misspalah's reviews
1070 reviews

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

"The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda."

• Manufacturing Consent : The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky

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A required reading to to both US citizens and non US citizens. I cant help but to ponder how it is exactly stays the same 30 years plus after this book was published. We are seeing the same exact pattern how USA stifling public opinion on ISRAEL and kept on muting whoever wanted to protest against them. They are aiding and abetting ISNOREAL on Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians while kept on using the same lame excuse that ISNOTREAL has the right to defend themselves. The funny thing is the book revealed so many infos and provide detailed analysis on how evil the US government - (I am

pretty sure it’s nothing new and you have heard of this before) USA basically interfering other nation’s political situation with an ulterior motives just like what they did in Central American Countries (El-Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala) in 1980s and Countries in Indochina region (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) in 1960s. They used the propaganda model to win the support of their citizens on why they have to be the one who will ‘help’ these countries , ‘dismantle’ dictatorship or even go to the war on behalf of them. This might work back then and i am glad social media is here to prove that younger generation aint taking 100% of what they have put out in the news outlet. The age of misinformation is not going anywhere, its here as long as the elite control the media - none of your news is impartial and true. Most of the time, it has been skewered to serve the interest of government. The book did well to demonstrate how media played a big role in brainwashing the viewers into thinking which victims is worthy and which victims deserved it. Again, look how US-based media outlet portrayed Israelis and Palestinians in the past 100 days. The contrast was so huge that you cant make this shit up. The book revealed how US government nitpicking on Central American Political Circumstances depending on their interests on the area. Since they are sort of allies with El-Salvador and Guatemala after installing their puppeteers, they have no issue with how the country ran the election. However, since Nicargua is not choosing the one that US wanted to use as their puppets, suddenly news about how democracy is in dire state and communism is there to take over the country. US government needs holy water to wash blood on their hands - so many massacres they have fueled to achive their objective ; just read about Massacre at El Mozote in El-Salvadore, The Guatemalan Genocide and US support for Contra Death Squads in Nicaragua. On the other hands, 2 final chapters on Indochina is so eye-opening. Many of us are under the impression that USA came to ‘help’ and ‘liberate’ these countries from communism but it is just another sick redemption story after the embarrassing defeat in Vietnam War. USA and their role in genocide is pretty much inseparable at this point - they are the one basically paving the way for khmer rouge.  From the end of 1960s to the early 1970s , these countries has been the target of carpet bombing just so they could have ‘forced’ these terrorist out or ‘terminated’ them. I am pretty sure this sounds familiar as they are the one who supported ISNOTREAL in carpet bombing hospitals in Gaza and Refugee camps. The chapter on The KGB- Bulgarian plot to kill the pope is simply USA is trying too hard to make something that its not and ended up creating a boogeyman out of some evidence that was not coherent at all. A pretty laughable chapter TBH. Overall, if you enjoy confessions of an economic hitman, you will enjoy this one. This one is more academically inclined with the stats, figures and notes but you will see why it was written in such manner. I think this need to be re-read at least twice to truly understand how mainstream media is not really an independent entity that society thought of and questioning their narratives should have been priority in order to get fair and genuince reporting. 

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Here are the quotes worth sharing from each chapter in the book. 

1. "The public must be put in its place, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd."
2. "The more powerful the government, the more it is able to control thought and discussion."
3. "The media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them." - 
4. "Thus the media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them—their true role and function."
5. "The consequence of the workings of this system is that small groups do indeed secure sufficient privilege to dominate and direct social life." 
6. "Anti-Communism provides the ideological framework within which the media operate, whether discussing superpower conflict or any other aspect of foreign policy."
7. "The state calls upon the media to create a political consensus at home, to support its current policies, and to attack its adversaries."
8. "The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they are quite independent in their judgment and quite free of propaganda."

The Plotters by Un-su Kim

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Whether brilliant or mediocre, everyone's unique. Which is why it's so complicated to love in an ordinary way, be nice in an ordinary way, meet and leave people in an ordinary way. Plus, in that sort of life there is no love, no hate, no betrayal, no hurt, and no memories. It's dry and flavorless, colorless and odorless. But, guess what, I like that kind of life. I can't stand things that are too heavy. That's why I'm learning how to keep people from remembering me. It's tricky. It's not in any book, and no one teaches it. Everyone wants to live a life that makes them special, that makes others remember them. The ordinariness that I'm after is a life that no one remembers. I want a forgotten life. That's what I'm working toward." Reseng had liked the sound of that. It was why they'd become friends.

