Tales of Heartache, Hurt, and Hope

Common threads run through the stories in Saras Manickam's My Mother Pattu, a collection of short stories that doesn't look like one from the outside. In the face of adversity and its accomplices: racism, classism, cultural differences, patriarchal attitudes, suffocating traditions and others, the characters struggle to maintain their dignity, ideals, individuality, and humanity.

The window into Saras Manickam's portrait of the human condition is the first story, "Number One, Mambang Lane", in which Meena, a precocious teenage Indian girl, is exiled to her relatives' quiet homestead in the fictional small town of Mambang after committing what her Tamil household considers cardinal sins: falling in love and getting a boyfriend.

As Meena settles in, she is slowly introduced to the community. Towards the end, we do not know of her fate or when her exile will end, which is fine because the thing about stories is that they just keep going – and in directions you least expect.


Read the full review here.

Book Marks: Local Author News, Hugo Exclusions

I know I've been away for a bit, dropping my pledge to update once a week. But the publishing sphere seemed to have been quiet at the year-end and beginning of January 2024, so there wasn't much of note happening.

Also, I caught COVID in early January. The worst I've ever felt in a couple of years and I had to go see a doctor for medication and get more RTK test kits while ill. To my dismay, the nasal swab returned a strong positive result, though I should have guessed from my feverish brow and limbs that felt like lead.

And who knew all the medical equipment I bought on separate occasions on a whim – pulse oximeter, digital thermometer, and blood pressure monitor – would come in handy?

So I'm taking it easy for now, and I'll only be posting as and when sufficient material is available, while I wait and see what else COVID has done to me. Back to the usual programming...


Ipoh-based teacher Aishah Zainal's debut novel Hades was nominated by the National Library for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award. Published by Gerakbudaya, the novel is about a delinquent called Kei who forms a bond with a young mother who's his neighbour in a dilapidated flat. "At its core, Hades is a tale of the underdogs – of those living in poverty and what it does to people, especially women," Aishah tells The Star.

Getting into the shortlist will be hard as the competition is tough. There's Eleanor Catton (Birnam Wood), Paul Harding (This Other Eden), Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead), and Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow), among others. Still, Aishah is with good company, and we wish her the best.

Also in the news is Vanessa Chan, whose debut novel The Storm We Made has been named the "Good Morning America: Book Club Pick" for January by US television channel ABC. Set in Malaya before World War II, it follows a Eurasian housewife who is lured into spying for the Japanese and the consequences that follow for her and her three children.

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RF Kuang's novel Babel should have been a nominee for last year's Hugo Awards. But the organisers of the award seem to have felt differently. Apparently, Kuang and fellow author Xiran Jay Zhao were excluded from the 2023 Hugo Awards that took place in Chengdu, China, as were several others.

The Mary Sue failed to get any explanation from the Hugo Awards for this exclusion, but speculates that politics may have been a factor. "Through their books and social media activity, Zhao has spoken out against the alleged Uyghur genocide in China and even once questioned if they would be allowed into the country for this reason, while Kuang has been open about how her father was a part of the Tiananmen Square protest."


Okay, what's next?

• "Writing about books means there is always something new I should be reading. But there is also always something old that I should understand—there are always books whose moment I might have thought slid past me, but it didn't, or books I just never saw before." Molly Templeton ponders why some books meant for their readers take so long to find them. Perhaps "the time wasn't right", as some would say.
• "Usually there are about eight or nine books per month that I'm interested in, that I note down on my trusty spreadsheet, and I get a chance to read four or five of them. But in March of 2024 there are 30 books on my radar that I want to read." Some might consider this a good problem to have but Maris Kreizman isn't so sure. In Literary Hub, she explores what's behind the deluge of new releases for March 2024.
• Associated Press reports that Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, "believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s." Best known for Little Women, Alcott wrote a whole lot under various pseudonyms, leaving behind a pile of material for scholars like Chapnick to go through.
• A Q&A with Lucille Abendanon about her debut middle-grade historical novel The Songbird and the Rambutan. "The book is inspired by the real life stories of my Oma ["Grandma" in Indonesian] Emmy," Abendanon tells The Nerd Daily. "She was a prisoner of war in Tjideng during WW2. I would visit her in The Netherlands from wherever I was living in the world, and we would talk for hours about her life during the war."
• A recent Twitter drama involves a poet called John Kucera who was revealed to have plagiarised the work of other poets, including local writer May Chong. Various journals and other publications have discovered evidence of Kucera's plagiarism and removed the problematic pieces. Dude was prolific, it seems.
• Speaking of plagiarism, a court in Turkey ordered Turkish author Elif Şafak and Doğan Publishing to pay a total of 252,000 Turkish liras for plagiarising the work of another Turkish author, Mine Kırıkkanat. "The case was brought to light by Turkish author Kırıkkanat, whose work 'Fly Palace' was copied by Şafak in her 'Flea Palace'," the Hurriyet Daily News reported. From the publisher's response, an appeal may be filed.
• "I never imagined that my own manuscripts would end up in the hands of an editor like Marek, much less be the last he ever worked on. In 2018, I was searching for an agent for my first novel, The Reflecting Pool. Connections and good fortune put me in touch with my agent, Judith Ehrlich, who, in turn, introduced me to Marek. I couldn't have known just how impactful this introduction would be." Otho Eskin recalls his publishing journey and Richard Marek, the editor who changed his manuscript and his life.
• "...sometimes research becomes an excuse not to write, because you can endlessly go down these rabbit holes. There comes a point when you just have to write." The Indian Express speaks to Abraham Verghese about his novel, The Covenant of Water, "a multi-generational epic inspired by his grandmother's memoirs of what it felt to be a child."

