May 9, 2023 • 30 mins
Introducing The Aesop Women's Library!
During this time, the shelves of Aesop Pavilion, Aesop Gardens, and Aesop Gurney Plaza will be cleared of products to make way for significant works of literature by Malayisan women authors. The selection is sprawling in genre and spirit: from emerging voices to seasoned authors, and short stories to novels and poetry. To find out more, listen to this episode!
You'd be spoilt for choice as there will be 25 titles to choose from. Do visit the selected Aesop stores and these books will be complimentary, no purchase required.
Save these dates:
26-28 May 2023 (Aesop Pavilion, KL and Aesop The Gardens Mall)
2-4 June 2023 (Aesop Gurney Plaza, Penang)
Cheers booknerds!
During this time, the shelves of Aesop Pavilion, Aesop Gardens, and Aesop Gurney Plaza will be cleared of products to make way for significant works of literature by Malayisan women authors. The selection is sprawling in genre and spirit: from emerging voices to seasoned authors, and short stories to novels and poetry. To find out more, listen to this episode!
You'd be spoilt for choice as there will be 25 titles to choose from. Do visit the selected Aesop stores and these books will be complimentary, no purchase required.
Save these dates:
26-28 May 2023 (Aesop Pavilion, KL and Aesop The Gardens Mall)
2-4 June 2023 (Aesop Gurney Plaza, Penang)
Cheers booknerds!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
What does reading mean to you?Honey? That's the question, isn't it
to me? It's a way oflife. I wake up in the morning,
I reach out for a book ifI have a spare moment or if
I'm waiting, And every night beforeI go to bed, a story would
allow me to sleep and tell methat the day is done. I suppose
to me, reading is as naturalas breathing. At this point, I
can't imagine not reading. How aboutyou, Dina? I agree, I
(00:39):
just can't imagine life without books.They're pretty much my comfort and my escape,
you know, like the Portal tookplaces where I feel seen and I
feel understood, and where I cango to see and understand others. So
being a bookworm was about so muchmore than a hobby to me. It's
my obsession. I guess it's kindof my identity as well. Yeah.
(01:00):
I'm a youngest child, so Iwas quite solitary by nature. You know,
my siblings were a lot older thanme. So I do get it
a bit lonely, and books basicallyopen a world for me, and I
suspect many of us who read andread passionately understand what we are talking about.
Hello friends, and book lovers.Welcome to a special triple episode series
brought to you by Esop in collaborationwith us. The booklet's talking. So
(01:26):
when you say the words Esop Skincare, what's the first thing that comes to
mind? Do you think of theclean, minimalist lines of the beautifully appointed
stores, or perhaps you had animage of those esthetic glass bottles filled with
the most luxurious soaps, motions andperfumes. But if you're a book nerd
like Honey in Me, you alsothink of books. Now, isn't that
(01:47):
interesting? Yes? Esop is askincare brand from Australia and it is actually
pronounced Eso, right, Diana,not Aesop like a lot of us do.
I have to say. We havebeen to their offices and it is
the best smelling office ever. Itwill come to that space, you feel
really calm and you just want tokind of take all their products home with
you. But Diana, what doesEASA will have to do with books?
(02:13):
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the East of Women's Library.
If you haven't heard of this,pay attention, book nerds, you're gonna
want to listen to this. Thisis an initiative that was designed to help
champion and empower local women's literary voicesand celebrate the successes of these authors and
artists. The goal is to makea meaningful and memorable contribution to the community
(02:34):
through the sharing of local voices andstories. It was hell in Singapore last
year. It was hugely successful andwe Malaitians just looked on with envy.
But now it's our turn, becausethis year the East Of Women's Library is
coming to town. Yeay so yeahwho So for a few days in May
and June, key east Of storesin the Klein Valley in Penang will be
(02:55):
turned into a library where the publicwill be invited to drop in and browsed
books written by Malaysian women. Firstof all, everyone gets to take the
book of their choice home with themabsolutely no purchase necessary. Yep, you
heard it, complimentary books now.The eesat Women's Library in Singapore went on
in April twenty twenty two at theESOP stores in Vivo City and Marina based
(03:17):
sands, and for five days,the stores there was completely cleared of all
products and the shelves were filled withbooks by women from all over Southeast Asia.
Okay, so, now that youhave the background. Imagine how excitement
when ESOT Malasia got in touch withus back in February. Would you like
to work with us to celebrate localwomen writers and spread awareness of reading.
(03:38):
Yeah, of course, you prettymuch got us at hello to be part
of a project that is expressly aboutgetting more people to appreciate own voices,
stories that reflect who we are andwhere we are from. Where do we
sign up, right, Diana,Yeah, that's true. I mean it
was chanced to be involved in somethingthat we don't often get to do,
right, which is like part ofthe corporate world, to help bring books
(03:58):
into the public limelight. And Iwas really excited aboutout the chance to shine
a spotlight on our Malaysian women authors, to give them a platform that they
wouldn't usually have. So I haveto say it's an amazing selection of books
that they're put together for this libraryproject. There's so many inspired choices for
people from all walks of life,and the East of team has collaborated with
(04:19):
Malaysian publishers and bookstores to put togethera carefully selected library that has publication in
English, Chinese and bars of Malaysia, and the books will range from fiction
novels, short stories, poetry,memoir, cookbooks, short stories, you
name it, they've got it.And of course they buy all the books
and that helps out not only theauthors, but the publishers and bookstores as
(04:42):
well. The chosen up stores willbe stopped with over six thousand brand new
and varied titles, where visitors willbe invited to browse and make their choices
from. You're seriously going to havethe hardest time ever narrowing it down to
just the one book that you cango home with. Yeah, we feel
you. We know what that's like, choosing one book out of a CEO
wonderful titles. Yeah, this isgoing to be a hard one, Okay,
(05:05):
So our job is to help youmake a wise choice. And yeah,
so be sure to tune in overthe next two weeks where we'll be
going through a selection the books availableand you can hear from some of the
featured authors as well. And honestly, honey, I wish more companies thought
of doing projects like this because highlightingliterature is such an awesome way to really
give added value back to the community. Yep, definitely. My recommendation is
(05:30):
to come and bring all your friendsso that you guys can take different books
back and then by all means havea nice cup of tea, have a
piece of cake, and talk aboutthe books. And of course the books
that you want to get but youdon't pick up that day, you can
always go and buy them, youknow, support your local authors. Okay,
(05:55):
now that we have given you thespeel of what's going on with ESOP
the Women's Library, let's talk abit about how a project like this means
to us. So let's face it. Me and Diana are people who have
grown up in libraries and bookstores.And this is something I didn't realize until
I was an adult. A lotof the books that we read back there
did not reflect who we were.You know. We read in Blinton or
(06:18):
fall Away three and Nassy Drew andor Green Gables, classics like Oliver Toys,
Robinson Crusoe, and there was nolittle Asian girls. Nobody in those
books looked like us. None ofthem experienced Malasian schooling. You know,
even though both of us love toTouchan and we all who wish that Malaysia
had schools like total Chan School,but this, you know, they certainly
(06:41):
did not know how it's like togrow up with Asian mothers eat more rice
than cucumber sandwiches, and not beingallowed to leave the court yard, let
alone travel to distant magical lands.And I actually kind of wanted to be
a boy because they generally seemed tohave more exciting adventures. And I think
the older I got and more diversity, that's more diversity out there. I
(07:02):
realized, like, wow, youknow, like I did actually create for
those stories. What about your Dina? You know, just thinking about because
nothing happened to Asian girls, right, you don't have anything interesting going on?
