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I feel like such a bad Singaporean for not reading books written by Singaporean authors! Honestly, growing up, there weren’t many that interested me*. The ones that everyone used to read were local ghost stories, and I have never been a huge horror fan.<\/p>\n
But a few days ago, I was walking around Popular Bookstore in Singapore, and I came across a couple of YA novels written by Singaporean authors that I had never heard about, so I went looking for more books to add to my TBR**.<\/p>\n
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I have thought about books intersecting Singaporean identity and Sikh identity, and now I find out Balli Kaur Jaswal has written something about it, and I am so excited. So many years I have wanted books like these, books reflecting my country and my people, and I am a little bit ashamed that I never went looking earlier, but now that I have, I am going to keep looking for more.<\/p>\n
Are there any books that you would recommend based on a reflection of a part of yourself?<\/p>\n
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I feel like such a bad Singaporean for not reading books written by Singaporean authors! Honestly, growing up, there weren’t many that interested me*. The ones that everyone used to read were local ghost stories, and I have never been a huge horror fan. But a few days ago, I was walking around Popular Bookstore in Singapore, and I came across a couple of YA novels written by Singaporean authors that I had never heard about, so I went looking for more books to add to my TBR**. *I was a book snob, and I admit it. **I have read none of these books, but they look interesting. Run by Gabby Tye. The reviews for this are a mixed bag, but this was the first dystopian written by a Singaporean that intrigued me. And she was 14 when this was published! The whole series is out, and I am still intrigued. Aunty Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu. I don’t read so much mystery, but this mixes food and local intrigue, and I need it in my life. I am hoping the online library has a copy for me to borrow soon. The Gatekeeper by Nuraliah Norasid. This sounds SO FASCINATING! A fictional world based near and on Singapore, pre-colonialism? Discussion of racism in our seemingly racial harmonious society? YES, PLEASE. The Lights That Find Us by Anittha Thanabalan. This was the book I stumbled on in Popular, and it is a retelling of A Christmas Carol set during Deepavali with Indian influences, and if you don’t understand why that excites me, you do not know me. Beng Beng Revolution by Lu Huiyi. Singaporean sci-fi? Never thought I’d see the day, but it sounds equal parts fun and intense, plus I laughed at the names of the characters because of the Singaporean context of using them, honestly. Sugarbread by Balli Kaur Jaswal. I have seen a number of Balli Kaur Jaswal books in bookstores, and they seem interesting, but this one clicked with me. In so many ways, but mostly because it is about a young Sikh girl dealing with racial issues and family in Singapore. The Black Tides Of Heaven by J.Y. Yang. I did not know this series existed, but now that I do, I am SO HERE FOR IT. It is a fantasy that pits sibling against sibling, family against family, and I am very intrigued by the premise. I have thought about books intersecting Singaporean identity and Sikh identity, and now I find out Balli Kaur Jaswal has written something about it, and I am so excited. So many years I have wanted books like these, books reflecting my country and my people, and I am a little bit ashamed that I never went looking earlier, but now that I have, I am going to keep looking for more. Are there any books that you would recommend based on a reflection of a part of yourself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[616,59],"class_list":["post-3353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-post","tag-singaporean-novels-i-had-never-heard-about","tag-writings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/araopenpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}