Across The Red River

I read this book last weekend but I had to stop reading in the middle chapter. The bloody and gory details of the Rwandan and Burundi Genocide is too much to bear.

this book was published in 2001 and written by a TV journalist, Christian Jennings. It chronicles his highly dangerous accounts while he's on his assignment covering the war. He arrived in Rwanda in the summer of 1994, with an almost impossible mission to track down the army officers and government officials responsible for the slaughter of 850,000 people and hoping to persuade them to participate in a TV documentary about their crimes. His supposedly 5 days assignment ended up to three and a half years, during which he became witnesses (dodging bullets, encountering fierce and suspicious AK47 totting guerillas) to the harrowing details of the sheer atrocities of this central african nation genocide.

find and read this book, that's it, if you don't mind the gory details. Don't worry, some parts of the book was written in humourous manners. maybe the author was attempting to divert the readers' minds from all the horror and cruel details. The Rwandan Genocide is considered as one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, since the Nazi Holocaust.

as for me, this book is great but I'm done...

I read, read, and read....

I started with my readings again a couple of months ago. Hmmm....I've discovered another great female author. Name's Lisa Jackson. I like her style of writing, especially her crime/thriller novels. Her narration is quite vivid. Gory, tense, romance, sarcasm, humor - it's all there. She's now one of my favourite .

Nora Roberts : another one of my favourite

Spur of the moment purchased!

Sandra Brown, another brilliant authoress. The late Brit female author, Melissa Nathan with her witty and funny contemporary novel :-)

Well, Kinokuniya has been my favourite afterwork hangout!

Gia Carangi - The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia

Book title: Thing of Beauty – The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia
Author: Stephen Fried
Published: 1993












Ok, I’ve finally finished reading a biography about this world’s once famous supermodel. Her name was Gia Carangi (Italian, Welsh and Irish ancestry) and she was among the world’s highest paid and sought after supermodel of late 70s to early 80s.

Gia’s stat:

Name: Gia Marie Carangi
Born: Jan 19, 1960
Died: Nov 18, 1986
Height: 5ft 8 inches
Bust: 34
Waist: 24
Hips: 35½
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
She was 17 when she’s first discovered while working in her father’s luncheonette in Philadelphia and by the time she’s 18, she stormed the fashion world, jetsetting around the globe and became the darling of moguls & movie stars, royalty and rockers.

Her striking features have made her a ‘hit’ among the world’s famous fashion photographers including:

Francesco Scavullo http://www.scavulloeditions.com/
Arthur Elgort http://www.arthurelgort.com/
Richard Avedon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Avedon
Chris von Wangenheim
http://www.staleywise.com/collection/wangenheim/wangenheim.html

However, her fame was short-lived when she succumbed to the deadly disease: AIDS! Many believe that her addiction with drugs had contributed to her downfall. Her death was not widely publicized and she was among one of the first women in US to die of AIDS. On November 18, 1986 at 10.00 am, 26-year-old Gia Carangi died.

In 1993, a biography of her life written by Stephen Fried hit the bookstands and the following 1998, a biographical movie titled “GIA” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia, starred by Angelina Jolie, was released by HBO.

Prior to the death of Gia Carangi, a 22-year-old Cindy Crawford http://www.cindy.com/who/
emerged as the new 'IT' girl in the fashion world. She was nicknamed as the new "Baby Gia."

Gia's pictures:






































































Pictures courtesy of http://www.gia-carangi.com/index.html

* drug gives you a taste of heaven but it leaves hell on its wake. Once hooked into it, you're on your way to perdition. HEALTHY LIFE ROCKS, STAY AWAY FROM DRUG!