Book review: Carissa Foo's Almost A Love Story is more literary than lusty
Fiction/Epigram Books/Paperback/233 pages/$20.90
The qualifier 'Almost' in the title is fair warning that this is not your average romance. Singaporean author Carissa Foo's fourth novel offers a meta, nested narrative that is more literary than lusty.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Straits Times
Registration open for tickets to free SG60 exhibition
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox 'Wheels of Time' traces the evolution of how Singaporeans connect, from handwritten letters to the digital age. SINGAPORE - A national exhibition that will use immersive storytelling and generative AI to create personalised experiences for each visitor will open its doors at Orchard Library on Aug 26 and run till end-2025. A flagship event to mark Singapore's diamond jubilee, the SG60 Heart&Soul Experience is now open for ticket booking at . Admission is free, and access to the ticketed experience is available on a first-come, first-served basis. New ticket slots will be released at the first of each month for the following month. For example, those keen on October tickets can book them from Sept 1. Besides choosing their preferred date and time, visitors have to provide their name, email contact and preferred language. They will also be asked to upload a photo to create their avatar, or choose one from a curated library. They will then receive a confirmation email with their free e-tickets. The ticketed experience, available in four official languages, runs for approximately 60-90 minutes, and is recommended for visitors aged 7 and above. It is held at the Orchard Library on levels 3 and 4 of Orchard Gateway from 9am to 6pm on Mondays, and from 9am to 10pm from Tuesdays to Sundays. Members of the public can also enjoy a non-ticketed series of installations on the ground floor atrium of Orchard Central and Orchard Gateway from 9am to 10pm daily. The exhibition brings together a rich set of materials from NLB's collections as well as from more than 110 partners from the public, private and people sectors. All the content was put into a dataset, which was further processed into character archetypes and story scenes. Based on each visitor's shared information, gen AI will create a unique 25-second trailer that shows possible versions of his future. Jointly developed by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the National Library Board (NLB), Heart&Soul is meant to commemorate both the Republic's 60th birthday and NLB's 30th anniversary. The exhibition's executive creative director, NLB chief librarian Gene Tan, said he hopes every Singaporean will find his place in the future of Singapore, and be emotionally connected to it. 'This is an exhibition that is based on you, inspired by you, and unique to you. And it changes each time you come to the show,' he said. About 400,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition, which will run till Dec 31. Chin Soo Fang is senior correspondent at The Straits Times covering topics such as community, politics, social issues, consumer, culture and heritage.
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
Chloe Chua and SSO's latest album hits No. 1 on Apple Music's classical music charts
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox This is the second time an album by Chloe Chua and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has topped Apple Music's classical music chart. SINGAPORE – Singaporean violinist Chloe Chua's new album Mozart: Violin Concertos has reached the No. 1 spot on Apple Music's global Classical Top 100 charts. The album, recorded with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) under the baton of Hans Graf, also reached No. 5 on the United Kingdom's Official Specialist Classical Chart. The album was released on July 18. This is the second time Chua and the SSO have snagged the top spot. The first was in August 2024, with their recording of Butterfly Lovers Concerto & Paganini, which was released on July 26, 2024. The SSO has been steadily clocking new achievements with recordings and tours post-pandemic. In 2023, its recording of film composer Bernard Herrmann's Suite From Wuthering Heights: Echoes For Strings debuted at No. 5 on the UK's classical music chart , the first time it cracked the Official Specialist Classical Chart's coveted top five spots. Chua and the SSO bettered that achievement when Butterfly Lovers reached No. 4. The orchestra also went on a sold-out three-city tour in Australia in February. Singapore Symphony Group chief executive officer Kenneth Kwok says: 'This achievement is further proof that our national orchestra and Singapore classical music talents are gaining global attention, and able to compete on the international stage. 'We are especially proud of this recognition in a field that is dominated by orchestras with a much longer tradition and history. When we made the BBC Music Magazine's world's top orchestras list in 2022, we were one of the two youngest and only two Asian orchestras.' Mozart: Violin Concertos teams Chua with Chinese violinist Ziyu He, a fellow alumnus of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. The recording includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Rondos, K. 269 and K. 373, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364. In a four-starred review of the recording, British newspaper The Guardian noted that Chua holds attention with her 'notably mature' interpretations, which are 'balanced, considered and never trying too hard'. The review added: 'Everything Chua plays has a clean, focused tone, an unfailingly elegant turn of phrase and a quiet wit.' Chua will be performing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the SSO at the Esplanade Concert Hall on Aug 21 and 22. Tickets are sold out, but additional seats in the choir gallery have been released.
AsiaOne
a day ago
- AsiaOne
Daily Roundup: Punggol Coast Hawker Centre opens, look out for a few notable brands — and other top stories today, World News
Stay in the know with a recap of our top stories today. 1. Punggol Coast Hawker Centre just opened, look out for names like Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee and South Buona Vista Braised Duck Live in the north-east? There's a new dining venue option for you to check out — Punggol Coast Hawker Centre. The 576-seater space, located within Punggol Digital District, opened its doors to the public last Friday (July 25), announced Kopitiam, which manages the venue... » READ MORE 2. 'We will not tolerate it': Car wash operators serving only Singapore vehicles risk losing business licences, says Johor govt Local authorities in JB have been instructed to revoke the business licences of car wash operators who refuse to serve locals and cater exclusively to foreign customers, including those driving Singapore-registered cars. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Johor Property Expo 2025 at Angsana Johor Bahru Mall on Thursday (July 24), State Housing and Local Government Committee Chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said he viewed such behaviour seriously... » READ MORE 3. Parents scatter joss paper outside door after daughter, 21, refuses to leave boyfriend's Toa Payoh flat When their daughter did not return home as agreed, the upset parents visited the boyfriend's home in Toa Payoh to pick her up but got into a physical conflict with him. They returned to the flat the following afternoon and scattered joss paper in front of the unit in hopes the boyfriend would open the front door, reported Shin Min Daily News... » READ MORE 4. 'I was just a very silly father': Jet Li, dad of 4, reflects on parenting Jet Li got candid about fatherhood in two videos uploaded to his Xiaohongshu profile on July 24 and 25. The 62-year-old China-born action star, who has been Singaporean since 2009, said the meaning of parenting changed for him throughout the years... » READ MORE editor@
