It was a bit of a shock to learn that our good friend and Penang legend, Kim Gooi was taken to the General Hospital on Tuesday and remains under observation. On New Year's Day we told him he was burning the candle at both ends...
It's a line from Lukas Straumann's excellent Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia (Bergli) – and refers, of course, to Abdul Taib Mahmud who's threatened all and sundry over the publication and distribution of the book. After selling out for the...
There is no doubt that Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof is one of our great polymaths – someone who has produced writing of great originality and has thought long and hard about traditional Malaysian culture. Here we showcase just some of his prolific writings. He was responsible as...
Every now and then a new book arrives on the shelves that takes the breath away. Textiles of Southeast Asia (Tuttle) by Robyn Maxwell is such a book – the definitive work on Southeast Asian textiles. Using an extensive range of locally produced raw materials...
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...
Hot of the heels of her splendid exhibition, Dressed Text, at Sinkeh, it's a good time to consider other products of the fertile imagination of la femme portant un chapeau de paille, known to you all as Foo May Lyn. She's produced a delightful set...
With the catastrophic flooding and landslides in the east coast states still at the forefront of our minds, it's a good time to revisit the seminal book by Lye Tuck-Po: Changing Pathways: Forest Degradation and the Batek of Pahang (SIRD). She is one of the most...
In American Gods, Neil Gaiman makes the following pithy declaration: "What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul". This month's bumper edition...
Last week saw the launch of a new book from the eminent Penang historian Tan Kim Hong – The Story of Ghee Hin Kongsi in Penang (in Chinese). With a mastery of both classical and contemporary sources, the book traces the history of one of...