Anna Tan's Blog, page 124

#bookreview: Single & Single by John le Carre

Single & Single by John le Carré

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



When a book starts off with the intriguing line This gun is not a gun, you know you're in for a rather interesting read.



Single & Single starts off with the cold-blooded murder of a British corporate lawyer in Turkey. His boss, Tiger Single, the brains behind the financial house Single and Single, goes missing. In the middle of the night, Oliver Hawthorne, a children's entertainer, is questioned about a sudden influx of cash...

A Grand New Age of Boom or Dust?

Boomtown Craze, Book 3 in the Backworlds series is here!







In the far future, humanity settles the stars,
bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe.




To secure his future, Craze must propel his world into a
more prosperous era. Only days away from the grand opening of his new and
improved tavern, he is confronted by a loony Backworlder intent on mucking up
his plans. Gaunt and trembling, she claims her spaceship is possessed. She also
has a connection to the underworl...

fireplace: Praying with power

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but...

The story that didn't win anything

So there was this competition to win a free copy of KL NOIR: Red
by submitting a short story (300 words) based on one of the titles in the book.

I didn't get anything, but here's the flash fic anyway. Enjoy!





The Oracle of
Truth

“You’ll never find true love,” Katelyn blurted, then covered
her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide.

“That’s not a nice thing to say, dear,” Mother said
distractedly as she continued to eat her breakfast. Keith glared at his younger
sister.

I’m sorry, she
mouth...

My #atozchallenge list of words

We played a game on Tuesday for icebreakers in carecell. It went like this: "I went to the supermarket and bought..." and each person takes turn to fill in an item starting with the letters A until Z. Woke up this on Wednesday morning and went Voila! Problem solved! I have my words for A to Z challenge next month.

Surprisingly I still remembered almost all the words, except Z.




Asparagus
Balloon
Corkscrew
Dart
Elevator
Flag
Gum
Hammer
Ink
Jellybean
Kitkat
Lipstick
Monitor
Nugget
Orange...

Readings from Readings 2: a review

Readings from Readings 2: New Writing from Malaysia, Singapore and Beyond by Bernice Chauly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Readings from Readings 2: New writing from Malaysia, Singapore and beyond, is a wonderful collection of work, comprising short pieces of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The flavour is undoubtedly Malaysian (ok, and Singaporean) with sprinklings of other voices in between. I found that I preferred the local (or at least Asian) pieces more than the odd sprinkling of “Western” na...

A People's Politics

Ok. So I'm pushing out this book review earlier than others because it's a little time sensitive (sorry to Readings, which got pushed back another week).



A People's Politics by Keat Peng Goh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



"The people are the nation. The nation is its people. Its people as a whole must thrive, and be cared for."

For me, this is the heart behind the book.



For someone who is really rather too lazy to think about the political arena and too annoyed to get into debates about it, this...

Youth finding their "It" - Guest post by Raphyel M. Jordan

Continuing on with the Prossia blog tour, let's welcome Raphyel with his post on Youth finding their "It".



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In "Prossia," we follow the journey of a girl named Aly, who was simply trying to make it out of her equivalent to high school (she's an alien) one day, and killing in order to survive the next. She learns what I was learning when I started writing the story , just how fast the world can become a madhouse. I've had some readers say the opening parts of my novel feel like a Disney...

#bookreview: Prossia by Raphyel M Jordan

Prossia by Raphyel M. Jordan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Alytchai (Aly) is seventeen and has been drafted to fight a war on a planet she has never been to amongst a people she has never seen against an enemy who would wipe out their entire civilisation. Dealing with teenage hormones whilst trying to focus on the war and their mission, Aly has a harder time at it than her fellow Goolians who can make fireballs of hot plasma out of their hands. On the way she learns to mix with other races - the c...

Prossia by Raphyel M. Jordan (blog tour)

I was invited to join the Prossia blog tour through Masquerade Crew again, and since I don't have to time right now to sit down and hash out posts, I thought I'd just join in the fun with a cover reveal and an excerpt today.



I'll be reviewing the book tomorrow so do check back then. (Also, check out giveaway at the bottom!)



Excerpt:

Aly came back into the store with a firm grip around the woolen cover that was wrapped around her after taking a bath in the garden springs. The warmn...