Book Title: Negeri 5 Menara Released Year: 2009 Writer: Ahmad Fuadi Language: Indonesian This book tells about the story of a child from a small village in West Sumatera, Alif, who went all the way to Java to go school at Pondok Madani, an Islamic school that not only teaches Islamic theology but also teaches their student the ability to be independence, discipline and keep the good morals to achieve their dreams. Graduating from junior high school, Alif dreamed to go to the best public high school in his province, but his mother asked him to go to Islamic school instead of high school following her dream to dedicate his son for the sake of Muslim progress. Still refuse to go to Islamic school in his region, Alif take the advice from his uncle to study in Pondok Madani (PM). Later in PM, Alif met friends from around the country and make close friends with Raja, Baso, Said, Atang, Dulmajid. They call themselves Sahibul Menara, the owner of the tower. United by tweak-chain punishment and electrified by magic spell “man jadda wajada”, they spent their four years in PM studying, playing, dreaming about their future. This first sequel of novel trilogy take flashback from the present day when Alif is on his way to attend a conference in London where he will reunite with his old friends as well. Moral of the story: I think all of the story can be summarize to one line. “Man jadda wajada” - The one who work wholeheartedly will be success. :)
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Book Title: Rahasia Meede
Released Year: 2007
Writer: E.S Ito
Language: Indonesian
Background of this story is a piece of mystery in Indonesian history. During the roundtable conference in Den Haag, Indonesian delegacy were step on a dead end when the Dutch ask Indonesian government at that time to pay for Dutch’s debt as a requirement for the recognition of Indonesia’s independence. Where will the Indonesian government that was still an infant find such a huge amount of money?? Is it true that VOC left their treasure buried deep down in Indonesia?? Fifty years later, several murder cases involved important people in government seize Jakarta. The similarity of those murder case were the murder scenes are all started with letter B and there were always a piece of Seven Social Sins noted in each scene. Puzzles about VOC treasures in this book was told and solved from three different perspective, a national newspaper journalist, a Dutch nationality economic student, and three researchers from Netherlands. Will they find what have been buried by the colonial government in decades??
In his second book, E.S Ito brings back the excitement from a piece of history. With good research in related field, he is Dan Brown of Indonesia. :D
Favorite part of the book:
I think every part in this book is so thrilling, every time a piece of puzzle was found is my favorite part of this book. :D