Category: Lit Review

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Spotlight on Middle Eastern authors

The Unesco World Book and Copyright Day falls on April 23 annually, and each year, a city is named World Book Capital. For 2019, that honour falls on Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates; as such, this month’s picks are dedicated to featuring books written by Middle Eastern authors. Often set in the interstices of culture, tradition and modernity, these stories reflect the pervasive tension that has beset the modern Middle East and its reverberations through the lives of individuals. Yet, these are beautiful stories with sheer underlying humanity that will resonate with every reader.

The President’s Gardens by Muhsin Al-Ramli (RM49.90)
Seeing first-hand the terrible suffering endured by ordinary people in the violent tragedies of Iraq in its modern history was the catalyst for Iraqi writer, poet, academic and translator Muhsin Al-Ramli to write this profound novel. The story begins with Ibrahim, nicknamed “the Fated”, whose story is told set against the last 50 years of the country’s history, of dictatorship, invasion and occupation. Essential to understanding Ibrahim’s story are those of his two best buds, Tariq “the Befuddled”, a schoolteacher, and Abdullah, known as “Kafka”, who becomes a soldier and ends up a prisoner of war. Ibrahim, after he was made lame during the invasion of Kuwait, finds a job in the titular garden, an idyllic location by all appearances but which belies the horrors lurking within. This gripping story of life in a war zone is a vivid investigation of love, death, injustice and the importance of friendship.

Seeing first-hand the terrible suffering endured by ordinary people in the violent tragedies of Iraq in its modern history was the catalyst for Iraqi writer, poet, academic and translator Muhsin Al-Ramli to write this profound novel. The story begins with Ibrahim, nicknamed “the Fated”, whose story is told set against the last 50 years of the country’s history, of dictatorship, invasion and occupation. Essential to understanding Ibrahim’s story are those of his two best buds, Tariq “the Befuddled”, a schoolteacher, and Abdullah, known as “Kafka”, who becomes a soldier and ends up a prisoner of war. Ibrahim, after he was made lame during the invasion of Kuwait, finds a job in the titular garden, an idyllic location by all appearances but which belies the horrors lurking within. This gripping story of life in a war zone is a vivid investigation of love, death, injustice and the importance of friendship.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (RM79.90)
In this intimate memoir, Iranian author and English professor Azar Nafisi recounts the two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran when she met with seven of her most dedicated female students to read and discuss forbidden Western classics by authors including Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and of course, Vladimir Nabokov. This took place from 1995 to 1997 at a time of increased radicalism, when Islamic morality squads would stage arbitrary raids in Tehran, artistic expression was stifled with censorship, and fundamentalists were taking hold of universities. The women who gathered every Thursday morning came from diverse backgrounds — some conservative, others secular — but bonded over their shared love for literature. Literary criticism is intertwined with personal stories of resilience in the face of tyranny, and the result is a book that is illuminating in more ways than one.

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (RM75.50)
Egyptian writer and translator Ahdaf Soueif examines the repercussions of the British occupation of Egypt and the fierce political battles of the Egyptian Nationalists in an evocative, epic romantic tale between an English aristocrat, Lady Anna Winterbourne, and Sharif al-Baroudi, an Egyptian nationalist, in 1900. A century later, Anna’s great-granddaughter Isabel Packman finds her notebooks, journals and letters in a trunk and travels to Egypt to piece together Anna’s life. Accompanying her on this journey is Omar Ghamrawi, the man she loves and who happens to be Sharif’s grandnephew. There she meets Omar’s sister Amal, and they become fast friends. Told through the Amal’s voice, Anna and Sharif’s story is echoed by the love affair between Isabel and Omar, set against the continuing political turmoil of the Middle East. This absorbing, eloquent novel provides a lesson in cultural and political history, but also the intricacies of love.

The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk (RM75.50)
Turkish novelist, academic and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk has written a beguiling mystery that explores father-son relationships and questions of patricide in a nod to Oedipus Rex. After Cem’s father abandons the family, the 16-year-old apprentices himself to a master well digger, Mahmut. Cem becomes attached to the elderly man and comes to regard him as a surrogate father. Then one day he meets a stunning red-haired woman, Gülcihan, who is as taken with him as he is by her. A subsequent act by the well puts an end to things, Cem’s relationship with Mahmut also comes to a tragic end. These events change Cem’s life forever and haunt him for the next 30 years. This is an extraordinary novel from one of the great storytellers of our time.

Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak (RM43.90)
Turkish author Elif Shafak’s 10th novel, Three Daughters of Eve, wrestles with questions of identity, faith and feminism through the story of Peri, a Turkish housewife and mother. A violent encounter with a vagrant while Peri was on her way to a dinner party in Istanbul one evening causes an old polaroid to fall out of her purse, triggering unpleasant memories of the past that she would much rather forget. The memories are of her time at Oxford University. She and her two best friends, the worldly Shirin and the devout Mona, engaged in lively discourses on Islam and feminism. Peri also took a life-changing course on God with Shirin’s mentor, the charismatic but controversial divinity professor, Azur. Their group is torn apart by a scandal, and its effects are still felt in present day. Shafak deftly weaves a tale with philosophical overtones to give the reader much to mull over long after the novel ends.