New Mess, New Mystery

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose picks up from her previous book, The Maid, which came out in 2022 and features the same few characters that include Molly Gray, the protagonist and a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel.

In The Maid, the death of Molly's grandmother, who was also a maid, left her to navigate the messy webs of life by herself. She found comfort and security in her tasks, but her quirks put her in the crosshairs of the police when a guest was found dead in his hotel room.

We know Molly is cleared in this second novel because several years have passed since then, she's still employed at the Regency Grand, and she's now the head maid with a trainee under her wing. She even has a boyfriend...


Continue reading here.

Teetering On The Brink

Imagine a future where weather can be controlled, gnat-sized drones guard private property, and apps feed growing stores of data that reveal much about their users than they realise – all in the palms of several wealthy and powerful individuals obsessed with control and seeing steps ahead of other people. Meanwhile, climate change wreaks havoc here and there in the world, almost as if heralding the end times.

A scary premise and maybe a bit too close for comfort. But that's what makes Naomi Alderman's The Future a timely novel. We have climate disasters, drones, and we're already seeing how our data on web portals and social media platforms is being used. Alderman's imagined future foreshadows our own and it looks bad...


Click here to read the rest of the review.

End-Of-Year Kitchen Hijinks

Since I bought it last year, the tabletop oven has seen little use outside of warming up food and a batch of shortbread I baked as a test run. This year though, it's been used to bake fish, another batch of shortbread, and a couple of chicken meals.

The first was four (small) drumsticks on a bed of onion, carrot, and potato, with cloves of garlic scattered here and there. Marinade was salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. I was worried that I oversalted the chicken, but didn't turn out that way.

I didn't keep track of the time because I only eyed the condition of the chicken skin for doneness. At one point, I could see juices bubbling under the translucent skin. I turned the pieces to the other side when one side was nice and light brown.

All went down the hatch, with two pieces of wrap skin that served as flat bread. I was quite pleased with this, even though the onion and garlic powders clumped into a gel-like substance that didn't spread well.

Encouraged by this, I attempted another weeks later before New Year's Eve 2023. Two boneless chicken thighs marinated in a yoghurt-based marinade with turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cinnamon and nutmeg – a chicken tikka-ish mix – with onions, carrots and potatoes. Plus a load of garlic cloves.

I tend to overcook things in the oven due to paranoia – what if the inside is underdone? And does the marinade need to be wiped off the chicken? Did I use too much salt? Too much turmeric? Can I still use the cooking oil, even though its best-by date was last April? So many questions.

Several potato bits seemed underdone but the rest of the dish tasted okay. This needs practice, though I shudder to imagine how much meat I'd have to go through to get things right. And I think I'll have to junk the rest of the cooking oil. I rarely use it, and though it didn't taste "off", playing it safe is prudent.

What caught my eye about the chicken was – yes – that claim about it being raised on yoga music. The logic being that animals raised in a calming atmosphere are less prone to stress and therefore healthier and yummier. I spotted this type of chicken when I went to check out a frozen-goods shop that also sold fresh chicken in the old OUG neighbourhood.

If "yoga music" is the sort I had listened to in my few yoga lessons, I~ don't think that's how one should use those tunes. Imagine a coop full of chickens taking yoga lessons with Yoga Music™ in the background one day, and then the next ...

