June 28, 2024 • 34 mins
Hello booknerds!
It's been 2 weeks since the Aēsop Women's Library and we had some time to gather our thoughts about it.
We got some special guests on board for this epsiode and we asked their thoughts on the Aēsop Women's Library 2024 that took place from 14-16 June at the Aēsop stores at The Exchange TRX and IOI City Mall, Putrajaya.
We have Shi Han, who is behind the fabulous Instagram account @human_edition.
Shi Han was brought on by Aēsop Malaysia to document and highlight the event and this is her first time at the Aēsop Women's Library! You can watch her videos over on her Instagram account and support her work!
We also invited some of our listeners over to the preview on the 13th of June at Aēsop TRX and you'll hear from Sook Kwan (@bookknots), Aishah (@aishah.reads), Mahirah (@bymahirah), and Xueh Wei (@readlahwei) on their thoughts and what they picked up from the Aēsop Women's Library!
We like to thank the man of the hour, Remy Wong, the Assistant Marketing Manager of Aēsop Malaysia, for the opportunity to partner with Aēsop for a second year. This has been an amazing journey and we cherish the memories and connections made.
If you missed the Aēsop Women's Library, we highly recommend that you listen to our first epsiode where we tell you about the books and head on over to a bookshop to pick the books up! There are so many amazing local women writers and your support goes a long way.
Thank you again to everyone who listened to our episodes and made this event a successful one!
It's been 2 weeks since the Aēsop Women's Library and we had some time to gather our thoughts about it.
We got some special guests on board for this epsiode and we asked their thoughts on the Aēsop Women's Library 2024 that took place from 14-16 June at the Aēsop stores at The Exchange TRX and IOI City Mall, Putrajaya.
We have Shi Han, who is behind the fabulous Instagram account @human_edition.
Shi Han was brought on by Aēsop Malaysia to document and highlight the event and this is her first time at the Aēsop Women's Library! You can watch her videos over on her Instagram account and support her work!
We also invited some of our listeners over to the preview on the 13th of June at Aēsop TRX and you'll hear from Sook Kwan (@bookknots), Aishah (@aishah.reads), Mahirah (@bymahirah), and Xueh Wei (@readlahwei) on their thoughts and what they picked up from the Aēsop Women's Library!
We like to thank the man of the hour, Remy Wong, the Assistant Marketing Manager of Aēsop Malaysia, for the opportunity to partner with Aēsop for a second year. This has been an amazing journey and we cherish the memories and connections made.
If you missed the Aēsop Women's Library, we highly recommend that you listen to our first epsiode where we tell you about the books and head on over to a bookshop to pick the books up! There are so many amazing local women writers and your support goes a long way.
Thank you again to everyone who listened to our episodes and made this event a successful one!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
Good morning, friends and book lovers, Welcome to another TBNT episode. This
is the third episode of our specialseries on the Women's Library, brought to
you by ESOP Malaysia. Yes,as they say, all good things must
come to an end, and sadly, by the time you listen to this
episode, the up Women's Library twentytwenty four will already have been concluded.
(00:41):
So over the long weekend from Fridaythe fourteenth of June to Sunday the sixteenth
of June, over six thousand peoplevisited the ESOPT stores in the Exchange TRX
and IOI City Mall, Putrajaya andchose one of the twenty seven books by
Malaysian women authors to take home withthem. Wow, six thousand people.
Generally, when you have that manypeople, it's usually a food event.
(01:03):
Well done, ESOP. And ofcourse this is the second year of the
Estort Women's Library. Last year wewere on it to have also been asked
to work alongside with Remi Wong andhis fabulous fabulous team at Estort Malaysia to
bring this project to life. Thisyear, the theme of the library was
Voices Unbound, which reflects Escort Malaysia'svision of uplifting the many diverse voices of
(01:23):
the women of Malaysia. Remi alsoshared with us that the theme reflects the
goals for Esort Women's Library, whichis to forge a lasting and meaningful connection
with the Malaysian populace through the celebrationand the joys of literature. So if
you've been listening in you already knowthat we've have put out two episodes for
the series and the first one wasa podcast episode highlighting all twenty seven of
(01:47):
the books included in the library.For the second episode of this series,
we recorded sessions with book of FixisAmir Muhammad, and also with Sharon Baka
who runs readings at Saxon and thetwo editors of the Principal Girl anthology,
Sharifa Osmond and Tuttu Duta. Andwe also as part of the ut Women's
Library launch event held at Timorhouse inPJ on the twenty fifth of May twenty
(02:10):
twenty four, and this is wherewe gathered all the book lovers from a
number of book clubs from all ofthe Klank Valley. I've discovered a few
that nevenue existed, so everybody cametogether and just to basically nerd out on
books and just you know, havea sneak peek on what they can choose.
So we like to thank the foundersand members of the kl Book Appreciation
(02:30):
Club, the Book Whisper's Book Club, Rebel Reads Book Club, Rish's Book
Club, and the Malaysia Culture Groupbook Club who came and helped make the
event a success. So if you'reone of the people who were lucky enough
to be invited along to this event, you would have had enjoyed listening to
readings by three of the authors whohad books in the ESOP Women's Library,
(02:53):
Dina Zaman, Sarahspannicam and Carissa On. We also got to chat with them
and get them to share their thoughtson the importance of the Ease of Women's
Library project. All these books werepurchased from bookstores to be distributed to visitors
in the stores over this long weekend. Yeah, and if you missed it,
I mean we can tell you thegist of what was discussed because you
(03:15):
know, we basically post them somequestions and then they you know, came
out with such brilliant answers as onlyauthors would, you know, Like when
we asked Sarahsmnicam, I mean,what does it mean to her to have
her book to be included in Diseu'slibrary, And she spoke it was wonderful
for more people to receive a complimentarycopy because book cost has really gone up
(03:35):
recently. I mean even I felt, wow, the pinch, right and
the high cost of books is actuallyone of the biggest barriers to readership in
Malaysia. Yeah, it's true,and I really appreciated having Carissa on there
because she shared her insights into whatit's like being the founder of a publishing
house, right, and it's andthe Malaysian book market is such a small
(03:58):
one, but imagine it's just notsomething that really pays off that well.
And she's saying, yeah, youknow, it's really really hard industry to
be in. But yeah, Imean, like what Dina Zaman said about,
you know, how important it wasto have more women's voices and perspectives
heard, popular and unpopular ones.Yes, given the like kind of censorship
(04:18):
that goes on, not not reallycensorship overtly, but more like in the
ways like people can choose what theylisten to, right, Like, not
a lot of books are very interestingto a lot of people, and she's
like a lot of books I've writtenare very like based on very academic topics,
and a lot of people hear aboutthem. So people might not necessarily
(04:38):
know about a lot of the booksthat are in this library, but because
they were highlighted here, more peoplegot to read and hear about them.
And of course for those of youwho picked up King on the Sea,
it was actually like a very earlyedition because the book is only going to
be relaunched. Of course it waslaunched before when it was published on the
Silver Fish, but now that Clarityhas taken over it, it's got three
(05:00):
new stories in it, and it'sonly actually going to come out in November,
so we're probably going to have Dinnacome in and we can have a
conversation with her. So if youpicked up King on the Sea, you
know, watch out for that episode. You know, I'm looking forward to
that conversation definitely. That woman hassome interesting stuff to say. Also,
the launch event featured the Cream BookClub, which is Honey's cookbook club.
