Book Review: The Architecture of Love by Ika Natassa

Judul: THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOVE
Penulis: Ika Natassa
Penerbit: Gramedia Pustaka Utama
Terbit: 14 Juni 2016
Format: Signed Paperback
Tebal: 304 halaman
ISBN: 978-602-03-2926-0
Harga: Rp 84.000
Rating: 5/5 stars
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"Wah, lama nggak pernah ada review, eh, langsung ngasih lima bintang aja." Mungkin itu yang terbersit pada benak Anda yang pernah singgah beberapa kali di blog saya ini. Mungkin ada juga yang merasa "Ah, ini pasti ikut-ikutan gara-gara bukunya emang lagi ramai dibicarakan." Well, kalau Anda termasuk dua jenis itu, silahkan tidak melanjutkan membaca review ini. Sebab, beberapa orang mungkin akan menganggap saya berlebihan. Tapi, perlu Anda tahu, isi blog ini murni dari pemikiran dan perasaan saya. Tidak perlu lah ikut-ikutan apa kata orang.

Saya masih ingat betul malam itu sepulang kerja, saya leyeh-leyeh tidur di pangkuan Ama (sebutan saya untuk ibu saya) sambil scrolling timeline Twitter. Tiba-tiba, ada salah satu rekan blogger buku saya yang me-retweet salah satu tweet Ika Natassa dan saya somehow penasaran dengan sosok penulis yang sering saya dengar namanya, tapi belum pernah sekalipun karyanya saya baca. Iya, saya ini picky reader. Buku yang berbau misteri, ending yang menggantung, kekerasan, lari-larian, kebanyakan mendapat respon baik dari saya. Oleh karena itu, saya tidak terlalu suka buku karya penulis Indonesia. Hanya sedikit yang saya baca. Kembali ke akun Twitter Ika, di bagian atas sendiri saya langsung disuguhi ini:

The Architecture of Love is my new writing project with @TwitterID, read complete episodes: https://t.co/zj1YqjLQqD pic.twitter.com/s9r5KWd9bm

— Ika Natassa (@ikanatassa) January 24, 2016

Iseng, saya membacanya. "Wah, lucu ini. Alurnya ditentukan pembaca," pikir saya waktu itu. Sayang sekali saya baru tahu dan tidak bisa ikut berpartisipasi. Tapi, kebanyakan pilihan saya sesuai sih sama hasil poling. Tweet by tweet saya baca habis saat itu juga. Kesannya? Luar biasa bikin penasaran. Ada perasaan I WANT MORE but I had to wait for the book. Entah apa yang membuat saya kepincut. Faktor utama sih sepertinya gaya bahasa ya. Sudah lama saya rindu bacaan dengan gaya bahasa seperti Ika. Buku yang banyak saya baca itu terjemahan. Tahu sendiri lah bagaimana hasilnya. Sekalinya ingin baca bacaan ringan, eh, bahasanya terlalu "gaul" seperti yang pernah dikomplain beberapa penerjemah di salah satu grup di Facebook. Gaya bahasa Ika ini pas lah. Tidak terlalu kaku, kalimatnya pas (maklum, profesi sebagai editor bikin saya bawel), dan banyak kalimat berbahasa Inggris yang quotable banget (isn't it what you're looking for, dear Z generation?). Jelas saja hal itu membuat saya memutuskan untuk ikut pre-order yang dilaksanakan 1 Juni lalu.

Book Review: The Alpha Girl's Guide by Henry Manampiring

Judul: THE ALPHA GIRL'S GUIDE
Penulis: Henry Manampiring
Penerbit: Gagas Media
Terbit: November 2015
Format: Paperback
Tebal: 253 halaman
ISBN: 9789797808488
Harga: Rp 65.000
Rating: 5/5 stars

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To be honest, aku belum pernah baca buku motivasi (kecuali kamu menganggap buku-buku Mitch Albom termasuk motivasi). Sebab, aku merasa buku motivasi itu membosankan dan kebanyakan menggurui. Siapa sih yang suka digurui? Apalagi anak zaman sekarang kan kritis banget. Mereka pasti punya jawaban untuk semua jawaban (entah benar atau salah). Tapi, saat baca buku Om Piring ini, aku sama sekali nggak merasa digurui. It's true. Aku mem-follow Om Piring di Ask.fm dan aku personally suka jawaban-jawabannya. Agak ''slengekan'' mungkin? Padahal Om Piring bukan generasi Z, tapi dia cool banget. Aku selalu rela stalking Ask.fm-nya setiap membuka aplikasi itu (kecuali jawaban tentang jam tangan ya). Well, enough praising, let's get to what's inside the book!

