reading list Archives - Penguin Random House SEA

New Books Releasing In January 2025

Posted on December 30, 2024January 20, 2025 by simransingh

Happy New Year!

We’re welcoming 2025 with a variety of new reads that are eager to find a spot in your TBR. From fantasy and self-help to short stories, memoirs and more – we have an interesting selection of books for you to delve into.

Here are the books releasing this month:

Here is the third and final book in award-winner author Mica De Leon’s Seedmage Cycle series. The vengeful gods of Kayumalon are at war. The king is indisposed. Invaders have breached the northern borders. Kayumalon is ripe for the taking. Meet Kalem, Yin, Dakila and JinWun among others as you go on their final journey.

Unlike most productivity books, The Anti-Procrastinator is not a prescriptive roadmap to being more efficient in life. Instead, it will guide you to create your own manual to get things done through the power of self-awareness. By aligning your why with your values, your mission, and your action plan, you will minimize resistance and maximize results.

From mananangals to aswangs, engkantos to mambabarangs, oryols to andudunongs, and even the great Bakunawa – The Secret Lives of OFWs follows eight different stories of Filipino migrant workers who happen to be supernaturals. Forced to embark on their own migratory sojourns to seek a better life and provide for their loved ones, these stories delve into the struggles faced by OFWs and their families, and how even feared creatures of Philippine folklore are not spared from the hardships of the diaspora.

Juveniles and Other Stories is a collection of seven short fictions translation in English from Thai under the theme of ‘youth’- a tattered, confusing period of trials-and-errors, and the last taste of refreshing bliss before the vast blue sky we see yonder would turn into a suffocating ceiling once we learn of our limits. While the stories are meant for adults, most of the protagonists are young children.

This book is a captivating sequel to Matthew S. Friedman’s previous memoir, ‘Where Were You: A Profile of Modern Slavery’. As you read his powerful stories, you’ll be reminded of the immense suffering in the world, but you’ll also be uplifted by the sheer strength and determination of those who fight against it. It will ignite your passion, challenge you, and encourage you to take action toward bringing about meaningful change.

We’re sure you found your next read already! Follow us on Instagram to know more about these these books.

Happy Reading, pals!

New Books Releasing In December 2024

Posted on November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 by simransingh

As we countdown to the end of 2024, there’s still time to hit your reading goals—and what better way to do it than with some exciting new releases! Whether you’re looking to complete your year-end reading challenge or get a head start on your 2025 goals, we’ve got five fresh and thought-provoking books to add to your list this month.

Here are the must-read books hitting the shelves this month:

Step into the world of Fatimah Busu through this captivating collection of ten short stories. Spanning several decades—from the 1960s to the 1990s—this anthology blends social realism, magic realism, dreamscapes, and mythology. Fatimah’s evocative storytelling explores the complexities of women’s lives and the societies they navigate, offering a rich tapestry of themes for readers to explore. A must-read for fans of literary fiction with a unique cultural twist!

In her debut novel, Suzanne Scott Tomita introduces a powerful narrative about class division, childhood friendships, and the eroding bonds that shape our lives. Until Even the Angels delves into the deep emotional landscapes of its characters, exploring how past relationships shape present realities. When successful London real estate agent, Isabelle Goh, is left close to death in an attempted assassination, Detective Ayesha Nur begins a case that not only brings her face to face with her own demons. What happened a half-century ago in post-colonial Singapore?

In an era of constant change, Jerome Mangadap introduces a revolutionary framework for leadership with B.E.S.T. Marking. This book is more than just a guide—it’s a call to action for leaders to face the challenges of today’s world and come out on top. Packed with fresh insights and actionable tools, this book is essential for anyone looking to lead organizations toward success in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Friska Wirya—a multiple award-winning author—dives deep into case studies from across Asia, offering a roadmap for how to adapt change management strategies to different cultural contexts. The Future Fit Asian Organization explores real-world challenges and provides insights on how to harmonize leadership practices with the diverse cultures of Asia. This book is perfect for business leaders and managers seeking to enhance their organizational strategies across the region.