(05:23):
They cooked some of the things inspiredby The Food That Makes Us, which
is this food memoir that was alsoincluded in the East of Women's Library list.
And cream got such a positive responsefrom that. I think, you
know, because the idea of acookbook club, it's just such a fabulous
one. Of course myself for thisis that you don't actually have to read
a whole book. You just haveto read a recipe. Yeah, and
(05:44):
even then people don't read the wholerecipe. You don't have to read the
recipe's basically you just have one takeon it. It's hilarious sometimes when you
read online about how people people cancompletely twist a recipe around, right,
and yeah, so like when youhave people come and they interpret the recipe
the way they want to. Andalso it's like everyone's coming and you get
(06:05):
to read, and you get toand you get to enjoy the fruits of
everyone's labor at the same time.So you make one recipe, somebody else
makes a different one, you getlike twenty different things to eat. Although
Ami Muhammed did say that nobody buyscookbooks anymore, which I have to agree
is true actually unless they're very,very beautiful or you are a collective of
(06:26):
cookbooks, because you can have allthese recipes on YouTube. But what's really
nice about this is that during theactual launch, not at the moor House.
But actually when I went to Eastop, I actually met the author of
the book and told her how wecooked her recipes, and she was so
delighted because we cooked the chicken ricerecipes and that was her husband's family's recipe.
And yeah, so that's lovely whenyou get to meet the authors of
(06:50):
cookbooks as well, because they justwant to know whether the recipes that they
wrote resonate with you, whether itworks, you know. Yeah, I
think that's the genius of a cookbookclub as well, because you actually get
to bring not just a recipe tolife, but it kind of like the
culture that comes with it when you'rereading and you're engaging with it. So
yeah, definitely something that if you, if you like cooking and you have
(07:14):
friends who also do, consider startinga cookbook club indeed, and I think
a lot of cookbook authors will bemore than happy to you know, come
and chat with you as well,you know, online or something. We
have to thank you for being soon board with the idea of I think,
yeah, the cookbook club to beengaged with this as well. And
yeah, one of the things thatthat I really actually enjoyed with this launch
(07:34):
event was that it was such anawesome opportunity to engage with other book lovers
because, as we all know,reading is more often than not a solitary
activity, and this event provided arare opportunity for readers like us to get
out there and meet with like mindedpeople. You know. It was a
wonderful way to bring the bookish communitytogether in a real celebration of Malaysian literature.
(07:57):
Gets intrivets out of the house.It's very important, and it's I
suppose it's just meeting your tribe.And because it's a tribe that doesn't go
out very often, a tripe thatdoesn't meet very often, but a tribe
it is, nevertheless, and thatwas quite wonderful, I think when when
you sat there and we interviewed theauthors and we just looked across the room
and these are all our people,you know, our people. Yeah,
(08:20):
And so I feel that this eventreally exemplifies the theme of Voices Unbound because
the authors also read their works outloud, and this is something that Sharon
Barker has been doing every month,So you should really check out her readings
at Sexan because that's what she does. She allows the author's voice itself to
be heard like literally, like,so somebody who wrote these words are actually
(08:41):
telling you the story. And that'swhat stories are. Stories need to be
told, right, And so Ifeel for you who might not necessarily like
reading, listening to a story isalways a good way. And I think
it harkens back to our caveman timeswhere we set around a campfire and we
told stories about oh, you know, I killed that bison single handedly,
(09:05):
and or you know I love thatwoman from the next tribe and how I
would her by big plucking the starsfrom the sky, you know, I
mean, you know, origin stories, stuff like that, right, myth
making. Yeah, I think itis. It is true that even though
audiobooks are actually making a big changein the way that we engage with literature,
(09:26):
we don't quite get to share literaturewith each other as much. And
that's what that's the beauty of anevent like this, where we actually get
to bring literature alive in a waythat is, you know, you engage
with authors, we engage with readers, and we're also like making food that
comes from a book. So yeah, I think I think all of those
things together made that event at theMore House such an amazingly successful one.
(09:50):
And then let's talk about the list. I mean just a little bit.
I mean, please listen to ourfirst episode, part one, part two,
where you can actually go into moredetail about each book and please pick
up the book from a store nearyou. But we also feel that the
ATOP team really did a great jobcurating the books. I think everybody was
(10:11):
designated books to read, you know, I think they went through a lot
of reading, so it's quite lovelythat these might not necessarily be readers reading.
So I'm always a big fan ofthat. And they included serious nonfiction
titles such as Dari yups as equallike song the Blessings of Pain. I'm
not saying sorry as I know thisBagaje Dan Pokai and this book flew off
(10:33):
the shelves. I think he gottaken up really really for us because people
really do need to learn about financialsecurity. But they also have children's books,
illustrated books, poetry, graphic noveland we just love the fact that
they do think of the different kindsof readers that exist in Malaysia. You
know, yeah, yeah, Ithink I think one of the really great
things about having a project like theE is of Women's Library. It gave
(10:58):
people the chance to to learn aboutauthors who may not usually be very much
in your radar because you know,like there are books here that most people
would not have heard about, becausemost books that you do have you would
have heard about there are pushed andadvertised by these large companies. You know,
like a lot of those books thatyou do know about, they're all
(11:20):
on Instagram and on social media,and they're international renowned titles. They're not
a lot of books that you knowabout just because they're Malaysian authors, right.
So yeah, so a lot oftimes the authors they miss out on
a lot of publicity, and wereaders too, we miss out because there
are so many great titles out therethat we don't ever hear about. Absolutely.
(11:43):
Yeah. I mean Chinese books forinstance. You know, there's so
many of them out there that obviouslyare not accessible to me, but perhaps
by growing more attention to them,they might get translated so they might open
a bigger audience. And the factthat some of them are actually bilingual as
well, so you can pick uppoetry books that are bilingual. You can
pick up like nonfiction books. Imean there was two on the list that
(12:05):
was really cool. You got yourdaughter to pick up a book, didn't
you? I did. I mayhave taken this sum bilingual book that are
buy money anyway. It's a bookof poetry that is like that's also self
illustrated as well. And you likemy daughter and I, we speak Chinese,
but it's so rare that we pickup and read anything in Chinese.
So of course, I mean likeI would have said that, I would
(12:26):
I have heard of none of theMalay titles either, because you know it's
from a small press as well,and it's so great to have had the
chance to explore beyond just the Englishtitles that you normally get to you know,
see and hear about. This istrue, of course. The other
highlight of this year's is a woman'sLibrary is as part of the outreach,
there's also Sheihan and Jay from theig famous Human Edition Instagram and they featured
(12:52):
not only the library but us aswell and our favorite book Stolet Books and
I know on good authority that bookssuddenly had an influx of younger, more
very hip readers and maybe some ofthem are listening to our podcast now yay.
So yeah, so when we bumpinto them again at the preview event.
On the eve of the opening,we grab the opportunity to ask she
(13:13):
hunted her thoughts on being part ofthe East Women's Library project. Okay,
so introduce yourself. We have withus today. She Handed from Human Edition,
so you see all her beautiful videos. She has been capturing everything about
the Desut Women's Library. How hasit been for you? Hi? My
(13:33):
name is she Hand and it's mypartner j And and you're as Fumous library
soft launch the opening day PR eventand it has been really crazy and so
nice to meet all of you.So we does a documentary on human stories.
