Cheers booknerds!
This is the second episode of our Aesop Women's Library special. In this episode, Honey and Diana will be talking about some of their picks for the fiction and poetry collections that will be availble at the selected Aesop stores soon.
You will be spoilt for choice and we're here to help highlight some titles that might interest you.
Enjoy!
—
Over the course of three days, the shelves of Aesop Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Aesop The Gardens Mall, Kuala Lumpur and Aesop Gurney Plaza will be cleared of products to make way for significant works of literature detailing the experiences of women-identifying authors and allies from around the region. The selection of over 20 titles—composed of recommendations from six collaborating publishing houses who champion local literary voices—is sprawling in genre and spirit: from emerging voices to seasoned authors, and short stories to novels and poetry. The featured writers include Viji Krishnamoorthy, 梁靖芬, Hanna Alkaf and Alina Rastam. As a way of supporting local independent publishers and booksellers in Malaysia, Aesop has purchased over 6,000 volumes from Lit Books, Clarity Publishing, Cite Book Garden, Gerak Budaya, Penwings Publishing and Buku Fixi.
This is the second episode of our Aesop Women's Library special. In this episode, Honey and Diana will be talking about some of their picks for the fiction and poetry collections that will be availble at the selected Aesop stores soon.
You will be spoilt for choice and we're here to help highlight some titles that might interest you.
Enjoy!
—
Over the course of three days, the shelves of Aesop Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Aesop The Gardens Mall, Kuala Lumpur and Aesop Gurney Plaza will be cleared of products to make way for significant works of literature detailing the experiences of women-identifying authors and allies from around the region. The selection of over 20 titles—composed of recommendations from six collaborating publishing houses who champion local literary voices—is sprawling in genre and spirit: from emerging voices to seasoned authors, and short stories to novels and poetry. The featured writers include Viji Krishnamoorthy, 梁靖芬, Hanna Alkaf and Alina Rastam. As a way of supporting local independent publishers and booksellers in Malaysia, Aesop has purchased over 6,000 volumes from Lit Books, Clarity Publishing, Cite Book Garden, Gerak Budaya, Penwings Publishing and Buku Fixi.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:17):
This is the second episode in theESOP Malaysia Women's Library podcast series. Hello
friends at book Lovers, you arejoining myself, Honey and Diana, your
two book nets talking for a specialedition podcast. At first, keep these
dates and venues in mind. ESOPstores at Pividion and Gardens from twenty six
to the twenty eighth of May andsecond to the fourth of June at Gurney
(00:39):
Blaza Penang. Yeah. So,the ESOP Women's Library is a special event
happening at the aforementioned ESOP stores duringthese dates. The selected stores will be
converted into a temporary library filled withbooks by Malaysian women authors. First of
all, everyone gets to take homea book each. This event is open
to the general public, so youdon't need to be is a postumer to
(01:00):
attend and no purchases needed to participate. One of my friends asked me,
do you have to be a womanto attend. I'm like, no,
you can be a man or anythingin between, yea or non binary you
know, to come to this.Yeah, I think, especially if you're
not a woman, you should comebecause you need to know that there are
(01:21):
really amazing major women who are writingout there. Yeah. Indeed anyway on
with the show. So D andI will be going through the fiction and
poetry selections on today's episode, soyou have a better idea of what you
might want to pick up when youcome to ESOP. And of course we
recommend it to buy the rest sothat you can support your local writers so
that they can keep on writing.So we are going to go through them
(01:42):
fairly quickly. And some of thesebooks we have covered in previous interviews,
so we'll leave you to the podcastepisodes on them within our library of podcasts.
Now, first up is Zen choseblack Water Sister. Now, Zen
has had a good fortune to beinterviewed by us like what was it?
What? Three times your interview?Zen really loved that women right, and
this is the most of any localauthor. She's just a lot of fun
(02:06):
to talk to and she's also veryprolific. She pretty much writes a book
a year, I think. Andthe last episode we have on her is
on her novella The Order of PureMoon over Water, which is Woosia romp
with Bandits set during the Malaysian emergency. So this was in our season four
episode one. Yeah, so blackWater Sister is her first novel length that
(02:28):
is set in contemporary Malaysia, andwe'll let Zen tell you about it.
Hello. I'm Zencho, author ofBlackwater Sister. I was born in Malaysia
and I grew up there, butI now live in the UK. But
when I was a kid, myfamily actually lived in the States for a
couple of years. And that's partlywhat inspired Black Water Sister, because the
(02:52):
protagonist just intil her family moves tothe States when she's a toddler, and
at the beginning of the book,she's grown up in America and she's now
moving back to Malaysia with her parents, and she's pretty stressed. She has
just graduated from university, she doesn'thave a job, she's pretty broke,
and she's also worried that her parentsare going to find out about her girlfriend.
(03:12):
So when she starts hearing a voicein her head, she thinks it's
because of the various pressures she's under, but she soon learns the voice actually
belongs to the ghost of her deada strange grandmother, Amma. So in
life, Ama was a spirit mediumand served the goddess the Blackwater Sister,
and she's come back because she's gota score to settle against a business magnate
(03:34):
who's offended the Blackwater Sister, andshe's decided Jess is going to help her
do it, whether Jess wants toor not. And so Jess's drawn into
a world of God's ghosts and familysecrets and yeah, so it's a fantasy
that's inspired by Chinese folk religion andit's certain penang And I think the main
thing I want people to take awayfrom the book is to kind of experience
(03:59):
the adventure of it, but alsoto I think experienced the world the way
Jess does, and particularly kind ofbuilt the strength of family bonds and the
reasons why those family bonds also actas shackles for her. Yeah, I
hope, I hope people have agood time reading it. So I've actually
(04:25):
read that. Zen said this isone of her easiest novels to write because
the dialogue is in English, thewords that come naturally to her. To
be honest, I avoided reading thisbook for the longest time because growing up,
my family was very close to aspirit medium, and their experience is
there that I do not want torevisit. So, in a sense,
(04:45):
it was a story that was justtoo close to home for me. But
you know how we're talked in lastweek's episode about needing characters that remind us
of ourselves. Now, I'm notexactly Jessamine, thank god, but few
Malaysians have grown up being able tokeep our lives supernatural or free, and
I think that's informed who we areas a people today. And to have
zencha right about that and focus onthat aspect of Malaysian life, it's something
(05:09):
I think many people would appreciate.You know, I learn anything about you
everyday, Dina. So you donot have a grandmother visiting you in the
toilet, thankfully no. But otherthings were happened around me, not to
me, thank god. We needto have a conversation about this, Dinah
for a person who doesn't like stuff, yeah, anyway, there's a reason
(05:30):
for that, honey. Me personally, for this book, I remember reading
this and liking it tremendously. Ithink this is my favorite Zen, other
than her Hugo or what Win hernovelette. At first, you don't try
and try again. Blackwater Sister iscreepy, and I want more creepiness,
Zen. It has all the elementsof strading Western and Eastern values. A
(05:51):
girl comes back to Malaysia with cultureshop. There's hauntings, possession, penang,
food, all the good stuff.In fact, when I finished reading
it, I message then and said, this should be a movie. Don't
get me wrong, it is.It is a really entertaining read. But
yeah, there's there are many placeswhere I had to like, m I'm
going to I'm just going to walkaway from this book and remind myself this
(06:14):
is not real life. Let's putit away. I mean, it was
cool for me because I got tolearn a bit of Chinese belief and culture.
You know that I don't necessarily,you know, I didn't grow up
with this sort of thing, eventhough we are very similar. You know,
we have family boumos and things likethat. You know. So,
and that's also kind of like amedium. I think it's you'll be interesting,
honey, for you to explore howmuch the two cultures actually actually affect
(06:35):
each other, because I know alot of Chinese beliefs have been greatly greatly
influenced by Malayan beliefs as well.And tie right, yeah, interesting,
Okay, what's what's the next book? Dinah? Next up? We had
nine one two Back to Road byfirst time novelists Vgi Krishna Molie. Hi.
(07:00):
My name is Vigi Christia Murti.I live in and love Kuala Lumpo,
and I am a lover of thewritten word. Nine Mont to butt
Roode is a story about migration,love, friendship, betrayal, loss,
and ultimately hope and forgiveness. Itcharts the lives of two Malayan families during
the Japanese occupation of Malaya and thetrials of a modern day romance and love
(07:20):
story of their grandchildren. I hopereaders of nine Month to bath Road I
invested in the characters and carried awayon their journey, and that they find
it informative and entertaining too. Okay, Bg, I have to say,
you have kahunas because to write asprawling family saga with historical stuff thrown in
(07:45):
a love story flitting in and outof different times was gutsy. And I
suddenly felt that when I was readingit, that this was a story that
she has been in her head formany, many years, and I'm so
glad that she finally sat down andwrote this book. As usual, Vigi,
I always gravitate towards food scenes whenI read this. When this first
came out, and I still rememberthe scene when the entire family comes back
(08:07):
to the family home for a meal, the chaos to hub up, the
children running around the good china againstthe china that you use every day,
and I kind of wanted more ofthat because that reminded me of my own
family gatherings. There is a lotof detail in this book about life during
the Japanese invasion. It chronicles thestory of two families, the years and
(08:28):
the tons, and then it bringsit back to the present and looks into
themes like friendship, interracial relationships,and inherited trauma. Yeah, and it's
no small thing for this book tobe recognized internationally and nominated for the Dublin
Literature Award. And I really lovethat Vigi always shares how the book started
out as a letter that she wroteto her husband as a birthday gift,
(08:50):
and I'm really curious as to whatthat letter actually included, because you know,
it later went on to become astory, and how does that story
become a birthday gift for your husband? But anyway, that kind of origin
story just demonstrates that I think thestory came from somewhere deeper than her.
