A Year In Reading

Must've done about only twenty books this year. 'Not a whole lot'? How about, 'abysmal'?

Maybe I'm starting to become bibliophobic. On the bright side, more truth in blog titling!

I've read a few more books than the reviews for this year suggest - it's just that I'm lazier to review the ones I read for leisure - which I don't want.


Call of the wild (Beast)
I'd thought of skipping this year's Big Bad Wolf blowout. I didn't feel the urge to fight the crowds and I had only finished one or two of the books I bought at last year's event.

So I brought someone else along for the fun. And I ended up buying half the books I did last year, owing to an inadequately filled wallet. But I managed to snag some of the reads I wanted.

Trophy pic of purchases from the Big Bad Wolf book sale
...soon to become a Malaysian social media tradition

Mick Foley's Countdown to Lockdown and Ernest Cline's Ready Player One came highly recommended. I also managed to find Carrie Fisher's Shockaholic and Keith Floyd's Stirred But Not Shaken. Waiter Rant? Self-explanatory.

...Now, if only I can get to the other books I'd promised to read.


Year in review(s)
I started reviewing books for The Star towards the end of 2007; this year saw my fiftieth Star book review, published in November. I started writing reviews and book-related pieces for online news portal The Malaysian Insider as well.

As an online medium, like the blog, TMI is more flexible, in that I can put in URLs and write about books that are not so new; books published more than a year ago are, generally, less likely to be reviewed in The Star.

Most of this year's reviews were for books I'd read this year, though several were read last year.

• He Knew He Was Right, John and Mary Gribbin ("Gaia's irrepressible prophet", TMI, 26 December) - Tiring, uninspiring. After reading The Vanishing Face of Gaia, I doubt even Lovelock could've made his interesting life story more arresting.
• Uncommon Grounds, Mark Pendergrast ("This beautiful and caffeinated world", TMI, 22 November) - The language is slightly more accessible than the previous book, but still a scholarly work.
• We Are Anonymous, Parmy Olson ("A glimpse into the abyss", The Star, 16 November) - The scariest book you'll ever read this year. Also my fiftieth book review for The Star.
• Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter ("Splendour from ruin", The Star, 04 November) - A darkly funny, quirky read with a somewhat (I feel) upbeat ending.
• The Black Isle, Sandi Tan ("Growing up with ghosts", The Star, 02 November) - The ghosts in here should be laid to rest, along with the tired, overused World War II-Southeast Asia theme.
• Another Country, Anjali Joseph ("Mostly melancholy", The Star, 21 October) - This jumble of snippets from a life of a migrant feels like it was rushed to the presses.
• The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling ("Not so casual, actually", TMI, 03 October) - Not a bad attempt to weave a little magic into the mundane. But comparing used condoms with chrysalises? Eww.
• A Land More Kind Than Home, Wiley Cash ("Hope in faith", The Star, 14 September) - Potent and poignant, especially when set against the stands taken by the US's religious right.
• Flashback, Dan Simmons ("Induced nostalgia", The Star, 19 August) - Another rush job, from the looks of it. A "meh" effort compared to his previous works.
• An Unexpected Guest, Anne Korkeakivi ("Make room on the shelf", The Star, 10 August) - An easy read about the 48 (or was it 72) hours in the life of a diplomat's wife.
• Stretch, Neal Pollack ("Downward dude", blog, 22 July) - The smells of sweat and stale gym-socks come to life in Pollack's misadventures in yoga. Namaste, motherf—er.
• The Family Corleone, Ed Falco ("A dying breed of crook", The Star, 27 May) - So vivid, it's almost like watching a movie. And it might be made into one, now that the Puzos vs Paramount legal battle is over.
• Gone Bamboo, Anthony Bourdain ("Tropic tempers", blog, 16 May) - As rough and profane as Bone in the Throat. The mobster shtick gets old fast, however.
• Started Early, Took My Dog, Kate Atkinson ("Whimsical whodunnit", blog, 11 May) - A clever novel of a crime that solves itself, i.e. not driven by the detective.
• Kopi, edited by Amir Muhammad ("Caffeine fix(i)", blog, 02 May) - Some of the stories in this coffee-themed Malay-language short story collection will, like its namesake, keep you awake at night.
• The Mirage, Naguib Mahfouz ("Mama's boy", The Star, 20 April) - If the aim of this novel is to make the reader want to beat the apron-clinging protagonist to death and back, it succeeded beyond measure.
• Without Anchovies Chua Kok Yee ("Flash fiction", blog, 15 April) - Frustrating glimpses of potential in what looks like a hurriedly assembled collection of mostly half-formed short stories.
• A Decade of Hope, Dennis Smith ("A long decade", blog, 14 March) - Ten years is enough time for people to not care about 9/11 anymore - or pick up this book.