''Dalam hidup ini tidak ada yang pasti.'' [halaman 24]

Sepertinya quote itulah yang selalu aku iya-iya kan. Dalam The Alpha Girl's Guide, Om Piring ngasih banyak banget quote yang relatable. Thanks to his followers yang sering bertanya tentang kegalauan perempuan, Om Piring akhirnya bisa menulis buku yang berisi rangkuman jawaban dan sekaligus menjadi guide untuk menjadi seorang Alpha Female. Bukan guide yang paten sih. Tentu aku nggak bisa melaksanakan semua himbauan Om Piring dalam buku itu. Tapi, at least tulisannya bikin pikiranku terbuka (isn't that the book's goal?) dan introspeksi diri.

Mulai dari pentingnya pendidikan sampai pernikahan, semua dibahas tuntas. Oleh karena itu, kalau kamu jadi temanku di Goodreads (kalau belum, add ya!), kamu mungkin notice kalau aku mulai membaca buku ini sejak Januari. Wow, kok lama? Well, membaca buku ini memang harus diresapi (bagiku sih). Di awal buku, Om Piring juga menghimbau pembacanya buat kritis, nggak menelan mentah-mentah tulisannya. I did that dan hasilnya ya sekitar dua bulan proses membaca itu hehehe. Sering kali aku merasa, "Lho, nggak gini harusnya," atau "Ah, nggak juga." I don't blame him tho. Tapi, pengalaman membaca yang seperti itu ternyata sangat menarik. Biasanya kan pembaca cuma bisa fangirling tokoh utama atau nge-bully villain.

Selain itu, bahasa yang dipakai benar-benar enteng, tapi nggak picisan (tahu kan picisan itu yang gimana?). Waktu baca The Alpha Girl's Guide tuh kayak "duh, aku keren banget." Yap, kadang aku pernah merasa nggak pede menenteng kemana-mana buku yang harus aku baca. Sayangnya, buku ini bikin aku menoleh ke belakang. Mengingat-ingat kejadian yang sudah terjadi. Mulai dari alasanku nggak pernah mem-bully orang (berdasarkan fisik) sampai sikapku ke orang ketiga. That's why aku nggak mau terlalu panjang menulis review buku ini. Bawaannya pengin curhat, Sob!

Overall, aku sangat merekomendasikan buku ini buat semua orang yang mau membaca. Nggak cuma cewek ya. Buku ini mungkin bisa menginspirasi cowok-cowok juga (penulisnya aja cowok lho). Aku bersyukur bisa membahas buku ini di halaman DetEksi Jawa Pos (sekarang berubah nama jadi Zetizen) pada Desember tahun lalu. Aku berharap halaman itu menginspirasi banyak orang buat membaca sih. Pssst... Yang mau baca, coba check website BukaBuku. Lagi ada diskon besar tuh!

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Henry Thomas Buckle [halaman 62] 

Book Review: Lucky Me by Saba Kapur

Title: LUCKY ME
Author: Saba Kapur
Publisher: Amberjack Publishing
Published: April 2016
Pages: 446
ISBN: 978-0-6925-3639-1
Price: $11.95 [Amazon]
Rating: 2/5 stars

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"A jealous boyfriend, a manipulative arch nemesis, a creepy stalker, and a frustratingly good-looking bodyguard. Throw in some pom poms and a stolen cheer routine, and I was the definition of cliche." - Chapter Two

I know, you might be wondering why did I choose this kind of book at the first place? Lucky Me is definitely not my cup of tea. Please don’t judge. I was trying to explore new things. People who like this kind of story might give this book more than two stars. So, if you’re a fan, stop reading and find the review somewhere else. If you’re omnireader, or you have the same taste as me, keep going. I’ll explain more about the book.

