High Browse Online

Dear friends,

You may have read the four-part installments recently published in the Straits Times from the book “Criminal Intent: True Stories from Changi Prison” by Straits Times senior writer Wong Kim Hoh. We are discussing this book on:

Date/Time: 4.00pm, Friday 25 September 2009
Venue: The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Title of Book: “Criminal Intent: True Stories from Changi Prison”
Call No.: SING 365.609225957 WON
Facilitator: Ms Clara Chow

About the book- Criminal Intent: True Stories From Changi Prison tells the stories behind the crimes committed by 12 inmates currently incarcerated in Changi Prison. Written by veteran Straits Times journalist Wong Kim Hoh, the accounts as told by the inmates of their modus operandi and the reasons behind them, all make compelling reading. Commissioned by the Singapore Prison Service, the cases include outrage of modesty, robbery, cheating and rape. With a foreword by Ng Joo Hee, Director of Prisons.
(Taken from the publisher’s website: www.marshallcavendish.com/marshallcavendish/genref/Criminal-Intent_B23913_Singapore.aspx)

About the Facilitator: Ms Chow is a retired teacher and loves reading especially books by local authors.

Please email to soon_huat_KWEH@nlb.gov.sg if you’d like to attend this book discussion.

See you there!

One Fifth Avenue
By Candace Bushnell
Publisher: Abacus, 2008
(All Rights Reserved)
Call No.: BUS

To get your hands on One Fifth Avenue from the library can be quite a feat. Reason being, the title is always on loan or on reservation. So it took me some time to get to read the latest title from Ms Bushnell, after her fantastic Trading Up and Lipstick Jungle. And read with relish, I did.

So what’s the scene for One Fifth Avenue? One Fifth Avenue is a beautiful Art Deco building, in the upscale part of Manhattan. It’s a building where the tenants have to earn their way into, one way or another. The women of One Fifth (as it’s endearing called) are living the heart of their lives they’ve established, or are trying to.

There’s the most popular tenant, Schiffer Diamond, a forty-something actress who is busy proving that women of style are ageless. She’s the most glamorous of the lot, and the busiest. Then there’s Lola, a spoilt brat, whose self-assured character plots ways to get into the building – the best bet is through an affair with Philip Oakland, a has-been screenwriter who lives in One Fifth. Never mind that Philip is way older than Lola. Also featuring – Annalisa, a reluctant socialite who together with her husband, moves into the penthouse of the building after the previous tenant passes on. Her attempts to have a non-socialite life are marred when she is thrust upon the social scene and the One Fifth scene. And lastly, there’s bitter Mindy, who is the family breadwinner, as her under-published write of a husband struggles with his writing. And she’s had enough.

When the plots and stories come together, you have a feast of gossip and glamour from this part of Manhattan. Of course, there are scandals and shock moments (as expected from a Bushnell novel) but every moment should be savoured. Despite writing about another slice of Manhattan, as Bushnell has done in all her other novels, One Fifth Avenue is still refreshing in its own. Bushnell is just a genius who writes what she keenly observes.

~ Contributed by Yasmin Ally, National Library Board

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Edward Kennedy, the US Senator from Massachusetts, the last of the surviving Kennedy brothers, was laid to rest in Arlington cemetery alongside his brothers John and Robert on Sunday.

We re-produce here an earlier review of a biography of the storied politician. 

Last lion : the fall and rise of Ted Kennedy / by the team at the Boston Globe ; edited by Peter Canellos and the staff of the Boston Globe
Call No.: 973.92092 LAS
New York : Simon & Schuster, c2009.
(All rights reserved. Image source, UK Daily Mail)

As an anonymous Internet wit once quipped, “It’s tough being a politician. Half your reputation is ruined by lies; the other half is ruined by the truth”. Aside from lawyers, politicians are probably the most vilified group of people in human society. They are blamed for almost anything under the sun, and often find themselves the butt of innumerous jokes.