I feel sinful eating that chicken. Should I say "namaste" instead of "itadakimasu"? And is it ethical to use yoga music in that setting? What would the composers and songwriters feel about that?

Anyway, the store that sells this yoga chicken also has buffalo meat, which would make a great stew experiment. I've heard things about buffalo meat that made me curious to see if it could be as good as beef. Too bad the meat only comes in one packaging size. How can one tuck in 500g of buffalo meat plus extras in one sitting?

We'll see. The year has just begun.

Malicious Sockpuppetry, Racism, And Plagiarism

The latest Goodreads drama over author Cait Corrain's setting up sockpuppet accounts to downvote books by several authors and upvote their upcoming romantasy debut came to a head when their agent and publisher cut ties with them when the whole thing blew up.

At least one observer expressed puzzlement over Corrain's actions: why would a debut author set to make a huge splash self-sabotage like this? Just how much of an emotional stake did they have on the debut that they would resort to gaming the system in their favour?

Corrain has issued a statement, claiming that a medication-induced mental breakdown over her novel's performance compelled her to review-bomb the books. Considering that her targets were mostly writers of colour, some don't buy that, including The Mary Sue: "Starting a new medication doesn't turn someone into a racist."

Goodreads has always been in the spotlight for shenanigans such as review-bombing, the practice of inundating titles on the site with one-star reviews to make it less popular. This strategy is egregious, especially when it targets authors from minority groups and upcoming titles that have yet to be released. While Goodreads has pledged to do something about it, cracking down on review-bombers and and such is tough. Any engagement on the platform is seen as valid, regardless of intent.


Pathologically self-destructive?
Corrain isn't the only author behaving badly of late. Barely a week after her scandal another Twitter (no way I'm calling it X) dust-up involving authors has one accuse another of plagiarism because their POC protagonist has solar-related powers, "just like mine!" The claim has been met with derision, because who has a monopoly on the sun? Some commenters have helpfully provided a list of fictional characters and mythological figures associated with the sun, just to rub it in.

Another author charged some parties with plagiarising his fan fiction: a sequel to the JRR Tolkien classic The Lord of the Rings. And who did he try to sue? Amazon, for "infringing" his work's copyright with the Rings of Power TV series, and the Tolkien estate. Predictably, the move backfired. The estate has since sued the fanfic author for copyright violation, and obtained an injuction to prevent him from distributing the book and to destroy all physical and digital copies. He was also ordered to pay legal costs.

An earlier case was about books that non-fiction ghostwriter Kristin Loberg worked on, which were found to contain plagiarised material. Publishers of some affected works reissued updated versions of the books without the borrowed parts and mentions of Loberg.

The LA Times noted the publishers' silence over the Loberg issue and suggested that Lobergs' workload – 46 books in about 17 years – was one reason behind her corner-cutting. "In addition to outside sources, Loberg frequently borrowed sections from her projects with other clients," goes the report. "The result was a sort of ouroboros of wellness content across multiple books."

The imagery of a snake devouring itself from the tail onwards aptly describes the self-destructive behaviour of these authors. Some of them can't seem to help themselves. Are they deluded or creating outrage to farm for attention or clout? At least one person believes it could be the latter in the case of They Who Tried to Copyright the Sun™ because no one can get their head that far up their ass. These days though, it's hard to tell. Could be both for all we know.


Tougher than swimming upriver
Several authors targeted by Corrain say this sort of attack and how the publishers involved handled it is "illustrative of racism deeply rooted within the literary industry." "Black people, we got to work twice as hard to get half as far," author RM Virtues told The Daily Beast. "In the publishing industry: twice as hard to get a quarter as far. And she had time to do all of this? To us?"

Publishing in the anglophone world remains overwhelmingly white, despite the growing inclusion of Black, Indigenous or people of color (BIPOC) in the sector. Which is perhaps why businesses like those of Dhonielle Clayton, who's aiming to make books more diverse by pitching ideas for fiction with characters from various backgrounds, play a vital role.

"In an industry that's long had a diversity problem, Ms. Clayton has sometimes struggled to get publishers on board," The New York Times reported. "She's received countless rejections, and has heard many variations of the argument that books centered on people of color don't sell. But in the past decade, her packaging business has sold 57 books; 41 of which have been sold since 2020."


Expanding and deepening the pool
Diverse books appear to be on the up and up, an encouraging trend that makes opinion pieces like this one in The Telegraph glaring. While I'm against censorship and retroactive editing of previously published works, to say that sensitivity reading and "woke books" have destroyed publishing is a bit much.

