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I am currently addicted to thriller novels. The book I recently finished to read was The Girl on the Train (TGT). This is the second book after The Husband’s Secret . And I would like to have another one like them. What I love about thriller novel is the fast pace, the twists and that kind of something that could make me read near couple hundreds page in a day. It made me wondered about how the story would be ended, thinking whether who the suspect is, and how did the murdered happen. It is filled up my mind all day long. So TGT basically is a story about a murdered of a charming lady, Megan Hipwell, a wife to Scott Hipwell. She founded died mysteriously burry in an awful condition during rainy days. Meanwhile, Rachel Watson, a woman who struggles with her alcoholic issue, claimed that she knows something about Megan which could be helped the investigation through her death. The interesting point is, Rachel was recognized Megan because their house...

Aku membayangkan hidupku sebagai seorang perempuan dan ibu rumah tangga yang kesehariannya sibuk dengan banyak hal. Sibuk dengan pesanan kue-kue lezat, sibuk mengantar anak-anak sekolah, sibuk memasak untuk mereka. Saat petang, aku sibuk dengan kehangatan antara ibu dan anak-anaknya. Di akhir pekan, kami akan pergi menghabiskan waktu bersama. Mungkin juga jajan es krim favorit. Atau membeli seiris cake cokelat yang sebetulnya bisa kubuat sendiri. Pada liburan yang agak panjang, kami akan mengunjungi saudara-saudara yang rumahnya cukup jauh. Tentu kami juga akan menginap di rumah Eyang untuk satu-dua malam dan merasakan masakan Eyang Putri yang selalu kami tunggu. Semua bergembira. Malamnya semarak suara anak-anak mereda. Tubuh-tubuh mungil itu mendekap Eyangnya mesra. Ada satu momen yang sangat kami nantikan di antara hari-hari selama satu tahun: Idul Fitri. Selama sebulan, hidupku akan jauh lebih sibuk. Aku akan bangun di sepertiga malam dan memasak sahur untuk ...

I want chocolate. A big shiny bar with your lips flavour in it. I want chocolate and a cake. A fluffy slice contains your hugs in our bed. I want tea, bitter but lighter. I said I wanted to stargaze sometime. So that I could slip my hands into your arms. I would drive you home, even if it's two hours long. I want our wit talk never ends. About your favorite places, your favorite authors. About the way you love me. About how I would spend the rest of my life. Then you pretended asleep. The room filled with laughs and tickles. I want small cotton candy. A blue one with a moustache grip. We'd shared and talked with our mouth full. I want ice cream. A warm one that could melt my ex's heart. I want something tasty. Like your cheesy jokes when we were first met. Like your hopeful song, you wrote for me dearly.[]

"Jadi yang namanya komunitas sosialis itu, seperti yang sudah-sudah..." Diskusi yang baru saja dimulai berlangsung ramai. Seseorang bertanya dan seorang lagi yang duduk jauh dari pembicara menimpali. Aku membuang pandangan ke luar sana, di mana sinar mentari masih gagah di pukul tiga sore ini. Musim panas hadir kembali. Kemarin Bapak menelpon dan bilang sebagian sawahnya mulai digerogoti hama jenis baru. Padi yang sekarat karena hama adalah biasa, namun bagaimana Bapak berjuang untuk menyelamatkan hamanya itu yang jadi persoalan. Ibu jelas tak bisa membantu lagi. Sementara yang mereka punya di kota ini hanya aku dan adikku.   "Mbak, sego kuning e siji." Aku tersentak. Di dalam semua tertawa riuh sekali. Aku berjualan makanan secara ilegal; tidak berijin pada pihak fakultas dan keliling saja sesuka hati. Tiap hari yang kubawa ada sekitar lima puluh jenis kue basah dan makanan yang kubeli dari pasar pagi. Tiap jenis makanan memberi laba antara 500 sampai 1500 r...

