Book Marks: Books And Libraries Under Pressure

War in the Middle East has ramped up with Iran and Israel trading fire. One casualty of the crises in the region is the book and publishing industry, but it has been floundering for a long while before the recent conflagrations. Though more titles are being published in Iran of late, sales are dismal. This website cites several factors limiting the reach of books in the country, particularly poverty and censorship.

Conflict has also changed things in Yemen, which has seen the novel emerge as the dominant literary form...

Instead of poetry—which had long been Yemen's preeminent art form—the novel emerged as a suitable vehicle for confronting the social and psychological ruptures caused by war. This transformation was aided by the rise of digital platforms, which offered broader opportunities for self-publishing and connecting with new readers, as well as by individual initiatives and small cultural institutions striving to support Yemeni narrative despite scarce resources.

The Yemeni outlook is slightly rosier, but with all that's going on, any news coming out has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Is publishing really in dire straits as reported in these places? Nevertheless, one wishes the best for writers, publishers, and readers in the Middle East.

In Nepal, some seem to have cultivated the reading habit during the pandemic, and e-books are becoming popular among the youth. But this hasn't translated to growing sales. A publisher cites "political instability, the 2015 earthquake, the Indian blockade, tax on imported books, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic hardship, increasing foreign migration and frustration among the people" for Nepal's weak book market.

Things are no less challenging in the US as the tRump administration continues to wreak havoc. Much has been reported on the impact its regressive policies have had on the economy, healthcare, and the arts. Clare Mulroy of USA Today spells out some of the changes wrought, particularly book tours put on ICE, grant cuts affecting libraries and public reading spaces, and the book bans and sidelining of minority authors.

The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency that funds and supports creative endeavours in the country, has announced a slew of cuts in its programmes, affecting many that depend on its funding to stay afloat. In The Orange Country Register several publishers that have been affected speak on the issue and what their plans are moving forward.


Meanwhile...

• "What's queer about food? Over the past decade, momentum has gathered around this conversation. By nature, the intersection resists fixed rules and embraces abstraction, but the benefits of asking seem clear: As two new books demonstrate, food can reveal a richness of queer culture, expression, possibility and survival." A brief piece in The New York Times introduced two books about queer restaurants. One is reminded of the hilarious short story "What Do Gay People Eat?" by Brian Gomez. With these books, that question may be answered.
• "'[Your first manga project is] meant to be a learning experience ... In five years, you'll look back on that project and say, "Oh god." Not because you won’t be proud of the work, but because you're constantly getting better. The first one is about learning the process rather than being perfect. It's about finishing something and using that experience to develop.'" The folks at Creative Bloq put together a Q&A of sorts about how to publish your manga with the help from experts they spoke to.
• Malaysian bookworms might have heard of Rabak-Lit but perhaps few know that it's not just a publisher any more. The Seremban-based indie outfit now organises mini concerts, hosts gigs, and produces T-shirts and shoes, among other things. The Star is covering a recent Rabak-Lit venture: a revival of the Fung Keong shoe brand that was discontinued in 1990.
• "Bookstores were once staples in Malaysian malls. ...Families would stop by after lunch, students lingered between shelves, and casual shoppers often left with unexpected new reads. This quiet, thoughtful space is vanishing. Why?" Good question and points from a Malaysiakini reader. "It may seem like a small thing, but we can't help but wonder if the absence of a book[s]tore says something deeper about us. Not just about shifting retail trends, but about the society we are becoming."
• "I wrote the book out of frustration because of what's been happening to these children – they aren't just nameless faces to me, they are children that I know. I also wanted a happy story for foundlings, where they get to have a family of their own and the same opportunities as everybody else." Hartini Zainudin, co-founder of Yayasan Chow Kit, talks about her children's book The Foundling and her goals for it.
• "I had often wondered what it must have been like for authors to have the Toni Morrison as their editor," writes Dana A. Williams in Slate. "When the writer John A. McCluskey Jr. first met Morrison in 1971, she had published only The Bluest Eye. McCluskey, not yet 30 years old, saw her not as the Pulitzer Prize–winning Nobel laureate she would become, but as a fellow Ohio writer looking to make her mark as an editor." I'm not an editor any more, but I still like to read about other editors – and imagine what it would be like.
• "Authors today are still advised to stay in their lane. You wrote a successful thriller? Great. Write another one. You want to write ‘con amore?’ Fine – pen a love letter. For obvious financial reasons, plenty of authors are happy to stick with what works. But there are others who jump genres simply because, like [A.A.] Milne, they want to." From this list of titles, writers venturing beyond their pond are dipping their toes into cosy mystery, which appears a soft, welcoming genre.
• "While doubles are largely defined as having a similar if not identical resemblance to another, doppelgängers have a more a supernatural or otherworldly quality and serve as a manifestation of a character's deepest fears." Naomi Klein's Doppelganger and novels such as Yellowface and Julie Chan Is Dead may be part of a literary trend of exploring the author's or protagonist's doubles and the mirror worlds of the latter. Kirthana Ramisetti dives into the doppelganger phenomenon in Electric Literature.
• "Ghostwriting as a profession is timely, growing and in high demand," writes journalist and editor Erin O'Dwyer in Artshub "But doing it well is an art form of its own." So, having ghostwritten herself, she shares some tips on how to be a ghostwriter. Not too detailed, but a good place to start for those planning to dive in.
• "After losing a friend and turning 50, [Native American author Andrea] Rogers decided to pursue writing full time while earning her doctorate in English at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. When she took the leap, family members worried about money and the stress another degree program would bring. 'I could tell they thought I was a little crazy,' she says, 'but I was like, "If I don't do it now, then when?" because you can't buy time.'" Rogers has since made good use of her time, penning a few children's titles and winning awards for them.
• "Criticism and warnings of Gen-AI authors snagging coveted deals are flooding both Threads and TikTok, with writers and readers sometimes flinging around accusations when they suspect someone is using AI as part of their creative process," writes Alana Yzola in Wired. "Now, [Victoria] Aveyard and other prolific authors are not only calling out people who use AI to write, they’re also posting livestreams and time-lapses of their writing processes to defend themselves against such complaints."
• "America's superpower that it uses over and over again is forgetting or pretending that something didn't happen. And this novel being about guilt and punishment and revenge, hopefully dramatizes that in a way that can leave the reader with the realization that just because you forget about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen." Stephen Graham Jones talks to the Daily Camera in Colorado about his book The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, his writing journey, and his craft.