In the age of digital transformation, Phanish Puranam’s Re-Humanize presents a compelling vision for balancing organizational goals with human-centric values. This book explores how companies can embrace technology while fostering community, connection, and purpose. A must-read for leaders looking to build organizations that are both goal-driven and people-first.

Which book will you dive into first?

With so many exciting new releases, there’s no shortage of inspiration for your next great read. Whether you’re closing out the year or gearing up for 2025, these books will spark your imagination and broaden your horizons.

Stay tuned to our Instagram page for updates on release dates and more exciting book recommendations!

Happy reading, pals!

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Gumption of Mr Toilet

Posted on November 19, 2024 by simransingh

Imagine a world without toilets!

Sounds crazy, right? Yet, billions of people still don’t have access to safe sanitation. On World Toilet Day, we’re not just celebrating toilets—we’re fighting for dignity, health, and equal rights for everyone. And behind this global movement is a man who’s literally changed the world with his vision: Jack Sim, aka Mr. Toilet.

From a poor kid who failed at school to a global game-changer, Jack Sim used one simple thing, gumption, to spark a revolution. Check out this powerful excerpt from his book, The Gumption of Mr Toilet where he breaks down exactly how he made toilets—and a whole lot more—matter.

Since the founding of the UN on 24 October 1945, the first UN Water Conference was held in 1977, and the second one was in 2023. It’s appalling to see an important agenda such as Water be made a low priority. But if you think Water has been neglected, you should know that Sanitation is even more neglected. That 2023 UN Water Conference devoted only about 5 per cent of the sessions to Sanitation and Hygiene and less than 1 per cent to Menstrual Health, which is a big taboo as well. We live in a world where agendas are addressed according to their charisma. Corporations love green and blue agendas like Environment, where they can use trees, rivers, coral reefs, pandas, and polar bears in their publicity material. They avoid ‘Brown Agendas’ like Poop, Diarrhoea, Polluted Rivers, which are equally important.

Therefore, in order to succeed, we have to make sanitation sexy, and we have a secret weapon. Since it is a taboo and has been unspoken for such a long time, it has news potential. We created new narratives that helped the media attract massive readerships and advertising income, and the global media took our stories by storm. As we take charge of the narratives, we command the attention of the world.

The World Toilet Organization was founded on 19 November 2001. Our founding day has since been adopted unanimously by all 193 countries of the UN General Assembly as the official UN World Toilet Day. We broke the taboo on the Sanitation Agenda. In 2010, the blockbuster film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was launched globally and was trending at the fourth position on Twitter (now called X) on 19 November, while World Toilet Day ranked fifth. But Harry Potter invested multimillion dollars in publicity while we did it at zero cost. We saw Justin Bieber was trending at the sixth position and catching up with us. So, we tweeted that ‘Justin Bieber is doing worse than Shit’. This single tweet sparked a furore of attacks by Justin Bieber’s fans, and it boosted our visibility causing us to trend even higher. Suddenly, a lot more people learned about the existence of World Toilet Day.

This is how guerrilla marketing works. We leverage anything and everything, making the irrelevant become relevant to our mission. There is no such thing as bad publicity with an agenda like Sanitation, which is a taboo itself.

I created the World Toilet Organization with the WTO acronym to play a pun on the World Trade Organization. I was hoping that the WTO would sue me, then I’d be famous. It turns out that they didn’t sue me, but we became known as the other WTO forever. Nothing sells like contraband. Either way, I won. Eventually, the journalists started calling me Mr Toilet and that moniker created another intellectual property for us with highly sticky brand equity. The most elegant thing is we achieved all this without paying a cent for media publicity and have never paid marketing dollar in the last twenty-four years. When you have no money, work around it.

The Gandhians said: ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’

Ten years later, I met Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization at the World Economic Forum in 2011 in Jakarta. I introduced myself and he exclaimed with some jest: ‘Oh, I know you. Yours is the more important WTO!’