I had nothing in my mind about sexual harassment at the workplace, until one day while I was working and had a job conversation with a designer guy at his desk, this man passed through. He gave me that look, to my lower part, and said passionately: nice butt. I was so angry and gave him a silent treatment--which was hell for him because he had to do some tasks with me. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't easy for me to speak up--even though it's possible. It's always possible, but it was hard. He asked for an apology at last. And little did I know he did it too to some women colleagues back then. He also spanked one of them. I bet he had to face our HRD if he did it to me. On another occasion, when I already moved to my new office , I used to join a team to participate in a national exhibition. Later on, I resigned due to my fragile second pregnancy. And this middle-aged man (who were a member of the team I've mentioned above), suddenly messaged me. At first...

"Ive been a drop out, a nomad, a thief, a shitty student, and a lazy employee." - page 7 Awalnya baca #GirlBoss karena terpantik judulnya yang agak “provokatif”— in a good way. Semacam ada spark of feminism di judulnya. Iyalah, kata “ girl ” dan “ boss ” itu kadang dianggap sebagai dua terma yang berbeda. Sebab dalam dunia patriarkal, yang namanya “ boss ” itu biasanya male oriented . Jadi menjejerkan dua kata itu menurutku menimbulkan rasa yang khas feminis. So that was my first impression about #GirlBoss. Menurutku Sophia Amoruso menulis #GirlBoss dengan sense yang rada nyeleneh. Bahasa tulisnya blak-blakan. As she gonna write “A” if that was she wanted to say. She gonna write “stupid” if that was she wanted to say. Dari sini, rasanya sudah cukup terlihat karakternya dia seperti apa. So basically, #GirlBoss was talk about her online store named NastyGal. No, I never heard that before. No wonder because the online store first appeared on eBay. Sementara aku pa...

Do you know what life is all about? Being grateful. We knew it from the first time. I was a person with nothing at first. Then I got something, a job which actually suit with my pray: I want a job, any job.  Then I wanted another better job. Or back at home which I was called it paradise. Then a better things came.  But God gave me an exam so that maybe I can improve my self-quality. He brought me back home—just like what I wanted before, no? I was enjoying every single thing until He came again to me. Maybe to testified my faith upon Him.  He came again with a bigger, harder exam I have ever been. He taught me as a one-per-one life lesson. But that time, I was alone. He left me with all those things He wanted me to learn.   I fell into my knees million times, stayed awake to those sleepless nights, felt weak and worthless, and those unstoppable cries. And I don’t think I succeeded. Well, it was a magnitude storm, most powerful destruction in my life which ...

 *disclaimer: This post was my assignment in my English class. It was written just in time as I never had enough time for proper preparation. But one day, an email came. My lecturer was sent a review of my paper and had it graded too. Overall, it was beyond my expectation. She also came to me while I was having a casual conversation out of the class, and said: hi, did you read my email? I like your writing and blablabla--I just can't hear other words since then, haha! But still, I hope you bear with my broken English which you may find a lot of grammatical errors. Oh well, here you go, a short, unimportant, random post. Enjoy. I never been to the United States—yet. The most vivid picture of the US was I saw on a movie 13 Going On 30 . It’s a movie about a teenage girl who lives her dream becoming a chief editor of a famous magazine in New York. It is an American Dream, isn’t it? Big city offers two contrary things: being succeed or die trying. US—just like another big c...

This picture was grabbed from here . "Did you really think we're going to have a baby now and live happily ever after?" said Tess. "A baby doesn't fix a marriage. Not that I even know my marriage needs fixing."- page 538, E-book version. Okay. First thing before I talk about this book is that I read The Husband's Secret (THS) in e-book format. Actually, I was trying to buy e-books because of: 1) it is convenient.  E-books allow me to read anytime and anywhere. You can do it with the printed book, can't you? No. For me right now, no. Now that my time much spends on breastfeeding my son, no, I can't always bring the book while I'm feeding him. I was trying and... yeah, it's kinda troublesome. And 2) its price. So damn cheap. Gosh. I'm gonna post a small talk about this later, promise.   So after I bought some books (I was bought about ten books at first!), I feel it was fun and easy. The E-pub(lish) app...