Finally: "Having studied literature for years, I will always be a defender of the trashy romance genre. These books do what they say on the tin ... They are light-hearted, fast-paced, easy to read, and most importantly, they allow you to flex your reading muscles again." Charlotte Renahan in Cherwell, Oxford's oldest independent student newspaper, touts trashy romance as the saviour of one's urge to read and suggests a few to try.

But I don't notice any historical romance titles in that short list – a sign of trouble for the subgenre? "Over the last five years, readers and authors alike have started to notice a steady decline in publishing deals for historical romance books," R. Nassor writes in Book Riot. "Author of the What To Read If newsletter, Elizabeth Held, recently pointed out on Threads that only seven of the eighty romances acquired by leading publishers in 2024 were historicals."

I wouldn't worry too much though. Trends swing like pendulums, and even if publishers are shying away from historical romances for the time being, all genres have their readers – and writers. It ain't going away.

Book Marks: Public Pages, More LibGen Shenanigans

Public figures tend to be fair game for writers and journalists, and if a book or an article turns out to be libellious, a lawsuit brews. But what if an author is charged for merely writing a book about someone, however well-researched? That's what happened to Webster Ochora Elijah in Kenya, who wrote a book about the Kenyan president's daughter.

This seems to have been prompted by a case where another daughter of the president was impersonated on Facebook, and by all means, this should be stomped out. But if there are no skeletons, why go after a little-known writer of a book with little publicity? Now the Streisand effect is likely to kick in, prompting a scramble for the book.

Perhaps a more straightforward instance of "misuse" was in the ruling by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, which fined Penguin Random House for putting a photo of a socialite in a book about women with ties to Mexico's drug cartels. "...[Violeta] Vizcarra's photograph, sourced from her social media without consent, was featured on the book's cover and within its pages," the Latin Times reported.

Drug cartels are deeply enmeshed in Mexican society, so no surprise if anyone were involved with them. However, Vizcarra denies any ties to the cartels and says the use of her photo in the book could be defamatory. But what if the book's claims about her could be proven?

---

Canadian cookbook author Greta Podleski should be glad her latest, Every Salad Ever has launched and is doing well. Then she received news about an impersonator "releasing" another cookbook with the same title, apparently cashing in on the original's popularity. Chumps like this have been trying to make a killing on Amazon, hoping they won't be found out too quickly before getting enough coin. Sucks that what's arguably the largest online marketplace is infested with such parasites. Speaking of which...

Author Harriet Evans is fuming that her books, including one that is not published yet, were found in the notorious LibGen data set and have been mined by Facebook's parent company Meta to train its AI models. "This is the Treasures, out 12th June from Viking," Evans wrote on Substack. "So they've stolen the text from - where? I don't know. Netgalley? My own Word document? The cloud? This sounds vague, but that's how big tech works." Vague, and hella scary.