So books like these are so vitalin filling in the gaps of our history
(09:11):
to help us understand our forebears andthe trials and tribulations that they faced in
years past. And it's really sobering, I think, to think about the
things that they had to go throughfor us to have the Malaysia that we
have today. Because she also kindof writes a little bit about historical figures,
you know, Sylvia and all thatin those days as well, So
she kind of interweaves it, LikeI said, very gutsy for our first
(09:33):
novel, Okay, next up isan equally gutsy novel. You know,
God, I love all women writethis. So it is the Accidental Malay
by also first time novelist Karina RoblisBahrein. And this was a book she
wrote during the pandemic. It alsohas an interracial relationship and looks at it
with a very very clear eye.Hi Am Karina Roblis Bahran. My debut
(09:58):
novel, The Acts Dental Malay isabout a woman named Jasmine Leon. She's
Malaysian Chinese and the rors of theBaqua Empire, who suddenly discovers such she's
actually Malay in their full Muslim I'mso excited that my book The Accidental Malay
has been included in this wonderful project, the Aesop Women's Library, because as
(10:22):
of course going to get the bookout there to many more people and women
in particular, but b because it'ssitting alongside some fantastic female authors, some
of whom I really admire and whosebooks I've loved, like Vigi Christian Morty's
Nine One to batter Road and Zencho'sBlackwater Sister. So I'm a great company
and this is a fantastic, fantasticinitiative by Aesop. This is the book
(10:48):
I'd recommend to anyone that thinks abook about romance can't also have social commentary,
right, I think you know arethese people? It is a book
that will speak to so many peoplebecause it doesn't shy away from the things
that people will say to their closefriends. But they know that you know
you had to be careful in certaincircles. You can't just just tell everyone
(11:09):
your opinions about these things. Andif you've ever felt that your family's expectations
of you are a heavy burden thatyou are allowed to carry, or that
you feel guilty that your life didn'tcome together quite as you thought it should
have despite years of adulting. Thenyeah, you probably find this book very
relatable. Yeah, I mean,I love that the protagonist in this book
is a forty year old urban womanwho seemed to have led the same sort
(11:31):
of party life that I did.I mean I related to a lot in
This book is also set in Epoparts of it, which is my hometown,
and I feel storytelling like this givesa point of view we don't often
read, and that is why it'simportant. In a nutshell, The Accidental
Malae is a story about Jasmine Leong, whose family became rich from selling bakwa.
She's a bit of a mess,hasn't got anything much figured out,
(11:52):
and he's having a long affair witha married Mostli man named Iscanda. And
then she finds out that she's actuallyhalf Malayou and this suddenly means that her
life is turned upside down because ofall the racial, gender, and religious
undercurrents in Malaysia which we all knowexist but we seldom deal with it.
Hit on denial as they say it'sa river in Egypt this book. But
(12:15):
on top of that, I mean, like you know, it's not a
serious It's not a book that isvery serious in tone. You know,
it's a very light read. It'swarm and it's witty, and it's also
really romantic, which a lot ofpeople do not expect. So I think
a lot of people coming to thisbook came to it because of the premise.
And it doesn't really go where youthink it is, and the best
books are like that. You knowwhere it takes you two places that are
(12:39):
surprising and enlightening. You can checkout her full interview with us in season
six, episode six. Next upis Hannah Alcoff's Queen of the Tiles,
which is a sort of mystery setduring a scrabbled tournament and it's a book
for young adults. We also interviewedher live and lit books, and that
is in our season six episode three. Here's Hannah telling you about this book.
(13:07):
Queen of the Tiles is the storyof Nagua, who is recovering from
the sudden death of her best friend, China Allow the Queen of the Tiles
herself from a major scrabble tournament theyear before, and so she's at this
scrabble tournament this year trying to findclosure, trying to move on from her
grief and getting back to a worldthat she loves, which is competitive scrabble.
(13:28):
But unfortunately, at the tournament,Trina's long dormant Instagram account comes back
to life with these mysterious posts thatseem to hint at the fact that her
death wasn't accidental, and so Naduatakes it upon herself to try and figure
out what is going on at thistournament. But really it's just an excuse
(13:48):
for me to get extremely, extremelynerdy and very in depth in a subject
that I really enjoy, which isscrabble and murder. But that doesn't come
off as cute when I say,but I do like murder a lot.
Not to do myself, but toread about How competitive do you ever get
(14:11):
in scramble, Dina? I thinkbeing in this kind of competition would break
me. No, there's no wayI'll go anywhere near that. I mean,
I dabble in scramble, but Inever played it competitively, And you
know, I'm glad I never didbecause the pressure and the insanity of the
people in this book. I'm notentirely sure I would have had the very
(14:33):
excellent childhood I had if I hadto sit and figure out good words on
you know, square tiles, youknow, And I think in a way
again, this is what's wonderful aboutbooks like this because it takes you into
a little microcosm subculture of a communityof people, you know, who are
intensely obsessed over one thing. Andeven I thought, without the mystery,
(14:56):
it would have been fascinating. Youknow, how do you win a scribble
tournament? They're kind of like strategyand how nerdy can you get? You
know, like I was a nered, but wow, these people take what
nerdy to the next level. Butby mind is also a ya, So
there's a lot of drama. Andthis is very much a Hannah a Cuff
book right where she always deals withyou know, subject matter like her mental
(15:20):
health, like teenagers dealing with changes, and it's mainly about Nadua, her
main character, dealing with grief froma passing of a friend, a life
that is enough too soon. Hannahis really good at drawing out these kind
of issues and how people cope withthem, and her books will always make
you feel less alone in as well. I just want to say the kids
(15:41):
in this book are so intimidatingly intellectualright. And I think Hannah's literally genius
is in creating characters that you reallyfeel for, even though you know,
we've just talked about them being obsessedwith scrabble and just like, you know,
being really, like really type akind of personalities, which I think
it's not normal for teenagers, butyeah, you still feel like these are
(16:03):
very real people, especially parents ofteens. You might get into this book
to get a sense of the psychesof children and maybe understand the pressures and
stresses their face. And if you'rea teenager, you'll be able to relate
to wanting to keep up and tofit in, and you know, and
that sense of feeling like an impostorno matter what you do, and wanting
(16:25):
to belong right. And I thinkbest of all, it's such a well
paced and well written story, andyou're going to be engrossed and invested as
you're trying to figure out just what'sgoing on at the scrabble tournament. And
of course, Hannah is the onlyauthor to have two books in the ESOP
Library. Her other book is DCToo Lang Junjo, which is published by
Fixi, And this is a BastaMalaysia translation of a smashing debut The Weight
(16:48):
of Our Sky and tell us thestory of Malati, a teen who suffers
from OCD and how she had tonavigate the city of kl to find her
mom during the May thirteen riots innineteen sixty nine. Folks, it is
a worthy translation, and even ifyou have read Weight of Our Sky,
it might be interesting for you tocheck out the bars of version because it
kind of gives you a bit ofa different experience, you know. We
(17:11):
also have a collection of short storiesby Sue Metan called Lake Malibu and Other
Stories. Here's Sumitan Hi. Thisis Suemetan. I was born and raised
in KL but I'm currently living inMelbourne. Lake Malibu and Other Stories is
(17:32):
my first book. The twelve storiesin this collection come from my own experiences
of growing up in Malaysia and latermigrating to Australia. Some of my favorites
in this book include a story abouta boy who falls for his best friend's
mother and one about two friends whodream of greener pastures overseas. The stories
(17:56):
are basically about people who are tryingto find their place in the world,
and I hope readers can connect withthis in some way. I actually read
the short story of the boy thatis in love with his friend's mother,
which is the kind yeah yeah,And this is the thing about Lake Malibu
(18:18):
discollection. It actually is interlinked,interconnected, so like in one story the
character might be a side character,but in another story there might be the
main character. So it kind offollows lives of this kind of like bunch
of people, I think in away. I mean, I've not read
the whole thing, but you know, I thought it was actually quite a
cool little story collection. And againparts of it saying Ipo, I tell
you, man like people from Ipolareally got stuff to do. To tell.
