“Adversity is like a strong wind. I don’t mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.”

Memoirs of a Geisha starts with a fictional note from the so-called “translator” of the memoir, a New York University professor named Jakob Haarhuis, who interviews the retired geisha Nitta Sayuri. She narrates her past in a flashback format, at times referring to her present. The story is set in the time setting of World War II.

Before she becomes a geisha with her own geisha name, Nitta Sayuri is just a fisherman’s daughter named Sakamoto Chiyo in a small village called Yoroido. With her mother sick and her father penniless, her parents has no choice but to sell Chiyo and her sister Satsu. They are separated; Chiyo, with her pretty face and blue-gray eyes, is sold to an okiya (geisha house) in Gion, a geisha district in Kyoto, while Satsu is sold to a bordello in a prostitution area. Chiyo nearly runs away with her sister, but in attempt to do so she falls down from her roof and thus fails. This causes her to fall into a depression of some sorts, and while she is tearful by a bridge in Gion, a chairman of a big electric company takes notice of her and cheers her up by buying her an ice cone and giving her some money. Since then, Chiyo is determined to become a geisha so the Chairman will notice her. In her endeavors, she must prevail under the constant bullying and schemes of an older and jealous geisha, Hatsumomo, who will stop at nothing to crush her.

This novel has a sublime storytelling. No doubt Arthur Golden took time to research a geisha’s daily habit, their ways of life, enlightening us of how tough their line of work is. The descriptions and metaphors used are detailed, and while reading it one could envision the bright colors and details of the kimono worn by each geisha; cringe at the uncomfortable way they have to sleep (using some sort of wooden support for their neck instead of normal pillows) so they do not ruin their hairstyles, as they can only get their hair styled about once a week; and perhaps, at times, blush while encountering a particularly naughty joke they share with their patrons.

But the novel does not only excel in the details of its storytelling; it has a plot undeniably exciting. The subtle attacks and schemes pulled by both sides (Mameha and Sayuri against Hatsumomo and Pumpkin) are more often than not cruel, and it all gets more complicated when you involve their relationships with their patrons and the politics in the okiya itself. Throw in a love triangle (or mainly a triangle, although some affairs with other men are there) and the drama ensues.

The only disappointment I have towards the book is on how shallow Sayuri and the Chairman’s romance is. After reading it through, I keep wondering if it is supposed to end that way. In certain moments you can almost see how Sayuri puts the Chairman on a pedestal and how he is so perfect in her eyes–but in the end, he seems like a cardboard cut-out of a prince charming: not real and two-dimensional.

Nevertheless, Memoirs of a Geisha is no doubt worth reading. The beautiful imagery used throughout the whole novel as well as the scheming and plotting done by each character brings the story to life. Even the main character and narrator, Sayuri, is no saint and perfectly human–a character every reader will be able to sympathize with. Through her eyes, the story of a small country bumpkin transforming into a legendary geisha appears magical and ever-enchanting.

Rating: 8.5/10

The Princess Diaries is about an ordinary 14-year-old American girl, Mia Thermopolis, who one day finds out that she’s the sole heir to the throne of a small European country, Genovia. To get her ready for her new role as Princess of Genovia, Mia must take princess lessons from her formidable grandmother, Grandmere. The first book in the series (there’s 10 books in all) tells the first month or so of Mia finding out that she’s a princess.

If I had read The Princess Diaries when I was 13, instead of The Babysitter’s Club, maybe I would’ve turned out differently. Because when I say that Mia is an ordinary girl, I mean ordinary as in she’s your average girl with flaws and insecurities. Mia doesn’t always try to correct her mistakes – unlike the girls of The Babysitter’s Club who are sometimes too noble to be real. Mia is insecure about her height and chest size, she’s failing algebra, she’s a compulsive liar, and she also has a crush on Josh Richter, the senior that is just too cool for school (in Mia’s opinion). To complicate things even further, Mia has a falling out with her genius best friend, Lilly Moscovitz, when Mia fails to tell Lilly that she’s the princess of Genovia.

Oh my, life sucks when we suddenly wake up as somebody else. In Mia’s case, she suddenly wakes up as a princess.

Despite all the troubles that Mia go through in The Princess Diaries, the book was actually pretty fun to read. I had expected it to be cheesy and cringe-worthy, but it wasn’t like that at all. Yes, there were a few moments when Mia was too whiny it was nearly unbearable, but all in all, she’s one protagonist I didn’t have trouble rooting for. Meg Cabot wrote it really well, making it really seem like the diary of teenage girl. The story is light and entertaining, reminding me that YA fiction is not always about falling in love and first heartbreaks, but it’s also the time when we start to take control of our lives, whether we’re ordinary ordinary schoolgirls or modern-day princesses.

Rating: 8/10

Favourite Quote: “I will never achieve self actualization if I always back down from my convictions.”

So here’s the list. The books in green will be reviewed by A, while the books in blue will be reviewed by K. Wish us luck!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie