Ripples and other stories

Ripples and other stories by Shih-Li Kow (RM 30.00)

Shih-Li just keeps on getting better and better. In her first full book of short stories (which, incidentally has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize in the First Book category), Shih Li's delicate touch and turn of phrase continues. She says she loves writing and obviously means it. She will not let any excuse get in the way of her passion. She holds a full time job working six days a week, and is a loving single mother with a ten-year-old.

"... If you were getting tired of fiction, this is the place to have your faith renewed in the beauty and the terror of the imaginary.

I recommend that you read the stories in order of appearance. Unexpected delights will emerge: characters, locations and events from earlier stories will pop up in subsequent ones, adding shade and dimension to the earlier appearances. Things connect -- not in a mystery-solving way, but because even seemingly random occurrences have a history behind them. And since these connections occur in a social environment like Malaysia, they get complicated further by our famously fraught cultural and historical matrices."

-- Amir Muhammad, Malay Mail, 31^st December 2008.

Sun Yat Sen in Penang by Khoo Salmah Nasution (RM 30.00)

'You can help shoulder the responsibility of saving our country by donating your money, while our comrades in our country are sacrificing their lives'

Sun Yat Sen in the famous speech he made in Penang, 1910

The Second Guangzhou Uprising (also called the Canton March 29 Uprising), a turning point of the 1911 Chinese Revolution, was planned from a place 2,400 km away -- in Penang in present-day Malaysia.

As a young revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen traveled widely and lived amongst the Chinese Communities abroad, including Japan, North America and Southeast Asia. He mobilized the overseas Chinese with the dream of saving the Chinese nation.

In 1910, when success seemed most remote, Dr. Sun turned to his followers in Penang. The Penang Philomatic Union became the Tongmenghui party's Nanyang Headquarters, raising funds and fighters for the Second Guangzhou Uprising and acting decisively to help consolidate the Xinhai Revolution.

Anwar and Mahathir

The Asian Renaissance by Anwar Ibrahim (Publisher: Marshall Cavendish, RM 44.60)

The renaissance of Asia entails the growth, development and flowering of Asian societies based on a certain vision of perfection; societies imbued with truth and the love of learning, justice and compassion, mutual respect and forbearance, and freedom and responsibility. It is the transformation of its cultures and societies from its capitulation to Atlantic powers to the position of self-confidence and its reflowering at the dawn of a new millennium.


The Malay Dilemma by Mahathir bin Mohamad (Publisher: Marshall Cavendish, RM 44.40)

...first published in 1970 to much controversy. Dr Mahathir's interpretation of events caused him to be called upon to defend his statements and claims.

This is not an objective book. Nevertheless, it is published because it is what an educated modern, progressive Malay thinks and believes ... The arguments in the Malay Dilemma reveal the author's reactions to the pressing problems of the day, and show how a politically inclined Malay understands the past, explains the behaviour of his own people and the behaviour of the immigrants, and foresees the future.

Poems Sacred and Profane

Poems Sacred and Profane: Sajak Sajak Saleh by Salleh ben Joned

The third edition of this, arguably, most important collection of modern Malaysian poetry which was first released in 1987. It is too important a book not to be kept in print. Here are some of the reactions from readers and reviewers. Only Salleh ben Joned can traumatise a whole race!

• "It's like meeting Hang Jebat* on his day off." -- Lat -- *Jebat -- legendary Malay rebel of 15^th - 16^th century Malacca famous for his amok
  
  
• "...below the wit that withers and wounds is the love he bears his own...poems that mix grief, anger, love; the voice of the poet speaking for and at his race, with the voice of the father, the husband, the lover, the would-be mystic still very much of this world -- and revelling in it...Here is Malay as it is seldom heard, returned perhaps to its original vigour..." -- Dawn Menon, The Star
  
  
• The poems "are unconventional and invigorating and explore with arresting sensuality subjects often confined to the philosophical and personal." -- Traveller's Literary Companion to Southeast Asia (1996)
  
  
• "The appearance of Salleh's book ... was the most traumatic experience for the Malay literary scene." -- Prof Muhammad Hj Salleh
  
  
• "Ini puncak sajak penuh rentak seorang penyair tulen lagi jantan bernama Salleh."-- Latiff Mohidin

History

History of the Dutch in Malaysia by Dennis De Witt -- RM 60.00.

Written in the perspective of a Malaysian Dutch Eurasian, this book divides the Dutch historical influences in Malaysia into four different eras. Each era is analysed and represented in relation to its respective social environment and political developments. Included are the historical contributions of individuals, such as the Dutch Admirals who attempted to capture Malacca, the Dutch Governors and their administrative ranks who governed the town and the contributions of the Malacca Burghers in shaping Malaysia's history.

Presented herein are the many vestiges from the Dutch that can still be found in Malaysia today. The author also sets the record straight on some misconceptions concerning historic monuments, identifies Dutch architectural influences, recounts an unusual tradition of reusing old burial tombs and proposes a theory for the legend of Malacca's secret tunnels.

Although Dutch-descended communities such as the Afrikaners of South Africa, the Ceylon Burghers of Sri Lanka and the Indo-Dutch Eurasians from Indonesia are known to exist, few are aware of the existence of the Malaysian Dutch descendants. Categorised in a broad sense as Eurasians, they exist as a minority within a minority in Malaysia. This book recounts their history, relates their ancestor's contributions towards Malaysian history and describes the development of this hidden and forgotten minority ethnic group.