TBNT x Aesop E01.2 | Introducing the Aēsop Women's Library 2024: voices unbound (Part 2) - Two Book Nerds Talking

Episode Transcript
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(00:17):
This is part two on the specialseries on the Estort Women's Library twenty twenty
four. We will be taking youthrough the rest of the books that you
can choose from during the Esort Women'sLibrary running at Esop stores in TRX and
Ioicity mad Putrachire. The event willbe running from the fourteenth to the sixteenth
of tune, so mark your calendars, folks. If you haven't done so,

(00:39):
please listen to the first part ofthe show to get a complete book
list. The next category, andthis is something that I brought up to
Dinah, how very many books aboutcats is on our list, So this
is for if you're wili at heart. There is a selection of books feature

(01:00):
cats, foxes and the natural world. First up is the Deplorable Conversations with
Cats by yo jo Ann who weinterviewed her for her first book and uh
this she comes back and it isabout a guy named Luckily who has everything
you know as his name says.He's got wealth, charm, money,

(01:21):
and good looks and he does veryvery little with it as the privilege usually
are. He's content, he's happy, he takes for granted and then his
sister the go getting successful, famousTV chef Peorly. So, guys,
there's going to be a lot offood in this book, a lot of
food. When she dies horribly andsuddenly he inherits her cat and her cat

(01:45):
starts speaking to him. There yougo. So not only does he have
to deal with the grief of losinghis sister, he might very well be
losing his mind because why is hehaving conversations with his cat? And this
cat is super snarky. And Iremember I went to the interview with her
at lit Books and somebody actually askedher, why not a dog? If
somebody's going to comfort you after somebodyyou love dies, why not a dog.

(02:07):
She's a much nicer companion. Shesaid, Well, if a dog
started speaking to a person and aperson is super uncomfortable, they probably shut
out because they're very considerate. Buta cat, a cat would not.
A cat would take great pleasure inmaking you feel uncomfortable. That makes me
question whether she's a cat person ora dog person, because she seems to
like dogs more. She grew upin a house of cats, She said.

(02:30):
Her mother was so into cats.She always felt that she was second
to the cats in their house.Oh, okay, okay, she's got
here, she's gotten to write here. But it also means that she's very,
very intimately connected to the psychology ofcats. Having cats siblings would do
that to you. Yeah, soif you if you enjoyed her first book,

(02:51):
The and Practical Users of Cake,I think this one sounds even more
fun. To be honest, itsounds like she is very memorable character.
She dies y. Plus, Imean it sounds like it's it's got this
warmth in it, like it's justsomething about the way that she wrote her
first book. It feels to melike this one will be another friendly one.
M yeah, yeah, right,next up, Okay, we're still

(03:15):
going, We're still going. Yes. The next one is another Chinese book,
which I will attempt to break downfor you, not actually having the
ability to read it in its originalChinese. But nonetheless, it is called
thomb Hole. But and it's byTay shell Ing and Tay Shelley's book.

(03:36):
Actually, I've put it in thiscategory because the cover features this illustration of
a woman who has crawled into acardboard box, and beside the box are
a few cats that are presumably waitingtheir turn in the thumb or the hole.
So also she was born in Kujin. This is a collection of her

(04:00):
essays, okay. It's divided intofive different volumes, and one of the
volumes is called The Cat Is Missing, And I think it will not be
wrong of me to say that there'ssomething that she's a little bit obsessed with
cats, okay, And there's somethingabout the way people are praising this book
as well. So somebody even saidthat reading her words is like watching a

(04:23):
cat lying in the sun carefully combingits hair. That is the soft and
beautiful appearance of prose. In mymind, there's just so much imagery in
your sentences and I can't even processthat. Yeah, exactly. This book
actually won the first prize at thefifteenth warts On Literally Award. So there
are thirty nine essays in this book, and it is a book that I

(04:46):
think a lot of people will probablyfind interesting because we're introduced to the life
of a woman the author, wholives alone after the age of thirty,
and she's buying a house, butnot for the purpose of marriage or forming
family, and of course her motherhas words to say about that. So
I think a lot of Asian womenwill relate very well to the idea of

(05:08):
a mother having thoughts. Hang ona minute, she bought a house,
but then she crossed into a box. Well, I mean, you know,
you still need some security, Iguess because her house actually is crawling
with cockroaches. Oh gods. Oneof the that's one of the essays that
that she writes in here about likeyou know what happens, you know,

