From Caucasia, With Love by Danzy Senna
Growing up admist the power politics of 1970s America, Birdie and her older sister Cole are so close they speak their own language. Daughter of a white radical activist mother and black academic father, she appears white and Cole black. Their relationship is a refuge from the rest of their lives but when their parents separate, they are thrown a world apart. She believes one day her family will reunite, which never happens. She really needs to reclaim her family again so on her road to search for her sister becomes, a search for her self.
Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas
This is a very enjoyable novel with memorable characters. Set in India, England, and Guyana, the story centers around an orphan and his adopted father, the mystically endowed daughter of a cook, an Indian family in Guyana and an English family in India at the end of the British reign. The characters all have a bit of India mythology associated with them. Each has something magical or mysterious. Each takes on a different guise or identity from time to time, like the multiple personalities of the Hindu gods and goddesses. On top of all this lies a very well-told tale of love lost and found, with some nice surprises right up to the end.
I got this book from my uncle, he bought it in a bookstore near Pangandaran Beach. It's a used book but it worth every penny he spent. Truly a marvellous book. Still, I wonder why the previous owner sold it the owner of the book store. Me myself, I won't throw away any of my book, especially the ones as good as this one.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The name was Salmon, like the fish, first name, Susie. She was 14 when she was murdered on December 6, 1973 by a man from her neighborhood. Her mother liked his border flowers, and her father talked to him once about fertilizer'. This is Susie Salmon, speaking to us from heaven that looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. There are counsellors to help newcomers to adjust, and friends to room with. Everything she wants appears as soon as she thinks of it - except the thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on earth. From heaven, Susie watches. She sees her happy suburban family implode after her death, as each member tries to come to terms with the terrible loss, her parents, her grandma, her sister and her brother. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. She also watches her murderer who never got caught and cops never found her body. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet.
This is a unique book. From the first time I read the first page I knew it was something special and worth to be read. The idea of someone who died and goes up to heaven and watches and tells everything that happens on earth is not something that you always find in today's literature stories.