Two Lives - Vikram Seth book review

I rarely read biographies, definitely not the one which is 500+ pages long. But this book was lying around and I wanted something to read, so I picked it up. The first part is interesting - goes through few years of author's life. Though towards the end I was confused if the book is about the author or about his aunt and uncle.
Finally in second part he starts with story of his uncle's life. After first few pages, it becomes quite draggy. Going into detailed description of the world war, and minute details of Shanti's life. I pretty much skimmed through it. The narrative is somewhat boring and punctured by not so interesting letters / quotes.
Part 3 which is now about details of his Aunt's life holds more promise. Though from the beginning it starts to wander off into description of a Jewish religious book and its content which have no apparent relevance to the biography. It also branches off into life of friends and other relatives. The most annoying part of the book is guesses to how life of Aunt's sister and mother would have been as a Jewish German during WW II. There is no evidence of how the author made those guesses, but they look very much like what you would read in real literature backed by real accounts and letters of people who suffered during this time.

Ok read if you are willing to skip through the draggy parts. Otherwise just a boring draggy account part real part made up. If this was condensed into 200 pages, would have made a good read.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

I picked up this book thinking that either its an alternate plot or its trying to rationalize or use science to show how things in Harry Potter books are possible or not possible and how its not all magic. I am sorry I laid eyes on this book. It does talk about an alternate plot, one where Harry's adopted parents love him, but very soon writer's total lack of creativity shows up making the book unbearable. Writer has tried to sell the book by sensationalizing - 10 year olds plotting crimes and how to get away from that, it made me sick. There is no sense of time in the book, 2 people or 2 objects argue same senseless points till end of world and time does not pass. Everything is completely over-analyzed scientifically to the point that you want to pull your hair out.
Final conclusion - stay away from the book if you value your time.

If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon

Somehow I found this book in my collection left back in India and decided to read it out of boredom. The book turned out to be a surprise, I might or might not have read it earlier, but its a real page turner. It starts out with the central strong female character becoming a victim. As you are reading, its quite clear that you feel her foolish and pretty much expect what's going to happen. Soon though it turns into a real surprise and in the end you have a completely different feeling from when you started. There are of course some naive incidents in the book which you are bound to say - really! it does not happen that way. But then again if everything was totally realistic, then it would not be a work of fiction. So pick up the book and enjoy it, a really good read.

H2G2 - Douglas Adams

What can I say about these books, just read them (with open mind), and then re-read them, and then once more to make any sense out of them, just read them as many times as you can!!

Rama II by Arthur C Clarke

After a long time I have read a book which made me get back to my blog and write a review for it. Its a really good science fiction book about visitors from outer space. The first book of the series Rendezvous with Rama did not impress me so much, but this book is full of surprises. For me it was a good change after reading lot of Asimov. The two authors are really different in their approach, while Asimov believes in spreading human race everywhere, Clark (at least in this series) confines human race to solar system and created very highly intelligent extra terrestrials. If you are into scifi, its a must read, reading the first book might help understand this, but if you haven't you are not missing much.

Analog - SciFinFa magazine

I have always enjoyed SciFi, though till now most of what I have read is Asimov, and I always want to read magazines. So when browsing in the library my eyes fell on this magazine called Analog - Scientific Fiction and Facts, I immediately grabed one. Read a couple of stories from it, very interesting. Short stories are quite different from novels, they have to move fast, and don't drag and usually have one cohesive topic to talk about. I am going to try reading more of them.

The Client - John Grisham

Read John Grisham after a long time, and it was as thrilling as ever. Though I found this book a little less surprising, I guess after reading so many books from the author, I can kind of guess the twists and turns in his story. Still it was a very pleasant read and I could not put the book down before reading it from cover to cover. Very interesting story of a man who first plots to steal lot of money and then plots even more to free himself of all the charges, does he succeed and then end up living the life of a rich man? Does he get away with it? The story is full of crosses and double crosses.

The Lost World - do i have to tell!!

Fianlly managed to get my hands on this book and read it. The book is good, interesting, still did not meet my high expectations, maybe I have read just too many. There are some loop holes in it like an Ihindi movie, but like a hindi movie, its totall interesting and worth the read. Since its such a famous book, there is no point telling what its about, only, its worth a read, so if you are looking for older literature, go ahead, read it up!

2001 A space Odysse - Arthur C. Clark

As ironic as it sounds, the vision of 2001 is good :). I have mostly read Isaac Asimov's books in SciFi and his main theme about space travel is hyperspace etc. This book introduces another concept and its quite interesting, though its still very limiting and does not allow intra-galactic travel. I enjoyed reading the book, it starts out quite slow. You know something is coming, but you turn pages after pages waiting for it, and then there it is with a bang! One thing I found annoying with the book was that it just alludes over the mystery, secret, adventure, without really getting into depths of the mystery. The last few pages are quite action filled though.

A series of unfortunate events

I don't know why I read this book. Everywhere in the book it says that its not a happy book, no happy ending, no happy beginning and nothing happy in between. But that was ok, its a story and tured out to be somewhat interesting. But the writing style us just awful, with each word there is a detour to explain the meaning of the word, real annoying, made me wonder if I am reading a story book or taking a english lesson. The style of writing really makes you feel that its a adult writing for children, making the assumption that they are dumb and do not know anything. I can see that author wants to use difficult words, and then also give the meaning in case dumb children did not understand what the word means, but then why use the word in first place, just use the simpler word instead. That would be a art for writing children's books which the author clearly lacks. I have read other children's books (Harry Potter for instance) and have really enjoyed them, but this one was just awful.