(05:28):
like when the cockroages like terrorize her. And and there's another essay that focuses
on her affinity with cats, andyou know, all her recollections of all
the cats that she's encountered throughout herlife sounds a little bit like Yojoanne.
And another article actually introduce them.Yes, her recollections about watching Hong Kong

(05:50):
TV dramas back in the day,which I really would like to read,
but I just cannot. Someone.I feel like I feel some how you're
a joint Wood fan. I mean, like, you know, we as
a child growing up in the eightiesto nineties, there was not that much
choice on TV back then, sowe had to live with whatever there was

(06:13):
on TV. So wow, okay, that is kind of a mishmash way
of saying. This is a veryinteresting book, and especially I would like
very much to know why it iscalled tong. Another way of another translation
of dong is cave, so Ithink that that's also another iteration of the

(06:34):
word that she does bring to theforefront. But yeah, there's five volumes
in the In the collection Cave thecat is missing at first is Gentle Writing
Letters at San Francisco Coffee and Balcony, and there's thirty nine essays in total.
Oh wow. Moving on to anotherfour legged creature, we have The

(06:58):
Fox Wife by Young Zi two probablythe most I guess, internationally known book,
I suppose, because after all,she wrote Ghost Bride and Night Tiger
and I actually really like this book. And we interview Young Z as well,
so you can find a conversation wehad with her in Season seven,
episode two. So we just didit recently, and this book came out

(07:19):
in February twenty twenty four, soit's a very new book. But in
The Fox Wife you meet a youngfox woman, so you know, like
all these sort of like legends offox people and what they get up to.
So you follow Snow who travels insearch of a photographer who murdered her
child, and along the way shemeets the meteorarch of a famous medicine hall

(07:41):
who is grappling with a curse thatafflicts her family. And we also encounter
Bout, an interpret investigator hired todiscover the truth behind the mysterious death of
a young woman. And somewhere alongthe way, these two narratives will merge.
And it has two different voices inthis book, because it has a
first person voice from Snow and ithas like an omniscient voice from Boo,

(08:01):
which I can't quite like. Actually, I quite like the fact that you
have two different points of views,and she manages to not confuse you as
a reader. And she also whatI love about this interview with her is
that she really grand down the rabbithole unintended a Fox stories. In fact,
I would love for her to havean illustrated companion book to this that

(08:24):
actually puts down all these different storiesof Fox people through different cultures, different
Asian cultures. Actually, right,Yeah, you get the sense that a
lot of these authors who who delveinto the research and the lore when they're
writing these books, they could actuallywrite a whole history book about about the
subject matter before they wrote their fictionpiece. So it's always like you need

(08:50):
to know so much, and there'sso much that they know about it that
they can't just info dump into theirbook, right, But yeah, you
kind of always be like, youknow, there's something else that we wish.
It is so fascinating, which shebrings us into this whole history of
the fox mythology, which I thinkmost people don't really know. It started
as a fox culture, says andyou know it's step and everything. It's

(09:13):
permitted everywhere in Northern Asia, likeyou know, the fox mythology exists I
think all the way to Japan definitely, and also I think probably in some
parts of Indo China as well.Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
Okay. So the next book isThree Drops of Rice Wine Sandy Medio.

(09:35):
It's a bilingual book actually written byWendy wendyto and Wailing Home. And
when I was looking at what thisbook was, it kind of like,
really, it took me a whileto figure this out because the information that
the publisher has on it is actuallyvery confusing. But in fact it's a
very fascinating book. It's an artbook that uses text, images, sounds,

(10:01):
and interviews and experiential exploration in anattempt to encapsulate and celebrate bornios,
indigenous culture and natural wonders. Socan you imagine like you open this book,
it's got you know, like storiesabout what it's like, you know,
walking through the forests of Borneo,and then there's there it goes into

(10:22):
into interviews and about the culture ofBenan people, and then there's like there's
segments where they talk about the DIACs, and there's I think there's a lot
of different stories in here that isactually a celebration of the culture that a
lot of people don't get to see, you know. They It contains stories
from the author's own experiences or thoseof people close to them that's combined with

(10:46):
the materials they could find and they'reall interconnected in many ways. But it's
kind of like trying to immerse youin what it's like if you had maybe
three months to six months to sitin forest in Borneo and get to know
the people there. She's like abook in three D is it four D?
Because you know, you can alsoget Spotify codes within the book where

(11:11):
it will lead you to podcast episodesto explore the culture and the sounds of
Borneo. So it's like a bookwith surround sounds. She's kind of cool.
I like that. It's a bilingualbook, so who can actually read
it in English and Chinese? Wecan read it, yes, dinah,
woohoo. All right, back tocats, Yes, we're still here.

