Emma Morales, tenacious romance book editor and proud cat lady, knows romance, but love? Nope. Thank you very much.
Enter nerdy science fiction and fantasy editor Kip Alegre, who quotes JRR Tolkien for breakfast and knows heartbreak all too well.
When Emma gets a career-changing sci-fi romance manuscript which may just save their publishing house from folding, she knows she must work with Kip if she wants to succeed.
Sounds simple enough, right? But when the well-meaning meddling best friends, an obsessive ex-boyfriend, and a beautiful ex-fiancée get into the picture, the job doesn’t seem so simple anymore. What starts out as a friendly-flirty-literary smackdown between Emma and Kip by quoting authors from Emily Henry to Brandon Sanderson grows into something deeper than either of them had signed up for.
The deal was to edit the book, not their lives.
Emma and Kip may be willing to read the manuscript over and over again, but will they be willing to give love a second read?
Burrowing deep inside the tension-filled relationship between contemporary Vietnam’s hyper-capitalist society and its communist government, Ta Duy Anh’s The Termite Queen tells the Kafkaesque story of a young man who must expose the corruption of a vast network of murky figures profiting from their connections to power. Banned in Vietnam, this allegorical story is told by Viet, a native-born Vietnamese who takes over his deceased father’s powerful land development corporation. The funeral hasn’t even concluded before Viet suspects foul play, as one clue after another leads him to question everything he thought he knew about his father, their family business, and its incredible ability to get approval for projects with dubious societal and environmental returns. With the Termite Queen, Ta Duy Anh cements his reputation as one of contemporary Vietnam’s greatest fabulists, having filled this tale with criticisms that can only come from a deep and abiding love for his country.
Ordinary is not as ordinary as you think. History is written by the loudest and most charismatic victors, but are silent about the true movers and shakers: the rebels, the honest servants, the quiet doers, the square pegs in a round hole, and the ordinary believers who kept showing up.
Through seven moving tales of courage, prolific Malaysian writer, James Chai, shows us in his debut book how:
– A frail 70-year-old woman became the face of Malaysia’s largest protest that helped overturn the longest-ruling regime in the world;
– A mother-of-two fought through gender and racial unfairness and became the first Asian woman to win the ‘Nobel Prize for Cancer Research’;
– A middle-aged, middle-level government servant exposed the largest white-collar crime in the world;
– A punk graphic artist persevered through multiple arrests and drew one of the most recognisable activist artworks in the region;
– An indigenous retiree battled powerful governments and corporations to usher in one of the largest environmental victories in Southeast Asia;
– A group of leaderless Sikh organisation saved the lives of thousands in the worst flood in modern Malaysian history; and
– A suburban bottom-of-class student found his way through modern history’s bloodiest wars and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Sang Kancil will force us to reassess what is truly important and remind us of what we are capable of. Filled with research-backed theories, this book is a call-to-action for the underdogs battling our own giants.
A mentally-disabled boy is found dead in a small town. All signs point to his mother, a poor and ailing widow, as the one who caused his death.
But as Liu Yong, the lowly attendant of the magistrate, delves deeper, he finds that things may not be what they seem. The young man’s investigations take him to the unfamiliar territory of the Capital, where he must contend with naked prejudice, bent officials and powerful foes. For help, Yong turns to the enigmatic Beggars’ Sect, a network comprising street people of variable character: good and bad, righteous and criminal. There is little room for error. One wrong step could bring failure, or worse.
In a strict, hierarchical society, Yong needs to dig deep to find the truth against the odds and, in the process, discover his own worth.
There’s no shortage of sadness. There’s no blaming those who succumb to omnipresent gloom. It’s today’s pervasive emotional climate.
However, there’s also enough laughter to go around. At least laughter that comes with a knowing wink, in camaraderie with the many prone to sadnesses.
This collection of 19 short stories hopes to make you laugh. That is: Despite the planet heating up. Despite the constant threat of fascism and disinformation. Despite empires disguised as good guys. Despite neoliberalism’s false promises and the ruthless competition it demands. Despite the persistent clout of capitalism, unrelenting in its dominion over life, over happiness.
Despite, perhaps, a lack of exercise . . .
By the end of the book, laughter finds a purpose, a place in the collective, aware of its rightful target. From sadness to laughter to indignation.
But wait there’s more.
Cheers.
The novel is set in the town of Sampilong which is under the conjugal dictatorship of Donya Leona and Don Severo Grande. They control the wealth and power in the town and use the institutions of politics, Church and law for their own ends. The townsfolk are composed of farmers and people living in depressed areas. Bandong, a teacher, serves as their leader and adviser. He educates the people and tries to bind them together to fight the wealthy and greedy couple.
