It Changed My Life: Inspirational Stories
Wong Kim Hoh
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814642286

Inspiring real-life stories by The Straits Times Senior Writer Wong Kim Hoh about lives that have been dramatically changed by events, people or circumstances.

The story of turning the other cheek: Her nose was hacked off 25 years ago by a man wielding a cleaver. Her attacker also chopped off her ears, hewed her cheeks and blinded her in the right eye by pouring boiling water onto her face. "The nurses had to cover all mirrors and reflective glass in my ward. I was hysterical. When my son saw me for the first time after the attack, he screamed and ran away and said I was a ghost," she recalls.

The story of piloting a nasi lemak business: He was unhappy when his dad asked him to give up his aviation dream. He relented after his father said: "If you go and pilot aeroplanes, who is going to pilot my stall?" Today, his nasi lemak is famous. The Sultan of Brunei requests his nasi lemak for breakfast each time he visits Singapore. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong served it to Indonesian President Joko Widodo when the latter visited the Istana.

The story of the girl with something special: Isabelle Lim weighs only 30kg, is deaf and has has just four fingers on each hand. She has Nager Syndrome -- of which there are only 200 documented cases worldwide -- and has undergone multiple operations.

... and many more stories that celebrate the human spirit, broaden the mind, encourage the weak and downtrodden, and instil greater hope and faith in the inner strength of humanity.

From Kilts to Sarongs: Scottish Pioneers of Singapore
Graham Berry
Singapore: Landmark Books, 2015
ISBN: 9789814189651

Farquhar, Crawford, Cavenagh, Thomson, Anderson, Napier, Fullerton, Henderson, MacRitchie, MacPherson, Outram, Purvis, Spottiswoode. These are some of the Scots who have played a part in making Singapore.

Guthrie, Fraser & Neave, Rodyk & Davidson, Sime Darby, Swan & Maclaren, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Straits Trading Company. These are just a few of the numerous companies with Scottish founders who continue to play an active role in the economy of Singapore.

The old Parliament House, Raffles Institution, Raffles Hotel, Stamford House, Goodwood Park Hotel, Cairnhill, Horsburgh Lighthouse, MacDonald House. All these places and more have Scottish connections in one way or another.

Written in a popular style, this book tells the story of the Scots -- administrators, engineers, traders and various professionals -- who helped to develop early Singapore and lay some of the foundations for its undoubted growth and success.

The first book on the subject, it appeals to not only the large Scottish community in Singapore, but also all who are interested in the history and heritage of Singapore.

Singapore Chronicles: Law
Goh Yihan
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814747066

This book tells the story of the Singapore legal system. Beginning with the British years, it moves on to the post-independence period, when a new Singapore had to grapple with the judicious mix of legacy laws and new laws that the new environment demanded. That was followed by the years of expansion as the complexity of the local environment deepened. The legal system had to be further refined as Singapore embraced technological advances and globalisation. This is a story of a fast changing and yet remarkably stable legal system that has been the cornerstone of Singapore's commitment to the rule of law.

Singapore Chronicles: Colonial Singapore
Nicholas Tarling
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814747042

This book is a history of Singapore from the founding of a settlement by Raffles in 1819, to the post-imperial phase inaugurated by World War II and the Japanese invasion. It shows how colonial Singapore matured as an economy and developed as a society even as it grew into a commercial centre that was also a centre for the movement of people and ideas. The book captures the essence of the island-city's place in the Asian economic and political scheme of things as European imperialism reached its zenith before giving way to Japan's military advance. The fall of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942 embodied the new times. The return of the British after the Japanese defeat in 1945 set the stage for a fresh phase of Singapore's political development as the anti-colonial movement grew in strength.

