The Places You Will Go

After Harry

Yes, there is life after Harry Potter ...

Junior Reading Room

The first book in a new trilogy and a ghost story are the two novels featured in today's Junior Reading Room in StarTwo. The other titles are picture books including Barbara Lehman's latest wordless effort and the surreal tale of a dog and his strange encounters of the six-legged kind.

Cut out the coupon (available only in the newspaper) to enjoy 25% discount, on the featured books, at Kinokuniya Bookstore.

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)

Scary Stuff

I interviewed Tunku Halim (left) on Friday and felt like a worm when he said that hardly anyone had reviewed his Children's History of Malaya.

(I interviewed him when that book was first published.)

I squeaked: "I mentioned you in my column."

OK, so it was a very, very brief mention ....

No excuses, so let's just look forward to his new book, 44 Cemetery Road, a compilation of his supernatural shorts.

For what it's worth, I still read CHM to my kids and have recommended it to a couple of home-schooling centres (where it is now used). The book makes history interesting for children. History is, of course, interesting anyway, but most textbooks have an uncanny knack of turning bloody battles, scandals and betrayals, turbulent lives, cruel dictators and courageous people into chunks of boring, lifeless facts. Quite a gift, that!

To get your kids interested in Malayan history, get them CHM.

And check out Tunku Halim's blog Write Lah! Writing for Malaysians.

44 Cemetery Road is due out in April.

Dead and Alive

I'm currently biting my nails over Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is part-detective, part-horror fiction, about a group of scholars investigating the truth behind the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the cruel medieval ruler whose crimes formed the basis of the myth of Dracula.

Reading this book, prompted me to re-read Bram Stoker's Dracula. Coincidentally, two new versions of the classic tale arrived on my desk about a month ago: an illustrated edition, and a graphic novel.

Horror of Horrors! It's the Undead and They're Wearing Ungaro!

Raced through Vampire Beach: Blood Lust (Simon Pulse, 196 pages) by Alex Duvall last night.

It's set in the exclusive world of designer-clad teens a la The Clique, The A-List and Gossip Girl. The only difference is the popular kids here are vampires, which means they are even more terrifyingly perfect than the teens in the other series. Yes, this is the first book in a series.

Check out the tacky cover. It's so ... Miami Vice, or is it The OC? (Malibu Beach is the setting for the story.)

So, how about a series about teenage pontianaks in Sentul Convent? Or hip-hop werewolves in Brickfields? What about zombie mat-rempits in Kajang? I should be cashing in - what the hell's wrong with me?!

Mini Review: Get Spooked - Eerie Tales to Chill Your Bones

GET SPOOKED: EERIE TALES TO CHILL YOUR BONES
By Freaky Nick
Publisher: Times Editions, 142 pages
(ISBN: 9833001068)

What It's About: Get Spooked is a new series of ghost story collections. Each book is supposed to contain stories that stick to a particular theme. Most of the time the themes seem pretty general though, as you can see from the one I've just read.The two collections mentioned in the back of the book are Terrifying Tales Untold (although, now that they're in a book, shouldn't they be Terrifying Tales Told?) and Experience the Unexpected. There's another title, Spirits of the Forest, listed on Amazon.com.

Spook Me, Do!

Popped into the office (don't ask!) and peeped into the book review cupboard. It's almost as bare as Mother Hubbard's - now I know how her poor dog felt!

Well, I managed to find something to check out though. It's one of the books in Times Editions' new Get Spooked series. Hmm ... I wonder if I should get ready to be very, very ... unafraid ...

More Books!

Last night I was handed four books that I've waited more than two years for. I ordered them via Bookfinder.com and, to save on the postage, had them sent to my sister-in-law in California. Well, for one reason or another, they just sat on her bookshelf and never made their way to Malaysia until now. (My parents-in-law were on holiday there last week and brought them back  - they still had their receipts taped to the covers!)

These are the books:

Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary by Pamela Dean

and, by Lillian Stewart Carl,

Ashes to Ashes

Dust to Dust

Garden of Thorns

The Carls are ghost stories. I read Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust when I was 18 (many, many moons ago) and I was so spooked by them that I've wanted to own them eversince (I do like a good ghost story). Garden of Thorns is supposed to be just as scary and the main characters are minor ones in the other two books. By the way, has anyone seen books by Carl in Malaysian bookstores? I've been looking for them for ages and have not been at all lucky.

I'd read and heard lots of good things about the Pamela Dean book, which was why I ordered it, but since then I've also read bad reviews, saying it's, amongst other things, "pretentious", "tedious" and "unbelievably dull". I'll just have to read it and decide for myself.

This morning, I received three books from Headline Books in London:

Maximun City: Bombay  Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta

The Distance Between Us by Maggie O'Farrell

Small Island by Andrea Levy

The book about Bombay looks especially inviting.

I'm just thrilled that a week ago I had nothing to read and now it's just the opposite. I'm really happy. And I'm spending less time playing The Sims 2!

Fangs for the Memories

I really like the review of Bram Stoker's Dracula, posted on Subtext Whore. That's certainly one way of looking at the book! :-)

Must admit, I found it fairly scary when I read it several years ago. I'm curious about Lair of the White Worm - the film, starring Hugh Grant and Amanda Donohoe, was hilarious. Anyone read it? How about doing a Mini Review?

(Download mini_review_form.doc)