This article appears in the April 2019 issue of FireFlyz, the in-flight magazine of Firefly airlines.

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Lit Review: ‘Annelies’ by David R. Gillham

by Fong Min Hun

Who: David R. Gillham is the author of the NYT bestselling City of Women. He studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California before transitioning into fiction. After moving to New York City, Gillham spent more than a decade in the book business, and he now lives with his family in Western Massachusetts. Annelies is his latest novel based on the life of famous diarist Anne Frank.

What: What if Annelies Marie Frank, better known as Anne Frank, survived the Nazi death camps to become one of the few to return to a broken post-war Europe? Gillham’s novel explores this possibility of the return of a broken and brutalised Anne to a home in shambles where her father, Pim, is the only surviving member of the Frank family. But whereas Pim is intent on picking up from where the family left off, Anne is tormented by the horrors of the war, by the betrayal of her family at the hands of Nazi conspirators and her own deeply rooted survivor’s guilt. To top it off, the diary which had become her sole comfort and inspiration goes missing after the family’s arrest. She is desperate to flee her past, but options are few for Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe.

In Gillham’s retelling, the Anne Frank story begins in the weeks leading up to their decision to go into hiding. Anne is a vivacious and somewhat difficult 13-year old (read: typical teenager) unlike her more sober-minded and responsible older sister. Despite having fled their home in Germany and now living in Nazi-occupied Holland, the Frank family did okay for themselves with Pim having set up a fairly lucrative pectin business and the girls seemingly adjusting well to their new Dutch identities. But anti-semitism was on the rise and the Frank family opted to go into hiding, and were subsequently betrayed to the Gestapo.

Why: Few Holocaust figures have captured the imagination quite the same way as Anne Frank, whose diary provides a vivid and poignant look into life under occupied Holland. Living in a secret annex behind her father’s offices, Anne’s diary was a living record of fugitives attempting to live as normal a life as possible despite the daily threat of betrayal or being discovered by the Nazi secret police. Anne dreamed of being a writer and she filled her diaries with stories and descriptions and ruminations of life within her secret space. The real Anne would not survive the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and would succumb to disease just weeks before the camp’s liberation by the British forces.

In Gillham’s Annelies, Anne survives — just barely — Bergen-Belsen, but she returns a changed woman. Unlike Pim whose faith in god and humanity survives the death camps, Anne, who bore witness to her mother and sister’s deaths, has now become a jaded, cynical and empty woman. Moreover, her diary which was both the literal and figurative representation of her ambition, has gone missing. Wracked by guilt, uncontrollable anger and grief, Anne can find no succour in her new life in Holland and is desperate to start somewhere else. Her desire for a new beginning puts her at odds with her once beloved Pim, who begins to find that post-war Europe has yet to come to terms with its own anti-semitic past.

The book is wonderfully descriptive and the characters well fleshed out. The development in Anne’s character is believable and the horrors of the Nazi camps — as well as life after — rigorously researched. And yet, there is a sense that Anne is somewhat diminished in the book. This may be an unpopular opinion but an essential part of the real Anne is the tragedy of her life cut short, leaving behind nothing but her living record of the days leading up to her arrest. Don’t get me wrong — there is much to admire in surviving the Holocaust but therein is the problem; Anne’s story post-war becomes a survivor’s story but it could have been any survivor, and not one unique to Anne. Ultimately, I suspect the intrigue of Anne Frank is due as much to the diary she leaves behind as well as the fact that it is the only thing she leaves behind.

Verdict: A well-researched and well-written historical fiction, and fans of Anne Frank will find the hypothetical ‘What If?’ compelling.  (7/10)

Availability: Trade Paperback, RM84.90

Special thanks to Viking Books for a review copy of the book.

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Five books to read this month for International Women’s Day 2019

In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, we have come up with a list of books that feature women and their experiences in one way or another. Some of the titles we have chosen celebrate the unique contributions of women while others shine a spotlight on some of the continuing challenges they face in our still flawed, but hopefully improving, gendered society. These books will entertain and edify.

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf (RM55.90)
 The debut novel of Malaysian author Hanna Alkaf, The Weight of Our Sky is a work of historical fiction centred on a young Malay girl caught in the crossfire of the 1969 race riots in Kuala Lumpur. Plagued by gruesome thoughts she believes was placed in her head by a malevolent djinn, Melati has imagined her mother’s death countless times. Thus when the riots finally erupt, she has but one goal in mind: to get to her mother, the one person she can’t risk losing. With the help of a Chinese boy Vincent, Melati navigates a city in flames all the while trying very desperately to shake away the fatalistic prognostications of the demon in her head. Alkaf’s novel is a thrilling ride which reveals a chapter in the history of Malaysia that is seldom discussed and more seldom the background of young adult novels. It is a sensitive retelling of a prickly chapter in the history of the country and a refreshing take on the YA adventure novel.

Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (RM59.90)
Machado’s collection of stories distil the variegated experiences of women in relation to their body — in particular the violence visited upon them in both myth and reality — and situates them in borderless worlds. At once horror, thriller, science fiction and comedy, Her Body uncovers the twisted logic that reduces women’s body into a cause celebre that turns people monstrous and the actual body itself becomes inconsequential. In the first story, The Husband Stitch, a woman refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove a green ribbon tied around her neck which infuriates the husband. It becomes the locus of aggression and frustration — the metaphorical value of the ribbon here is quite obvious — which can only end in heartbreak and defeat. Her Body was a finalist of the National Book Award and is one of the more unique collection of writings on women in recent years.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (RM79.95)
The most memorable characters in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are arguably the men — glorious Achilles, cunning Odysseus, doomed Hector and cruel Agamemnon are but some examples. The women tend to be the mothers of heroes or altar sacrifices to appease the gods; in other words, not very interesting even though the entire Trojan war was sparked by the kidnapping of the lovely Helen. In Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls, her choice of protagonist is Briseis, a captive slave from the Greek invasion of Troy. Falling from her lofty position as queen of her city, Briseis would eventually be remembered in most retellings for her role as the bone of contention between Achilles and Agamemnon. But Barker’s retelling gives Briseis back her voice and her freedom, imagining the happenings behind the scenes with the women as Greek heroes while soldiers warred with their Trojan counterparts. This magnificent novel inverts the traditional narrative, sending the war into the background and instead focuses on the experiences of the thousands of women wrested from their home and forced to survive in their new reality as slave girls and war trophies.

The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams (RM75.50)
There has been a recent spate of memoirs written by women documenting their unlikely ascent from questionable backgrounds into relatively better environs. We use the term ‘better’ advisedly because it somehow seems to diminish the value of their individual journeys and experiences, but we think it is probably suitable in the case of Yip-Williams who succumbed to cancer in 2018. Born blind in Vietnam in 1976, she narrowly escaped euthanasia planned by her grandmother only to be forced to flee because of the political upheaval following the establishment of the socialist republic. Eventually making her way to the US, she gains partial sight after undergoing surgery and beats all odds to become a Harvard-educated lawyer. She marries and starts a family only to be diagnosed with cancer in 2013. Inspiring and instructive, The Unwinding is a candid and humorous memoir of a life that was well-lived but unfortunately cut cruelly short.

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh (RM69.95)
What if men were toxic, literally and figuratively? That’s the premise that Sophie Mackintosh’s haunting Booker-longlisted debut novel examines through Grace, Lia and Sky, three girls who live on an island with their parents, Mother and King. The sisters were raised to believe that men’s uncontrollable emotions and violence are the cause of the chemical destruction on the mainland, and they (the exception being their father) continue to pose as the greatest threats. To keep them healthy, the girls are forced to perform a series of elaborate purifying rituals, including the most extreme one, the water cure. But when the King disappears and three men wash ashore, a psychological cat-and-mouse game ensues, sexual tensions surface, and sibling rivalries erupt. This novel is a taut and riveting exploration of solidarity, sisterhood, the gender divide, and the illusion of safety.


This article appears in the March 2019 issue of FireFlyz, the in-flight magazine of Firefly airlines.

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Lit Recap: Author meet-and-greet with Hanna Alkaf

On Saturday, Feb 17, we celebrated the publication of Malaysian author Hanna Alkaf’s debut young adult (YA) novel, The Weight of Our Sky, with a meet-the-author event that saw more than 70 people in attendance. We were heartened to see the enthusiastic response to Hanna’s novel, which is about a music loving teen with OCD, Melati, who does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots of 1969 in Kuala Lumpur. This is one of those books that on the one hand, is gut-wrenching, but it is also heart-warming. There are heart-breaking depictions of human cruelty, but also of immeasurable kindness. Most of all, it is an empowering tale of hope and courage in the face of terror, both from within and without. Min Hun conducted a Q&A with Hanna, an edited version of which is reproduced below.

Min Hun: Tell us about how you came to write a novel set during the riots of 1969.
Hanna: The Weight of Our Sky was a book that had lived in my head for a long time before I started writing it, mostly for the reasons you mentioned, that we don’t talk about May 13. I remember it from my history textbook but it was really glossed over and sterilised. It always fascinated me what we were not told and what voices we were not hearing, and what was being obscured.

What sort of research did you do to write this book?
I love doing research; it’s so fun to me. But I’m also a journalist by training so I approached it a lot like as if I were writing an investigative feature. I read everything that I could on it: articles written at the time, both from in and out of the country, I read government white papers, any book that I could find. I interviewed survivors and I consulted experts on the things that I needed to get the details right for — although I did end up missing a couple of things.

How did you create your characters?
They are an amalgamation of different people and they are fully Malaysian. It’s very hard to see characters like that in the current YA novels… I write YA and I write for kids because as a kid who read a lot of English books growing up, I don’t think I ever saw anybody who looked like me. I feel like when you’re reading as a kid, a teen or young adult, that’s when what you read is most formative. I think it means a lot to a kid to be able to read a book that they can see themselves in.

There is a theory from researcher Dr Rudin Bishop, who says in kid lit it’s important that children have both mirrors and windows. They should have windows into experiences other than their own and they should also be able to see themselves reflected in the fiction they read. Malaysian kids get a lot of windows but we have very few mirrors. I also enjoy reading YA, and I just really wanted to write Malaysian stories for Malaysian kids.

