New Arrivals at The Penang Bookshelf
in
June 2020
(Last Updated 27-6-20)
Through the centuries the practice of Malayan traditional medicine, based on herbal remedies, has developed into a sophisticated form of healing. Malaysia is the host to at least 1000 special of plants that have a pharmaceutical value. In this book the authors detail 30 of such species, in each case providing the botanical and vernacular names, the plant's uses in traditional medicine, a colour photograph and an anatomical description. Very Good Paperback. First Edition. 152 pages with references, a glossary and an index. For further details of the plants covered in this volume, please see the scanned contents pages.
About half of the world's approximately two thousand begonia species are native to Asia. In this book the authors illustrate the variety of such species from examples in the Academia Sinica, Taipei, The Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center and The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. Each species is illustrated by at least one colour photograph and information on the species' identification, distribution and etymology. New Paperback. First Edition. 353 pages with an index.
- Each book advertised below includes a brief description of its contents and condition as well as the price in Malaysian Ringgit. If you want a fuller description of a used book's condition, to look at the scanned contents page, if any, and/or to find out the price in USD, please click on the link in blue for the relevant book.
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- Of course, if you want to buy anything you see here, you can either do so from the site or contact me at penangbookshelf@gmail.com.
- This page will be updated constantly until the end of the month.
- The prices shown here hold good for at least this month, but for out of print books, the prices may change in subsequent months.
- All prices include free postage to anywhere in Malaysia and to Singapore.
Borneo
A pocket sized guide book to Sarawak's first, smallest and most popular national parks, placed between the Bako and Sarawak rivers. The book includes a checklist of the flowering plants to be found in the park.New Paperback. First Edition 134 pages. For further details, please see the scanned contents page
This is the author's account of her time in North Borneo after the departure of Agnes Keith and before the territory became part of Malaysia. It's a personal story of how she arrived there to visit her brother, but fell in love, set up her first home with her new husband and wryly observed the final days of British rule.Very Good Hardback in a Very Good Dust Jacket 296 pages.
Tina Rimmer had been in Sabah for 50 years, mainly as a teacher, when this book was published. It's principally a collection of her sketches, in black and white and in colour, of people and activities at the weekly market near her home. 62 pages. New Paperback First Edition
Malaysia & Singapore - Environment, Nature & Wildlife
Malaysia and Singapore are home to about 230 species of dragonfly, more than twice the number to be found in Europe. This useful pocket guide covers almost all of them with information on identifying characteristics, habitat and a colour illustration. New Paperback. First Edition. 127 pages.
Malaysia & Singapore - The 'Emergency'
The author became the youngest ever commander of a fort and platoon operating deep within territory controlled by the communist insurgents during the Malayan 'Emergency.' Here he gives his 'no holds barred' account of life in a jungle where wild animals, ants, relentless rain and an unfamiliar environment also did little to make his assignment easy. 208 pages Fine Paperback Second Edition
Malaysia & Singapore - Health & Medicine
Through the centuries the practice of Malayan traditional medicine, based on herbal remedies, has developed into a sophisticated form of healing. Malaysia is the host to at least 1000 special of plants that have a pharmaceutical value. In this book the authors detail 30 of such species, in each case providing the botanical and vernacular names, the plant's uses in traditional medicine, a colour photograph and an anatomical description. Very Good Paperback. First Edition. 158 pages with references, a glossary and an index. For further details of the plants covered in this volume, please see the scanned contents pages.
Malaysia & Indonesia - History (20th Century)
When the state of Malaysia was formed in 1963 it got off to a rocky start, principally because of Indonesia's opposition on various counts. The dispute, or Konfrontasi, developed into both a military and diplomatic confrontation. In this book the author, the research director at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University in Australia,, seeks to present a balanced and detailed account of the period including particularly how both the political situations in each country and internationally affected the evolution and conclusion of the dispute. Good Hard back in a Good Dust Jacket. First Edition.
A collection of a variety of travellers' impressions of Singapore from 1819 to 1941. The accounts from are arranged in chronological order providing snapshots of the city as it developed. This is an expanded edition. 301 pages with a glossary, chronology and index. Very Good Paperback.
Malaysia & Singapore - Indian Community & Culture
Malaysian Indians have usually managed to get the raw end of the deal from the time they arrived in Malaya as indentured, or enslaved, labourers to work on British plantations. After independence they did not fare much better thanks in part to inept representation. (Tamils in Asia arguably have a knack of following leaders with something of a self-destructive streak.) This book tells the Indian story, but this time refreshingly from an Indian point of view. 400 pages including several black and white plates, tables, an index and a bibliography. The book's chapters include 1 - Indians in Malaysia: General Information, 2 - The Arrival of Indians in the Malay Archipelago, 3 - The Early Indian Migrants and Their Struggle for Survival 1786-1940, 4 - The Emergence of the Malayan Indian 1941-1957, 5 - The Status of Indians in Post-Independent Malaya 1970-1990, 6 - The New Economic Policy and the Malaysian Indians 1970-1990, 7 - The National Development policy and the Malaysian Indians 1990-200, 8 - The Urban Indian Quagmire, 9 - The National Vision Plan and The Malaysian Indians 2000-2010, 10- Whither from Here 2010-2020. New Paperback. Third Edition.
Malaysia & Singapore - Malay Community & Culture
Written while Swettenham was the British Resident attached to the state of Perak, these vignettes, as he says in his preface, are 'an attempt to awaken an interest in an almost undescribed but deeply interesting people, dwellers in one of the most beautiful and least known countries in the East.' A collection of literary snapshots with 'no statistics, no history, no geography, no science, no moralising, no prophecy' that is intended to give the reader a feel for Malaya at the end of the 19th century. First published in 1895 Good Hardback. Second Edition
Asia
India
This area of India is home to several species of begonia which have been barely documented before. In this book the author covers 30 species found there together with a further ten species in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Western Ghats. New Paperback. 200 pages with many colour illustrations