Category: Eat + Read
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Doing Author-Type Things
As the publication date of my novel looms ever closer (August 2013), one of the things people have asked about is if I am going on a tour. “What sort of tour?” I said, wondering if I could possibly repeat the first and last time I joined a real sight-seeing…
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Embracing Your Inner Auntie (or Uncle)
I have now reached the age when I am regularly addressed as “auntie”. Widely used across Asia to refer to a middle-aged lady, this is supposedly a term of respect – or is it?
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Self Control is Good for You
Since the arrival of our children, my husband has been steadily pushing a variety of child-rearing books on me. Thoughtful, interesting books like Po Bronson’s Nurture Shock, and Brain Rules for Baby. Unfortunately, I haven’t read any of them.
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I Want a Handsome Butler
I’ve been thinking very hard about my priorities, and have finally come to the conclusion that what I really, really want is a handsome butler.
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The Long Winter of Beans
I was preparing to write something serious and literary when I happened to weigh myself this morning. To my horror, I discovered that I had mysteriously gained several pounds overnight. I rushed out to confront my husband.
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Childhood Books that Frightened You
The other night, I was up reading a Japanese manga that was loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I don’t know whether it was the lateness of the hour or the fact that the story seemed much more horrific rendered as a black and white graphic novel,…
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City of Djinns
One of the most petrifying driving experiences I had was on a highway in India, when a rapidly approaching dust cloud turned out to be a truck hurtling towards us on the wrong side of the highway. Dumbstruck, I gripped the seat in front of me, but our driver merely swerved…
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The Charms of Liverwurst and Crickets
When I first arrived in America, I was so pleased that I could read all the signs that were in English that it never occurred to me that the average American would not have heard of Enid Blyton. I was thunderstruck. One of the bastions of literature for small children in…
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What Do You Eat When You’re Reading?
Reading and eating are two of my favourite activities. In combination they can be sublime–or deadly. As a child, I almost choked to death while gnawing on a salted apricot. I was lying on the floor, reading a book, when I rolled over to turn the page. At that moment,…