What kind of role models did wehave? I think the earliest one
that I could think of is basicallylike Chinese Cinderella, and that's definitely not
a Cinderella is horrible story. Andthat is basically the only thing I could
(07:27):
think of. That's why I thinkI worshiped Total Chang, because here was
a girl who basically was encouraged byher community to be who she wanted to
be. We don't get a chanceto see that in a Malaysian setting.
And that was you know, like, I hope eventually more Malaysian young girls
will be able to experience things thatremind them of themselves, you know,
(07:49):
that's that's something that I think wereally haven't quite gotten to the stage.
I mean, you had Chinese Cinderella. I mean the story that I grew
up with was right where my mothergot upset because her child ate some fish
and then she got swallowed by astone. Yeah, I mean Hans Christen
Anderson generally, like you know,the rich shoes and all that are pretty
grim, you know, but likeour folklore in those days were kind of
(08:13):
grim as well. So I thinkI enjoyed more things like sunk and tail
and all that, you know,because you know, it made you feel
that you're a small person you canhoodwink and out with bigger people. Oh
yeah, talking about fairy tales,like I grew up just just reading every
single book of fairy tales I couldcome I could get my hands on.
(08:33):
You Sometimes I would read them tentimes because I couldn't find anything else I
wanted to read. So, youknow, like I went through all the
grams Hans Christian Andersen's, and thenI got into Greek mythology and Roman mythology
and Norse mythology, and then eventuallyI don't remember when it was, but
I remember there was one time Icame across this collection of Asian mythology in
(08:54):
the library, and I was like, I was just fun moxt It never
occurred to me until that they wereAsian mythologies, and that was like it
was so eye opening, and Ithink I really fell into them and I
thought that, you know, thiswas something that was so great because here
was something that validated a lot ofthe stories that you've heard from from your
(09:15):
parents and stuff like that, andyou get a sense of like, this
is something that makes more sense tous because they had that kind of like
religious and spiritual background that you kindof got like, yeah, that's the
kind of thing. You want tobe able to read stories that remind you
of where you came from. Andit's really exciting when we're seeing more and
(09:35):
more books that retell our own folkloors. I think what I started with was
like, um, they were likebilingual Chinese mythologies, right, and then
you do get certain Asian mythology collectionsthat come from the West as well,
where they tell like it did likelike momotaro, like Japanese kind of stories.
And then there was like certain mythologiesfrom Taiwan and from China and from
(10:01):
Vietnam. I think. I thinkthat's what I got once from a library.
Yeah, so I kind of likeborrowed that at least three or four
times. Yeah, I mean therewas a Malay collection of folk tales and
stuff. I remembered. They hadstories like pat Pandair and things like that,
you know, my jinine. Youknow, I remembered those because my
mother was so desperate for me toread more Malay books that she bought anything
(10:22):
that she could get on. Becauseclearly you and I are more English medium,
right, we grew up reading Englishbooks all the time. Yes,
yes, definitely being able to readin Malay, Yes, that definitely meant
to you could get some Blay mythology. But but if you'd only read in
English, you probably missed out ona lot of that. There wasn't that
many either, I mean there wasa lot of I think there was a
(10:43):
lot more ghost stuff. Yes,I mean, like you know, I
used to read all those Mustica magazinesand Maria Sarre right, and I used
to be like so scandalized reading thembecause it feels like so so evil right
reading this guy too. Yeah,Yeah, yeah, you know, so
I think this is why most Malasiansare as we hunt. It's always in
(11:03):
a dusty cabinet in your auntie's houseand you find this stack of magazines.
Yeah, it's true, it's true. We really need to have a conversation
about why there's so much literature thathas to do supernatural, right, Why
what is this? Why was itthat these are the books that were being
written, and why would these storiesthat people were talking about and thinking about
(11:24):
that's our fantasy, I guess.I mean, my my favorite books when
I was growing up was actually Wizardof Oz, the Wizard of Our series
and Little House in a Prairie series, And I remember us talking about this
before that it is because it actuallychronicles a life of a little girl,
a little girl going on her ownodyssey, you know, like Dorothy went
to the Land of Oz, andthat was sort of like her little epic
(11:46):
journey, you know, coming upage, you know, and you have
Laura Ingles wild though you literally readher growing up up to when she was
small until she got married. Butof course frontier life or an English child
in the nineteenth century does not reallygive any insight to the childhood of our
own parents and grandparents. So readingmakes you feel less alone in the world,
but at the same time you cravefor somebody or another author to see
(12:09):
your own life. Right, Sowe never really got from books the understanding
of your neighbor's perspective. It alsomeans that people in the wider world also
doesn't know the relation or Sautheast Asianexperience. I think it's also true that
you and I have both like waxlyrical about how much we enjoyed being in
libraries when we were young, andhow we've got these great memories about our
(12:31):
hometown libraries. And I think it'spretty sad that a few people seem to
like being in libraries anymore. Sothat's really really different from when I was
young. I would be just likeraring to go to the library because that's
where I can actually go and sinkinto the world of literature, right,
which is something that I think we'redepriving, how young of nowadays. You
(12:54):
know, libraries should be a placeof it where you can go and find
inspiration, where you find solidarity,imagination, you know, you find adventured
insight all within the pages of abook. So I'm hoping that the East
of Women's Library will bring back someof the sense of wonder and possibility and
help more people find stories that willtouch and change their lives. And how
(13:15):
incredible it is that every single oneof these books will be written by someone
who looks just like us. Indeed, yeah, women authors no less,
Yeah, I think the great thing. I think even libraries have to modernize,
which is why a lot of librariesare not digital, right, Like
people actually can take up books digitally. But I think sometimes nothing beats being
tactile. Nothing beats coming and browsingand picking up a book and see how
(13:37):
it feels in your hand and readingthe blurb and see whether it kind of
speaks to you. And I thinkthat is what the experience is. I
think for a company like Esop thatdoes products are very tactile, right,
like the beautiful hand creams and thehand washers and all that kind of stuff,
it kind of fits into their Ithink it really fits into their culture,
right, the fact that you pickup something and then you kind of
(14:00):
you know, he kind of feelit, right in that sense. I
like that idea. And actually Idid realize this the other day when we
were at the East of office aswell. You know, they emphasize so
much, you know, the senseof smell and touch and sound and all
that. All that. I mean, I'm so excited for this project because
they've actually showed us bock ups ofthe place and they're put in so much
(14:22):
thought into making it such a beautifulspace. It's kind of coded too,
It's so amazing. I mean,I mean, like they got Diana color
coded, you know, like allthe colors. It kind of like goes
how they managed to arrange it,so all the books they've chosen kind of
like match and they go together.And I tell you, it's amazing.