Singapore Chronicles: Diplomacy
Evelyn Goh & Daniel Chua
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814747080

Diplomacy has been crucial for Singapore's success abroad over the past 50 years. This book describes the many daunting challenges Singapore faced: separation from Malaysia; uncertain independence; tensions with its immediate neighbours; wars in Southeast Asia; oil shocks and financial crises; the waxing and waning power of the United States and China; and new security threats, including global terrorism, pandemics and trans-boundary pollution. The book demonstrates that Singapore's diplomacy has distinctively combined the characteristics of overcoming vulnerability; linking national security with economic development; playing a proactive role in international affairs; and emphasising cooperation with multiple partners. International events will continue to be unpredictable, and this book derives lessons from the past that can help Singapore develop even more agile diplomatic responses and far-sighted strategic planning.

Singapore Chronicles: Presidency
Thio Li-Ann
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814747011

The Elected Presidency represents one of the most distinctive institutional innovations that Singapore has made to the constitutional order in the first 50 years of its existence. Its original primary intention was to serve as a check on a powerful Parliament that could bankrupt the national reserves either through buying votes, fraud or sheer incompetence. However, experience has shown that the elected President has evolved in ways unanticipated by its original design. This book traces the fascinating twists and turns of the relatively short history of the Elected Presidency in Singapore and how it has reached a new equilibrium.

25 Years of The Substation: Reflections on Singapore's First Independent Art Centre
The Substation
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2015
ISBN: 9789810967987

INDEPENDENCE. OPPORTUNITY. RAW. EXPERIMENTAL. FRINGE. PROGRESS. RESPONSIVE. EMPATHY. FEARLESS. IMAGINATION. PERSEVERANCE. CHALLENGE. INCUBATOR. SUPPORTIVE. CONTEMPORARY. MULTIDISCIPLINARY. SOCIOPOLITICAL. CRITICALITY. OPENNESS. DIVERSITY. COMMUNITY. POSSIBILITIES. PASSIONATE. PROCESS. HOME.

25 Years of The Substation features the accounts of 25 artists and people who have been associated with The Substation since its founding in 1990. The book is organised around 25 words, which serve as entry points for an extended conversation about The Substation, its stakeholders, and Singaporean society and the arts.

SG100?: Leading Thinkers Envision Singapore in 2065
Chua Mui Hoong (ed.)
Singapore: Straits Times Press, 2015
ISBN: 9789814642514

Compiled into one exciting volume by Chua Mui Hoong, Opinion Editor of The Straits Times, leading thinkers give their take on trends that will shape Singapore in the next 50 years.

Will there even be a Singapore?
A Lee Kuan Yew-inspired New World Order?
How to face the 'Chinese dilemma' as China rises?
Politics in 2065: Primal or pragmatic?
Do you still need cows, if you can 3D print beef slices?
Can robot chefs serve quality char kway teow?
Cereal made from good bacteria, for your gut’s sake?
Will driverless cars become a reality?

Futurist guru Peter Schwart, leading "global city" sociologist Saskia Sassen, Prof Tommy Koh, Prof Wang Gungwu, diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, business guru Ho Kwon Ping and other opinion leaders explore the answers to these questions with thought-provoking musings that thrill, inspire and amuse.

It Never Rains on National Day: Stories
Jeremy Tiang
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2015
ISBN: 9789814655644

A woman fleeing her previous existence meets a fellow Singaporean on an overnight train in Norway. A foreign worker is decapitated in an HDB building site accident. A Singaporean wife must negotiate Beijing as her British husband awaits a heart transplant. And in different corners of the world, Singaporeans and exiles mark National Day in their own ways.

Jeremy Tiang's debut collection weaves together the lives of its characters across the world—from Switzerland, Norway, Germany, China, Canada, Thailand, New York City and back to Singapore. These wry, unsettling stories ask how we decide where we belong, and what happens to those who don't.

When a Flower Dies
Josephine Chia
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2015
ISBN: 9789810963149

What can we recover after a life passes on? A novel about love, forgetting and remembering. Pansy Lim, a Peranakan girl, was brought up in a seaside village in colonial Singapore in the 1940s. She inherits her mother's love for flowers, nature, the sea, and their healing qualities. Educated by English nuns, she learns and grows to love English, literature and poetry. We see her at the start of the novel, aged, forgetful, and desperately clinging to memories of her recently deceased husband. Through her recollections, she remembers George Chan, the village life that they shared, and the communal past left behind by a nation always on the move.