Top Ten Books to Read to Get in The Halloween Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is an original concept started by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday a specific bookish topic will be discussed in the blog community. It’s a great way to encourage people to talk about books and to introduce book-loving bloggers to one another.

Today’s topic is ‘Top Ten Books to Read to Get in The Halloween Spirit’. Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of 31st of October.  The word Halloween is short for All Hallows’ Evening, also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve. Did you know that Pagans too celebrate the Day of the Dead also known as Samhain (pronounced ‘sow’inn’)? If you would like to read more about Halloween, visit this link.

Here are my book suggestions for this Halloween/Samhain. Kindly take note that these books are available for rent at SS Readers Corner!

Local folklore

I selected these books because they feature local ghosts who are usually known to be restless spirits. If you enjoy watching Thai horror movies, then you may like these books.

‘Nightmares’ series by Pugalenthi

Local horror stories available for rent

‘True Singapore Ghost Stories’ series by Russell Lee

Be spooked by these ghost stories!

Children’s books

This collection is for those who are nostalgic and/or would like to introduce the series to their own children. Mr Midnight series is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore that they outsold Harry Potter series at one time.

‘Mr Midnight’ series by James Lee

‘Mr Midnight’ books for rent

‘Spookville’ by Christopher Pike

Christopher Pike for young readers

Based on television shows

These shows are my favourite tv shows when I was a teenager. If you don’t know anything about it, read this short summary. The shows featured a lot of  supernatural elements such as vampires, werewolf, witches, demons, alternate world etc.

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ series

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

‘Angel’ series

‘Ange’, a spinoff of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

Paranormal romance

Our paranormal romance section features authors such as Sherilyn Kenyon, Kresley Cole, Nalini Singh, Lyndsay Sands and Charlaine Harris. Sherilyn Kenyon’s books features demons and shapeshifters while Kresley Cole writes about vampires, witches and also demons.

Book series by Sherilyn Kenyon

Check out these books by Sherilyn Kenyon

‘Immortals after Dark’ series by Kresley Cole

Our collection of Kresley Cole’s books

General fiction

‘Doctor Sleep’ by Stephen King

This book is last year’s winner of Goodreads Choice Award in the horror genre. ‘Doctor Sleep’ is the sequel to ‘The Shining’ whereas ‘Odd Thomas’ is about a young man who is able to see dead people.

‘Doctor Sleep’, a sequel to ‘The Shining’

‘Odd Thomas’ series by Dean Koontz

‘Odd Thomas’ by Dean Koontz

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What are your favourite spooky reads? Share your comments and/or list in the comment box below so I could read and comment on your chosen books.

Happy Halloween/Merry Samhain!

Benefit of renting books: #7 Avoid buying books you don’t read

In Malaysia, a book in mass-market paperback format costs RM35 on average. Once in awhile, there are several book clearance sales in the country. During these sales, that same book could be sold as low as RM5.

Most book-lovers go into book-buying frenzy. They bring boxes or trolley bags to the venue so imagine the amount of books that they purchase!

Few customers told Mr Sam (store owner) that they keep buying books even though they have not completed reading all of the previous year’s purchase. Some even own books that have been sitting on bookshelves for years!

So instead of buying books you don’t read, why don’t you rent books at SS Readers Corner? You only pay 25% of its retail price if you return the book before its due date (it’s usually 90-days rental).

Visit our store to find out more about our book collection.

A book clearance sale in Kuala Lumpur

ps: This is a serial of blog posts to encourage people to borrow/rent books. Find out more about this blog serial by clicking the tag ‘Series’.

Top Ten Childhood Favourites

The Broke and the Bookish hosts a weekly meme called ‘Top Ten Tuesday‘. It aims to: 1) encourage people to talk about books and 2) introduce book-loving bloggers to one another.

Instead of writing about ‘Top New Series I Want To Start’, I would like to post something that promotes SS Readers Corner this week. Therefore I have chosen to take an old topic and write about ‘Childhood Favourites’. Here are 10 children’s books that are available at this book rental store!

