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Sharlene

@reallifereading

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Happy September! It’s the start of the -ber months but it’s still hot as hell here (and will always be).

Anyway, we kicked off September with this lovely selection of mini tarts for my mum’s birthday. Her request was to not have a birthday cake but she does like fruit tarts so here was a nice lot of different ones including an earl grey yuzu, coconut passion fruit, pecan speculoos, bergamot lemon, chrysanthemum cheesecake and more. Delightful!

Reading-wise, I finally read Strange Houses and was not prepared for the number of floor plans to look at. I love to look at floor plans so that part was fun. Was it strange and creepy? Not as much as I would have liked. Does the rest of the series get better? Please let me know!

Lots of comics, loved the Puragtory Funeral Cakes manhwa which talks about cakes custom made for the dead, crafted based on the stories their loved ones tell the baker.

The Credits Roll into the Sea features a grandma who goes back to school, and learns about herself and finds new purpose in life. Lovely story and illustrations.

Deacon King Kong was a hoot to listen to. What a story, love all the weaving of the different storylines and characters. Didn’t want to stop listening to the awesome narration.

And hey, I even read a couple of nonfiction. One set in China and another in Afghanistan (more specifically the Intercontinental hotel in Kabul). I Deliver Parcels in Beijing actually starts with the writer working in one of those huge logistics centers and then he moves to Beijing and starts deliveries. Started out interesting enough with day to day life of a worker in China but towards the end it was only ok. Maybe the pacing felt off. I’m not sure. However it does read like a series of blog posts and I think that’s how this writer got started. The Finest Hotel in Kabul also started great, but I think it lacked details about the background info about Afghanistan at large. It also got a bit annoying when the writer referred to herself in the third person a few times. by @reallifereading

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a month ago

Went with friends to check out the beautifully restored House of Tan Yeok Nee, an 1880s Teochew home that’s changed hands over the decades, from being a family home to an orphanage to the Salvation Army hq and the University of Chicago Booth School. Today it’s open to the public and houses a tearoom, Japanese restaurant, but we were there for the heritage gallery and heritage cocktail bar, Bar Kap.

Bar Kap has such a gorgeous interior and the drinks and food were quite lovely too. It was fun just exploring their menu, which comes in a kind of puzzle box of sorts, pick a shape that represents an era of the house, and read the descriptions of the various cocktails. Really cute. taken in House of Tan Yeok Nee by @reallifereading

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2 months ago

Delightful dinner out at @moxie_sg with an old friend. The pork chops were cooked to perfection, and that Black Forest tiramisu ended the night beautifully. by @reallifereading

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3 months ago

A corner table at the little basement cafe, aikido students milling around waiting for their grading tests to start, me trying to drown out their chatter with some music, a book, and a nice flat white from @2pluscollectivecafe while waiting for my older one to finish his test. by @reallifereading

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4 months ago

See you May, hello June!

Read a fair bit more than I expected, with some fun graphic novels and books that took me into many different places like a flooded San Francisco, WWII Netherlands, post WWII Japan, 1889 Paris and its underground sapphic scene, and so much more.

Enjoyed these so much:
Flip - Ngozi Ukazu
Awake in the Floating Fity - Susanna Kwan
The Age of Doubt - Pak Kyongni
Sisters in Yellow - Mieko Kawakami
Everyday Movement - Gigi Leung by @reallifereading

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5 months ago

A delicious lunch with my mum at Kimchi Dining. The makgeolli bread with charcoal butter was light and fluffy, the gamjajeon nice and crunchy. We also had the arongsatae and dogani (a braised beef dish), and the jeju pork noodles. The set came with a kimchi platter of seven different kimchi.

Dessert was black sesame ice cream sundae and chocolate injeolmi tart. Quite liked the bits of injeolmi set within the chocolate mousse. And the black sesame ice cream was one of the best I’ve had. taken in Kimchi Dining Korean Restaurant Singapore by @reallifereading

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5 months ago

It’s been a while since I’ve read NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, but I can’t stop thinking of Ophir. She’s one of those characters that get under your skin, both in the annoying and endearing sense.

Ophir is on the run from the Singapore police and Interpol. She was involved in a money-laundering scheme, fled the country, sold her Singapore passport, and has been living on the little that she makes from crappy jobs, hopping from city to city on names that she slides herself into. Ophir isn’t her real name either. It is the name of a major road in Singapore that was itself named after a mountain in neighboring Johor.

Because the story is told as a podcast, the stream-of-consciousness narrative style does take a bit getting used to, but I quite enjoyed hearing her voice — which I imagined to still have a slight Singaporean accent behind it, but very faint, a hint of which only other Singaporeans can guess at. She’s a voice actor after all, the kind who can easily switch among accents, even the various Singaporean accents (yes there are more than one).

This is quite the entertaining debut, as Ophir talks the audience through her many adventures, working at a bar in Japan, and a Chinese restaurant in London, and the many people she meets along the way. And these side characters help round out the story, flesh out Ophir’s persona.

But ultimately, this tale is one of identity, a longing for community and home. Its setting of the Covid lockdown made me think back about my own coming to terms with the world at a standstill, when living across the world from my family felt incredibly far and unfair.

Names Have Been Changed was a sharp and fun read, with a bristly and unique main character whose escapades were such a blast to follow along with! taken in Singapore / Singapura / 新加坡 / சிங்கப்பூர் by @reallifereading

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6 months ago

Library haul over the past weekend. What did you get from your library recently? by @reallifereading

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6 months ago

March reads! Some manga, comics, nonfiction, and more. I really need to sit down and digest them all, maybe with a slice of that chocolate fudge birthday cake that’s sitting in the fridge. But for now, some of my favourite reads of last month are:

Names Have Been Changed by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
Every Day I Read by Hwang Bo-Reum
I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner by @reallifereading

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7 months ago

Happy Lunar New Year! It’s the second day of the Year of the Horse and over the eve and the first day, we’ve had three yusheng and three pencai. I’m all pencai-ed out for the year, but I could still eat yusheng (fresh fish and lots of veg, what’s not to love?). More visiting today and lots more snacks to try, I bet.

Wishing you a happy and healthy Year of the Horse!
新年快乐！
万事如意！ by @reallifereading

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8 months ago

When I start a new reading year, I’m motivated to read more books and get some reading challenges started. I also worked on some “best of 2025” reads that I missed out on (so very many!) but in the end, the best things I read weren’t actually 2025 books, instead my favorites of the month were

🔹 In Limbo - Deb JJ Lee (thoughtful, emotional graphic memoir)
🔹Alison - Lizzy Stewart (beautiful and moving graphic novel of a young artist who falls for a much older artist)
🔹The Stardust Thief - Chelsea Abdullah (an epic fantasy sort of retelling of 1001 Nights - so much fun)

I have to mention Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford as a pretty great audiobook, and quite unforgettable world building. by @reallifereading

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9 months ago

My mum wanted to try the Fernando Botero-inspired high tea at the Shangri-La and it was quite a delight. It came with savory bites, scones (and a very nice sharp marmalade), a cocktail or mocktail (I had the cocktail and it was very refreshing!), a main (I chose steak), and some small bite sized desserts.

Botero was a Colombian artist, his signature style are the exaggerated figures, not just humans but also animals, such as Bird which sits by the Singapore River at Raffles Place. I believe this high tea is in collaboration with the exhibition that’s taking place soon.

Fun fact - I met Botero back in 2004 when I was a journalist at Streats and he was having a big exhibition in Sg. taken in The Rose Veranda, Shangri-La Singapore by @reallifereading

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9 months ago