Bfm :: Bookmark

This week, Uma sits down with one of his favourite authors - Mary Roach - for an enlightening discussion about her book "Grunt" which examines everything that happens to our bodies and our minds when we subject our fragile selves to war.

This week on Bookmark, Uma welcomes back author and poet Bernice Chauly for deep dive into her brand new novel "Once We Were There", it's inspirations in Malaysia's Reformasi period, and why it's important we tell these dirty, sexy, gritty stories about Kuala Lumpur.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to author Nicholas Rankin about Ian Fleming's most remarkable contribution to this world… no… not James Bond… But rather a special commando unit - a small group of intelligence-gathering raiders - who would attack and plunder targeted German establishment and "pinch" anything that that might be useful for the war effort. They were called 30 Assault Unit and they were instrumental in defeating the Third Reich in the final days of World War 2.

James Joyce's magnum opus is right up there with the likes of Moby Dick and War and Peace - not just for being a great work of literature, but also for being an impossibly difficult read. This week, on Bookmark, special guest Dr. Derek Hand tries his best to convince Uma to give James Joyce's Ulysses another chance.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to author Susanna Hislop about her book Stories in the Stars: An Atlas of Constellations, about the night sky, about the stars, and about what they tell us about our selves.

This week, on Bookmark, author and historian Andrew Barber tells Uma the rather tragic and dramatic story of Doris Van der Straaten - an Australian citizen, the wife of a Malayan Eurasian, World War II prisoner-of-war, and the eventual mistress of the Japanese Army’s Western Garrison commander in Kuala Lumpur during the Occupation of Malaya.

This week, Uma speaks to Malaysian author Sreedhevi Iyer about her first collection of short fiction - Jungle Without Water and Other Stories.

This week, Uma welcomes bestselling author Kevin Kwan to talk about his latest book - the third and final part of his "Crazy Rich Asians" trilogy - "Rich People Problems."

This week, Uma welcomes guest reviewer Azura Rahman for a conversation about the third - and final - book in Kevin Kwan's rich Asian trilogy: "Rich People Problems."

If you were the child of indulgent parents in the early 90s the struggle - the war - was real. Sega or Nintendo? Sonic or Mario? Game Gear or Game Boy? Before iOS and Android. Before Apple and Samsung. It was Sega and Nintendo that were fighting for your hearts and minds. This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to Blake Harris about his book "Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation" that chronicles the history of this remarkable rivalry.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma geeks out with author Jeff Ryan about the life and times of Super Mario, about how he grew past his humble beginnings as the nameless protagonist of an unknown arcade game to his current status as the unlikely face of the world’s biggest game company.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to Singaporean author Balli Kaur Jaswal about her brand new book "Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows" and why it isn't nearly as filthy as the title implies.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to debut author Angie Thomas about her masterful meditation on race and violence in America: "The Hate U Give".

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to author Nicholas Reynolds about his brand new book, "Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures", in which he uncovers a rather startling revelation - that before the second world war, Ernest Hemingway was recruited as a spy by both the Americans as well as the Soviets.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to Nancy Perloff - musicologist, art historian, and curator at the Getty Research Institute - about music, and performance, and provocation.

This week on Bookmark, Uma speaks to former BFM-er Natalie Sia about her first book, Alexa: A Mother’s Journey of Love, Loss, and Hope, which chronicles the story of how she coped with the loss of her first child.

This week, Uma speaks to special guest - international bestselling author - Sophie Kinsella about the secrets behind compelling chick-lit.

The Quiet Slave: A History in Eight Episodes is a piece of historical fiction that is based on the lives of the Cocos Malays and describes the first years of settlement on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a tiny atoll midway between Perth and Sri Lanka. The story is told through the eyes of a female slave in the possession of Alexander Hare. This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to poet and author John Mateer about his various literary projects, including this remarkable story of a race of people once exiled on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

What does our Malaysian future look like? How do our local visions of what's to come stack up against everything we've read from the Western canon? This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to UKM lecturer Dr. Shahizah Ismail Hamdan about the state of science fiction literature in Malaysia.

This week, on Bookmark, Uma speaks to Australian author Jaqueline Harvey about her best-selling Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose series of books for children.