PODCAST · arts
By The Book
by BFM Media
We’re on, when you’re off. Lee Chwi Lynn, Kelvin Yee and Tasha Fusil restore sanity to your day even as you’re stuck in traffic trying to get home. And who isn’t? Tune in as they take on hot-potato issues to inform and entertain you, soundtracked by the thumping music that only BFM plays. EE runs the gamut, bringing you noteworthy pop culture, punchy interviews, and rocking call-in sessions.
Episodes
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By the Book: Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon, with Wole Talabi
In his debut novel, speculative fiction writer Wole Talabi draws on Yoruba mythology to tell an adventure story that spans space and time. At the heart of the tale is Shigidi, a disgruntled nightmare god who partners up with Nneoma, a succubus with a mysterious past. Together, they find…
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By the Book: Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato Hamid Adventures
15 years on from its first successful run, Kam Raslan's Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato Hamid Adventures has been reissued, with a brand new look, and a previously unpublished story. We speak to Kam about the appeal and delight of writing about Dato Hamid and in his unique voice and what it…
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By the Book: Writer's Postcards, by Dipika Mukherjee
Bringing together her love for writing with her love for travel and discovering new cultures, Dipika Mukherjee's Writer's Postcards is a collection of essays spanning decades that capture her observations of the world. Part travelogue and part memoir, the book brings the personal, the political,...
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By the Book: Book Club December 2023 - Bone Weight and Other Stories
For our last Book Club of the year, we're both reading something we're very excited about: Shih-Li Kow's Bone Weight and Other Stories. This cross-genre collection of 25 short stories explore relationships and periods of transition, and is populated with complex characters. We discuss how the...
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By the Book: Writing Salleh Ben Joned
Salleh Ben Joned has been described in many ways - maverick poet, bad boy of Malaysian literature, innovator of language, and by some detractors, even anti-Malaysian. Since his passing in 2020, there have been a number of attempts to memorialise him and capture his legacy, and "Salleh Ben Joned -...
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By the Book: George Town Literary Festival 2023
GTLF is back, and this year the theme is Terra Incognita! We speak to Pauline Fan and Adriana Nordin Manan about the curatorial process this year, how the festival has expanded beyond panels and conversations, and what unknown territories they're hoping to explore. And then in Footnotes, they…
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By the Book: Malaysian Tamil Literature
In this episode, we explore Malaysian Tamil writing - both the rich tradition that exists here, but also the challenges in nurturing the scene and garnering a wider readership. We’re joined by Mannar Mannan Maruthai, who gives us an introduction to the scene, and shares recommendations, including...
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By the Book: Children's Book Club - The Giver
As Children's Day in Malaysia is traditionally celebrated every last Saturday of October, we're celebrating children's literature this entire month, by doing a Book Club with a different child every week. In this episode, we're joined by 14-year-old Lily Lau, whose choice is the Newbery...
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By the Book: Children's Book Club - The Magic Faraway Tree
As Children's Day in Malaysia is traditionally celebrated every last Saturday of October, we're celebrating children's literature this entire month, by doing a Book Club with a different child every week. In this episode, we're joined by 8-year-old Declan Goh, whose pick is a perennial favourite…
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By the Book: Children's Book Club - Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone
As Children's Day in Malaysia is traditionally celebrated every last Saturday of October, we're celebrating children's literature this entire month, by doing a Book Club with a different child every week. In this episode, we're joined by 10-year-old Lana Sofia Pointon, who suggested we talk about...
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By the Book: Children's Book Club - Mistborn: The Final Empire
With Children's Day in Malaysia traditionally celebrated every last Saturday of October, we're dedicating this entire month to what kids and young people are reading. Every week this October, we're doing a Book Club with a different child (or young person!) and asking them to share their current...
