On a Street in Singapore: A Comic View of Singapore
James Suresh
Singapore: Training Plus International, 2010
ISBN: 9789810870461

The title of this book was inspired by a song written back in the 1940s and performed by renowned artists like Bing Crosby and The Manhattan Transfer. The lyrics of the song provide a mystical, oriental description of Singapore with its reference to temple bells, lotus flowers and a traveller being drawn to the island by perfumes of Shalimar.

Singapore today still retains some of the old world charm and the traveller will find traces of old Singapore in places like Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street. But today Singapore is also a modern, cosmopolitan city-state with a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural popualtion.

Besides tips on popular tourist attractions, this book will also provide the reader with an insider's view of Singapore by looking at life in the public housing estates where most Singaporeans live. The reader will get an overview of the history of the island, learn about local food and get an introduction to habits that might seem peculiar to an outsider. There is even a section on Singlish, the local version of English which includes Chinese, Malay and Indian words.

This book will be a handy guide to visitors whilst providing some quirky facts to those who wish to know more about Singapore.

Our Very Own: Stories Celebrating Adoptive Families
TOUCH Family Services Limited
Singapore: TOUCH Family Services Limited, 2010
ISBN: 9789810869403

Our Very Own is an inspiring collection of true stories. Honest, heartfelt and reflective, these stories give readers poignant glimpses of the raw emotions which the adoptive parents go through - unbearable pain, fears, anxieties, feelings of longing and despair - while celebrating their journey of unconditional love, courage, fulfilled dreams, hope and self-discovery. The book also addresses practical adoption issues like making a decision on adoption, the adoption process, and ways to care for adopted children. A first-of-its-kind in Singapore, Our Very Own is a vital resource book for adoptive parents and for service providers working in the arena of adoption.

Shorts 1
Haresh Sharma
Singapore: The Necessary Stage, 2010
ISBN: 9789810876746

This collection of short plays represents some of Haresh Sharma's best and popular early works. The collection also contains an introduction by Alvin Tan as well as notes to each play by the writer.

Heritage Feasts: A Collection of Singapore Family Recipes
Annette Tan (ed.)
Singapore: Ate Media for Miele Pte Ltd, 2010
ISBN: 9789810874001

This cookbook focuses on how heritage food forms an indelible link between one's sense of history and one's sense of family. Through vivid life stories of 30 prominent personalities who have, in different ways, made significant contributions to Singapore and 59 heritage recipes shared by them, Heritage Feasts highlights that, by learning and passing on your own family's treasured dishes, you too are helping to strengthen and extend the fine threads of history and family.

Heritage Feasts also encourages the modern family to create new shared moments and continue traditions of familial feasting around the dinner table. In this book you will find an invaluable collection of true-blue Singaporean dishes, all beautifully illustrated with sumptuous pictures by award-winning photographer Edmond Ho. These include a family favourite from acclaimed jazz singer Claressa Monteiro - the oxtail soup by her mother, the dry mutton curry which Subhas Anandan's mother whipped up for the renowned criminal lawyer's long-awaited homecoming, a rare recipe for sambal buah keluak, taken from the notebooks of Mrs Seow Poh Leng, the original inspiration behind playwright Stella Kon's acclaimed monodrama Emily of Emerald Hill, and a comforting tomato soup which filmmaker Eric Khoo enjoyed as a child.

A meaningful cookbook project commissioned in celebration of Miele's 11th anniversary, Heritage Feasts is the work of industry veterans - including food magazine editor Josephine Tully, local food expert Christopher Tan and top lensmen Edmond Ho and Mervin Chua - and is a rare platform for the promotion of Singapore culinary traditions.

The Dream Lives On: The National Stadium - Our Grand Old Dame
Godfrey Robert
Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings for Singapore Sports Council, 2010
ISBN: 9789814266154

The National Stadium, a familiar landmark in Kallang, has served Singapore tirelessly for more than 30 years. For decades, she has witnessed our nation's joys, cheers and triumphs; and above all, she has been the home of many dreams.

News announcing her retirement in 2007 triggered a wave of emotions from those who have had many happy memories on her grounds and brought forth a wealth of stories to share.

