Lotte finds his friend’s state-of-the-art sex doll in wedding garb and, true to himself more than his friend, elopes to his hometown in Southern Thailand with her. Freshly divorced, he finds himself feeling a growing affection for Samsaen the sex doll. But when they arrive, a group of thugs mug Lotte and steal his lady love.
Meanwhile, back home, his friend Mep has managed to track down the couple’s whereabouts and is hot on their tail. He knows something that Lotte doesn’t: she is not inanimate.
Lying discarded in the woods, Samsaen gathers her sentience—and her strength, setting the stage for a high-stakes chase where no one is who they seem.
This book is about how to transform a company, organization, country or individual to achieve goals thought to be impossible by innovation and deep change in the way things are done. To add to his concept and method, author Idris Jala recounts his own vast experiences in many successful transformations at Shell, a national airline, companies, organizations, departments and governments to provide solid practical support for his methodology and discussion points for real problems on the shop floor.
The focal point of this transformation is to set near impossible targets which will require a sea change in how things are done. While the major strategic targets are set by top management in consultation with others and are non-negotiable, the subgoals which feed into this are decided by those who will implement the transformation, bringing about ownership, motivation and a renewed zeal for achievement.
It’s all about what Idris calls Big Fast Results or BFR, achieving impossibly high targets by a radical upheaval in processes, procedures and actions, all of which are measurable and have definite time lines. It is devoid of jargon, readable, clear and concise enabling any interested person to understand and practice it. There is no book like it anywhere – it takes the reader through every step necessary to achieve BFR, steps which have been tested and proven in the crucible of experience.
Idris has direct experience in all that he talks about and advocates and offers many case examples to back up his book.
Robin is over the moon when he receives the wildest birthday surprise ever: a trip to space with his family and friends! Robin blasts off to space with the best offerings on board, from a customized game room to ‘astronaut’ ice-creams. But the best part is when Robin explores the moon, where he gets to moonwalk and leaves his mark on the surface.
Nothing could go wrong on this fabulous space trip for Robin, right?
Robin will discover, soon enough, that space can be an unforgiving world…
An elderly widow fantasizes about celebritydom after the death of her husband. An unexpected friendship blossoms between a young boy and his neighbour. A domestic helper hides a dark secret in her employer’s home. A troubled man opens his door to a childhood friend. Set in Singapore, this collection explores the complexities of existence and alienation through diverse narratives, while revealing how our deepest pains, while uniquely our own, also reflect a shared human experience of vulnerability, yearning and the perpetual search for meaning in our lives.
‘My dear child,
If your father has left an indentation on my ring finger,
And you stretch marks on my stomach,
He has likewise left a permanent engraving.’
The story of Lalana, a transgender man who gave birth to a daughter.
Going back in time to her daughter’s first birthday, at the dining table where her husband and daughter blow out the birthday candle together, she finds out that she is a man in the body of a woman; she finds out that she is, in truth, a man.
And once he admits to his husband that he has changed, his answer is: he can’t embrace what Lal is, and he needs time to come to terms with it.
Then, during that time of change, Lal meets a man.
He has a house on Song Wat road, and that house becomes Lalana’s refuge. From the day they met by chance onwards, Lal has visited him again time after time, reason after reason, for carnal desires and bodily passions that he has for him, and for the compassion that he shows Lal—shows Lal’s male self.
Magic is in the air . . .
When Robin stumbles upon a wooden magic wand in the depths of the forest, his world transforms in the blink of an eye.
With a simple flick, Robin can conjure wonders beyond his wildest dreams. From turning his best friend Charlie into a furious chicken to creating the most enormous ice-cream ever seen, the possibilities are endless.
But lurking in the shadows are two sinister villains, watching Robin’s every move and scheming to steal his powerful wand for themselves.
Unaware of the impending danger, Robin and his friends are soon swept into a whirlwind of magical chaos.
Get ready for a spellbinding adventure filled with friendship, bravery, and a dash of mayhem that could change the course of history forever!