(14:43):
The attention to detail that they putinto this. It's just wow. And
I also feel like it's really importantfor this project because they've they're actually giving
visibility to Malaysian women authors, right, because visibility helps to create possibilities.
(15:05):
And the more Malaysian women authors arevisible, the more you encourage other Malaysian
women and children to aspire to write. And if we don't encourage more Malaysian
girls to grow up to become authors, then it's hard to increase the amount
of books available that cater to Malayiantastes and needs. That's part of why
promoting literature is such a vital serviceto community, and I think this is
(15:26):
why when you and I were startingthis podcast, we also were very conscious
that we wanted to make it aplatform as much as we can for local
and Southeast Asian writing. At thevery least every month we promote something local
because there's sometimes not enough avenues forthem, Because a very popular book gets
promoted on book podcast all over theworld, but from Malaysian and Southeast Asian
(15:46):
authors specifically, maybe not so much, right, And I guess the other
thing is actually to have more bookishevents, you know, because maybe reading
is less popular in Malaysia because wedon't see that many bookish events. You
know, we rarely see people intosabout the art of reading. We don't
necessarily reveal our authors. And youknow, most parents are very aware of
(16:07):
the benefits of reading, and theywill do a lot to encourage the habit
of reading their children, but dothey themselves read. You know, this
whole kind of lad by example.So you know, I think when a
kid sees how excited their parent isabout something, they might be more inclined
to think, Ay, this mightbe exciting for me too, you know.
I mean there's all kinds of reasonswhy people don't necessarily become readers.
(16:29):
Sometimes you just pick up the wrongbook at a young age and you like,
this book is so boring. Maybeall books are boring like this.
Yeah, I like to talk aboutreading in terms of like, you know,
everyone likes different things. When youwatch a TV show, just because
you like watching this show and youtell me you rave about it to me,
it doesn't mean I'm going to pickit up, right. So people
think of books, I often feelthis way. People ask me how do
(16:52):
you get into books? And I'mlike, you know, you have to
find the right one for you,right. Just because you I like this
book doesn't mean you would. Andthat's the beauty of bookstores. There's so
many different books. There's so manybooks out there. You might not like
everything in a bookstore, but that'swhy there's so many books out there,
so you can find the genre orthe topic that you're interested. Yeah.
I mean look at it this way. If you're going to pick up,
(17:12):
say, making things from clay,you can't make a vast straight away right
the moment you sit down. Soit's the same with books. Why why
would somebody give up trying a differentbook just because one book doesn't speak to
them, right, because you justhave to keep at it. Right,
Oh, maybe I might like thisbook, or sometimes you just need to
have somebody recommend you something based onwhat they know about you. Right.
(17:33):
So I don't know. I thinkthere are certain things that make somebody a
reader. And maybe it's not toolate, right, Like you can still
pick up reading as an adult.You can still pick up fiction because a
lot of Malasians read books for work, nonfiction for study, they don't actually
read for enjoyment. I think that'sa good point to make, actually,
because people kind of think, oh, you know, I missed the boat
(17:56):
if I didn't start reading when Iwas a child, which is ridiculous.
Margin it is. It is justplain ridiculous. Like there's no reason that
you can't, you know, lateron, discover that you have this interest.
Right, People pick up due interestall the time. People will start
playing piano in their sixties, they'llthey'll start, you know, like they'll
start getting into cooking, you know, later on life. There's no reason
you can't get into reading. Andseriously, I think the only barrier is
(18:21):
in finding the right one, becausefinding the right one is so hard with
there's so many choices out there's true. That is very true. So,
which brings us to the point thatthe ESOP team really took into consideration by
giving everybody a wide enough range ofchoices. So, I mean, you
and I both love fiction, andthe fiction section is always out first stop.