(13:54):
So currently we are plenary ASoP toUH produce four episodes of human stories
in Kal that is related to book. So the first episode we did was
two talking on the podcast we havein Malaysia about reading, which is something
we think that more people should knowabout. So and then the second episode
(14:18):
we cover on a bookstore books anindependent bookstore, which I think not much
people know the existence of independent bookstorein kl. The responses so far are
pretty overwhelming. Looking at the commentsand hearing from Mikhana Elen on the crowd
and live books is kind of crazy. We also never expect it to be
(14:39):
so immediate and crazy, like onSaturday in the morning when we posted it
at eleven am, and then Mikhawas saying that people are starting coming at
twelve when opening up the store,so and then just now this is a
event. We also met a fewpeople mentioned that they watched the video and
(15:00):
so they know about it. Soyeah, we're happy that it's kind of
done now as planned. You know, that's creating awareness and yeah, so
happy to covering all these stories.Have you picked the book? It's very
hard so I thought I knew whichone I went, but after listening to
do the talking podcast, the chancesis like getting harder. But I think
(15:22):
I might get as sequels. Wantto tell people about this event, about
the books and that are available.Would you tell people before they come?
You know, what should they know? I think I never expect an event
to have to really cover books withco three languages like Chinese, Malay and
(15:46):
English, and then the selection ofhow variety and diverse they are from fiction
to comics, cookbooks. It literallycan accompliate literally everyone. So you are
I havent reader for people along likeall words, or you like just short
stories upon or you like still bookssailable. So yeah, I think definitely
(16:10):
everyone with can figure out a bookor even more and know about other all
this, So yeah, I thinka lot of people like Shihan could have
used the ace of Women's Library asan opportunity to get to explore books that
they normally would not have the chanceto. Like, I would say that
(16:32):
a lot of people are very hesitantto try books out of their norm because
you how prohibitive the cost of booksare nowadays, right, you know,
because you want to be careful whenyou only have a limited budget to spend
on books. You don't want tobe taking books that you're not sure about.
So when you come to an eventlike the Women's Library and it's complimentary
(16:52):
book, you can actually allow yourselfto just you know, try different things
and explore out of your norm andand even if it's a different language,
like you try and pick up abilingual book, or you can try try
and pick up nonfiction if that's notyour norm. And I thought that that's
something that it gives people the opportunityto be liberated about the choices. I
find it quite funny that not justSheehan, but a few people have come
(17:15):
up to me and said, youknow, after listening to your show,
and now I want more of thebooks, because the whole point of our
show was to help you choose thebook. Does that sound all good?
So they're like, they're like,I think, yeah, you you might
not give yourself the opportunity to thinkabout books that you don't usually care about.
(17:38):
I'm not really interested in maybe nonfiction, or maybe I'm not not a
poetry person. But now that I'veheard some of the authors, you know,
just telling you us their poems,or maybe I've I've had the chance
to think about oh, you know, like this sounds like a good collection.
I can actually give myself a chanceto try poetry for once. That's
true. Yeah, right, Somoving on during the preview event as well,
(18:03):
we got some of our lucky fanswho joined a little, you know,
online competition to come and enjoy thesort Women's Library without having to queue
up really so they can saunter inwith us and get a book and have
a lot of time to peruse.So we spoke to someone them after the
event to get their thoughts on theEORT Women's Library. Hello, friends and
(18:33):
book lovers, This is Honey andDiana and we are here covering the Eort
Women's Library live from TRX, andwe have with us the wonderful squad Long
who has been one of our friendsfor listener constant listener from this time.
Yeah so so, so I'm letlet us know what what is your impression
of this event and what what haveyou thought about the store while you were
(18:56):
in here? Definitely a lot differentfrom last year's store. We went to
the one at mid Valley. Lastyear's a lot smaller than this, right,
so, at the very least withthis one, when you're walking,
if you can't get into the leftside, the susidn't want to write,
So it's a bit spread up,which is a good thing for the rest
of us. You want to mingleand check them throol books off from shelves.
Yeah. Really, what do youthink of the book selection this year?
(19:18):
Very good, honestly. I meanthe fact that we don't have bilingual
selections this year is quite interesting,right and especially for a lot of Chinese
readers, maybe just like me andDiana who can beat Chinese but don't make
a habit of doing so. It'slike a good win for like also a
lot of picture books, a lotof picture books. So yeah, a
book for everyone, right, Yeah, why don'd you end up getting?
(19:40):
Ended up getting The Probable Conversation withCats and Other Distractions by Yo Joanne.
The title of it kind of remindsme, actually, the way you describe
it with's snaky talking cats kind ofreminded me about the Boy Detectives that you
couldn't remindy because I just finished therecently when you said it on the podcast,
I was like, O, I'mgoing to go get that because I'm
just looking for some cat piece tocome together with this. So that's what
(20:04):
I went with. But I wouldactually heavily recommend geting the bilingual books if
you guys could get it anyway,because that's actually really really good and it
would have been a strong second alreadyif I didn't get dissers only one book,
the only one, believe. Sowhat do you think of this initiative?
Do you think that is a veryimportant initiative in order to sort of
like amplify women's voices. I wouldsay so, like for one thing that's
(20:26):
already quite a diverse amount of publishers, like The Deplorable Conversation, Cat's Penguin
obviously, but there's a lot ofother local publishers that's coming through here as
well, diverse voices, because forone, we don't like you just have
Chinese authors, you have a millayneIndian authors as well, and keep me
in touch with the whole Malaysia things, multi culturalism as well. So,
I mean, this has been agood initiative and it's a much more expensive
(20:49):
collection and it got last year,which is great. So hopefully next year
we've got more of these nineteens comingthrough. We want this every year.
Peace, I would come for thisevery year. Good, excellent, And
he asked, what would you tellpeople about this event? Uh, it's
definitely going to be very difficult tomake a choice, and okay, it
(21:11):
really kind of differences. Would youwant to carry it by wait or would
you want to have it for likeenrichment, something that you want to just
be on the go of. You'relike, there's quite a lot of different
ways of thinking about it. Buthaving said that, though, the best
thing you can at least enjoy isthe estheticness of the bookstore and you com
its color coordinated is very pretty.So much, thanks so much, thank
you guys. Okay, Hi,I'm Aisha, and thank you so much
(21:42):
to talking for inviting me to theevent. So the book I chose today
is My Mother PARTU by Sarah's Monicamwho is an award meaning author, and
the story is essentially about love,loss, race, belonging, mostly said
in Malaysia. And I'm very intriguedby short story collections, so so I
selected this book and I really enjoyedattending the event today. I think it's
(22:07):
a great initiative to amplify women's stories. I think women should be able to
write freely. And it's true women'sstories that we see each other and align
ourselves with one another and recognize oneanother. So I think it's a highly
great initiative. And I also encouragepeople out there to join the event in
the upcoming days. Yeah, Ihope to see more people joining in the
(22:30):
next few days. We don't eventell us anything. Thank you, thank
you so well. Hi, I'mmy hero, my hero Marzuki. So
what book do you select today thatyou saw Women's Library? So I actually
(22:51):
support for choices. I had aselection that I like, I had a
book that I had in mind Iwanted to and then like I came in
and I just completely change Now forchoices, but ultimately I chose The Storm
We Made by Vanessa Chan. I'mjust very intrigued by the book. Guilt
is a very favorite, like it'sa favorite theme of mine. So that's
(23:12):
why I choose the book. Whatdo you think the choices you have this
year? The choice? Oh mygod, Like, it's a lot,
and they're all great. There arethemes that I can relate to a personally,
especially as stim Malaysian Asian women.I think all of those themes are
very relevant. And all those themesare also very complex because it like you
(23:33):
can relate it historically personally, likeeven your personal beliefs. So I think
that's very interesting. So that's thereason why it's just so difficult for me
to choose, because there's so manychoices, Like anything you want, they
have it. So do you thinkthey should do this initiative every year without
fail? Oh? Yes, everyyear? Please have it every year?