‘A Series of Unfortunate Event’ series by Lemony Snicket

Our collection of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ books

‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ series by C.S. Lewis

Complete set of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ in our store

‘Artemis Fowl’ series by Eoin Colfer

‘Artemis Fowl’ collection

Books by Enid Blyton 

Enid Blyton for rent

Books by Terry Pratchett

Our collection of Terry Pratchett books

‘Septimus Heap’ series by Angie Sage

‘Septimus Heap’ available in our store

‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens

Our classics collection

Books by Jacqueline Wilson

Books by Jacqueline Wilson

‘Nancy Drew’ series by Carolyn Keene

‘Nancy Drew’ books available for rent

‘The Hardy Boys Casefiles’ series by Franklin W. Dixon

Have a look at our Young Readers bookshelf. Call Mr Sam if you are looking for a specific children’s book.

What are your childhood favourites? If you have written about this post before, share your links below.

New arrivals – 28/09/2014

Dear customers,

These books are new arrivals at the store:

Title	Author	Genre
The Courier	Andrew Britton	Thriller
Blood Lies	Richard Marcinko & Jim DeFelice	Thriller
The October List	Jeffery Deaver	Thriller
Run to You	Rachel Gibson	Contemporary romance
What I Love about You	Rachel Gibson	Contemporary romance
Dangerous Refuge	Elizabeth Lowell	Romantic suspense
The Earl’s Mistress	Liz Carlyle	Historical romance

Please call Mr Sam if you would like to borrow the book(s).

Thriller books: The Courier’ by Andrew Britton & ‘Blood Lies’ by Richard Marcinko & Jim DeFelice

Thriller: Jeffrey Deaver’s ‘The October List

Romance: Elizabeth Lowell’s ‘Dangerous Refuge’ & Liz Carlyle’s ‘The Earl’s Mistress’

Rachel Gibson’s books: ‘Run To You’ & ‘What I Love about You’

Benefits of renting books: #6 Improve English proficiency

‘Bahasa Malaysia’ is the national language in Malaysia. English and Mandarin are widely spoken, particularly in main cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Education First’s English Proficiency Index listed Malaysians as highly proficient English speakers. Yet recently several people have noted that English proficiency of Malaysian university graduates are quite low (read articles written by The Sun, Lok Wing Kong and/or BA Hamzah for more details). As a result, these graduates become unemployable in the English-medium private sector (‘Bahasa Malaysia’ is the medium of instruction in the government sector).

There are many ways to improve one’s English language skill. One of the ways is to read (click here to see other strategies).

Out of 28,000 books stored in SS Readers Corner, majority of them are written in English. I asked my friend, who is an English graduate, to recommend books for English as Second Language (ESL) learners. She suggested these titles:

• ‘Harry Potter series’ by J.K. Rowling
• ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger
• ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis
• ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon
• ‘Anne of Green Gables’ by L.M. Montgomery
• ‘Peter Pan’ by J.M. Barrie
• ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll
• ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Johnathan Swift

Even though these titles are categorised as young adult and children’s books, the language deployed in each book is rich. The plot has substance hence making it appealing to adults and teenagers.

We have the complete set of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ in our store

Some of the suggested books are available from SS Readers Corner. Visit our store to rent the books and work on improving your English proficiency.

ps: This is a serial of blog posts to encourage people to borrow/rent books. Click on the number to read previous posts: #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5.

New Arrivals – 07/09/2014

Here is a list of newly arrived books at our store:

Title	Author	Genre
Cross My Heart	James Patterson	Mystery
Mistress	James Patterson	Mystery
Dexter’s Final Cut	Jeff Lindsay	Mystery
Dust	Patricia Cornwall	Mystery
Hunted	Karen Robards	Romantic suspense
The Unpredictable Consequences of Love	Jill Mansell	Chick lit

Head to the store if you’d like to rent any of these books.

Mystery genre: ‘Cross My Heart’; ‘Mistress’ (both by James Patterson); Dexter’s Final Cut (by Jeff Lindsay)

Karen Robards’s Hunted & Patricia Cromwell’s Dust

‘The Unpredictable Consequences of Love’ by Jill Mansell

New Arrivals – 30/08/2014

Dear Customers,

Sorry for the lack of updates on newly arrived books this month. I was only able to visit the store a few days ago.