_________________________________________________________________

From toilets to global sanitation, Jack’s journey is a testament to the power of vision, grit, and gumption—that unstoppable drive to turn an idea into reality. On World Toilet Day, let’s remember that every small action counts.

P.S. You can win a copy of the book and a special tote bag. Head to our Instagram now.

New Reads for November

Posted on November 1, 2024 by simransingh

As 2024 wraps up, it’s the perfect moment to grab some fresh reads and crush those reading goals. This month, we’ve got an awesome lineup that spans genres and vibes—perfect for cozy nights in or whenever you need a good escape.

Whether you’re looking for self-help that actually gets you, thrilling mysteries that keep you guessing, or stories that spark deep thoughts about the world, we’ve got you covered.

Here are the books releasing this month:

Written and designed by Puty Puar, Self-Improved Me offers a toolkit that doesn’t promise a one-size-fits-all method. It’s about the discovery process itself. With bite-sized writings and illustrations, it aims to help get us to know ourselves better and appreciate our unique way of progressing in life.

Written by an award-winning writer Suzanne Kamata, River of Dolls and Other Stories is a collection of short stories, many of which riff on traditional Japanese folk tales and lore and explore the lives of individuals caught between desire and duty, as well as the conflicting expectations of different cultures.

Written by Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Saving the Planet is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the intersections between politics and climate change, as well as for an authentic voice at the frontlines of climate action in the Global South.

Written by Kantarin Leelahuta, One Night Stand is a thrilling mystery featuring three famous girls who have it all – the looks, the fame, and the boys. The lives of these inseparable friends change as one of them dies, but, who killed her and why?

Written by Larry Nyanti, A Rei of Sunshine is a coming-of-age tale that weaves together the threads of two former lovers separated by circumstance over many years. However, when their paths meets again, things only get more complicated with a twist of supernatural elements.

Written by Edmund Terence Gomez, Misgovernance unveils covert and deeply disturbing political-economic trends in Malaysia, necessitating an urgent re-think of the meaning of ‘corruption’. Three major paradoxes emerge from this book’s insights into the inner workings of Malaysia’s monstrously vast GLC ecosystem.

Written by Earl Valencia and Dan Gonzales, Startup Mindset unveils the secrets of the Silicon Valley ecosystem and guides readers on the mindsets that differentiate the leaders who were trained from the industrial economy of the past from those who have grown and transcended into a digital-first world.

Found a book that instantly spoke to you? Keep an eye out on our Social Media pages to know when they come out.

Happy reading!

Books that will haunt your dreams if you skip reading them!

Posted on October 22, 2024October 23, 2024 by simransingh

Gather ’round the flickering candlelight as we dive into tales of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural. From haunted houses to mischievous spirits, each story invites you to explore the eerie and the extraordinary. So, don your favorite costume, grab a warm mug of cider, and prepare to be spellbound—these pages are alive with the spirit of Halloween!

🎃🎃🎃

First, you need to give it something precious to you. Then, a shelter, a doorway… Something lives in a rotting house in the town of Santa Clara. Emilia returns to her hometown to attend her friend’s wake. But she finds her way back to Santa Clara, to her circle of friends who rekindle memories of a bizarre ritual left unfinished.

Dark romance of your dreams is here. This is not a ghost story. This is a love story. The ghost lore has it, Heartbreaker spellbinds girls into becoming his eternal lovers in afterworld. But, he falls for Lily, like it’s breathing for him. Will their love triumph in blurring the boundary of reality and fantasy? Or will the grip of logic force them to part?

Real estate agent Eric Foo is tricked into spending a night in a haunted house he’s trying to sell. Will he become the next victim in the sinister narrative of the haunted house? He discovers an eerie ability—he can sense ghosts. Finding himself drawn into a murder mystery and a web of supernatural intrigue, Eric races against time to uncover the truth behind a series of untimely deaths.