Publishers pushing for diverse books is not "shallow", though I believe it has more to do with the bottom line rather than altruism. So what if the titles cited in The Telegraph tanked even though publishers paid a bomb for them? Maybe work out more realistic publishing deals and stop shelling out so much for books?

And the "independent publishers" the article mentions who are stepping in with good stories "while major publishing houses are busy maximising their ideological purity and preventing themselves from making money"? A publisher that "has published books including former Levi's executive Jennifer Sey's "Levi's Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job But Gave Me My Voice" and journalist Chadwick Moore's biography of Tucker Carlson, a New York Times bestseller."

Jennifer Sey, a former Levi's executive, is part of a think tank that is against COVID-19 measures such as masking and vaccine mandates. She also opposed school closures during the COVID pandemic and is a critic of the "woke mob" and cancel culture. Besides the Tucker Carlson biography, Chadwick Moore also wrote a book that decries "forced" diversity, equity, and inclusion training in the US as part of "a corrupt political ideology".

Stellar examples of free speech. Genre-bending queer feminist Westerns sound more palatable and less toxic than what amounts to right-wing figures making bank by peddling their outrage and victimhood. Voices worth uplifting might include those represented by indie publisher Whiskey Tit in Hancock, Vermont:

Take Charlotte and the Chickenman by Aina Hunter, about a futuristic society in which a group of animal rights activists proposes consuming white people as the most ethical form of eating. Or Postal Child by Granville author Joey Truman, about a boy who grows up in an abusive environment in Brooklyn and finds solace in befriending pigeons.

Just because diverse books aren't minting millions doesn't mean they're not being read. How much of it has to do with the gatekeeping that happens in the industry post-publication? How hard are publishers marketing diverse works? If anything, more effort is needed to diversify the publishing industry as more and more minority writers find their voices and hone their craft.

If publishers aren't keen on works by or about people of colour because "they don't sell", readers can make sure they do by broadening their horizons and reading more of such works. When the numbers go up, perhaps publishers will listen, and not because of the need for diversity for its own sake.

Book Marks: BookTok on BBC, Salled Ben Joned

All right, let's get to it, shall we?

• A self-published author and a bookshop owner tell the BBC how #BookTok is changing lives and publishing. But is the hashtag "pushing other book review sites to the side"? A clutch of one-minute videos may feel more genuine than text reviews, but in the age of AI, who can say? Different formats can complement or compete with each other. It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.
• "For most of my life, I was never really aware of the impact of his work. But in my 40s, I became aware that he had contributed something quite unique and important to Malaysian culture." Sydney-based journalist, singer and guitarist Anna Salleh, eldest daughter of poet-writer Salleh Ben Joned, launched a new book that chronicles her father's life and literary journey.
• "Geungsi is my first local creation and graphic novel after settling back down in Singapore. I wanted to produce more local works for my own country. I was hopeful and until today, I think I'm still hopeful, but I realised that it's not as easy as I thought." Singaporean author Sean Lam hopes to make the jiangshi (reanimated corpse in Chinese folklore) trendy again through his work.
• In an edited extract from author Monica Ali’s 2023 PEN HG Wells lecture, she talks about experimenting with AI and comes off not worrying too much about AI taking over from human writers. What concerns Ali more is that "the bookpocalypse, when or if it comes, will mean an increasing homogenisation, driven by a 'dataset' that is simultaneously massive and narrow in its worldview, supported by a 'more like this' algorithm that crowds out diverse voices or those that challenge the status quo."
• Does jacket copy say too much sometimes? Tajja Isen at The Walrus seems to think so. She seems to feel that jacket or back-cover copy in some books sets up what readers should expect from and feel about them in a way that's "controlling, even demeaning" when all she wants is "a premise and some vibes, a taste of tone, a flicker of the voice the book contains. I don't want to be told what's about to happen, even in the vaguest sense. And I definitely don't want to be told what it's 'about.'"
• The spate of book bannings in the United States have people across the Atlantic a little bothered. Some attempts to stealth-ban books seem to have been made, but for now, the kind of fever engulfing the States is not likely to cross over to the United Kingdom ... yet. Back in the States, public libraries are fighting back against book banning. The San Diego Public Library is participating in the Books Unbanned programme that provides access to scores of books pulled from shelves at public and school libraries.
• Books by and about Palestinians have been censored or kept out of the limelight for decades, but since 7 October, Palestinian authors, and other figures seen to be supporting the Palestinian cause, have been facing discrimination, including the cancellation of their appearances at events.