So yes, please do it.That's better to buy books. I just
(24:00):
go through this library, But whatdo you think about looking at this?
At the selections here for books thatyou haven't actually heard of? Fom so
this is stuff that I haven't heardbefore. So that's why I chose this
book so I initially wanted a bookthat I've heard of, but I didn't
get to I haven't read it yet, but coming in I feel like they're
(24:25):
amazing. And that's the reason whyI feel like everyone should go, because
you don't know what's in store untilyou get your hands on it, and
like you re read it and likethe summary and you're like, this is
probably the one that I could relateto, and I'm just so interested in
reading. But I feel like weneed more stories in our life. Yeah,
(24:45):
so that's why I think people shouldcome to it. So yeah,
I hope a good time to benice. Hi, my Shirley. And
today I chose Three Drops of RiceWine and it's a book by Borio lab
And I liked it because it's aboutconnections, and particularly in a time when
(25:07):
they did a lot of researching thepandemic, when we were all steck at
home. I think this book reallyshowed us that it doesn't matter where we
are, we're all connected in someway. What books were you also considering
here? I was quite attracted toFried Rice by I think Erica Hung and
it's a comic that I think recentlywon an Eismeer Award, So I was
(25:30):
quite drawn to that because it usedfood as a way to again show connections,
partically in a family setting. Sowhat do you think of that you
saw a women's library they initiate it? Were you? Were you here last
year? Yeah? I was herelast year for the women's library, and
I was really happy to see thatthey were coming back for a second round.
I personally love the fact that we'rehaving so many local women authors,
even so many authors that I didn'tknow myself, despite the fact that I
(25:53):
think I read quite a bit.So it's a really great initiative them that
they brought by you. Still youstill have a book line. I still
do have a book club. Yes, my book club's called Literacy, that's
right. Yeah, I mean whetheryou guys still meet up. We do,
so we read Southeast Asian literature.So I'm excited because he's not reading
Malaysian literature by Malaysian women. Isa great initiative to constantly bring back the
(26:15):
fact that we have amazing writing inthe region. And yeah, with their
books in this collection that you hadnot read of many many especially I think
the Chinese titles, even though Iread Chinese, but I don't know that
many Malaysian women authors were writing Chinese, so there were a lot that I
learned here. Bos you be lookingout for, yes, correct in our
(26:36):
next editions. We hope to readthem all right, thank you, thanks
so thank you so much to shareaway Aisha, Sukuan and Mahira. But
there was actually also another person thatwe had come along, but we sadly
did not get to talk to her. That was Ang Shuhn. So if
(27:00):
you enjoy your time there, Shohun, do you let us know. So.
So many of our listeners and socialmedia followers tagged us in their posts
or send us messages about their experienceat the library, thanking us for highlighting
the books available and sharing their appreciationfor the fabulous day out at the moor
(27:21):
House as well. So yeah,we appreciate each and every one of you
very much. Thank you. AbsolutelyWithout you, we'll just be talking into
a void. But also I feelincredibly blessed that we have such smart and
articulate listeners. I mean just listeningto how they kind of like talked about
the Women's Library and you know howwhat it means to them and all that,
(27:45):
So I felt, Oh Besla it'snice to have fans like this.
I think one thing that we reallydo have to clear up is that some
of you may have had the impressionthat the books available at the ease of
Women's Library were chosen by us.As a matter of fact, as much
as we'd like to take the creditfor having excellent dation books, the truth
(28:06):
is that were all chosen by theEase of Malaysia team, and they did
that in conjunction with the various bookstoresand publishers. So our main role in
this event was to get the wordout and to help our listeners decide which
of the books they wanted to claimand give them a little bit more insight
on the world behind the books thatthey love. And of course we were
(28:26):
so honored to be invited to chatwith some of the authors on both our
podcasts and as well as the launchparty at de Moohouse. We're really glad
that so many of our listeners andfollowers did attend the library event this year,
and going by your posts and reels, the excitement for the books this
year was very high. Of course, having us spread the word to our
followers, people who are already selfselected as readers and book enthusiasts. That
(28:49):
was pretty important. But I thinka lot of the credit for the enthusiasm
for the EYP Women's Library this yeargoes to the excellent books featured. And
if you miss the event itself,the is a women's library event at their
stores at the Exchange DRX and IOICity Mall, please look up the photos
and videos. Is so wonderfully doneand you get a chance to know again
(29:10):
the books on their list on theday itself. If you do pick up
a book, you get a centeredbookmark and a book stamp, and Remy
did mention that the book marks givenout will entitle you to a sample redemption
and a free skincare analysis at anyof the ESOP stores within the month of
June twenty twenty four, So pleaseget yourself down there because the stores themselves
are beautiful. Right. So yeah, I think it was definitely a fantastic
(29:36):
event and experience. Thanks again toits A Malaysia for the opportunity to be
a part of it, and forthe generosity in featuring the two booknotes talking
as well. And yeah, Ithink they figured that we as women podcasters
who engage in literature, we alsofit the theme of voices unbound. I
suppose we can actually quite proudly saythat it's true. Will represent quite a
(29:57):
niche perspective of stuff is Asian womenwho feature a lot of self is Asian
women's books, and because of theboundless nature of internet and podcasts, we
could say that our voices could beheard pretty much anywhere anywhere in the world.
So maybe it's good to segue justfor like two minutes to tell you
what we ourselves felt about the EastWomen's Library. I mean, of course
(30:21):
it's an honor, but I thinkdeeper than that, I feel it really
makes you feel kind of seen asa reader in Malaysia and us as a
podcast I mean, we have donethis podcast for a very long time,
and the fact that people recognize thestuff that we do, that they like
what our voices say to them reallymeans a lot to us. So it's
(30:41):
not just us as women, butus as podcasters and us as readers and
booknotes. So thank you, Isa. I hope that this is a start
of a very long relationship. Haha ha, Right, Dina, Definitely,
we also wanted to give Remi Wanga chance to share his thoughts on
the East Women's Library initial this year, so here's ready take it away.
(31:08):
When we set the goal for ISOWomen's Library second editions Voices about we wanted
something simple, objective and goals issoWomen's Library Voices able essence was a collective
aspirations to uphold local women voices andstory to literature. We am to unite
(31:29):
inspirations in every visitor, encouraging themto drive into the captivating works of Malaysian
female authors and extend this celebration toa wider audience. Our sole numerical target
was the redemptions of six thousand books. The goal we successfully achieved a testament
to our shared success. This year, we took a step further by diversifying
(31:53):
our book selections, incorporating a widerrange of genres, discussions, and topics.
This strategy move is to enhance peopleaccess to a different narrativefferent voices.
We have already seen the positive impactof these decisions with many of our objective
men and a thought of encouraging feedbackfrom our guests and partners. One of
(32:17):
my half fare experiences was thanks toall the guests who came to the library.
I was amazed and moved by theguests who visited us during the Women's
Library, almost everyone in knowing whatwas happening and what books they wanted to
take from the shelf. It wasan overwhelming response along queue for all three
(32:39):
days and everyone with the patiently inthe queue. All these were reasonable efforts
from the pre event marketing initiative.We have done with two bookners Talking thanks
to Honey Ahmad, Dianas and Stephanieand of course two human additions Shihan and
Jay for all the kamein information andcreative content created and shared through their platforms.
