The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

This book is an absolutely riveting murder mystery. It has a special place in my memory as I read it while I was in S.Korea, mostly nestled in a cafe completely engrossed. The first chapter was a bit of a drag and you wonder where its leading. Mikael Blomkvist's career is tarnished and he seems to be doomed. How the Swedish financial journalist ends up with the job of solving a murder case, four decades old, in collaboration with Lisbeth Salander a social outcast and a mystery in herself - forms the story. What makes it more interesting is the Swedish backdrop. The characters and the chemistry between them is all very unique that way. Its a tad bit too brutal but my mother read it and she survived. :-)

Did you know that these book series were published posthumously? Alas, the author did not see how popular he became with his books.

Day6: Favorite Books

Thanks to Lopa, I am going to give the Marathon Blogger's August Marathon a shot. I have missed out the first 5 days. But who knows, maybe 6 is my lucky number. Today's topic is Favorite Books.

This is a tricky one. There are so many genres and the list of favorite books is ever growing. But I am going to list the top 5 that come my mind.

The first one is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I remember reading this book twice when I was 13-14. And it was quite a miracle because I never like to read the same book twice. But what was even more amazing was that I read this book 15 years later, quite recently and was still as breathless as I was when I had read it for the first time. Ooh Darcy! Sighhhh! I am just born in the wrong era perhaps!

The second is the Harry Potter series. The books opened up a Pandora's box I believe not just for me but for the whole world. Suddenly fantasy novels became quite the rage for people of all ages. For me it was like traveling to an alternate universe. I read so much of fantasy after this that at some point I had to stop myself and wake up to reality :-)

The third in this list is Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle. Its funny how I lay my hands on his work. Thanks to the guy who forgot his book in a train. I have read and admired many many murder mysteries of all kind (Agatha Christie is very close second), but Sherlock is just thoroughly captivating.

" I swear by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine" ~ famous quote from the book

I remember writing a long essay after reading this book (when I was 19-20), part bashing the author and part analyzing and agreeing to what Ayn Rand says in Atlas Shrugged. And this essay was not even a school assignment. So it being written definitely means something. It left a deep impact on me. 

I am still reading this one, but I already know that this book will stick in my mind for a long time. Its a very very intriguing look into the life of Steve Jobs. 

And that completes my list! I know when I wake up tomorrow I may not agree to this list as being the top five at all. So before I change my mind, I am going to hit the publish button! 

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

I have not read George Orwell's "1984", so I wouldn't know what kind of a take Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 is of the classic, but of its own, 1Q84 can stand alone and be proud of itself. I decided to read this ginormous work of Murakami after reading some glorious reviews of this famous Japanese author.

The book is a twisted fantasy/love story in 3 books. Tengo, an upcoming author (who might never really make it) and Aomame, a fitness expert (and a hired hitman with serious issues) are probably as mundane and as twisted as any other Jack and Jill in this world. A mere fraction of their childhood together seems to have left an indelible mark on both of them and while they live completely oblivious of each other, the strange plot of the story brings them inch by inch closer.

This is no vampire/Harry Potter sort of fiction (though I love those too!). It  has a plot that slowly creeps into the real world and you are left wondering initially "What the ?". As you read on the story pulls you along until you really cannot make out between the real and the alternate world.

Strangely enough my favorite character of this book is the absolute bad guy Ushikawa. What a classic!

It is a one of a kind read which I must warn though requires some level of patience. I can bet you on one thing though.  After reading this book, the next time you look up into the night sky, you will actually look for the other moon, somehow waiting for it pop up somewhere!  :)

Watchmen - Alan Moore (Illustration - Dave Gibbons)

I got this book at random will just to read something light and easy. Boy was I surprised at the outcome! Watchmen is on the list of Time's top 100 novels of all times and I was not disappointed.

Imagine a bunch of costumed super-heroes. One would immediately think of Spidey and Batty and the lot. What happens to them as they grow old though? What happens if Spidey and Batty got into a fight? Or if they just got bored of their job? Well Watchmen is a story of such super heroes and their lives outside of just being great and strong and all goody goody. It is about their weaknesses, vulnerabilities and their not so super heroic sides. The story is set in the 1980s about an impending World War III and how our super heroes save the day yet again..or do they actually? That is the question.