Elsewhere:

• A Bulgarian translation of Tan Twan Eng's novel, The House of Doors, discovered by the Bulgarian ambassador to Finland, led to the inaugural Malaysia-Bulgaria Literary Diplomacy Dialogue in Helsinki. "The event, hosted by the Embassy of Malaysia in Helsinki and moderated by Chargé d'Affaires Ariff Ali, brought together Malaysian, Bulgarian, and Finnish readers from fields such as literature, creative writing, art, and international relations," The Star reported. A happy chain of events, but not everyone will feel the same.
• A woodcut artist's masterpiece inspired by the Sabahan harvest festival has been turned into a children's book. According to The Star, "The book was released to coincide with this year’s Kaamatan, the annual Kadazandusun harvest festival, and is available at the Arcane Literature and Kinderstories Hub booth at the 2025 Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, held at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur."
• The Guardian and the BBC highlighted the toxic books of yore, covers of which were made green using arsenic, mercury, copper and others. The striking green colour on the covers of many old books pose a health hazard, so a tool to determine whether a tome is a health risk was developed. Reader, beware!
• "Women in Nepal face entrenched systemic and cultural barriers, and publishing is no exception. Their works are undervalued, dismissed as less 'serious', and their leadership questioned. Also, gendered expectations limit time, mobility, and access to networks — making it harder to write, publish, or participate in literary life." A Q&A in Global Voices with Archana Thapa, an author, editor, and publisher based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• "I wrote [Hunchback] thinking that it is a problem that there were few authors with disabilities. Why did the first [disabled] winner [of Japan's Akutagawa Prize] not appear until 2023?" Saou Ichikawa struggled to be read in a country where the disabled are virtually invisible, but her winning one of Japan's oldest and most prestigious literary awards seems to have alerted some to the existence of ableism there. The English translation of Hunchback, longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, can be found in many local bookstores.
• Still no love in China for boys love, it seems. Writers of stories in that genre were targeted in a recent crackdown and, if found guilty, are subjected to heavy penalties. Since Beijing cracked the whip on this, many such authors have been detained or are laying low, including the creator of the wildly popular Heaven's Official Blessing and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
• "...going forward, I think because my allegiance is to the source material, my goal is always to find the best team for the adaptation, not to say that what makes the best book and what makes the best show and what makes the best movie are the same, but they're in conversation." Variety speaks to V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Vicious series, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, about her writing, film adaptation of Addie LaRue, and more.
• Writing a book? You're not alone, and chances are what you're writing has already been written by dozens, if not hundreds of others. Kate McKean over at Electric Literature shares the 10 types of novels swamping the inboxes of literary agents of late and what you can do to make yours stand out. All the best.
• "I know that summer reading has always been popular, so June is an excellent time to publish books. And I also know that the first week of each month is usually the most jam packed with new releases. I know too that on the first Tuesday in June of 2024 there were 15 new books that I was excited about ... so June has not always been this overflowing." Seems there are too many books for Maris Kreizman and this June appears to be a bumper month. Why is that?

Finally, it seems Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim thinks Malaysians don't read enough and spend too much time on social media. Anwar was speaking during the closing ceremony of this year's Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair.

I can't verify the prime minister's claims but from the crowds at KLIBF surely Malaysians do read? Perhaps, just not the books the PM had in mind? And what sort of reading culture is being fostered in the country when, as author and indie musician Brian Gomez helpfully pointed out, the authorities actively ban books they don't like?

Oh, apologies for ranting. Guess I'll go read a book.

Book Marks: AI Hallucinations, War On Rainbows

Think AI can help with your reading lists? Think again. A list titled "Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer", published in the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, contained titles hallucinated by AI such as "Tidewater Dreams" by Isabel Allende, "The Last Algorithm" by Andy Weir, and "Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee. The author of the list admitted to using AI and has expressed embarrassment.

This may have been a simple goof, but Claire Mulroy feels different, in light of a growing trust deficit in the media and the marginalisation of authors from certain demographics. "...in both the book world and the journalism industry, this kind of AI-generated content threatens and undermines the creativity that makes us readers in the first place." In response, Literary Hub recommended some real books based on the AI picks.

And it's not just book recommendations. At least one author was caught using AI to rewrite passages in their book. In a stunning example of how use of AI dulls the mind, these authors left the AI prompts they issued to chatbots in their published works. Two of the authors have copped to – and defended – their use of AI.

If one notices just how prolific some authors are, maybe this is one reason. Current AI models aren't advanced enough to be creative in human ways and its use here is arguably akin to theft. But if you're going to steal or cheat, at least be smart enough to cover your tracks.

Getting bots to help you steal an author's style cuts writing time considerably, enabling you to publish more. A writer at Screen Rant believes the resulting avalanche of AI-assisted work will swamp the shelves, real or virtual, drowning out authors who deserve more air. "Should AI flood the market," writes Rose Graceling-Moore, "this becomes an issue that disproportionately affects marginalized authors, many of whom have found a home in self-publishing in an industry where accusations of discrimination are a major issue."

---

Russia seems to be targeting publishers, booksellers and companies for promoting "the 'extremist' LGBT movement" with renewed gusto. The International Publishers Association (IPA) has decried the crackdowns and stands with those who are being subjected to raids and arrests. Since I last read about this, the scope of the ban seems to have widened, impacting books that carry anti-war messages and criticism of Russian leadership.

The bit about a woman who "was sentenced to five days in detention for wearing frog-shaped earrings in rainbow colors" hits close to home. Swatch outlets in Malaysia were raided in 2023 and rainbow-coloured watches were confiscated for having "LGBT elements". This is in line with the government's anti-LGBT stance, which has also seen books and other materials with LGBT themes and elements taken off the shelves.