(18:45):
I think that some of the storiesin here you probably believe really be
moved by, especially the first one, Hide, which I find quite deeply
affecting. It's a story about thisfamily trying to get by during the Japanese
occupation, and you know, thenitty gritty of like trying to feed everyone
and keep everyone safe, that kindof thing. And then you know,
(19:07):
she she jumps from that kind ofstory into yeah, that missus Fernandez,
which you mentioned about, you know, this unlikely connection between an older woman
and her son's classmate. And thenthere's there's Another one that really kick in
my mind as well, Waitress.It's about a young woman, a waitress,
and then she's engaged by this manand she thinks that he's going to
(19:30):
like proposition her or something, butno, he brings her home and asks
her to look after his son,and then the waitress and the young boy
developed this kind of bond and it'squite interesting. So these stories were born
of Sueme's exploration of the movement andprogression that people make as humans like and
(19:51):
the impacts of the choices they make. And it's it's soulful, it's surreal,
and I think part of the funof reading it is looking out for
the characters that are connected in theother stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean like I didn't actually realizethat until I was, hey,
you know, like, oh,I'm following Pracassia story now, you know,
while he was kind of like abit player and another story. So
that was kind of cool. Actually, I like it when the writer has
(20:15):
their own little universe, their littleMarvel universe. That's so cool. Yeah.
So the next one on our listis actually Surround Secrets Tales of Love,
Loss and Longing by Lisu Kim andboth you and I have read this,
right, honey. Yeah, wedid actually meet her during a Nonia
inspired party where we all work byus and kind Bade, But I actually
(20:36):
knew her before that because she wasactually one of the teachers who taught me
during my master's Oh why she Yes, she was a guest lecturer. But
yeah, I mean, like,if you haven't tried these books, they're
they're a really sweet collection. Sweethuh, because I feel that there's a
lot of unrequited love. There's alot of innocence, lost, loneliness,
even greed in her books. Soit's a lot to do with the human
(20:59):
condition, I feel, and alsoabout the diaspora, right, because these
are people who have settled in anothercountry and how they have to kind of
maintain their culture and how they assimilate. So there's all this search into identity.
And what's really wonderful about this bookas well is that you have pictures
in it. So there's pictures ofsarongs, God, there's accessories, union
(21:22):
artifacts, so you can also takea look at the artisanal handiwork of the
Barbara Junia people in her book.So I quite like that it's kind of
like a picture book for adults.Hi. I'm Lisa Kim, the author
of Sarum's Secrets of Love, Lossand Longing. Sarongs are very much a
(21:48):
part of my life. For aslong as I can remember, the women
folk in my family wore sarongs.Grandmother wore beautiful, rustic brown sarongs which
was so heavily starsh they could standup alone by themselves. She didn't own
a single pair of trousers nor askirt. I am a six generation Nionia
(22:12):
with maternal links to Penang and paternallinks to the Malaccan Paranakan communities. Sarong
Secrets is my second collection of shortstories of the Paranakans. They are stories
of intrigue, family feuds, identitycrisis, stories of despair and sadness,
(22:33):
passion, funny stories filled of humor, stories of greed and betrayal, innocence
lost, even a supernatural kille.Along with the stories are colorful photographs of
Sarong's family heirlooms, black and whitephotos, poems, ditties clustered around the
(22:57):
stories. Thank you Esop for selectingmy book. It is an honor and
a privilege to be selected. Iam proud to be part of AESOPS Women's
Library celebrating voices and stories of women. Thank you. Another short story collection
(23:19):
is by Carissa On. It isactually a short story and poetry collection.
Yes, Carrisa. Hi, I'mCarrisa On, author of best selling title
Midnight Monologues. I'm also the ownerand founder of pen Wing's Publishing and the
(23:45):
head of product design at a techcompany. I published Midnight Monologues when I
was twenty four years old in twentysixteen. It's an English poetry and short
stories book that has themes of love, heartbreak, family, friends, an
array of different short stories in differentgenres. Being a woman writer in Malaysia
(24:11):
is amazing. I get to shareall of my stories from my perspective and
get hurt. Thank you so much, zero around. The first thing you
notice about Midnight Monologues is how beautifulthe cover is, and yeah, it's
one awards for that. Yeah,and I think fittingly. Many of the
(24:33):
poets in this collection are arranged alsofor typographical aesthetics, so that's something that
you have to look at the bookto see. And it's actually a collection
that is arranged into four parts.It's called Lost, Found, Hope and
Short Stories her work is bold,it's punchy, it's evocative, and it's
(24:53):
Yeah, it's no surprise why itwas picked as one of the MPH Best
Books of twenty sixteen. And Ithink, you know, it was really
really popular at one stage because notonly is it really quite accessible because you
know, the poems are not verylong, you know, you don't have
to you don't have to work veryhard to to try to understand literary references
(25:14):
in them. But yeah, she'sactually really good at marketing them as well.
Yeah, I mean like she startedher own publishing right pen Wings.
Yes exactly, I mean wow,you know, like, um, kudos
to Charisa for from making poetry youknow, like a thing for young Malaysians
and that's that's such a great achievement. I mean, if you want to
be inspired by somebody who just grabthe world by his balls, Charissa On
(25:41):
will be one person for you.Toys exactly. And yeah, and again
this is why we think it's veryimportant for you to come and interact with
the books, you know, becausethis is one book that you probably enjoy
seeing in his actual tactile form asopposed to getting it on digital format.
Yes, you know, because youknow it's a beautiful book. I think
it's hard to walk past this bookand not have your head turned by it
and it's like, oh, what'sthat book? Right? Yeah, it's
(26:03):
really beautiful. Right. So thatbrings us into the poetry collections. And
I know, I think one thingthat occurred to me when I was going
through the list, it's like,how many poets we have in Malitia that
I actually did not realize. Andone that both of us especially like is
Alena Rastam's All the Beloveds. Andhere's Elena who talks about her life as
(26:25):
a writer and will also give youa taste of her writing. Hi.
My name is Alena Rustam and I'ma writer based in Kuala Lumpo. And
I'm really happy that my collection ofpoetry, All the Belovedds, is one
of the books that will be featuredin Women's Library Project. I wrote All
(26:49):
the Beloveds a long time ago.It was published in twenty and nine.
It seems to me that the worldwe find ourselves in today is immeasurably changed
from when I wrote the book.The pandemic for many of us was a
very harrowing time when we were forcedto experience multiple facets of pain and suffering,
such as isolation and grief and loss, and even now that we have
(27:11):
emerged from it, many of usare still trying to find our way in
this incredibly changed world. Although Allthe Beloveds was written a long time ago,
I think the poems in the bookare still relevant because mostly they deal
with universal themes and conditions. Thedarker ones such as loss and grief were
also the more redemptive ones such ashope, love and moments or grace.
(27:37):
I have engaged in many kinds ofwriting in my career, journalistic writing,
academic writing, and so on.But poetry for me, has always been
a doorway into transcendence, offering away to move beyond the confusion and suffering
that oppresses us so much of thetime, into a space of clarity,
wisdom, and peace. This,to me is one of the most precious
(28:00):
things that art offers us, thatchance, that doorway, that bright space.
To give a sense of what Imean and a flavor of the kind
of writing you'll find in the book. I'm going to read the stanza from
one of the poems in the bookcalled the Dreams Will Come Back. The
(28:21):
Dreams Will Come Back Darling, yourdreams will come back. One day.
You'll see them a light all aroundyou, feel them love you again.
Though the way things been absolute andthe way things been grave. You'll turn
down your grief, let the worldtouch you again, and the dreams will
come back. Darling, Your dreamswill come back. They will flare in
(28:45):
your midnights and sing to you again. I hope that those who come across
and read all the Belovers now thanksto us life Affirming Initiative, will find
that the poems offer them the samedoorway into place of solace and healing and
renew Thank you. I mean,come on for those long contemplative nights and
(29:11):
melancholy days. What better than anown Voices poetry collection? Right? I
was really inspired by what Elena saidabout, you know, the effect of
this book on people, especially afterthe pandemic, right, because it's something
that you don't really realize that youneed it until you actually read it.
Thank you Elena for your poetry,because yeah, they were really great.
(29:33):
Yeah, I mean they were veryintimate, kind of like musings on loss,
on absence, on leaving, oncraving, do you know what I
mean? Like there was a lotof sort of like saying goodbye to somebody,
dear to you, death of somebodythat you love. You know,
it is a poetry collection that makesyou feel less alone. I have to
say, you know, I completelyagree. Yeah. So another collection of
(29:57):
poems that we have here is Peoniesinto Sambal by Fedora and she is a
Kadazan Chinese and this is her secondpoetry collection, but first that debuted under
her own name. There was asurprisingly touching reed for me. Pose are
nostalgic and sentimental, and there's onethat samples a portion of that quintessential Sabahan's
(30:18):
song Jambat Tapuli, and that's areal throwback for me as someone who spent
my primary school years there. Andshe also shares some heartfelt pieces that explore
things like impost syndrome, grief forlove lost, and there's one especially sweet
one about her appreciating her mother.Okay, but here's one that I think
most Malaysians will appreciate. It's calledDumplings of My Heart to this country I
(30:48):
love with its Nazi lamat roads andlayers of quemoy smiles, where people buy
rothi chanai for breakfast and eats upfun for lunch, where our food units
the taste buds of the young,old and wild, and Maggie Gore Tambatalo
is the after trek food. Thiscountry is glorious in all its nature,
(31:11):
flora and fauna. But I onlycare about the chicken, rice laxa,
and God knows what food is amazing. My runaways are the nearest Mamma or
the boutique cafes with premium coffees.But I only like copeeping in the Chinese
kopetium, where the coffee is coolike the heat. In this country.
