“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience – or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.”
Does one love from the heart or see the merit of someone’s love through their mind?
Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are two sisters navigating the challenges of romance and societal expectations. Elinor represents the ‘sense’, personifying rationality and practicality. Marianne, on the other hand is governed by her emotions and spontaneity. The sisters’ differing approaches to life and love make a heartwarming narrative through which the story explores relationships, love, family and the idea of self.
Elinor’s practicality is tested as she conceals her true feelings for Edward Ferrars, while Marianne’s open-hearted sensibility leads her into a passionate and potentially risky romance with the dashing John Willoughby.
Which will prove to be the best route to love, caution and mindfulness, or complete abandon and surrender to one’s feelings?
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope… I have loved none but you.”
The power of sincere love often brings miraculous second chances.
Anne Elliot, a thoughtful and introspective woman initially rejects the marriage proposal of Captain Frederick Wentworth eight years earlier. Anne, secretly harbouring affection for Frederick, regrets this decision taken under the influence of her family.
One fine day Frederick re-enters Anne’s life as a successful naval officer, now she grapples again with her desires and the opinions of others.
Captain Frederick Wentworth an honourable man, has hopeful and lingering affection for Anne, but won’t persuade her with tricks but only his character.
Will the power of Frederick’s love and sincerity win? Will Anne be able to look past society’s expectations and follow her heart?
“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.”
A reflective Ismael is the lens through which maniacal Ahab’s quest comes to life. Ahab is the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, and Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale bit off his leg on the ship’s previous voyage. What ensues is a mad quest against the whale and the perceived dangers of wildlife.
Through this journey Ismael raises many thoughts about man versus nature, and the nature of obsession with one’s own purpose. Ismael’s perspective creates an out of body experience for the reader, as he himself is an observer of man’s passionate extremes.
Will Ahab come out more enlightened about fate, the human struggle, and the forces of nature? The witty, thrilling and adventurous reads gives immense chances to laugh and look within!
“She wanted something else…something better. Passion and perfection were out there somewhere. All she had to do was find them.”
Emma Bovary is a young woman who wants a life complete opposite to that which she lives, every day for her is a reminder of that perfection seeking her elsewhere. Her marriage to Charles Bovary, a kind but dull country doctor, falls short of her fantasies.
As Emma becomes increasingly depressed with her reality, she embarks on a series of adulterous affairs, seeking the fulfilment that eludes her. The elegant prose of the writing perfectly shows Emma’s inner turmoil and the stark contrast between her illusions and the harsh realities of life.
Will Emma be proven right in her quest? Or will she ultimately learn that satisfaction only comes from within, and our circumstances are ultimately nothing but perception.
‘I learned to look up to heaven, and to fear none but God.’
Robinson Crusoe is a young Englishman who embarks on a fateful journey to a deserted island in the Caribbean. After a shipwreck and some misadventures, Crusoe finds himself stranded on the uninhabited island, without any human being in sight.
The only tools he had were his determination, and presence of mind; armed with those he begins to adapt to his new environment, building shelter, growing crops, and taming animals. Soon he realised, that ultimate peace is in connecting with the environment around you and striving hard to build the life you deserve, irrespective of the circumstances.
Is will power and strong mindset enough to conquer the most challenging circumstances? This gripping tale of Robinson Crusoe is a testament to the human knack for survival, resilience, and the importance of self-discovery.
“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter – often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter – in the eye.”
Jane Eyre, a simple and solid young woman, grew from an orphaned child to a responsible adult with an immense sense of independence and self-worth. With the ambition to work as a house manager she reached Thornfield Hall.
As fate would have it, she falls in love with her handsome, quiet and intimidating employer Edward Rochester. Jane brings to Edward a sense of calmness and being at home, which his mansion could never give him. But their happiness is threatened by a terrible secret that Rochester is hiding. Edward Rochester passionately in love with Jane, is haunted by his past.
When the truth comes out will Edward be able to save their love, keep Jane from leaving? Can Jane learn to trust the love, and that newfound home will be hers forever?
Unlike most productivity books, The Anti-Procrastinator is not a prescriptive roadmap to being more efficient in life. Instead, it will guide you to create your own manual to get things done through the power of self-awareness. By aligning your why with your values, your mission, and your action plan, you will minimize resistance and maximize results.
What this book will show you is the importance of knowing yourself and developing self-awareness. It will ask you confronting questions that only you can answer; it will show you how to look inward and dig deep into yourself and how to look outward so that you can understand your surroundings. It will challenge your thinking because in order to change, you need to change your mindset first. It will make you look ahead to know where you are headed and, more importantly, where you want to go because we only get one shot at this mystery called life, so you might as well create an epic journey that turns into your legacy.
Whether you want to learn a new language, run a marathon, learn a new skill, or launch a business, The Anti-Procrastinator will show you that it’s possible, but it starts and ends with you. Self-awareness is the name of the game.
This book unveils covert and deeply disturbing political-economic trends in Malaysia, necessitating an urgent re-think of the meaning of ‘corruption’. On offer is insights into the extensive abuse of power by governing elites who control government-linked companies (GLCs), contributing to grand corruption in numerous forms, including cronyism, collusion, selective patronage, embezzlement, and nepotism. An analysis of a lengthy list of controversial government-business controversies between 1980 and 2023 indicates the presence of a covert and extremely powerful ‘Political-GLC complex’ controlled ultimately by the Cabinet. This long list controversies, along with three case studies, provides insights into the intimate and illicit connections between governing elites and the businesses under their control.
From this book’s insights into the inner workings of Malaysia’s monstrously vast GLC ecosystem, one riddled with graft and political abuse, three major paradoxes emerge. First, what is in place is a deeply corrupted GLC ecosystem that can function legitimately. Second, the persistent rhetoric of government leaders has been of the need to tackle endemic corruption, a palatable statement for a nation deeply distressed about this debilitating problem. However, no politician, whether in government or in opposition, has called for the restructuring of this GLC ecosystem. Third, power is overwhelmingly concentrated in the Cabinet which controls an ecosystem whose misuse can have major economic and political ramifications. Yet, legal avenues to curb misgovernance by ministers are inadequate.
These stories, many of which riff on traditional Japanese folk tales and lore, explore the lives of individuals caught between desire and duty, as well as the conflicting expectations of different cultures.
For example, in ‘Day Pass,’ a college student in South Carolina befriends a female prisoner on a work release program, thinking that she will be a good influence, but then realizes that she has gotten in over her head. In ‘Blue Murder,’ a Japanese farmer troubled by the crows eating his pears becomes besotted with a kingfisher. The narrator of ‘Down the Mountain,’ a descendant of the Heike clan, recounts the tragic life and death of her beloved sister as she urges her own daughter to leave their secluded mountain village and go out into the world, and in the title story, ‘River of Dolls,’ a Japanese woman struggles with infertility.
Ranging from dirty to magical realism, the stories collected here are often infused with humor, while exposing universal truths.
A Rei of Sunshine is a coming-of-age tale that weaves together the threads of two former lovers separated by circumstance over many years. When the recently divorced Ari receives an invitation from Fyra to attend her wedding, he jumps on the chance. But as Ari arrives at the wedding, all is not as it seems, and he is catapulted into what he already knew would be a difficult and complicated situation.
With the addition of a mysterious dream world and strange occurrences happening around Fyra’s daughter Rei, it seems that where Ari’s found himself is even more supernaturally complex than he can comprehend.