A murder mystery meets horror fantasy, this compelling tale of love and redemption will send a chill down your spine with every twist and turn. A writer gets the help of a ghostwriter to write his book, only in his case and actual ghost who has a story to tell the world.

A novel of ordinary decent criminals and extraordinarily brutal cops weaving together and colliding inside the giant slum of ‘Dreamland’, within the megalopolis of Metro Manila, Philippines. A crime thriller with ordinary decent criminals and extraordinarily brutal cops weaving together and colliding inside the giant slum of this, ‘Dreamland’.

Clare is alone in her school’s tunnel walkway when a famous teenage stage actor strides into sight – and promptly disappears! Caught in an avalanche of supernatural incidents, she soon discovers that the actor, Gavin Lai, has become invisible. A magical tale of mystery and self-discovery, set in the 90s where ghosts of the past intertwine with the present. But, only Clare can see this handsome ghost!

A collection of stories that straddle genres such as horror, magic realism, metafiction, and science fiction, while stitching together elements from world mythology and folklore, Philippine history and society, and the Chinese-Filipino experience in a nightmarish version of Manila.

A collection of unpredictable stories of various genres–fantasy, sci-fi, horror, crime, and the supernatural, alternating between the everyday and the extraordinary. Singing Chinese antiquities. Ghosts that only one young man could sense. A house with a sentient A.I. that becomes a part of the family. A cricket that acts as a tragic voice of reason. A man born and bred for neural mass surveillance.

Diary of a Rich The Ghost of Mount Hantu||

Once you enter Mount Hantu, you may never leave … A summer camp at Mount Hantu turns
deadly when a vengeful ghost from a warring past haunts the campers. Before long, terrifying things begin to unravel. From a brush with death to the disappearance of a fellow camper, Mount Hantu seems more forbidding than ever. Robin must unravel the dark secret before it’s too late.

🎃🎃🎃

Found anything interesting? Get your copies today and keep a tab on our Instagram page for more spooky vibes this Halloween.

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Siege Within

Posted on September 24, 2024 by simransingh

The Siege Within is the untold story behind the political crime that continues to make world headlines, and why a nation so full of promise has been brought to its knees. Read an exclusive excerpt from the book below.

***

Two elements are critical in a bond swindle.

The first is securing the right coupon and the YTM rate.

In mid-April 2009, Jonathan Manifold, the head of risk management at AmBank, emailed the bank’s top management overseeing the planned TIA scheme to say he estimated the fair market YTM for the TIA bond issues at 4.72 per cent, based on the 4.72 per cent yield US Treasuries were fetching at the time, and by assigning a so-called 25 basis points spread. This would have roughly been the rate for any typical bond issue guaranteed by the Malaysian government.

But the TIA bond was a lot more. It was an elaborate exercise in fraud to siphon money and to use it to create a political slush fund for Najib. The rate Manifold had recommended would have been devastating for Project Tiara.

This was a huge problem. A higher coupon would be crucially beneficial for the plan to succeed. Never mind that the Malaysian taxpayer would have to pay a high annual rate of interest for the thirty-year bond. The overriding objective was to create conditions that would provide all the latitude for the schemers to structure the deal in ways that would allow them to squeeze money up front.

Manifold’s all-important email on the recommended rate for the TIA bonds quickly disappeared into the ether. AmBank’s Teng and Chan began arguing that the TIA bond proposal was far from being a typical government-backed bond issue.

Further, Teng and Chan had personally lined up four foreign parties that had expressed a keen interest in underwriting the bonds. The only notable name in the list was the BNP Paribas chapter based out of Singapore. The other three were:

Thailand-based Adkinson Securities, a listed financial outfit that was later renamed Country Group Securities, and which was controlled by the Taechaubol family;
Little known Shikumen Capital Management Ltd, which was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and had operations in Hong Kong; and
Aktis Capital Singapore, a financial advisory and fund management outfit headed by banker Cheah Teik Seng, who worked in the Malaysian Finance Ministry and was known to be close to Nor Mohamed.