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By the Book: Children's Book Club - Gangsta Granny
With Children's Day in Malaysia traditionally celebrated every last Saturday of October, we're dedicating this entire month to what kids and young people are reading. Every week this October, we're doing a Book Club with a different child, asking them to share with us their current favourite…
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By the Book: Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation
Set in a newly post-colonial Singapore, The Great Reclamation blends genres (historical fiction, fantastical elements) to tell the story of a country through the choices of one man - Ah Boon. Beginning with his life growing up in a fishing village, blessed with the gift (or curse) of finding...
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By the Book: The Booker 2023 Longlist Book Club
With the Booker Prize 2023 shortlist just around the corner, we took a spin on the quiz helpfully laid out on the official website, and were recommended a pair of books to explore from the longlist: Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You, a novel told through short vignettes, exploring a young…
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By the Book: The Second Link
With 2023 marking the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, its complex connection with Singapore over the decades feels ever more relevant to examine. The Second Link, an anthology featuring short stories by writers from both countries, engages with and unpacks this…
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By The Book: BookXcess
We continue our spotlight on local bookstores by looking at a crowd favourite this week - BookXcess, popular for their affordable books, unique store concepts, and of course the Big Bad Wolf book fair. We hear from them about why making books as widely accessible as possible is an integral part…
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By The Book: Readings KL
For the last 18 years, Readings KL has been running (almost) every month - featuring 6 readers each time, and a dedicated community of literary enthusiasts. We speak to its long-time organiser Sharon Bakar, and current host Sumitra Selvaraj, about the joys and challenges of keeping it all…
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By The Book: Book Club August 2023 - The Fifth Season
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, the first in the Broken Earth series, created a sensation when it came out in 2015, including getting a Hugo Award. Set on a planet with a single supercontinent called the Stillness, the inhabitants face a "fifth season" of catastrophic climate change - amidst...
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By The Book: Sunda Shelves
A newly opened bookshop in Damansara Kim, Sunda Shelves is a cosy space that celebrates nature and conservation, and mixes fiction and non-fiction, as well as new and secondhand books. We discuss the inspiration for the bookshop, how it came to be, and the community it's building. Image Credit:...
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By The Book: How Is AI Changing What We Read?
With AI-generated content and ChatGPT creating anxiety in various industries, we discuss how it might potentially change books - from the potential for books written entirely by AI to what this means for how people in the publishing field are paid for their work. We close off the conversation by...
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By the Book: Two Book Nerds Talking
If you're wondering what the podcast Two Book Nerds Talking (TBNT) is about, well, it really is all in the title. Born out of a mutual love for reading, the Malaysian literary podcast was started by Diana Yeong and Honey Ahmad, and has since grown to have a loyal following. Meanwhile, we're…
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By the Book: Book Club July 2023 - A Flutter in the Colony
A family story that's also the tale in some ways of newly independent Bengal, and a pre-independence Malaya, A Flutter in the Colony is the debut novel of Sandeep Ray, whose short story 'Eggs' won the Hanif Kureishi Writing Competition in 2023. We discuss our impressions of the novel, and its...
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By the Book: Tan Twan Eng's The House Of Doors
Award-winning Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's third novel has just arrived on the shelves amidst a lot of anticipation, and it certainly takes on a lofty task: The House of Doors fictionalises, among others, renowned author William Somerset Maugham and revolutionary Chinese statesman Sun Yat Sen,...
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By the Book: A Celebration of Buying (And Renting) Secondhand Books
Joy of Books is a platform that allows folks to rent books online, while Bookaholics Anonymous is a shop that began life as a bookcrossing initiative, before morphing into an affordable secondhand bookstore. We speak with Carol Low, who runs both platforms, about her drive to get more Malaysians...
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By the Book: A Perspective on American Literature
In conjunction with the 4th of July, we're diving deep into American literature, to discuss what makes it unique, and the writers (both classic and contemporary) that have shaped it. We also talk about some of the themes and preoccupations that American authors have explored, and how that has...