Dig me out in time for work
next year... urrrgh...
• Columbus: The Four Voyages, Laurence Bergreen ("Clash of civilisations", The Star, 17 February) - A not-so-flattering portrait of the man who helped the conquistadores obliterate the major pre-Columbian civilisations of Latin and South America.
• The Beruas Prophecy, Iskandar al-Bakri ("A nearly fulfilled prophecy", blog, 05 February) - A potentially engaging Malay sword-and-sorcery tale that's marred by colourless two-dimensional narration.
• Queen of America Luis Alberto Urrea ("Sweeping, colourful yarn", The Star, 29 January) - A lush re-imagined story of the life of Mexican mystic, folk healer and alleged revolutionary Teresa Urrea.

O-o-okay, not as bad as I thought. Still way below the 100 books a year someone in my line is supposed to read...

And that list does not include the books I've read but not reviewed: James Clavell's Noble House (dew kui lou mou, so damn thick), End Specialist (or The Postmortal) by Drew Magary (gripping), Alexander McCall Smith's The Ladies' No.1 Detective Agency (nice), When I Was A Kid by Boey Cheeming (neat) and Tarquin Hall's third Vish Puri book, The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (a rrrolicking good time, yaar!).

Do I want to top this next year? Love to, but that's tempting fate - not a good idea in any profession.

Gaia's Irrepressible Prophet

When I was writing this, I'd forgotten several other relevant titbits: levels of carbon pollution rose again last year, and a lot of it is coming out of China; revelations that sea levels are rising at a faster rate than expected, threatening coastal cities in the US; more proof that the classic Maya civilisation was laid low by climate change, among other things; a tornado in New Zealand (tornadoes in New Zealand?) killed some people; and the nasty winter weather in the US this year.

I needed more examples outside the US, as I've already chewed enough schadenfreude over the American panic over climate change after Hurricane Sandy. You're still with the rest of us, Yankees! Our problems are also ours. Still.

As for Lovelock, well, I thought he was a bit of a crackpot. But that's because Lovelock's a seemingly lucid mind that is supporting a theory that now seems less outlandish than it was when it was first introduced.

Mankind has been unfavourably compared to a virus; the notion of an Earth that can wipe us out if we overstay our welcome should be the cause of many sleepless nights and/or suicides. What's perhaps more terrifying than rocks falling from outer space is the possibility, however remote, that Lovelock could be right.

Puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?

---

Gaia's irrepressible prophet

first published in The Malaysian Insider, 26 December 2012


Floods in Madeira, Portugal. The "snowmageddon" in parts of Europe and the US. Hail in parts of Damansara and KL. The ash from that Icelandic volcano. And the earthquake bonanza of 2011, along with the Fukushima tsunami. The world appears to be going mad.

But it wasn't until Hurricane Sandy flooded New York that brought home the news that maybe, maybe, this whole global warming/climate change thing wasn't born out of some New Age-fuelled paranoia.

Just when we thought we'd be okay after dodging the Mayapocalypse ...

James Lovelock, author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (2009), seems to suggest that all this is natural, at least where climate change is concerned.