(31:33):
Food is the heart of this nationwhere race divides but hearts collide at the
top of banana leaf and tetare.Food brings the Nazi to the Durian,
and we'll get booboo Durian, asweet, gentle escapade of flavors that humbles
the extravagant taste of the king offruits and exudes a softness on our palates.
(31:55):
I'd like to think that inside eachof us is a batsan, soft,
boutenous rice of kindness. An eggyolk put the extra oof in our
personality. Mushrooms as a weird sideto us. Chestnuts for the sweetness,
whirling inside nuts for our occasional insanityand meet with the strengthen us. The
(32:15):
depth of food is history and fantasy. The depth of food in this country
is devotion and unity. The depthof food in my heart is Mom's cooking
and Grandma's a gut recipe. I'llalways see food as more than a tummy's
filled and hungry belief. To me, food is always going to be a
fictional story that comes to life.I remember like reading some of her poems.
(32:40):
I mean, that's one about hernot feeding quite sabahan, you know,
which I think a lot of peoplewould identify, especially those of us.
I mean for you as well,who moved around quite a lot,
right, and for me who kindof like, I mean a Malay but
I grew up in a very Englishkind of household, Like I kind of
like that. And then there's oneabout her just like can't write because she's
like, I'm not good enough.I'm not good enough, I'm not good
(33:02):
enough. And in the end she'slike, going, but if I have
something to say, that should begood enough. So that's like I think,
I mean, they're very youthful poems, but I think there's something in
it for everybody you know. Andof course there's a lot of food imagery,
yeah right, which is typically Malaysianand kind of things. So yeah,
that's what I think a lot ofus will identify with. And that
is also a collection of Malay poetrycalled Moment by Quaratine is published by Katapilla.
(33:29):
I actually love the name of thepublishing house, kata Pila, which
is caterpillar but also like pillars orwords, and they do kind of print
a lot of poetry books. Shewas a Sian Bara Poissy finalist, and
I have to say I really quiteenjoy the way that she crafts her poems.
A lot of it kind of dealswith a lot of religious and ritualistic
(33:50):
imagery. That's a bit of aChristiana imagery Judaism, and she uses words
like malika. She uses a lotof sort of like those kind of religious
I don't know connotations. This isan interesting book. I'm going to read
one about a non love. Thisis called Jika Chika Gara adelas Ram Dear
(34:14):
Biara for Nasa Moracia can see LuckyYoungster in Kunjong sitting up a Heartcatiger Choir
I am at Lucky Laspell Putbadinia.You're ma hoom and Jada. You could
chill, ye can come offan chintaniustumor sacs he can saleb nanka kudan ryuka
(34:37):
in Salamania. Wow. I likethat. But it's got a lot of
like slightly forbidden love. I meanhalf of the book has all this kind
of like touching into I think,sort of like love for the religion but
also love for someone. And thenyeah, I mean there's some sensuality in
it as well. And she justlooks like such a good girl. Fire
(35:00):
stuff is so and so passionate.So I reckon when you come pick up
her book and have a look atit, you know, because it's not
often that I pick up a bookon a lay poetry and you know,
it was quite moved by some ofit, you know, So I'm like,
verty cool. I will finish upthe Bahasamlasia books on offer. There
(35:21):
are also two other Bahasamilaitia fiction booksby Fixing. One is called Kota by
Kamalia, and I just love itwhen authors just have one name. Kamalia
and this book is about Kasuma whowrites celebrity gossip for a digital rat called
Warner Warni Kota and frankly she isgetting fed out of covering CD's celebrity life.
(35:42):
Then a celebrity dies and one ofher followers does an expose on the
disappearance of urban folk, which alsoincludes Kasuma's own father who mysteriously disappeared twelve
years ago. So she finds herselfinevitently tangled up in secret societies and she
puts forth an investigative skill to findout the truth behind missing people. And
you can actually read an early chapterof the book on what Pad if you
(36:06):
want to have a taste of it. So it has a little bit of
mystery, it has I think likethe main protagon. I was reading a
little bit of it, and it'sjust a very introspective main protagonist that it's
kind of going through what all ofus go through, where we wonder whether
the career that we're doing is actuallythe career we want. You know,
finally we have reputassi by knowing Ishira, And this book is set in a
(36:27):
fictional country called Windoman, where yourreputation is everything you need to be in
the right school, be really theright people, get the right job.
To me, it sounds a littlebit dystupid. I myself have not really
read the book, but literally Iopened it opened a couple of pages and
it goes straight into everybody's lying.So we follow Iris, who has ambitions
to be the best in everything,but of course she has a secret and
(36:51):
if he gets out there, theregoes a reputation and she will be expelled
from the College Windoman, which islike the college that everybody wants to go
to, and she might might beforced to live a life on the streets.
So yeah, kind of dystopian,very wide a and it just,
I guess explores a society where everybodywants to get a hit of each other
and there's lots of lying and backstabbingprobably, So yeah, they're going to
(37:15):
be some interesting parallels to real lifeas well. I'm sure that's the thing
I think sometimes if local write this, because there's so much stuff that you
can't quite touch in Malaysia without youknow, rilling up some people, that
you're forced to be metaphorical about alot of things. Yeah, completely completely.
So there are a couple of reallyinteresting Chinese language books as well,
(37:37):
and if poetry is your thing,you can look out for this really suffically
pleasing looking book called Wahna Muda SaunianSweet Bailer, which means I've slept with
that boy called cat. And it'smy Manini Way, who is actually a
(37:58):
very well established poet. Was bornin Malaysia, but now she lives in
Taiwan. She's lived there for abouttwenty years and she's quite prolific. She's
put out like upwards of fifteen booksthat encompass poetry collections. There's novels in
there, there's children's books, andshe even has books that are published in
both Chinese and Malay. And she'seven got a collection of Malay panton out.
(38:23):
Oh yeah, that's a cool title. Yeah. To give you a
taste of the poetry in this bookI have prepared in my very limited Chinese,
it must be said to read youone her poems. And if you're
listening money anyway, and I havebutchered the pronunciation here at all, please
(38:45):
forgive me round me the monk gaymao typin. Let your dream be read
once by the cat nayang so beingthe changta y indeed be in Sunsui.
That way your hands strengthen and youreyesight deepens. Run me the mom siso
(39:08):
you easang taupin. Let your dreamshave at least one photo tang niman tai
tai hui neither fungin bunzo suga thaiyang. When they're tearing down your room
and removing the twelve sons, falang the sun than su waitong soodindy so
(39:32):
to light. Light from the Christmastrees will come from bookstores may Curtan dohatan
ez mouth. Every lamp will transforminto a cat san huai peni so igawan
sang su san huisang too leeming.A god will sit with you for one
(39:57):
night, and the dawn will growfrom the trees leaming quaitsang too nyuin the
liang girl Taiyang. From the dawncome two moons and two sons, rounded
and full and yeah. I basicallyplugged this into Google Translate and also corrected
(40:27):
it in a way that made senseto me. So okay, I hope
that wasn't too bad. Oh mygod, shuld I translate the BM one.
No, I don't know. Ithought i'd do that just because we
are an English podcast and I wouldlike people to also appreciate the Chinese poems.
Okay, you might also like tolook up liang Jing Funds Sweet Hang,
(40:47):
which won the Huatza Literary Award intwo thousand and one, and it's
a fictionalized account of the history ofthe Chinese admirals and her or Laxamana Chengho
and his voyage to Malika in fourteenoh five. And it's an interesting look
at how stories are distorted and changedwhen passed down through the ages. So
that's a historical fiction. Another novelthat you might like to look up is
(41:12):
Yusuti. It's by a multi awardwinning author leads the Suit, and it
tells the story of a blind womanand the people that she encounters in her
daily life. So this book wasespecially acclaimed in China for being an insightful
look into the lives of ordinary Malaysians. And the author has said that she
wanted to write a novel that wasa kind of a chronicle of ordinary lives,
(41:35):
but based on her own experiences growingup in people People again, People
again. There's something about people andmaking people become creative. I mean good
company. Yes you are, so. I really don't know how you are
going to select the book that you'regoing to take away. You're completely sported
for choice from the Women's Library.But I think what's great is that now
(41:58):
you're exposed to more books that youmight want to read. So if you
like to know more about the ESOPMalaysia Women's Library, check out our minnisode
on it. It is episode oneof the series. And remember, come
one, come all to es UPstores in Pavilion and Gardens from the twenty
sixth to the twenty eighth of Mayand Gunny Plaza, Pinang from the second
to the fourth of June. Savethe Date's book nets, Save the Date.
