This book is available in paperback as "Japan's Greatest Victory / Britain's Greatest Defeat." Just click on Tsuji's name and the alternative title should come up.

This is part one of the autobiography of Tan Kok Seng , who grew up during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore between 1942 - 1945 . In the book he described vividly how Singaporean live through the harsh and cruel Japanese rule . Tan also narrated the circumstances that prevailed after the Japanses left . From the day he set out to look for a job until his eventual arrival in Malaysia , Tan gave us an insight on life at the lower social circle back in the fifties and the early sixties. Hilarious ! Good Book , especially one from Singapore !

This is probably a bit of a cheat, because to be totally honest the market for this book is probably about 20 people across the world. However, as I am just starting a research MA on Australia's defence relationship with Great Britain in the immediate post WW1 period, any help would be gratefully received!

The book is pretty much the only one covering its subject, but thankfully is actually written in English, rather than academic speak. At the risk of revealing my complete daggishness, I almost enjoy reading the book.

Anyway - buy it if you are one of the demented few. If you're not but just interested in what went on 80 years ago, borrow it from a library.

While I enjoyed reading about the hidden world of the bondmaid, I found this book to be uneven and unbelievable in parts. I found that the scenarios that Lim described between bondmaid Han and the wealthy Wu often clashed with the restrictive, cloistered world that the author had taken such pains to describe. And unfortunately, the editing was not as well done as it should have been, which separates a good novel from a fine novel. However, what it said about the often fickle quality of love rang true, and it was often poignantly written. While I found this book to be predictable in parts, I am glad that Catherine Lim did not go for the easy ending. I would recommend this book as an interesting read nonetheless.

Beginning of story is well-paced, exploring the interesting characters. But some issues were not adequately addressed like how Young master Wu felt towards his wife Li-Li since young til before and after their marriage, prior to her pregnancy. And his falling in love with Han happened so quickly and mysteriously, it almost seemed like the author was trying to avoid writing too much about it. The part about the sky-god raping the goddess was totally baffling. Still, the other parts of the story were captivating enough especially towards the end when Han suffered. The surprisingly tragical ending sorta made up for the earlier confusing parts.

Recommended to those interested in the traditional chinese culture.

I've never read anything by Lim before. I thought this was a good book and it was worth the time it took to get read. I'm definately going to pick up more books by this author. Although the ending was a but abrupt, it was an engrossing tale about a situation rarely written about.

Hwee Hwee Tan's stunning debut novel, Foreign Bodies, written at the age of 23, both surprised me and gave me food for thought. The story of nine tension-filled days in the lives of three Gen-X friends in Singapore enthralled me with its discussion of the challenges of living as an ex-patriate in a country that may or may not be welcoming, the clash of two vastly different cultures, and the author's effective use of three different narrators to tell the story.

I expected the novel to be a comedy of cultural manners when I started it, but I soon realized that the work, while including those elements, transcended that. The title, Foreign Bodies, very cleverly points to the central theme of the novel--that life often presents us with tensions and paradoxes that we can't always resolve into nice, neat packages. As a hard of hearing woman whose life straddles both the hearing and deaf worlds, I can especially appreciate the meshing of two cultures that makes up Singapore. Much like the Singlish that Tan uses to good effect in her novel, I, at times, communicate using a sign language that is a patois of American Sign Language conventions in an English word order. I can understand the feeling of being part of two cultures, and yet feeling not completely a part of either one. I could also relate to Mei, the lawyer in the novel, in her struggles as a woman in a male-dominated culture and in her attempts to feel a part of her family, despite traumatic childhood events that have infected her like a foreign body.

Despite the novel's obvious linguistic and stylistic aim at the Gen-X age group, it has a more universal appeal due to its discussions of sin, of keeping and breaking promises, and of moral and spiritual redemption that transcends all ages, races, and the genders. I can't wait for Ms. Tan's next novel!

Highly recommended.

Hwee Hwee Tan's book "Foreign Bodies" works at several levels: as a spiritual testimony, as a tragi-comic description of post modern angst, as a story of friendship gone sour, as a brilliant exposition of what it means to live in a world without borders.

