09 Jan 2014 Bestsellers

As many of you know, we opened the bookshop’s doors on May Day 2014 – an auspicious day! Naturally, we had expectations, including the possibility that we might go out of business before we reached infancy. But we’ve survived – thanks to the wonderful support of our customers from near and far, and the indefatigable efforts of the team: Fong Ling, Jaime, Liani, Roy and Gareth. And we’ve sold loads of books. Here are the bestsellers of 2014. It makes for fascinating reading. Every single book that’s on the list has a connection with Malaysia and especially with Penang: the latter includes writers based on the island (Kim Gooi, Marco Ferrarese, Khoo Salma, Luisa Hung); local independent publishers (Areca Books, Clarity Publishing, Ulysses); and, at the top of the tree, the biography of a towering son of Penang, Karpal Singh. It’s also good to see three titles from the amazing Fixi in the list; one of the finest studies of Malaya’s political history; an award-winning novel from an exiled Penangite; a combative plea for a different kind of politics; and a fine piece of investigative writing on the shame of illegal logging. Here’s the full list:

1 Tim Donoghue, Karpal Singh Tiger of Jelutong (Marshall Cavendish)
2 Kim Gooi, The Poet of Keng Tung Jail (Kim Gooi)
3 Anna Tan (ed.), Love in Penang (Fixi)
4 Marco Ferrarese, Nazi Goreng (Monsoon)
5= Khoo Salma, Streets of George Town Penang (Areca)
5= Donna Amoroso, Traditionalism and the Ascendancy of the Malay Ruling Class in Colonial Malaya (SIRD)
7 Luisa Hung, Simple Fieldnotes of A Mama (Ulysses Wordstation)
8 Kim Han-min, Tip Toe Tapir (Clarity)
9= Tunku Halim, Horror Stories (Fixi)
9= Kee Thuan Chye, Can We Save Malaysia, Please! (Marshall Cavendish)
11= Tan Twan Eng, The Gift of Rain (Myrmidon)
11= Marc de Faoite, Tropical Madness (Fixi)
11= Lukas Straumann, Money Logging (Bergli Books)