The novel has wonderful set-pieces that vividly show the gap between the rich and the poor-the feast in the house of the rich as opposed to the imprisonment of Andres, the slum-dweller; the wake and the setting up of the cooperative; the wicked ways of the people under the control of the Grande family and the corrupt politicians. The novel ends when the townsfolk discover that the Grande family does not own the land they are claiming as theirs. The townsfolk have awakened from their slumber and decide to change the unjust system. They now have a newfound faith in themselves and their capacity to change their lives and the destiny of their country.
All Gemma Young remembers of her childhood are her regular visits to the idyllic, imaginary Neverland before her mother fell sick.
When Gemma meets Cole, a disenchanted boy who stirs up more than just memories of her adventures in Neverland, she begins to piece together her half-forgotten childhood: her mother sick with longing for Neverland, the accident that ripped her family apart, and her father who abandoned her when she was a child.
But now, Gemma’s near-obsessive quest to find her father sends her spiralling deeper into Neverland just like her mother had. As the boundaries blur between the real world and Neverland, Gemma must sift through fact and fiction, discern between truth and make-belief, to find out what happened to her mother and rebuild a new life with her father.
In this collection of poignant and uplifting essays, seasoned international journalist Marga Ortigas shares what she’s learned from over two decades of covering conflict, humanitarian crises, and political turmoil. Each chapter explores a different assignment location, taking you up-close as the author reflects on what endures after life’s triumphs and tragedies.
Ortigas’ engaging writing style and wealth of experience will transport you from the war-torn Iraqi desert to the snow-covered steppes of Mongolia, bustling Brazilian beaches, rugged Irish cliffs, and even a pop concert in South Korea, leaving you with a newfound understanding of the human condition.
Heartfelt and humorous, There Are No Falling Stars in China is a must-read for anyone interested in storytelling, global affairs, or simply gaining a richer appreciation of the world we live in. It’s a true gem you won’t want to put down, filled with insight and inspiration that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
If you have enjoyed and learned from the snippets of my life as a ‘Wais Na Misis’, through my Instagram and Facebook posts, you’ll most certainly get a kick out of the untold stories you’ll find in the pages of this book.
It wasn’t always easy for me, but when life threw me lemons I didn’t dodge or flinch. Instinctively, I caught every piece and turned the bunch into lemonade, lemon meringue pie, lemon-scented hand soap, and home deodorizer, and sold them all! Sometimes, I’d wonder when another lemon would come my way just so I can use it to my advantage again.
You get the picture.
As a mompreneur, I was never given any manual on how to effectively navigate through life. But it somehow knew what it needed to teach me, through experiences and the people around me, at the right moment.
So, here I am paying it forward to you, my fellow wais na misis.
Being wise takes time. It takes a lot of experience and a load of crushing and pruning in order to reach the stage of becoming fine wine that everyone can enjoy.
May this book serve as your bestie; the handy dandy survival guide you’re looking for as you journey into the intimidating yet marvelous world of motherhood and entrepreneurship. Each page is brimming with meaty tips and tricks that I have learned from the best mentor l’ve ever had–LIFE.
The Koro Riots is a satire regarding the political struggle in an imaginary country called Hujung Manani, a former French colony in South East Asia. Its leader, Priapus, is a dictator. His wife Datin Lotis, uses black magic, namely the power of a weretiger. The narrative revolves around the Koro epidemic which occurs in this republic. It is a mental illness which affects men who believe that their penis shrinks into their body and disappears. The koro epidemic causes several small incidents, which later turn into riots. Eventually, the rebellion becomes a revolution, and the population of Hujung Manani overthrows the Dictator and his wife. These incidents are told from a variety of perspectives while adding background stories about politics in Hujung Manani. For this, the novel introduce several ‘disposable’ characters such as Kadir Mohamed, the former Editor in Chief of the Hujung Manani Tribune; Ashraf Wahidi, a celebrity preacher; and Psychiatrist Dr Cakravantin. The Dictator also has to face his political enemy who is the protagonist, named Pertiwi. She is a feminist, and in her nineties still succeeds in overthrowing Priapus, assisted by a Scientist (Badang) and Shulamit, his Jewish wife. At the end Pertiwi is killed by a suicide bomber named Zikir Baik while delivering a speech in the style of Martin Luther King. The struggle for democracy is carried on by Badang. However, Hujung Manani still faces threats posed by traitors like the Tycoon who is involved in a deep state.
