The Penang Bookshelf
July 2016 Newsletter
&
Catalogue
|
|
|
|
| From The Penang Bookshelf |
time no see.) Yes, it's been an age since a The Penang Bookshelf Newsletter has
 been published. The excuses are legion, but three will do a) international distractions
, b) selling has kept me busy and c) wrestling with the intricacies of a new website
has been exhausting, but I'm still here. Let's see if I can get back to sending out something more regularly.
During
my silence, I have actually been nagged fairly frequently to get going
again. It was only one customer refusing to take my
insincere excuses for an answer that has led me to have another go.
On the other hand you may be part of a
minority receiving this for the first time. Do not despair! The flow, if
there is one, can be stopped. Somewhere in this email you'll be given
an opportunity to 'unsubscribe' or you can just shout at me. One ear is
still functioning.
Communicate, Communicate!
If I do collapses in a heap again, you can always check on what's new or re-appeared by looking at the Latest Arrivals category, which has roughly the last two months' additions, or  if you're a glutton for information overload, there's Facebook and less frequently Instagram and Twitter.
I'm not sure if any of them work, but my media savvy silversmithing daughter has
dragooned me into Instagram, whch can be quite fun. I'm still
struggling with all the #s, @s and maybe more incomprehensible symbols
besides.
The Search Continues...
A quick look at The Penang Bookshelf's disorganised shelves 
should alert even the mildly observant to the fact that there are quite
a few books that you're unlikely to easily find anywhere else. That's
because the publishing world in Malaysia, and, to some extent, Singapore
is populated by publishers who are rather coy about letting go of their
produce.
On
contacting one of this bashful bunch, I was told that he had no way of
accepting payment for what I wanted other than accepting some crinkly
notes in his fist. Ingenuity came to the rescue, when I was able to
bribe a customer in the town to go and do the needful.
So if you know of a Malaysian or Singaporean publisher who isn't represented here or anywhere else, do let me know
With best wishes and thanks,
William Knox
|
|
Bestsellers
In preparation for this newsletter, the
Bestsellers list has been updated to actually  reflect what
is (or is not) happening at The Penang Bookshelf at the moment. As one
might suspect, there are the usual gaggle of Penang books jostling each
other at the top. However the fastest mover has nothing to do with
Penang, or even Malaysia, The Penang Bookshelf's main specialities, but
more to do with Western pop music. Why??? Why I Still Carry A Guitar
by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) is published in Malaysia. Never
sold a copy in Malaysia, but copies frequently go out to other parts of
the world. It's in the Xtras category on the website where other oddities also reside. Have a look!
Grist to the Heritage Mill
.
Books
about Penang do tend, unsurprisingly, to crowd out the bestseller list.
At least it's some reward for the myriad of publishers that clutter the island. One relatively new entrant into the field is George Town World Heritage Inc,
the body responsible looking after the UNESCO heritage bits of the
city, They have published some fairly heavy weight stuff along with the
expected tourist tat. I gather they're planning more. For example,
Marcus Langdon, the only author to have more than one book in the best
seller list, Volume I and Volume II
of his mammoth Penang: The Fourth Presidency of India, is one of their authors.
But Don't Forget Borneo
I naively thought when I started this business that Penang would be The Penang Bookshelf's 
largest regional section. How wrong I was! Although Sabah and Sarawak
have fewer established publishers than the tiny island of Penang, they
have considerably more authors, many of whom self-publish. The variety
and vastness of the region also attract a gaggle of academics and
adventurers from outside Borneo who would curl up in boredom in Penang.
An example of what I'm talking about is this recently published book. A
quick glance at the contents page
explains all. I have yet to come across a similar book about Penang
with such a wide spectrum of contributors from dedicated homegrown
experts to academics of international renown.
Of Course There Is Food...
Needless to say, if you're fussy about the way you put on weight, Penang knocks Borneo, and everywhere else into a squashed chee cheong fun. In an attempt to persuade glutons that it's  possible to create
pale imitations at home, cook books keep tumbling off the presses. The
latest one that's been flung at me is Ong Jin Teong's Nonya Heritage Kitchen: Origins, Utensils and Recipes which is unusual in that, apart from the all important (to some) recipes, it also tickles the intellect (ever so slightly) as well, as you will notice from the title.
|
Please
note - In this section most of the headings have links to equivalent
categories on The Penang Bookshelf's main website.