(11:31):
Back to cats. Is this delightfulbook by Nadia Mikhail called The Cats We
Meet along the Way and this bookone the Waterstones Children's book Price in twenty
twenty three. Go Nadia. Yeah. It's about seventeen year old Aisha who
hasn't seen her sister June for twoyears, and now a meteorite is careening

(11:52):
towards Earth and the world is goingto end in nine months time. So
she and her mother decide it's timeto track her down at June down and
met the herds of the past.Along with the ride is Ayisha's boyfriend Walter
and his parents and Fleeback, astray cat. So they take a road
trip to Malaysia in a widely decoratedCampo Van. She's like a Ternomys Sunshine,
but with the world is ending atthe end of it and they basically

(12:16):
have to I suppose figure out,you know, their relationship with each other.
They have to come to term withthe present and also what they hope
for the future, even though thefuture is very short. Right, So,
yeah, I feel that this soundsincredibly charming. And Nadia herself said
that she played on that because Fleabagthe Cat is a kind of metaphor for

(12:39):
aisha to project her emotions and howyou worry about the people you love,
right, so she she basically saysthat she was portraying her own feelings,
but not necessarily the situation. Socoming of age, yeah, I would
say, coming of age. Yeah. So if you have your children with
you when you go along to theEast Women's Library, you know, this

(13:01):
is one that they would probably reallyenjoy, and you know, people have
praised it as a phenomenal debut.It is. It is a book that
it has a great deal of tendernesswoven through each chapter, and yeah,
it's it's a novel of hope setagainst an eventful road trip, and this

(13:22):
encourages us to share stories and dreams. I guess you do take crazy road
trips when no world is going toend, because yeah, I mean,
like you know, that's when youstart to discover what's really important, right,
Yes, absolutely, But maybe crazyroad trips when the world is ending
is not really your thing. Andif that's not your thing, excellent segue

(13:46):
Dinah. If you like keeping itreal instead, and you need your books
to be guideposts for the things lifethrows at you, this next group of
books are for you. The veryfirst one that we have in the collection
is Slow Voice Sins Then Month,which is a collection of works by Huanghui
Ru. She is a Chinese languagelecturer in the Chinese Department of Southern University

(14:11):
College, and she's won the GlobalChinese Nebula Literary Award for Humanistic Buddhist Prose
Works as well as category, aswell as a number of other awards.
So this is a collection of essaysand short stories that were written from twenty
thirteen to twenty twenty three, andsome of the articles are actually award winning

(14:33):
works that have been published in variousnewspapers, periodicals and literary magazines. So
Slow Voice or Slow Sound includes worksrelated to loneliness and fate and the daily
desolation, absurdity, and helplessness oflife. Many of these books are fragments

(14:54):
of short narratives that is trying toconvey kind of nostalgia about the phenomena of
people in society. You know,so I guess it's a kind of urban
kind of kind of nostalgia that wehave nowadays, Like, you know,
like we just feel like what we'reexperiencing life kind of really, you know,
we're all kinds of disconnected for eachother. But through reading books like

(15:16):
this, you probably find that,you know, we're not actually as lost
as we think we are. Youknow, a lot of books like these
help us to find a connection intimes when it's very hard to find it.
Really kind of solidarity right in yourkind of like urban loneliness to certain
extent, because over here it saysthat it goes into how many people return

(15:39):
to their hometowns to attend funerals andmeet childhood relatives and friends and you've moved
away. You know, it kindof gives me a bit of this,
like what tesh All told us aboutsocial mobility, and how about the fact
that it's not really the racial thingthat devites us, but it's a class
thing. You know, like ifyou've lived somewhere, then you come back
to your hometown and realize that peoplehave not moved from where they are your

(16:00):
childhood. But yeah, and thenthe fact that people leave their hometowns for
self escape and self exile and whateverwhatnots, right, and then coming back
to deal with those kind of likeelderly relatives, childhood sweethearts who have not
who've gotten married and have children whereyou might not have had. That So
interesting, right, It's about lifechoices in a way, isn't it.