It was full house with standing room only at the event.

Mental illness is a big part of this book and your first collection of stories, Gila, is also about mental illness. Can you tell us about your interest in the subject and why mental illness is an important part of this novel?
I wrote Gila, a nonfiction book in 2015. I wrote it after I had my daughter, and I was freelancing at that time. I was working on an article about postpartum depression, a very relevant topic to me at that time. I had interviewed 4 or 5 women, and the thing that I noticed was that all these women were educated and lived in urban areas, but not a single one of them — even though they had reached the point of psychosis — had gone to see a psychologist or psychiatrist. They relied on other things — they relied on faith, on community and family but they never went to see a professional. This was weird to me because if you’re sick, you go to a doctor. If your brain is sick you go to somebody who can help you but that wasn’t the case. And I started thinking about why that was. I started doing some research, and I thought if there was something interesting to be uncovered here, I could pitch it as a series of articles. As it turned out, it was one of those topics where the more questions I asked, the more questions I came up with. It became clear that it was a topic that really needed to be talked about in a lot of different but interconnected ways, and that’s how Gila came about.

When I wanted to start writing the novel, I knew that I wanted to create a protagonist who was dealing with this intersection of faith and mental illness, which was a thing that was coming up a lot in the interviews. As Malaysians, we are surrounded by faith, whether you’re a person of faith or not. I wanted a book that explored that intersection between faith and mental illness because I think at the age the protagonist is at, you’re questioning a lot of those things. 

I think you also represented the way our society tends to approach mental illness. It is still largely a taboo topic of discussion, or it’s something you can’t explain. In the novel, Melati’s mental illness was stifling in a way because this sense of losing control, of being enslaved to mental illness, is something we’re all naturally uncomfortable with.
You’re not the only one. I’ve had people say things like the parts where she’s dealing with her OCD, they’re tedious to read and they’re painful. But that’s what OCD is. OCD is tedious and it’s painful. It’s not having these quirks of needing to clean one’s hands or arrange things a certain way. It’s tedious and it’s painful. I wanted the text to reflect that and really put you in her head.

Given how sensitive we are as a society with racism, were you at any point concerned about what you were writing?
Not really, only because we’re not a society that talks about it and that’s a problem. The more we don’t talk about the painful parts of our history, the more likely we are to never learn from them. If we just keep obscuring things that are hard and that are painful and uncomfortable… we have to sit with our discomfort. This is a thing that happened in our history, we have to accept that it happened and we have to figure out why. 

The Weight of Our Sky is available at RM55.90.

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Five books that reveal the many facets of love

It is a generally acknowledged phenomenon that February and love go hand-in-hand together. Regardless of whether it’s due to the mass commercialisation of the emotion due to Valentine’s Day or some deeply-rooted instinct deep within our circadian rhythms, love is, for better or worse, in the air. Love is complicated, however, and nothing captures this complexity better and with greater completeness than the written word. Stories and poetry capture the intricate monologue that happens within lovers in ways that Hollywood blockbusters never will, to reveal just how intertwined love is with a whole host of other difficult emotions. The following titles proffer lesser-acknowledged dimensions of love.

Normal People by Sally Rooney (RM79.95)
Sally Rooney is a late 20-something phenom whose debut novel, Conversations with Friends, was published in 2017 to massive critical acclaim. Her 2018 follow-up, Normal People, was similarly feted and longlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize. The story follows a young couple–Connell and Marianne–who meet each other in secondary school at County Sligo, Ireland and later at university in Dublin. Drawn to each other by pure natural chemistry, they are nevertheless caught in an unending cycle of love and hate with circumstances and personalities conspiring to pull them apart. Rooney captures brilliantly the uncertainty brought about by young love replete with its unwillingness to compromise with its ‘All or Nothing’ battlecry. More poignant is Rooney’s observation that there is nothing normative about love, and there is no such thing as ‘normal people’.

Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thompson (RM89.90)
Never Anyone But You is based on the lives of two pioneering female French surrealists Marcel Moore né Suzanne Malherbe and her partner and lover, Claude Cahun né Lucie Schwob. The latter also happens to be her stepsister after Marcel’s father marries Claude’s widowed mother when she was 14. Thompson’s novel details their early lives as lovers and their transformation into their androgynous counterparts following their move to Paris. There, they strike up close relationships with Paris’ most avant garde and begin their lives as surrealist performers. Their roles quickly changed following the occupation of France and the sisters carried out inspired acts of resistance that included planting anti-war leaflets in German barracks and anti-war propaganda throughout occupied France. Never Anyone is a sensitively told story that nevertheless brims with encounters and anecdotes that places the reader front and centre of this magnificent story of creativity, survival, friendship and, of course, love.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (RM55.90)
Love is an old emotion well-known even to the classical writers. They have known love to inspire, to enliven and deaden, and to encourage heroes to their very best and very worst. Nowhere is this more evident in Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles, which is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad focused on the life of Achilles and his lover, Patroclus. At once a coming-of-age story and a reimagining of one of the most vivid battles in literary history, Miller’s Song is a breathtaking work that is brought to life through her sparkling prose. Love and friendship are key themes of this seminal piece of literature, and Miller contributes to the overall understanding of the work by hazarding a why to the typical what of the story of Achilles. Forget Brad Pitt’s reluctant, nuanced Achilles; the Achilles of Greek myth is much better approximated by Miller’s brash, arrogant and petulant hero of great ardour.