Now, the second element for the swindle would kick in— the mode of issue for the bonds. Depending on the nature of the bonds issues and arrangers, financial advisors would suggest one of three routes—a Private Placement, a Book Building exercise, or a Bought Deal. A Private Placement by a little-known company known as TIA was likely to face some hurdles. The most obvious track would be Book Building, simply because the bonds would be in keen demand to investors as the papers carried a government guarantee. All AmBank had to do was to underwrite the amount that investors would not have taken up. But there was no money to be made in these two approaches. Low and his team of schemers then decided to cherry-pick elements from all three modes of issue to create a financial structure that would enable them to extract as much as possible from the bond issue upfront.

Project Tiara would apply a Bought Deal, which is usually utilized for cases involving high-yield papers, where the issuer’s credit standing is weak and a higher coupon is required to attract investors.

***

This is Malaysian journalist Leslie Lopez’s first book, and it delves into the writer’s own archives of previously unpublished material to go back in time and show exactly how it was possible for a Malaysian prime minister to envisage his treacherous crime, and then to execute the dastardly deed. Get your copy now.

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Global Citizen

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by simransingh

***

While learning from notable successes is helpful, and gleaning their advice from their interviews, books, podcasts, and so on can certainly help you, it is a one-way relationship that will never be as helpful as a real-life mentor. Finding good mentors is vital. Remember, learning and education are two very different things.

You need someone who knows you, cares about you, can give you constructive criticism, help you through your problems step by step, and most importantly, inspire and help you grow. You need to learn from someone who has been where you are now. I was lucky—my best mentors lived with me and were around me all the time, sharing their wisdom both directly and indirectly every moment of every day.

If you are not so lucky to be born into a family of inspiration, you can find influential mentors in your workplace or elsewhere. The best mentors are people who are where you want to be. If you are looking for a mentor at work, try searching for people at a level (or several levels) above you in the company. Ask yourself why you admire these people—is it their speed, their knowledge, their competence, the way they can gain the attention of a room?—and then ask them personally how they built up these skills independently.

Then, use their advice where possible and applicable. Do not let the hard work discourage you; apply their advice to grow, and soon you will find yourself at their level (perhaps even surpassing them).

The best mentors are successful in their careers because their time is used well, so be sure to make yourself worth their time. Consider buying them lunch or a drink and exchange ideas. Their mentorship is valuable, so make sure it is clear to them that you understand and respect its value. At the very least, thank them genuinely for their time.

***

Structured into three parts – Integrity, Empathy, and Self-Improvement– The Global Citizen delves into topics such as mentorship, resilience, personal values, and the balance between Eastern and Western cultures. Get your copy today.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Worship the Body

Posted on September 9, 2024 by simransingh

Told from different but interlocking points of view, Worship the Body is a story that becomes a song complete with recurring refrains and a coda, intimating that there are silences to the body that are essential to our understanding of happiness. Read an excerpt below.

***

Indeed, in restaurants like this, Jaime had never seen a table for one. Places like this never allow any accidents to happen. All the movements of the employees are measured. From the guard who would open the door for him, to the head waiter who would direct him to his table, to the waiter who would attend to him. And so, it took a while for the accident to happen. He gave his order after taking his time perusing the menu, even though he had already decided he would only have a drink. He thought slowly, with the menu before him, as though he was waiting for he knew not what. Finally, the beer arrived and it was set in front of him. That was when he thought he needed a glass. He wouldn’t drink the beer right out of the bottle. He wanted a ritual that evening.

He wasn’t looking to get drunk. He couldn’t get wasted because he was going to drive home. So, he asked for a glass. There was a ritual to the pouring of beer into the glass. Not like just quaffing it from the bottle.