Lucky Me is about a spoiled girl named Gia Winters who lived in a big mansion with her celebrity dad, Harry, and her brother, Mike. She had her good reputation, coolest squad in school, and the perfect boyfriend, Brendan. Saba Kapur did a really good job in writing the opening, I guess. It was written in form of fairy tale because Gia’s life is like fairy tale in Hollywood version. Her mom was also a celebrity, but she lived in different city. So, you can imagine how glamorous her life was right? For me, it was like reading Legally Blonde’s story (except Gia wasn’t that smart).

After the short and refreshing opening, I was brought to the point of the story. Danger. Yep. On the first chapter, Harry told his children that they could have been in danger because of something. That was why he hired bodyguard for each of them. The bodyguard would follow them everywhere, including pretended to be cousin when they were at school. Can you guess what happen next? If you’re smart, you must know that Gia’s bodyguard turned out to be super hot, super handsome, and super mysterious. I was like, seriously??

‘‘...a young, blonde-haired guy who was standing only an inch away. His eyes were blue, but not piercing, and I was standing close enough to see tiny bits of grey in them. He was the kind of attractive that you don’t come across too often, the kind that makes you all excited. He was the type of guy who you’d tell your friends asked for your number at a bar, when really all he did was walk past you.’’ – Chapter One

Everything after was predicted. Super cheesy. With the love triangle between Brendan, Gia, and Jack the bodyguard, I don’t understand why Kapur bothered to add one more guy to make Gia’s heart complicated. It was the cutie police. I know that a story comes from writer’s imagination, but sometimes you have to keep it real in order to make the reader feel related. I got bored easily and tended to skim. Kapur also described too many things in details. It wasn’t the fantasy kind of world. Most readers know how Hollywood’s life looks like. I think Lucky Me becomes a really thick book with no reason (sorry to say).

Book Sale Setelah Bersih-Bersih Awal Tahun

Awal tahun? Iya. Memang baru punya waktu dan niat buat membongkar semuanya. Karena kamar masih direnovasi (entah sampai kapan selesainya), buku-bukuku terpaksa ditaruh box. Somehow aku takut kalau terlalu lama ditaruh di luar rak buku nanti kondisinya jelek. Oleh karena itu, aku harus merelakan mereka untuk mencari ibu baru. Semoga ada yang berkenan ya :)

Novel Indonesia

• Camar Biru: Cinta Tak Selalu Tepat Waktu - Nilam Sari (Gagas Media) Rp 25.000**
• Secret Admirer - Karizza Rakmavika (Gagas Media) Rp 15.000
• Healing A Broken Heart - Petra Larosa Purba (Nulis Buku) Rp 10.000
• Project X: Te New Beginning of Net Detektif Indonesia - Tim Penulis NDI (Visi Media) Rp 20.000
• Nightmare Side #1 + VCD (Bukune) Rp 20.000
• Nightmare Side #2 (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• Nightmare Side #3 (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• Stalking Indonesia - Margareta Astaman (Kompas) Rp 20.000
• Menjadi Djo - Dyah Rinni (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Running Mission - Dimas Abi & Tim Dreamers Radio (Bukune) Rp 15.000
• The Jacatra Secret - Rizki Ridyasmara (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 20.000
• Cherish Cheri - Nita Trismaya (Plot Point) Rp 15.000**
• Tiga Burung Kecil - Mikha Ramadewi dkk (Plot Point) Rp 15.000**
• Jodoh - Fahd Pahdepie (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 30.000**
• Catatan Ayah tentang Cintanya kepada Ibu - Sandi Firly (Gagas Media) Rp 20.000

Novel Terjemahan

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick (Mizan Fantasi) Rp 25.000**
• The Abundance of Katherines - John Green (GPU) Rp 25.000** [Cover baru]
• Perfect Match - Jodi Picoult (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Dari Arsip Campur Aduk Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg (GPU) Rp 15.000
• After: Setelah Malam Itu - Amy Efaw (GPU) Rp 20.000
• Dear John - Nicholas Sparks (GPU) Rp 15.000
• Unwind: Pemisahan Raga - Neal Shusterman (GPU) Rp 25.000**
• Kisah Hantu-Hantu Cina - Lafcadio Hearn (Bukune) Rp 10.000
• The Story Girl - L.M. Montgomery (GPU) Rp 25.000 [Classic Read]
• Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (GPU) Rp 20.000 [Goodreads Choice Award 2012]
• The Fifth Mountain - Paulo Coelho (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Ninth - Ferenc Barnas (GPU) Rp 15.000
• Heretic - Sarah Singleton (GPU) Rp 10.000
• I Will Always Love You - Jo Chang-in (Bentang Pustaka) Rp 25.000**
• Double Tap - Steve Martini (GPU) Rp 20.000**
• The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (Qanita) Rp 25.000** [Classic Read]