5 Centimetres Per Second: One More Side by Makoto Shinkai (Adapted by Arata Kanoh) (RM70.50)
Writer and producer of Your Name Makoto Shinkai’s 2007 anime 5 Centimetres Per Second was hailed as a critical success and cemented Shinkai’s status as the next Miyazaki. In the original anime, friends Takaki and Akari are separated from each other when the latter’s parents move to a different part of the country. Later, when Akari’s parents too decide to move to the other side of the country, he resolves to visit Akari one last time before they are separated by too great a distance. During their meeting, they realise their feelings for one another but also the futility of hoping for anything more beyond that moment. As the years progress, Takaki continues to be haunted by his first love even as he continues down his own path. This new novel adapted by Arata Kanoh gives readers another side to the story with greater emphasis on Akari’s perspective while leaving the core of the story intact. This is a beautiful retelling of an equally memorable classic.

The Flame by Leonard Cohen (RM115.90)
A while ago, there was a heated debate at Lit Books by a panel guest on whether musicians were poets. The musicians at issue were Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and, of course, Leonard Cohen. Cohen is perhaps most famous in this part of the world as the person who penned the song Hallelujah although few would likely admit to liking his particular rendition of the song. The latest (and probably final) installment in his published work Flame collects unpublished poetry and self-portraits, and also includes lyrics from his last album You Want it Darker. Cohen’s poetry is unabashedly dark, but there is always a flicker of a flame somewhere within that darkness that, if coming from anyone else, would be cringey. Flame, ultimately, is a an intimate love song–autobiographical and universal in its meaning and precision.

This article appears in the February 2019 issue of FireFlyz, the in-flight magazine of Firefly airlines.

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Five inspiring books to kick-off the new reading year

As booksellers, we are often asked by customers to recommend inspirational books or books that can help them improve themselves. At Lit Books, we try to take a different tack to self-improvement. While we do carry a selection of self-help titles, we also believe that personal edification can come through less direct means. The following are some titles to help kick-off your new reading year!

Books for Living: A Reader’s Guide to Life by Will Schwalbe
Through books that he’s read, Will Schwalbe addresses one or more themes pertinent to our modern workaday life, usually in ways that are not readily apparent. For example, on the chapter entitled Trusting, Schwalbe’s liber of choice is Paula Hawkins’ excellent Girl on the Train. At first blush, it is not readily apparent how exactly Girl on the Train, a crime thriller, has anything to do with trust, but Schwalbe gives us an ingenious explanation. Similarly, in the chapter entitled Choosing Your Life, Schwalbe’s book choice is Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar’s book is a memoir of her last class in Iran, where she taught and read Nabokov’s controversial Lolita to a group of women in an ultra-conservative state where possession of material such as Nabokov’s book is grounds for punishment. The best thing about Schwalbe’s book is that it doesn’t just show you how books can be relevant to your life, but entices you to read the books that he discusses. (RM62.90)

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
As the title suggests, there is a certain segment of the population who instinctively push back against overtly cheerful slogans, and who believe that the trick to happiness must involve more than mere positive thinking. Oliver Burkeman’s Antidote takes a more sober approach: rather than overlaying reality with layers upon layers of positivity, he suggests that happiness is really about coming to terms with the imperfections of reality. The Antidote is a genuine attempt to reframe the definition of happiness for reasons both practical and theoretical. In the Guardian’s review of the book, the author Julian Baggini, a philosopher in his own right, likens Burkeman’s book to a shot of Pimm’s on a summer’s day: “refreshing if consumed by those already sceptical about the power of positive thinking, bracing if splashed in the face of those who aren’t”. (RM62.90)

The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
A unique self-improvement title which is written as a dialogue between a philosopher and his student, The Courage to be Disliked deals with a topic that seems strange at first. After all, who among us does not want to be liked, or more pertinently, who among us aspires to be disliked? In a culture where the slightest social opprobrium is grounds for isolation and alienation, authors Kishimi and Koga argue that self-actualisation, at the risk of social castigation, remains key to happiness and fulfilment. Embedding the theories of psychologist Alfred Adler in the fictional dialogue, the book shows how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from past traumas and the expectations of others. The Courage to be Disliked is the most prescriptive of the books that we are recommending in this issue, focusing on the concepts of self-forgiveness, self-care, and mind decluttering. A must-read for those of us caught in the grips of anxiety and worry. (RM79.90)

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
Killing Commendatore is the perfect introduction to one of the finest authors of this generation (and a good way to start your way into becoming a ‘Harukist’ in the new year). It is difficult to squeeze Killing Commendatore, which is 700-odd pages long, into two paragraphs, but it is a story concerning painting, love, obsession and ideas, with some surreal passages thrown in for good measure. The story revolves around an unnamed protagonist who is a portrait painter by trade. Following an unhappy separation from his wife, he moves into the home of Tomohiko Amada, an erstwhile master of Japanese painting. The discovery of a hidden painting sets myriad things into motion. The protagonist, now privy to a hidden secret, must now see out the full ramifications of the uncovering. If you’ve ever felt compelled to read a Murakami but felt intimidated by the author’s reputation, rest assured that Killing Commendatore is a gentler introduction to his world. (RM131.90)

