Despite Global Health Warnings, Travellers’ Tales – and Events - Must Continue To be Told and Experienced

Lion City Lit By Ken Hickson

Travel is on our mind and in our readings. And while we don’t usually include poets, plays or painters, where there’s a stretched Singapore angle and a very good literary (or publishing) reason, why not.

When Singapore, like dozens of other countries, is being plagued by the nasty coronavirus, which is stopping some people from holding events -  including theatre and book launches -  we must not just revert to shutting ourselves away to read books, but enjoy a play or a reading when we can.

So Singapore theatre goers can still experience a very localised version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (by Wild Rice);  The Lifespan of a Fact – based on an actual event in New York – presented by Singapore Repertory Theatre; then there’s Florian Zeller’s The Son, performed by Pangdemonium. If that’s not enough to go on or go to, there’s National Theatre’s War Horse, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, or even more remotely connected is J.B. Priestley’s 1945 drama, An Inspector Calls, being staged by Wild Rice.

As seen elsewhere...

https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/the-door-was-open-by-karine-khodikyan/#more-7670

Japanese Destroyer Captain - A Memoir of The Pacific War

Japanese Destroyer Captain is the postwar memoir of Tameichi Hara, a Japanese Navy officer who earned the nickname the “Miracle Captain.” He is one of the only Japanese captains to have survived the entire Pacific War from its beginning in 1941 to its end in 1945. Of the 175 destroyers the Imperial Navy possessed during World War II, 129 were sunk.

Tsundoku #11 (The All Fiction Special)

2020 is shaping up as a record year for books by Asian and Asian diaspora writers in the world of fiction as well as a bumper crop of non-fiction on the region. So without further ado let’s find some additions to your 2020 tsundoku pile…This January/February I'm focussing on the fiction…

Indie Spotlight - Goddesses of Japan

In Indie Spotlight this month, Kazuko Nishimura tells us about her Goddesses of the World series. Historical fiction from Japan with a mythical theme. Over to Kazuko...

The Goddesses of Japan, is Book One of the Goddesses of World Series.. It is set in Japan and covers the narratives of its Creation to the modernisation in the Nineteenth Century, when the country comes out from the self-imposed seclusion. It is sold on Amazon.

Happy reading in December and January!!

Asian Books Blog will close for Christmas and Chinese New Year.  It will reopen on Monday Feb 3, 2020.  In the meantime, happy reading!! See you again once all the festivities have stopped.

500 words from Noelle Q De Jesus

Noelle Q De Jesus is a Filipino American short story writer who explores issues of identity, belonging, and attachment. Her stories are intimately shaped around individuals, yet simultaneously address broader questions relevant to worldwide communities. Today we hear from her about her latest collection, Cursed and Other Stories.

The truth is, initially, Cursed and Other Stories became a book because I had too many short stories for one volume. Its genesis took place in late 2014, when I looked up from my messy life of being wife, mother and freelance writer, and realised I was not another writer that had written nothing. I was a woman of 48 who had written over 30 stories, a number of them published, and I could put together a book if I wanted to. That process meant, sorting stories and grouping them. My second realisation was I had actually written enough to make one and a half books. I did not even know it.