But as we’ve learnt from Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility”. Perhaps, it is because politicians are supposed to make things better for the person-in-the-street, and are also perceived to wield a power that is far beyond most of us, that when they somehow don’t measure up to our expectations, they leave us with a deep sense of disillusionment and disappointment.

Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy is a biography of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the youngest brother of John F. Kennedy and current patriarch of the Kennedy clan. Written by a team of reporters from the Boston Globe, the book neither lionizes nor vilifies the senator, but attempts to present a balanced view of the man’s public and personal life. Although it does not provide any ground-breaking insights or add any new material, it is a fair and comprehensive piece of reportage.

The book synthesizes a plethora of information sources, to give readers a holistic and factual overview. The over-arching basic narrative framework essentially, tells the story of how immense expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy by his family, the Democratic party as well as the nation itself; how he proceeded to dash those hopes by over-indulging in sex, drugs and alcohol; and finally, how he found his niche in politics and stabilized his personal life.  

So who is Ted Kennedy? To the average Singaporean, he could just be the brother of JFK. Perhaps a few of us may recall that in 1969, he was involved in an accident where he drove a car off a bridge, drowning his passenger, a young lady. Or, we could have read an article or two about him recently, when he was influential in supporting Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign, despite struggling with a life-threatening brain tumour.

Few would have known, however, that his parents called him “fatty” and thought that he wasn’t as smart as his brothers, or that his mother was a grammar Nazi. Or, despite the famous competitive spirit within the clan, how closely-knit the Kennedys were, and how devastating it was to have so many family members die under tragic circumstances.

Other insights that emerge from the book relate how he had problems with speaking to medium-sized crowds, or how he played a major role in the civil rights movement, championed the causes of the voiceless, and spent (and is still spending) a large part of his career pushing for a national health care plan. Or, that he authored approximately 2,500 major bills in his 46 years in the Senate and had a unique talent of building politically favourable relationships, even across party lines.

Last Lion does not gloss over the flaws of Ted Kennedy. His presidential hopes were destroyed by the car accident in 1969. Inconsistencies and his own reluctance to reveal exactly what happened, have cast a permanent shadow on his character. He was a distant husband to his first wife, Joan, and a known womaniser, although he always made time for his children. Kennedy’s talent in the Senate could also be seen as an ability to manipulate others to achieve his own agenda and, like many politicians, he was not above dirt digging and mud slinging.

Last Lion does not lay bare the psychological and emotional complexity of the man. As Kennedy once noted when a television journalist pressed him about his problem with opening up, he mumbled that “it just wasn’t him”. Information and anecdotes presented here were gleaned from news articles or previous interviews with friends, family members and colleagues, instead of from the man himself. But, it has been reported elsewhere that Kennedy has signed an 8 million dollar deal with Hachette to publish his memoirs (scheduled to be released in 2010), so you’re probably better off waiting for that.

Last Lion is also not a title that examines in minutiae, Kennedy’s policy positions and political beliefs. Instead, you could try Kennedy’s own book, America: Back on Track, where he discusses the problems that plague American politics and offers his opinions on possible solutions.

But, if you’re in the mood for a readable biography that is inspirational and entertaining, this book might be a good fit. It’s a comfortable read even for those who have no interest in American politics, or who have never heard of Ted Kennedy before. One comes away with a respect for Ted Kennedy and his dogged dedication to the causes he believed in, despite his personal lapses and occasional forays into hardball politics.

Ted Kennedy is now 77, and has spent the most part of his working life serving the Republic. A scion of America’s most storied family, he could have lived life on Easy Street, but chose, despite his failings and shortfalls, to take up mighty responsibilities and exercise power for the betterment of his fellow citizens.

~ Reviewed by Ms Jillian Lim, Associate Librarian, National Library Board.
 

