Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell was just long-listed for the Women's Prize for fiction. What makes people over five hundred years later still speculate on Shakespeare's life? How much did the death of his son Hamnet influenced his tragedy Hamlet? Was the name coincidental or deliberate? Was it a way to process his grief? Surprisingly we found the main character in this novel is his wife, called Agnes and her inner life and sacrifices...
Mar 11, 2020•58 min
Our minisode this time brings you a young poet that hails from Sumatera. Ilham was the only emerging poet to be in the Ubud Indonesian writing anthology and we caught up with him during the festival last year. His poem was political and does hit home even though it was an observation on Indonesian politics. The interview was done in Bahasa Indonesian but we have punctuated this episode with explanations and our discussion on it.
Mar 04, 2020•40 min
Zoiks! We have a special crossover episode for all you geeks and nerds out there. In the studio with us this week are the gregarious Amelia Chen and Nick Dorian from the pop culture podcast Geeks in Malaysia. We chewed through Joe Hill's graphic novels and the Netflix series. First part is all about the printed matter of course while the second part which will be out on Geeks in Malaysia will be on the series. Enjoy!
Feb 26, 2020•1 hr 13 min
When Jeanine Cummins' highly anticipated book American Dirt hit the shelves readers were beside themselves recommending it. The mother and son story of being pursued by a drug kingpin fired everyone's imaginations. And then controversy hit, Mexican and Latinx writers came down hard on it citing the fact that it fetishisize their culture and that Cummins wrote at best a summer pot-boiler and not a book that puts forward issues of migrants and social justice. Learn about the controversy surroundin...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr 2 min
The secondhand industry has spawned its own sub-culture, economy and entrepreneurs. Dive with us into the world of garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores with author Adam Minter who has spent a lot of his free time poking around secondhand stores and backyards. It's fascinating, compelling and heart-wrenching at times.
Feb 12, 2020•1 hr 3 min
As promised from time to time we feature an emerging writer from the region. We met Lita Lestianti at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and talked how she juggles writing with motherhood...
Feb 05, 2020•26 min
Bernadine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other is a candid look into the lives of 12 British black women. The novel is clever, entertaining and experimental but did it deserve the joint Booker with Atwood's testaments. Well we sat down and talked feminism, gender, class, sexuality and all sorts of other juicy things in this week's episode.
Jan 30, 2020•59 min
Been mad about a certain monster-fighting, white-haired mutant? In this episode special we talk everything Witcher, the books, the games, the series. Love it or hate it, if you have Netflix there is no way you could miss The Witcher that has been storming everyone's feeds. So Toss a coin to your Booknerds and lets go!
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 8 min
With the launch go The Garden of Evening Mists movie, we got author Tan Twan Eng in the studio to spill the beans on borrowed sceneries, horimonos and, the thrill of seeing your characters come to life on the big screen. Of course we needed out on books too!
Jan 15, 2020•1 hr 10 min
T'is the end of 2019. How was the reading year for you? We feel incredibly blessed really looking back at the year of reading and podcasting we had. Here are some of our reading highlights and the episodes we loved. We also talked about award-winners and books on everyone's reading list. Enjoy! And catch ya in the new year! qCp70ID9tInfd0anyNWs
Dec 26, 2019•1 hr 6 min
We had the chance to interview Guy Gunaratne at URWF'19 where he chatted about his book The Mad and Furious City. We talked about belonging, extremism and finding the inspiration to write a book in vernacular and language that feels true to yourself. It's a great little interview folks! We also put in some excerpts of him reading some passages and bits of another interview he had with Kate Evans from Australia's ABC Radio National. Audio was courtesy of Ubud Readers and Writers Festival.
Dec 19, 2019•47 min
During the Ubud Writers Festival we checked out new emerging writers especially from Indonesia. For the next few months we will be featuring an emerging writer each month starting with the lovely Chandra Bientang. A philosophy major and content writer based in Jakarta, she was one of the five selected to be in the UWRF anthology. We caught up with her to talk about stories that need to be told such as the fate of street children and women's reproductive rights.
Nov 28, 2019•28 min
We are on a hiatus but we have plenty of good stuff for you to keep you company from the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. We caught up with the powerhouse behind one of the world's best Lit Fest, Janet Deneefe and talked about the festival this year, what she hopes for it and also her favourite Balinese food.
Nov 22, 2019•24 min
We are back! From the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and it was fabulous. As we are busy sorting out the interviews and crafting cool episodes for you constant listeners, have a listen to our festival roundup. It will give you a taste of what went on, the writers that we met and also our impressions of UWRF'19
Nov 14, 2019•56 min
Come join us in the disturbing world of Lovecraftian stories and weird tales, where The Old Ones disdain the insignificance of man and you, are but a sleep away from a dreamscape world of night gaunts and crafty cats. Lovecraft was prolific, at times problematic and, probably in love with his own prose yet, it is undeniable that his mythos casts a long and tentacled shadow over all the arts and popular culture until today. We talk about this reclusive genius and his terrible visions...
Oct 31, 2019•1 hr 6 min
It's been 8 long years for Erin Morgenstern fans since The Night Circus captivated readers and dreamers alike all over the world. Now finally, her second novel, The Starless Sea is out. Come with us into her underground labyrinth of stories complete with hidden stairways, masquerade balls and tales within tales. There's a lot to sink your teeth into...