“A woman is a cursed creature.”
Rina has heard this all her life — spoken by her beloved mother, a soft messenger for a sharp message. Words that echoed in the marrow of every choice Rina made. It became the kind of curse that hid in plain sight.
In a house weighted by tradition, Rina, a devoted wife and mother, tends to a sister with a child’s mind while raising her two teenage children straining against their inherited roles. It is when her husband Salim names their son Kabir the heir, and tells their daughter Noori that her place is elsewhere that Rina begins to understand the workings of this curse.
Rina watches the same story tighten around the next generation — and recognises it for what it is: a legacy of shrinking.
But there is only so much you can shrink before you cease to exist. And so, in whispered rebellions and quiet refusals, in dreams that refuse to be dismissed, Rina, Kabir, and Noori begin to tug at the threads holding their world in place.
AN IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF AI AS THE ULTIMATE CO-FOUNDER—RESHAPING STARTUPS INTO ADAPTIVE, DATA-DRIVEN ENTITIES THAT THINK, LEARN, AND EVOLVE IN REAL TIME.
Inspired by Sam Altman’s 2023 prediction of artificial intelligence (AI) enabling a one-person unicorn, Arnaud Frade examines how AI’s rapid advancements can empower entrepreneurs to build an effective AI-first modern startup—the ‘sentient startup’.
Beyond operationalizing efficiency, by integrating machine intelligence into the very DNA of a company, founders can create ‘sentient’ businesses that leverage AI for strategic decision-making, product evolution, marketing, and operations at a scale and speed beyond human capabilities.
However, the author does not ignore the challenges: the book warns against blind reliance on AI, highlighting risks such as bias, privacy concerns, and over-dependence on data-driven metrics. It underscores that ethical considerations and human oversight remain crucial to ensuring AI-driven businesses are not just intelligent but also responsible.
The Sentient Startup provides a framework and offers practical insights for entrepreneurs, tech leaders, and investors to harness AI’s power effectively to redefine the future of entrepreneurship.
Darla Roland Fernandez is an aspiring Sabahan actress who yearns for her big break. When a promising role brings her across the South China Sea, she quickly proves her worth as an actress, and everyone, especially her co-star, Donny Chiew, takes notice.
Nandhini Ganesan, a writer retrenched during the Covid-19 pandemic, struggles to make ends meet in the city of Kuala Lumpur. Hiding her current unemployment status from her family, she leads an exhausting double life until she discovers an old, abandoned car and her deceased grandmother begins appearing in her dreams, leaving a cryptic message for her to decipher.
With the help of a reformed gangster, an elderly hoarder, and an old friend, Nandhini begins to piece together the puzzle that her grandmother has left her. As one clue leads to another, Nandhini soon finds the thread that ties her to Darla. But is it too late? Can she help Darla protect what matters most?
This story of love, loss, and grief reminds us that everyone deserves to be remembered.
Can we grow a tree (a sustainable future) in dry soil (our current economy)?
For centuries, our economic engine has driven growth by consuming the very foundations of the future—leading to mounting debt, extreme inequality, and environmental crisis. We are fast approaching a point where capitalism—once seen as the engine of progress—is now generating more problems than it solves. At this critical juncture, we need a New Economic Engine. Just as healthy soil is essential for a tree to grow, the right economic foundation is critical for a sustainable future.
Sustainomy is a global framework that transforms growth that consumes the future into growth that creates it. Because the 20th century economic model has created success for the private sector, it is fitting that Sustainomy builds upon the strengths of that model to succeed in the 21st century and positions the private sector as the spearhead of change. As societal and environmental dimensions, combined with intelligence, become the new rule of competition, the private sector together with people and the public sector that adapt will seize emerging opportunities, while those that don’t risk becoming irrelevant.
This book challenges the conventional language of growth—urging bold leaders across all sectors to envision a future where sustainable growth needs to entail wealth distribution, social well-being, and regenerative environment.