(18:41):
But if you're more of a nonfictionperson, they have you covered with
memoirs, as the anthologies and evencookbooks. One of my absolute favorites on
their list is one by Sharifa Nadiracalled Recalling Forgotten Taste. This is a
beautiful book. She basically did awhole research into or Astley foraging kind of
like culture, and she went intoI think she went up and hung out
(19:04):
with Sami and someone or Astley learnhow to cook their food. And she
also illustrates it, so you know, it's an intimate look into the rare
and unusual herbs and vegetables most ofus never knew. I mean I did
not know half the things that areactually edible when I go on hikes when
I was reading this book, right. So, and it also gives you
recipes so that they can try outthe cuisines as well. And here's Sharifa
(19:27):
telling you in her own words whather book is about Hi. My name
is Sharifa Nadira. I am avisual artist and the author of Recalling Forgotten
Taste. Recalling Forgotten Tastes is anillustrated collection of edible plants centered on environmental
(19:52):
knowledge and traditional culinary practices by theAra Asley communities in Tunis Slum, Lasia,
primarily from the Semi and to onesubgroups. When I started working on
the book, I really wanted toemphasize on archiving the disappearing knowledge of wild
(20:14):
foraging and implementation into their diet asboth are deeply intertwined with the rising threats
of deforestation and the loss of ancestryland. To the outsider, the forest
may seem dense and undisturbed, butto the Aura Asthlee it isn't all in
(20:37):
one supermarket, farm and pharmacy.Even though the book is rather a very
short read, it offers an introductionto the untapped knowledge of plants in the
forest and the backyards of ra Asleehomes and today, I'm very glad to
(20:59):
know that the book has reached outto so many people here and even abroad,
and thank you to Issa for expandingthe reach even further. Happy reading
something similar that also explores Malaysia's naturalenvironment and indigenous culture would be Low sweatfuons
(21:22):
lamb are you Alun. The Bariojournals about her time spent with the Collabbate
people in the remote interior amountains ofBorneo, and this book chronicles have philosophical
reflections on the experience. The waythey end about Barrio usually is the rice
Bario Rice, right, which ishill rice. I used to know one
or to Collabbate people, and they'revery kind of hardy folk, you know,
(21:44):
and you know and you can tellthat you can you know, a's
a lot of storytelling in their cultureas well. So this this will be
a good book if you are interestedin a culture that maybe you might not
necessarily know very much about it,right. And another person of a lot
of insight to is Gunchitwa, oneof the most pioneering women in Malasian history
Top one. Gunchitwa shares her lifestory in Waves of Independence Memoirs of a
(22:07):
Malaysian Doyan. So it's a fascinatingpeak into life from earliest years as the
daughter of a diplomat to reading lawat Cambridge and with the likes of the
future Missus Lequan you and later battlingdiscrimination and glass ceilings as a barrister at
law. Yeah, so this ismy is like an inspirational reads right where
you know, if you have aface discrimination due to gender at your workplace,
(22:32):
you know, it makes you allthese women who has kind of like
paved the way right so that youyou now have like a better access to
a lot of things. And itwas also the fact that we don't really
think of women being instrumental in creatinga lot of the law maybe or the
history in our country. So sothis is this is a great book to
(22:52):
inspire young girls. I mean,like not we don't even talk about young
girls. Like even older girls likeus, we also need to be reminded
sometimes that you know, like weare half half the we are half of
society. We've done a lot aswell. So you know, I think
in books like this you might thinkof them as like, you know,
like everyone's written a memoir, butsometimes it's the right memoir that you choose,
(23:17):
right, it's the one that reallymakes a difference to you. So,
Okay, another memoir that you mightlike to pick up is when the
chicken dies, everyone cries by Boonseries Some Chit. It's such a cute
title. Yeah, I'm gonna letBoon Serie tell you a little bit about
homebook. Hello, my name isBoon Series Some Chit, and I am
(23:40):
the author of the book When theChicken Dies, everyone Cries. I must
say that I am truly surprised andhonored that this book, that was published
in twenty sixteen, has been chosenfor the ASA Women's Library Collection. Thank
you very much from the bottom ofmy heart. I have been many times
back then and even now why didI write this book? And interestingly,
(24:06):
of course, why did the chickendie? And why does everyone cry?
I will answer the first why,but the other two you need to really
read the book to find out why. So why did I write this book?
I grew up in a little villageor come home in our style,
(24:26):
and my parents didn't have much.There were eight of us or eight siblings,
and including my parents at ten ofus, and my parents worked very
hard to put us through school andto give us the things that we needed
to be successful in our life.Unfortunately, I failed my Form six or
(24:47):
US at that time, or STPM, and it taught me a very valuable
lesson. Today when somebody asked me, what would be the biggest thing that
you've learned in your life? Saythat the ability to bounce back from a
failure. At that time when Ifelt I really felt very down. And
it didn't add to the fact thatI also had some inferiority complex because of
(25:12):
the fact that I was different.As you can see, I am Psiamese
or tie. There's not many ofus around, and so growing up,
you know, I felt like Iwas the odd one out. But as
I grew older, I recognized thatit is my difference that makes me strong.
(25:32):
It is my ability to bounce backin times of failure that makes me
strong. And I think it's notjust me, but everybody. We've gone
through a pandemic and many of usare still standing up, yeah, forging
ahead, trying new things. AndI think that's what was the reason that
I wrote my book back then,to share that life is not about giving
(25:56):
up when you fall, but aboutgetting up and getting stronger every time that
you get up. I hope thisbook will resonate with many of you,
and I hope that you enjoy readingit as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thank you very much, once again, and have a great day.
(26:23):
This book draws upon the author's childhoodexperiences for leadership and life lessons. She
was brought up in a small Kadahancampong as the youngest of a family of
ten and yeah, basically that gaveher a lot of experiences that taught her
everything that she needed to know togo on to had a key role in
an multinational corporation and become the brandambassador of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
(26:49):
Yeah, so that's going to bean interesting story there. It sounds
like a book where you have toget your hands in right. It's like
a very kind of like you can'tjust assume somebody else is going to do
it. You've got to get yourhands study. You know, you've got
to get in there right, youknow, you know, I guess in
those days you want to make chicken, carry a chicken has to Dina.
(27:11):
Okay. There's also non Returnable MySpecial Child from Heaven by what Nuci,
as the title suggests, is whatthese memoirs of raising a special needs child,
Jolita, who has a medical syndromethat causes her to suffer near constant
epileptic seizures. So this book sharesher journey from dejection to acceptance of Delita's
condition and her hopes for her daughter'sfuture. Now, now this is interesting
(27:33):
because in recent years, more andmore people are coming out and talking about
raising children or autistic children or childrenthat has special needs. And I think
for a long time, a lotof these people feel quite alone because that's
not enough literature out there or support. So you always feel that nobody can
relate to you and things like that. So I think books like this are
super important, right, Dina,Definitely, definitely for Chinese readers. There
(27:56):
are a few nonfiction picks as well. To begin with, there is a
cookbook entitled Roots Tongue, which sharesthe musings and recipes from a well traveled
lover of comfort food. And youcan also take a pick from three different
essay collections available. There's Ye TunSauni by Yang Jin Chun, Ye Fung
War by Lang Jing Fun, aswell as two Quilt the Roots by two
(28:22):
Quila. That's a pseudonym, Iassume because no one's called that. But
what is it? What is it? It just it means two Quilt the
Roots means wishing you happy days,and the and the and the name of
the author is wishing you happy,so that's cute. But anyway, folks,
(28:45):
if fiction is more your thing,and we'll be going in depth on
other available selections in next week's episode, so there'll be episode two, so
be sure to tune in for that. We'll be talking fiction and poetry selections
during the ESAU a Woman's Library andof course save the day listen very carefully
save these dates for the ESO Women'sLibrary events. That's twenty six to the
(29:06):
twenty eighth of May at the ESOPstores at Pavilion KL and the Gardens and
is the second to the fourth ofJune at Gurney Plaza, Pinang to recap.
During these dates, the selected storeswill be converted into temporary library spaces
and visitors will be invited to browsefrom the twenty five selected books and take
home a book each. So theevent is open to everyone. You don't
(29:29):
need to be an ESOP customer toattend and no purchase is needed to participate.
