Wishlist of Books

Books I want to read!

Empress Orchid - Anchee Min

Orchid, a beautiful girl from an aristocratic but impoverished family, is unexpectedly chosen to become a lower-ranking concubine of the Emperor. The world inside the Forbidden City is erotically charged and highly ritualised, but beneath its immaculate face lie whispers of murders and ghosts. The thousands of concubines will go to any lengths to bear the Emperor a son and become his Empress. Determined not to be a victim of the jealousies and foul play, Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed and seduces the monarch. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and she will be its last Empress.

19 Minutes - Jodi Picoult

One day, the town of Sterling, New Hampshire is shattered by a shocking act of gunshot violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

I am Muslim - Dina Zaman

"Dina Zaman's articles about being a Muslim in Malaysia today capture the multifaceted aspects of difference and alterity in normative religious life better than many academic studies on the subject. Her writings have attempted to demystify Islam and shown the religion for what it is - a religion for all times that somehow over the past few years has been made complicated and in the process completely misunderstood."

Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino

The novel opens with an unnamed speaker, the studious sister of the gorgeous prostitute Yuriko Hirata, describing her own world. The daughter of an abusive Swiss father and a subservient Japanese mother, the speaker is forever in the shadow of her "diabolically beautiful" younger sister. As she describes her own enormous efforts to succeed in school, we also observe her failure to be accepted by the "in" group or to be selected as a member of one of the "elite" clubs. Her inability to form friendships, somewhat colored by her abuse at home, her pathological hatred for her sister, and her resentment of students whose success at the school is far greater than her own, make her a frustrating and unlikable main character.

May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969 - Kua Kia Soong

The book, titled May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969, is based on newly declassified documents including foreign dispatches and confidential reports at the time, which are now made available in the Public Records Office in London after the 30-year secrecy rule over these documents had lapsed. Kua, an ex-ISA detainee and now principal of New Era College, concluded his findings by arguing that the May 13 incident was a plot to oust then premier Tunku Abdul Rahman and not spontaneous clashes between Malay and Chinese as official history trying to paint it.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

This novel begins on a winter night in 1961, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a story of parallel lives, family secrets, and the redemptive power of love.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

Need I say more???