One year earlier in a Daily Mail report headlined "We're all doomed!", he pictures a hot, chaotic world coping with climate-caused disasters: droughts, famine and floods, and that we might as well get used to it instead of trying to fix it, because "it is too late to repair the damage".


Our living planet ...
Arguably, not many people have heard of James Ephraim Lovelock, but they may have heard of NASA's search for life on Mars, and the fight against ozone-eating CFCs. Lovelock was the British scientist who invented the scientific instruments that would be instrumental in both. He is perhaps more famous for another invention: the Gaia theory.

To most of us, Earth is just a ball of rock with a liquid centre and a thin layer of air. The Gaia theory depicts the Earth as a living, self-sustaining super-organism (this is as non-scientific as I can manage). The theory was formulated in the 1970s and developed with the help of a few others, particularly the microbiologist Dr Lynn Margulis.

This theory suggests one way the Earth regulates its own temperature is with the help of ocean-dwelling phytoplankton. When the seas warm, the organisms breed and produce a gas which ultimately helps seed clouds and increases cloud cover, creating a sun shield of sorts that cools down the planet's surface. Proof that seems to support this was said to have been found, though conclusive evidence remains elusive,

The concept of a living, sentient Earth wasn't the only strange idea he had. He loves nuclear energy — his answer to our CO₂ and energy problems — and rubbishes the idea that radioactive waste is bad. As a Brit and beneficiary of the British National Health Service (NHS) he also believed "there was always a nagging fear that in the States you could be financially ruined by a severe illness."


... and its spokesman
James Lovelock's youth gave little indication of the man he would become. He skipped classes and didn't care about homework. He cleared "obstructions" to wherever part of the English countryside he wished to roam with home-made explosives. He went to study chemistry in Manchester because a girl he'd fancied was there.

He was once accused of cheating in class because he gave all the correct answers, but it turned out that the university's standards were... a bit low. Lovelock argues that when lives are concerned one must be correct — a viewpoint shaped by his days at school and an accidental chemical explosion. He didn't just "know" he was right, he made sure he was.

He Knew He Was Right: The Irrepressible Life of James Lovelock and Gaia, penned by John and Mary Gribbin is a celebration of his life, philosophies and Gaia theory and, perhaps, given the more positive reception to the latter these days, an "I told you so" to his detractors. Lovelock also received the Geological Society of London's highest award, the Wollaston Medal, in 2006 for his work on the Gaia theory.

John Gribbin himself is an interesting character. The astrophysicist and science writer predicted — wrongly — that a huge earthquake caused by an alignment of the planets would destroy Los Angeles. His book, Get a Grip on Physics (2003), was reportedly spotted in Tiger Woods' wrecked SUV.

Sadly, the way the biography is written isn't nearly as interesting as the authors, the subject or his ideas. The writing is dry and uninspiring and it's jam-packed with lots of information about Lovelock, his work and the history of the Gaia hypothesis. It was hard work, digging out all those gems about his life and any other relevant titbits. The material that over-explains the Gaia theory is deadweight to the average reader, but one suspects the average reader is not really who the authors are writing for.


He may still be right
John and Mary Gribbin may think Lovelock knew he was right about climate change, but do we?

Until Climategate, most of us seemed to agree with Al Gore. Lovelock's gloomier predictions of mankind's fate takes into account the planet's extremely long, but finite lifespan (perhaps like Lovelock's own — the man's pushing 100); our Sun has five billion more years before it loses all its energy, and when that happens the Earth will die anyway, but not before the planet, he hopes, shapes us into better beings.

"We are about to take an evolutionary step and my hope is that the species will emerge stronger," he said in that gloomy Daily Mail report. "It would be hubris to think humans as they now are God's chosen race."

Early this year, however, Lovelock more or less conceded that maybe his projections about how our climate would change the world were a bit "alarmist", though his views on nuclear energy, wind power and sustainable development remain unchanged.

Even if The Day After Tomorrow isn't happening any time soon, the things happening in some parts of the world of late pretty much shows just how screwed we are if the weather catches us off-guard. Just ask those who were flooded out by Hurricane Sandy in New York.