Educated by Tara Westover
Tara Westover was born to Mormon fundamentalist parents in rural Idaho. Voluntarily cutting themselves from all worldly contact, Tara did not step into a classroom until she was 17 and was submitted to extreme religious doctrine by her prophet father. Nevertheless, a brush with the outside world inspires her curiosity to find out more, and she ends up teaching herself enough grammar, mathematics and science to be admitted to college. Her voracious appetite for knowledge and education would eventually take her across continents and earn her a PhD from Cambridge University. Despite her remarkable academic achievements, she is set for a reckoning with both her family and herself in confronting her past. This memoir is at once an inspiration and a reminder that perseverance can be rewarding but dreams can and do come with a price. (RM55.90)

This article is published in the January 2019 issue of FireFlyz, the in-flight magazine of Firefly airlines.

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Seven ways to ramp up your reading habit

The coming of a New Year inevitably brings about the desire to set fresh goals and resolutions. While detoxing, dieting and decluttering are all well and good, none of these can quite enrich your mind and soul the way reading a good book can. Do yourself a favour – make it a year of books.

Perhaps you’ve been stuck in a slump and want to get back to reading regularly, or you’re already a voracious reader who’s looking to change things up a bit. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, you’ll find something in this list of fun and entirely achievable ideas to get you going.

1. Read outside your comfort zone.

Exploring an unfamiliar genre, topic or experimental narrative can turn out to be an exhilarating journey of discovery. It exposes you to new things and allows you to think differently, if not critically. All that’s needed is an open mind, and of course, good recommendations. You may find yourself becoming absolutely enamoured with this new frontier, but even if you don’t, you would’ve expanded your literary horizons.

2. Tackle an author’s entire oeuvre.

This one’s for the goal-oriented and systematic reader among us, and those who’d like to become an authority of sorts on a specific writer and their works. Whether you pick an author you’re already familiar with or one whom you have not read before but have always been curious about, you would come away with a deeper appreciation for your chosen author’s storytelling prowess.

3. Revisit an old favourite in between reading new titles.

The wonderful thing about re-reading an old book – other than the sheer pleasure of it – is the unearthing of new revelations, either about the book or your experience of it. You’re a different person from when you first read the book, and revisiting it with different lenses will elicit fresh observations and interpretations.

4. Choose a topic or subject matter to focus on.

Ask yourself, what is one topic you want a deeper understanding of? A specific geographical region of the world, a hobby such as fly fishing or knitting, primitive art, a current social issue, the history of butter or of marine chronometers, perhaps? Whatever it is, make a reading list of books that explore that topic. Make it an expansive list that spans different genres: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, even.

5. Set a numbers goal.

If you’re one who thrives on achievements, give yourself a tangible goal to strive for. Keep it realistic and achievable – a target of finishing one book a month is a good place to start, or you could go big and challenge yourself with a book or two a week. Then make it a point to put aside time in your day to do nothing but indulge in a spot of reading – set a reminder on your phone, if that helps.

6. Take on a reading challenge.

Try one of the various reading challenges by blogs like Book Riot, Popsugar or the Reading Women podcast, which presents a list of specific types of books to read, but leaves the title to you to choose. Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge consists of things like “a book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character” and “a book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse”. Popsugar‘s list includes “a book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie” and “a book published posthumously”. The Reading Women Challenge has “a book about a woman athlete” and “a book featuring a religion other than your own.”

7. Join a book club.

Becoming part of a book club is a sure-fire way to get you reading regularly. Getting together with other book aficionados to go over a book with a fine-toothed comb helps you widen your understanding and appreciation of a book and its themes. You’re bound to see the book in a different perspective. A great place to start is to do a search on Facebook and look for reading groups near you. You’re welcome to join our monthly club, Lit Social, which usually takes place every third Thursday of the month at the store at 8pm. Be sure to follow us on Facebook for the latest updates.

Need book recommendations? Visit us and let us match you with the perfect read.

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Our favourite reads of 2018

We’ve read more than we’ve had in years since opening the bookshop this past year. Granted, it’s partly for research purposes, but whatever the reason, it’s also the most pleasure we’ve had in reading in quite some time. Here are some of our favourite books of 2018.

Min Hun’s Picks

Favourite Fiction: Ali Smith’s Winter. Smith has one of the most unique voices in literature today and I am a huge fan of her seasonal quartet beginning with Autumn the year prior. Winter is possibly just as twisty and irreverent as Autumn, and fine evidence of Smith’s appreciation of the pun. As with Autumn, the central theme to Winter is that of change with characters in reminiscent mood with the coming of Christmas (a la A Christmas Carol). As with Smith’s previous novels, it is impossible to say exactly what it is one has previously read but it nonetheless leaves you breathless and empty at the end.