And be sure to invite all yourbook loving friends to drop in,
even friends who might not necessarily bereaders, because we want them to feel
just excited about books as you knowyou are and we are and then yeah,
maybe we'll see each other dare.This episode was brought to you by
Ees of Malaysia, Production and editingby Sephanie Ng and Honey Ahmad. Because
(29:52):
something pressing to share with us,Email us at bookers Talking at gmail dot
com or reach out to us atTBNT Books on Instagram, two book Nerds
Talking on Facebook or TBNT Pod onTwitter. You've been listening to myself,
Diana Young and me Honey Ahmed Untilnext week, Happy reading book notes
What does reading mean to you?Honey? That's the question, isn't it
to me? It's a way oflife. I wake up in the morning,
I reach out for a book ifI have a spare moment or if
I'm waiting, And every night beforeI go to bed, a story would
allow me to sleep and tell methat the day is done. I suppose
to me, reading is as naturalas breathing. At this point, I
can't imagine not reading. How aboutyou, Dina? I agree, I
(00:39):
just can't imagine life without books.They're pretty much my comfort and my escape,
you know, like the Portal tookplaces where I feel seen and I
feel understood, and where I cango to see and understand others. So
being a bookworm was about so muchmore than a hobby to me. It's
my obsession. I guess it's kindof my identity as well. Yeah.
(01:00):
I'm a youngest child, so Iwas quite solitary by nature. You know,
my siblings were a lot older thanme. So I do get it
a bit lonely, and books basicallyopen a world for me, and I
suspect many of us who read andread passionately understand what we are talking about.
Hello friends, and book lovers.Welcome to a special triple episode series
brought to you by Esop in collaborationwith us. The booklet's talking. So
(01:26):
when you say the words Esop Skincare, what's the first thing that comes to
mind? Do you think of theclean, minimalist lines of the beautifully appointed
stores, or perhaps you had animage of those esthetic glass bottles filled with
the most luxurious soaps, motions andperfumes. But if you're a book nerd
like Honey in Me, you alsothink of books. Now, isn't that
(01:47):
interesting? Yes? Esop is askincare brand from Australia and it is actually
pronounced Eso, right, Diana,not Aesop like a lot of us do.
I have to say. We havebeen to their offices and it is
the best smelling office ever. Itwill come to that space, you feel
really calm and you just want tokind of take all their products home with
you. But Diana, what doesEASA will have to do with books?
(02:13):
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the East of Women's Library.
If you haven't heard of this,pay attention, book nerds, you're gonna
want to listen to this. Thisis an initiative that was designed to help
champion and empower local women's literary voicesand celebrate the successes of these authors and
artists. The goal is to makea meaningful and memorable contribution to the community
(02:34):
through the sharing of local voices andstories. It was hell in Singapore last
year. It was hugely successful andwe Malaitians just looked on with envy.
But now it's our turn, becausethis year the East Of Women's Library is
coming to town. Yeay so yeahwho So for a few days in May
and June, key east Of storesin the Klein Valley in Penang will be
(02:55):
turned into a library where the publicwill be invited to drop in and browsed
books written by Malaysian women. Firstof all, everyone gets to take the
book of their choice home with themabsolutely no purchase necessary. Yep, you
heard it, complimentary books now.The eesat Women's Library in Singapore went on
in April twenty twenty two at theESOP stores in Vivo City and Marina based
(03:17):
sands, and for five days,the stores there was completely cleared of all
products and the shelves were filled withbooks by women from all over Southeast Asia.
Okay, so, now that youhave the background. Imagine how excitement
when ESOT Malasia got in touch withus back in February. Would you like
to work with us to celebrate localwomen writers and spread awareness of reading.
(03:38):
Yeah, of course, you prettymuch got us at hello to be part
of a project that is expressly aboutgetting more people to appreciate own voices,
stories that reflect who we are andwhere we are from. Where do we
sign up, right, Diana,Yeah, that's true. I mean it
was chanced to be involved in somethingthat we don't often get to do,
right, which is like part ofthe corporate world, to help bring books
(03:58):
into the public limelight. And Iwas really excited aboutout the chance to shine
a spotlight on our Malaysian women authors, to give them a platform that they
wouldn't usually have. So I haveto say it's an amazing selection of books
that they're put together for this libraryproject. There's so many inspired choices for
people from all walks of life,and the East of team has collaborated with
(04:19):
Malaysian publishers and bookstores to put togethera carefully selected library that has publication in
English, Chinese and bars of Malaysia, and the books will range from fiction
novels, short stories, poetry,memoir, cookbooks, short stories, you
name it, they've got it.And of course they buy all the books
and that helps out not only theauthors, but the publishers and bookstores as
(04:42):
well. The chosen up stores willbe stopped with over six thousand brand new
and varied titles, where visitors willbe invited to browse and make their choices
from. You're seriously going to havethe hardest time ever narrowing it down to
just the one book that you cango home with. Yeah, we feel
you. We know what that's like, choosing one book out of a CEO
wonderful titles. Yeah, this isgoing to be a hard one, Okay,
(05:05):
So our job is to help youmake a wise choice. And yeah,
so be sure to tune in overthe next two weeks where we'll be
going through a selection the books availableand you can hear from some of the
featured authors as well. And honestly, honey, I wish more companies thought
of doing projects like this because highlightingliterature is such an awesome way to really
give added value back to the community. Yep, definitely. My recommendation is
(05:30):
to come and bring all your friendsso that you guys can take different books
back and then by all means havea nice cup of tea, have a
piece of cake, and talk aboutthe books. And of course the books
that you want to get but youdon't pick up that day, you can
always go and buy them, youknow, support your local authors. Okay,
(05:55):
now that we have given you thespeel of what's going on with ESOP
the Women's Library, let's talk abit about how a project like this means
to us. So let's face it. Me and Diana are people who have
grown up in libraries and bookstores.And this is something I didn't realize until
I was an adult. A lotof the books that we read back there
did not reflect who we were.You know. We read in Blinton or
(06:18):
fall Away three and Nassy Drew andor Green Gables, classics like Oliver Toys,
Robinson Crusoe, and there was nolittle Asian girls. Nobody in those
books looked like us. None ofthem experienced Malasian schooling. You know,
even though both of us love toTouchan and we all who wish that Malaysia
had schools like total Chan School,but this, you know, they certainly
(06:41):
did not know how it's like togrow up with Asian mothers eat more rice
than cucumber sandwiches, and not beingallowed to leave the court yard, let
alone travel to distant magical lands.And I actually kind of wanted to be
a boy because they generally seemed tohave more exciting adventures. And I think
the older I got and more diversity, that's more diversity out there. I
(07:02):
realized, like, wow, youknow, like I did actually create for
those stories. What about your Dina? You know, just thinking about because
nothing happened to Asian girls, right, you don't have anything interesting going on?
