A Heady Broth

This family tale is a gold-star recipe


Wherever they go, at some point Malaysians tend to reminisce of home: the culture, the camaraderie, and the food. The farther the distance and the longer the absence, the more rose-tinted those memories become.

That food has become our refuge from the harshness of life is perhaps no exaggeration. There's a certain romance in our enjoyment and recollections of it: from our daily meals, childhood favourites, or that one unforgettable taste of a hawker-stall wonder that, with time, becomes as venerated as the Holy Grail.


Go here for the whole review.

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Early Mornings at the Laksa Café

Janet Tay
Vintage UK
352 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 9781787305304

The Power Of Second Chances

Restore your faith in community with this tale of a neighbourhood convenience store


Anyone who's in a reading slump should try at least one of the growing collection of healing titles out there. Pithy, packed with feel-good vibes, and small enough to be finished in one sitting, these novels - most of which are translated works from Korean or Japanese - can eb helpful in easing one back into regular reading. With few clues as to a slowdown in new releases, at least for now, one is also not starved for choice.

Some may decry how formulaic such books are, but one thing about that is how reliable they are, like a much0-needed pick-me-up from a convenience store. Which is why Kim Ho-yeon's The Second Chance Convenience Store may push you back to your cobwebbed TBR pile - and perhaps more.


The rest of the review can be found here.

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The Second Chance Convenience Store

Kim Ho-yeon (translated by Janet Hong)
Pan Macmillan
208 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 9781035032891

Rich People Problems, Reprised

The copy on the back cover of a book sometimes oversells, but in the case of Kevin Kwan's Lies and Weddings, which "reveals and enthralling family saga that is as scandalous and satirical as it is full of heart", one is glad to be proven wrong.

The author who brought us Crazy Rich Asians returns with what might shape up to be a new series, with an all-new cast. British-Chinese Hunk Rufus Leung Gresham, Viscount St Ives and heir to the (probably) fictional British earldom of Greshambury, is under pressure to marry rich. Despite being aristocrats, the Greshams are broke after decades of unbridled spending.


Check out the full review of Lies and Weddings.

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Lies and Weddings

Kevin Kwan
Doubleday US
448 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 9780385546379

Normal Women, Extraordinary Stories

Nine centuries of real-life princesses and pirates, rebels and rioters


Philippa Gregory is more well known for her historical novels featuring prominent Englishwomen, but in Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History, she puts the spotlight on lesser-known women throughout nine centuries of British history, from the days of William the Conqueror to the early 1990s.

The book aims to tell the story of Britain through the lives of women and to redefine what "normal" female behaviour entails. It also compels one to wonder what (other) women were up to in one's neck of the woods ages ago and whether they were as rambunctious as some of the ladies in this book.


Go to the full review.

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Normal Women
900 Years of Making History

Philippa Gregory
William Collins
688 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 9780008601713

A Black Viking Warrior Makes Her Mark

When I laid eyes on the book, one of the names on the cover leapt forth. Oh, surely not... . But it was.

So Willow Smith, daughter of actor Will Smith, co-authored a book about an African woman in medieval times who, about to be sold as a slave, ends up running with Vikings up in the cold north. Intrigued by Viking culture, Smith delved further into the history of Vikings, and wondered whether they had contact with or even enlisted Africans in their ranks. This book, written with Jess Hendel, was the result.


Check out the review of Black Shield Maiden.

Writing Shades Of Grey

Amy Leow on her debut novel's savage antiheroine and penning villain protagonists


Amy Leow's The Scarlet Throne, the first novel in the planned False Goddess trilogy, has made waves since it dropped in September 2024. The protagonist, Binsa, is a living goddess facing "retirement" who schemes to hold on to her position by any means. We asked Leow about Binsa and about crafting not-so-heroic characters like her.


Briefly, what made you want to write about a morally grey character like Binsa? Did you have any aims in mind in telling her story?

When I wrote Binsa's story, I set out to portray an irredeemable, remorseless female villain character. Female villains in current media are often presented as people swayed to the dark side, and are not necessarily villains out of their own volition, while their male counterparts are allowed to be evil for the sake of being evil. We also tend to glorify morally grey male characters, but a woman who does the same is immediately labelled as a badly written character. I wanted to break that mould and show that women should be allowed to be bad, sometimes.


Go here for the rest of the Q&A.

Leadership Lessons From The Kampung For The Global Village

When it was first published in 206, Boonsiri Somchit's When the Chicken Dies, Everyone Cries promised "authentic leadership and life lessons from the heart of the kampung" because textbook leadership skills aren't bridging the gap between management and people. Was the author aware of how much that chasm would grow since then?

A finance and operations professional with over three decades of experience, Somchit spent nearly 20 years in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and established AMD's Global Business Services, the US-based chipmaker's first accounting and financial shared services organisation. She also co-founded the Penang-based training and consultation firm Xtrategize.


Read the full review.

Can't Read? Take Up These Reading Challenges

Who doesn't love reading challenges? Well, some of us have days where picking a book feels like a pain already, never mind sitting down to read for a couple of hours. That to-be-read pile, however, is not going to read itself. Nor will you be doing anything to jump-start your reading habits by staying away from books. But where to start?

Well, we humbly suggest...


Full article here.

Surviving A Seedy Underbelly

Hades was a tough read, so when one is finally done, relief comes like a tidal wave. Though the copy of Ipoh-based teacher Aishah Zainal's debut novel lies on the desk, some of the words still echo and one's fingers still ache at the memory of its weight.

"At its core, Hades is the tale of the underdogs – of those living in poverty and what it does to people, especially women," Aishah told local English daily The Star, which reported on the novel being nominated for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award. Even this does not prepare readers for their descent into its murky depths.


Full review here.

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Hades

Aishah Zainal
Gerakbudaya Enterprise
200 pages
Fiction
ISBN: 9789670076102