Our Lives to Live: Putting a Woman's Face to Change in Singapore
Kanwaljit Soin & Margaret Thomas (eds.)
Singapore: World Scientific, 2015
ISBN: 9789814663151

Our Lives to Live: Putting a Woman's Face to Change in Singapore explores how women's roles, choices and voices in Singapore have changed in the last 50 years; how women, from all sectors of society, have helped to shape the Singapore we know today. The 31 chapters, some with a more academic slant, others with a distinctly personal tone, reflect the rich diversity and depth of women's contributions to Singapore's evolution in the last half century, and also point to the problematical areas that still need attention.

The authors include some of Singapore's most accomplished women in many different fields, such as Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, political scientist and diplomat Chan Heng Chee, global women's activist Noeleen Heyzer, sociologist and politician Aline Wong, Singapore's food ambassador Violet Oon, sports legend Pat Chan, law lecturer and playwright Eleanor Wong, and novelist Meira Chand.

Living the Singapore Story: Celebrating Our 50 Years 1965-2015
Angelina Choy & Han Fook Kwang (eds.)
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814342995

Living the Singapore Story is about Singapore, all 50 years of it as an independent nation. It is not a history book, or about its politics or its national leaders. It is about the people of Singapore and the stories they have to tell, in their own words.

They come from all walks of life -- policeman, soldier, doctor, nurse, car salesman, bus driver, teacher, businessman, architect and more -- reflecting the diversity that is Singapore. Some are well-known personalities you may recognise but many are ordinary folks.

These are personal stories, of the lives they led, the jobs they did, the challenges they faced, the things they enjoyed doing. Collectively, they tell the story of a people overcoming the odds to build a nation.

As Singapore marks its 50th anniversary, their stories, in this book commissioned by the National Library Board and produced by Straits Times Press, are worth celebrating.

The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew [Student ed.]
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2015
ISBN: 9789814677660

The Singapore Story (Student Edition) is primarily for the student as part of National Education. It is also for the general reader who wants a shorter, more digestible version of the original unabridged first volume The Singapore Story.

The essentials of the original volume are retained with special regard to the material pertaining to the Singapore (and Malaysia) context. The book:

• traces Lee Kuan Yew's boyhood, his Japanese Occupation experience, his courtship of his wife-to-be, his student days at Cambridge University, his return to Singapore and the formation of the People’s Action Party
• describes the PAP's struggle with the communists within its ranks and the subsequent party purge of subversive elements
• details the early moves to merger with the Malayan Federation to form Malaysia, about the merger itself and the race clashes
• includes the emotive description of the momentous breakup of Malaysia that forced Singapore on its independent journey to nationhood.

Be at the table or Be on the Menu: A Singapore Memoir
S. Jayakumar
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814642064

Be At The Table or Be On The Menu picks up where Prof Jayakumar's book Diplomacy left off. It gives the broad range of his experience as an academic and Dean in the Law Faculty, as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and as a Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Senior Minister in the Singapore Cabinet, serving alongside Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Hsien Loong.

The book also offers rare glimpses of the child and the student that perhaps hinted at his future roles. This part of the book will surprise even those who think they knew him well.

The book's subtitle "A Singapore Memoir" is apt, because Prof Jayakumar's story is very much the story of Singapore's challenges since the early years of independence. Typically, Prof Jayakumar does not simply tell a story; his intention is to show why he and indeed all of us have a part to play in keeping the Singapore Story going.

Chinese Women's Association: 100 Fabulous Years
The Chinese Women's Association
Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2015
ISBN: 9789814385695

The Chinese Ladies' Association was formed in 1915 by twenty-three independent and modern young women from prominent Chinese families in Singapore. Chinese Women's Association: 100 Fabulous Years begins with their stories. It then goes on to chart the lives of the association's presidents and the impressive accomplishments of the CWA, including its thirty-two-year management and funding of Henderson Senior Citizen's Home.

The book also features articles written by members, past and present, reflecting on their lives; many of these pieces give the reader insight into the lives of women in 20th-century Singapore. Of course, the women of the CWA are fun-loving and adventurous, and no book about the association and its history would be complete without stories from their travels together and photographs from their elaborate fundraising events.

People Matter: Essays By David Chan
David Chan
Singapore: World Scientific, 2015
ISBN: 9789814689021

This book is a collection of twenty-one essays by Professor David Chan, which first appeared in The Straits Times from October 2011 to January 2015. The essays discussed a wide range of topics including happiness and well-being, fairness perceptions, the immigration debate and population policies, social cohesion and integration, social mobility, trust in society, public expectations, rationality and emotions, approaches to policy making, modes of thinking, democracy, shared values and principles, and the social compact between people and Government in Singapore. A common theme that runs through these essays is what David calls "People Matter". "People Matter" refers to both the critical issues that matter to the people and the idea that the way people think, feel and act should matter to policy making and nation building in Singapore.

Teacher Thinker Rebel Why: Portraits of Chee Soon Juan
Jaslyn Go (ed.)
Singapore: Singapore Democratic Party, 2015
ISBN: 9789810946241

Dr Chee Soon Juan, a young lecturer with the National University of Singapore, burst onto the political scene in Singapore as an opposition politician in 1992. By 1993, he had lost his job with the University, and the Singapore government run by the People's Action Party, as well as the country's main media, was painting him as untrustworthy, foolish and dishonest. Lawsuits and political stones were thrown his way, harping on his obdurate and unconventional ways of challenging the status quo.

For more than two decades, a majority of Singaporeans lived with this impression. But the strange thing was that Chee did not fade away. Instead, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) he leads has grown from strength to strength -- impressing discerning Singaporeans with a level of discipline, professionalism and youthful recruitment seldom seen. In the international arena where different media and audience hold sway, Chee has achieved recognition and accolades among the political community.

So who really is Chee the man? The writers in this book paint portraits of the Chee they personally know, and a different picture emerges. We get to know a man of resilience, of sincere intellect and deep patriotism.

It is also a grim reminder to Singaporeans of how the combined unbridled power of a compliant media and an authoritarian government can be the biggest obstacle to truth and community.

Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas
Han Fook Kwang, Warren Fernandez, & Sumiko Tan
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2015
ISBN: 9789814677622

Lee Kuan Yew passed away on 23 March 2015 at the age of 92. This book, which was first published in 1998, tells the story of his life from when the Japanese occupied Singapore in 1941 until 1998 when he was Senior Minister.

Based on 13 exclusive interviews held over 30 hours, this book chronicles the events, people and political fortunes that were to shape Lee's view of the world, as well as the path he set for the transformation of Singapore. It delves into the choices he made, the political turnings he took, the insights gained and lessons learnt, some of which were expounded to the authors for the first time, with wit, wisdom, candour and vivid recollection.