This book pays tribute to the Grand Old Dame as she passes the baton on to the new Singapore Sports Hub - from her beginnings in sleepy Kallang, to her maturity, and finally her graceful retirement from the sporting arena. As we reminisce about the past, we will also take a peek into the future with a glimpse of the new Singapore Sports Hub.

Rodyk: 150 Years
Cheong Suk-Wai
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2011
ISBN: 9789814266888

Rodyk & Davidson, Singapore's first professional practice to lay claim to a heritage of 150 years, shares its past glories and less than glorious episodes in its colourful history. This law partnership has stood firm and tall in Raffles Place for 150 years, riding through grave personal tragedies, two world wars, internment by the Japanese and the occasional scandal or three. In that time, its lawyers drafted Malaya's first constitution and almost every pre-World War II ordinance in Singapore, facilitated the legal creation of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and advised Singapore premier Lee Kuan Yew. It was Singapore's pre-eminent law firm up to the few years following the departure of Graham Hill, its most famous son in modern times, and Tom Potts, the last of its expatriate lawyers, who left Singapore in 1976 and 1977 in the wake of the Haw Par-Slater Walker scandal. Over the next two decades, the firm lost some of its lustre. Then in November 2002 the 141-year-old firm entered into a historic merger with Helen Yeo & Partners, a firm which had stayed in a start-up mode through its short 10-year life. The merger of equals brought the combined firm into the league of five largest law firms. In eight short years, the transformation of the firm gave it a higher profile and standing not seen since the late 1970s. Rodyk's management makes its contribution to the legal profession by sharing the management concepts and philosophies that unlocked the value of a heritage name and transformed the firm. The insights in outgoing Managing Partner Helen Yeo's "Perspectives" and the last three chapters give us a glimpse of the elixir for professional life referred to by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong in his essay "The Rise and Fall and Rise of Heritage Law Firms". The firm's Managing Partner from 2011, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, contributes his perspective in the last pages.

While the rebirth and rebranding of a venerable firm is of direct interest to lawyers and business readers, the firm's role in the history of Singapore and its neighbours makes this book a tantalising read for anyone who enjoys the history of business and the business of transformation.

Winning Against the Odds: The Labour Research Unit in NTUC's Founding
S.R. Nathan
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2011
ISBN: 9789814266871

"I had the good fortune to be thrown unexpectedly into something called the Labour Research Unit - a little known organisation set up to assist the fledgling labour movement. It was not a company, nor a statutory board, nor a government department - in fact it did not exist at all as a legal entity. Thus in slightly unorthodox circumstances I became part of that struggle."
-S.R. Nathan

Winning Against the Odds covers the critical years 1961-1965, when battle raged between NTUC and the pro-communist unionists for the hearts and minds of Singapore workers. This period was a turning point in the broader struggle against militant forces out to destroy Singapore's way of life.

NTUC's foundations were laid then, a fact not well known to many people, not even to members of today's labour movement.

In Winning Against the Odds, S.R. Nathan relives that period, telling in his typically direct fashion, what he remembers about the events that took place then, to give a sense of the harsh realities that he and his colleagues were confronting. In simple language he also relates the conflicts he had with union leaders, civil servants and the man he deeply admires, C.V. Devan Nair.

Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going
Han Fook Kwang, Zuraidah Ibrahim, Chua Mui Hoong, Lydia Lim, Ignatius Low, Rachel Lin, & Robin Chan
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2011
ISBN: 9789814266727

Lee Kuan Yew is Singapore's most influential son but he is not without his critics. He has not flinched from taking them on, even now after almost 60 years in the political fray. Why is he so hard on his political opponent? Will Singapore become a democracy? Could the People's Action Party ever lose its grip on power? Are younger leaders up to the mark? Will growing religiosity change Singapore for the better or worse? How will rising giants China and India affect its fortunes? Lee fields these questions and more as he covers the terrain of the past and contemplates the expanse of the future for this island nation that he and his founding generation built on the hopes of a people. Based on 32 hours of interviews at the Istana, along with 64 pages of photographs and a DVD insert, the book features Lee in full flow, combative, thought-provoking, controversial.

