FOOTPRINTS IN THE PADDY FIELDS is both a family portrait and a childhood memoir, set against the vanished world of bamboo huts on spindly timber stilts, a world where one’s prized possessions were makeshift farm tools and a buffalo or two, and where the dead were placed in stone burial jars. Those were the days when removing human heads from their owners’ shoulders was a form of sport, and the only mode of transport was one’s two good legs.

The author takes you on a fascinating journey into a world seldom seen, to see how the Dusuns in Sabah on the island of Borneo lived at a time when wealth was measured by the amount of rice a farmer harvested and a hardworking sumandak made a more alluring bride than her pretty sister.

Written to preserve some of the old Dusun beliefs and customs, this engaging memoir is a delightful reminiscence of what it was like to be a child growing up in the 1960s when Sabah was still known as British North Borneo.

TINA KISIL was a loner in a brood of 12. A misfit and a misunderstood child, her shyness often misconstrued as arrogance, she began observing people at a tender age and took refuge in the world of books. Forced to quit school at 18 to help support her younger siblings through school, she was told by her mother to choose: be a nurse or a teacher. Since blood makes her faint, she chose the latter. After earning her teacher’s diploma, she dedicated the best 35 years of her life to her students. She now lives a quiet life in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, where she catches up on her reading and tries to charm her backyard into a garden. She still seeks refuge in the world of books. Footprints in the Paddy Fields is her first book.

source: http://goodbooksguide.blogspot.com/2008/11/tina-kisil-footprints-in-padi-fields.html

It's been a year since my last visit to Harris Bookstore at 1B. But, I was so lucky to have time to enter that bookstore yesterday. After making trip to please my wife desire to shop at various shops there, finally i have my chance to shop something that i like the most, book. i'm not looking for story books or fictions based story or some romance novel... my destination - current affair an bibliography rows. after handing over the duty of 'melayan' my son to my wife, i made my way.

And, i found this book, the title and the cover was so unique. FOOTPRINTS IN THE PADDY FIELDS... the book is wonderfully written.

so apa lagi, pigi kedai, bili satu, sia gerenti, buku ni lebih bernilai dari harganya....