(16:22):
I think so yeah, And Ithink I think that's one of the most
interesting things about personal essays, right, you get to have a sense of
other people's inner struggles with these thingsthat we feel like it's very much something
that we don't see other people goingthrough. We think that it's something that
you know, like if it's happenedto you, it's because you made a

(16:45):
mistake somewhere. But I think everyonekind of feels it. And that's why
we need people like this to writeabout these things, to help us all
to think, you know, likewe're actually going through a lot of the
same things. You're not alone.Speaking of choices, The next Bahasa book
is called tang Pilihan about choice Ithink if you loosely translated, and it's

(17:07):
by doctor nor Aisha zonor In,and she is actually the founder of this
online bookstore. I was telling youabout, called Immann Shop, and it
started in twenty twelve Imann Shop,and it was originally founded as an Islamic
and e commerce bookstore because she cameback from overseas and realized there wasn't enough
choice out there locally. So itstarted out with books in the Islamic genre,
but they've branched out to other genreslike self help and fiction so that

(17:33):
they can build a wholesome and purposeful, empowered global community. So the Tampilihan
is written by the founder and ittakes you through decision making for the bigger
life choices, talking about coming ofage or having all these coming you know,
like actually a lot of books areabout, like, you know,
coming on these crossroads of life,you know, such as which university to
go to, what job to take, careers, life partners, and how

(17:56):
these choices determine your life basically right, And it also goes into what happens
when you make the wrong decision orif you keep on failing. So what
happens if you're so riddled with doubtthat it paralyzes you with fear. So
she gives you a collection of herthoughts on how to get the skill to
think effectively and have the bravery tokeep on making decisions and change your narrative.

(18:18):
I think so, I think,I think a lot of people actually
feel that there's a dearth of thatkind of advice. That's why we return
to books like this because we needsomeone to give us that kind of advice,
and we don't have people in ourlives to do that for us.
So it's great that there are booksout there that can help you to think
these things through. And if youwant a different way of looking at how

(18:42):
to make decisions, why not thinkabout reading a book of poetry. For
example, we have a collection ofpoems by Jermaine Tie called The Generation of
Fragile. So this is Jermaine's debut, and it is an incisive and meditative
book of poetry that really helps makeyou feel seen and helps you make sense

(19:07):
of life. So she takes inspirationfrom the mundane and ordinary experiences of life,
the easily overlooked moments which are potentiallythe most meaningful. And there's two
poetry sections in this book, Brokenand Whole, as well as a couple
of short stories in here. AndI thought the most interesting thing was the
title, which she said that comesfrom her personal experience that her generation,

(19:30):
the millennials, tend to break moreeasily because they did not suffer the hardships
their parents did. So she thinksthat they are a generation of fragile souls
and instead what they say like snowflakeor you know, I mean no,
I mean, the thing is thatthis is also the sort of like labels

(19:51):
that they have to deal with.They're not any called the snowflake generation or
in Malay we call her tissue,you know, tisue people hadn't right,
can't criticize, and so basically thestuff that they have to go through is
very different from probably our generation,right, I mean, doesn't make it
any less valid or you know,but it's it's just interesting that so perhaps
she wants to be the voice forthat, yeah, to basically set the

(20:15):
record straight, you know, likeyou can't just label as these things perhaps,
you know, yeah, yeah,possibly. I think a lot of
people find her her work very relatablefor people who have you know, who
have suffered emotional heartbreak. Perhaps itis a book that people have recommended as

(20:36):
a read that should be savored slowlyover time, and they are soothing and
help ground yourself when you feel alittle bit too overwhelmed with how life is
going. So maybe this book willbe soothing to you. Yeah, I
mean it's another sort of like bookto make you feel less alone in the
world. Right. Next book iscalled Burgagie doan PUKEI why is that working?