What kind of role models did wehave? I think the earliest one
that I could think of is basicallylike Chinese Cinderella, and that's definitely not
a Cinderella is horrible story. Andthat is basically the only thing I could
(07:27):
think of. That's why I thinkI worshiped Total Chang, because here was
a girl who basically was encouraged byher community to be who she wanted to
be. We don't get a chanceto see that in a Malaysian setting.
And that was you know, like, I hope eventually more Malaysian young girls
will be able to experience things thatremind them of themselves, you know,
(07:49):
that's that's something that I think wereally haven't quite gotten to the stage.
I mean, you had Chinese Cinderella. I mean the story that I grew
up with was right where my mothergot upset because her child ate some fish
and then she got swallowed by astone. Yeah, I mean Hans Christen
Anderson generally, like you know,the rich shoes and all that are pretty
grim, you know, but likeour folklore in those days were kind of
(08:13):
grim as well. So I thinkI enjoyed more things like sunk and tail
and all that, you know,because you know, it made you feel
that you're a small person you canhoodwink and out with bigger people. Oh
yeah, talking about fairy tales,like I grew up just just reading every
single book of fairy tales I couldcome I could get my hands on.
(08:33):
You Sometimes I would read them tentimes because I couldn't find anything else I
wanted to read. So, youknow, like I went through all the
grams Hans Christian Andersen's, and thenI got into Greek mythology and Roman mythology
and Norse mythology, and then eventuallyI don't remember when it was, but
I remember there was one time Icame across this collection of Asian mythology in
(08:54):
the library, and I was like, I was just fun moxt It never
occurred to me until that they wereAsian mythologies, and that was like it
was so eye opening, and Ithink I really fell into them and I
thought that, you know, thiswas something that was so great because here
was something that validated a lot ofthe stories that you've heard from from your
(09:15):
parents and stuff like that, andyou get a sense of like, this
is something that makes more sense tous because they had that kind of like
religious and spiritual background that you kindof got like, yeah, that's the
kind of thing. You want tobe able to read stories that remind you
of where you came from. Andit's really exciting when we're seeing more and
(09:35):
more books that retell our own folkloors. I think what I started with was
like, um, they were likebilingual Chinese mythologies, right, and then
you do get certain Asian mythology collectionsthat come from the West as well,
where they tell like it did likelike momotaro, like Japanese kind of stories.
And then there was like certain mythologiesfrom Taiwan and from China and from
(10:01):
Vietnam. I think. I thinkthat's what I got once from a library.
Yeah, so I kind of likeborrowed that at least three or four
times. Yeah, I mean therewas a Malay collection of folk tales and
stuff. I remembered. They hadstories like pat Pandair and things like that,
you know, my jinine. Youknow, I remembered those because my
mother was so desperate for me toread more Malay books that she bought anything
(10:22):
that she could get on. Becauseclearly you and I are more English medium,
right, we grew up reading Englishbooks all the time. Yes,
yes, definitely being able to readin Malay, Yes, that definitely meant
to you could get some Blay mythology. But but if you'd only read in
English, you probably missed out ona lot of that. There wasn't that
many either, I mean there wasa lot of I think there was a
(10:43):
lot more ghost stuff. Yes,I mean, like you know, I
used to read all those Mustica magazinesand Maria Sarre right, and I used
to be like so scandalized reading thembecause it feels like so so evil right
reading this guy too. Yeah,Yeah, yeah, you know, so
I think this is why most Malasiansare as we hunt. It's always in
(11:03):
a dusty cabinet in your auntie's houseand you find this stack of magazines.
Yeah, it's true, it's true. We really need to have a conversation
about why there's so much literature thathas to do supernatural, right, Why
what is this? Why was itthat these are the books that were being
written, and why would these storiesthat people were talking about and thinking about
(11:24):
that's our fantasy, I guess.I mean, my my favorite books when
I was growing up was actually Wizardof Oz, the Wizard of Our series
and Little House in a Prairie series, And I remember us talking about this
before that it is because it actuallychronicles a life of a little girl,
a little girl going on her ownodyssey, you know, like Dorothy went
to the Land of Oz, andthat was sort of like her little epic
(11:46):
journey, you know, coming upage, you know, and you have
Laura Ingles wild though you literally readher growing up up to when she was
small until she got married. Butof course frontier life or an English child
in the nineteenth century does not reallygive any insight to the childhood of our
own parents and grandparents. So readingmakes you feel less alone in the world,
but at the same time you cravefor somebody or another author to see
(12:09):
your own life. Right, Sowe never really got from books the understanding
of your neighbor's perspective. It alsomeans that people in the wider world also
doesn't know the relation or Sautheast Asianexperience. I think it's also true that
you and I have both like waxlyrical about how much we enjoyed being in
libraries when we were young, andhow we've got these great memories about our
(12:31):
hometown libraries. And I think it'spretty sad that a few people seem to
like being in libraries anymore. Sothat's really really different from when I was
young. I would be just likeraring to go to the library because that's
where I can actually go and sinkinto the world of literature, right,
which is something that I think we'redepriving, how young of nowadays. You
(12:54):
know, libraries should be a placeof it where you can go and find
inspiration, where you find solidarity,imagination, you know, you find adventured
insight all within the pages of abook. So I'm hoping that the East
of Women's Library will bring back someof the sense of wonder and possibility and
help more people find stories that willtouch and change their lives. And how
(13:15):
incredible it is that every single oneof these books will be written by someone
who looks just like us. Indeed, yeah, women authors no less,
Yeah, I think the great thing. I think even libraries have to modernize,
which is why a lot of librariesare not digital, right, Like
people actually can take up books digitally. But I think sometimes nothing beats being
tactile. Nothing beats coming and browsingand picking up a book and see how
(13:37):
it feels in your hand and readingthe blurb and see whether it kind of
speaks to you. And I thinkthat is what the experience is. I
think for a company like Esop thatdoes products are very tactile, right,
like the beautiful hand creams and thehand washers and all that kind of stuff,
it kind of fits into their Ithink it really fits into their culture,
right, the fact that you pickup something and then you kind of
(14:00):
you know, he kind of feelit, right in that sense. I
like that idea. And actually Idid realize this the other day when we
were at the East of office aswell. You know, they emphasize so
much, you know, the senseof smell and touch and sound and all
that. All that. I mean, I'm so excited for this project because
they've actually showed us bock ups ofthe place and they're put in so much
(14:22):
thought into making it such a beautifulspace. It's kind of coded too,
It's so amazing. I mean,I mean, like they got Diana color
coded, you know, like allthe colors. It kind of like goes
how they managed to arrange it,so all the books they've chosen kind of
like match and they go together.And I tell you, it's amazing.
