A coming-of-age story set in 1950s Singapore, written with photorealistic clarity. Skinny and his friends grow up in a self-sufficient kampong along an unnamed road. Reading about their lives, a distinctive character of their long-gone childhood and of Singapore emerges—raw from a recently concluded war, alive with student riots and social movements. Among the themes explored by the narrator is one of change, such as the transition from rural to urban living and the role of women in a developing society, as if inevitably the road must lead to it. Stories of love, death and forgiveness line the unnamed road at the heart of life in the kampong. Reader Reviews “This is a local book that should be of interest to Westerners because it's such a well told story. This is really one of the first works I've read that didn't have an assumption that Singapore's history is of interest to the rest of the world. This book simply had an unassuming way of speaking about childhood while navigating through an interesting period in time. The writer had such wonderful discipline at keeping perspective and wrestling the story down to size, at delivering a really well-shaped tale that has a lot of universal resonance and local affection. David Leo had a really deft hand.” — Fran Lebowitz “Cherry Days is a very ambitious, and largely very effective, contained novel that is essentially set on one stretch of an unnamed road. The setting is one of the real strengths of the book... a coming-of-age fiction set in the Singapore of the 1950s that effectively creates a mood of nostalgia. There is an elegiac quality to Skinny's story about his long-gone childhood in the kampong, even as the book explores parallel developments in history, especially the changing role of women. The attention to detail in recreating the location and some strong characters are notable highlights. David Leo writes with a simplicity and clarity that works to bolster the essential tone of the narrative.” — Shoba Viswanathan “The unassuming, deceptively simple prose of Cherry Days belies its big-hearted, emotional core, from which the characters are vividly, lovingly and empathetically drawn. The book draws the readers in steadily, keeping them enthralled in the bucolic kampong life and shenanigans of its inhabitants. Yet, layer by layer, it peels away the patina of innocence, revealing the loss and poignancy that comes with growing up. Cherry Days is a treasure trove of precious memories and epitomes of neighbourly love.” —William Phuan, managing director of The Select Centre “Cherry Days appeals with nostalgia and a familiar sense of community. The straightforward prose imparts with affection defining moments and memories of youth and family.” —Tan Mei Ching, writer of novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, plays, children’s books
This book compares the thought of Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss, bringing Oakeshott’s desire for a renaissance of poetic individuality into dialogue with Strauss’s recovery of the universality of philosophical enlightenment. Starting from the conventional understanding of these thinkers as important voices of twentieth-century conservatism, McIlwain traces their deeper and more radical commitments to the highpoints of human achievement and their shared concerns with the fate of traditional inheritances in modernity, the role and meaning of history, the intention and meaning of political philosophy, and the problem of politics and religion. The book culminates in an articulation of the positions of Oakeshott and Strauss as part of the quarrel of poetry and philosophy, revealing the ongoing implications of their thinking in terms of the profound spiritual and political questions raised by modern thinkers such as Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger and leading back to foundational figures of Western civilization including St. Augustine and Socrates.
Three wishes, a lifetime's worth of regrets. Leo's had some bad luck in his life. After his father walked out on him and his mom, they've been struggling to make end's meet, not to mention any hope of saving for college. But after finding the perfect replacement for a lost family heirloom for his Mother's Day gift, Leo discovers it's actually a magic genie lamp. Presented with three wishes that could give him everything he's ever wanted, Leo soon realizes that genies have justly earned their reputation for twisting wishes to other ends. What he thought he wanted isn't all it's cracked up to be. And now that he's already used all his wishes, there's no turning back.
Since well before Henry Morgan Stanley's fabled encounter with David Livingstone on the shore on Lake Tanganyika in the late 19th century and his subsequent collaboration with King Leopold of Belgium in looting the country of its mineral wealth, the Congo's history has been one of collaboration by a minority with, and struggle by the majority against, Western intervention. Before the colonial period, there were military struggles against annexation. During Belgian rule, charismatic religious figures emerged, promising an end to white domination; copper miners struck for higher wages; and rural workers struggled for survival. During the second half of the 20th century, the Congo's efforts at disentanglement from Belgian rule, the murder of the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba and the long dictatorship of General Mobutu culminated in one of the bloodiest wars the world has ever seen. At the start of a new millennium, this book argues that the West has plundered Africa to its own advantage and that unrestrained global capitalism threatens to remake the entire world, bringing violence and destruction in the name of profit. In this radical history, the authors show not only how the Congo represents and symbolises the continent's long history of subordination, but also how the determined struggle of its people has continued, against the odds, to provide the Congo and the rest of Africa with real hope for the future.
Go beyond the same old descriptive astrology with David Pond's in-depth guide to using the stars to improve all of your relationships. Astrology & Relationships addresses the complexities of real relationships by revealing the essential nature, needs, strengths, and challenges of each sign. Explore unique exercises to help you manifest the true potential of your relationships. Discover ideas and techniques that have been tried, tested, and refined so that they're easy to integrate into daily living. Drawing on experiences and knowledge the author has gained from working with thousands of people, this book presents a program that has been proven to work, not just in theory, but also in real life.
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