(20:56):
And broke or have pay No bysoon Ty new Dan So again another
book by Imam Shop And this bookis about money management. I can't get
more real than that. Yeah,and basically skills and they do not teach
you in school, so it goesinto this kind of idea that people after

(21:18):
university are burdened with student loans,so you actually start your adulthood not as
zero but at a negative right.And a lot of online advice on finance
sometimes blame it mainly on the individualor you don't safe, oh your calors,
or you are a generation that doesn'tappreciate money, but a lot of
them fail to take into account thechallenges of modern life and also the state

(21:41):
of the economy. Things are justso expensive now, so hard to make
ends meet, especially after COVID andstuff like that. So what Soriah tries
to do is to give you practicalsolutions, especially on the experiences she herself
has gone through and the process offinding the best way towards financial freedom,
and she chronicles you her website,ring it or ring it, ring it

(22:02):
or ring it. Sounds like alike a nursery rhyme banga or banga ring
it or ring it. You know, so each failure and success has been
documented. I guess this book givesyou hope that there's a way to change
your financial narrative and go towards happiness. And I like that. I like
that this book is a practical adviceto being able to have a bit more

(22:22):
control over your finances. And I'veactually met a couple of people who've read
this book and said it was actuallyreally good, that it has very useful
tips in it. Yeah, Ithink I think most of the time people
think that finances is just one ofthose things that everyone should should figure it
out, Like it's one of thosethings that it is absorbed through osmosis,
right, just because you earn money, you should not have used it.

(22:45):
But I think that's just it's sosad how most people just don't have financial
savvy and they don't realize how importantthis is to really understand how to make
money work for you. Yeah,But also I think it's just keeping out
with the lifestyle. Is it likethe urban lifestyle. You're buying like a
fifteen ring get coffee, you know, and the idea that it's very hard

(23:06):
lot to downsize your life what you'reused to when you're living with your parents,
who can afford to buy your fifteenring gate coffee? You go to
gop down by yourself fighting a coffila, you know what I mean. So
I think it maybe has those kindof things on what are the things that
you can do to just save alittle bit and maybe think about how you
want to spend your money a littlebit more effectively because there's actually a lot
of waste I think that goes ina daily kind of budget. I feel,

(23:30):
yeah, guilty, I'm guilty ofprobably like hard love, right,
So somebody has to tell you thesethings with in a in a kind but
firm way, because you know,these are things that we need to pay
that BP and loan guys. Myfriend couldn't get out of the country to
watch a John Mayor concern. Okay. Another book that is probably very much

(23:56):
hard truth is called The Blessing ofPain, which is another Chinese book called
Sungtong. That's fool by lights OutHong lights Auhong is a registered psychological counselor
certified by the Malaysians Counseling Council,and she is a passionate educator about end

(24:17):
of life and lost care and shecurrently currently works as a breathement care worker.
So this is her book that talksabout what it's like to be a
body donor's family. It's so interesting, Wow, you know, I mean,
like I would never think, yeah, I think we need a book
like this, but I just neverthink that somebody would sit down and write

(24:37):
it. Yeah. I think Ithink it's one of those things that people
shy away from thinking about because weall know that we are contributing to society
if we were to just offer todonate our organs, but most people are
too scared of the thought of it. But it's ultimately a really loving thing
to do, isn't it. Andyou're not really using anything else after your

(25:00):
death. So we're just kind ofhung up on this, and I think
if somebody would just come up andexplain what it's really like, Like,
she talks about it from her ownexperiences because she lost both her parents in
a short period of time, andthen after her mother passed, she complied
with her mother's wish to have herbody donated. So she has this intimate,

(25:22):
you know, like personal understanding ofwhat it's like to be a family
member of somebody who has the bodydon't donated. And also because she is
somebody who works so closely with thiswhole industry, you know, as a
counselor herself, and somebody who whohas worked for international charities to do with

(25:42):
you know, organization, she didn'tthink that one day she would go through
this process, but yeah, goingthrough it herself, she has had to
examine her past beliefs and you know, like think about it from her perspective
of her family as well. Andyou know, later she even went to
Taiwan to study life and death,bereavement, companionship, and hospice care in

(26:06):
order to become a better wound healer. So she's probably somebody who is uniquely
able to talk about what it's likedealing with grief, you know, losing
your family member and at the sametime trying to think of this person as
not as somebody that you loved,but also their body and what you know,
you can do with it to dogood Such complex feelings, isn't it

(26:30):
is? And like, you know, especially like it depends whether you're giving
your body to medical science or youknow, like your organs are you know,
being taken to give to somebody anotherchance at living, so you can
look at it as your loved oneis living on. But also that's really
complex, you know, because ina way you're kind of taking them apart.