• The Plotters by Un-Su Kim

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This was sort of a mixture between strange and stunning writing. I love Reseng (anti-hero and a conflicted assassin especially after both of his friends got murdered and indirectly linked to his occupation) - his character is complex and you are invested in his thoughts and ideas of the world. His dry and dark humour banter that he has within himself and people around can be funny and satisfying if you actually understand what he’s trying to say. The only issue i have with this book is the final quarter of the book is really boring. I felt that it was draggy and the open ending was such an exhaustive ending. I am sure majority will disagree with me on this but other than that, i would have giving this book 4.5 to 5 if these issues did not exist. The story took place in a ‘Democratic South Korea’ whereby political enemies is being exterminated using the service of elite legion of assassins (the library of dogs). Reseng is part of the organisation and has been working under his employer known as Old Raccoon. I rarely read thriller plus assassins-centered story so my only reference is John Wick films specifically when the invisible characters known as the plotters will set the targets and send it as part of the assignments to the selected assassins. I have to commend the translator for an impeccable translation as it was easy to read even it does have an unconventional world-building in it. Overall, this is still a story worth reading! 

The Girl at the Door by Veronica Raimo

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

After the girl came to see me, I couldn't get rid of her presence in the house. She was beautiful. Violently skinny. I thought that my boyfriend had never enjoyed such beauty while hugging me. It just wasn't possible with my body. I envied the girl and envied what he must have felt while possessing her. I wondered how many times that body came back to him in his dreams. I thought of his anguish when they separated. You get used to loss at the end of a love, but losing beauty must be dreadful. It had never happened to me. I tried to see it through my boyfriend's eyes. I imagined his days at the Academy in front of that body, and I felt a pain I hadn't known. I hated that pain. But I envied it with all my being.

• The girl at the door by Veronica Raimo

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A bizarre yet poignant writing despite being translated from Italian to English. The chapters were alternated between her and him, the perpetrators and his girlfriend. The premise was somehow resonated with ‘me too movement’ whereby many powerful men or those who are occupying the upper position is abusing their position or authority to take advantage of those who are under them or their own subordinates. We were only introduced to the victim in the beginning of the book when she came to meet the perpetrator’s girlfriend to inform her about the crime and the violence she experienced while in the relationship with the perpetrator. The first 100 pages was so intense, complex, and equally fuck up that I am considering to DNF it. It is uncomfortable read for me and I was not ready with the amount of sexual violence together with the vulgarity that came with it. The next 100 pages, we are navigating the complication of the crime towards their relationship, the perpetrator, and his girlfriend. The setting of the story took place in a country called ‘Miden’ whereby it was governed by the elements of political correctness. Somewhere along way, I don’t know whether it is intentional or not, but it is almost suffocating reading this book as they brought forward the justification of why the perpetrator acted in that manner. They highlighted the different culture, the sense of upbringing or whatever bollocks that they can cook to defend the perpetrator’s action towards his victim. It is almost baffling at the same time when the perpetrator felt why he was not the center of attention as he was supposed to be. This was demonstrated when campus culture decided to capitalize on the issue and converted it to various of merchandise, t-shirt, bag and so on. The idea of what is considered hot issue until it becomes a trend is being addressed until society hopping on to the next issue. While the story is edgy (almost borderline pretentious) and taken place in sort of post-apocalyptic world, I was let down by the ending. At the end of the day, I found me asking what the point of this book is as it took away the agency of the victim from the story.