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By the Book: Memoirs
Writing a book about one's life can be a finely calibrated balancing act - revealing emotional truths and vulnerability, while telling an interesting, well-written story, all without giving too much of yourself up. In this episode, we explore some of our favourite memoirs and discuss what sets…
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By the Book: The Art Of Translation
Book translators often have their work cut out for them - not only do they have to be writers themselves, they also serve as the interpreters of another writer’s ideas, and a valuable bridge for readers to access literature from other languages. We speak with translator Fahmi Mustaffa about the...
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By The Book: Audiobooks
Audiobooks have increasingly come into their own, in some cases as popular with readers as “reading”. We speak with the homegrown Nusantara Audiobooks about how they create books to be listened to, and how they’re trying to both promote and preserve local literature. See omnystudio.com/listener…
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By the Book: Book Club June 2023 - American Born Chinese
Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese was released to a lot of acclaim, including being a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards. It weaves three separate stories together: that of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, a coming-of-age tale of a first generation American, Jin Wang, and lastly that of...
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By the Book: Book Club May 2023 - Victory City
Written before the attempt on Salman Rushdie's life earlier this year, but released after, Victory City is an oddly prescient book that's also one of the most interesting of Rushdie's long career. Framed as a fictional translation of the epic history of the Bisnagan empire, it is also ostensibly...
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By the Book: Saras Manickam on My Mother Pattu
Saras Manickam’s debut book is a collection written over nearly two decades, and features her 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize-winning entry as the titular story. In the anthology, flawed but authentic characters span the decades in a Malaysian setting, as Saras explores both intimate…
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By the Book: The Beauty and Challenges of Mapmaking
Many fantasy and science-fiction novels begin with maps of the lands in which they're set. And this does a few things: it gives the reader a sense of scope, it welcomes us into the landscape of the story, and frankly, they're often very beautiful to look at. But what about the work that goes into...
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By the Book: Mothers in Literature
One of the biggest catalysts in any story, and yet also one of the most underrated characters, mothers have always had a strong presence in literature and non-fiction. In this episode ahead of Mother's Day, we discuss some of our favourite mothers in books, including classics, literary fiction…
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By the Book: Trilogies And Series
Stories that span more than one book - whether a duology, a trilogy or a series - can either be exciting or daunting, depending on the kind of reader you are. We discuss our evolving relationships with this type of storytelling, and talk about whether we're completists or comfortable abandoning a...
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By the Book: Book Club April 2023 - The Trial
Franz Kafka's The Trial, written between 1914 and 1915, and published posthumously in 1925, tells the story of a man arrested for an unnamed crime and then forced to navigate an impossible legal and bureaucratic system to prove his innocence. Celebrated as an incisive allegory of how an…
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By the Book: Books n Bobs
Having started selling books on Facebook in 2016, Rachel Ang expanded Books n Bobs to a full-blown website and even a physical store. We talk to her about how it all came to be, and how to sell secondhand books online in a way that readers want and appreciate. And then, on Footnotes, we discuss…
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By the Book: Nadia Mikail Wins The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize
Malaysian writer Nadia Mikail recently hit the headlines when she was announced the winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize as well as the older readers’ category, for her debut book, The Cats We Meet Along The Way - a tale of a Malaysian family that goes on a road trip as the wait for…
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By the Book: Book Club March 2023 - Cursed Bunny
Korean author Bora Chung’s collection of short stories has been garnering praise for its critique of patriarchy and capitalism, while also blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science fiction. We review the book and talk about whether it effectively uses the short story form.…
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By the Book: Books to Read Before You Die
Once you start looking, they're everywhere - website after website, publication after publication, it feels like everyone's got a definitive list of books that you simply have to read before you shuffle off this mortal coil. But what's the value of these lists anyway? Are they just book snobbery?...
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By the Book: Brickfields We See You
Brickfields We See You is a new zine that explores Brickfields through writing, illustrations and photos - and in this episode, we speak with one of its creators, Adriana Noordin Manan, about why she wanted to put this together, and what the whole process was like. And in a broader sense, we also...
