BOOK REVIEW: LETTERS TO SINGAPORE (2022) — INDIAN GIRLS ARE MEANT FOR MORE THAN ARRANGED MARRIAGES

GABY RUSLI WRITES — We all carry the power to take charge of our destinies and choices. Empowerment of oneself and those around us is the key to unlocking this power. In Letters to Singapore (2022), author Kelly Kaur tells the story of Simran, a twenty-year-old Indian-Singaporean girl who narrowly escapes an arranged marriage by…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: LETTERS TO SINGAPORE (2022) — INDIAN GIRLS ARE MEANT FOR MORE THAN ARRANGED MARRIAGES

BOOK REVIEW: WEASELS IN THE ATTIC (2022) BY HIROKO OYAMADA – WHAT’S HIDING IN THE DARK?

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – The “perfect suburban life” is pretty simple in theory: get married, buy a house, and have children. Invite your neighbors over. Take up a hobby – like raising exotic fish. Yet, this seemingly picturesque ideal of marital bliss is scrutinized in Japanese storyteller…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: WEASELS IN THE ATTIC (2022) BY HIROKO OYAMADA – WHAT’S HIDING IN THE DARK?

BOOK REVIEW: COUNTERFEIT (2022) BY KIRSTEN CHEN – HOUSEWIFE TURNS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Kirsten Chen’s latest novel, Counterfeit (2022), follows Ava Wong – a straight-edge Chinese-American lawyer shackled to an agonizingly mundane routine of house chores and taking care of her maddening infant, Henri, who cannot seem to cease his daily tantrums. Married to a successful yet always…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: COUNTERFEIT (2022) BY KIRSTEN CHEN – HOUSEWIFE TURNS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND

BOOK REVIEW: IF I HAD YOUR FACE (2020) BY FRANCES CHA – BEAUTY AND WOMANHOOD IN SOUTH KOREA

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — South Korea, often referred to as the ‘plastic surgery capital of the world,’ is a place where it’s not only typical but expected for young women to have double eyelid surgery before they hit thirty. Jaw slimming, skin lasering, destructive dieting – these radical approaches…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: IF I HAD YOUR FACE (2020) BY FRANCES CHA – BEAUTY AND WOMANHOOD IN SOUTH KOREA

BOOK REVIEW: FAMILY ROOM (2010) BY LILY YULIANTI FARID — THE MANY FACES OF A FAMILY UNRAVELED

GABY RUSLI WRITES (in an on-going series of reviews of Indonesian classics) — A grandfather who seeks to marry off his granddaughters to his wealthy friends for connections. A young, successful model who suffered the consequences of her early success. A Chinese-Indonesian family was left with the scars and traumas…

Full Article BOOK REVIEW: FAMILY ROOM (2010) BY LILY YULIANTI FARID — THE MANY FACES OF A FAMILY UNRAVELED

RUSSIA: MARVEL’S “BLACK WIDOW” PUTS A NEW SPIN ON FEMINISM

KIANA KARIMI WRITES — A flickering light, screams of famished, sleep-deprived young girls inside tightly-packed crates, armed men ripping victims from each other’s arms, their innocence slowly stripped away in a twisted, torturous cycle of violence… A chilling rendition of Nirvana’s hit 90’s song “Teenage Spirit” creeps through the screen…

Full Article RUSSIA: MARVEL’S “BLACK WIDOW” PUTS A NEW SPIN ON FEMINISM

KOREA: ARE WOMEN’S RIGHTS, NORTH AND SOUTH, AN OPEN BOOK ON THE LITERARY LANDSCAPE?

ANDREA PLATE WRITES  — This year, the best-selling North Korean novel Friend was translated into English and approved for publication in the US by the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea – a first in that nation’s history. Immanuel Kim, 42, professor of Korean Literature and Culture Studies at George…

Full Article KOREA: ARE WOMEN’S RIGHTS, NORTH AND SOUTH, AN OPEN BOOK ON THE LITERARY LANDSCAPE?