The UrbanWire

Author: Suchen Christine Lim
Publisher: Monsoon Publishing Pte Ltd

Don’t let the cover of Suchen Christine Lim’s The Lies That Build A Marriage fool you. This novel might seem dark and filled with angst. (Read more)

Author: Jennifer Koh & Jasmine Seah
Publisher: Ethos Publishing

Light is Like Water is a compilation of brief free-style poems that encapsulates the essence of Jennifer’s “love for the mundane and the momentary”. It’s a short and visual read that’s largely inspired by Jennifer’s Polaroid snapshots of commonplace yet, often seen as little more than transient objects.

Each page is a moving poetry in itself, often inciting the melancholic sense of déjà vu.

It makes you wish that there were more to read and see, but perhaps keeping it short and sweet was the intention of the co-authors, whose individual prefaces would be just about the longest read in the work.

Light is Like Water is a good springboard to more new ideas, especially for those readers who are out to look for inspirations.

Author: David Leo
Publisher: Ethos Publishing

Honestly, this isn’t the book you’d want to be caught reading when you are pretending to look intellectual. Yet if you drop the act, you’ll find David Leo’s off ering speaks volumes about our life in Singapore. (Read more)

Author: Isa Kamari
Publisher: Ethos Publishing

Originally written in Malay by Isa Kamari, One Earth is the English translation provided by Isa’s wife. It details the journey of a Chinese girl adopted by a Malay family and the hardships of the people living the troubled times between the Japanese Occupation and Singapore’s Independence.

One Earth is a deeply insightful piece and puts the reader into the characters’ shoes, as they struggle to cope with the drastic changes in their lives. It off ers an intimate look into their lives as the various characters either rise above their circumstances or fall into despondence.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about One Earth is its depiction of human nature. Set in such tumultuous times, both the best and the worst of humanity is shown.

Editor: Sharon Tan K.S
Publisher: Renaissance Publishing

Ever wondered what truly defines love? Romance Volume 1 seeks for answers to this age-old question through a writing contest, devoted to love. Many aspiring young local writers allowed their literary juices flow around this theme and produced an award-winning collection of love stories and poems. Their works are what made up this book – from teenage adolescence crushes to adult relationships or even those based purely on desire and passion.

What can be learnt from this book is that real love usually involves various obstacles and challenges that require not just one person, but two people to break through the hard times. Grab a copy and embark on the journey to discover the universally accessible theme – love.

Which girl wouldn’t desire the perfect life: a shapely body, the best husband, a high-flying career and being draped with branded goods?

While the dreams lives of millions remain just that, this perfect life dropped right onto the lap of Remember Me? protagonist, Lexi Smart. She’s not exactly the most deserving candidate of such luck though, being an unimpressive associate junior sales manager at a carpet company with the nickname ‘Snaggletooth’ for her ugly teeth, weighing a few extra pounds and living in a tiny flat in Balham, London.

A Fairytale Gone Wrong

All that changed overnight when Lexi’s boyfriend stood her up. Fainting after falling down the steps pissed drunk, she comes to in a hospital with perfect teeth, a lean and toned body, a high-flying career and perfect husband, Eric, who just happens to be a multi-millionaire.

She also happens to have amnesia and has lost the last 3 years of her life. She ’s totally clueless about how she transformed from a 25-year-old working-class unremarkable girl with a small flat in Balham, London into a 28-year-old married woman with the perfect life. (Read more)

With a title like The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, you’d expect good fortune for Francis Wilberforce, instead of a tale of his downward spiral from a successful computer engineer at the peak of his career to an alcoholic shunned by society.

A Tale In Rewind

Paul Torday’s sophomore novel after Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It is a first-person narrative written regressively and categorised into four years: 2006, 2004, 2003 and 2002.

When the story begins in 2006 we see 38-year-old Wilberforce, a jobless alcoholic-in-denial, with his life in shambles. His body is suffering the detrimental effects of cumulative intensive wine consumption and he’s close to death. Wilberforce’s misery is compounded by the mounting debts he incurred by squandering a few thousand pounds on a bottle of wine. (Read more)

The State Counsellor is the sixth mystery instalment of the Erast Fandorin series first penned by acclaimed Russian writer, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili who goes by the pen name, Boris Akunin in 2003.

The first instalment in the series was The Winter Queen, which was published in 1998.