(26:52):
Why is this not in English?Anyway? Moving on after that,
very heavy you know book is DaylightDialogue by Terisa On And she was I
think on the list last year aswell. You know, she's very prolific,
she's young and very achieved, andshe actually published her first English poetry
and short story book in twenty sixteen, Midnight Monologues, And that's the book

(27:15):
that could have gotten last year,and it became mph's best book of twenty
sixteen. She was in the finalistfor the International Book Award for Best Cover
and Poetry categories. I mean,her books are beautiful, and her second
book, launched in twenty eighteen,Daylight Dialogues, have also reached the best
seller list. And of course shewrites a combination of poetry and short stories.

(27:37):
This particular book is divided into fourparts Echoes, Now, Reflections and
short stories, and the poems exploreturbulence of romantic relationships, meditations on heartbreak,
aspirations of love and self actualization.It also features six short stories that
explores fairy tales, family life,as well as her take on the school
day classic life as a pencil,siu is a buttung pencil. Actually,

(28:03):
actually recently I went to an artexhibition I want to exhibition, a second
art exhibition by my friend Eugene Foodthat actually had a take on this as
well, be called sis Eco Dinosaur. So he did like a whole bunch
of like Malaysia in our life withif what if dinosaurs are pets? And
it's actually based on the SIUs butdung pencil thing that we had to write
because it's the first time you arewriting a point of view that's different from

(28:25):
your own. And I think thisthing is bigger in our lives than we
care to admit, because everybody rememberswritings. If you were to make a
young child, you know, likeproject themselves into any other object, why
a pencil, Well identify as apencils ecoch but not everybody has a cat

(28:51):
sire is and everybody has to hasto have a pencil. The absolutely hate
because by the end of school yoube forced to, like you know,
use them far more often in manyways that you do not. I think
it's size about dung pen. Ithink it ended quite sadly because you ran
out of ink and you're just avessel for nothing. Anyway, you like

(29:17):
to meet the person who who createdthis whole theme in the first place,
and what was it. They wereactually thinking it's the sadistic person in the
you know, in the education.But no, no, it's not sadistic
at all. It gives you empathyfor inanimate objects. It's very important,
I think so. I mean,like you know, like if nothing else,
everybody in Malaysia probably has that experiencewith this, with this story,

(29:41):
so it'd be good to do toget a professional published author's take on that.
Indeed, everyone. So if youif you're interested to see Terisa's take
on sat pencil, pick up abook Daylight Dialogues. Okay, And finally,
if it's entertainment and escapism that youseek, then you want to choose

(30:03):
one of these literature and fiction readsto take home with you and the first
book on this list is The Restof Life You Send by Leadsu Su.
Leads A Su is the winner ofseveral huads On Literary Awards, United Daily
News Literary Awards, Times Literary Awards, and Dream of Red Mentioned Awards.
So she's very, very accomplished.So definitely an author that you know would

(30:30):
be wowing you with her prose.It is flash fiction. It's very interesting.
It's like like little short stories.So if you think that a normal
short story is too much time commitment, and you know you're just not into
novels, maybe you'd give flash fictiona tribe that's less than a thousand words,

(30:52):
right, a flash fiction. Yes, so it is a collection of
all these flash but I think it'sa little bit cheating, and it comes
to Chinese words because a thousand words, in many ways, there's so much
more meaning you can compact into athousand Chinese words, I think, compared
to English words. Interesting. Yeah, okay, So in just a thousand

(31:15):
words, leads the Sue writes aboutcontemporary society, memory, emotions, life
and death in different narrative styles suchas linear or non linear, metaphysical,
and even experimental. People have describedthis as a literal version of Black Mirror.
Wow. Okay, so it's describedas silent, cruel, and ironic
and that's really intriguing to me,which I guess it's just going to stay

(31:40):
intriguing alas alas. But yeah,one thing to note is it is published
in Taiwan, so it is writtenin traditional Chinese. Yeah. And if
you are possibly a fan of leadsto sus, this book is actually a
collection of micro novels of flash fictionthat actually come from her other works as

(32:04):
well. Yeah, and twenty fourof these of these are actually not published
before. So there's also a reviewand a summary of her bid farewell to
the creation of micro novels. Wow. Yeah. Apparently it's simple, it's
poetic, and it has a terrifyingsilence between the words where your imagination can
come into play. Woh, sothere intriguing indeed, dinah, which I