Speaking of shelves: several more titles have been added to the list of prohibited publications by the Malaysian Home Ministry. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood; bestselling Tuan Ziyad: Forbidden Love by Bellesa; Darlingku Mr Cold Mafia by Nur Firsha Nadia Mohd Noor Kusairi; Mischievous Killer by Aira Syuhairah Noradzan; Suhuf Abraham and Kougar 2 by Shaz Johar; and The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas have all been banned.

Some might be baffled as to why, because the catch-all reason given is vague. Hazelwood's was apparently banned for the cover. Cold Mafia drew attention for... eww. In Tuan Ziyad, a young man brings his intended fiancée home, only for the latter to discover that her future father-in-law was her sugar daddy, who still can't let her go. Ewww~.

I don't see how effective banning is. Stories like Tuan Ziyad are all over platforms like Wattpad, which are brought to bookstores by publishers trying to cash in on the authors' ardent audiences online. Would it surprise anyone if even darker, spicier stuff can be unearthed there? At best, all banning does is send people back to cyberspace for the originals – and down certain rabbit holes.

As far as I know, the Home Ministry doesn't have a unit combing through reams of published material. Investigations tend to be launched based on reports, either by individuals or NGOs, or if it makes the news. And the obsession with anything LGBT is influenced by how fetishised the community is, to sell lurid narratives about it – the perfect distraction from the latest political hijinks or whatnot. However, we probably don't have to speculate what Russia is trying to distract its citizens from.


In other news:

• "Like it or not, we are all aging and one day it might be us, no matter how fit, smart, fine-looking, successful, and talented we once were or still are. This moment fired up a spark in me, so I decided to write about the idiosyncrasies of old age." A scene in a hotel lobby bar prompted Ivy Ngeow's exploration of family relationships in her latest novel, In Safe Hands.
• "I decided that no matter what it looked like, I was going to open a bookstore so that I could contribute in some small way and stand up for intellectual freedom in the US." Book bans, growing censorship and erasure of records in the States are fuelling the rise of independent bookselling by proprietors compelled to do something in a fraught literary landscape.
• At the PEN World Voices Festival, novelists Joyce Carol Oates and Carmen Boullosa spoke of their reissued works, Broke Heart Blues and Texas: The Great Theft respectively, and how and why these titles, written many years ago, still resonate today.
• "All of Gaza's universities have been leveled by airstrikes. More than 85 percent of schools in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed, according to U.N. experts. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, three university presidents and over 95 university deans and professors, including 68 holding professor titles, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes." Yet, some in Gaza persist in teaching and learning. The Intercept presents four stories of teachers and students pursuing learning under Israeli bombardment.
• People shouldn't be killed while researching for their books, but that seems to be a risk if you're a journalist writing about the exploitation of the Amazon. While friends of British journalist Dom Phillips finished the work he began, that he had to risk death to write is tragic and galling. But it's an awful reality. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 122 journalists and media workers were killed last year.
• "What happened to the bestselling young white man?" asks Vox, prompting reminiscences of discussions over the male-only publisher Conduit. The piece isn't about how white male authors are going extinct but that fewer books by younger male authors don't seem to be coming out as much these days. It's tied to a podcast, so it doesn't go too in-depth. But if stories by young men are being passed over without good reason, that would be a shame. Still, when it comes down to it, if you're male and white, you'd still have a better chance to get published, so perhaps one should ask, are they writing and is it worth publishing?
• "Though it may seem counterintuitive, one of the most effective tools for generating new work or pushing stories to the next level is to impose creative constraints on them. Poetry is often taught by introducing students to rigidly structured forms like sonnets, villanelles, and haiku. Prose writers would be well-served by learning from this approach." Writing WITH constraints? Not as novel as it sounds, according to these authors.
• "The idea that art will save us is the kind of magical thinking that flourishes when people feel helpless. ...When dragging your way up the social ladder looks increasingly impossible, then vibes become as good as personal initiative—or actual political action." RS Benedict in Current Affairs on why resistance through art is no substitute for real resistance.
• Art may not save us, but it can do other things. While not really artistic in nature and mission scope, street paper and social enterprise Big Issue did help an author get her book out. "A moving account of one couple's time living homeless on the South West Coast, [The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is] about to become a major motion picture". The book – and the movie, which should be released by now – may help boost tourism in the area but Thomas Horn, writing in The Independent, doubts it will address the other issue that the book chronicles. "The South West is a place of extreme beauty, but also extreme poverty. If you look beyond the glorious coastline and posh fish restaurants ... you'll realise there are lots of issues making life unaffordable."
• Penguin Random House's acquisition of comic book and graphic novel publisher Boom! Studios last year means no more unlimited, simultaneous access to Boom!'s titles for subscribers of the digital platform Comics Plus. By the time you see this, all Boom! titles on Comics Plus would have been deactivated.
• On comics, graphic novel publishing pioneer Rich Johnson notes that "The graphic novel section is the only section in bookstores organized by title. Every other section in the store is organized by author." He thinks it's a problem when people want to search works by author and offers some suggestions on how to shelve titles in the graphic novel section.
• Kristen Arnett at Literary Hub gives advice on supporting a friend's self-publishing endeavours (or not), what to do when you can't enjoy reading because your writer's hat is still on, and whether you're an ass if you think websites paywalling articles suck (it DOES, but...).