BONE WEIGHT and Other Stories by Shih-Li Kow

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

My late father used to make a living as a fortune teller. He called himself a calculator of fates and read fortunes by weighing bones. This was not a weight in kilogrammes or pounds, but an astrological weight based on the circumstances of one's birth. According to my father's Tong Shu almanac, heavy bones foretold a good life. They were dense with marrow and rich in celestial calcium, strong enough to weather hard knocks and march through life unmolested. Light-boned people, on the other hand, hovered on the edges of existence, insubstantial and easily broken. As a child, I had wondered if the predictions in my father's almanac applied only to Chinese people, the way some heavens were open only to followers of certain gods. My father had chastised me for my ignorance. Bone weight did not depend on skin colour or preferred choice of heaven.

• Bone Weight and other stories by Shih - Li Kow

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This is my first book of Shih Li Kow and i need to find her other books ASAP. I love that not a single bad stories that was featured in this compilation. Sure, some stories were short and  some ending remains open and inconclusive but writing-wise? A chef kiss. I was not ready with ‘Old Enough For this’. It sent a chill down my spine, to be frank. It was haunting in a subtle way. The fountain also hold no punches. It sure showed that humanity is such a frail little things and everyone is in it for themselves. If you are weak, you will be trampled on by others. Seventeenth Floor might not be other reader’s cup of tea but i enjoyed it. It captured this weird obsession towards a stranger even though you barely knew a person. The story titled ‘It only amplifies’ emphasized on the co-dependency and the emotional attachment towards the inherited object from her mother. Splice reminds me of a black mirror - A dark sci-fi, to be specific. Fuck around with time and paid the price for it. I think the last one that i truly love is ‘Silica Dust and Silica Sky’ - thematically, it is a class war. The riches gets to enjoy clear air, clean water and the place are shielded from the flood as it is in high altitude while the poor gots what’s left of it. The entrance to the riches area was restricted and you needed pass for it. And in this story, the guy moved up in the upper strata of society while the girl left behind eventhough they planned to do it together. I could have highlighted other stories but i wanted you guys to read this book. Also, the last 2 stories , Bone Weight and The Day Comes should have been a full fledge novel. I was so investef. This would have been 5 stars but some short stories ending left me wanting for more 🥲. 

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“But what was there to say? Only that there were tears. Only that Quietness and Emptiness fitted together like stacked spoons. Only that there was a snuffling in the hollows at the base of a lovely throat. Only that a hard honey-colored shoulder had a semicircle of teethmarks on it. Only that they held each other close, long after it was over. Only that what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief. Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.”

― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

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The book was quite challenging to get through. It was both intense and complex, and emotionally, I don't feel prepared to fully engage with it. I found myself drifting in and out while reading, and although I grasped the main plot, the shifting between two different time periods, from 1969 to 1993, was quite frustrating. While I usually appreciate non-linear narratives in literary fiction, in this book, it felt excessively disorganized. Arundhati Roy is undoubtedly a skilled writer, evident in the beautiful prose and vivid imagery, which I can't deny. However, I personally didn't form any strong connections with the characters. The story revolves around the lives of twins Rahel and Estha, and the events within their family, set against the backdrop of the Indian state of Kerala, highlighting the social and political landscape of the 20th century, addressing issues of discrimination, inequality, and the clash between tradition and modernity. The twins' perspective provided insight into the impact of their mother's forbidden love affair with a lower-caste man. Despite the focus on the twins, I found the supporting characters, especially Ammu, Velutha, and Baby Kochamma, equally compelling and integral to the story's richness. Overall, while I struggled with the book and it didn't quite resonate with me, I acknowledge its stunning debut and would recommend it to those who appreciate incredibly detailed writing styles and intergenerational family tales.

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong - and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

“Science has failed to rid us of the gender stereotypes and dangerous myths we’ve been laboring under for centuries. Women are so grossly underrepresented in modern science because, for most of history, they were treated as intellectual inferiors and deliberately excluded from it. It should come as no surprise, then, that this same scientific establishment has also painted a distorted picture of the female sex. This, in turn again, has skewed how science looks and what it says even now.”

