May 2015

209 318

BOOKS
209 May15
WHAT
ARE YOU
READING?
To tell us what books are piled up on your bedside table, or what
you’ve recently downloaded to your Kindle, dash off an email to
Jenny
Robinson,
British
FORGOTTEN
HIGHLANDER:
MY
INCREDIBLE
STORY OF
SURVIVAL
DURING THE
WAR IN THE
FAR EAST,
BY ALISTAIR
URQUHART
Deana
Karahasan,
British
THE FORTY
RULES OF
LOVE, BY
ELIF SHAFAK
Genre?
War memoir, covering the author’s POW
experiences in Changi Prison and on the
Thailand-Burma Railway, from 1941 to 1943,
after being conscripted into the British Army
in 1939 at the age of 19 and stationed at Fort
Canning in Singapore.
How did you get hold of it?
I bought it for my husband, who recommended that I read it too.
How far have you got with it?
Finished it recently.
What do you think of it?
It’s a real eye-opener on the death and suffering of POWs at the
hands of the Japanese – and the Koreans, too. Poignantly, the
author wrote the book and had it published only after his wife
died, because he didn’t want her to know the traumatic details
of his experiences of malnutrition, cholera and torture on the
Death Railway; on the “hell ship”, the Kachidoki Maru; and
finally at a labour camp in Nagasaki at the time the Americans
dropped the atomic bomb. It tells the most horrendous stories
and is extremely moving.
Would you recommend it?
Absolutely.
Fiction or fact?
Fiction, but based on historical events.
Genre?
A novel about love, mysticism and Sufism told
through both contemporary and historic eyes.
A wonderful introduction to the great poet Rumi
and his life-changing inspiration – the holy man,
Shams of Tabriz.
How did you get hold of it?
It was a New Year gift from my husband, a book that he was
moved by and wanted to share.
How far have you got with it?
Just finished.
What do you think of it?
It’s a compelling and beautiful book. The Forty Rules of Love
serves as a reminder of the beauty of Islam, that religious
prejudice and bigotry are not just modern day experiences and
that ultimately love is everything.
Would you recommend it?
Sure.
DON’T
DIET EAT
SMART!
THE
SCIENCE
OF EATING
MINDFULLY
Mayura Mohta
Ebook
available from
smashwords.
com, ebooks.
com and
other websites, $9.99
Following this nutrition guru’s first two
books – The Heart Smart Oil Free
Cookbook and The Wholefood Kitchen
– she has now published an e-book.
All about why dieting doesn’t work, it
explores our relationship with food and
explains the influence of food on our
minds and bodies. This new awareness
should empower us to make better
food choices and to cultivate the art of
eating mindfully. What’s more, the book
is chock-full of inspirational recipes,
many of them either gluten-free, vegan
or both. It also has a Smart Eating Plan
that promises to help sustain weight
loss, prevent weight gain and promote
optimal health.
You have
u n t i l 3 1
Augus t to
enter your
novel to win
Singapore’s
newes t and
richest literar y
prize, the $20,000
Epigram Books Fiction Prize,
open to all Singapore citizens,
Permanent Residents and
anyone born in Singapore. The
manuscript must be unpublished
and not yet contracted to a
publisher. The winner will be
announced at the Singapore
Writers Festival in November
2015, and both the winning
and shortlisted entries will be
published by Epigram. Find out
more at , and
then get writing!