Book Marks: Do We Need A Male-Centric Publisher?

A new publisher caused a little stir with its business model of exclusively platforming male authors and claiming that they're rebalancing the publishing landscape that's leaning a little too female. Perhaps this publisher should look at what's being written instead of who's doing the writing, if it thinks that guys aren't reading what it thinks they should read, if at all.

Discussions over whether publishing is dominated by males was a thing about a decade ago, and if the pendulum is swinging the other way, I feel this trend has yet to reach its zenith – too early to hit the panic button. "Male authors going from 80% to 50% of the market is far from a crisis in need of another intervening corrective," James Folta writes in Literary Hub.

By all means, publish. There's room for new voices and if this publisher believes in its mission, its releases should strike a chord among the reading public. Just don't hype it up like the advent of some superhero team. I don't see the need for a male-only publisher right now because women still face hurdles in getting published. So I'm more welcoming of efforts like those of heritage publishing house Quite Literally Books, which is digging up books written by American women from a hundred years back.


Next up:

• Book lovers will inevitably have copies to give away, and here's another place for them: Buku Beyond Bars, a community book drive for prison libraries. "This initiative seeks to foster rehabilitation, personal growth, and mental well-being for the prison community through increased availability and accessibility of informative and meaningful reading materials," Mazni Ibrahim, CEO of the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR), tells The Star. MCCHR launched the project.
• "...it's not just theft. It's bullying. Exploitation. Looting on a grand scale. The stuff of Upton Sinclair. Only we don't have robber barons anymore. We have pirate captains. Bluebeards of the human heart. And what are we supposed to fight them with? Carefully worded emails? That's like bringing a spork to a nuclear war." Catherine Baab found that her book was among the many being used to train Meta's AI bot LLaMA 3. Still don't understand what the fuss is about? Hear her out and maybe you will.
• Speaking of theft: Nagi Maehashi (and maybe several others) versus Brooke Bellamy. The latter was accused of lifting recipes for her bestseller Bake with Brooki. Recipe ownership can be hard to prove, unless there are signs of stuff being copied verbatim. At the Australian book industry awards night however, Maehashi can walk away with a bit of satisfaction after her book beat Bellamy's, among others, for the title of illustrated book of the year.
• "If small and independent presses offered fresher, more challenging books, how could [readers] find and read them?" writers Melanie Jennings and Elizabeth Kaye Cook ask. They then lay out the reasons small-press titles don't get enough sun and what can be done about it. BookTok is one option, but readers should also step up and be a bit more adventurous. Small presses may need to find ways to get noticed as well, even if the task is herculean.
• "Authors have limited choice over what happens to their unpublished work after their deaths—but while they still live, the decision over how to treat their trunk works is as individual as the authors themselves. Given enough time every writer develops some trunk oeuvre." Randee Dawn dishes on "trunk" novels, the early stuff most authors don't feel is good enough for public consumption.
• In USA Today, Clare Mulroy speaks with Fredrik Backman, author of Anxious People and the latest release My Friends, which may be his last published work. Not because he wants to stop writing, but because the exertions required of published authors get to him. He seems to feel that younger writers have it worse. "It's fine when you put that pressure on someone like me, who is 44 years old and I have kids, and I have a life and I have a good support system around me and I've been doing this for 15 years. But when that pressure starts mounting up on someone in their 20s, I think that's a lot to ask of someone...."
• A recent snapshot of the Australian book industry looks bleak, with rising costs eating into margins and making writing, publishing, and bookselling less and less viable as careers. The article also offers some solutions, but is the will to execute them there, and how helpful will these be?

A Midday Soft Landing

The cookie yields under pressure from the fork. I scoop up the piece, leaving behind a gleaming mark on the dish liner. Snowy-white flecks of what looks like white chocolate wink from the cutaway section.

Instead of chewing, I let the cookie melt slowly in my mouth. The scent of browned butter wafts up my throat as a smooth, nutty sweetness slides downwards. Nice.

Feelin' down, harried or lost? Step inside, pick your treats, relax
and let your troubles melt away.

A sip of coffee from an earthenware cup that's more at home at a Japanese tea house than a café. The bitterness chases the sweetness away from my palate, readying it for the next mouthful and taking away a bit of fatigue from the morning.

Damn baby, it's a type of way you make me feel every day
I'm writing songs 'bout you on the back of a plane...

Just two more rounds of this ushers an onrush of memories of coffees and desserts from ghosts of cafés past. This, and Alt Bloom's vocals lull the senses, softening the rough patterns on the cement walls to the gaze.

Another bite of cookie. As my teeth pulverise the macadamia bits, the richness mingles with the nuttiness of the browned butter. I savour both a little longer before swallowing, feeling wistful. Within a week, this flavour may no longer be served and I don't know when it will return.