― Angela Saini, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story

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If scientists are unable to remain unbiased, then why should we trust their research or listen to their findings? I was extremely angry when I read this book. Imagine a profession that is meant to thoroughly study diseases, illnesses, and find cures, yet fails to ensure a balanced gender composition among its subjects. Their excuse among other things is a lack of budget. How can the results is considered acceptable when half of the population is being excluded? It's 2024, and women are still relying on painkillers for period pain, which doesn't even help those with conditions like PCOS and other women's health complications. I initially picked up this book to gain insight into how science has misunderstood women, but Angela Saini's work goes beyond that, highlighting how science has failed women. While we can excuse male scientists for being products of their time and perpetuating stereotypes, it's still disappointing. Science is meant to be objective, but after reading this book, it's hard to believe that most studies aren't influenced by myths and biases toward women. Saini effectively takes readers through various fields of study, including anthropology, biology, and psychology, exposing flawed methodologies and the pervasive influence of gender bias in scientific research. I was shocked when Saini recounted an interview with a prominent male scientist who dismissed work from female scientists because it contradicted his own. Instead of correcting their mistakes, these scientists preferred to remain in their echo chamber. The book consists of 8 chapters, aiming to illustrate how preconceived notions about women's capabilities have influenced studies for centuries. From studies on brain sizes mocking women scientists to real-life practices like foot binding, female genital mutilations, and breast ironing, the book also highlights new evidence showing women playing major roles in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. Overall, this book is a great start to my 2024 reading journey. Despite my anger and bewilderment, I highly recommend it as a tool for educating ourselves about the need for a more nuanced and unbiased approach to understanding gender differences and addressing the existing gaps in research.

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

In Gaza, some of us cannot completely die.

Every time a bomb falls, every time shrapnel hits our graves,

every time the rubble piles up on our heads,

we are awakened from our temporary death.

• MY CITY AFTER WHAT HAPPENED SOME TIME AGO : Things You may find hidden in my Ear by Mosab Abu Toha 

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How do you rate or review poems that fully captured of what is going on in Gaza and Palestine in its entirety? I dont think i can. My heart broke in pieces, my eyes were brimming with tears everytime i flipped every pages and my kept on praying and chanting ‘InsyaAllah, Palestine will be free! More than 90 days already pass and countless killings has been done by IDF yet the world stood by and just watch it. Thousands were being displaced, House were being bombarded, Civillians were shot, Hospitals were running out the capacity and being attacked simultaneously, People were starved BUT at the same time , those western countries that has been preaching about human rights kept on defending Israel or how Hamas should have not started the attack on 7 October while ignoring the ugly realities that has been experienced by Palestinians since 1948. I have no words for this. I dont think i will teach my students about UN, Human Rights and all that nonsense shit that came from US, UK and all their allies in enabling this genocide. At the end of the day, i am Southeast Asian Muslim with a brown skin. That alone will surely put me in the category ‘not white, not worth it, no human rights applicable here’.  I will just be another collateral damage or somehow just number of lives as to how western medias has been biasedly targetting and framing Palestinian lives in their news narratives. I know i was supposed to write a review but i think my rant is enough to highlight the injustice here. At the end of the day, the key takeaway for this book is it is important and must be read by all because via author’s heartwrenching prose, we can see how the author illustrate how his lives, hometown, heritages, family members and even neighborhood gone after being obliterated by the zionists. 

Rubbish!: Dirt On Our Hands - Armageddon in the Trash by Richard Girling

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

3.0

You see the same thing the world over - the wrong organism in the wrong place. It is a shock to British sensibilities to find that 'pests' in Western Australia include blackbird, bullfinch, turtle dove, skylark and song thrush, and that their fate is to be treated as vermin, worse than rubbish. In New Zealand, too, ground-nesting birds have been devastated by weasels and stoats imported by Victorian immigrants. 'Nature' is a hard thing to define, not least because we tend to exclude ourselves from it. A termite hill is natural'; a tower block is not. Predation by weasels is God-given and right; hunting by humans is wrong. In arguments about GM, embryo research, cloning and other issues where human ingenuity gives fresh spin to old forces, we struggle to decide what is 'natural' and what is not. It is an argument that spills out on to the fields. The landscape we defend is not natural wilderness. It is our own creation, and the haven it once offered to wildlife was a by-product rather than the intended outcome of earlier farming methods. How, then, can we say what is right and wrong? Now that we have little more use for a stockproof hedge than we have for a traction engine, the need is to find a new equilibrium which, for the sake of our sanity, balances sentiment with utility and measures the value of landscape in something more than just crop yields. We owe more to ourselves than to lay waste to our own finest creation.