 

Favourite Non-Fiction: GJ Meyer’s A World Undone. Meyer’s book is probably the best single-volume on WWI I’ve come across, and it stands up pretty well despite being published more than a decade ago in 2006. What comes across most clearly from Meyer’s account is just what a comedy of errors it was with the entire enterprise and yet inevitable at the same time. Providing sufficient history without bogging down the narrative, and present-minded enough to make for a ripping yarn, A World Undone is a must for any war history buffs.

 

Favourite Verse: Leonard Cohen’s The Flame. Cohen has been such a large part of my life — since my days of existential crisis at university to my now more sobered self — that it was impossible to pass on his last collection of poetry, self-portrait and lyric. The Flame is unabashedly romantic but also voiced from a place of resignation in recognition, at last, that all is vanity. This final collection of works was put together by his son and stands as a proper testimonial to a life of work and art.

Elaine’s Picks

Favourite Children’s Book: Jakob Wegelius’ The Murderer’s Ape. This middle-grade novel by Swedish award-winning writer and illustrator is an old-timey, epic adventure tale, with equal parts mystery, action, intrigue, and the exotic, but also imbued with a lot of heart. The protagonist is an extraordinary gorilla named Sally Jones who can understand human language, is able to read and write, and is a handy engineer to boot. The main plot of the novel is about how Sally Jones goes about trying to exonerate her Chief, Henry Koskela the sea captain, who becomes entangled in a chain of events that results in him becoming falsely accused of murder. Her efforts take her from Lisbon, Portugal to Bhapur, India and brings her in contact with a sea of colourful and fascinating characters.

There are various themes presented in the story, but what I found particularly moving is how it beautifully depicts the unbreakable bond formed between animals and humans. This is ultimately a tale of friendship and the lengths you would go for the ones you love. Rich in detail, the wonderfully imaginative story takes many unexpected turns, leaving the reader breathless as to what will happen next.

 

Favourite Fiction: John Boyne’s A Ladder to the Sky. A dark tale of literary ambition from a master storyteller, this novel chronicles the rise and fall of Maurice Swift and the depths of depravity he descends into to achieve his goal. I really enjoyed how the story is told from different perspectives with multiple narrators. The novel begins with Maurice as a young aspiring writer who has a fortuitous encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackerman with whom he ingratiates himself with — this is told from Erich’s perspective. Part two picks up a few years after Maurice’s successful debut but he is now experiencing a mid-career slump and getting desperate by the day. He is married to Edith, also a novelist, and the story is told from her point of view. In the third and final portion of the book, we finally get inside Maurice’s head and learn that his is a pattern of behaviour established from young. Riveting and brilliantly crafted, this thrilling and captivating book about people and their stories will stay with you long after you’re done.

 

Favourite Non-Fiction: Katherine Reid’s The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables. The Anne of Green Gables series by Canadian author LM Montgomery is my all-time favourite childhood series. As such, I absolutely adored this gem of a book, as it brought new life and meaning to Montgomery’s novels. This coffeetable book portrays with stunning photography the gorgeous landscape of Prince Edward Island, the setting for all but one of Montgomery’s novels. What gives this book added substance are the biographical anecdotes of Montgomery’s life and writing career, seamlessly weaved into the descriptions of the land that so inspired her. There are also travel tips for those of us — including yours truly — who want to plan a trip to PEI. This is a truly beautiful tribute to Montgomery’s writings and the island she loved with all her heart.

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Seven haunting books to read this October

Halloween is just around the corner! This inevitably starts us thinking about books with dark, haunting, chilling and macabre themes. As chilling as they are compelling, the horror novel compels us to gaze into the void to consider the extreme limits and consequences of events both natural and supernatural. But even as we do so, the void gazes back into us, and we are forced to confront just how much of the dark and the horror are found within us. Here are some of our choice reads this October:

 

We are Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory
This World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award Winner follows psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer who has a support group comprising of a group of misfits and outcasts whose mental states can only be described as ‘precarious’. The members of the group are hodge-podge and include the likes of Harrison, a Monster Detective and a storybook hero who is now in his mid-30s and spends most of his time popping pills and not sleeping. There is Stan whose only claim to fame comes from having been partially eaten by cannibals, Barbara who is haunted by unreadable messages carved on  her bones, and Greta who may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. No one believes the claims of these exceptional individuals except for Dr. Sayer who will help them uncover the monsters they face within and those which are lurking in plain sight. (Paperback, RM71.90)

The Hoarder by Jess Kidd
From the award-winning author of Himself comes the spellbinding tale of lonely caregiver Maud Drennan and a cranky hoarder with a house full of secrets, Cathal Flood. Maud is a caregiver whose sunny disposition masks a deep sadness. A tragic childhood has left her haunted by the company of a cast of prattling saints who pop in and out of her life like tourists. Meanwhile, Cathal is a menace by all accounts. The lone occupant of a Gothic mansion crawling with feral cats, he has been waging war against his son’s attempts to put him into an old-age home. Maud is this impossible man’s last chance: If she can help him get the house in order, he just might be able to stay. The unlikely pair begins to cooperate, bonding over their shared love of Irish folktales and mutual dislike of Cathal’s overbearing son.