As someone who has tasted the life described in this book - the strange world of expatriate existence - I can say that on this point in particular there are few books out there that do a better job of illuminating what that is about - to be "in" but not "of" the world you inhabit.

A brilliantly conceived novel - the best I have read for years.

A novel about religion, first and foremost, how it helps Andy, who goes from being a drifter, angst-ridden, and full of doubt, to someone who accepts fate, even in a Singaporean jail; about Mei, who learns to live with secrets through her religion, and about Eugene, their friend, who does not have this faith, and therefore, ultimately suffers.

As an Overseas Chinese, I was amazed by the pervasiveness of the Old Culture - the Singaporean attitude to education and marriage is not just typical of Singapore - it can be found wherever there are older generation Chinese/Asians.

Tan's book covers a lot of ground - anxieties faced by young people in search for themselves, the mother-daughter relationship, religion, Singapore and foreigners...

It is an amazing book and the first written by a modern Asian that I have truly enjoyed.

Quite pedestrian, more at the level of TV fare. I won't read another book by this author

As only an occasional fiction reader I found "The Time of the Wolf" to be thoughtfully plotted with well-paced action. The cast of characters was carefully drawn and the various problems and resolutions were interesting and believable. A few twists toward the end led to a satisfying conclusion. Several almost-graphic sexual encounters and other adult themes and situations place the novel firmly in the 18+ category. A entertaining read.

I would compare this book favorably to a lot of work done by Robert B. Parker. It's a fast, entertaining novel. Kay Williams, an intrepid antique collector, finds herself in a high-stakes auction that involves as much blood as money. She's part of a cast of witty, but ruthless, characters that gathers in Texas to bid on a prized knife. At least one of them wouldn't mind using it on her. Blankenship's sense of irony keeps the outcome in doubt until the last pages.

If you're looking for Finnegan's Wake, you won't find it here. Blankenship aspires to high entertainment, not high art. If you're looking for something to read while traveling, pick this up.

There are a total of 18 short stories compiled in this book.  All the stories are very interesting and involve a lot of innate feelings. and this book is sensitive to our emotions - sadness, madness, happiness to see one suffering. Typical esoteric Singaporean flair and fare. But some stories can be unbelievably exaggerated. Read it if you need some paranoia in your life!

Lovely short stories written by one of my favourite authors. Ms. Lim's stories takes me back to a life I left behind many yeas ago.

I feel very disappointed when received this book. In some reason, all the pages were stuck together like kept in the high humidity place.
Most of the pictures look like old picture (may cause by printing process) . There should be show the strain of Discus available more than this.

I thought this book was well written and I enjoyed reeding it it has lots of coulourful pictures has well has some intresting information about the fish. It does review all the famous discus breeders in singapore and it tells you there methods of rasing perfect discus, it is a good book to have around.

Although this book describes information about Discus pertaining to the Singapore market, you could use it as a general description on how to keep Discus, especially if you are a breeder. It provides you with profiles of successful Discus breeders in Singapore. It also provides pictures of breeding farm setups, Discus diseases, water conditions, and popular Discus strains.

this book had widen mt knowledege OF birds in SIngapore as it had also allow me to take it to the field to actually do study on birds to actually obvserve them in the nature.this book also tach about the behavior and nursing cycle of vairious birds,a ver interesting read for the biginner like me.

This miserable excuse for literature not only provides basic racist dogma but also severely jeopardizes the people who it attempts to serve. I was not only disgusted by this awful and horrific piece of literature but felt truly offended and disgusted to be a human being. After reading this text I question whether Donald Beane's life has any purpose. I hope that the next time he attempts to write a piece of literature he learns the basic tennets of research and common sense.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this book at Amazon and only more satisfied after reading it. Beane and company explore some profound issues not read about in other texts. I can see how the success of the electronic packaging industry has proliferated similar to government sponsored industries in Canada. Recommend this to anyone that wants to know how gov't and industry can successfully synergize.

Finally there is a book which explores why these two countries could make such an impact on the electronics industry in such a relatively short time frame. The infrastructure development for electronics industry by these two countries can be educational to other developing nations. The university-government-industry partnerships model is well presented in this book; this type of information is often overlooked by in other literature.