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By the Book: International Women's Day And How to #EmbraceEquity In Publishing
In line with the theme for 2023's International Women's Day - #EmbraceEquity - we look at book publishing, and what needs to happen to reach gender equity within the field on all levels. We speak with Flavia Alves Bravin, board member of PublisHer, a community of female publishing leaders who…
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By the Book: Book Club February 2023 - Prince Harry's Spare
Spare, the much-anticipated autobiography by Prince Harry (ghost-written by J.R. Moehringer), arrived with a flurry of press coverage, all breathlessly focused on snippets of the book, including a physical confrontation with his brother, and anecdotes about his nether regions. But the book itself...
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By the Book: Lime Pickled And Other Stories, By Marc De Faoite
In his second collection of short stories set in Malaysia, Marc de Faoite tells intimate, empathetic stories about people and communities who often go unheard. We speak to him about how his 15 years living in Malaysia inspired so much of his writing, and why he was drawn to telling stories that...
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By the Book: Historical Figures In Fiction
Historical figures have always offered many storytelling avenues, allowing writers to explore not only major events, settings and societies in the past, but also to explore human emotions and fallacies - ultimately, bringing us closer to people from history, who can otherwise feel remote or...
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By the Book: Daryl Kho's Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa
Inspired by Daryl Kho's personal experience with his father's dementia, Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa is a middle-grade fantasy about a little girl, Alexis, who sets off on a magical quest into a secret land to save her grandfather's shattered memories. We speak to Daryl about the fantasy...
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By the Book: Book Club January 2023 - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
The winner of the 2022 Booker Prize, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, tells the story of the titular character, a 'war photographer, gambler, and closet queen'. Or more specifically, the story of Maali Almeida after his sudden death in Colombo in 1990, when he has seven...
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By the Book: Mahua Literature
This week, we dive into Malaysian literature in Chinese, or Mahua literature, by talking about how it originated, the way it's evolved, and its complex place within both Malaysian and global literatures. We close off the conversation with a series of recommendations from our guest, Dr Florence…
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By the Book: What We Read In 2022
To kick off the New Year, we revisit our favourite reads of 2022, which ran the gamut from dystopia, fantasy, and mythology to historical fiction and social commentary. To close off, in Footnotes, we make reading resolutions for the upcoming year. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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By the Book: Tale Of The Dreamer's Son by Preeta Samarasan
Preeta Samarasan's second novel is set in Malaysia post May 13, 1969, where a group of people settle down in a secluded mansion in Cameron Highlands, eschewing labels of race and religion, and hoping to remain apart from the country's changing political climate with its increasing religious...
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By the Book: Between the Lines
Increasingly, newsletters have become a way for writers to publish their thoughts and writings, and send it directly into readers' inboxes. We speak to Darshini Kandasamy, CEO of Between the Lines, which describes itself as 'a daily email that summarises the main Malaysian news you need to know,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
We’re on, when you’re off. Lee Chwi Lynn, Kelvin Yee and Tasha Fusil restore sanity to your day even as you’re stuck in traffic trying to get home. And who isn’t? Tune in as they take on hot-potato issues to inform and entertain you, soundtracked by the thumping music that only BFM plays. EE runs the gamut, bringing you noteworthy pop culture, punchy interviews, and rocking call-in sessions.
HOSTED BY
BFM Media
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does By The Book have?
By The Book currently has 232 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is By The Book about?
We’re on, when you’re off. Lee Chwi Lynn, Kelvin Yee and Tasha Fusil restore sanity to your day even as you’re stuck in traffic trying to get home. And who isn’t? Tune in as they take on hot-potato issues to inform and entertain you, soundtracked by the thumping music that only BFM plays. EE runs...
How often does By The Book release new episodes?
By The Book publishes regularly with 232 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to By The Book?
You can listen to By The Book on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts By The Book?
By The Book is created and hosted by BFM Media.
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