China is a place full of great history and tradition, so it's no surprise why there are so many excellent works of fiction and non-fiction based on and set in this country. In this episode, Marina revisits the Middle Kingdom through some of her favourite (and not so favourite) books. From tales of life during the Mao regime to the opium war, or just of people in search of better lives, these reads capture the magic of this fascinating nation.

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For booklovers, literary festivals have been the opportunities to meet and listen to authors, to talk about and buy books. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, these festivals that have thrived so much on face-to-face interactions have had to go online or close down. What has this meant for festivals, for authors, publishers and readers? Marina speaks to Lily Yulianti Farid and Pauline Fan, who have organised two of the most successful regional festivals, the Makassar International Writers Festival, and the George Town Literary Festival.

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As a city that's rich in culture, it's no surprise why London has been an inspiration for many books over the years. Whether you can’t get enough of the British capital or have it on your must-visit bucket list, the city does have a certain draw to it. Having studied there (twice), London has a soft place in Marina's heart and in this episode, she takes you on a journey through the swinging city through some of her favourite books.

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In this era full of distressing news, Malaysians always perk up when we hear of our fellow citizens doing well and winning awards. It makes us proud and happy to see our flag being flown high especially by talented young people. Here, Marina speaks to two gifted storytellers doing the Malaysian literary scene proud, Ling Low and Joshua Kam, about what being nominated and winning awards feels like, how important these prizes are, and the future of Malaysian writing.

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Joshua's book debut novel How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World won the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

Ling's latest short story, Weeds is shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and will be published later this year. Her other stories have been featured in Little Basket 2016, Cerpen Terbaik 2016, and Bitter Root Sweet Fruit.

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Latin America is full of literary talents and many of them have left a mark on classic and contemporary literature. Even if you’ve never visited the countries in this region, novelists like Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende allow you to escape the prison of your mind and take flight in somebody else’s. After all, there’s no better way to satisfy your curiosity than with good reading material. In this episode, Marina shares a vast selection of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction works that offer a distinct look into the histories, voices, and views of Latin American authors and the people that inspire their stories.

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As our lives get busier and busier, sitting down to read a book has become harder to do. One solution is audiobooks, which allow us to listen while doing something else: cooking, doing our makeup, sitting in a traffic jam. Newly published books now almost always come in audio form as well, often read by their own authors. Are they the same as print books? Are they the future of ‘reading’? Listen as Marina speaks to bibliophile, author and freelance writer Sharon Bakar as they ponder these questions.

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Journey to Japan with Marina as she reminisces the years when she lived in Tokyo and what it was like for her, as a young woman in the 80s. She also gives us the low-down on some of the country's most well-known and up-and-coming writers that you can read in translation. From classic favourites to more contemporary wordsmiths, and even feminist literary forces, there's a book for everyone. 

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What types of books does our former premier like to read (when he has the time to do so, of course)? Marina sits down for a chat with her father, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a National Reading Icon, about his favourite authors, the books he's written and is working on, and why we should encourage the younger generation to read, especially in English.

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Memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies... Each form of these non-fiction books has its own distinct characteristics and in this episode, Marina takes us through what differentiates them. She also talks about some of her favourite non-fiction books - From Jean McNeil's account of her year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, to Keggie Carew's story of a daughter striving to reclaim her father from the grip of dementia.

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This week, Marina catches up with Pyae Moe Thet War, a classmate from her years studying at the University of East Anglia and a fellow writer. They chat about the books they've read and why they like them, and perhaps whether the cultural issues that arise from Asians (like them) who have studied and lived in the West are worth exploring in their writing.

Pyae is now back in Myanmar and is working on her first book, an essay collection titled You’ve Changed to be published by Catapult in 2022.

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