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Into the wild
By Jon Krakauer
Call Number: 917.98045 KRA -[TRA]
New York, N.Y. : Anchor Books, 2007.
(All Rights Reserved)

This tells the story of Chris McCandless, a seemingly normal young man of 23, who decides to leave his middle class life in search of a more meaningful existence in the Alaskan wilderness. Well, nothing strange about that you may think. Many young adults go through this phase of trying to “find themselves”, traveling and seeking new experiences, before settling down with a real job and starting a family.

But Chris was always a little different. It is not only his home and family that he leaves behind, but it seemed that he wanted nothing to do with anything that was even remotely associated with his life up till then. He drops out of college (after donating his entire college fund to Oxfam), adopts a new moniker, Alexander Supertramp, and talked incessantly of living a Thoreau-like existence in Alaska.

Author Jon Krakauer does a remarkable job in examining Chris’ life and most importantly, the motives behind his bizarre behaviour. Through extensive research and interviews with Chris’ parents, as well as friends whom he met while he was traveling, Krakauer tells Chris’ story in a way that is both memorable and heart wrenching. In fact Krakauer himself was part of the doomed 1996 Everest expedition (subject of his bestseller ‘Into Thin Air’) and he manages to draw parallels here between Chris and himself as men who are perhaps too idealistic in following their dreams.

This book has also been adapted into a film, ‘Into the Wild’, directed by Sean Penn. In fact, Penn has claimed that he could not stop thinking of Chris McCandless after he read the book and was determined that his story be told on film. Interestingly, it took 10 years for him to convince Chris’ parents to allow their son’s story to be made into a film. The end result though, is a beautiful and thought-provoking film, which even Chris’ parents lauded as being very true to capturing the essence of their beloved son.

~ Contributed by Farah Adilla Abdullah, Associate Librarian

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Dear friends,

We will discuss the short stories in the compilation volume “Dreams and Choices”. These short stories are promoted in this year’s READ! SINGAPORE.

The details:

Date/time: 4.00pm, Friday 28 August 2009
Venue: The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Facilitator: Ms Kenny Nathan
Title/Call Number: “Dreams and Choices” (a compilation). Call No.: SING DRE

About the book: This compilation is a timely reminder to us to dare to dream and to keep our dreams alive. It will help us re-assess our priorities and make the right choices that will bring us a step closer to fulfilling our aspirations. Readers can share their experiences, hopes and dreams, and in the process, cultivate and strengthen bonds, and offer a helping hand to each other through these challenging times.

About the facilitator: A teacher with the love for fiction especially Singapore writers.

Update – Here are some photos taken during the session!

The making of Mr Hai’s daughter
By Yasmin Hai
Call No.: 305.697092 HAI
All Rights Reserved
London : Virago, 2008.
(image source: Little Brown, UK)

Memoirs about sub-continental immigrants in Britain usually share a common take on identity, culture, generation gaps and familial relations. Most authors describe their struggle to figure out who they are and which culture they feel a greater affinity towards as they balance their Western surroundings with their parents’ traditional beliefs.

I had just finished reading a slew of biographies about Indian/Pakistani/Arab children adjusting in Britain when I saw “The Making of Mr. Hai’s Daughter: Becoming British” at a Borders store in London. The last thing I wanted on my mind was another immigrant tale pitting parents versus children, East versus West, old versus new, culture versus religion, men versus women, etc. Mind you, I love these stories, and I can relate to them to an extent. I was just a little overwhelmed by the time I came upon this book, which explains why it took me nearly a year to pick it up again at the National Library.

But Yasmin Hai’s struggle was quite the opposite of most of her counterparts. Her father, an Indian-Muslim immigrant to Britain, chose to raise his children modern, or modon as it was termed in their Asian enclave in London. From employing the help of his friend’s white wife (Aunt Hilda) to steer Yasmin towards being more British, to buying her a hymn book so she would not be deemed ignorant during school prayers, to sending her to a school of young liberal activists in a chapter titled “Operation Middle Class,” Mr. Hai’s attempts at breeding British children were pragmatic, funny, and at times misguided. He sought to create a balance between Eastern and Western values by emphasizing education and denouncing religion, but he didn’t anticipate that his children – who thought like the British but looked Indian – would not always be well received by either racial group.