(42:21):
Yeah, be sure to invite allyour book loving friends to drop into
the stores with you and maybe we'llcatch each other there. Indeed, are
you going to beda? I might? You might wat. I mean the
stores are not very big, sowe might be wafting around outside. Yeah,
but when else can you sit insidethis lovely centered in you know,
like really comfortable space and just besurrounded by all these beautiful books. People
(42:45):
are just going to take so manyphotos, I think because the display itself
I think will be really pretty.Yeah. So this episode was brought to
you by ESOT Malaysia. It isproduced and edited by Stephanie O and myself
Honey Ahmed, and if you wantto share stuff with us, you can
email us at booknetstalking at gmail dotcom or you can also follow us on
(43:06):
Instagram at TBNT books too, bookNetstalking on Facebook, and tbntpot on Twitter.
As usual, we are your friendlyneighborhood book nets. I am Honey
Ahmed and I'm dying a young signingout. Have a great book issue week Bye
This is the second episode in theESOP Malaysia Women's Library podcast series. Hello
friends at book Lovers, you arejoining myself, Honey and Diana, your
two book nets talking for a specialedition podcast. At first, keep these
dates and venues in mind. ESOPstores at Pividion and Gardens from twenty six
to the twenty eighth of May andsecond to the fourth of June at Gurney
(00:39):
Blaza Penang. Yeah. So,the ESOP Women's Library is a special event
happening at the aforementioned ESOP stores duringthese dates. The selected stores will be
converted into a temporary library filled withbooks by Malaysian women authors. First of
all, everyone gets to take homea book each. This event is open
to the general public, so youdon't need to be is a postumer to
(01:00):
attend and no purchases needed to participate. One of my friends asked me,
do you have to be a womanto attend. I'm like, no,
you can be a man or anythingin between, yea or non binary you
know, to come to this.Yeah, I think, especially if you're
not a woman, you should comebecause you need to know that there are
(01:21):
really amazing major women who are writingout there. Yeah. Indeed anyway on
with the show. So D andI will be going through the fiction and
poetry selections on today's episode, soyou have a better idea of what you
might want to pick up when youcome to ESOP. And of course we
recommend it to buy the rest sothat you can support your local writers so
that they can keep on writing.So we are going to go through them
(01:42):
fairly quickly. And some of thesebooks we have covered in previous interviews,
so we'll leave you to the podcastepisodes on them within our library of podcasts.
Now, first up is Zen choseblack Water Sister. Now, Zen
has had a good fortune to beinterviewed by us like what was it?
What? Three times your interview?Zen really loved that women right, and
this is the most of any localauthor. She's just a lot of fun
(02:06):
to talk to and she's also veryprolific. She pretty much writes a book
a year, I think. Andthe last episode we have on her is
on her novella The Order of PureMoon over Water, which is Woosia romp
with Bandits set during the Malaysian emergency. So this was in our season four
episode one. Yeah, so blackWater Sister is her first novel length that
(02:28):
is set in contemporary Malaysia, andwe'll let Zen tell you about it.
Hello. I'm Zencho, author ofBlackwater Sister. I was born in Malaysia
and I grew up there, butI now live in the UK. But
when I was a kid, myfamily actually lived in the States for a
couple of years. And that's partlywhat inspired Black Water Sister, because the
(02:52):
protagonist just intil her family moves tothe States when she's a toddler, and
at the beginning of the book,she's grown up in America and she's now
moving back to Malaysia with her parents, and she's pretty stressed. She has
just graduated from university, she doesn'thave a job, she's pretty broke,
and she's also worried that her parentsare going to find out about her girlfriend.
(03:12):
So when she starts hearing a voicein her head, she thinks it's
because of the various pressures she's under, but she soon learns the voice actually
belongs to the ghost of her deada strange grandmother, Amma. So in
life, Ama was a spirit mediumand served the goddess the Blackwater Sister,
and she's come back because she's gota score to settle against a business magnate
(03:34):
who's offended the Blackwater Sister, andshe's decided Jess is going to help her
do it, whether Jess wants toor not. And so Jess's drawn into
a world of God's ghosts and familysecrets and yeah, so it's a fantasy
that's inspired by Chinese folk religion andit's certain penang And I think the main
thing I want people to take awayfrom the book is to kind of experience
(03:59):
the adventure of it, but alsoto I think experienced the world the way
Jess does, and particularly kind ofbuilt the strength of family bonds and the
reasons why those family bonds also actas shackles for her. Yeah, I
hope, I hope people have agood time reading it. So I've actually
(04:25):
read that. Zen said this isone of her easiest novels to write because
the dialogue is in English, thewords that come naturally to her. To
be honest, I avoided reading thisbook for the longest time because growing up,
my family was very close to aspirit medium, and their experience is
there that I do not want torevisit. So, in a sense,
(04:45):
it was a story that was justtoo close to home for me. But
you know how we're talked in lastweek's episode about needing characters that remind us
of ourselves. Now, I'm notexactly Jessamine, thank god, but few
Malaysians have grown up being able tokeep our lives supernatural or free, and
I think that's informed who we areas a people today. And to have
zencha right about that and focus onthat aspect of Malaysian life, it's something
(05:09):
I think many people would appreciate.You know, I learn anything about you
everyday, Dina. So you donot have a grandmother visiting you in the
toilet, thankfully no. But otherthings were happened around me, not to
me, thank god. We needto have a conversation about this, Dinah
for a person who doesn't like stuff, yeah, anyway, there's a reason
(05:30):
for that, honey. Me personally, for this book, I remember reading
this and liking it tremendously. Ithink this is my favorite Zen, other
than her Hugo or what Win hernovelette. At first, you don't try
and try again. Blackwater Sister iscreepy, and I want more creepiness,
Zen. It has all the elementsof strading Western and Eastern values. A
(05:51):
girl comes back to Malaysia with cultureshop. There's hauntings, possession, penang,
food, all the good stuff.In fact, when I finished reading
it, I message then and said, this should be a movie. Don't
get me wrong, it is.It is a really entertaining read. But
yeah, there's there are many placeswhere I had to like, m I'm
going to I'm just going to walkaway from this book and remind myself this
(06:14):
is not real life. Let's putit away. I mean, it was
cool for me because I got tolearn a bit of Chinese belief and culture.
You know that I don't necessarily,you know, I didn't grow up
with this sort of thing, eventhough we are very similar. You know,
we have family boumos and things likethat. You know. So,
and that's also kind of like amedium. I think it's you'll be interesting,
honey, for you to explore howmuch the two cultures actually actually affect
(06:35):
each other, because I know alot of Chinese beliefs have been greatly greatly
influenced by Malayan beliefs as well.And tie right, yeah, interesting,
Okay, what's what's the next book? Dinah? Next up? We had
nine one two Back to Road byfirst time novelists Vgi Krishna Molie. Hi.
(07:00):
My name is Vigi Christia Murti.I live in and love Kuala Lumpo,
and I am a lover of thewritten word. Nine Mont to butt
Roode is a story about migration,love, friendship, betrayal, loss,
and ultimately hope and forgiveness. Itcharts the lives of two Malayan families during
the Japanese occupation of Malaya and thetrials of a modern day romance and love
(07:20):
story of their grandchildren. I hopereaders of nine Month to bath Road I
invested in the characters and carried awayon their journey, and that they find
it informative and entertaining too. Okay, Bg, I have to say,
you have kahunas because to write asprawling family saga with historical stuff thrown in
(07:45):
a love story flitting in and outof different times was gutsy. And I
suddenly felt that when I was readingit, that this was a story that
she has been in her head formany, many years, and I'm so
glad that she finally sat down andwrote this book. As usual, Vigi,
I always gravitate towards food scenes whenI read this. When this first
came out, and I still rememberthe scene when the entire family comes back
(08:07):
to the family home for a meal, the chaos to hub up, the
children running around the good china againstthe china that you use every day,
and I kind of wanted more ofthat because that reminded me of my own
family gatherings. There is a lotof detail in this book about life during
the Japanese invasion. It chronicles thestory of two families, the years and
(08:28):
the tons, and then it bringsit back to the present and looks into
themes like friendship, interracial relationships,and inherited trauma. Yeah, and it's
no small thing for this book tobe recognized internationally and nominated for the Dublin
Literature Award. And I really lovethat Vigi always shares how the book started
out as a letter that she wroteto her husband as a birthday gift,
(08:50):
and I'm really curious as to whatthat letter actually included, because you know,
it later went on to become astory, and how does that story
become a birthday gift for your husband? But anyway, that kind of origin
story just demonstrates that I think thestory came from somewhere deeper than her.
