The Places You Will Go

Reading Room

This week's Reading Room features books about cops and robbers, vampires and sperm donors. The usual 25% discount at Kinokuniya applies with the coupon (only in StarTwo).

A Sensitive and Humorous Portrayal ...

I'm certain that i'm very guilty of repeating myself in book and music reviews, using "favourite" phrases and words to help me say what I want about a book/CD. It's only mildly comforting to know that I am not the only one guilty of it.

Read this article in The Telegraph, about cliches that crop up in book reviews. How many of them have you used?

Pictures Save the Day

First published on 8th March, 2002 in StarTwo

Review by DAPHNE LEE

ONCE

By James Herbert

Publisher: Macmillan, 400

(ISBN: 978-0333761403)

Teen Misfits to the Fore

Originally published on Sunday, 6th February, 2005 in StarMag.

CHASING VERMEER

By Blue Balliett

Illustrated by Brett Helquist

Publisher: Scholastic

(ISBN: 978-0439372947)

True to Barrie's Pan

Tots to Teens

Star Mag, 15th October 2006

Clippety Clop

Kate Thompson's The Fourth Horseman (Bodley Head) is reviewed by Adele Geras in the Guardian Unlimited.

Between Angst and Boredom

Review of Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton

Star Mag

2nd July 2006

Retail Therapy

I was feeling very depressed today so I thought I'd cheer myself up by spending the book vouchers that I received for my birthday.

I bought Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett.

And Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain and Tim to the Rescue by Edward Ardizzone.

And, yes, I feel much happier now.

I've wanted to own the Ardizzones for more than 10 years, ever since I borrowed them from the Eastbourne Public Library. There are several more books in the Tim series. Kino has five titlesl and they would have cost me about RM300 so I just chose two and got the Pratchetts as well.

I have been trying to resist Pratchett because there are just too many Discworld books to get (if I like a book I have to own it). However, as I got rather attached to the Discworld witches when I read Wee free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, I decided that I had to have more. Edward got me two (Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters) for my birthday and I found one (Maskerade) in a flea market in Australia - so that was cheap and easy! The two I got today complete my collection of Discworld books that feature witches. Yay!!

Funke Fantasy

If you liked Cornelia Funke's Inkheart, Inkspell is the second book in the trilogy Funke claims she never planned.

Read The Times Online's review here.

In Inkheart, Mo, a restorer of books, has the ability to read stories into existence and characters out of their paper-and-ink worlds into ours. In Inkspell, Mo's daughter Meggie, barely recovered from past events, goes on another unforgettable adventure when she is read into the pages of the book that started all the problems in the first place.   

Ardizzone, as Good as New

I just found out that Edward Ardizzone's Little Tim series has been reissued! This is cause for celebration!

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, Tim to the Rescue were reissued in October last year. Tim and Lucy Go to Sea will be out in March and three more (Tim All Alone, Tim and Charlotte and Tim in Danger) are due in April! Yayyy!!

Last year also saw the reissue of the Nurse Matilda books, which were illustrated by Ardizzone. Carry on reading for my review that appeared in Star Mag a week ago.