The most recommended books about Malaysia

This book reads more like a thriller with heart than a historical novel, which makes it the perfect historical fiction for those just dipping a toe into the genre. 

Set in 1969 in Malaysia, during the historic race riots, the story follows a Beatles-obsessed teenage girl with OCD as she struggles to survive and get back to her family. I devoured this story over a couple of nail-biting days – and I bet you will too.

Capturing the excitement of our drinking age, Lonely Planet’s Global Distillery Tour stops in over 30 countries and provides a tantalizing glimpse at what is happening around the world. With photographs of both product and place, the book offers not just information on distilleries but itineraries to start planning those visits. Vast in scope while feeling manageable, the book makes a great introduction to the spirits world -- plus, has readers itching to experience it all for themselves. 

I adored this book, my second favorite pick of the year. Beautifully told with well-drawn characters that I came to love, it’s spellbinding. It reminded me of a fairytale with elements of mysticism. First I’d ever heard of a weretiger! 

Its three central characters, Ren, Louise, and Willliam, are spiritually connected in some way both by their Chinese names and their dreams, and they cross paths at various points before they meet. Set in China in the late 1930s, just prior to WWII, it’s filled with interesting details both about the times and the customs of the culture.

There’s also a love story, which, like all the best love stories in my opinion, is star-crossed. Will Louise and Shin get together in the end? I was so sucked in by this story I stayed up past my bedtime as I was reading the final chapters to see how it ended.  

This book gives readers a clear picture of what it was like for an American woman, married to a British colonial, to live in North Borneo just before the Japanese Army invaded in 1942. It was truly an innocent place so far from the cares of the world. I read it in 1968, just before my first sojourn in Sabah, Malaysia. Much had changed by then, but it helped me understand the experiences of some of the older people I met. Today, Sabah remains a land “below the wind” (located south of the annual tropical cyclone belt.) But, as I mention in my book, it is no longer below the “political storms” as China battles the US and five other nations over the rights to the South China Sea.

And you thought your family was crazy! Set in Malaysia, this fascinating story combines family drama with class issues, ethnic tensions, the effects of colonial rule, and even ghosts. I love how writer Preeta Samarasan evokes a mysterious, almost magical feel to the setting and characters, as the reader gets acquainted with the wealthy, yet deeply dysfunctional family at the center of the story. No matter how bitter, enraging, or disappointing these characters feel towards each other, they are still bonded together, and the story ends on a hopeful note. This family can redeem itself-even if it takes moving to another country to do it.

Green burial is not a new idea; it has been practiced for thousands of years and is still commonly practiced around the world. Green burial is also starting to be used as an avenue of enabling the restoration and preservation of habitat. The tradition of green (or natural) burials dates back to ancient times. For most of human history, in cultures where bodies were buried, the body was placed in a grave, perhaps wrapped in a shroud or in a simple box, directly into the ground. Robert’s chapters provide sustenance for the world full of people who exist in complete harmony with the natural world and with each other.

I’m a huge Michael Crichton fan, you know, the guy who wrote Jurassic Park. He actually wrote lots of other books, every one a masterpiece, but this may be my favorite (and it’s hard to pick a favorite Chrichton, I am second guessing myself as I wrote this!).

In this book, one of his longest, Crichton tackles climate change, and no, don’t roll your eyes, this is a face paced thriller that will have you struggling to discern science from fiction.

I haven’t read a better book in a long time than YZ Chin’s collection of linked stories.

At the centre of a panoply of characters and ways of thinking, we find Isabella Sin, a woman who might be taken as a personification of Malaysia, a troubled young nation searching for an identity as it struggles against its own history.

Not unlike what is required of her country, what is ultimately required of Isabella is to “become who she was.” YZ Chin’s voice offers the sort of nuance and depth that I feel characterises the best in literary fiction.

The first sentence of Gone Wild: “Allison Farleigh felt the dull tingle of a leech on her neck.” And with that, we are off and running in the jungle.

Hall does not waste any time setting Allison up: in the first pages, her daughter is murdered and a python nearly crushes her to death. It’s dire. But then along come Rayon and Orlon, two bumbling amoral poachers. Hall’s injection of humor with these two characters is drop-dead funny and a welcome relief in this intriguing story.

Kudos to Hall for his research, and for exposing the horrific industry of selling exotics. And thank you, Mr. Hall, for giving us the extraordinary Allison Farleigh. We can only hope, as we read, that Rayon and Orlon have met their match.

Some odd 1950s social attitudes caught me by surprise when I re-read this much-loved book from my past (what are those bruises all about?). Don’t let this put you off this wonderful story of courage and hardship as Jean Paget, an ordinary woman is swept up in the Japanese invasion of Malaya, faces terrible hardships in her group of female prisoners. Starving and sick, they are helped by an Australian, Sgt Joe Harman, also a prisoner, but his kindness results in the most terrible retribution. To say more would ruin the shock of this fabulous story, but I guarantee that Joe Harman will have your heart by the end of the book.