So books like these are so vitalin filling in the gaps of our history
(09:11):
to help us understand our forebears andthe trials and tribulations that they faced in
years past. And it's really sobering, I think, to think about the
things that they had to go throughfor us to have the Malaysia that we
have today. Because she also kindof writes a little bit about historical figures,
you know, Sylvia and all thatin those days as well, So
she kind of interweaves it, LikeI said, very gutsy for our first
(09:33):
novel, Okay, next up isan equally gutsy novel. You know,
God, I love all women writethis. So it is the Accidental Malay
by also first time novelist Karina RoblisBahrein. And this was a book she
wrote during the pandemic. It alsohas an interracial relationship and looks at it
with a very very clear eye.Hi Am Karina Roblis Bahran. My debut
(09:58):
novel, The Acts Dental Malay isabout a woman named Jasmine Leon. She's
Malaysian Chinese and the rors of theBaqua Empire, who suddenly discovers such she's
actually Malay in their full Muslim I'mso excited that my book The Accidental Malay
has been included in this wonderful project, the Aesop Women's Library, because as
(10:22):
of course going to get the bookout there to many more people and women
in particular, but b because it'ssitting alongside some fantastic female authors, some
of whom I really admire and whosebooks I've loved, like Vigi Christian Morty's
Nine One to batter Road and Zencho'sBlackwater Sister. So I'm a great company
and this is a fantastic, fantasticinitiative by Aesop. This is the book
(10:48):
I'd recommend to anyone that thinks abook about romance can't also have social commentary,
right, I think you know arethese people? It is a book
that will speak to so many peoplebecause it doesn't shy away from the things
that people will say to their closefriends. But they know that you know
you had to be careful in certaincircles. You can't just just tell everyone
(11:09):
your opinions about these things. Andif you've ever felt that your family's expectations
of you are a heavy burden thatyou are allowed to carry, or that
you feel guilty that your life didn'tcome together quite as you thought it should
have despite years of adulting. Thenyeah, you probably find this book very
relatable. Yeah, I mean,I love that the protagonist in this book
is a forty year old urban womanwho seemed to have led the same sort
(11:31):
of party life that I did.I mean I related to a lot in
This book is also set in Epoparts of it, which is my hometown,
and I feel storytelling like this givesa point of view we don't often
read, and that is why it'simportant. In a nutshell, The Accidental
Malae is a story about Jasmine Leong, whose family became rich from selling bakwa.
She's a bit of a mess,hasn't got anything much figured out,
(11:52):
and he's having a long affair witha married Mostli man named Iscanda. And
then she finds out that she's actuallyhalf Malayou and this suddenly means that her
life is turned upside down because ofall the racial, gender, and religious
undercurrents in Malaysia which we all knowexist but we seldom deal with it.
Hit on denial as they say it'sa river in Egypt this book. But
(12:15):
on top of that, I mean, like you know, it's not a
serious It's not a book that isvery serious in tone. You know,
it's a very light read. It'swarm and it's witty, and it's also
really romantic, which a lot ofpeople do not expect. So I think
a lot of people coming to thisbook came to it because of the premise.
And it doesn't really go where youthink it is, and the best
books are like that. You knowwhere it takes you two places that are
(12:39):
surprising and enlightening. You can checkout her full interview with us in season
six, episode six. Next upis Hannah Alcoff's Queen of the Tiles,
which is a sort of mystery setduring a scrabbled tournament and it's a book
for young adults. We also interviewedher live and lit books, and that
is in our season six episode three. Here's Hannah telling you about this book.
(13:07):
Queen of the Tiles is the storyof Nagua, who is recovering from
the sudden death of her best friend, China Allow the Queen of the Tiles
herself from a major scrabble tournament theyear before, and so she's at this
scrabble tournament this year trying to findclosure, trying to move on from her
grief and getting back to a worldthat she loves, which is competitive scrabble.
(13:28):
But unfortunately, at the tournament,Trina's long dormant Instagram account comes back
to life with these mysterious posts thatseem to hint at the fact that her
death wasn't accidental, and so Naduatakes it upon herself to try and figure
out what is going on at thistournament. But really it's just an excuse
(13:48):
for me to get extremely, extremelynerdy and very in depth in a subject
that I really enjoy, which isscrabble and murder. But that doesn't come
off as cute when I say,but I do like murder a lot.
Not to do myself, but toread about How competitive do you ever get
(14:11):
in scramble, Dina? I thinkbeing in this kind of competition would break
me. No, there's no wayI'll go anywhere near that. I mean,
I dabble in scramble, but Inever played it competitively, And you
know, I'm glad I never didbecause the pressure and the insanity of the
people in this book. I'm notentirely sure I would have had the very
(14:33):
excellent childhood I had if I hadto sit and figure out good words on
you know, square tiles, youknow, And I think in a way
again, this is what's wonderful aboutbooks like this because it takes you into
a little microcosm subculture of a communityof people, you know, who are
intensely obsessed over one thing. Andeven I thought, without the mystery,
(14:56):
it would have been fascinating. Youknow, how do you win a scribble
tournament? They're kind of like strategyand how nerdy can you get? You
know, like I was a nered, but wow, these people take what
nerdy to the next level. Butby mind is also a ya, So
there's a lot of drama. Andthis is very much a Hannah a Cuff
book right where she always deals withyou know, subject matter like her mental
(15:20):
health, like teenagers dealing with changes, and it's mainly about Nadua, her
main character, dealing with grief froma passing of a friend, a life
that is enough too soon. Hannahis really good at drawing out these kind
of issues and how people cope withthem, and her books will always make
you feel less alone in as well. I just want to say the kids
(15:41):
in this book are so intimidatingly intellectualright. And I think Hannah's literally genius
is in creating characters that you reallyfeel for, even though you know,
we've just talked about them being obsessedwith scrabble and just like, you know,
being really, like really type akind of personalities, which I think
it's not normal for teenagers, butyeah, you still feel like these are
(16:03):
very real people, especially parents ofteens. You might get into this book
to get a sense of the psychesof children and maybe understand the pressures and
stresses their face. And if you'rea teenager, you'll be able to relate
to wanting to keep up and tofit in, and you know, and
that sense of feeling like an impostorno matter what you do, and wanting
(16:25):
to belong right. And I thinkbest of all, it's such a well
paced and well written story, andyou're going to be engrossed and invested as
you're trying to figure out just what'sgoing on at the scrabble tournament. And
of course, Hannah is the onlyauthor to have two books in the ESOP
Library. Her other book is DCToo Lang Junjo, which is published by
Fixi, And this is a BastaMalaysia translation of a smashing debut The Weight
(16:48):
of Our Sky and tell us thestory of Malati, a teen who suffers
from OCD and how she had tonavigate the city of kl to find her
mom during the May thirteen riots innineteen sixty nine. Folks, it is
a worthy translation, and even ifyou have read Weight of Our Sky,
it might be interesting for you tocheck out the bars of version because it
kind of gives you a bit ofa different experience, you know. We
(17:11):
also have a collection of short storiesby Sue Metan called Lake Malibu and Other
Stories. Here's Sumitan Hi. Thisis Suemetan. I was born and raised
in KL but I'm currently living inMelbourne. Lake Malibu and Other Stories is
(17:32):
my first book. The twelve storiesin this collection come from my own experiences
of growing up in Malaysia and latermigrating to Australia. Some of my favorites
in this book include a story abouta boy who falls for his best friend's
mother and one about two friends whodream of greener pastures overseas. The stories
(17:56):
are basically about people who are tryingto find their place in the world,
and I hope readers can connect withthis in some way. I actually read
the short story of the boy thatis in love with his friend's mother,
which is the kind yeah yeah,And this is the thing about Lake Malibu
(18:18):
discollection. It actually is interlinked,interconnected, so like in one story the
character might be a side character,but in another story there might be the
main character. So it kind offollows lives of this kind of like bunch
of people, I think in away. I mean, I've not read
the whole thing, but you know, I thought it was actually quite a
cool little story collection. And againparts of it saying Ipo, I tell
you, man like people from Ipolareally got stuff to do. To tell.
(18:45):
I think that some of the storiesin here you probably believe really be
moved by, especially the first one, Hide, which I find quite deeply
affecting. It's a story about thisfamily trying to get by during the Japanese
occupation, and you know, thenitty gritty of like trying to feed everyone
and keep everyone safe, that kindof thing. And then you know,
(19:07):
she she jumps from that kind ofstory into yeah, that missus Fernandez,
which you mentioned about, you know, this unlikely connection between an older woman
and her son's classmate. And thenthere's there's Another one that really kick in
my mind as well, Waitress.It's about a young woman, a waitress,
and then she's engaged by this manand she thinks that he's going to
(19:30):
like proposition her or something, butno, he brings her home and asks
her to look after his son,and then the waitress and the young boy
developed this kind of bond and it'squite interesting. So these stories were born
of Sueme's exploration of the movement andprogression that people make as humans like and
(19:51):
the impacts of the choices they make. And it's it's soulful, it's surreal,
and I think part of the funof reading it is looking out for
the characters that are connected in theother stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean like I didn't actually realizethat until I was, hey,
you know, like, oh,I'm following Pracassia story now, you know,
while he was kind of like abit player and another story. So
that was kind of cool. Actually, I like it when the writer has
(20:15):
their own little universe, their littleMarvel universe. That's so cool. Yeah.