Oct 24, 2019•51 min
So still in a Spooktober mood we sat down and sunk our teeth into Tunku Halim's macabre mind. It was... delightfully pleasant. He shares his thoughts on Malaysian's obsession with the supernatural and everything from orang minyak to bomohs. We also talked a little bit about his non-fiction too including his weight loss book- So Fatlah!
Oct 17, 2019•57 min
Imaging sitting in a darkened room and listening to a really good ghost story, the thrill of fear licking down your spine, the hairs on the back of your neck rising as the tale builds up to its final fright. For as long as we have been telling stories, there have been ghost stories, its in our DNA because fear is universal and those that haunt us (be it ghostly or otherwise) never really leaves us...
Oct 10, 2019•49 min
So. . .John Connolly popped by the studio for a conversation on all things Charlie Parker. Book of Bones is book 17 of the series (imagine that) and Honey who has been following it from the very beginning was beside herself because she could ask all those burning questions about the series.
Oct 03, 2019•1 hr 6 min
The Testaments, is the much-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (fans have waited over 34 years for it!) It follows three different women 15 years after the incidents of The Handmaid's Tale and aims to answer all your burning questions about Gilead. Does it? Listen on to our episode this week.
Sep 26, 2019•42 min
Lisa Taddeo's hot non-fiction Three Women has been on everyone's summer reading list. Does it really give what it claims to offer? Give you vital truths about feminine desire. Can we relate to these three women as women ourselves? And what does a man think after reading this? We discuss this book together in this episode with Min Hun who runs the local bookstore, Lit Books and also grab some juicy insights in how it is to run an Indie Bookstore in Malaysia.
Sep 20, 2019•1 hr 9 min
We got to skype with the charming Yangsze Choo on her latest novel The Night Tiger. She answered all our questions including enlightening us on genre selection, her morbid fasciation with ghosts and, mirror worlds...
Sep 13, 2019•1 hr 3 min
We got a long TBR for September so it's out this week as a bonus Minisode. Our producer Jeff K. joined us for a lively discussion on tasty books out this month of September. Quite a lot of horror since it's creeping up to Halloween.
Sep 08, 2019•29 min
The 10 Loves of Mr Nishino is a series of ten short stories about the different women and affairs in one man's life. Contemporary author Hiromi Kawakami explores the nuances of a Japanese playboy and writes a wry, astute and at times, an achingly portrait of people seeking for connection, intimacy and that ever illusive everlasting love.
Sep 05, 2019•49 min
The Minorities is a rib-tickling, social satire on the life of 4 housemates and a pontianak that starts off with a few mishaps and culminating in a battle royale across the border. Nak perang pun... kena datang ke Malaysia... (want to fight also must do it in Malaysia) so you don't have to fill forms and pay a fine. Anyway, we sat down with author Suffian Hakim to talk about his multi-cultural book and all things hantu. It was a great conversation! This dude is one to watch folks!
Aug 29, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Our guest this week, Marianne Dark has taught English for many years and run a language centre. She brings her insights in this episode on how to get kids excited about reading. Our book choice is the Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo, a wonderful book for kids aged 10-12 and touches on all sorts of issues like loneliness, kinship with animals and adventure. We talk about how kid's books have evolved and feel nostalgic about those we used to love. If you have kids or appreciate children's liter...
Aug 15, 2019•56 min
Ever so often both of us crave for fae creatures and fantastical worlds. The recent Pan's Labyrinth book The Labyrinth of the Faun based on the 2006 movie by Del Toro had us frothing at the bit. His imagination paired with Cornelia Funke's elegant prose was a real treat. Not just a retelling, you can say that it's a deepening of the story, an exploration of the many creatures and tales within the world where monsters wear human faces and lost princesses have to find magic in a time where there's...
Aug 08, 2019•59 min
Ocean Vuong's raw and visceral debut novel takes you by the throat and doesn't let you go. Admittedly not for everyone, you will still be floored by the emotional truth within. Structured as a letter written by a son to his illiterate mother, this work of auto-fiction blurs the lines between reality and make-believe, you won't really know where Ocean ends and Little Dog (the protagonist) begins and in there lies the beauty of it. Also it's August! So it's break your T.B.R. again and there are so...
Aug 02, 2019•56 min
Are you strangely fascinated by true crime and serial killers? Then you might have heard of My Favourite Murder, one of the most popular true crime podcasts out there helmed by dynamic duo Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff. Well now they have spanking new book out, which is part memoir, part life insights and part we-have-done-it-bad-idea-don't-do-it kinda stuff. Call it a bit of a survival guide because if there's one thing these ladies know after over 180 episodes is how well... to Stay Se...
Jul 25, 2019•59 min
After reading Tash Aw's riveting latest novel, We, The Survivors, we, the interviewers sat down to a skype with him. We talked all sorts of things, from fatalistic viewpoints of Asians to the class system that overrides race and religion. We also prodded on his writing process and what it took for him to write something personal but also hard to put down at times. Listen to this! Plus we also have a new book giveaway this week.
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 4 min
