Must-read books for the season.
The eternal summer of Malaysia allows an array of delightful activities such as lounging in a hammock or indulging in poolside relaxation. Here are a few literary picks to keep you company.
Love is a Pink Cake
Claire Ptak
For avid royal watchers, London-based Californian expat Claire Ptak will forever be known as the baker who made Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake in 2018: a multi-tiered delight flavoured with Amalfi lemons and elderflower cordial extracted from blooms harvested at Sandringham House, the late Queen Elizabeth’s private country residence. Featuring 75 sweet and savoury creations, Love is a Pink Cake is a treasure trove of inspiration for those eager to emulate Ptak’s sensibilities. Beyond the recipes are also transferable wisdom such as ways of growing geraniums on your windowsill or soaking poppy seeds in black tea to bring out their flavour. (malaysia.kinokuniya.com; RM170.64)
Really Good, Actually
Monica Heisey
Award-winning screenwriter Heisey may have earned her stripes in TV, including on the sitcom Schitt’s Creek, but this new voice in fiction has conjured up a heroine to root for, surrounded by millennial witticisms and deadpan turns. The hilarious and painfully relatable story of protagonist Maggie is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love and friendship in the wake of an unexpected breakup. “A relationship is an active process and repair should be an ongoing journey,” promotes this smart, coming-of-divorce novel that has been likened to the process of kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken things. (malaysia.kinokuniya.com; RM82)
Feast
Ina Cariño
Filipino-American poet Cariño has a heavy hunger for family and a sense of belonging and it shows in this lush feast of language and prose. Built on childhood memories, this winner of a 2022 Whiting Award in Poetry explores the traumas and complexities of an immigrant who is still finding a safe place to call home. Cariño’s poems are unabashedly bold, as she does not hesitate to use the physical body as a canvas to explore themes such as culture, lineage and sexual identity. Words in Tagalog are scattered across the pages and not translated because she did not want to portray her mother tongue as having “foreignness” or being “other”. Here, food is used to celebrate and grieve, often alongside her lola, which means grandmother. (amazon.com, RM126.47 including delivery fee)
When You Trap a Tiger
Tae Keller
This John Newbery Medal (the highest honour in children’s literature) recipient finally gets a paperback version. Some stories refuse to stay bottled up, as main character Lily narrates in this book of magical realism. A tiger makes a Faustian deal: If she returns the Korean folktale her ailing halmoni (grandmother) once stole from the tigers, they will restore her health. To appease the magical creature, she bakes rice cakes and presents them with star jars that hold the stories she seeks to give back. As these stolen fables, which Lily’s grandmother thought were harmful, become free, they are revealed to be filled with meaning and history. (malaysia.kinokuniya.com; RM48.66)
The Mythmakers
Keziah Weir
From an acclaimed senior editor at Vanity Fair comes an intoxicating and triumphant debut novel about Sal Cannon, a failing young journalist who reconstructs the history of a dead writer named Martin Keller by stepping into the life he left behind. But much to her shock, Cannon discovers a short story that Keller wrote about her, leading to an entanglement with his widow, daughter and former best friend in real life. A revenge drama this is not, but a lesson that straddles creative ambition and love. It is an honest tale about the trials and tribulations of finding out who you are and how inspiration springs at you in unimaginable ways. (amazon.com, RM193.34 including delivery fee)
Maame
Jessica George
How does a young woman, gridlocked between filial duty and adulthood, strive for her own independence while carrying the weight of her family’s world? Heroine Maddie, a Londoner of Ghanaian descent, finds out as she cares for her 57-year-old father, who has Parkinson’s disease, and assumes a maternal role when her mother leaves for a year to manage a hotel in their native country. Standing at the centre of what is essentially a dissolving home, the 25-year-old embraces but also slowly detaches from her endearing childhood nickname “Maame” (meaning both “mother” and “woman” in the Twi language), which sometimes feels like a crucible. (malaysia.kinokuniya.com; RM89.90)
Quietly Hostile
Samantha Irby
Author-comedian Irby wants you to take her book with a snarling skunk on the cover seriously, although you may find yourself throwing your head back in laughter while leafing through a collection of 17 essays with lacerating humour. The topics are anything but quiet, as she finds the funny in the terrible, whether it is an exhaustive list of ways to ruin old Sex and the City episodes or a guide to bathroom etiquette that would make Emily Post rise from the grave (we will spare you the graphic and colourful details of human waste). Bursting with compassion, insight and honesty, this riotously funny read just wants you to live life a little less stressfully. (amazon.com, RM126.38 including delivery fee)
On the Curry Trail
Raghavan Iyer
The diaspora of curry has united nations but also divided them. The late award-winning cookbook author Iyer is not on a mission to delineate its origins but to broaden them, as the definition of “curry” has been embroiled in a heated debate for decades. Inside this illustrated compilation, readers are whisked away on a culinary adventure outside India to explore cuisines as products of the colonial spice trade, spice wars, enslavements and local entrepreneurship. At once a mash note and a poignant swan song, On the Curry Trail is a delectable study of history told via 50 irresistible recipes.
(malaysia.kinokuniya.com; RM162.50)
This article first appeared on June 12, 2023 in The Edge Malaysia.
