Books - The Malaysian Insider

Celebrity authors take children’s literature by storm

On October 6, Pharrell Williams – the indisputable king of pop – will release "Happy", a children's book published by Putnam Books for Young Readers. The musician is only the latest star to join...

‘Candy Crush’ keeps the momentum going with book deal

"Candy Crush Saga" is to add books to its ever-expanding franchise, getting in on the success of adult coloring with one of two titles due out this season. Little, Brown is to launch the first...

Lonely Planet releases new children’s travel guide

Lonely Planet is set to release a new collection of travel books created to inspire curiosity and wanderlust in children while they’re still young. In “The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every...

Comic book hero Corto Maltese comes back to life, as suave as ever

Corto Maltese, the debonair sea captain anti-hero of a string of classic graphic novels, is to sail again in a new adventure, 20 years after his Italian creator died. The new book – published...

Page-turner: after sizzling growth, e-book sales cool

Sales of electronic books have turned lower in 2015 in a stark reversal following several years of spectacular growth, an industry group said Wednesday. The Association of American Publishers...

J.K. Rowling shares story of Potter family origins

Pottermore.com on Tuesday revealed a redesigned website and offered up new writing by "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling about the origins of the title character's family. The never-before-seen...

Jackie Collins dies of breast cancer at 77

Jackie Collins, who was famed for novels such as Hollywood Wives and The Stud, has died in Los Angeles of breast cancer. She was 77. “It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of...

Fans flock to honour queen of crime fiction Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie fans have descended on her hometown of Torquay on the English Riviera for the 125th anniversary of the murder master's birth on September 15, as the crime novel enjoys a global...

‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’ passes 200,000 sales in one week

The fourth book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series is flying off the shelves in the US and will debut at the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Despite being the first book in the...

Marvel adds Native American, Korean superheroes

Comic book giant Marvel has added a Native American and a Korean-American teenager to its list of superheroes, pushing forth with its bid to diversify and smash racial boundaries. "The Marvel...

Teen novel prompts first New Zealand book ban in decades

New Zealand censors sparked outrage Monday after banning an award-winning teen novel that includes sex and bullying, making it the first book removed from shelves in more than two...

Harry Potter’s son goes to school, says Rowling

Harry Potter's fictional son will be among the nervous British children making the move to big school this week, novelist J.K. Rowling has told fans in an announcement that made a generation of...

Author Frederick Forsyth reveals his missions for Britain’s MI6

British thriller writer Frederick Forsyth revealed he had conducted missions for intelligence service MI6 in extracts from his autobiography published Sunday. Forsyth, whose bestsellers include...

Oliver Sacks, best-selling author and neurologist, dies at 82

Renowned neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, who explored the mysteries of the human brain in a series of best-selling books, died Sunday at age 82, the New York Times reported. Sacks’s...

‘Hangry’, ‘manspreading’ now in Oxford Dictionaries

After months and, in some cases, years of usage in the streets, office cubicles, homes and at computer screens, the Oxford Dictionaries have finally given legitimacy to words like "hangry",...

Queues in Britain as final Pratchett novel goes on sale

Fans of late British author Terry Pratchett, many in science-fantasy costumes, queued outside bookshops overnight as the final instalment in the Discworld series went on sale Thursday. "The...

Millennium sequel hits bookstores as author admits ‘total fear’

The eagerly-awaited sequel to Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium crime trilogy hit store shelves in 25 countries on Thursday, as the author admitted he wrote the book in a manic depressive...

Tolkien’s first, ‘undeniably darkest’ prose to be published

The first prose piece by "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien is to be published in Britain on Thursday, a version of an epic Finnish poem that experts describe as "undeniably his darkest...

Veil soon lifted on new Millennium thriller

With secret codes and locked-down communication, Swedish publisher Norstedts has kept the plot of the sequel to the best-selling Millennium crime trilogy, due out on Thursday, shrouded in...

White House reveals Obama’s summer reading list

As US President Barack Obama lounged with his family on a Massachusetts beach yesterday, the White House released a list of six books that he took on vacation. The always keenly watched – some...