Yasmin beautifully conveys the tension of having to straddle both worlds when Aunt Hilda sternly reminds her that eating with her hands is “what Pakis do.” Recalling her teenaged years, she contrasts her North London pacifist school crowd with the sentiments on the streets in her Wembley neighborhood, where she got into fights with racist white girls. Later on, she sees hypocrisy and confusion in her peers who slip into traditional Muslim roles after having exhausted their years of youthful rebellion. As an adult, Yasmin bumps into an old acquaintance who says that her family had the right balance of both cultures, which surprises her, because she is more perplexed about who she is than ever before. In fact, her identity issues become much more pronounced when she navigates a post 9/11 media career in a world which only wants black and white answers.

This book will be an enjoyable read for anyone from a similar background (immigrant, third-culture kid, mixed-race, etc) but it can also serve a wider audience. That’s the charm in Yasmin Hai’s writing, and her approach to a painful and multilayered topic. Just as she manages to artfully juggle her cultural identities, she is skilled in mixing a storyteller’s narrative with wry humor and thoughtful insights onto a larger canvas, so the memoir reaches beyond her personal conflicts.

~ Contributed by Balli Kaur

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

Infected
By Scott Sigler
Call Number: SIG
All Rights Reserved
New York : Crown Publishers, c2008.

I don’t usually read thrillers but the cover of this book showing a single gigantic eye with a blue triangle iris certainly caught my own eye. As to the mystery of what the eye represents, I’m afraid you have to find that out for yourself.

Infected is the first major print release title by Scott Sigler, an author whose podcast-only audiobooks have already drawn an immense cult following. If I haven’t been reading thrillers before, then this book has just converted me!

First off, Infected is a thinking-man’s thriller. There are no flesh-eating zombies from experiments gone wrong or killer monsters from back in time. What you have are mysterious bioengineered parasites that are beyond the limits of known human science.

People who are infected start itching and eventually become raving physiological nutcases that will murder just about anyone including their own parents and children to keep their infection a secret. I guess once you discover you have parasites in your body that actually talks back to you and constantly urges you to kill people, it can get pretty hard to keep your sanity.

Hot on the heels of this outbreak is a government epidemiologist Margaret Montoya, an overworked scientist looking for her big career break and CIA operative Dew Phillips, a weary war veteran that has already seen too much death in his call of duty. Unfortunately, both of them come across as the typical kind of characters you’ll expect to find in such stories.

What really captivated me was the author’s portrayal of Perry Dawson, a washed out footballer turned desk jockey that was infected by the parasites. You will feel for Perry and his spiral into insanity as he struggles with the parasites every painful step of the way. The author spares no gory details in describing how he attempts to cut them out of his own body, burns them off, and generally mutilates himself in every conceivable way to lessen their control over him. Readers with a weak stomach beware!

In terms of the plot, there is the overarching mystery of where the parasites come from, what are they and what do they want. The answers will be literally something “out of this world” as the author brings all his characters together in the closing chapters for a climatic finale.

 So if you ever wondered whether diseases likes SAR and H1N1 will one day mutate beyond the abilities of human science to handle, you’ll definitely want to pick up this book. Better watch that itch!

~ Contributed by Lim Han Sen, Associate Librarian

Would you like to send us your contribution?
Post your comments, or email to HBeditor@nlb.gov.sg

The Academy
By Bentley Little
Signet, 2009
Call No.: Eng LIT-[HO]

Dubbed as “horror’s poet laureate” by Stephen King, Bentley Little is the author of chilling tales of horror such as Dispatch, The Store and Death Instinct. In his most recent title, The Academy, the setting is a high school, which undergoes transformation – into pure tangible evil. Some readers may find a few superficial similarities between The Academy and Little’s previous 1995 novel, University, but the storyline is way different.

