intimate.

You should definitely pick up this book and read if you have time.

I'm not enjoying my book because its really confusing and I am probably going to change it. I had to reread it to understand and even though I reread it I still don't understand. I reached the part were Winston didn't know what year it was and he is thinking why he is writing this diary.

Huckleberry Finn

I am not really liking my book, the vocabulary is confusing and the whole concept is annoying. I think that I want to give it up, I already have a book in mind... I am going through the phase of the book where Huckleberry is switching on and off of Tom Sawyer's band. Also I am at the bit where his father is causing more and more trouble and trying to get Huckleberry's money. I am confused by the way things are spelled and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what some of the slaves are saying. I am not so enthusiastic about continuing...

The Fault In Our Stars

Im half way through The Fault In Our Stars. Its a really great book and I'm enjoying it so far, although I'm afraid the ending may be very sad.

The Secret Scripture 2

57 pages of great use of vocabulary and an exciting story line.This book has a unusual way of presenting its self as there are three stories mixing all together into one book.Every couple of pages the readers are flung to another story with a  different narrater than can be very confusing at times. The book is mainly concentrating on a lady named Roseanne that is looking back on her youth the happiness but most of all the tragedies. Each chapter introduces a new character in her life or event is reveld yet i still dont know why she was committed to the mental hospital .

The Curious Incident of the Dod in the Night-Time

I have now read about 140 pages of this book and it has gotten really interesting. I haven't been able to put it down. Its about a boy who has asperges syndrome and how he perceives the world. Its really interesting to see how people with this developmental disorder understand and process things. I think the authors portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is truly amazing!

Classical Era of Southeast-Asia

Classical Era in Southeast-Asia

Hey there! Peter here! I read quite a lot of this book now. Throughout the book, I would like to tell you a concise history of southeast-asia from what I've read chronologically. My first post will be about the Classical Era in southeast-asia. Here's a map of modern Southeast-Asia:

The classical era is when Southeast-asia came into existence with the birth of 'civilisations'. There are two different part of Southeast Asia: Mainland (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar) and Maritime (Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor-leste and the Philippines). Please note that Singapore was not a country until the British came in the early 19th century. Each of these have completely different culture and way of life.

The classical era of Southeast Asia was based on two major empires; 

Khmer (Based on Cambodia but consisted most of southeast-asia) dominating the Mainland

Srivijaya (Part of Indonesia+Malaysia) dominating the Maritime world

Both of these are very powerful in their own way.

Khmer was rich in culture. The main religion back then was hinduism. The temples had a very unique style of architecture which still stood until the modern times. While Greece and Rome are dominating the European scene, the Khmer remained rather peaceful and focused on religion and tradition. Khmer Empire ran with a system of absolute monarchy (King is always in charge) unlike Rome and Greece. The Khmer culture is heavily influenced by the indian culture. This is called 'indianization'. The cities are also very clean because they had canals running through them. However, their trade routes are very small and limited since the empire is based on land. This caused the empire to be low in terms of money. This factor also led to its downfall after the Thais took advantage of this weakness and annihilated the entire empire (sorry Arthur). However, the Khmer culture lived on inside the Thai Kingdom.

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Srivijaya was the opposite of the Khmer empire. It wasn't rich in culture but extremely rich in terms of money, since it dominated the maritime world. The trade routes from China+Japan to India had to pass through the strait of Malacca (inside the Srivijaya empire). The empire was diverse in religion since many traders came to trade there. There are muslims, hindus and buddhists living in the empire. The empire lasted longer than the Khmers but fell when the European powers came to dominate the region.

Strait of Malacca and trade routes into Srivijaya

I finished the book i was reading at the start now i move on to the next book in the series :D

The Catcher in the Rye

I have started reading the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a great American classic. I haven't read enough to give a quick summary of the story, but I quickly got interested and I'm sure that I'll have a lot of pleasure in reading it. I'll keep you all updated weekly.

The Secret Scripture

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I just started reading "The Curious Incident". So far it is very interesting and I am really enjoying it. I've only read a few chapters but I can already tell that this book is going to be really good.

Southeast Asia: An Introductory History

Southeast Asia: An Introductory History

Hey there! Peter here (please don't judge my name... I made my google when I was 9). I started reading 'Southeast Asia: An Introductory History' since late-August. I know most of you would moan at the word 'history'. For me, it is very interesting to learn about my homeland and the neighbouring countries. So far, I read 5 chapters about tradition, history, geography and European influence on Southeast Asia. The book is interesting because it explained many questions regarding the culture of the Southeast Asian region; for example; why Vietnamese culture (tend to be more Chinese) is different from the other mainland southeast asian countries (tend to be more Indian) or what are the benefits of the European colonisation. As some of you may know, Southeast Asia is situated to the south of China and east of India. Sadly, this region did not shine much in the 'World History' stage, however, it doesn't mean that it more 'boring' than the other parts. I strongly recommend this book to those interested in the not-talked-about-much part of World's History and those who are Southeast-Asian.

Im reading the fault is our stars. I just started it, but so far i really like it. 

The Reader

I am starting to read the book "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink, originally written in german but translated into english by Carol Brown Janeway. I have only read a few pages so far and am already looking to read the rest.
Here is the cover of the book.

 I am reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George-Orwell. Its a very engaging book but a bit confusing some times. It has quite a lot of description and I would recommend it to mostly adults.

Im reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I am enjoying it so far and here is a picture of the cover:

Huckleberry Finn

Just started "Huckleberry Finn", it's the american classic and I just started. Hope it's a great read!

Book

I am reading "The Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.

I am reading the series The Power Of 5 by Anthony Horowitz, the titles is Evil star here is a photo of the cover.