World's Longest Journey on Skates
Khoo Swee Chiow
Singapore: Angsana Books, 2009
ISBN: 9789814193696

Not content with scaling the highest mountains in the world and achieving other superhuman feats, Singaporean adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow undertakes another challenge: to set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on skates. This book chronicles his 94 days on the road, skating more than 6,000 kilometres from Hanoi to Singapore. Swee Chiow's adventure takes him over rivers, through chaotic city traffic, across steep and remote mountain passes and villages in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Part travelogue, part adventure diary, World's Longest Journey on Skates gives us an insight into the conquering mindset of Southeast Asia's greatest adventurer.

Wartime Kitchen: Food and eating in Singapore 1942-1950
Wong Hong Suen
Singapore: Editions Didier Millet and National Museum of Singapore, 2009
ISBN: 9789814217583

Wartime Kitchen examined the experience of people from the fall of Singapore in December 1942 up to 1949-50. The return of the British in September 1945 did not bring a significant improvement in food supply and required continued adaptation to food shortages.

This book is a miscellany of memories, which are valued for how they reveal the textures of everyday life, lend an immediacy and vividness to events, and flesh out the details embedded in archived records. It focuses on the memories of the local population rather than that of the expatriate.

Through the Bamboo Window: Chinese Life & Culture in 1950s Malaya & Singapore
Leon Comber
Singapore: Talisman, 2009
ISBN: 9789810814663

This volume collects together and reprints four classic books written in the 1950s by Dr Leon Comber: Chinese Ancestral Worship; Chinese Festivals in Malaya; Chinese Magic & Superstition in Malaya; and Chinese Temples in Singapore. These books on Chinese life and customs were reprinted many times but have long been out of print. Written for the layperson, the style is simple and unpretentious, yet Comber meticulously presents a veritable cornucopia of a culture still relevant and extant in modern Southeast Asia.

This new publication addresses the rich heritage of the overseas Chinese community's roots and practices, and those reading about or visiting Southeast Asia will find it a ready source of information and knowledge of ancient and classic Chinese culture.

Stories of Hope From the Cancer Clinic, Volume 2
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2009
ISBN: 9789814266147

These are true stories told by the patients, doctors and counsellors of the Parkway Cancer Centre (PCC) who have undertaken the challenging journey against cancer.

Cancer is one of the most devastating diseases worldwide. The top five most common types are lung, breast, colorectal, stomach and liver cancer. Around the world, more than 10 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year. However, with advances in cancer treatments, those affected can take heart in knowing that they can be successfully cured.

Words of advice and hope take on a more intense meaning when they come from those who have been diagnosed with cancer, and have gone through cycles of treatment, remission and recurrence of the disease. With professional help and counselling, and the support of family members, many of them have beaten the odds to become cancer survivors.

These stories of hope will inspire everyone, whether they are cancer patients, their families or their friends.

Ridzwan Dzafir: From Pondok Boy to Singapore's 'Mr ASEAN': An Autobiography
Ridzwan Dzafir
Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2009
ISBN: 9789814217606

One of Singapore's most outstanding civil servants, Ridzwan Dzafir, gives an account of his life from humble beginnings in a Baweanese communal pondok (longhouse) in the 1930s to an illustrious four-decade career in public service that saw his appointment as the inaugural Director-General of Singapore's Trade Development Board, President of MUIS (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore) and CEO of MENDAKI. Steeped in the art of negotiation, he was a key figure in Singapore's trade talks with ASEAN member countries and in international forums such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and several United Nations commissions.

This autobiography provides a glimpse of childhood in pre-war Singapore and offers an insight into the network of international trade diplomacy during the fledgeling years of Singapore's nationhood and beyond.

Perspectives on Physical Education and Sports Science in Singapore: An Eye on the Youth Olympics 2010
Nick Aplin (ed.)
Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 2009
ISBN: 9780071281645

2008 was a pivotal year for sport in Singapore. The nation secured the bid to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games of 2010. Rapid progress was achieved at a competitive level when Singaporeans won a Paralympic gold medal and a team Olympic silver medal in Beijing. As an international sporting host, the successful staging of the first "night" F1 Grand Prix race helped to create a new facet to the nation's developing global image.

Perspectives on Physical Education and Sports Science in Singapore recognizes the concurrent need to apply new knowledge and develop a greater understanding of meaningful sport and physical education in order to sustain these initiatives in a growing population. In physical education, the solitary aim to make children fit has become outmoded. Contemporary needs in schools focus on health, creativity, the learning of skills and the management of technology to further broader objectives.

This book provides a wide range of perspectives. It examines current pedagogical practices in schools, evaluates attitudes towards health and fitness, explains the relevance of talent identification and it reflects on the development of the culture of sport in Singapore. The authors identify areas of concern and interest for educationalists and scientists and those with a close affinity to physical activity. Managing obesity, character development, playing games, coaching considerations, and sport as consumerism all find a place in this book.

In the Shadow of the Rising Sun
Mary Thomas
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2009
ISBN: 9789812618597

When Mary Thomas left the shores of England for Singapore in December 1939 to live a leisurely life of an Englishwoman in a colonial outpost, she did not expect to soon find her circumstances greatly changed. After the Japanese bombs fell on 8 December 1941, Mary chose not to rush for the first boat out of Singapore and instead stayed on to serve in the Medical Auxiliary Service, and in 1942 she was interned in Changi prison by the Japanese conquerors together with a few thousand unfortunate people.

This is the true story of how a young Englishwoman spent three and a half years under the watchful eyes of the Japanese. Through the various difficulties and trials of internment, Mary recorded in a diary the sufferings and little joys of her fellow internees, and the surprising kindness, bravery and redemption showed by many of them. Her reflections, sensitive and optimistic, celebrate the strength of the human will to survive and to love even in the darkest of times.