For now though, I immerse myself in the blissful calm of café, coffee, and cookie.

---

Lingering fears of the pandemic kept me away from dining in for years until I had no choice after being posted to Bangsar for work. Even then, dine-ins were perfunctory affairs: sit down, eat up, get out. No loafing around, no chatting, and it's only during lunch. Dinners were takeaways that I'd eat at home.

After a year and a half of this, however, what made me ready for things to start going back to normal? I still don't know. So walking into Em's Soft Chunky Cookies café near the end of February felt like a tectonic shift in my post-pandemic habits.

Since I started working in Bangsar, I have been taking away Em's cookies on occasion. Chunky and soft in the middle, they get nice and crusty on the surface, especially after a brief spell in the oven. They freeze pretty well too, though they would vanish within a week.

On that day, however, with some trepidation, I sat down for a slice of burnt cheesecake and a "Spanish latte", the usual latte with a little sweetened condensed milk. No crowds, good. I needed some quiet. The cheesecake didn't have a creamy centre but was fine taste-wise, and the latte was like a warm, bracing soak in the tub.

My first sit-in order at Em's Soft Chunky Cookies café: coffee and a slice
of burnt cheesecake. No comments about the size, please.

I left with a lighter heart, a clearer mind, and a familiar sense of satisfaction, knowing I'd be back – perhaps, sooner than I'd like. Above all else, I left with an itch at the back of my head that would produce these musings.

Fast-forward about a month later. It's Raya season, and Em's is serving up its Aidilfitri menu, which includes the Burnt Butter Macadamia cookie that appeared among a slew of previous offerings.

Butter, when 'burnt' – browned, more like, which involves taking care to avoid actual burning – becomes another ingredient, acquiring a delectably nutty aroma and taste. Do I like it? Yes. Am I addicted? Probably.

Do I care? Not really.

On another visit, I was within earshot when the barista/manager told a customer that while Em's has been around for six years (I think), the café is only about a year old. I vaguely recall meeting who I presumed was Em at a bazaar, though I cannot remember if I bought anything from her. So imagine my surprise when Em started setting up shop in Jalan Telawi 2, sharing a lot with a vape store.

With the café's hole-in-the-wall profile and minimalist design, even a shop sign and a standing mirrored sign bookmarking the place would draw little attention. Limited seating accommodates a modest crowd at best – a suitable place to escape the tedious nine-to-five drudgery.

Petrified samples of available offerings are arranged along the counter with labels indicating name and price. Besides the Burnt Butter Macadamia, the Raya offerings include interpretations of onde-onde and the pineapple tart and a cake with dates.

Personal favourites among Em's array of delights include the OG chocolate chip – a must in any cookie shop – and the Cereal Milk, topped with crunchy cereal flakes and a filling of caramelised white chocolate, a cunning concoction that looks and vaguely tastes like a fine and runny peanut butter.

Em's bingka ubi pairs well with ther coffee. Nowadays it's a go-to on
Tuesdays – not every Tuesday – when special-priced coffee is available.

Em's has competition in the neighbourhood, so its arsenal contains more than just cookies. They have special daily offers for each weekday except when they close on Mondays. On Tuesdays one can get coffee at a cheaper price to accompany any sweet treat. Cookies not your thing? How about the burnt cheesecake? Cream puffs? Though the ice cream-topped skillet cookie is too much for me, even on an empty stomach.

Then, maybe try their bingka ubi, a chewy tapioca kuih that's become another favourite. Each slice of a faint dusky yellow - less yellow than most vendors' - is ringed by a thin caramelised corona that gives it a satisfying chew and deepens its flavour profile. Just sweet enough and goes well with their coffees.

But today, it's the browned butter cookie.

I sit down and wait after ordering, hiding behind a wall and facing a rattan-weave-backed chair. I dig in only after everything arrives on the table and lose myself in this tiny recess in the café, sequestered from the noonday warmth outside, flavours playing on my tongue.

With each visit, each mouthful, and each sip, I become a bit less neurotic about dining in, my anxieties uncoiling from my mind like razor wire. Words thrum in my head they way they do when the muse strikes – how long have you been gone?

She keep me like a summer cool breeze
Make me feel fine
Just sipping on that one puff, two drinks
Weight off my mind...

Occasionally, a Grab rider would pass by, picking up deliveries. Em's doesn't just serve in situ and they have several packages to cater for various occasions: birthdays, parties, Raya open houses... these days little cafés and such have to be up for Grab or they'll never make a living.

I've no idea what I did to earn a free cream puff with my purchase, but
I'll take it. The filling is a creamy vanilla, my favourite.

Time passes and the plate and cup empty. With the mouth wiped clean, the mask goes back on. The coffee, like me, lingers, reluctant to let the moment go. Man, I really don't want to go back to work... so soon. But how else can I earn coin for my little culinary and literary escapades?