(33:06):
I think that really helps. Yeah, we have created beautiful memories with
this project, thanks to your thanksfor everyone. You guys are amazing.
So from our point of view,I think the readers of Malaysia definitely thought
of this year's event as a greatsuccess and it has the potential to be
(33:28):
the highlight of every year to come. We hope. So two Booknet's Talking
was very much a proud collaborator inthe Women's Library twenty twenty four and we
hope to continue to do so formany more years to come. And we
also hope that this is not justa once a year. Please go out
there read widely read locally, pickup a woman's author, a male author
(33:49):
a day and damn author. Itdoesn't matter ever so often if you are
a reader, check out what yourown people are writing about and spread the
word and the love because you know, this community is a very wonderful community,
and I think we can include alot more people in them, right
Definitely. You have been listening toHoney Ahmed and Diana Young of the two
(34:09):
Booknets Talking podcast coming to you fromthe Renegade Radio Studios in Kualaumpo, Malaysia.
This episode was brought to you byEast of Malaysia, editing by Honey
Ahmed and production by Stephanie on Checkus out at TBNT Books on ig and
too book Nets Talking on Facebook.Thank you so much for listening. Bye,
Good morning, friends and book lovers, Welcome to another TBNT episode. This
is the third episode of our specialseries on the Women's Library, brought to
you by ESOP Malaysia. Yes,as they say, all good things must
come to an end, and sadly, by the time you listen to this
episode, the up Women's Library twentytwenty four will already have been concluded.
(00:41):
So over the long weekend from Fridaythe fourteenth of June to Sunday the sixteenth
of June, over six thousand peoplevisited the ESOPT stores in the Exchange TRX
and IOI City Mall, Putrajaya andchose one of the twenty seven books by
Malaysian women authors to take home withthem. Wow, six thousand people.
Generally, when you have that manypeople, it's usually a food event.
(01:03):
Well done, ESOP. And ofcourse this is the second year of the
Estort Women's Library. Last year wewere on it to have also been asked
to work alongside with Remi Wong andhis fabulous fabulous team at Estort Malaysia to
bring this project to life. Thisyear, the theme of the library was
Voices Unbound, which reflects Escort Malaysia'svision of uplifting the many diverse voices of
(01:23):
the women of Malaysia. Remi alsoshared with us that the theme reflects the
goals for Esort Women's Library, whichis to forge a lasting and meaningful connection
with the Malaysian populace through the celebrationand the joys of literature. So if
you've been listening in you already knowthat we've have put out two episodes for
the series and the first one wasa podcast episode highlighting all twenty seven of
(01:47):
the books included in the library.For the second episode of this series,
we recorded sessions with book of FixisAmir Muhammad, and also with Sharon Baka
who runs readings at Saxon and thetwo editors of the Principal Girl anthology,
Sharifa Osmond and Tuttu Duta. Andwe also as part of the ut Women's
Library launch event held at Timorhouse inPJ on the twenty fifth of May twenty
(02:10):
twenty four, and this is wherewe gathered all the book lovers from a
number of book clubs from all ofthe Klank Valley. I've discovered a few
that nevenue existed, so everybody cametogether and just to basically nerd out on
books and just you know, havea sneak peek on what they can choose.
So we like to thank the foundersand members of the kl Book Appreciation
(02:30):
Club, the Book Whisper's Book Club, Rebel Reads Book Club, Rish's Book
Club, and the Malaysia Culture Groupbook Club who came and helped make the
event a success. So if you'reone of the people who were lucky enough
to be invited along to this event, you would have had enjoyed listening to
readings by three of the authors whohad books in the ESOP Women's Library,
(02:53):
Dina Zaman, Sarahspannicam and Carissa On. We also got to chat with them
and get them to share their thoughtson the importance of the Ease of Women's
Library project. All these books werepurchased from bookstores to be distributed to visitors
in the stores over this long weekend. Yeah, and if you missed it,
I mean we can tell you thegist of what was discussed because you
(03:15):
know, we basically post them somequestions and then they you know, came
out with such brilliant answers as onlyauthors would, you know, Like when
we asked Sarahsmnicam, I mean,what does it mean to her to have
her book to be included in Diseu'slibrary, And she spoke it was wonderful
for more people to receive a complimentarycopy because book cost has really gone up
(03:35):
recently. I mean even I felt, wow, the pinch, right and
the high cost of books is actuallyone of the biggest barriers to readership in
Malaysia. Yeah, it's true,and I really appreciated having Carissa on there
because she shared her insights into whatit's like being the founder of a publishing
house, right, and it's andthe Malaysian book market is such a small
(03:58):
one, but imagine it's just notsomething that really pays off that well.
And she's saying, yeah, youknow, it's really really hard industry to
be in. But yeah, Imean, like what Dina Zaman said about,
you know, how important it wasto have more women's voices and perspectives
heard, popular and unpopular ones.Yes, given the like kind of censorship
(04:18):
that goes on, not not reallycensorship overtly, but more like in the
ways like people can choose what theylisten to, right, Like, not
a lot of books are very interestingto a lot of people, and she's
like a lot of books I've writtenare very like based on very academic topics,
and a lot of people hear aboutthem. So people might not necessarily
(04:38):
know about a lot of the booksthat are in this library, but because
they were highlighted here, more peoplegot to read and hear about them.
And of course for those of youwho picked up King on the Sea,
it was actually like a very earlyedition because the book is only going to
be relaunched. Of course it waslaunched before when it was published on the
Silver Fish, but now that Clarityhas taken over it, it's got three
(05:00):
new stories in it, and it'sonly actually going to come out in November,
so we're probably going to have Dinnacome in and we can have a
conversation with her. So if youpicked up King on the Sea, you
know, watch out for that episode. You know, I'm looking forward to
that conversation definitely. That woman hassome interesting stuff to say. Also,
the launch event featured the Cream BookClub, which is Honey's cookbook club.
(05:23):
They cooked some of the things inspiredby The Food That Makes Us, which
is this food memoir that was alsoincluded in the East of Women's Library list.
And cream got such a positive responsefrom that. I think, you
know, because the idea of acookbook club, it's just such a fabulous
one. Of course myself for thisis that you don't actually have to read
a whole book. You just haveto read a recipe. Yeah, and
(05:44):
even then people don't read the wholerecipe. You don't have to read the
recipe's basically you just have one takeon it. It's hilarious sometimes when you
read online about how people people cancompletely twist a recipe around, right,
and yeah, so like when youhave people come and they interpret the recipe
the way they want to. Andalso it's like everyone's coming and you get
(06:05):
to read, and you get toand you get to enjoy the fruits of
everyone's labor at the same time.So you make one recipe, somebody else
makes a different one, you getlike twenty different things to eat. Although
Ami Muhammed did say that nobody buyscookbooks anymore, which I have to agree
is true actually unless they're very,very beautiful or you are a collective of
(06:26):
cookbooks, because you can have allthese recipes on YouTube. But what's really
nice about this is that during theactual launch, not at the moor House.
But actually when I went to Eastop, I actually met the author of
the book and told her how wecooked her recipes, and she was so
delighted because we cooked the chicken ricerecipes and that was her husband's family's recipe.