That was when the accident happened. No glass shattered. No one slipped on the floor. No one threw up. No one choked. His eyes and the waiter’s met. Just like that. In that orderly restaurant that didn’t allow accidents, Jun’s and Jamie’s eyes met when Jun set before him the glass with ice in it because Jamie wanted a ritual that evening. He didn’t expect that someone would join him in his ritual in that restaurant that had no table for one. That was when Jaime understood that around him, it had become rare for people to look each other in the eye.

***

Hidden within a network of intimate relationships, Jaime, Jun, Ria, and Maya try to forge an extraordinary family in urban Manila, as they discover that secrets also have their own joys. Get a copy to read their stories.

WE BRING HOME TWO SINGAPORE BOOK AWARDS 2024, THIS YEAR!!

Posted on September 6, 2024 by simransingh

Leaders People Love by Yeo Chuen Chuen and The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow win at the Singapore Book Awards 2024

Singapore, 24th July 2024: Penguin Random House SEA (PRH SEA), one of the leading publishing houses in the region, is excited to announce that its publications Leaders People Love by Yeo Chuen Chuen and The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow won at the Singapore Book Awards 2024. Leaders People Love won Best Professional Title and The American Boyfriend won Best Marketing Campaign.

Leaders People Love features a host of accessible leadership lessons. Undergirded by a contemporary and relevant mindset, these strategies consistently yield excellent results and prove a point: becoming an effective and well-loved leader is possible if you know how.

The American Boyfriend is a page turning thriller about a forty-three-year-old single mother with a dead-end job in Southwark who goes to Florida to meet her long distance boyfriend. Everything that comes after makes her question her safety.

Talking about her big win, Yeo says, ‘It takes partnerships to make any book a success. I’m grateful to the team at Penguin Random House SEA, and the distributors for their advice and support. Most importantly, I’m thankful to my readers and leaders who support my cause to elevate leaders at every level. This Asian woman is on her way to change the world, one workplace at a time!’

Ivy shares her thoughts by saying, ‘All I wanted was for my book The American Boyfriend to find readers, and for them to find me. It seemed such a simple but unattainable aim: how would I as an individual reach a worldwide audience? And how would they know of me? Winning the Best Marketing Campaign in the Singapore Book Awards 2024 proved what we could, would and did achieve together as a team. The relentless efforts of Penguin’s publicity, PR, sales and marketing teams exceeded my expectations. I am forever grateful for their unbelievable hard work round the clock, and most of all belief in me and my book. As such, this Award is so much bigger than us. Guys, we made magic happen.’

Nora Nazarene Abu Bakar, Publisher, Penguin Random House SEA, is elated about the wins and says, ‘WE WON! WE WON! Singapore Book Awards awarded us Best Professional Title for Leaders People Love by Yeo Chuen Chuen and Best Marketing Campaign for The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow. Although optimistic, I did not think we would walk away with anything, so did not prepare any speech. I accepted the first award all dignified but for the second, I just went crazy when the winner was announced. Last year we won Best Professional Title and this year we’ve won it again. So maybe next year we’ll just submit for Best Professional Title.’ ‘Thank you first and foremost to our amazing author who has written about agile and authentic leadership to bring out the best leader in us. As a woman leader, I’m incredibly proud of this book because [Yeo] is an authentic Asian female voice, whose work is also read by people in the west, both men and women. After all, we’re all about bringing voices from this region out to the world. Thank you to the team at PRH SEA and to SBPA. And thank you to our distributors Times Distribution and Alkem.’

‘I really really really really wanted to win [Best Marketing Campaign] because it is high time we recognise that what happens after a book is published is just as important as what happens before.’

‘I’m not taking anything away from editors-you will always do great work. But nowadays, marketing is 50% if not 60% of what makes a book. So l urge all publishers to invest as much as you can in marketing. This is a sweet win.’

