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 that make us happy. In our Footnotes, we move on to looking through the longlist of the Women's Prize...
Mar 17, 2020•33 min
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 that each capture Malaysia (or Malaysianness) in a specific way. To cap things off, we each share our own favou...
Mar 10, 2020•28 min
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 that each capture Malaysia (or Malaysianness) in a specific way. To cap things off, we each share our own favou...
Mar 10, 2020•28 min
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/listener for privacy information.
Mar 03, 2020•35 min
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 always “virtuous”. We wrap things up with a conversation on our favourite offbeat fairy tales and why they...
Feb 25, 2020•32 min
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 information.
Feb 18, 2020•32 min
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 the ugly side of being in love. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Feb 11, 2020•35 min
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 of our own. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Feb 04, 2020•28 min
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 about the art of making maps for books and our favourite book covers. See omnystudio.com/listener for...
Jan 21, 2020•27 min
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 of “interiority”, and how they translate onto film. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jan 14, 2020•33 min
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.
Jan 07, 2020•29 min
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.
Dec 31, 2019•32 min
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 stories focused on Christmas, and discuss why they strike an emotional chord. See omnystudio.com/li...
Dec 24, 2019•31 min
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.
Dec 17, 2019•31 min
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 The Handmaid's Tale (and frankly, whether it lives up to the hype). See omnystudio.com/listener for ...
Dec 10, 2019•31 min
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 discussion by sharing our earliest memories of reading. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 03, 2019•31 min
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 in a deeply patriarchal society, Alharthi uses the multigenerational family saga to reflect on the story of a ra...
Nov 19, 2019•32 min
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 for. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Nov 12, 2019•36 min
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.
Nov 05, 2019•28 min
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.
Oct 29, 2019•30 min
In her latest collection of poetry titled “Incantations, Incarcerations”, Malaysian poet Bernice Chauly explores ageing, menopause, motherhood - juxtaposed against a world that is changing around us. We speak with her about writing raw and honest poetry from a female perspective, and why we need more such Malaysian voices. We wrap things up by sharing some of our favourite poems. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 22, 2019•32 min
This month, our book club loudly greets listeners with an 'Irasshaimase!', as we discuss Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata's award-winning novel about a woman in her 30s who desires nothing more than to be a convenience store worker while living in a society that doesn't see any value in that position. After that, we discuss Japanese fiction and its specific tone and style. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 15, 2019•30 min
For most readers, the love of books is something that is instilled in childhood. Yet, how exactly do you get a child to love reading? We’re joined by fellow reader and parent Tee Shiao Eek, as we discuss how we each got introduced to books, some possible ways to create little readers, and what some of our childhood faves were. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 08, 2019•31 min
In light of Kamila Shamsie having a literary prize revoked for her personal support of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, we use it as a launching pad to discuss whether authors' political beliefs affect our enjoyment of their work, and for that matter, whether it should. And then we move on to looking at how soon is too soon when it comes to writing books that capture our current political zeitgeist and maelstrom. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Oct 01, 2019•33 min
As self-avowed fans of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics, we knew there was no way we could discuss the entire series in one show. So we kick things off with the first of several book club discussions on this complex series, which is centred on the idea of dreams and stories. Joining us on this journey is BFM’s own Haniff Baharudin. First up, we discuss Volumes 1-3: Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Dream Country. We wrap things up with a discussion on other graphic novels that we’ve en...
Sep 24, 2019•34 min
In conjunction with World Alzheimer's Day, we're broadcasting a live special recorded at Lit Books where we talked about Nicci Gerrard's book What Dementia Teaches Us About Love. An affecting exploration of dementia and its effects on the self, family, and society, the book was based on the life and death of Gerrard's father. We speak with Dr Rishikesan Kuppusamy for a local perspective on dementia and all its complications, and Fong Min Hun about the book itself. Then we mull over the value of ...
Sep 19, 2019•38 min
It all begins with one photo and three women: Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Leni Riefenstahl. From there, Amanda Lee Koe's first novel branches out to explore the stories of their lives and their choices, and the smaller, no less important stories of outsiders living in their wake. We speak to Amanda about Old Hollywood and its allure, and the process behind writing this intricate, dreamy book. And then! We catch up with some correspondence we received recently. See omnystudio.com/listene...
Sep 10, 2019•31 min
Some books have long been thought of as unfilmable - too dense, too layered, too metaphorical, too internalised, take your pick - but in this episode, we wanted to explore whether that's true. And while we're at it, we also get into what kind of readers we are in terms of wanting to see someone else's version of a book play out on screen, and also whether the brave new world of prestige TV is changing the very definition of unfilmable books. Special guest Bahir Yeusuff of Skip Intro joins us. Se...
Sep 04, 2019•33 min
With Merdeka Day around the corner, this month’s book club looks at a very Malaysian title - Scenes of the Father by Amir Hafizi, an illustrated short story of sorts which explores rural Malaysian life through the lens of memory and nostalgia. Joining us to discuss the book and more generally, the idea of what a “Malaysian book” means, is writer, filmmaker, and publisher Amir Muhammad. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 26, 2019•28 min
Pink sparkly covers and entire aisles that just scream Chick Lit are often juxtaposed against weighty tomes and covers that are all about action and saving the world, so we wanted to explore the question of whether we're giving in to gendered norms on our bookshelves, and what that means for us as readers. Wading into the thicket with us on this one is Arvindh Yuvaraj, someone who has never bought into this notion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Aug 20, 2019•34 min