"That's because happiness, bliss, is in the hands of Allah, not man. If we are happy, it is God's will and, likewise, if we are miserable it is also God's will." -page 158 Konon, bepergian dapat melepas stres. Saya setuju. Entah itu annual travelling atau sekadar piknik tipis-tipis. Pada tiap perjalanan ada memori yang tertanam: pengalaman yang menyenangkan ketika menuju destinasi, ketika berada di sana bahkan sampai bepergian telah usai. Coba lihat manusia jaman sekarang. Piknik jadi hal yang sakral dan seolah-olah kebutuhan primer. Salah satu patokan menjadi bahagia adalah dengan piknik. Jika seseorang terlihat desperate, maka sangat mudah menudingnya tidak bahagia. Karena itu, sering kita mendengar kelakar: situ kurang piknik, ya? Eric Weiner, seorang mantan jurnalis, mencoba mengeksplorasi makna bahagia. Caranya menginvestigasi tidak main-main. Ia sampai menemui seorang "profesor kebahagiaan", seseorang yang telah lama mengulik studi k...

Saya pernah cerita tentang bukunya Reda Gaudiamo yang berjudul NaWIlla di sini . Kali ini, saya mau review buku beliau yang lain lagi. Judulnya: Aku, Meps dan Beps (AMB). Buku ini juga seperti NaWilla, diterbitkan secara independen. Dan, ya, kalau mau beli buku ini jangan cari di toko buku besar. AMB hanya dijual di beberapa curated book shop. Bedanya dengan NaWilla, pada AMB ini, Mbak Reda berkolaborasi menulis dengan putri semata wayangnya, Soca. Walau saya tak tahu seberapa besar "intervensi" Mbak Reda pada buku ini, dalam pandanganku, Soca memiliki kemampuan menulis yang baik. Ya seperti anak-anak umumnya, jiwa tulisannya ceria, ekspresif dan banyak lontaran jenaka. AMB tak lain adalah cerita tentang Soca, Ibunya (Meps) dan Bapaknya (Beps). Demikianlah Soca memanggil orang tuanya--yang bahkan ibunya sendiri lupa bagaimana awalnya itu terjadi. Pada AMB, relasi mereka bertiga sebagai orang tua dan anak terlihat sangat cair. Intim, hangat dan ekspresif. Hal-hal yang ...

Ada dua pelajaran dalam semesta kehidupan yang rasanya sulit dilakukan. Pertama memaafkan dan kedua melepaskan. Keduanya beririsan oleh satu hal: ikhlas. Berat, bok! Ikhlas memaafkan dan ikhlas melepaskan. Saya sih lebih sering memaafkan dengan format default: lebaran. Hehehehe. Dan sepertinya belum pernah juga ikhlas melepaskan. (Kalau dalam konteks kehilangan, orang tua dan mertua saya--alhamdulilah--masih komplit.) Tapi sungguh. Saat kamu sakit karena seseorang, akan sulit bagimu untuk kembali melangkah dengan ringan tanpa rasa ikhlas. Sekali lagi, ikhlas memaafkan dan ikhlas melepaskan. Saya? Saya ini tipe pendendam. Saya bisa menyimpan luka dan menyayanginya siang-malam agar saya ingat pelajaran apa yang saya dapat. Saya simpan semua memorinya dalam ingatan. Buruknya, saya jadi tak mudah memaafkan--jika sakitnya keterlaluan. Tapi untuk melepaskan, demi moving on, saya masih mampu. Lebih buruknya lagi, itu jadi unfinished business antara saya dan masa lalu saya send...

Waktu saya tahu berita kematian vokalis Linkin Park, Chester Bennington, dini hari tadi (waktu Indonesia, tentunya) awalnya muncul rasa duka yang biasa. Tapi menjelang siang, di berbagai platform medsos saya makin banjir postingan duka cita buat Chester. Kematian Chester jelas mengguncang, bukan hanya karena dia famous person. But because the way he died. Suicide. Because of depression. Just like Robin William and Chris Cornell. It is not a new things in Hollywood life but somehow he gets the spotlight. Pada beberapa poin, saya merasa bercermin pada diri sendiri. Bukan, bukan karena saya juga pengen bunuh diri. Tapi bahwa orang seperti Chester, who is obviously has fortune and fame , ternyata bisa menyerahkan hidupnya pada seutas tali. Yaiyalaahh. Suicide can be happen to anyone. The poor one, so we thought he desperate because of money. And the rich, so we thought that money never truly makes people happy. "We all have our own unspoken depression." S...