Eventually I peel myself off the bench, edge my way around the table, and walk out with Alt Bloom's voice in my head. A last bit of coffee clings tenaciously to my throat, despite several cups of water earlier.

"Thank you and have a nice day," the barista/manager calls out.

I think I will.

---

Em's Soft Chunky Cookies

8A, Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar
59100 Kuala Lumpur

Tue-Sun: 10am–9pm

Closed on Mondays

+6017 680 3870

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Book Marks: Bleak World Book Day, No Free Speech For Holiday

World Book Day was on 23 April, and for that, local English daily The Star puts the spotlight on several independent bookstores in the Klang Valley that have become the places to be for a bookishly good time. "Whether it's a husband-and-wife team chasing their dream of becoming booksellers, a group of nature lovers pooling resources to open a nature-focused bookshop, or a veteran bookseller helming a socialist-leaning hub for progressive literature in Petaling Jaya, each example reflects how a deep and personal passion for books can give rise to strong, enduring communities."

One is less sanguine about the indie book scene in Hong Kong, a place that has been under Beijing's thumb for years. The imposition of an ambiguously worded colonial-era sedition law has forced certain books off shelves and put people behind bars for publishing allegedly seditious material. Nevertheless, some Hong Kong bookstores persist, so if you're in the neighbourhood, drop by.

TikTok meanwhile has a round-up of news for World Book Day that further cements BookTok as a powerful hype machine that brings authors and titles to the fore. One can only hope it will be a force for good.

---

Author Ryan Holiday was scheduled to give a lecture at the US Naval Academy but that even was cancelled when Holiday "refused to remove slides from his planned presentation that criticized the academy's decision to remove nearly 400 books from its main library," CNN reports.

Among the sharp words in that report, most were from Holiday, but this stuck out:

"If you can't be trusted around Stacey Abrams' memoir or Maya Angelou, you probably have no business being a Navy SEAL or holding an assault rifle or flying a fighter jet," Holiday said. "You're either an adult or you're not."

Exactly. Still, the culture wars continue.

In a US Supreme Court case where the state of Maryland's Montgomery County is being challenged by parents who don't want their kids taking lessons that use LGBTQ-themed material, Penguin Random House, the Authors Guild, and the nonprofit Educational Book and Media Association have filed a written submission. The parties have argued for the inclusion of such books and expressed concerns that ruling in the parent's favour would limit students' reading choices and restrict their access to diverse perspectives and experiences.

Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, strikes a bright, strident chord with this statement...

Reading about different people doesn't indoctrinate children any more than reading about space exploration makes a child an astronaut, or reading biographies makes them adopt the exact life choices of historical figures.

These stories don't override a child's own beliefs—they prepare them for the reality that they'll share in classrooms, communities, and workplaces with people from all walks of life.

LGBTQ-themed reads is a major issue at home, where the authorities and NGOs use law and religion to get any 'objectionable' material off our shelves. Even the most progressive toe the line to avoid the hassle of dealing with protesting groups. How prepared are our future generations for life and the world when so much of what they learn is excessively shepherded?

I may be reaching here but the current US kakistocracy owes its rise a great deal to the conservative, States-centric propaganda in US schools and media, and shades of that have begun to appear here.


All right, moving on...

• Former Washington Post staff writer Gillian Brockell is horrified and livid to learn that ChatGPT can now "write" articles after being fed reporting made by her colleagues whose styles the AI attempts to emulate. "When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable 'zombies' to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles," she posted on BlueSky. This, of course, opens doors to places many would not wish to go. The day AI can impersonate writers, living or dead, may already be here. How prepared are we to meet this challenge?
• "I never imagined that so many people would read [Convenience Store Woman] in Japan, let alone in other countries ... It explores some quite unique aspects of Japanese culture." Japanese author Sayaka Murata sits down with The Guardian for a revealing interview about her books, her writing life, and Japanese culture ahead of the release of her latest novel, Vanishing World.
• Self-publishing can feel like a fool's errand, but for Penrith native Colin Hindle, it's worth the effort. The pandemic forced him to close his business, so he went-a-rambling in his area, making sketches and notes. Most of these went into his two self-published books and– holy $#!+ what sketches they are! The detail! The covers don't do the books justice though. Someone should pick them up and help him repackage them.
• Pope Francis passed early this week, and some of the obits mentioned his work as a bouncer(!), so other out-of-expectations revelations about the late pontiff should no longer surprise. Like the fact that he also taught literature at a secondary school, according to Literary Hub columnist Nick Ripatrazone. Francis's approach to teaching reminds one of how he engaged others as pope, a quality that will perhaps continue to inform his papacy long after his passing.
• A UK-based independent press is pushing Vietnamese literature worldwide, and it has released three books, "by and about Vietnamese women, spanning three centuries." Might this be the start of a new wave? On a slightly related note is this list of fiction and non-fiction about the Vietnam War, which includes Graham Greene's The Quiet American.
• "I have been writing poetry for the last fifty years, having published twelve books of poems, along with two collections of literary essays and one novel to my credit. And in the bargain, I have received some awards too. But in spite of such seemingly impressive biodata, not a single cultured and literature-loving Bengali bhadralok, outside the small literary circle of Bengali poetry, has heard of me." Bengali poet Ranajit Das's musings on whether he's a success or failure can be found in On Failing, a collection of essays edited by Amit Chaudhuri.
• The latest Ai-assisted writing and self-publishing platform epubs.ai is promising a lot to independent writers but is it just hype? And will there be assurances that writers using the platform won't have their work scraped to train AI models that will be "helping" others with their writer's block?
• "Simplified spelling looks silly. There’s no getting around that. For most readers today, the mere sight of words like 'nolej' or 'edukayshun' ... instantly sets the funny bone a-tingling, and no matter how logical the argument for spelling reform, they’ll never see it as anything but a source of amyuzmint. In that sense, not much has changed since the 1800s." Gabe Henry looks at the use of bad spelling in early American comedy.
• Received a bad review - or a dozen - for your work? All part of being a creator, and you're in good company. "...even the most popular authors will cop a mealy-mouthed assessment. It's bad enough when it's from an anonymous or faked name amateur reviewer on inclusive, user-friendly platforms like Goodreads, but it stings even more when it's from a professional critic in a well-regarded publication.
• "From the tragedies of American history and the terrors of dictatorship, to reality television's roots in home video to connections with spirits, ancestors, and families, these works embody the human condition. People are weird, people are mean, people are complicated, and people are beautiful." Wendy J. Fox compiles a list of 11 titles from small presses to read for Electric Literature. Meanwhile, C.T. Jones puts together another reading list for a little escapism to distract from the dumpster fire that is the tRump administration, part two.