• Trashing the land : Rubbish - Dirt on our hands and crisis ahead by Richard Girling

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The book has a lot of rantings. While, it is justifiable but i am getting tired of it after 70% reading the book. The reason i am interested in reading this book because I took environmental management studies as my elective subject in my bachelor degree and has always been interested in this particular field right after i graduated. I went to a field trip in singapore to learn about their incineration process and how they separated, sorted and managed their rubbish given their land mass size. Let’s just say, while it is efficient but the long term effect will not be pretty as they are dumping the remaining ashes and untreated wastage to a nearby uninhabited island. That was my take in 2011. Singapore may have upgraded their system ever since. Now back to the book, Richard Girling started with the history of how wastage management were first introduced. The whole sanitation board were being integrated as part of the UK and has been managing what’s in and out of drainage. Then he went on to criticise the policy sets by the government that was full of loopholes and barely did its job. He then argued the recycle initiative that pointless as it did not really fulfill the purpose of why it was done is the first place. In the global stage, the overconsumption driven by the capitalism causing more and more wastage ; rubbish and trash to fill up land quickly and majority of nations failed to come out with right steps to sort out the mess. Honestly, the book is okay. Considering the book was published in 2006, it is quite informative on certain parts especially since it focused on UK and its sanitation and waste management policy.

Champion Fellas by Sharon Bakar, Dipika Mukherjee

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

People say my father is crazy. He is the one who first pushed me into the pool to teach me how to swim. People say that it is a terrible way to teach your child how to swim and particularly a child with useless legs. But that was how I learnt. From a young age, I learnt that unless I fight to stay alive, I would die. My father was my trainer for many years. He always pushed me a step further from where I was, even when I was at the top. I have lost count of the many medals i have won. It was only when I turned professional two years ago that the Paralympics Council assigned me a coach. I feel sorry for my father because he has been feeling rather left out. Now, most of the time, he tends to the vegetables and flowers he grows in our backyard.

• Fifty Laps by Shaqila Munisamy

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Malaysian literature always came through for me. I have fell into reading slump for the past few weeks and decided to pick this up. I just skimmed few pages of this book and i was hooked instantly because of the introduction. To be honest, I was never a sports fan. Last i was truly engrossed with sports is 2014 FIFA world cup when Germany won. To cut short, the editor decided to make this short stories a compilation to honour her father in-law’s legacy that love sports, i am intrigued to see how our local authors integrated sports in their writings. It was diverse and it was not really go into normal routes - which is kinda motivational or inspirational. Some were short and gutsy, some were heart-wrenching and sort of reminiscing to the supposedly golden age of Malaysian Sports. The story that was deemed winner which is written by Hanna Alkaf touched a social issue which is taboo specifically among Malay Community. You will find story about Golf, Badminton, Swimming, Cycling and other sports in this book. In addition to this, I have also come to recognize some of the authors featured in this collection as some of them did write many stories in Fixi Novo. Overall, this was quite a solid collection. A short but meaningful read!

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

challenging reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

“She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did something every child has done-she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim-of necessity she must put him away from her-he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense.”

― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

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"To Kill a Mockingbird" takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s and follows the lives of the main characters, particularly Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father, Atticus Finch. The story revolves around Atticus defending Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Despite the evidence favoring Tom, racial prejudice leads to an unjust verdict. The novel is narrated from Scout's point of view, offering readers a firsthand experience of the trial and shedding light on the deeply rooted racial prejudice in Maycomb. Scout and Jem face challenges and confront racism at school and in the community, also facing criticism due to their father's decision to defend a black man. The book is often regarded as a classic of American literature, but some readers have criticized its portrayal of Atticus Finch as a "white savior" figure, wishing for more exploration of characters like Calpurnia, the Finch family's cook and caretaker. The ending, while brief, serves to conclude the story, and the novel as a whole can be seen as a coming-of-age tale, chronicling Scout's journey from childhood to a more mature understanding of the world, exploring themes of empathy, compassion, and the complexities of morality.

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And this quote perfectly summed up why i would rather stay inside and be a homebody : “If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.”