Novel Bahasa Inggris

• The One That Got Away - Kelly Hunter (Harlequin Kiss) Rp 20.000
• Much Ado About Anne - Heather Vogel Frederick (Simon & Schuster) Rp 20.000
• Whisper in the Jungle - Robert Mwangi (Self Published) Rp 20.000
• 30 Days in Sydney - Peter Carey (Bloomsbury) Rp 35.000 [Hardcover]

** Buku masih disegel

Mayoritas kondisinya masih bagus banget kok. Soalnya ya kalau nggak cuma sekali dibaca, malah belum disentuh sama sekali. Silahkan klik judulnya untuk sinopsis dan rating (aku refer ke Goodreads kok). Kalau ada pertanyaan, silahkan tanya lewat sini. Sedangkan pemesanan bisa lewat e-mail ya :) Beli banyak bisa dapat diskon loh.

Book Review: This Song is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin

Title: THIS SONG IS (NOT) FOR YOU
Author: Laura Nowlin
Published: January 5th, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Pages: 220
ISBN: 978-149-260-290-3
Price: $12.11 (Book Depository) // $9.95 (Amazon)

*Digital ARC was received from Sourcebooks through Netgalley*

Rating: 3/5 stars
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I always fall for novels about music. It's not always necessary talking about music, but just put the word "song" on the title and I'll read it. Well, that's the case with This Song is (Not) for You by Laura Nowlin. I must admit that the cover is not that beautiful. It's not the kind of novel with very captivating cover which will hypnotize people to buy it. But, yeah, the "song" word works (for me). Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity. I had to shut down my old NetGalley account in order to have a clean slate in book review. Hopefully it will work well. So, back to the novel. I haven't heard anything about Laura Nowlin. I thought she's a newcomer, but it turns out she already has a book before This Song is (Not) for You and she has quite lot fans. That's why I started this book on my Kindle App with a pretty high expectation.

Music will always be a part of my life. A huge part. But there are other things in life that I also want, and I don't want to give them up to pursue just one thing. - Tom

Ramona is just an average high school student who doesn't have many friends because everyone thinks that she's weird. But, she has Sam who is always beside her. The "weird" thing about Ramona is that she always has feeling about something. She feels like Sam is meant to meet her and so does Tom, a guy whom she met at an audition. She feels like Tom is meant to be in her band. So, they three get along and play music together. They do it great. I, of course, cannot hear the song. According to how Nowlin describes it, it sounds great. I imagine Fun. kind of songs. Ramona on the drum, Sam on the guitar, and Tom as the chaos maker with his own instruments.

Following their story to reach the dream and figure out their future is kind of entertaining. They are bond together but somehow they have different goals. When they're trying to be honest to each other, they're afraid to hurt someone else. I can feel how strong their friendships. I can understand how important they are to each other. So, yeah, I have to give a thumb up to Nowlin for this. I've never read a friendship as strong as Ramona's. But things get weirder when we talk about relationship. Well, don't be surprised. Don't you ever heard someone said, "It's impossible for guy and girl be in a friendship without falling for each other,"? There's something going on between Ramona, Sam, and Tom. But I can't give you more details about that because it's shocking! I was like shaking my head, confused, a little bit disagree. I was like "what the ****?!" But, the final judgement might be different based on the readers' culture. I have been warned.

Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. The story's idea is not unique, but Nowlin has her own way by putting a lot of music things (which is great). Describing music and successfully transfer the feeling to the readers is not easy. Nowlin did it great. I was a little bit struggling to understand some musical meaning, but it doesn't affect my understanding of the whole story. So, it's fine. Unfortunately, this story is very lack of family's value. I think it would be great if Nowlin brings the reader to get to know each family better in order to understand the sexual issue.