(14:43):
The attention to detail that they putinto this. It's just wow. And
I also feel like it's really importantfor this project because they've they're actually giving
visibility to Malaysian women authors, right, because visibility helps to create possibilities.
(15:05):
And the more Malaysian women authors arevisible, the more you encourage other Malaysian
women and children to aspire to write. And if we don't encourage more Malaysian
girls to grow up to become authors, then it's hard to increase the amount
of books available that cater to Malayiantastes and needs. That's part of why
promoting literature is such a vital serviceto community, and I think this is
(15:26):
why when you and I were startingthis podcast, we also were very conscious
that we wanted to make it aplatform as much as we can for local
and Southeast Asian writing. At thevery least every month we promote something local
because there's sometimes not enough avenues forthem, Because a very popular book gets
promoted on book podcast all over theworld, but from Malaysian and Southeast Asian
(15:46):
authors specifically, maybe not so much, right, And I guess the other
thing is actually to have more bookishevents, you know, because maybe reading
is less popular in Malaysia because wedon't see that many bookish events. You
know, we rarely see people intosabout the art of reading. We don't
necessarily reveal our authors. And youknow, most parents are very aware of
(16:07):
the benefits of reading, and theywill do a lot to encourage the habit
of reading their children, but dothey themselves read. You know, this
whole kind of lad by example.So you know, I think when a
kid sees how excited their parent isabout something, they might be more inclined
to think, Ay, this mightbe exciting for me too, you know.
I mean there's all kinds of reasonswhy people don't necessarily become readers.
(16:29):
Sometimes you just pick up the wrongbook at a young age and you like,
this book is so boring. Maybeall books are boring like this.
Yeah, I like to talk aboutreading in terms of like, you know,
everyone likes different things. When youwatch a TV show, just because
you like watching this show and youtell me you rave about it to me,
it doesn't mean I'm going to pickit up, right. So people
think of books, I often feelthis way. People ask me how do
(16:52):
you get into books? And I'mlike, you know, you have to
find the right one for you,right. Just because you I like this
book doesn't mean you would. Andthat's the beauty of bookstores. There's so
many different books. There's so manybooks out there. You might not like
everything in a bookstore, but that'swhy there's so many books out there,
so you can find the genre orthe topic that you're interested. Yeah.
I mean look at it this way. If you're going to pick up,
(17:12):
say, making things from clay,you can't make a vast straight away right
the moment you sit down. Soit's the same with books. Why why
would somebody give up trying a differentbook just because one book doesn't speak to
them, right, because you justhave to keep at it. Right,
Oh, maybe I might like thisbook, or sometimes you just need to
have somebody recommend you something based onwhat they know about you. Right.
(17:33):
So I don't know. I thinkthere are certain things that make somebody a
reader. And maybe it's not toolate, right, Like you can still
pick up reading as an adult.You can still pick up fiction because a
lot of Malasians read books for work, nonfiction for study, they don't actually
read for enjoyment. I think that'sa good point to make, actually,
because people kind of think, oh, you know, I missed the boat
(17:56):
if I didn't start reading when Iwas a child, which is ridiculous.
Margin it is. It is justplain ridiculous. Like there's no reason that
you can't, you know, lateron, discover that you have this interest.
Right, People pick up due interestall the time. People will start
playing piano in their sixties, they'llthey'll start, you know, like they'll
start getting into cooking, you know, later on life. There's no reason
you can't get into reading. Andseriously, I think the only barrier is
(18:21):
in finding the right one, becausefinding the right one is so hard with
there's so many choices out there's true. That is very true. So,
which brings us to the point thatthe ESOP team really took into consideration by
giving everybody a wide enough range ofchoices. So, I mean, you
and I both love fiction, andthe fiction section is always out first stop.
(18:41):
But if you're more of a nonfictionperson, they have you covered with
memoirs, as the anthologies and evencookbooks. One of my absolute favorites on
their list is one by Sharifa Nadiracalled Recalling Forgotten Taste. This is a
beautiful book. She basically did awhole research into or Astley foraging kind of
like culture, and she went intoI think she went up and hung out
(19:04):
with Sami and someone or Astley learnhow to cook their food. And she
also illustrates it, so you know, it's an intimate look into the rare
and unusual herbs and vegetables most ofus never knew. I mean I did
not know half the things that areactually edible when I go on hikes when
I was reading this book, right. So, and it also gives you
recipes so that they can try outthe cuisines as well. And here's Sharifa
(19:27):
telling you in her own words whather book is about Hi. My name
is Sharifa Nadira. I am avisual artist and the author of Recalling Forgotten
Taste. Recalling Forgotten Tastes is anillustrated collection of edible plants centered on environmental
(19:52):
knowledge and traditional culinary practices by theAra Asley communities in Tunis Slum, Lasia,
primarily from the Semi and to onesubgroups. When I started working on
the book, I really wanted toemphasize on archiving the disappearing knowledge of wild
(20:14):
foraging and implementation into their diet asboth are deeply intertwined with the rising threats
of deforestation and the loss of ancestryland. To the outsider, the forest
may seem dense and undisturbed, butto the Aura Asthlee it isn't all in
(20:37):
one supermarket, farm and pharmacy.Even though the book is rather a very
short read, it offers an introductionto the untapped knowledge of plants in the
forest and the backyards of ra Asleehomes and today, I'm very glad to
(20:59):
know that the book has reached outto so many people here and even abroad,
and thank you to Issa for expandingthe reach even further. Happy reading
something similar that also explores Malaysia's naturalenvironment and indigenous culture would be Low sweatfuons
(21:22):
lamb are you Alun. The Bariojournals about her time spent with the Collabbate
people in the remote interior amountains ofBorneo, and this book chronicles have philosophical
reflections on the experience. The waythey end about Barrio usually is the rice
Bario Rice, right, which ishill rice. I used to know one
or to Collabbate people, and they'revery kind of hardy folk, you know,
(21:44):
and you know and you can tellthat you can you know, a's
a lot of storytelling in their cultureas well. So this this will be
a good book if you are interestedin a culture that maybe you might not
necessarily know very much about it,right. And another person of a lot
of insight to is Gunchitwa, oneof the most pioneering women in Malasian history
Top one. Gunchitwa shares her lifestory in Waves of Independence Memoirs of a
(22:07):
Malaysian Doyan. So it's a fascinatingpeak into life from earliest years as the
daughter of a diplomat to reading lawat Cambridge and with the likes of the
future Missus Lequan you and later battlingdiscrimination and glass ceilings as a barrister at
law. Yeah, so this ismy is like an inspirational reads right where
you know, if you have aface discrimination due to gender at your workplace,
(22:32):
you know, it makes you allthese women who has kind of like
paved the way right so that youyou now have like a better access to
a lot of things. And itwas also the fact that we don't really
think of women being instrumental in creatinga lot of the law maybe or the
history in our country. So sothis is this is a great book to
(22:52):
inspire young girls. I mean,like not we don't even talk about young
girls. Like even older girls likeus, we also need to be reminded
sometimes that you know, like weare half half the we are half of
society. We've done a lot aswell. So you know, I think
in books like this you might thinkof them as like, you know,
like everyone's written a memoir, butsometimes it's the right memoir that you choose,
(23:17):
right, it's the one that reallymakes a difference to you. So,
Okay, another memoir that you mightlike to pick up is when the
chicken dies, everyone cries by Boonseries Some Chit. It's such a cute
title. Yeah, I'm gonna letBoon Serie tell you a little bit about
homebook. Hello, my name isBoon Series Some Chit, and I am
(23:40):
the author of the book When theChicken Dies, everyone Cries. I must
say that I am truly surprised andhonored that this book, that was published
in twenty sixteen, has been chosenfor the ASA Women's Library Collection. Thank
you very much from the bottom ofmy heart. I have been many times
back then and even now why didI write this book? And interestingly,
(24:06):
of course, why did the chickendie? And why does everyone cry?
