Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (book) by Roald Dahl

Charlie and the chocolate factory is a classic story by Roald Dahl about a boy named Charlie Bucket (a chocolate lover) and around the world, Willy Wonka, the most famous sweet maker in the world, sends out 5 golden tickets in chocolate packets and the lucky winners will get to go into his chocolate factory where no one is allowed to go in. One day, Charlie finds a fifty pence piece (around $80 AUD) and when he buys it he realises that it has the golden ticket.

When he visits the factory with 4 other children, it is one of the experiences that will change his life forever.

Rating: 9.5/10

I used to love this book as a child, mostly because of the plot, and the funny jokes that Roald Dahl seems to slip in. The description of the lollies (mostly chocolate) made me dribble all over the book.

Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah

So I bought a new book last year for Christmas but never got around to reading it. It was a first edition paperback of Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah. I finally finished the 368-page novel yesterday and decided to try out one of the recipes one of these days.

Kitchen Chinese is a story about a young woman who is fired ('I used the handy term "laid off",' says Isabelle in the book) and decides to move to China to find a new job and get a fresh start. With all of the usual features of mainstream fiction written by young women (lots of romance, smooching, and details on Isabelle's love life), it is a lighthearted story filled with juicy details and plenty of mouth-watering descriptions of Chinese food. It's a nice, quick read, but doesn't really have that much of a plot, and is a tad too predictable. The main character doesn't really undergo a major change in the end and I guess a personality or characteristic change is something I like to see in characters.

Suitable for: Quick Reads

Age Group: Teens and Adults

Star Rating: 6/10

View Ann Mah's Site and Buy the Book Here