---

He Knew He Was Right

The Irrepressible Life of James Lovelock and Gaia

John and Mary Gribbin
Allen Lane (2009)
240 pages
Non-fiction
ISBN: 978-1-846-14016-7

News: Submission Calls, The Gent Returns, And We're Still Here

It's been quite a year, what with this one being the end of a 5,000-year Mayan long-count cycle. So yes, we're all still here, because.

Metaphorically though, the world did end for some people, so let's not have too much fun with the failed Mayapocalypse.

On the books front: Amir Muhammad's Fixi now has an imprint for English language books. Fixi Novo has issued a call for submissions on its Facebook page for pulp fiction in "American English". Why can't they use text?

Also, Ianslip Books, a boutique publisher affiliated with Sang Freud Press, is calling for submissions of short story or poetry collections. E-mail them at Ianslip[dot]books[at]gmail[dot]com for more information.

Imran Ahmad, author of The Perfect Gentleman (also known as Unimagined: A Muslim Boy Meets The West) gave an interview in the NST about his book and the coming sequel(s), and his upcoming appearance at MPH, 1Utama on 19 January, from 3pm to 4pm. More details at www.perfect-gent.com.


Elsewhere:

• Research finds that one in 7 kids in the UK has never been to a bookstore.
• Forbes's three predictions for book publishing. Smashwords founder Mark Coker has twenty-one.
• 2012 in publishing, according to publishers: books that made their year, books that should've done better, and books they wish they had published.
• Because these are fun: Eater's most scathing restaurant reviews for 2012.
• Jeet Thayil's (Narcopolis) reflections of Singapore.
• Huh, writers. Sharing caffeine habits in style.
• A writer with a pseudonym-sounding name defends romance in a piece with a whiff of Mills & Boon. Hmm.
• The cloud-sourced novel The Dragon Lords has 13,000 collaborators? Negotiations for royalties should be exciting.
• China is investigating Amazon's e-book business? I wonder what they'll find?
• "'Here be dragons'? Nein!" How technology killed the tall (travel) tale.
• Free books about death and grief might not be such a good idea after Sandy Hook.

Pleasure In Pain

first published in The Malaysian Insider, 23 December 2012

Melody was meeting a Frenchman in Bangsar at the ungodly hour of eight in the morning, so I had to get the car ready. "This had better be worth it," I grumbled through a mouthful of toothpaste.

Look for this sign

After coffee, the next hot artisanal thing to hit our shores seems to be bread. Melody had been on one of her food hunts and, that morning saw us at Yeast Bistronomy in Bangsar.

Located several doors down the Kiwi-style Antipodean café, Yeast is a boulangerie, bistro and wine bar that aims to bring its patrons the time-tested homespun tastes of (mostly) traditional French breads, pastries and bistro fare.

Croissants and white chocolate bread

Lunches are light, with mostly sandwiches, salads, quiches and savoury tarts, but expect big dinners with such treats as poulet rôti (roast chicken), steak au poivre (steak with pepper sauce) and boeuf bourguignon (braised beef short ribs with red wine sauce).

The term "bistronomy" is said to echo the desires of some French chefs in the 1990s to serve fine yet affordable cuisine in a more open, friendly atmosphere.

That's what it feels like at Yeast, as French café music plays in the background. Features of its décor: yellow walls and signage, black-and-white chequered floor tiles, framed mirrors and blackboards, we're told, are common in similar establishments in Paris.

French start-up
Yeast founder Christophe Chatron-Michaud spent 28 years developing and running high-end restaurants in Europe and the US before he decided to settle here with his Malaysian wife and now managing director of Yeast, Lissan Teh.

The almond and berries brioche... a refreshing
change from the jammy stuff

Yeast was not just set up by more than the need for bread from home. "Malaysians are becoming more open to try new things," says Chatron-Michaud. "So we feel that it's time to bring them our kind of food." Nor was it difficult to set up the place, given the couple's experience in the F&B industry.