I simply loved the novel and just couldn't put it down. And the graphics! Rich graphics! It just enhances the reading experience so much. I must say that in some sense it limits your mind by already feeding it with images but its just a different experience altogether.  I am not sure if the subject as such is everybody's cup of tea, but just give it a shot.

Grab the book! The only question I have is where can I find more???  

Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

This book had been in much discussion in 2010 so decided to pick it up from the library. I read it within two 5 hour flight trips I took recently - which is rarity  these days as I seem to be reading multiple books for several months together with no signs of completing most of them soon :).

The author talks about her own real life in this book. Liz Gilbert has everything that a woman of her age could possibly want - a husband, a house and a career. Somewhere in her mid-life though she begins to wonder whether if all this is what she actually wants or has she been living a life that the society accepts as "normal" enough. A messy divorce and a messier affair later, she decides to take a break from everything.

Liz sets off to three countries - Italy, India and Indonesia over a period of a year to get a new perspective of things. In Italy she discovers the pleasure of food and as the Italians say the "art of doing nothing", in India she spends all her time in an Ashram where she meditates for inner peace and in Indonesia she looks to bring a balance between a normal life while holding on to her spiritual side. How she completes the journey forms the crux of the book.

The book is fascinating in several ways. Liz feels the pulse of the world and her descriptions of places are not "tourist book" type, rather on how she relates to a place/person making things really interesting. I found the India part of her book quite interesting. Her experiences with meditation and prayers are intriguing though I must warn you if you are someone how thinks meditation is an excuse for people to sleep longer, then some details may actually help you get initiated into "meditation" :). If Bali is as beautiful as the author describes, I would want to live there someday!

A good dose of "spiritual/wake up call" book of modern times.  

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

One other book I purchased at Dubai Airport was The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It is a co-incidence that out of the 3 books I purchased, 2 had tigers on their cover and 1 had a dog..:). This one though has nothing to do with an actual tiger as such.

Winner of 2008 Man booker Prize, The White Tiger in the story is Balram Halwai a school drop out who wants to make something out of his life. The story's narration is so absolutely straight forward and honest about the way parts of India is today that I sometimes hope the author is exaggerating - simply Brutal! Balram Halwai or Munna is a smart kid, but as in all cruel stories, he is forced to drop out of school and get into the work force to help his family survive.

As he just slightly climbs the ladder in life, he realizes how years of servitude towards rich landlords makes slavery still seem almost honorable and natural to him. Working as a car driver to his masters in Delhi, the stark difference between life in his village and the country capital jumps right out at him. But the irony is not lost on him as his life style is still at the same level - that of a lowly servant.

Desperation forces this village simpleton to do the unimaginable. Worse still he changes into one of the Them and regrets nothing.

An eye opener in some sense. A scary image of India I must say!

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

I purchased a few books on impulse at the Dubai Airport while traveling to India. One of them was Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize.

This is one of the books that I had seen so often in book stores that I decided that the book must be worth the money. It is sort of hard to classify the book into a specific category. In wide terms the story is on adventure, religion, zoology, zoo keeping, India and small extents of Canada. :) Yes it is that diverse! In small ways I am even reminded of a Paul Coelho's way of writing.

The story begins with Pi Patel an Indian teenager born in a liberal minded family, who strangely though is ardently religious. Not just on Hinduism but also on Islam and Christianity. Pi lives in a zoo owned by his father in Pondicherry. While his parents struggle to cope with Pi's strange belief's, situations force them to migrate to Canada. As the whole family crosses the Pacific on a cargo ship along with their zoo animals, the ship sinks. All that remains in a life boat are Pi, a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and Richard Parker - a 450pound Bengal tiger.

The rest of the story is about how Pi beats the odds and survives his cast away life for 227 days! The final version of his story though is heart wrenching.

