By The Book

Travel may not be a luxury that we have right now, but to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day this year, we thought we’d take the idea literally - and travel the world through books. We look at books from various countries in the world, and how they offer us a glimpse into what life might be like in a different place and culture - as well who gets to “present” a particular cou...

Science and technology gone wrong, totalitarian governments, a world out of balance - dystopian universes have long been fertile ground for the imagination, stemming from recognisable, relatable fears. In this episode, we talk about our favourite dystopian works, and then recommend some great long articles we've enjoyed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With most of us spending much more time at home now, experimenting in the kitchen has become one form of enjoyment and escape for many people. And if there’s one thing we love more than a good book, it’s a good meal! So this week, we’re discussing the special place that cookbooks hold, and more generally, books that focus on food. And then, we close the show off by discussing boo...

For this month's book club, we dive into Zen Cho's collection of short stories that explore different takes on fairy tales and ghost stories, that take place in Malaysia and abroad, in this world and in others. And then in keeping with this episode's loose theme of escapism, we talk about what our desert island reads would be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would we read if we had to stay home all day? This hypothetical question has, in the past week or so, become a reality for most of us Malaysians, so we discuss what we have been reading, what we plan to read, and why. We wrap things up with a nod to World Poetry Day, by having poet Dhinesha Karthigesu perform for us. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. So begins Anna Karenina - and these lines tend to guide a lot of good fiction as well. There just seems to be more to mine from tragedy and conflict than happiness and contentment... so in conjunction with World Happiness Day, we talk about how happiness is written about (outside of the halls of self-help), and the books...

Short stories have the unique ability to capture our attention, play with language, and tell a story in a brief amount of time; and the best of them always leave us wanting more. We discuss the art of the short story with Malachi Edwin Vethamani, a writer himself and editor of “Ronggeng-Ronggeng: Malaysian Short Stories” - a collection of local stories written over the past six decades...

Short stories have the unique ability to capture our attention, play with language, and tell a story in a brief amount of time; and the best of them always leave us wanting more. We discuss the art of the short story with Malachi Edwin Vethamani, a writer himself and editor of “Ronggeng-Ronggeng: Malaysian Short Stories” - a collection of local stories written over the past six decades...

In conjunction with International Women's Day, we discuss some of our favourite female writers and their works and also touch on the importance of reading from a diverse roster of voices. And then in Footnotes, we talk about how reading more women is often a result of making active choices, and discuss our own journey towards moving away from reading primarily male authors. See omnystudio.com/list...

For February, we take a look at a fantasy novel that received a lot of hype last year, including being shortlisted for a Hugo Award: Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. A (very) loose retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin story, the novel draws on various familiar fairy tale tropes and then subverts them to tell a wholly unique fantasy adventure - one in which women are complex, diverse, and aren’t...

The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning is many things: an account of grief after the loss of a spouse, an introduction to the joy of mushrooms and mushrooming, as well as a story of healing. We speak to Long Litt Woon about writing this deeply personal, moving and unusual first book, and what it's like to be and become a mushroom person. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

For our Valentine’s Day episode, we leave cynicism at the door and dive unabashedly into a discussion on books that replicated, for us, the feeling of being in love. Expect everything from young adult to literary fiction, as we try to break down how the written word makes you fall in love. And because we’re contrary like that, we wrap things up with a discussion on books that expose th...

Upon a diagnosis of cancer, many things tend to come one's way. Specifically, recommendations and advice, not least of all for what you should be eating, and what you should be reading. In this episode of By the Book, we're joined by Dr. Murallitharan Munisamy to discuss the relationship between being a cancer patient (or being part of their family) and books, and give some gentle recommendations...

Don't judge a book by its cover, they say. And yet of course, that's part of the decision making process for many of us. Lots of thought, work and talent go to creating a memorable cover, and our guest this week knows that better than most. Charis Loke is an illustrator whose work appears in and on books, magazines and games, and she joins us to discuss her process and inspirations. We also talk a...

As the movie adaptation of “The Garden of the Evening Mists” hits the cinemas, we speak with the book’s multiple award-winning author Tan Twan Eng - about the book’s journey to the screen, what it feels like to see his characters take a life of their own, and how his story has changed in the process. We wrap things up with a discussion on book characters with a strong sense...

We start the year off by discussing some of our reading resolutions for 2020 - from cleaning out bookshelves to reading more non-fiction and more. We also look at some of the upcoming publications this year that we’re excited about. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As 2019 comes to a close, we look back at our year of reading and pick out the books that have stood out as our highlights of the year. We follow this with a bit of a discussion on what we hope to read more of in the coming year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we have something slightly different in store: we're bringing you an interview conducted by Jason Dasey, when he met up with his former colleague Michael Robotham, who is now a bestselling author of psychological thrillers. Jason and Michael talk about his path to becoming an author, his 14th novel, Good Girl, Bad Girl, and his near-death experience. After that, we turn our attention to...

For all our love of reading, we’re the first to admit that giving a book as a present can be quite a daunting task. So we’ve come up with a gift guide of sorts on how to buy a book for someone - whether an avid, casual, or non-reader. We wrap things up by crowdsourcing some ideas for books that make great gifts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

34 years after the publication of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - and in a time when its themes are more relevant than ever - the long-awaited sequel, The Testaments, arrived in 2019. It's been one of the most highly anticipated new releases, and also went on to win the Booker Prize. But in this episode of book club, we dive right in and see whether we think it matches the significance of...

Children’s books are often many a reader’s first introduction to reading, but it is also a genre that is constantly changing. What are some of the current trends and changes happening in children’s literature, and is all this talk of diverse books actually making a difference? We speak with two experts on children’s books, Dr Sharifah Osman and Daphne Lee, and wrap up the d...

This month’s book club takes a journey to a place that isn’t often visited in global fiction - Oman from the late 1800s to present day. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi is the first novel from a Gulf country to win the Man International Booker Prize, and Alharthi is the first female Omani author to have her work translated into English. Starting with the tale of three sisters raised...

Most of us have our comfort zones when it comes to reading - those genres that we gravitate towards or pretty much stick to because of their familiar pleasures. But how easy is it to venture outside of these? A Bit of Culture’s Kam Raslan joins us to discuss how these comfort zones get created and perpetuated, and the challenges of reading books that we don’t instantly feel an affinity...

We speak with the co-directors of the Georgetown Literary Festival to find out what they have in store for us this year, and the joy and philosophy behind curating a festival. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Halloween right around the corner, we speak with Tunku Halim, Malaysia's own prince of darkness, to tease out the appeal of the horror genre and discuss what makes a scary book scary. We also share some of our favourite chilling reads! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.