Yeast Bistronomy cultivates its own yeast, the key ingredient in the secret recipes for its various pre-ferments or starters (levain) that give its breads ― particularly sourdough loaves ― a more complex taste. This trait is unique to bona fide artisanal bakeries. The ovens are also proper boulangerie equipment; we're told that some of the ovens used here are more for things such as pizza, rather than bread.

Like its pre-ferments, the leading talents in Yeast's kitchen are all home-grown. Hailing from Lyon, artisanal boulanger (baker) Christophe Gros learned the trade from his dad and had worked with Michaud before. The chef in charge of the bistro part did her rounds in France, New York and Scotland.

Oeufs cocotte ... a very satisfying way to start the day

Besides bringing a slice of Paris to our shores, Chatron-Michaud also hopes to educate the locals on the finer points of artisanal European bread. For instance: What does one do with a baguette or a pain de campagne (French-style sourdough bread)?

"Most people do not know what to do with our breads," he reveals. "So we're planning a series of spreads: basic things such as olive and balsamic to something meat-based, perhaps, to give an idea of the things that can be done with bread." He's also not above pairing curry-based fillings with baguettes ― how progressive.

And what an education we had.

Bowled over
Generally, traditionally baked artisanal breads tend to have a thicker, harder crust and a more chewy, harder-to tear-away insides. Chatron-Michaud admits that it's hard to tear Malaysians away from notions that all breads are soft and smell and taste sweet, but Yeast has something for that. The pain au chocolat blanc (white chocolate bread) was a revelation: a small white-choc-studded loaf that would make a great dessert bread.

Bread, runny yolk and smoked duck ... yummy

Melody found the plain and Valrhona chocolate-filled croissants "too pretty to dismantle." Fortunately, I have no such compunctions, so we had some of the best croissants this side of the Klang Valley: crispy and flaky outside, chewy and smooth inside. Moistened by the rich, creamy, unsalted Lescure butter from France's Charentes region, our tongues itch to roll off the menu items in French, many of which I'd only read in books or seen on TV.

One bite of the other croissant explained why Yeast also uses Valrhona chocolate in other pastries such as the equally crispy-outside-yummy-inside chocolate pain aux raisins. The brioche aux amandes et fruits rouges (almond-and-berries brioche), an island of chopped berries in the middle of a pastry crust studded with almond slices, was a refreshing change from the usual sticky, sweet jammy stuff.

The bread with smoked duck and Gruyère cheese was heavenly, as anything with smoked duck is wont to taste. Yeast uses smoked duck instead of bacon in other items such as the oeufs cocotte: eggs baked in a ramekin. Breaking through the layer of Gruyère on top, we spooned the eggs, seasoned with bits of smoked duck, onto the buttered, toasted farmer's bread and bit down. For someone deprived of duck for months, c'est divin! Served with a side of mesclun salad, this was Yeast's answer to the kopitiam tan chi, right down to the runny yolks.

A jar of chocolate sablés (a kind of shortbread) was brought to our table ― oh, the, heady, heavy aroma! Sadly, near-full bellies prevented us from furthering our "studies".

Before leaving, we managed to say bon jour and merci to Gros, who was making chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers) in the kitchen. Practised hands moved with precision and swiftness as the dough is rolled, filled with apple compote and apple slices cooked with vanilla, folded, sealed and swept onto a tray, ready for baking.

Okay, this was worth getting up on Sunday at 7am. Sated we may have been, we felt that our "education" wasn't complete. We'd only had a fraction of what their menu had. With the faint presence of smooth Lescure Beurre des Charentes in my mouth, the words began echoing again ... confit de canard, frisée aux lardons, gratin dauphinoise...

We have to come back. We have to bring our friends (so we can order more). We might even start learning French. Because for the life of me I can't bring myself to call this place a "bakery".

---

Yeast Bistronomy

24G, Jalan Telawi 2
Bangsar Baru
59100 Kuala Lumpur

Pork-free

Tue-Sun: 8am till late

Closed on Mondays

+603-2282 0118

enquiries@yeastbistronomy.com

Web site | Facebook page

News: Big Bad Book Habits, Etc

Last week was a slow one for book-related news.