Five books later in The State Counsellor, Akunin’s writing doesn’t seem to have lost any steam.

Journey Of A State Counsellor

Erast Fandorin, equipped with his wit, tackles mysteries with the likes of 007 or James Bond. Though always entangled in romance, Fandorin still manages to save the day in the end. (Read more)

The ever-popular TV talent-search series American Idol has found another way to milk its appeal and is now making soup.

Not literally, of course, because Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul is just another book in the uplifting Chicken Soup series. Though this edition is about a reality TV series it seems too tightly entwined with the fantasies of American Idol to be totally believable.

Idols Have Their Say

First season finalist Jim Verraros’s The Impossible Dream is both memorable and touching. He writes about his parents and the sad fact that they’ll never hear him sing.

“I wouldn’t trade them for all the hearing parents in the world, but sometimes I dream that one day, by some miracle, I could pick up the phone and say ‘I love you’ without an interpreter in the middle,” he writes. (Read more)

Set in the exotic, emerald velds of South Africa, master wordsmith Wilbur Smith, author of prequels Birds of Prey and Monsoon, weaves an intriguing tale of adventure, romance and betrayal in an age of sabres and single-shot muskets, through Blue Horizon, the third book in a series chronicling the exploits of the Courtney family. Though a continuation from the first two novels, Smith’s masterful writing entwines pieces of the plot from the previous novels into the current book.

Sketching the Horizon

In Blue Horizon, the Courtneys, a prosperous and influential family of merchants and adventurers who once used to ply trading routes stretching from the Medina and Muscat in the Middle East, to Bombay and Europe, now reside peacefully in the Dutch colony of the Cape of Good Hope. (Read more)

You’d remember her as the prematurely snuffed on-screen siren and sex symbol of the 50s, the woman with the power to make even a President go weak in the knees.

Marilyn Monroe has always been stereotyped as a dumb blonde, which seems to have moulded her successful career.

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926, Monroe grew up with a schizophrenic mother who left her in the care of guardians and foster homes throughout her childhood. She never knew her father. Having her first marriage while still a teenager, she struggled to mature into womanhood overnight and didn’t have it easy. (Read more)

Sarah Addison Allen weaves reality with the slightest tinge of fantasy in this whimsical novel that is her second offering after Garden Spells .

Allen’s prose is simple yet real and Garden Spells was a spellbinding read. The Sugar Queen looks set to follow-up on and top the praise that came with Allen’s first book.

In The Sugar Queen, Allen tells a tale that is as sweet as its title. But as sweet as the story is, what lie beneath the delicate prose are issues of self-confidence and escapism. These are real issues thrust into Allen’s fictional fantasy world, where they are no less problematic for the characters in the book.

27-year-old Josey has been made to feel less than what she is for most of her life. She represses the insecurity and guilt that has been haunting her since she was a tiny spoilt brat showered with candy – moonpies and pecan rolls, Mallo Cups and “boxes upon boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes”. (Read more)

It’s been a long and windy journey filled with many trials and tribulations, but after 40 years, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has managed to brave them all, emerging stronger every time. With the recent inking of the ASEAN Charter in Nov set to bring the region even closer as one big family, it’s certainly the ideal time to release Young Southeast Asia: 40 Inspiring Youths, a book that provides a glimpse into the bright future that awaits us all.

The Young Men and Women of ASEAN

Produced by youths from the 10 ASEAN nations, the book was created to commemorate the organisation’s 40th anniversary.

Young Southeast Asia: 40 Inspiring Youths, like its title suggests, is an inspirational book containing the profiles of 40 (4 from each of the 10 ASEAN countries) of the region’s most extraordinary young individuals under the age of 35. (Read more)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) Secretary-General, Mr Ong Keng Yong, 53, was stuck in a unique predicament the night before the launch of the book Young Southeast Asia- 40 Inspiring Youths at the Jurong Regional Library on Nov 27. (Read more)

She says she’s not an author but her book reads perfectly. She writes with expressions so beautifully detailed and packed with meaning and history that they mimic the poetic idioms of the Chinese.

She tells a story of a life fraught with adventure, emotional turmoil and finally peace that she’s found with her 3 children and German husband.

Her name is Jin Xing and Shanghai Tango is her story.

It’s a story about a young boy in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Dance Troupe who grew up to be a man who couldn’t find himself until he became a woman, a prima ballerina, a mother and a wife. (Read more)