Set in a high school, the school principal, Jody Hawkes, decides to convert John Tyler High from a district school into an independent charter school without notifying her staff. As her school starts to operate independently, the faculty and student who embrace the charter becomes more sadistic and sinister, whereas those who oppose the charter encounter strange happenings, disapperances, and the school just takes on an eerie atmosphere – a life of its own. The principal herself becomes more menacing and threatens some of the more reluctant faculty into doing things her way. Even students are not spared, as they struggle to survive the new, weird concepts of discipline.

Like all Bentley Little novels, there are some truly shocking and horrifying moments throughout the novel. You cannot just read a Bentley Little novel and not gasp in horror at the atrocities that are written in minute detail. It is just gruesomely fantastic!

I am a huge fan of Bentley Little and I did enjoy The Academy, with relish. Other fans will definitely find the dark humour and horror comforting, in a twisted way, and once done with the novel, they will be waiting with bated breath for Little’s 2009 installment, His Father’s Son.

~ Contributed by Yasmin Ally, National Library Board

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Dear friends,
We are doing the “The History Man” described as one of the most influential novels in the 1970s. 

The details:
Date/Time:  4.00pm, Friday  31 July 2009
Venue:  The Activity Room, Bukit Batok Public Library
Facilitator:  Mr Paul Fitzpatrick
Title/Author/ Call number  “The History Man” by Malcolm Bradbury.  Call no.:  BRA

About the book: 
” … The History Man impressed itself so deeply on the British collective consciousness and the English language, the novel itself must be placed in its historical context  …  is set almost entirely in and around the University of Watermouth, a fictitious town on the south coast of England, but it dealt with an international phenomenon, the movement for revolutionary change in social, political and cultural life which erupted in western Europe and the United States in the late 1960s …”  – David Lodge
(Taken from www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jan/12/fiction1)

About the Facilitator Paul Fitzpatrick:
“I studied at ‘The University of Watermouth’ as part of my M.Sc research studies. In actual fact, the University of Watermouth is a fictitious institution – it is reputed to be based on three universities : the University of Sussex, the University of East Anglia and the University of Lancaster (the latter was my Alma Mater) – a campus university ‘where the bricks melt in your brain’.(in actual fact I only visited the place twice). My subject was management and not sociology – my sociological studies were a decade earlier at the University of Hull – an older but no less radical institution. And yes I have met ‘History Men’ – plenty of them. Take into account also that the context was 1973 – also that, until 1993, less that 8% of young people in Britain went to university. Also that university education was free until 2000. Since the ‘History Man’ was published, sociology has declined as a popular subject to be replaced with Business and Management. Luckily I had the foresight to see this when I embarked upon postgraduate studies in the early 1980s.”
- Paul Fitzpatrick Singaporean PR and M.B.A. tutor with the University of Liverpool UK.

The author, who achieved success at a relatively late age with his searing childhood memoir, Angela’s Ashes, died in his adopted city of New York City. The cause of death was described as cancer and meningitis. 

In some ways, his is the story of immigrant success much cherished in the American landscape. Arriving in New York at the age of 19, undernourished and under-educated, and despite a succession of menial jobs, he somehow manages to wrangle a college education (due to the GI Bill), and eventually a teaching position.

After years teaching writing, often to reluctant students, and 15 years following the death of his mother, Angela, he finally completes his memoir of his improvished and hardscrabble childhood in Ireland, where his mother had to beg on the streets and he had to resort to thievery to put food on the table. The book becomes a publishing sensation, entering the best-seller lists, and garnering both the National Book Critics Circle award and the Pulitzer prize.

Following Angela’s Ashes, he publishes two more memoirs: ‘Tis (1999) and Teacher Man (2005).

(Image source: New York Times. Reference sources, Guardian and New York Times)