(32:29):
also will also remain intriguing to me. The last buzza book on the list
is called Snome Youanter Sambuni The HiddenSmile by Melanie Melanie singular name. Yeah,
hmm, okay, this also soundslike a bit of a dear joker.
I just have to come to theconclusion that most Malay books and Malay
dramas are usually theo jokers, Sothis book is about Adlena, which is

(32:53):
a protagonist who always felt second bestin her life because she can't live up
to her mother's expectations. Her motherreally sounds like a piece of work,
but she will do anything just forher mother to be proud of her,
and that includes being betrothed to aman that she hates and being a dutiful
daughter. She agrees to what hermother wants and then enter Raymond, someone

(33:15):
from her past who comes back intoher life. He is wonderful and seems
to care about her with no stringsattached. He wants to rekindle what they
had in the past, and thoughhe makes her indescribably happy, Edlena,
always gaslighted by her mother, doesn'tquite believe this. It's too good to
be true that this man would loveher the way she wants to be loved.

(33:36):
So I feel that this book goesinto a woman's inner turmoil and guilt
and conflicts between filial piety and alsofollowing your heart. Will she be able
to defy her mother and be happywith the man of her dreams? Wow,
this kind of book always makes mefeel it's a little bit too real.
I don't really want to relive mylife again or relive real life all

(33:59):
the time. We have to unpackthat din now one day a different show.
Suppose you know, people like readingbooks like this because it helps maybe
to answer some of the questions ofwhat should you do in that situation?
Right? Yeah, and it mightbe your bag. Yeah, it's like

(34:19):
the trauma that we give out children. We have two more books, two
more books. Everybody, stay withus, Stay with us, because they're
both really good books. Okay,So the next book on the list is
by Manini Way, an author whowas also in the previous Ace of Woman's
Library. This one is her booktut Igaching. So spring is the morning

(34:43):
of a sunny day. And thisone is actually a bilingual book as well,
and it's also a children's book.It's got illustrations and it's basically structured
as three spring poems, and sothere are drawings that go along with the
text. And that's the books upand now Chinese list is money anyway,

(35:07):
Money any Way is so talented.She's she's a writer, she's a poet,
she's an illustrator, and I don'tknow. I mean, she sounds
like she's somebody who is just sowonderful to get to know. One thing
to note is that the Chinese inthis book is also traditional Chinese. But
yeah, if you're like, doyou mean by traditional Chinese, there's actually

(35:27):
two different writings in Chinese. TraditionalChinese is the Chinese that formal is not
really formal. No, Simplified Chineseis something that China started doing to make
it easier for people to write thewords. Traditional Chinese is a lot more
complex, but it is the Chinesethat is used in Taiwan. So books

(35:51):
I published in Taiwan use traditional Chinese. So if you're used to simplify Chinese,
can you read traditional Chinese? Notreally? No? Oh so yeah,
yeah, so that's why it's ofnote. And in Malaysia we learn
traditional oh simple cheshes interesting, Soyeah, if you're not familiar in money

(36:14):
y way. She was a writingresidence at Hong Kong Baptist University in twenty
twenty one, and her works havebeen recognized by Open Book and also the
Bologna Ragazi Award, the Tao YanTong Tautan Award for Literature and the National
Culture, and Arts Foundation. She'sthe author of more than ten books.
Yeah, a lot of them arebooks of poetry and illustrations as well.

(36:37):
In this book, yeah, there'sthree spring poems. It's basically a three
in one picture book. So eachof them is a Spring poem that is
illustrated as well. Because Money anyway, is also an art school graduate.
This is why, you know.She has these very emotive and colorful drawings
that accompany each of the sentences inher poems. And so the word and

(37:01):
the pictures compliment each other. Andit is a celebration of spring. It's
suitable for both children and adults.It is a relatively new release as well.
It only came out in March oftwenty twenty four, So yeah,
I think this is to be areally interesting one for children who would like
to maybe you know, expand theirtheir our language abilities into Chinese and English.

