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I am six books into March (like I said, a slow reading period for me), but so far they’ve been well chosen books I think. It’s also a book whose ideas were slightly more compelling to me than the prose style, which was appropriately spare. It is deeply humane, dreamy and remorseless. It is an inevitable ending – there is no possible survival, and so the novel follows how individual members of this last community faces the extinction of the species. Nevil Shute On the Beach I haven’t quite read anything like this speculative dystopia before – set in 1960s Australia (published in 1957), the premise is that an unspecified nuclear disaster triggered by a world war has taken out the entirety of humanity, and the nuclear “cloud” is now moving towards humanity’s remaining survivors in Australia. Anyway, these letters represent many of the theological aspects of Christianity which I am drawn to, including the importance of physical ritual in maintaining one’s relationship with God, the rhythms and seasons of faith, the natural pleasures and delights which are like a tuning fork to our better natures. I had to keep reversing vice and virtue in my brain, and reminding myself this is a satire (perhaps this is an insight into my own moral positioning!). Lewis The Screwtape LettersThese letters from a senior to a junior devil took a bit of getting used to, because it assumes the reader has a certain moral positioning and knowledge. It’s bloody and fast paced, was endorsed by the then Sultan of Brunei, and is also significant for being the first Bruneian novel (1951).Ĭ.S. Yura Halim Mahkota Yang Berdarah This short, action-packed Bruneian classic was my first Malay read of the year, and I’m glad I have read it now! This historical novel kicks off with the cock-fighting incident that spirals into civil war, and then covers both individual scenes and families and is frank about the cost of war to civilians.
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In Feb I read 9 books – the most notable three were: February was a very slow reading month for me, and March is turning out the same, but I’m enjoying taking my time with certain reads (case in point, I’m about 150 pages in to a 500 epic).