Our Kuching: the Vanishing Street Cats of Singapore: Through the Lens of Jon Boon
Jon Boon (photos), Sweeleng Teoh (text)
Singapore: Secondmouse Books, 2010
ISBN: 9789810874674

Our Kuching: the Vanishing Street Cats of Singapore is a pictorial celebration of the Singapore street cat. Each picture tells a compelling story of their lives and provides a snapshot of life in the heartlands in 21st century Singapore. The pictures are accompanied by heart-warming captions of the cats and snippets of trivia on the history and origins of the neighbourhoods in which they are found.

Making Prints on Cement: The Cherie Hearts Success Story
William Koh
Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia, 2011
ISBN: 9789814319256

Cherie Hearts was established when two men with a love for children and a passion to provide quality childcare started their first childcare centre in 2002. Since then, the company has mushroomed into a successful business, with 50 centres in Singapore by the end of 2009, overseas branches in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, South Korea, and a newly opened branch in Bangalore, India in 2010.

The book discusses how Sam and Gurchran’s motivation and drive transformed Cherie Hearts into a childcare powerhouse. It also examines the importance of effective human resource management in a small-medium enterprise and how having the right organisational structure and culture is essential to support business growth.

Finally, the reader gains insight into the key engine of growth at Cherie Hearts- its franchising model. Realising that they lacked technical know-how and the financial resources to expand the company, both decided that the way to grow the company was through franchising. In 2003, the company developed its own franchising model to power growth. Known as the P3E business model, this provides comprehensive guidelines for its franchise operations and ensures consistency and quality across all its centres.

You & the Law: The Essential Guide to Different Areas of the Law in Singapore [4^th ed.]
Doris Chia (ed.)
Singapore: Singapore Association of Women Lawyers, 2011
ISBN: 9789810867461

 You & the Law is possibly the only book in Singapore that simplifies 20 different areas of the law and other common topics for the layperson. Written simply, and sometimes in a question and answer format, this is a user-friendly publication for the man in the street.

 This is a community project which embodies the contribution, work and generosity of many individuals and organisations who believe in, and support the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers' (SAWL) commitment to the community. With this book, SAWL hopes to enable any educated layman to have some idea of his or her rights and obligations. It discusses most, if not all areas of law that members of the public may need to know, or is likely to encounter, in the course of his or her life, for example:

• Who can get a divorce in Singapore?
• When can the police arrest a person?
• What is defamation?
• What to do when involved in an accident?
• Inheritance & succession – who gets your assets when you die?
• What is the difference between copyright and trademark?
• What are your legal rights as an employee?
• What to look out for when buying residential property?
• Starting a business – what are the pros and cons of incorporating a sole proprietorship as opposed to a company?
• What should you do when you suspect there could be medical negligence?
• What to do if you cannot afford a lawyer?  

Edited by eminent lawyer Ms Doris Chia, the chapters to this book are contributed by lawyers with special knowledge in the relevant areas of law, corporate leaders and various government and non-government organisations. It is as useful a legal reference not only for the lay person, but also for the legally trained.

Singapore in the Malay World: Building and Breaching Regional Bridges
Lily Zubaidah Rahim
London: Routledge, 2010
ISBN: 9780415610490

Relations between Singapore and her immediate Malay neighbours have been perenially fraught with tension and misunderstanding. In making sense of this complex relationship, Lily Rahim explores the salience of historical animosities and competitive economic pressures, and Singapore's janus-faced security and foreign economic policy orientation and 'regional outsider' complex. Focusing on Singapore's relations with Malaysia, the book also examines the Indonesian dimension in bilateral relations. It highlights the paradoxical similarities in the nation-building approaches of Singapore and Malaysia. The author reflects critically on sensitive issues such as the rhetoric and reality of meritocracy and multiracialism in Singapore, and analyses the city-state's weak regional soft power credentials and reputation as a political laggard despite its economic achievements.

Incorporating perspectives and frameworks from the disciplines of comparative politics, area studies, international relations, political economy and history, this multidisciplinary study offers groundbreaking insights into the way in which the neighbouring states of Singapore and Malaysia see themselves, each other, the region and beyond. This book will be of particular interest to keen observers of Southeast Asian politics.