I will answer the first why,but the other two you need to really
read the book to find out why. So why did I write this book?
I grew up in a little villageor come home in our style,
(24:26):
and my parents didn't have much.There were eight of us or eight siblings,
and including my parents at ten ofus, and my parents worked very
hard to put us through school andto give us the things that we needed
to be successful in our life.Unfortunately, I failed my Form six or
(24:47):
US at that time, or STPM, and it taught me a very valuable
lesson. Today when somebody asked me, what would be the biggest thing that
you've learned in your life? Saythat the ability to bounce back from a
failure. At that time when Ifelt I really felt very down. And
it didn't add to the fact thatI also had some inferiority complex because of
(25:12):
the fact that I was different.As you can see, I am Psiamese
or tie. There's not many ofus around, and so growing up,
you know, I felt like Iwas the odd one out. But as
I grew older, I recognized thatit is my difference that makes me strong.
(25:32):
It is my ability to bounce backin times of failure that makes me
strong. And I think it's notjust me, but everybody. We've gone
through a pandemic and many of usare still standing up, yeah, forging
ahead, trying new things. AndI think that's what was the reason that
I wrote my book back then,to share that life is not about giving
(25:56):
up when you fall, but aboutgetting up and getting stronger every time that
you get up. I hope thisbook will resonate with many of you,
and I hope that you enjoy readingit as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thank you very much, once again, and have a great day.
(26:23):
This book draws upon the author's childhoodexperiences for leadership and life lessons. She
was brought up in a small Kadahancampong as the youngest of a family of
ten and yeah, basically that gaveher a lot of experiences that taught her
everything that she needed to know togo on to had a key role in
an multinational corporation and become the brandambassador of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
(26:49):
Yeah, so that's going to bean interesting story there. It sounds
like a book where you have toget your hands in right. It's like
a very kind of like you can'tjust assume somebody else is going to do
it. You've got to get yourhands study. You know, you've got
to get in there right, youknow, you know, I guess in
those days you want to make chicken, carry a chicken has to Dina.
(27:11):
Okay. There's also non Returnable MySpecial Child from Heaven by what Nuci,
as the title suggests, is whatthese memoirs of raising a special needs child,
Jolita, who has a medical syndromethat causes her to suffer near constant
epileptic seizures. So this book sharesher journey from dejection to acceptance of Delita's
condition and her hopes for her daughter'sfuture. Now, now this is interesting
(27:33):
because in recent years, more andmore people are coming out and talking about
raising children or autistic children or childrenthat has special needs. And I think
for a long time, a lotof these people feel quite alone because that's
not enough literature out there or support. So you always feel that nobody can
relate to you and things like that. So I think books like this are
super important, right, Dina,Definitely, definitely for Chinese readers. There
(27:56):
are a few nonfiction picks as well. To begin with, there is a
cookbook entitled Roots Tongue, which sharesthe musings and recipes from a well traveled
lover of comfort food. And youcan also take a pick from three different
essay collections available. There's Ye TunSauni by Yang Jin Chun, Ye Fung
War by Lang Jing Fun, aswell as two Quilt the Roots by two
(28:22):
Quila. That's a pseudonym, Iassume because no one's called that. But
what is it? What is it? It just it means two Quilt the
Roots means wishing you happy days,and the and the and the name of
the author is wishing you happy,so that's cute. But anyway, folks,
(28:45):
if fiction is more your thing,and we'll be going in depth on
other available selections in next week's episode, so there'll be episode two, so
be sure to tune in for that. We'll be talking fiction and poetry selections
during the ESAU a Woman's Library andof course save the day listen very carefully
save these dates for the ESO Women'sLibrary events. That's twenty six to the
(29:06):
twenty eighth of May at the ESOPstores at Pavilion KL and the Gardens and
is the second to the fourth ofJune at Gurney Plaza, Pinang to recap.
During these dates, the selected storeswill be converted into temporary library spaces
and visitors will be invited to browsefrom the twenty five selected books and take
home a book each. So theevent is open to everyone. You don't
(29:29):
need to be an ESOP customer toattend and no purchase is needed to participate.
And be sure to invite all yourbook loving friends to drop in,
even friends who might not necessarily bereaders, because we want them to feel
just excited about books as you knowyou are and we are and then yeah,
maybe we'll see each other dare.This episode was brought to you by
Ees of Malaysia, Production and editingby Sephanie Ng and Honey Ahmad. Because
(29:52):
something pressing to share with us,Email us at bookers Talking at gmail dot
com or reach out to us atTBNT Books on Instagram, two book Nerds
Talking on Facebook or TBNT Pod onTwitter. You've been listening to myself,
Diana Young and me Honey Ahmed Untilnext week, Happy reading book notes
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