So the next one on our listis actually Surround Secrets Tales of Love,
Loss and Longing by Lisu Kim andboth you and I have read this,
right, honey. Yeah, wedid actually meet her during a Nonia
inspired party where we all work byus and kind Bade, But I actually
(20:36):
knew her before that because she wasactually one of the teachers who taught me
during my master's Oh why she Yes, she was a guest lecturer. But
yeah, I mean, like,if you haven't tried these books, they're
they're a really sweet collection. Sweethuh, because I feel that there's a
lot of unrequited love. There's alot of innocence, lost, loneliness,
even greed in her books. Soit's a lot to do with the human
(20:59):
condition, I feel, and alsoabout the diaspora, right, because these
are people who have settled in anothercountry and how they have to kind of
maintain their culture and how they assimilate. So there's all this search into identity.
And what's really wonderful about this bookas well is that you have pictures
in it. So there's pictures ofsarongs, God, there's accessories, union
(21:22):
artifacts, so you can also takea look at the artisanal handiwork of the
Barbara Junia people in her book.So I quite like that it's kind of
like a picture book for adults.Hi. I'm Lisa Kim, the author
of Sarum's Secrets of Love, Lossand Longing. Sarongs are very much a
(21:48):
part of my life. For aslong as I can remember, the women
folk in my family wore sarongs.Grandmother wore beautiful, rustic brown sarongs which
was so heavily starsh they could standup alone by themselves. She didn't own
a single pair of trousers nor askirt. I am a six generation Nionia
(22:12):
with maternal links to Penang and paternallinks to the Malaccan Paranakan communities. Sarong
Secrets is my second collection of shortstories of the Paranakans. They are stories
of intrigue, family feuds, identitycrisis, stories of despair and sadness,
(22:33):
passion, funny stories filled of humor, stories of greed and betrayal, innocence
lost, even a supernatural kille.Along with the stories are colorful photographs of
Sarong's family heirlooms, black and whitephotos, poems, ditties clustered around the
(22:57):
stories. Thank you Esop for selectingmy book. It is an honor and
a privilege to be selected. Iam proud to be part of AESOPS Women's
Library celebrating voices and stories of women. Thank you. Another short story collection
(23:19):
is by Carissa On. It isactually a short story and poetry collection.
Yes, Carrisa. Hi, I'mCarrisa On, author of best selling title
Midnight Monologues. I'm also the ownerand founder of pen Wing's Publishing and the
(23:45):
head of product design at a techcompany. I published Midnight Monologues when I
was twenty four years old in twentysixteen. It's an English poetry and short
stories book that has themes of love, heartbreak, family, friends, an
array of different short stories in differentgenres. Being a woman writer in Malaysia
(24:11):
is amazing. I get to shareall of my stories from my perspective and
get hurt. Thank you so much, zero around. The first thing you
notice about Midnight Monologues is how beautifulthe cover is, and yeah, it's
one awards for that. Yeah,and I think fittingly. Many of the
(24:33):
poets in this collection are arranged alsofor typographical aesthetics, so that's something that
you have to look at the bookto see. And it's actually a collection
that is arranged into four parts.It's called Lost, Found, Hope and
Short Stories her work is bold,it's punchy, it's evocative, and it's
(24:53):
Yeah, it's no surprise why itwas picked as one of the MPH Best
Books of twenty sixteen. And Ithink, you know, it was really
really popular at one stage because notonly is it really quite accessible because you
know, the poems are not verylong, you know, you don't have
to you don't have to work veryhard to to try to understand literary references
(25:14):
in them. But yeah, she'sactually really good at marketing them as well.
Yeah, I mean like she startedher own publishing right pen Wings.
Yes exactly, I mean wow,you know, like, um, kudos
to Charisa for from making poetry youknow, like a thing for young Malaysians
and that's that's such a great achievement. I mean, if you want to
be inspired by somebody who just grabthe world by his balls, Charissa On
(25:41):
will be one person for you.Toys exactly. And yeah, and again
this is why we think it's veryimportant for you to come and interact with
the books, you know, becausethis is one book that you probably enjoy
seeing in his actual tactile form asopposed to getting it on digital format.
Yes, you know, because youknow it's a beautiful book. I think
it's hard to walk past this bookand not have your head turned by it
and it's like, oh, what'sthat book? Right? Yeah, it's
(26:03):
really beautiful. Right. So thatbrings us into the poetry collections. And
I know, I think one thingthat occurred to me when I was going
through the list, it's like,how many poets we have in Malitia that
I actually did not realize. Andone that both of us especially like is
Alena Rastam's All the Beloveds. Andhere's Elena who talks about her life as
(26:25):
a writer and will also give youa taste of her writing. Hi.
My name is Alena Rustam and I'ma writer based in Kuala Lumpo. And
I'm really happy that my collection ofpoetry, All the Belovedds, is one
of the books that will be featuredin Women's Library Project. I wrote All
(26:49):
the Beloveds a long time ago.It was published in twenty and nine.
It seems to me that the worldwe find ourselves in today is immeasurably changed
from when I wrote the book.The pandemic for many of us was a
very harrowing time when we were forcedto experience multiple facets of pain and suffering,
such as isolation and grief and loss, and even now that we have
(27:11):
emerged from it, many of usare still trying to find our way in
this incredibly changed world. Although Allthe Beloveds was written a long time ago,
I think the poems in the bookare still relevant because mostly they deal
with universal themes and conditions. Thedarker ones such as loss and grief were
also the more redemptive ones such ashope, love and moments or grace.
(27:37):
I have engaged in many kinds ofwriting in my career, journalistic writing,
academic writing, and so on.But poetry for me, has always been
a doorway into transcendence, offering away to move beyond the confusion and suffering
that oppresses us so much of thetime, into a space of clarity,
wisdom, and peace. This,to me is one of the most precious
(28:00):
things that art offers us, thatchance, that doorway, that bright space.
To give a sense of what Imean and a flavor of the kind
of writing you'll find in the book. I'm going to read the stanza from
one of the poems in the bookcalled the Dreams Will Come Back. The
(28:21):
Dreams Will Come Back Darling, yourdreams will come back. One day.
You'll see them a light all aroundyou, feel them love you again.
Though the way things been absolute andthe way things been grave. You'll turn
down your grief, let the worldtouch you again, and the dreams will
come back. Darling, Your dreamswill come back. They will flare in
(28:45):
your midnights and sing to you again. I hope that those who come across
and read all the Belovers now thanksto us life Affirming Initiative, will find
that the poems offer them the samedoorway into place of solace and healing and
renew Thank you. I mean,come on for those long contemplative nights and
(29:11):
melancholy days. What better than anown Voices poetry collection? Right? I
was really inspired by what Elena saidabout, you know, the effect of
this book on people, especially afterthe pandemic, right, because it's something
that you don't really realize that youneed it until you actually read it.
Thank you Elena for your poetry,because yeah, they were really great.
(29:33):
Yeah, I mean they were veryintimate, kind of like musings on loss,
on absence, on leaving, oncraving, do you know what I
mean? Like there was a lotof sort of like saying goodbye to somebody,
dear to you, death of somebodythat you love. You know,
it is a poetry collection that makesyou feel less alone. I have to
say, you know, I completelyagree. Yeah. So another collection of
(29:57):
poems that we have here is Peoniesinto Sambal by Fedora and she is a
Kadazan Chinese and this is her secondpoetry collection, but first that debuted under
her own name. There was asurprisingly touching reed for me. Pose are
nostalgic and sentimental, and there's onethat samples a portion of that quintessential Sabahan's
(30:18):
song Jambat Tapuli, and that's areal throwback for me as someone who spent
my primary school years there. Andshe also shares some heartfelt pieces that explore
things like impost syndrome, grief forlove lost, and there's one especially sweet
one about her appreciating her mother.Okay, but here's one that I think
most Malaysians will appreciate. It's calledDumplings of My Heart to this country I
(30:48):
love with its Nazi lamat roads andlayers of quemoy smiles, where people buy
rothi chanai for breakfast and eats upfun for lunch, where our food units
the taste buds of the young,old and wild, and Maggie Gore Tambatalo
is the after trek food. Thiscountry is glorious in all its nature,
(31:11):
flora and fauna. But I onlycare about the chicken, rice laxa,
and God knows what food is amazing. My runaways are the nearest Mamma or
the boutique cafes with premium coffees.But I only like copeeping in the Chinese
kopetium, where the coffee is coolike the heat. In this country.
(31:33):
Food is the heart of this nationwhere race divides but hearts collide at the
top of banana leaf and tetare.Food brings the Nazi to the Durian,
and we'll get booboo Durian, asweet, gentle escapade of flavors that humbles
the extravagant taste of the king offruits and exudes a softness on our palates.