About Penguin Random House SEA

Penguin Random House SEA was established in 2018 to discover and publish local and international voices across English-language adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction formats for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, and Myanmar. As part of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, the newly established company is also dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers. Headquartered in Singapore, Penguin Random House SEA will bring the spotlight on local authors from the region and simultaneously open the Southeast Asian market to diverse international titles. In its first year of operations, the publishing house is bringing stories from across the region and publishing authors such as children’s writer Eva Wong from Singapore, Malaysian novelist Tunku Halim, award-winning author and journalist from the Philippines Criselda Yabes, Indonesian poet, essayist, and award-winning novelist and food writer Lakshmi Pamuntjak and author and journalist Akshita Nanda from Singapore, to name a few. 

New Books Releasing In September 2024

Posted on August 31, 2024 by simransingh

September has rolled in like a fresh breeze, bringing with it a feast of new releases that will have your TBR pile doing a happy dance. Think of it as a literary buffet where there’s something scrumptious for everyone—from heart-fluttering romances to mind-bending YA fantasy, non-fiction reads and beyond. This month’s book drop is sure to spice up your reading.

Here’s what’s hitting the shelves this September:

Little Lovely Lily

Written by Ahmad Rizaq, Little Lovely Lily is NOT your average love story. Lily, who has moved to the Netherlands is going through all the teenage angst. Amid the classroom cruelty and shattered teenage dreams, affairs with a supernatural twist add to Lily’s troubles as a local legend featuring an attractive ghost, known as the Heartbreaker, plagues the town. Lily ends up being haunted by the ghost, who alternates between terrorizing her and defending her against her enemies, forging a romantic, paranormal bond.

Cheese Donuts Are Most Definitely Not Subpar

Melly Sutjitro’s romance book is with a classic enemies-to-lovers trope that you will adore. 23-year-old Ellie volunteers to sit in as an acting chairperson of the PTA in place of her sister where she meets Dion, a condescending yet attractive PTA co-captain who criticizes everything she does, including her choice of donut. Between meetings and rehearsals, stolen kisses and an orchestrated PTA coup, they begin to realize that maybe they don’t despise each other’s guts.

The Global Citizen

The Global Citizen by international investor and philanthropist Patrick Tsang is a timely and relevant exploration of the cultural nuances that define the increasingly interconnected business world of the 21st century. By combining his unique perspective as a global citizen with personal experiences and lessons learned, Tsang offers readers valuable insights into the cross-cultural environment that governs feelings, beliefs, and actions in a globalised era.

The Siege Within

Written by Malaysian journalist Leslie Lopez, The Siege Within is his first book that delves into the writer’s own archives of previously unpublished material to go back in time and show exactly how it was possible for a Malaysian prime minister to envisage his treacherous crime, and then to execute the dastardly deed. It is the untold story behind the political crime that continues to make world headlines, and why a nation so full of promise has been brought to its knees.

Elven and The Puzzle Box

Written by Gwen Lee, Elven and The Puzzle Box is a story of an orphan girl who rises above discrimination to find love. Elven has eleven fingers, no parents, and a skin tone that hints at murky origins. One day, she receives a wooden Puzzle Box belonging to her late mother, and an intriguing letter promising her love, only if she solves the puzzle. This starts her long journey of ups and downs and big reveals.

Steady Sarah

Written by Justine Camacho-Tajonera, Steady Sarah is a moving story of self-discovery and self-realization. Sarah is responsible, mature, organized, and has her life all planned out until one day when everything turns upside down: her longtime boyfriend breaks up with her and she loses her job. This leads to her packing up her bags and going on an adventure to see the seven waterfalls all by herself.

Found something you love already? Keep an eye on our Instagram page to know when they come out.

Publish with us

Connect with us

Tag: reading list

New Books Releasing In January 2025

New Books Releasing In December 2024

New Reads for November

Books that will haunt your dreams if you skip reading them!

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Siege Within

Read an exclusive excerpt from The Global Citizen

Read an exclusive excerpt from Worship the Body

WE BRING HOME TWO SINGAPORE BOOK AWARDS 2024, THIS YEAR!!

Authors A-Z

Translators A-Z

Publish with us

Connect with us