Book Box: Joys and pains of dating
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SINGAPORE – In this week’s Book Box, The Straits Times looks at four books about dating that run the gamut of emotions and experiences, from humour to danger. Buy the books at Amazon
Sophie Kinsella draws on personal experience for latest romantic comedy The Burnout
SINGAPORE – Romantic comedy author Sophie Kinsella knows first-hand what it is like to suffer from burnout, the topic and title of her latest novel.
The 52-year-old says: “I’m the type of person who scrolls on Instagram and sees a claim to the cure for burnout, so I try it. I’ve tried meditating, bullet journalling and exercising, and a lot of them do have merit, but I think you have to be in the right place at the right time for them to work.”
For the British author, recovery was about finding and making little changes that benefitted the rest of her life.
Over a Zoom call from her home in Dorset, England, she says: “Where I start with preventing burnout is sleep. I’ve learnt that to fight burnout, having a good sleep routine is crucial.”
Book review: How To Date A Dozen Men is a charmingly relatable dive into the woes of modern dating
Dating is hard, but dating a dozen men is even harder when none of them is what you are looking for.
Told as a semi-autobiographical story over the course of a reunion with her best friend, Singaporean writer-illustrator Samara Gan recounts her journey from having never dated to dating a dozen men in two years.
The struggle to balance a demanding corporate job with dating is a relatable experience for many singletons. Adding to Gan’s ambition to become a comic book artist, many of the dates are squeezed into tiny pockets of free time.
The sentiment she expresses towards the end of the book is familiar to many who find themselves questioning if romance is unattainable.
Book review: The List is a provocative tale about the pitfalls of online social justice
Olaide Olajide, or Ola, is a renowned feminist journalist.
Described as a voice for the voiceless, a fierce advocate for women’s rights, she reports abuse allegations and pushes for the accused to be held accountable.
But 26 days before her wedding to Michael, a list of names of alleged perpetrators of abuse is posted on Twitter.
Ola initially experiences a gratifying sense of justice until she sees a familiar name at the No. 42 spot: her fiance’s.
In her debut novel The List, Yomi Adegoke offers a buzzy social commentary on cancel culture, the world of #MeToo, and virtue signalling.
Book review: A mess of unexplained and forgotten storylines in The American Boyfriend
What promises to be an intriguing mystery fails to create any sense of tension as The American Boyfriend stumbles its way through a plot too convoluted for its own good.
The novel spends half its pages getting to the murder and the rest scattered among several plotlines that amount to a messy and random ending that left this reviewer wondering how such a series of events could occur.
Single mother Phoebe Wong is supposed to be on a romantic vacation with her daughter, Jojo, and long-distance boyfriend, Carter Hartwell. Instead, her purse is missing, with all their cards and passports in it, and Carter is delayed for reasons he refuses to explain.
Stuck in Key West, Florida, with nothing and no one, Phoebe finds solace in a group of locals who help her out, but one of them is murdered the day Carter arrives.
The Straits Times’ Weekly Bestsellers Nov 4
Pamelia Chia’s second cookbook, Plantasia, hits the Straits Times’ bestsellers list.
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