Morning, noon and night - Sidney Sheldon

This is a average novel by Sidney Sheldon, or maybe now that I have read so many, he has become predictable. Its kind of a thriller, takes twists and turns Sheldon style, there are surprises in every chapter. If you decide to spend time to read this book, it will not disappoint you.
Like most Sheldon's novels, its the story of a very rich businessman, his childen, out of wedlock (fancy word!) children, story of rich people's greed for money, betrayal and contented lives of not so wealthy.

Freakonomics

Prey - Michael Crichton

Whiteout - Ken Follet

Another master piece by Ken Follet. I think he is my another favourite author. This book is full of adventure, series of unexpected things, enough to keep you hooked and turning pages. A total no-nonsense book.
Must read.
Other similar fiction by Ken Follet - Third Twin

State of Fear - Michael Chrichton

After a long time I read a book which presents concepts, ideas, which can actually be discussed and I am dying to discuss it!!
Spent the whole weekend reading "State of Fear" by Michael Chrichton, whole day, nothing else. Its quite a interesting book, it started with about being some environmental issues, and huge scale conspiracies and now is drifting towards influence of media on public opinions and stuff, and ended with random ideas by author about how we should 'manage' nature. Of course I have huge problems with the 'manage' concept.
The theme of this book is global warming and other effects of industrialization on global climate. Its a typical thriller by author, measuring up to Jurassic Park. There is also a element of suspense, very well written. Story line is great and proceeds at the exact pace to keep you involved in the book.

The author mentions really interesting facts about effect of media on people in developed worlds. He introduced PLM syndrome (or something) - Politics, Legal and Media. He said that these three things combined create a State of Fear in which most people of developed countries live. The media can create a picture of catastrophe from any smallest of events, and it paints such scary pictures, urging people to be prepared, to be careful, to be scared!! He also mentions the role of legal and politics in continuing that state. I totally agree with that, I can clearly see the difference while watching local news, every news story is amazing, everything is something to be scared of, something to be prepared for. Its these type of stories that keep people's attention and keeps the media profiting.

Towards the end he also throws in lots interesting ideas about what we should do for environment, the ideas I do not agree with. He does not seem to believe in conservation of nature, but in managing the nature. He says that natural balance is all non-sense, and you cannot just leave nature alone and let it recover from any damage that we have done. Though in the beginning he also presented examples on how human beings end up destroying nature by trying to manage it. But later he proposes to create a 'test environemnt', where we can experiment and learn what is the best way to manage nature, something that I totally do not understand.

Its a must must read.

Angels and Deamons - Dan Brown

Another of the typical Dan Brown novels. A thrilling adventure in middle of unknown facts about christanity. The story line is good, there is not a mystery per say as Da Vinci Code, but unknown adventures in each page. It starts somewhat slow as usual, when the professor is explaining same things again and again about the long lost cult Illuminati. But it gets faster once we have past the beginning and things start moving at great speed. Its hard to put down the book when we reach the core of the plot. I spent the whole sunday just sitting and reading, convincing myself that I am too sick to do anything else. The real thrilling story actually ends 100 pages before end of the book. The last 100 pages were a great disappointment to me, its just a endless drag of same statements repeated infinite number of times, some small things happening in vatican after everything is over. Though author has not failed to hide still more surprises in those pages, but the content around those small surprises gets too boring. I would say a must read, but if you are short of time, you will not miss by skipping though the last 100 pages.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams

Just finished another book by Douglas Adams, something about Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Its hard to remember the title itself. And as expected the book is as absurd as HHGG, but atleast in the first reading it does not seem to contain the humour that HHGG had. Its more full of absurdity. Dirk, the detective character has wierd habits like not opening his fridge ever!! Its something to do with different Gods and what they do. I did not get the story line at all. Guess will need to read it a second time to understand anything. Skipped the last few pages, it was just too much nonsense.

Harry Potter series - audio books

There is only one word that I can saw in the review of Harry Potter series. They are simply great, and if you have not read it, then you are missing something great.
The audio books are great if you want to re-read the books.

The Tristan Betrayal - Robert Ludlum

The main plot of this book takes place in Moscow during Stalin's rule. The times are when Hitler is advancing in Europe with full force.
One of the best plotted spy ring novels. There are surprises at every corner. Its the story of a genius spy, bound to keep your attention till the very last. I do not want to say anything more about the book as it might give away the small surprises hidden in every page.
A must read.

Murder at Nob Hill

The title of this book attracted me because it was related to San Francisco, lately I have been feeling that I miss living in that windy foggy city. Anyway, so I started listening to this book thinking that if nothing else, it will be like remembering San Francisco again. But I was totally surprised by the story, what a great mystery it turned out to be. Its one great adventurous book, and the reader has done a great job of immitating various characters. The book is fast moving, events after events happening, and its hard to put down after you have overcome the first few pages. Its just in the beginning that it goes on and on about problem a women lawyer faces in getting herself taken seriously in a man's worked of 1800. But once you are past that, it becomes quite interesting. A enjoyable investment of time according to me.