And yeah, so that's lovely whenyou get to meet the authors of
(06:50):
cookbooks as well, because they justwant to know whether the recipes that they
wrote resonate with you, whether itworks, you know. Yeah, I
think that's the genius of a cookbookclub as well, because you actually get
to bring not just a recipe tolife, but it kind of like the
culture that comes with it when you'rereading and you're engaging with it. So
yeah, definitely something that if you, if you like cooking and you have
(07:14):
friends who also do, consider startinga cookbook club indeed, and I think
a lot of cookbook authors will bemore than happy to you know, come
and chat with you as well,you know, online or something. We
have to thank you for being soon board with the idea of I think,
yeah, the cookbook club to beengaged with this as well. And
yeah, one of the things thatthat I really actually enjoyed with this launch
(07:34):
event was that it was such anawesome opportunity to engage with other book lovers
because, as we all know,reading is more often than not a solitary
activity, and this event provided arare opportunity for readers like us to get
out there and meet with like mindedpeople. You know. It was a
wonderful way to bring the bookish communitytogether in a real celebration of Malaysian literature.
(07:57):
Gets intrivets out of the house.It's very important, and it's I
suppose it's just meeting your tribe.And because it's a tribe that doesn't go
out very often, a tripe thatdoesn't meet very often, but a tribe
it is, nevertheless, and thatwas quite wonderful, I think when when
you sat there and we interviewed theauthors and we just looked across the room
and these are all our people,you know, our people. Yeah,
(08:20):
And so I feel that this eventreally exemplifies the theme of Voices Unbound because
the authors also read their works outloud, and this is something that Sharon
Barker has been doing every month,So you should really check out her readings
at Sexan because that's what she does. She allows the author's voice itself to
be heard like literally, like,so somebody who wrote these words are actually
(08:41):
telling you the story. And that'swhat stories are. Stories need to be
told, right, And so Ifeel for you who might not necessarily like
reading, listening to a story isalways a good way. And I think
it harkens back to our caveman timeswhere we set around a campfire and we
told stories about oh, you know, I killed that bison single handedly,
(09:05):
and or you know I love thatwoman from the next tribe and how I
would her by big plucking the starsfrom the sky, you know, I
mean, you know, origin stories, stuff like that, right, myth
making. Yeah, I think itis. It is true that even though
audiobooks are actually making a big changein the way that we engage with literature,
(09:26):
we don't quite get to share literaturewith each other as much. And
that's what that's the beauty of anevent like this, where we actually get
to bring literature alive in a waythat is, you know, you engage
with authors, we engage with readers, and we're also like making food that
comes from a book. So yeah, I think I think all of those
things together made that event at theMore House such an amazingly successful one.
(09:50):
And then let's talk about the list. I mean just a little bit.
I mean, please listen to ourfirst episode, part one, part two,
where you can actually go into moredetail about each book and please pick
up the book from a store nearyou. But we also feel that the
ATOP team really did a great jobcurating the books. I think everybody was
(10:11):
designated books to read, you know, I think they went through a lot
of reading, so it's quite lovelythat these might not necessarily be readers reading.
So I'm always a big fan ofthat. And they included serious nonfiction
titles such as Dari yups as equallike song the Blessings of Pain. I'm
not saying sorry as I know thisBagaje Dan Pokai and this book flew off
(10:33):
the shelves. I think he gottaken up really really for us because people
really do need to learn about financialsecurity. But they also have children's books,
illustrated books, poetry, graphic noveland we just love the fact that
they do think of the different kindsof readers that exist in Malaysia. You
know, yeah, yeah, Ithink I think one of the really great
things about having a project like theE is of Women's Library. It gave
(10:58):
people the chance to to learn aboutauthors who may not usually be very much
in your radar because you know,like there are books here that most people
would not have heard about, becausemost books that you do have you would
have heard about there are pushed andadvertised by these large companies. You know,
like a lot of those books thatyou do know about, they're all
(11:20):
on Instagram and on social media,and they're international renowned titles. They're not
a lot of books that you knowabout just because they're Malaysian authors, right.
So yeah, so a lot oftimes the authors they miss out on
a lot of publicity, and wereaders too, we miss out because there
are so many great titles out therethat we don't ever hear about. Absolutely.
(11:43):
Yeah. I mean Chinese books forinstance. You know, there's so
many of them out there that obviouslyare not accessible to me, but perhaps
by growing more attention to them,they might get translated so they might open
a bigger audience. And the factthat some of them are actually bilingual as
well, so you can pick uppoetry books that are bilingual. You can
pick up like nonfiction books. Imean there was two on the list that
(12:05):
was really cool. You got yourdaughter to pick up a book, didn't
you? I did. I mayhave taken this sum bilingual book that are
buy money anyway. It's a bookof poetry that is like that's also self
illustrated as well. And you likemy daughter and I, we speak Chinese,
but it's so rare that we pickup and read anything in Chinese.
So of course, I mean likeI would have said that, I would
(12:26):
I have heard of none of theMalay titles either, because you know it's
from a small press as well,and it's so great to have had the
chance to explore beyond just the Englishtitles that you normally get to you know,
see and hear about. This istrue, of course. The other
highlight of this year's is a woman'sLibrary is as part of the outreach,
there's also Sheihan and Jay from theig famous Human Edition Instagram and they featured
(12:52):
not only the library but us aswell and our favorite book Stolet Books and
I know on good authority that bookssuddenly had an influx of younger, more
very hip readers and maybe some ofthem are listening to our podcast now yay.
So yeah, so when we bumpinto them again at the preview event.
On the eve of the opening,we grab the opportunity to ask she
(13:13):
hunted her thoughts on being part ofthe East Women's Library project. Okay,
so introduce yourself. We have withus today. She Handed from Human Edition,
so you see all her beautiful videos. She has been capturing everything about
the Desut Women's Library. How hasit been for you? Hi? My
(13:33):
name is she Hand and it's mypartner j And and you're as Fumous library
soft launch the opening day PR eventand it has been really crazy and so
nice to meet all of you.So we does a documentary on human stories.
(13:54):
So currently we are plenary ASoP toUH produce four episodes of human stories
in Kal that is related to book. So the first episode we did was
two talking on the podcast we havein Malaysia about reading, which is something
we think that more people should knowabout. So and then the second episode
(14:18):
we cover on a bookstore books anindependent bookstore, which I think not much
people know the existence of independent bookstorein kl. The responses so far are
pretty overwhelming. Looking at the commentsand hearing from Mikhana Elen on the crowd
and live books is kind of crazy. We also never expect it to be
(14:39):
so immediate and crazy, like onSaturday in the morning when we posted it
at eleven am, and then Mikhawas saying that people are starting coming at
twelve when opening up the store,so and then just now this is a
event. We also met a fewpeople mentioned that they watched the video and
(15:00):
so they know about it. Soyeah, we're happy that it's kind of
done now as planned. You know, that's creating awareness and yeah, so
happy to covering all these stories.Have you picked the book? It's very
hard so I thought I knew whichone I went, but after listening to
do the talking podcast, the chancesis like getting harder. But I think
(15:22):
I might get as sequels. Wantto tell people about this event, about
the books and that are available.Would you tell people before they come?