(31:55):
I'd like to think that inside eachof us is a batsan, soft,
boutenous rice of kindness. An eggyolk put the extra oof in our
personality. Mushrooms as a weird sideto us. Chestnuts for the sweetness,
whirling inside nuts for our occasional insanityand meet with the strengthen us. The
(32:15):
depth of food is history and fantasy. The depth of food in this country
is devotion and unity. The depthof food in my heart is Mom's cooking
and Grandma's a gut recipe. I'llalways see food as more than a tummy's
filled and hungry belief. To me, food is always going to be a
fictional story that comes to life.I remember like reading some of her poems.
(32:40):
I mean, that's one about hernot feeding quite sabahan, you know,
which I think a lot of peoplewould identify, especially those of us.
I mean for you as well,who moved around quite a lot,
right, and for me who kindof like, I mean a Malay but
I grew up in a very Englishkind of household, Like I kind of
like that. And then there's oneabout her just like can't write because she's
like, I'm not good enough.I'm not good enough, I'm not good
(33:02):
enough. And in the end she'slike, going, but if I have
something to say, that should begood enough. So that's like I think,
I mean, they're very youthful poems, but I think there's something in
it for everybody you know. Andof course there's a lot of food imagery,
yeah right, which is typically Malaysianand kind of things. So yeah,
that's what I think a lot ofus will identify with. And that
is also a collection of Malay poetrycalled Moment by Quaratine is published by Katapilla.
(33:29):
I actually love the name of thepublishing house, kata Pila, which
is caterpillar but also like pillars orwords, and they do kind of print
a lot of poetry books. Shewas a Sian Bara Poissy finalist, and
I have to say I really quiteenjoy the way that she crafts her poems.
A lot of it kind of dealswith a lot of religious and ritualistic
(33:50):
imagery. That's a bit of aChristiana imagery Judaism, and she uses words
like malika. She uses a lotof sort of like those kind of religious
I don't know connotations. This isan interesting book. I'm going to read
one about a non love. Thisis called Jika Chika Gara adelas Ram Dear
(34:14):
Biara for Nasa Moracia can see LuckyYoungster in Kunjong sitting up a Heartcatiger Choir
I am at Lucky Laspell Putbadinia.You're ma hoom and Jada. You could
chill, ye can come offan chintaniustumor sacs he can saleb nanka kudan ryuka
(34:37):
in Salamania. Wow. I likethat. But it's got a lot of
like slightly forbidden love. I meanhalf of the book has all this kind
of like touching into I think,sort of like love for the religion but
also love for someone. And thenyeah, I mean there's some sensuality in
it as well. And she justlooks like such a good girl. Fire
(35:00):
stuff is so and so passionate.So I reckon when you come pick up
her book and have a look atit, you know, because it's not
often that I pick up a bookon a lay poetry and you know,
it was quite moved by some ofit, you know, So I'm like,
verty cool. I will finish upthe Bahasamlasia books on offer. There
(35:21):
are also two other Bahasamilaitia fiction booksby Fixing. One is called Kota by
Kamalia, and I just love itwhen authors just have one name. Kamalia
and this book is about Kasuma whowrites celebrity gossip for a digital rat called
Warner Warni Kota and frankly she isgetting fed out of covering CD's celebrity life.
(35:42):
Then a celebrity dies and one ofher followers does an expose on the
disappearance of urban folk, which alsoincludes Kasuma's own father who mysteriously disappeared twelve
years ago. So she finds herselfinevitently tangled up in secret societies and she
puts forth an investigative skill to findout the truth behind missing people. And
you can actually read an early chapterof the book on what Pad if you
(36:06):
want to have a taste of it. So it has a little bit of
mystery, it has I think likethe main protagon. I was reading a
little bit of it, and it'sjust a very introspective main protagonist that it's
kind of going through what all ofus go through, where we wonder whether
the career that we're doing is actuallythe career we want. You know,
finally we have reputassi by knowing Ishira, And this book is set in a
(36:27):
fictional country called Windoman, where yourreputation is everything you need to be in
the right school, be really theright people, get the right job.
To me, it sounds a littlebit dystupid. I myself have not really
read the book, but literally Iopened it opened a couple of pages and
it goes straight into everybody's lying.So we follow Iris, who has ambitions
to be the best in everything,but of course she has a secret and
(36:51):
if he gets out there, theregoes a reputation and she will be expelled
from the College Windoman, which islike the college that everybody wants to go
to, and she might might beforced to live a life on the streets.
So yeah, kind of dystopian,very wide a and it just,
I guess explores a society where everybodywants to get a hit of each other
and there's lots of lying and backstabbingprobably, So yeah, they're going to
(37:15):
be some interesting parallels to real lifeas well. I'm sure that's the thing
I think sometimes if local write this, because there's so much stuff that you
can't quite touch in Malaysia without youknow, rilling up some people, that
you're forced to be metaphorical about alot of things. Yeah, completely completely.
So there are a couple of reallyinteresting Chinese language books as well,
(37:37):
and if poetry is your thing,you can look out for this really suffically
pleasing looking book called Wahna Muda SaunianSweet Bailer, which means I've slept with
that boy called cat. And it'smy Manini Way, who is actually a
(37:58):
very well established poet. Was bornin Malaysia, but now she lives in
Taiwan. She's lived there for abouttwenty years and she's quite prolific. She's
put out like upwards of fifteen booksthat encompass poetry collections. There's novels in
there, there's children's books, andshe even has books that are published in
both Chinese and Malay. And she'seven got a collection of Malay panton out.
(38:23):
Oh yeah, that's a cool title. Yeah. To give you a
taste of the poetry in this bookI have prepared in my very limited Chinese,
it must be said to read youone her poems. And if you're
listening money anyway, and I havebutchered the pronunciation here at all, please
(38:45):
forgive me round me the monk gaymao typin. Let your dream be read
once by the cat nayang so beingthe changta y indeed be in Sunsui.
That way your hands strengthen and youreyesight deepens. Run me the mom siso
(39:08):
you easang taupin. Let your dreamshave at least one photo tang niman tai
tai hui neither fungin bunzo suga thaiyang. When they're tearing down your room
and removing the twelve sons, falang the sun than su waitong soodindy so
(39:32):
to light. Light from the Christmastrees will come from bookstores may Curtan dohatan
ez mouth. Every lamp will transforminto a cat san huai peni so igawan
sang su san huisang too leeming.A god will sit with you for one
(39:57):
night, and the dawn will growfrom the trees leaming quaitsang too nyuin the
liang girl Taiyang. From the dawncome two moons and two sons, rounded
and full and yeah. I basicallyplugged this into Google Translate and also corrected
(40:27):
it in a way that made senseto me. So okay, I hope
that wasn't too bad. Oh mygod, shuld I translate the BM one.
No, I don't know. Ithought i'd do that just because we
are an English podcast and I wouldlike people to also appreciate the Chinese poems.
Okay, you might also like tolook up liang Jing Funds Sweet Hang,
(40:47):
which won the Huatza Literary Award intwo thousand and one, and it's
a fictionalized account of the history ofthe Chinese admirals and her or Laxamana Chengho
and his voyage to Malika in fourteenoh five. And it's an interesting look
at how stories are distorted and changedwhen passed down through the ages. So
that's a historical fiction. Another novelthat you might like to look up is
(41:12):
Yusuti. It's by a multi awardwinning author leads the Suit, and it
tells the story of a blind womanand the people that she encounters in her
daily life. So this book wasespecially acclaimed in China for being an insightful
look into the lives of ordinary Malaysians. And the author has said that she
wanted to write a novel that wasa kind of a chronicle of ordinary lives,
(41:35):
but based on her own experiences growingup in people People again, People
again. There's something about people andmaking people become creative. I mean good
company. Yes you are, so. I really don't know how you are
going to select the book that you'regoing to take away. You're completely sported
for choice from the Women's Library.But I think what's great is that now
(41:58):
you're exposed to more books that youmight want to read. So if you
like to know more about the ESOPMalaysia Women's Library, check out our minnisode
on it. It is episode oneof the series. And remember, come
one, come all to es UPstores in Pavilion and Gardens from the twenty
sixth to the twenty eighth of Mayand Gunny Plaza, Pinang from the second
to the fourth of June. Savethe Date's book nets, Save the Date.
(42:21):
Yeah, be sure to invite allyour book loving friends to drop into
the stores with you and maybe we'llcatch each other there. Indeed, are
you going to beda? I might? You might wat. I mean the
stores are not very big, sowe might be wafting around outside. Yeah,
but when else can you sit insidethis lovely centered in you know,
like really comfortable space and just besurrounded by all these beautiful books. People
(42:45):
are just going to take so manyphotos, I think because the display itself
I think will be really pretty.Yeah. So this episode was brought to
you by ESOT Malaysia. It isproduced and edited by Stephanie O and myself
Honey Ahmed, and if you wantto share stuff with us, you can
email us at booknetstalking at gmail dotcom or you can also follow us on
(43:06):
Instagram at TBNT books too, bookNetstalking on Facebook, and tbntpot on Twitter.
As usual, we are your friendlyneighborhood book nets. I am Honey
Ahmed and I'm dying a young signingout. Have a great book issue week Bye
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