Back At The Table

For several weeks I passed a new izakaya-style place on the way home after taking out dinner, but only dropped by on a Friday, compelled by memories of a disappointing unagi don at a conveyor-belt sushi place.

I know times are hard and all, but there's no point serving grilled eel on rice on a budget. Either go all out or not at all.

So one day, I googled the place on my phone and lo and behold, there was its menu. Hold on, they also have grilled chicken liver and chicken butt? Who could resist?

I don't know how long Ni Kyu Izakaya will last but the Friday-evening crowd was hopefully a good sign it will be for at least a few years. Besides the grilled skewers, rice dishes and several sashimi offerings are available, so it's not entirely a yakitori joint. The alcohol selections seem decent, if you're into that.

Stuck outside waiting for a table, I joined a few others in filling out a laminated order form with a whiteboard marker. I didn't wait too long for a table of one and settled down quickly. After years of watching Japanese VTubers, I could make out what the ingredients featured on one wall were in Nihongo, though the pictures helped greatly.

Do all Japanese restaurants in Malaysia have the same playlist?

Ah, now THIS is an unagi don. Costs twice as much as the disappointing one, but has almost three times as much unagi and comes with a sesame-dressed salad, miso soup, and a sweetish piece of Japanese omelette. I wasn't sure if the tough bits were the skin, but I was so glad for the eel, I didn't care. Bones? Never mind.

I also ate the rice with chicken liver yakitori, which melted into a rich paste of meaty flavour, slightly sweet from the sauce, with bitter notes from the charred bits. The chicken butt was unctuously chicken-y and salty but if they used more of the tail I think there'll probably be bones.

A misunderstanding when my order was confirmed left me with one and not two skewers of grilled chicken liver, which left me a little sore. For a brief time, a kopitiam near my workplace that sells mixed rice had a dish of chicken liver sautéd kam heong style that whetted my appetite for avian offal, and that void remains unfillable.

Perhaps it's why I returned to Ni Kyu the next day for a second taste of liver and ordered the pork belly don to go with it. Again, the food was good and all, but I left the place feeling uneasy, not just because I was stuffed – I had a substantial meal in the afternoon, and that glass of iced green tea was big.

I overdid it, I guess, because eating out again feels liberating after years of takeout. I also missed the freedom of being able to go anywhere after eating and not having to worry about the food in the not-so-airtight takeout container.

Since the first lockdown, I often get takeout from small traders and hawkers, and I'd prefer to support them more. The food is cheaper and just as satisfying, and the portions can be controlled. When dining in, the compulsion for seconds and ordering lots is strong.

Will dining in mean spending more and letting myself go?

I want to continue with takeouts for as long as I can and leave dining in for special occasions, or to smooth over a bad day. But there seem to be a lot of bad days of late. The pandemic is over for many, but I have reasons to be cautious still.

One other thing was awakened by recent dine-ins: the urge to write about food. I stayed away for a long time because of the pandemic and the weariness of seeing former haunts shut down one after another. But after the rain, new life springs from the ground, and the old is replaced by the new.

Perhaps this will make me pick up the pen more regularly and frequent another familiar place.

---

Ni Kyu Izakaya

59, Jln Hujan Emas 8
Taman Overseas Union
58200 Kuala Lumpur

Non-halal

Tue-Sun: 12am-2:30pm, 5pm-10pm

Closed on Mondays

+60 11-2643 5914