Life of Pi made quite some impression on me. I even had tigers in my dream for a couple of nights :). I can actually re-read this book. Good one!

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

One of the books my father urged me to read. You will like it if you are the 'Da Vinci Code' reading sort of person. Robert Langdon ( the same geeky guy from Da Vinci code) takes us on an incredible adventure again, this time across Washington DC. I would have never known so much history existed in the capital of United States of America.

Dan Brown talks about Freemasonry and Neotic Science in detail. The crux of the book is to understand spirituality in a scientific manner. Okie, I already see people giving the raised eyebrow look. :) Thankfully he delivers very well in a fast paced, nail biting story line.

Fast read!

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseni

Undoubtedly one of the best books I have read in a long long time. Narrated in simple language, the book revolves around the life of two Afghani women and their fight for life's fundamental issues.

The story's background begins even before the days of the Soviet war in Afghanistan when the Mujahideen is seen as a nationalistic group, out there to oust the foreign enemies, to the rise of the Talibans and finally to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the current coalition government. The story feeds at periodic intervals, the troubled history of the country and the injustices of war - the people killied, the families torn apart and most of all the apathy of the women in their country.

Amidst all this are two women - Mariam, to whom the only thing life has ever taught is to endure and Laila who's surprisingly liberal family and childhood love have all been nurtured to only be crushed brutally. How the two disparate women's life intermingle and how together they win over their circumstances in life is put in such explicit and sometimes heart breaking detail that you almost pray for them towards the end.

All I can say is that I feel blessed after reading this book. I am so lucky to be me. To think that such stories are a reality in some part of the world, put a few things in perspective to me.

A must read for every woman and more so for a man.

Twilight, New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

God, when will I get over such books! I simply loooove fantasy books, to the extent that I sometimes wish I lived in that world! haha! These books are definitely not comparable to the Harry Potter series, but nevertheless, such a wonderful page turner. I devour such books in 2-3 days..:)..The story is so elegantly simple. It revolves around two young people madly in love with each other. There is only one glitch! one of them is a vampire! This is where the narration skills of the author come into play. The whole book (especially the first one - Twilight) is all about conversations between Bella and Edward - and the author so beautifully builds it up on that. The chemistry between them is magical!

I still have two more in the series to go. Hope they maintain the tempo. I keep telling myself that I should not spend so much time reading such books..hey what the heck! everybody has some weaknesses! ;)

Go for it fantasy lovers! :D

Death in the Clouds - Agatha Cristie

As ever, Agatha Cristie's books have such thrilling story lines that keeps you guessing till the end. I used to LOVE her work as a teenager and have read most of her books. This one is about a murder committed in a plane. I realized though that I actually got a little smarter, I could make a few reasonable guesses of the murderer. :)

A murder mystery, how it is supposed to be!

Lipstick Jungle - Candace Bushnell

From the author of the novel turned popular TV show - Sex and the City, the book failed to deliver anything to me. So if you are a rich, driven and smart woman you can do anything (ya, you no longer need to be a man to do crazy stuff)! The book is about 3 successful career driven woman and how they win in their lives. It seemed all to predictable and boring frankly. Some sort of continuation of Sex and the city.

yaaawn!

The Mistress of Spices - Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

Aaaagh! what was the author thinking? I love fantasy books! I can delve in fantasy lands. But this one was too much even for me. I will absolutely not see the movie made out of it (appreciate the sheer guts of the producer!). A woman with magical powers that give her control over the spices!An American falls in love with her! End of story! who cares!

If there is no other book left in the world read it!

The Death of Vishnu - Manil Suri

The Eindhoven library has very limited English books.This was one of the first books I read after coming here. It basically reminded me of a Tamil classic movie - "Edirneechal". The book is surprisingly well written and depicts realistic characters. Mixed with sad and happy stories, it portrays the life (actually the death!) of an ordinary Indian man and the bizzare situations surrounding him.

The book revolves around the life inside a flat in India, from their daily "khitpits" to steamy love affairs between neighbors and how Vishnu fits into it all.

Good read!