But the cluttered corners of the mansion hint at buried family secrets,  reminding Maud that she doesn’t really know Cathal at all. When the forgotten case of a missing schoolgirl comes to light, her curiosity becomes a full-steam search for answers. Packed with eccentric charms, twisted comedy, and a whole lot of heart, The Hoarder is a mesmerising tale that examines the space between sin and sainthood, reminding us that often the most meaningful forgiveness that we can offer is to ourselves. (Paperback, RM69.90)

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
This deliciously creepy Gothic novel centres on newly widowed Elsie who is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband’s crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband’s awkward cousin for company — or so she thinks. For inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a 200-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure — a Silent Companion — that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. (Paperback, RM47.90)

Resin by Ane Riel
This award-winning novel is about Liv who died when she was six years old — or at least, that’s what the authorities think. Her father, wanting to keep her safe in this world, left the isolated house his little family called home one evening, pushed their boat out to sea and watched it ruin on the rocks. Then he went to report his only child missing. But behind the boxes and the baskets crowding her father’s workshop, Liv was hiding. This way, her father had said, she’d never have to go to school; she’d never have to leave her parents. She would be safe. Suspenseful and heart-breaking, Resin is the story of what can happen when you love someone too much — when your desire to keep them safe becomes the thing that could irrevocably harm them. (Paperback, RM79.90)

The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World by Brian Allen Carr
The setting for this novella is Scrape, Texas, a nowhere town near the Mexican border. Few people ever visit Scrape, and the unlucky ones who live there never seem to escape. They fill their days with fish fries, cheap beer, tobacco, firearms, and sex. But Scrape is about to be invaded by a plague of monsters unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. First there’s La Llorona — the screaming woman in white — and her horde of ghost children. Then come the black, hairy hands. Thousands, millions, scurrying on fingers like spiders or crabs. But the hands are nothing to El Abuelo, a wicked creature with a magical bullwhip, and even El Abuelo mean even less when the devil comes to town. (Paperback, RM49.90)

Windeye by Brian Evenson
The characters in this collection of stories live as interlopers in a world shaped by mysterious disappearances and unfathomable discrepancies between the real and imagined: a woman falling out of sync with the world; a king’s servant hypnotised by his murderous horse; a transplanted ear with a mind of its own. Exploring how humans can persist in an increasingly unreal world, these tales are haunting, gripping, and psychologically fierce, and they illuminate a dark and unsettling side of humanity. (Paperback, RM75.90)

The Pan Book of Horror Stories selected by Herbet van Thal
Originally released in 1959, this book gathers 22 terrifying tales of horror by such famous authors as Peter Fleming, C. S. Forester, Bram Stoker, Angus Wilson, Noel Langley, Jack Finney and L. P. Hartley. Stories of the uncanny jostle with tales of the macabre. There are tales of subtle beastliness (Rasberry Jam); of sickening horror (The Fly or His Beautiful Hands); and of utter chilling terror (The Horror of the Museum). (Paperback, RM49.90)

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Lit Review: ‘Inheritance’ by Carole Wilkinson

Who: Australian author Carole Wilkinson started her writing career at 40, publishing her first book for young readers in 1996; she has been making up for lost time ever since. Over the past 20 years she has written more than 30 books, including the internationally award-winning and bestselling Dragonkeeper series. Inheritance is her latest historical fiction for young readers.

What: Fourteen-year-old Nic is sent to live with her reclusive grandfather at his remote property in the Australian countryside after her father signs up to work on a cruise ship. The homestead was once the childhood home of Nic’s mother who died the day she was born. The house has 30 rooms, sprawling grounds, three dogs but no mobile reception, Internet or functioning television. Left to her own devices, Nic explores the homestead, searching for clues about the mother she never knew. Things become interesting when she learns the ability to leap through a crack-in-time into the past — an ability passed down to the women in her family. With this newfound ability, Nic discovers the dark and shocking secret that haunts the land and the people who live there.

Why: Who among us hasn’t fantasised about being able to slip through time? The ability to glimpse what really took place centuries ago and change the course of history makes for a gripping narrative to be sure, and many authors, past and present, have explored this in their work. But the most impactful time-travel tales aren’t about changing the past but exploring it to better understand ourselves and our history. And this is largely the type of story that award-winning children’s book author Carole Wilkinson has written in her latest novel, Inheritance.

This compelling yarn confronts Australia’s shameful past in regards to the many instances of senseless, cold-blooded massacres of Aboriginals. It tackles this difficult subject with unflinchingly honesty without degenerating into a story of gory and wanton violence it easily could have. But the emotional scars left behind are very real, and very vividly captured in this authentic depiction of one of Australia’s darkest chapters. Wilkinson weaves the narrative into a story blending intrigue, adventure, supernatural elements and good old-fashioned sleuthing, with a curious, plucky teenage protagonist who has a penchant for the classics (Austen’s novels play a significant role in the plot). It’s a heady but thrilling mix.

Ultimately, though, it is an uplifting tale of coming to terms with one’s past — no matter how shocking or shameful — and how, even though you can’t change what happened, you can determine how you respond to it today.

Reading Level: Aged 11 and up

Verdict: A solid time-travel mystery and historical fiction that’s engaging and thought-provoking. (7/10)

Availability: Paperback, RM49.90

Special thanks to Pansing Distribution for a review copy of the book.