Holidays. Year-end sales. Dinners and parties and turkeys and wine and pies. There’s only so much of this one can wallow in… Time for some simpler pleasures.

When was the last time you snuggled up in a comfy sofa chair with a really good book? Here are four from Malaysian authors, something different from the usual fantasy epics and chic-lit screaming from the local bookshelves these days…

Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan
You know him, you know you do.

They call him a gentleman before our time, if indeed this is our time and not something else entirely. A gentler era, or so the author may lull us kindly into believing (and for that we are grateful, for these days of cynicism are tiresome and tiring to the simple souls in us), when race and racism were just matter-of-fact and less buzzwords to be frightened of.

A time when we were Ali, Ah Keong and Muthu because we were different and quite happily so; a time before muhibbah became synonymous with political correctness. These days, we are Alex, Christopher and Kelvin — we are international now, we blend in, or do we?

Dato’ Hamid is not politically correct. He’s a civil servant of the old school, an innocent snob with a European wife, wily Chinese businessmen for allies (sort of), and the Ayatollah (a local politician) for a son (much to the Dato’s eternal dismay). He’s also the most generous and hilarious character I’ve had the fortune to come across all year long.

Now, if only I could laugh this hard at the state of things in Malaysia of late…

I Am Muslim by Dina Zaman
Reading this book may not change your view of How Things Are in Muslim Malaysia, but it feels as though it should. The fact that there are still arguments over whether there is a need to proclaim a Muslim Malaysia or whether that is simply redundant tells me there is still much for us to share and learn and understand.

I always thought I was more in the groove of things than most of my Chinese friends, some who have become so segregated from the populace; I had Malay friends, after all, even after I left school and university. That counted for something, didn’t it?

Yet I’m discovering even the Muslim Malays in this country may not understand each other that well themselves. My Malay friends tend to be more urban, strapped with tertiary educations and fancy apartments and imported cars. Much like my other friends, regardless of race. Perhaps we are the Fourth Race, the urbanites whom the other races misunderstand and look upon with suspicion.

Still, this book is both prayer and hope above all else, that we want to learn about each other, and that we will make the first move. Won’t we?

Tanah Tujuh by Antares
I have met Antares only once (I had the good fortune of being in the same line-up as him at one of the “Readings” earlier this year) but what struck me about the man were two things: (1) How passionate he was about his causes and beliefs, and how articulate and intelligent his delivery of his ideas; and (2) How very cool he was.

Antares has taken the path less travelled. Far, far less travelled. One could call him a Bohemian, traversing the globe in his early days as an actor, musician and journalist… but for the past fifteen years, he has been the citizen of a much smaller world; he’s escaped the maddening crowds of the Big City for the opportunity of living closer to nature, cohabiting the same sacred space as the aboriginal peoples of our jungles (their lands, by heritage, no?), the Temuan.

This is not his story so much as the story of the myths and daily lives (and realities) of the Temuan, a people who may be well on the path of extinction by way of absorption and seduction by the Modern Life. This is his documentation of their struggle, perhaps the only record of their joys and sorrows before they are swallowed whole by The Civilised Society, before they are gone for good. Yet…

Never underestimate the power of beliefs which may be myths but may also be realities. There is magic in the river…

News From Home by Chua Kok Yee, Shih-Li Kow & Rumaizah Abu Bakar
A tricky venture, this. Not a typical collection of short stories by a single author, nor a full anthology by a spectrum of different writers. No, here we have three distinct voices, ten tales a piece.

Here we find stories that writhe and twist with malignancy and an appetite for vengeance, stories that trip the light surrealistic, stories tender and wounded, stories of lovelovelove (but carefully unsentimental). This is like a three-course meal, with different flavours and meats and spices; three chefs vying to satisfy you the Reader. O but how well do these suppings come together!

A few highlights: A madman meets his match in a ever-patient, ever-tolerant asylum guard in Merdeka. Quiet wisdom and karma in Peach Blossom Luck. But it was the Singles’ Honeymoon that caught the romantic in me. Taste this, the tales are fine…