Right Reads: Best of books!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Even today, homosexuality is a sensitive topic in Asia thus when this Singaporean novel was among the book pile of my “Asian Literatures in English” class in the uni in 1995, I wasn’t surprised nobody picked it up. I did and boy, am I thankful to my lecturer for including it!

“Peculiar Chris”, written in the early 1990s was touted as THE first gay novel out of in Singpore. HIV/AIDS was relatively unknown in Malaysia then so can you imagine the reception towards a gay-themed book in conservative Singapore?

The novel tells the story of a well-to-do 19 year old Christopher Han, who returns to Singapore from a vacation in Australia and a painful break-up from his girlfriend. He joins the National Service and there, he gradually discovers his homosexual tendencies.

My coursemates shied away from the book when my elderly, straight, male lecturer gave a brief synopsis - they feared reading about gay love, not knowing what “scary” or graphic sections they may encounter.

[Read more →]

Tags: young adult by KittyCat
2 Comments »

Written by the same author of “Madame Doubtfire” (Mrs. Doubtfire movie starring Robin Williams), the book begins with a noisy class of pre-teen boys in the UK on their usual day of traumatising their form teacher, Mr Cartright.

This day, the teacher is reviewing their project options for the Science Fair.

Naturally, the boys all want past projects like “the Soap Factory”, “the Maggot Farm” or “the Exploding Custard Tins”…

[Read more →]

Tags: school stories, young adult by KittyCat
No Comments »

If you have a son and are trying to gain a better understanding of what the average young man thinks or worries about, you HAVE to read this book.

If you work with young people, whether as a teacher, a coach, a tutor or simply trying to understand young people, you HAVE to read this book.

If you care about young people with disabilities, whether they are physical, learning, mental or sexual, you HAVE to read this collection of short stories.

If you are a young adult, you shoud read this book, if only to see that SOMEONE ELSE out there feels exactly as you feel…even though that person may be a physically handicapped boy or not.

Although the book cover is as depressing as its title, I simply could not put it down after I started reading it. Why? Another author, Rolf Gompertz, sums up the essence of Mr. Freese’s collection of stories:

“Mathias Freese is an inspired, talented writer, a sharp-eyed, honest observer; and a caring, compassionate human being. These qualities inform his dark, offbeat stories about life, making these tales a poignant, precious pleasure to read.”

[Read more →]

Tags: young adult by KittyCat
7 Comments »

“Da Chen was born in China in 1962. The grandson of a landlord, he found that he and his family were outcasts in Communist China. Da was an excellent student until a teacher told him that because of his family’s ‘crimes’, he could never be more than a poor farmer…

China’s Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976 and I recall watching it in action through Leslie Cheung’s “Farewell to my Concubine” where books were burned and art and music were considered crimes. I also recall a glimpse of this terrible tragedy in the erotic film “The Red Violin“.

[Read more →]

Tags: autobiography, history, young adult by KittyCat
4 Comments »