(37:25):
I love here that she's described asliving in Taipei with one child and
two cats, and that sentence alonesays so many things. I love it.
I love it. Okay, Last, but not least on our list
is by Lilian Lee. Is calledDuet Me Not and it's I think a

(37:45):
ya book, right and it actuallydelves into a world that she knows very
very well, but an interesting worldbecause she was an artistic swimmer when she
was younger. So this book goesinto the world of competitive sink chronized swimming.
The story follows Ashvin, a daringskateboarder, and June, an aspiring

(38:06):
national athlete so he Ashvin is thereto learn artistic swimming in order to ask
a girl to a prompt, whileJune will do anything to get on the
national team and win over the councilto save her stadium from closing straight away.
You know what everybody wants wonderful.They both struggle with perfectionism, identity,
belonging, and chasing their dreams aswell as first love. But when

(38:27):
Ashvin learns artistics swimming from June,he doesn't just learn over splits, scars
and ballet lags. She teaches himthe tougher lessons or what it means to
dream and find himself and maybe whatlove is. Where are people finding these
young kids who are so driven andso able, like you know the I
think most of the time when wego through school, we're just bumbling through

(38:49):
it and just trying to just notmess up. But even like somebody like
synchronized swimming. It takes a particularkind of ambitious person to learn that,
rightage, so I love watching itin Olympics. It just feels like such
a strange flock of creatures who dosynchronized swimming. I like books like this,
you know, where it really givesyou a window into something that you

(39:09):
entirely have no idea about, Likewhat it takes to not just be a
swimmer, but a synchronized swimmer,you know. And yeah, so basically
vied this friendship that they have,he learns to speak of for himself and
June finds herself worth Yeah it soundslike a really sweet read, yeah,
he says, yeah, right,with less than treatments to win over the

(39:30):
council and say, a stadium fromclosing, she needs his help. In
exchange, she teaches him how toask out the girl of his dreams from
her own zero love experience. Afterall, like synchronized swimming, practice makes
perfect even in love. Right,Oh that is a perfect line. What
a lovely way to end our show. And yeah, so we finally made

(39:50):
it through this awesome collection of booksput together by the wonderful team over a
sap all written by women writers fromMalaysia. So did you manage to take
out any of these books to takehome with you? Honey? Oh my
god. I actually would love totake home with me a Mandarine book because
I think the Mandarin book sounds sointeresting. Maybe that's Spring Book, yeah,
because it's bilingual. Maybe Dinazaman's book, because you know I love Trano.

(40:15):
Yeah, there's a few on thislist that I Yeah, I think
three Drops of Rice Wine they Borneyour art book actually sounds really interesting and
I would like to really experience theimmersive nature of this book for myself.
Very smart, right, don't forgeteveryone. You can visit the Aesop stores
at TRX and Protaja Ioi on Fridaythe fourteenth to Sunday the sixteenth of June

(40:38):
and you get to take one ofthese fantastic reads to bring home. We
hope this show will help you chooseyour complimentary book, and remember it's it's
a company's way of giving back andwhat better effort than to ensure more of
our society gets to enjoy and experiencetruly inspiring literature available from Malaysian women's writers.

(40:59):
And of course, if you bringa friend or your family along.
Each and every one of you isentitled to claim a copy of any of
the books on the shelves. Andif you know, like last year was
anything to go by, you wantto drop by as early as possible so
you don't miss out on your preferredbook because they fly off the shelves,
guys, it's complimentary books spaceside thestores is limited, so the cues can

(41:20):
get pretty long, and you know, people are taking terms of brows and
decide which of the books they wantto take home. The cues were quite
breathtaking last year, you know.So this is why it's a great idea
to share this episode to everyone youknow who's planning on visiting the East Women's
Library, so they know what's availableand can just narrow it down. Go
straight to the store, pick upyour book, and then go for a
nice cup of tea. So don'tforget to tune in in our next episode.

(41:45):
Yes, thank you so much forlistening in to the two book Notes
Talking podcast with me Diana Young andmyself. Honey Ahma, thank you for
tuning in. Don't forget to subscribeto us on Spotify, iTunes, Google,
anyway you get your podcasts You canfollow us on Instagram, TBNT books,
to When It's Talking on Facebook,and TBNTI pod on x. This

(42:06):
episode was edited by Honey Ahman andproduced by Stephanie or C and Esop

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TBNT x Aesop E01.2 | Introducing the Aēsop Women's Library 2024: voices unbound (Part 2)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}TBNT x Aesop E01.2 | Introducing the Aēsop Women's Library 2024: voices unbound (Part 2)