RM330
Malaysia - Perak
 Peranakan Communities in the Era of Decolonization and Globalization - Leo Suryadinata (ed) Migration
happily results in racial hybrids. Some mixed race descendants blend
into their host populations so as to become barely distinguishable from
them, while others, such as the Peranakan Chinese, descendants of the
Chinese diaspora and their Malay hosts, develop a distinct cultural
identity. The contributors to this volume, rather than following the
more fashionable course of mining the community's past, illustrate, with
case studies, how the Peranakan are faring now in the relatively
recently independent countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore RM80
 Impressions of the Malay Peninsula in Ancient Times - Paul Wheatley Following on from the success of his 'Golden Khersonese', Wheatley here distills his findings on ancient malaya for the benefit of secondary school students RM300
 Aspects of Malaysian Magic - William Shaw Shaw,
an honorary curator of Malaysia's National Museum, the Muzium Negara
Malaysia, was also at the time of writing a member of the British
Society for Psychical Research. This comprehensive overview of the dark
arts in Malaysia is the culmination of several years study and
association with practitioners from various Malaysian communities over
several years. RM380
 Adam and Evil - John Carlova
The complications of a love triangle, set in 'the exotic port of
Singapore,' dominate this novel. Steve, 'a gambler on the make' falls
for Betty, 'a victim of her own insatiable desire,' who unfortunately
happens to be married to Lance. He's a bit of an odd ball too, finding
'sexual satisfaction in strange ways.' RM80
Singapore - Law
 Nemesis: The First Iron Warship And Her World - Adrian G. Marshall The
previously untold story of the most revolutionary warship of its time.
Not only was the Nemesis the world's first iron warship, but also the
first ship to have truly watertight compartments. She came into service
in the last years of the British East India Company and saw action from
Bombay to the Yangze River demonstrating a superiority over Britain's
Asian rivals at the time. RM90
House of Glass: Culture, Modernity, and the State in Southeast Asia - Yao Souchou (editor) RM200
 The Challenge of Sustainable Forests: Forest Resource Policy in Malaysia, 1970-1995 - Fadzillah M. Cooke Drawing
on insights from her field work in both Pahang and Sarawak, the author
examines the clash between the techno-bureaucratic drive of commercial
foresters for a sustained income and the biological and the economic
livelihood agendas of conservationists. She then compares her findings
with the Philippine experience where issues of livelihood and social
justice have had a greater influence on commercial forestry management
than in Malaysia RM120
 Studying Non-Traditional Security in Asia: Trends And Issues - Ralf Emmers, Mely Caballero-Anthony & Amitav Acharya This
collection of essays widens the traditional security concerns to also
look at more diverse issues such as drug trafficking, irregular
migration, infectious diseases, environmental degradation etc. The
essays consist of the findings a number of research projects by various
research institutions in the region and demonstrate that such issues can
be as challenging to national security and the territorial integrity of
nation states as more traditional security concerns RM150
 Studies on Islam and Society in Southeast Asia - William R Roff A
wide ranging collection of articles from Roff's forty years study and
writing about Islam, particularly as it relates to Southeast Asia. The
book is divided into the following parts - I - Historiography and
Methodology, II - Malaya and Singapore, III - Arab World Connections, IV
- Kelantan & V - The Meccan Pilgrimage. RM70
Old Bangkok - Michael Smithies
Bangkok, now a bustling Asian
metropolis, had a more serene past following its founding in 1782 as the
country's capital city. Smithies seeks to evoke this past by
highlighting the parts of the old city, its buildings, culture and
trades, that still persist amongst the hubbub.
|
|
|
About The Penang Bookshelf
Category Pages - Asian Fiction, Asian History, Asian Religions, Borneo Chinese Ceramics Malaysian Architecture Malaysian Agriculture Malaysian Arts and Culture Malaysia: Cartoons, Malaysian Chinese Community Malaysian Cooking and Food Malaysia: Colonial Biography, Malaysia: Modern Biography, Malaysia - Fiction Malaysia: Journalism， Malaysia: Language & Linguistics, Malaysia: Literature, Malaysia: Malay Community Malaysia & Singapore: 19th Century History, Malaysia: Post-Independence History, Malaysia: Miscellaneous,Malaysian Nature and Wildlife Orang Asli (Indigenous People) Malaysian Poetry Malaysian Politics Malaysia: Religion Malaysia & Singapore: World War II Perak Singapore: Anthropology & Sociology Singapore Fiction
Email: penangbookshelf@gmail.com
Telephone: +60-12-972-6485
Address: Aquarius Apartments, 4-8-8 Jalan Low Yat, Batu
Ferringhi, 11100, Penang. (The Penang Bookshelf's entire inventory is
available for browsing. Please call to fix an appointment.)
Registered as a Pinang Tree Books Sdn Bhd. No 1155148-U
|
|
|
|
|
|
traditional oral culture supplanted by a written one. Sweeney argues
that literacy has not completely replaced oral traditions in the Malay
culture and, more importantly, that it should not do so. He advocates
that the orality of Malay culture still be given a "full hearing' to
allow Malay culture to continue to evolve in its own distinct way. 
- 
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.