Spice of magic added to history

Niki Bruce reviews a new novel about Catherine de Medici, The Devil's Queen.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

A NEW novel about the historic personage of Catherine de Medici shows another side to a woman who has been blamed for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when thousands of Protestants were killed throughout France.

Jeanne Kalogridis' The Devil's Queen traces the life of a young girl, orphaned and taken in by relatives only because of her name and bloodlines. As the great granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Catherine was a valuable trading piece in the politics of the 14th century.

Generally unloved and manipulated by everyone from her distant cousin, Giulio di Giuliano

A zombie book for girls and boys

Niki Bruce reviews The Dead Tossed Waves, a zombie novel with emotion.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

AUTHOR Carrie Ryan burst onto the fantasy scene with The Forest of Hands and Teeth in 2009; it was a zombie novel for girls.

What separates Ryan's work from the usual genre is her ability to not only add romance to a zombie novel, but to also give the reader emotional insight into what it would actually feel like to see your loved ones return as something less than an animal.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth was a

A blueprint for change

Niki Bruce reviews the Blueprint trade show's opening night fashion show.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

THE first night of Audi Fashion Festival in Singapore saw fashion-lovers, fashionistas and people actually in the fashion business tossing up choices.

Should one attend the major "headline" act of DSquared² F/W 2010 at the Tent@Orchard, featuring the work of Canadian cult twins, Dean and Dan Caten, or should one support up-and-coming, regional stars like Bhubawit Kritpholnara (Roj) from Thailand's ISSUE label, at Blueprint?

I chose to attend Blueprint — admittedly because I didn't get an invite to DSquared² — and was

A very scary proposition

Niki Bruce reviews a novel about what could happen if H1N1ever got really bad.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

THIS is one of the scariest books I've read recently, and there's not a single zombie, vampire, genetically modified creature or mass murderer in sight.

Like Stephen Baxter's Flood, The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley is scary because it could really happen. In Flood, global warming destroyed the world; in Buckley's book, bird flu does.

A romantic Regency romp

Niki Bruce reviews Stephanie Laurens' latest romance novel, The Elusive Bride.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

STEPHANIE Laurens is one of Australia's most popular romance fiction authors, in fact, she's been voted the country's favourite romance author at least once.

In The Elusive Bride, Laurens continues the intrigue and romance begun in The Untamed Bride, the first book in her new The Black Cobra Quartet.

Just about all Laurens' books are set in Regency England — lots of dashing heroes, feisty maidens and talk about a "well-turned leg", highwaymen and inheritances. Exactly the right ingredients for fabulous historical novels.

A few chords short of a symphony

Marc Checkley reviews Andrew Lloyd Webber’s newest musical.

By Marc Checkley
Copy Editor
cmarc@sph.com.sg

 

I DECIDED to let the pandemonium quieten down and the grumbling of some die-hard "phans" (Phantom of the Opera fans) to cease, before I reviewed the soundtrack to Andrew Lloyd Webber's anxiously awaited sequel to his 1986 hit The Phantom of the Opera (POTO).

I will state upfront that POTO is my favourite of all West-End musicals and its opening — on my tenth birthday in 1986 — also ignited an enduring love affair (strictly musical of course) with popera diva Sarah Brightman.

So, when Lloyd Webber, 62, announced, in the earlier part of

On the horns of a dilemma

Niki Bruce reviews Joe Hill’s latest horror novel, Horns.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

AH... the indomitable author Joe Hill returns. There is a lyrical quality to Hill's version of horror, a touch of poetry in not only his prose but also his plots and twists.

With Horns, Hill brings us Iggy – a young man, like many other young men in the world. Iggy is in a rut, he's given up on the promise of his youth, he's eking out what life he has left with an accidental girlfriend, a distant family and a heavily embedded pain in his heart where his "one true love"

Veterans are simply the best

Loh Keng Fatt thinks veteran acts make for the best experiences.

By Loh Keng Fatt
Copy Editor
kengfatt@sph.com.sg

 

DRUM roll please... for veteran singers who always go the extra mile.

Why, they will even freeze in midsong, just so that you can take a photo with them.

Indeed, that was what happened in an Air Supply gig here some years back. Vocalist Russell Hitchcock was wading through the crowd when he was waylaid by a fan who wanted a picture taken.

Through the dark looking-glass

Niki Bruce looks at another, darker, version of Alice in Wonderland in a new book.

By Niki Bruce
Online Editor, herworld.com
niki@sph.com.sg

 

A TIMELY release considering Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film, Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin is a fascinating look at the little girl who was the source of the imaginary child, and what became of her as she grew to womanhood.

Benjamin is actually a pseudonym for Melanie Hauser, an American author who has written a couple of contemporary books – Confessions of a Super Mom and Super Mom Saves the World. Alice

Nothing new, everything old

Carolyn Hong is charmed by Penang's Amelie Café where almost everything is recycled.

By Carolyn Hong
Malaysia Bureau Chief
carolynh@sph.com.sg

 

IN GEORGE TOWN (Penang) THE best thing about walking around George Town is the eclectic unpredictability of its old town centre.

You will find a mosque squashed in between a coffee shop and a bakery, or a Chinese temple sandwiched between the shops of a mechanic and a shoemaker.

On Armenian Street which is fast becoming gentrified, you'll still find a messy old-fashioned ceramics store, a traditional shoe-maker, a guild, an ornate Chinese temple, and the meltingly quaint Amelie Café.