Here is a list of new arrivals at SS Readers Corner:

Title	Author	Genre
Dark Lycan	Christine Feehan	Paranormal romance
Hotshot	Julie Garwood	Romantic suspense
Possession	J.R. Ward	Paranormal romance
The Valley of Amazement	Amy Tan	Historical fiction
How the Scoundrel Seduces	Sabrina Jeffries	Historical romance
Doctor Sleep	Stephen King	Horror
Tuesdays with Morrie	Mitch Albom	Non-fiction
Natchez Burning	Greg Iles	Thriller
Vixen in Velvet	Loretta Chase	Historical romance
Unbreakable	Stephanie Tyler	Romantic suspense
The Kill Order	James Dashner	Young adult
The Scorch Trials	James Dashner	Young adult
The Maze Runner	James Dashner	Young adult

Most of the books are on rent so I couldn’t take photos of the book except for the ones below. If you would like to rent any of the new books, please contact Mr Sam for their availability.

Have a good weekend!

James Dashner: The Kill Order (the prequel), The Scorch Trials (#2) & The Death Cure (#3)

John Green’s Paper Towns is coming to big screen next year!

Fans of John Green‘s work, get excited! Paper Towns will be adapted into a movie!!! If you have not read the book, here is a synopsis:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life — dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues — and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

‘Paper Towns’ by John Green

The screenplay for ‘Paper Towns’ will be written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. Their previous works include ‘(500) Days of Summer’, ‘The Spectacular Now’ and ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. Nat Wolff has been cast as Quentin Jacobsen. Those who have watched ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ movie might have noticed Nat’s short-but-brilliant performance as Isaac.

The movie is set to be released in USA tentatively on 31st of July 2015. For more details of the movie development, visit this Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page.

If you have not read the book, why not buy/borrow/rent it before the movie release? Book lovers in KL & Selangor, make your way to our store if you’d like to rent a copy.

Love, Rosie out in Malaysian cinemas on 23rd of October

In 2007, Cecelia Ahern‘s novel ‘P.S. I Love You’ was adapted into a movie. Good news to Ms Ahern’s fans: her novel ‘Where Rainbows End’ has followed suit. The movie adaptation is titled ‘Love, Rosie’ and set to be released this October.

Same story but different covers & titles – ‘Where Rainbows End’ (UK title) & ‘Love, Rosie’ (US title)

If you don’t know much about the book (and movie), here is a brief description:

Rosie and Alex – best friends or soulmates?

Since childhood, Rosie and Alex have stuck by each other through thick and thin. But they’re suddenly separated when Alex and his family move from Dublin to America.

Their magical connection remains but can their friendship survive the years and miles?

Misunderstandings, circumstances and sheer bad luck have kept them apart – until now. But will they gamble everything – including their friendship – on true love? And what twists and surprises does fate have in store for them this time…?

Plot looks good, right? If you haven’t read the book, you could rent it from SS Readers Corner. Please check with Mr Sam for its availability!

Anyway here is a teaser trailer.

‘Love, Rosie’ will be screened in Malaysia tentatively on 23rd of October 2014. The UK gets a slightly earlier release date, 22nd October 2014. Click here to check the international release dates of the movie.

For latest news on the movie, check out the official Facebook page and Twitter.

‘The Giver’ out in Malaysian cinemas on 4th of September

Last week, I wrote about the anticipation of ‘The Maze Runner’ movie. Those who are fans of Young Adult and/or dystopia genre(s), kindly take note. There is another book-to-movie adaptation that will be out next month: ‘The Giver’.

Here is a brief description of the book plot:

Jonas’ world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

SS Readers Corner has a copy of ‘The Giver’. If you would like to rent and read it, please drop us a visit.

‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry

‘The Giver’ will be released in Malaysian cinemas on 4th of September 2014. Press the ‘play’ button to watch the trailer.

For more information on the movie, visit the official website and/or Twitter.