You know, what should they know? I think I never expect an event
to have to really cover books withco three languages like Chinese, Malay and
(15:46):
English, and then the selection ofhow variety and diverse they are from fiction
to comics, cookbooks. It literallycan accompliate literally everyone. So you are
I havent reader for people along likeall words, or you like just short
stories upon or you like still bookssailable. So yeah, I think definitely
(16:10):
everyone with can figure out a bookor even more and know about other all
this, So yeah, I thinka lot of people like Shihan could have
used the ace of Women's Library asan opportunity to get to explore books that
they normally would not have the chanceto. Like, I would say that
(16:32):
a lot of people are very hesitantto try books out of their norm because
you how prohibitive the cost of booksare nowadays, right, you know,
because you want to be careful whenyou only have a limited budget to spend
on books. You don't want tobe taking books that you're not sure about.
So when you come to an eventlike the Women's Library and it's complimentary
(16:52):
book, you can actually allow yourselfto just you know, try different things
and explore out of your norm andand even if it's a different language,
like you try and pick up abilingual book, or you can try try
and pick up nonfiction if that's notyour norm. And I thought that that's
something that it gives people the opportunityto be liberated about the choices. I
find it quite funny that not justSheehan, but a few people have come
(17:15):
up to me and said, youknow, after listening to your show,
and now I want more of thebooks, because the whole point of our
show was to help you choose thebook. Does that sound all good?
So they're like, they're like,I think, yeah, you you might
not give yourself the opportunity to thinkabout books that you don't usually care about.
(17:38):
I'm not really interested in maybe nonfiction, or maybe I'm not not a
poetry person. But now that I'veheard some of the authors, you know,
just telling you us their poems,or maybe I've I've had the chance
to think about oh, you know, like this sounds like a good collection.
I can actually give myself a chanceto try poetry for once. That's
true. Yeah, right, Somoving on during the preview event as well,
(18:03):
we got some of our lucky fanswho joined a little, you know,
online competition to come and enjoy thesort Women's Library without having to queue
up really so they can saunter inwith us and get a book and have
a lot of time to peruse.So we spoke to someone them after the
event to get their thoughts on theEORT Women's Library. Hello, friends and
(18:33):
book lovers, This is Honey andDiana and we are here covering the Eort
Women's Library live from TRX, andwe have with us the wonderful squad Long
who has been one of our friendsfor listener constant listener from this time.
Yeah so so, so I'm letlet us know what what is your impression
of this event and what what haveyou thought about the store while you were
(18:56):
in here? Definitely a lot differentfrom last year's store. We went to
the one at mid Valley. Lastyear's a lot smaller than this, right,
so, at the very least withthis one, when you're walking,
if you can't get into the leftside, the susidn't want to write,
So it's a bit spread up,which is a good thing for the rest
of us. You want to mingleand check them throol books off from shelves.
Yeah. Really, what do youthink of the book selection this year?
(19:18):
Very good, honestly. I meanthe fact that we don't have bilingual
selections this year is quite interesting,right and especially for a lot of Chinese
readers, maybe just like me andDiana who can beat Chinese but don't make
a habit of doing so. It'slike a good win for like also a
lot of picture books, a lotof picture books. So yeah, a
book for everyone, right, Yeah, why don'd you end up getting?
(19:40):
Ended up getting The Probable Conversation withCats and Other Distractions by Yo Joanne.
The title of it kind of remindsme, actually, the way you describe
it with's snaky talking cats kind ofreminded me about the Boy Detectives that you
couldn't remindy because I just finished therecently when you said it on the podcast,
I was like, O, I'mgoing to go get that because I'm
just looking for some cat piece tocome together with this. So that's what
(20:04):
I went with. But I wouldactually heavily recommend geting the bilingual books if
you guys could get it anyway,because that's actually really really good and it
would have been a strong second alreadyif I didn't get dissers only one book,
the only one, believe. Sowhat do you think of this initiative?
Do you think that is a veryimportant initiative in order to sort of
like amplify women's voices. I wouldsay so, like for one thing that's
(20:26):
already quite a diverse amount of publishers, like The Deplorable Conversation, Cat's Penguin
obviously, but there's a lot ofother local publishers that's coming through here as
well, diverse voices, because forone, we don't like you just have
Chinese authors, you have a millayneIndian authors as well, and keep me
in touch with the whole Malaysia things, multi culturalism as well. So,
I mean, this has been agood initiative and it's a much more expensive
(20:49):
collection and it got last year,which is great. So hopefully next year
we've got more of these nineteens comingthrough. We want this every year.
Peace, I would come for thisevery year. Good, excellent, And
he asked, what would you tellpeople about this event? Uh, it's
definitely going to be very difficult tomake a choice, and okay, it
(21:11):
really kind of differences. Would youwant to carry it by wait or would
you want to have it for likeenrichment, something that you want to just
be on the go of. You'relike, there's quite a lot of different
ways of thinking about it. Buthaving said that, though, the best
thing you can at least enjoy isthe estheticness of the bookstore and you com
its color coordinated is very pretty.So much, thanks so much, thank
you guys. Okay, Hi,I'm Aisha, and thank you so much
(21:42):
to talking for inviting me to theevent. So the book I chose today
is My Mother PARTU by Sarah's Monicamwho is an award meaning author, and
the story is essentially about love,loss, race, belonging, mostly said
in Malaysia. And I'm very intriguedby short story collections, so so I
selected this book and I really enjoyedattending the event today. I think it's
(22:07):
a great initiative to amplify women's stories. I think women should be able to
write freely. And it's true women'sstories that we see each other and align
ourselves with one another and recognize oneanother. So I think it's a highly
great initiative. And I also encouragepeople out there to join the event in
the upcoming days. Yeah, Ihope to see more people joining in the
(22:30):
next few days. We don't eventell us anything. Thank you, thank
you so well. Hi, I'mmy hero, my hero Marzuki. So
what book do you select today thatyou saw Women's Library? So I actually
(22:51):
support for choices. I had aselection that I like, I had a
book that I had in mind Iwanted to and then like I came in
and I just completely change Now forchoices, but ultimately I chose The Storm
We Made by Vanessa Chan. I'mjust very intrigued by the book. Guilt
is a very favorite, like it'sa favorite theme of mine. So that's
(23:12):
why I choose the book. Whatdo you think the choices you have this
year? The choice? Oh mygod, Like, it's a lot,
and they're all great. There arethemes that I can relate to a personally,
especially as stim Malaysian Asian women.I think all of those themes are
very relevant. And all those themesare also very complex because it like you
(23:33):
can relate it historically personally, likeeven your personal beliefs. So I think
that's very interesting. So that's thereason why it's just so difficult for me
to choose, because there's so manychoices, Like anything you want, they
have it. So do you thinkthey should do this initiative every year without
fail? Oh? Yes, everyyear? Please have it every year?
So yes, please do it.That's better to buy books. I just
(24:00):
go through this library, But whatdo you think about looking at this?
At the selections here for books thatyou haven't actually heard of? Fom so
this is stuff that I haven't heardbefore. So that's why I chose this
book so I initially wanted a bookthat I've heard of, but I didn't
get to I haven't read it yet, but coming in I feel like they're
(24:25):
amazing. And that's the reason whyI feel like everyone should go, because
you don't know what's in store untilyou get your hands on it, and
like you re read it and likethe summary and you're like, this is
probably the one that I could relateto, and I'm just so interested in
reading. But I feel like weneed more stories in our life. Yeah,
(24:45):
so that's why I think people shouldcome to it. So yeah,
I hope a good time to benice. Hi, my Shirley. And
today I chose Three Drops of RiceWine and it's a book by Borio lab
And I liked it because it's aboutconnections, and particularly in a time when
(25:07):
they did a lot of researching thepandemic, when we were all steck at
home. I think this book reallyshowed us that it doesn't matter where we
are, we're all connected in someway. What books were you also considering
here? I was quite attracted toFried Rice by I think Erica Hung and
it's a comic that I think recentlywon an Eismeer Award, So I was
(25:30):
quite drawn to that because it usedfood as a way to again show connections,
partically in a family setting. Sowhat do you think of that you
saw a women's library they initiate it? Were you? Were you here last
year? Yeah? I was herelast year for the women's library, and
I was really happy to see thatthey were coming back for a second round.