• Malaysians' "big bad book habits" are hardly surprising. I've also seen water bottles and empty cups on bookshelves at Borders @ The Gardens.
• Review of a book about a book: The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan. Some pretty pictures from that book can be seen here.
• Writers, have a look at four ways of defeating self-sabotage. Plus, An interesting take on why bad book reviews are good for authors, and how to protect yourself from international writing scams.
• Wilbur Smith will be helped by co-authors? He's not setting a trend, he's following one. Plus, he's about 80, so it's bound to happen.
• Even Stephen King, horror writer, is scared of his mother-in-law. That would make a great book.
• Why editing is the single best marketing tool for writers.
• Adam Mansbach's (Go the F— to Sleep) year on the best-seller list.
• Guy Kawasaki wants to help you self-publish your book. Any takers?

Why I Don't Write (Much) On Local Politics Nowadays

Because, at some point in time, it started writing about itself.

Change in government? Forget about it, says Rais

Najib: LGBTs, liberalism, pluralism are enemies of Islam

Dress like a YB, feel like a YB

Chua: Even the Chinese look up to BN now

Growing Chinese clout may cause new May 13, says Ibrahim Ali

Ibrahim Ali: I am a victim of jealousy

Perkasa: Impossible for Malays to compete economically because of Islam

Sexist remarks due to provocation, says Bung Mokhtar

Bung Mokhtar defends F-bomb, says to ‘teach’ lesson to churls

Shahrizat: Women get equal treatment under BN

Najib launches Ah Jib Gor fan club

Residents: DAP bowed to PAS and forced 'sexy' singer off the stage

Speakers sing 'battle songs' for BN's victory

Dr M insists Arabs incapable of planning 9/11 attacks

Dr M defends policies, says Jews created problems

Dr M says US moms are promiscuous in attack against US free speech

Dr M: We are better than Singapore, 'so-so' ASEAN neighbours and US

Dr M: Many things will be destroyed if opposition rules

"Better the devil you know", Dr M tells voters

Dr M: Reject BN and opposition will destroy country

Dr M: Privilege for non-Malays to keep race image

Be careful of your actions, Dr M warns daughter

Give something up to ensure long-term stability — Mahathir

Dr M: More Chinese independent schools will divide people

Reforms could lead to extremism, Dr M warns Najib

Dr M: Opposition is 'privileged' in committing criminal acts

Dr M: Rethink absolute freedom on Net

BN still weak because of Pak Lah, Dr M tells Johor Umno

Expect 'unceasing violence' if Pakatan loses elections, says Dr M

Dr M refutes daughter's claim of police violence during Bersih 3.0

Bersih rally aimed to topple government, says Dr M

Pakatan vows to up Malaysia's graft rank to world top 30

...and so on.

At least I'm less stressed and have more time to concentrate on stuff like:

Publisher's Weekly names EL James "Publishing Person of the Year"

...which I can go to town, city and kampung with, without worry. Except that Washington Post book critic Ron Charles already beat me to it.

Sometimes, Life IS Like That

Is "series" singular or plural?

Editors are supposed to have answers to questions like this at their fingertips. Sometimes, they don't.

One is tempted to let things stand, but considering what the back cover copy is for, that was not an option.

Searching Google yielded:

Series can be a singular or a plural noun, depending on its meaning. When it is used to refer to a single set of things, it takes a singular verb even if it is followed by the preposition of and a plural noun: A series of medical tests is planned for next week. When series refers to two or more sets of things, it takes a plural verb: Three series of medical tests are planned for next week.

Subsequent searches confirmed the above. All right, then. Singular it is, like the thing we're referring to. Which is...

Probably appearing in bookstores early 2013; subject to change

Did an author's past blog post help her editor with her own upcoming book? Yes, it did. As far as I know, this doesn't happen often.

More about this project when it comes out of the presses.