Dear friends,
Our November book meeting will be discussing one of this year’s short listed books for the Singapore Literature Prize - “Lions in Winter” by Wena Poon .
The details:
Date/time: 4.00pm, Friday 28 November 2008
Venue: The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Facilitator: Mr Paul Fitzpatrick
Title of book: “Lions in Winter” by Wena Poon.
Call number SING POO
About the book:
The model student who breaks his parents’ hearts when he drops out of medical school to study fashion design in London. The shampoo girl who leaves Singapore for the hustle and bustle of New York’s Chinatown. The schoolteacher whose anxiety about white people cripples his dream retirement in Toronto.The mother who dreams of an old world amidst changing landscapes, and an unlikely Singaporean family in Nevada cut off from the rest of the world by an obsessive patriarch.
In this collection of 11 stories, Wena Poon examines the quiet lives of displaced Singaporeans living abroad and those in Singapore who are often torn between two worlds in their search for an imaginary homeland. Poon’s portraits of various lives share a common, constant yearning to belong in a place made foreign by time or space.
Occasionally humorous but always with compassion, she captures the rich inner lives of individuals who form part of the kaleidoscopic yet wistful modern history of Asian migration.
Wena Poon, a Singaporean by birth, resides in the US.
(Taken from Publisher Select Books Online at www.selectbooks.com.sg/getSelList.cfm)
Please reply to this email to confirm your participation in the book discussion.
Best regards
Soon Huat
Librarian
Heartlands Book Club
Bukit Batok Public Library
If you are interested in participating, please email Soon Huat at Soon_Huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Vivien // Nov 20, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hello,
I would like to know what is the agenda of this book meeting?
I have never attended this book meeting before so I would like to know more about this book meeting.
What will you be doing in this book meeting? Just to discuss about this book ‘Lions in Winter’ during the meeting?
2 soonhuat // Nov 23, 2008 at 9:58 pm
hi Vivien
Please do join us this coming Friday.
We discuss the book having read it before coming for the book discussion. We have a facilitator to stimulate the discussion on the points of the book eg. which aspects the book have done well or not so well etc. Each member will give his or her thoughts as the discussion goes along. It is not a tutorial! Our book discussions are fun and our members do have lots to say
3 soonhuat // Dec 3, 2008 at 4:44 pm
The Heartlands Book Club discussed Wena Poon’s “Lions in Winter”, one of this year’s English titles shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. The stories dealt with movement and change, migration and finding the soul in a foreign setting. A member brought his group of 15 China students to observe the discussion. Some of them shared their views on what it was like staying in a foreign land like Singapore. Two of them even borrowed the book for the next discussion which they will be joining us.
4 kennynathan // Dec 4, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I enjoyed the book. It was written in an easy style and the characters were well developed.
The bleakness of the lives of many of them were poignantly brought.
It was nice to develop this theme with the various bookclub members who were themselves new to Singapore. I think it reinforced the idea Poon was putting across - its not where you are but where your heart is that if home. Nice piece of work - looking fwd to reading more by the author.
5 Locker // Mar 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Good site, admin.
6 Alison Chee // Nov 20, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Dear Soon Huat Friday is 27th N ovember and happens to be Hari Raya Haji. Are we still meeting then?
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