I personally love the fact that we'rehaving so many local women authors,
even so many authors that I didn'tknow myself, despite the fact that I
(25:53):
think I read quite a bit.So it's a really great initiative them that
they brought by you. Still youstill have a book line. I still
do have a book club. Yes, my book club's called Literacy, that's
right. Yeah, I mean whetheryou guys still meet up. We do,
so we read Southeast Asian literature.So I'm excited because he's not reading
Malaysian literature by Malaysian women. Isa great initiative to constantly bring back the
(26:15):
fact that we have amazing writing inthe region. And yeah, with their
books in this collection that you hadnot read of many many especially I think
the Chinese titles, even though Iread Chinese, but I don't know that
many Malaysian women authors were writing Chinese, so there were a lot that I
learned here. Bos you be lookingout for, yes, correct in our
(26:36):
next editions. We hope to readthem all right, thank you, thanks
so thank you so much to shareaway Aisha, Sukuan and Mahira. But
there was actually also another person thatwe had come along, but we sadly
did not get to talk to her. That was Ang Shuhn. So if
(27:00):
you enjoy your time there, Shohun, do you let us know. So.
So many of our listeners and socialmedia followers tagged us in their posts
or send us messages about their experienceat the library, thanking us for highlighting
the books available and sharing their appreciationfor the fabulous day out at the moor
(27:21):
House as well. So yeah,we appreciate each and every one of you
very much. Thank you. AbsolutelyWithout you, we'll just be talking into
a void. But also I feelincredibly blessed that we have such smart and
articulate listeners. I mean just listeningto how they kind of like talked about
the Women's Library and you know howwhat it means to them and all that,
(27:45):
So I felt, Oh Besla it'snice to have fans like this.
I think one thing that we reallydo have to clear up is that some
of you may have had the impressionthat the books available at the ease of
Women's Library were chosen by us.As a matter of fact, as much
as we'd like to take the creditfor having excellent dation books, the truth
(28:06):
is that were all chosen by theEase of Malaysia team, and they did
that in conjunction with the various bookstoresand publishers. So our main role in
this event was to get the wordout and to help our listeners decide which
of the books they wanted to claimand give them a little bit more insight
on the world behind the books thatthey love. And of course we were
(28:26):
so honored to be invited to chatwith some of the authors on both our
podcasts and as well as the launchparty at de Moohouse. We're really glad
that so many of our listeners andfollowers did attend the library event this year,
and going by your posts and reels, the excitement for the books this
year was very high. Of course, having us spread the word to our
followers, people who are already selfselected as readers and book enthusiasts. That
(28:49):
was pretty important. But I thinka lot of the credit for the enthusiasm
for the EYP Women's Library this yeargoes to the excellent books featured. And
if you miss the event itself,the is a women's library event at their
stores at the Exchange DRX and IOICity Mall, please look up the photos
and videos. Is so wonderfully doneand you get a chance to know again
(29:10):
the books on their list on theday itself. If you do pick up
a book, you get a centeredbookmark and a book stamp, and Remy
did mention that the book marks givenout will entitle you to a sample redemption
and a free skincare analysis at anyof the ESOP stores within the month of
June twenty twenty four, So pleaseget yourself down there because the stores themselves
are beautiful. Right. So yeah, I think it was definitely a fantastic
(29:36):
event and experience. Thanks again toits A Malaysia for the opportunity to be
a part of it, and forthe generosity in featuring the two booknotes talking
as well. And yeah, Ithink they figured that we as women podcasters
who engage in literature, we alsofit the theme of voices unbound. I
suppose we can actually quite proudly saythat it's true. Will represent quite a
(29:57):
niche perspective of stuff is Asian womenwho feature a lot of self is Asian
women's books, and because of theboundless nature of internet and podcasts, we
could say that our voices could beheard pretty much anywhere anywhere in the world.
So maybe it's good to segue justfor like two minutes to tell you
what we ourselves felt about the EastWomen's Library. I mean, of course
(30:21):
it's an honor, but I thinkdeeper than that, I feel it really
makes you feel kind of seen asa reader in Malaysia and us as a
podcast I mean, we have donethis podcast for a very long time,
and the fact that people recognize thestuff that we do, that they like
what our voices say to them reallymeans a lot to us. So it's
(30:41):
not just us as women, butus as podcasters and us as readers and
booknotes. So thank you, Isa. I hope that this is a start
of a very long relationship. Haha ha, Right, Dina, Definitely,
we also wanted to give Remi Wanga chance to share his thoughts on
the East Women's Library initial this year, so here's ready take it away.
(31:08):
When we set the goal for ISOWomen's Library second editions Voices about we wanted
something simple, objective and goals issoWomen's Library Voices able essence was a collective
aspirations to uphold local women voices andstory to literature. We am to unite
(31:29):
inspirations in every visitor, encouraging themto drive into the captivating works of Malaysian
female authors and extend this celebration toa wider audience. Our sole numerical target
was the redemptions of six thousand books. The goal we successfully achieved a testament
to our shared success. This year, we took a step further by diversifying
(31:53):
our book selections, incorporating a widerrange of genres, discussions, and topics.
This strategy move is to enhance peopleaccess to a different narrativefferent voices.
We have already seen the positive impactof these decisions with many of our objective
men and a thought of encouraging feedbackfrom our guests and partners. One of
(32:17):
my half fare experiences was thanks toall the guests who came to the library.
I was amazed and moved by theguests who visited us during the Women's
Library, almost everyone in knowing whatwas happening and what books they wanted to
take from the shelf. It wasan overwhelming response along queue for all three
(32:39):
days and everyone with the patiently inthe queue. All these were reasonable efforts
from the pre event marketing initiative.We have done with two bookners Talking thanks
to Honey Ahmad, Dianas and Stephanieand of course two human additions Shihan and
Jay for all the kamein information andcreative content created and shared through their platforms.
(33:06):
I think that really helps. Yeah, we have created beautiful memories with
this project, thanks to your thanksfor everyone. You guys are amazing.
So from our point of view,I think the readers of Malaysia definitely thought
of this year's event as a greatsuccess and it has the potential to be
(33:28):
the highlight of every year to come. We hope. So two Booknet's Talking
was very much a proud collaborator inthe Women's Library twenty twenty four and we
hope to continue to do so formany more years to come. And we
also hope that this is not justa once a year. Please go out
there read widely read locally, pickup a woman's author, a male author
(33:49):
a day and damn author. Itdoesn't matter ever so often if you are
a reader, check out what yourown people are writing about and spread the
word and the love because you know, this community is a very wonderful community,
and I think we can include alot more people in them, right
Definitely. You have been listening toHoney Ahmed and Diana Young of the two
(34:09):
Booknets Talking podcast coming to you fromthe Renegade Radio Studios in Kualaumpo, Malaysia.
This episode was brought to you byEast of Malaysia, editing by Honey
Ahmed and production by Stephanie on Checkus out at TBNT Books on ig and
too book Nets Talking on Facebook.Thank you so much for listening. Bye,
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