The Places You Will Go

The Right Words, In the Right Order

What was it I once said about how poetry can make you cry, and give you wings too? It can also improve your sex life. Or so I've been told ...

Murder in China

I interviewed US-based Chinese author Qiu Xiaolong in April this year and the story was finally published today.

Since then I've also got around to reading the first book in his Chief Inspector Chen series. I really liked it and I want to read the other books.

HERE are their synopses as they appeared in Reads Monthly (StarMag, 27th May 2007) ...

 

Death of a Red Heroine

ONE afternoon, the naked body of a young woman is found wrapped in a black trash bag in an obscure canal in Shanghai. It is the corpse is of Guan Hongying (the name Hongying can be read as "red heroine"), a national model worker, thus bringing the case’s political aspects squarely into place. Chief Inspector Chen Cao and his older subordinate Yu investigate the case, eventually tracing the likely murderer as Wu Xiaoming, the only son of Wu Bai, a high-ranking Party cadre.

 

A Loyal Character Dancer

CHEN and Inspector Catherine Rohn of the US Marshal Service must work together to find a missing woman. She is married to an important witness in a US criminal case who has refused to testify unless his pregnant wife is allowed to join him. The Chinese government has reluctantly agreed to let her go and the Americans have sent a marshal to escort her. Then, inexplicably she vanishes....

 

When Red Is Black

WHEN Yin Lige, the author of a banned book, is found murdered in her Shanghai apartment, Chen and detective Yu Guangming must solve a case that may have far-reaching political and social implications. (The “red” of the title refers to Mao Zedong’s Red Guard, the “black” to the supposed enemies of the working class denounced during the Cultural Revolution.). 

Yu soon uncovers the long-ago romance between the victim and Yang Bing, a college professor.

 

A Case of Two Cities

THE Communist Party leadership appears to be vigorously investigating rampant corruption among the profligate power elite during China’s economic reforms of the recent past. 

After the head of the Fujian special case squad is murdered in sordid circumstances, Chen discovers that the dead man had been probing a wealthy businessman, Xing Xing, who fled to the United States to escape prosecution. 

Chen himself is then given the highest authority to carry on the investigation, which takes him to the United States, but he soon realises he’s not meant to succeed.

 

Source: Wikipedia, Amazon.com, FantasticFiction.co.uk

In Anticipation of Malaysians' Top 10 Books

From StarMag, 21st April 2006.

Books Malaysians Love

THE original plan, when StarMag first decided to run a poll on Malaysians' favourite books, was to ask readers to submit one title each. However, the groans, moans and curses that issued from the mouths of those whom we first ran the idea by prompted an increase to 10 fiction titles.

The grumbling continued, though. As one reader, lawyer Animah Kosai, says, “If not for the deadline, I’d still be vascilating. It was a tough choice – I had to decide, one (book) per author. Otherwise there’d be more Murakami, Kundera and Nabakov.” Asked how long the list should have been? She says, “How long is a piece of string? I bet if I had to submit the list again, it would be slightly different.” The list Kosai did submit includes Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

The content of the list which we asked readers for was also a subject of some discussion among StarMag’s staff. Deciding on a solely fiction list proved slightly problematic as My Family and Other Animals and James Herriot’s books about his life as a vet in the British Yorkshire Dales popped up on several lists.

Should we restrict our readers to just books originally written in English? No, we decided that this would mean leaving out some really important works of literature, like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind.

Of course, we fully expected to be inundated with lists featuring The Da Vinci Code, but Dan Brown’s bestseller doesn’t seem to be a favourite of as many Malaysians as evinced from local sales of the book. It might be a case of anonymity not allowing some readers to be as honest as they otherwise might be about their preferences.

“Some people might just want to appear intelligent so they’d probably include a list of classics or maybe some really ‘smart’ books. It could lead to pretty pretentious lists and inaccurate results!” says Julianne Leow, a 20-year-old Universiti Malaya undergraduate whose Top 10, which include Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, was chosen based on books that made a lasting impression and one or two titles that “influenced my thinking, perception and – dare I say it – life in some way.” 

We received e-mails from the day the poll was announced (April 1) and the overall response has been healthy considering that we are a nation who, supposedly, reads an average of two books per person per year. Look out for the final results in our Reads Monthly pullout next week. 

Leow predicts that J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings will top the charts. Do you agree? You and your book club buddies can start placing bets now on what Malaysians' favourite books are!

 

Breaking Barriers

StarMag, 8th April 2007.

Breaking barriers

By DAPHNE LEE

An author who wrote about an Australian teenager struggling with her faith strikes a chord among Malaysian teens.

IN Does My Head Look Big in This?, Randa Abdel-Fattah describes the experiences of a young Muslim Palestinian-Australian after she decides to wear the hijab (veil).

Sri Delima Rides Again

MPH Publishing's reissues of Adibah's Amin's As I Was Passing and As I Was Passing II (compilations of her column that appeared in the New Straits Times in the 70s and 80s) were launched this morning at Uncle Chilli's PJ Hilton.

I was very happy to see Amir (left) there. He's my friend and partner in picture book crime (and here we look like we're Siamese twins). He also ilustrated the new covers for As I Was Passing.

This (right) is Gim Ean, my best friend at the Star.

Here I am (left), being an author-groupie.

And this (right) is Eric Forbes, my editor at MPH Publishing.

Dead and Alive

I'm currently biting my nails over Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is part-detective, part-horror fiction, about a group of scholars investigating the truth behind the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the cruel medieval ruler whose crimes formed the basis of the myth of Dracula.

Reading this book, prompted me to re-read Bram Stoker's Dracula. Coincidentally, two new versions of the classic tale arrived on my desk about a month ago: an illustrated edition, and a graphic novel.

Having a Ball with Books

Last week, I met and interviewed Tom Palmer, an author who develops and works on reader development programmes in the UK.

One of the things Palmer does is promote reading through football.

I attended a workshop conducted by him at the National Library and was inspired! My friend and I are hoping to launch a community library next year and I'm really looking forward to the workshops and programmes that we'll be able to run there.

Gentle Approach to Race Issues

Star Mag, 10th December 2006

Pop Art

Matthew Reinhart (left) and Robert Sabuda are partners in pop-up crime, whose skills bring movable books to a whole different level.

I have four of their books and paid a pretty penny for each, but ... no regrets. If you're thinking of getting something special for someone who loves books as much as they do art, I recommend a book by Sabuda aand Reinhart.

Star Mag, 22nd October 2006.

Reach for the Rainbow

It was one of the highlights of my week, back when I was in school: Adibah Amin's column As I Was Passing, in the News Straits Times. And so, it was a big thrill when I got the chance to interview her about her first English novel ....

Star Mag, 22nd October 2006