26, 27 & 28. The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

 



Trilogies.......
There are some trilogies like the "Lord of the Rings" which create magic with every chapter and every verse and keep pulling you deeper and deeper into them as you go on reading, some like the "Girl with the dragon tattoo" series which are absolute thrillers and keeps you on your toes. Then there are some hideous ones like the fifty shades of grey which makes you wonder what was the point of even writing such a book.
But then comes some refreshingly good, beautifully crafted ones like "The Hunger Games" which is almost like breath of fresh scented air and you feel like you are in love again.

"The Hunger Games" starts in a post-apocalyptic world where the countries as we know now no longer exist and in its place are 12 districts with one capitol as a leader for all the districts. Everyone the districts are at the mercy of the people and president of capitol. The capitol in order to establish its supremacy and absolute control over the districts, conducts an annual game called "The Hunger Games" where two children (between 12 and 18 years of age) chosen from every district are sent to fight to death. Only one person can emerge as a victor at the end.

So, when Katniss's 12 year old sister gets chosen, Katniss in order to save her little sister volunteers herself for the hunger games knowing that it will bring upon certain death. But does that happen? How can she survive everyone when the only thing she is good at is using bow and arrows. As Katniss evades death which comes so close to her every time, she becomes more and more popular. What does she do to survive ? Providing entertainment to the cruel mindset of people who take pleasure in children getting killed, how does Katniss finally exact her revenge ?

Along her path to the victory she comes across love and has to chose between two people who both love her immensely and would not even hesitate to sacrifice their lives for her. Who does she choose at the end ?

This is a story about Katniss Everdeen, about how she overcomes all the odds and horrors thrown upon her right from a very young age, about how she becomes the face of a massive rebellion against the capitol, about how she helps those rebels conquer over the evil, about the love that blossoms in her life, and above all about her extreme survivor's instinct which is the only thing that helps her every time in staying alive.

Warning: Do not attempt to read the first book without knowing where your next one is going to come from. Because the first two books end in a cliff hanger and you will be scratching your heads until you can get your hands on the next one.

I rate this book 8.5/10. It would have scored a perfect 10 had it not been for some sequences which almost feel like are being repeated.

COMING SOON............

watch this space for the review for this book...

23. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

I Must be one of the very last people to read this book. In spite of the book garnering so much success and worldwide fame, it somehow never captured my eye. I blame it partially on an absurd title which sounds so very cheesy. I just did not feel like picking it up and feel disappointed at the end.
But when I heard that Hollywood is making a movie out of it, I had to read the book, after all I thought, when I survived through “Twilight”, I can survive any nuclear bomb.

In spite of carrying such cynicism forward when I started this book, I was pleasantly surprised page after page. The book is not one of those fast paced action thrillers, but in spite of that it will grab and hold your attention throughout. This story almost spreads into your soul like a infection and lingers there even after a many weeks have gone by after completing it.

Coming to the story itself, It starts with two parallel stories, one is that of Mikael Blomkvist, a charming journalist, who is portrayed as some kind of a magnet to any woman who lies eyes on him. The other is that of Lisbeth Salander who is a very quiet and the biggest introvert you could ever meet. She is portrayed as someone whose mental condition is almost along the lines of Asperger’s Syndrome. But as you often find with people who are suffering from a kind of autism, she possesses a brilliant and an intelligent mind.

She is one of those quirky kind of an individual who prefers to express herself through tattoos which cover almost her entire body and has countless piercings. Well, there’s so much to describe about her, but doing that would almost give away half of the story.

The plot from there continues as to what happens in Blomkvist’s and Salander’s life individually. The extreme lows they go through in their life and how they try getting back up and face these challenges. All this sounds like an emotional roller coaster, and it is anything but that.

The author could have easily slipped up here and added 100 other pages of how they deal with their emotional nightmares, but he brilliantly twists the plot and it becomes much more interesting.

And when these two quiet forces(Blomkvist and Salander)meet in the second half, it just creates magic and together their sheer brilliance brings down some of the biggest evils there is.

Henry Vangner hires Blomkvist to find the killer of his niece who was murdered 40 years ago. Blomkvist with the help of Salander tries to uncover the truth behind this murder which no one could solve in the past 40 years. Even these kind of absurdities are actually overcome by the overall story.

It just goes to show the power of writing that by the end, we emotionally connect and fall in love with the character Lisbeth Salander who throughout the book comes across as one who does not have any emotions and is almost rude and keeps her distance from everyone around.
If you are not blown away after reading this book, well !! must say something wrong with your mental status !!

22. Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse

-         Blandings has impostors the way other houses have mice.

A quote from the book, which in one line summarizes the plot without the need to discuss it any further.

Two young neighbours and writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine for various reasons want to steal a Scarab (An Ancient Egyptian Artifact) belonging to an American absent minded millionaire, Lord Emsworth. Do they succeed and how does it affect their relationship? Meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood, engaged to the millionaire’s daughter, whose life is threatened when he is blackmailed with some incriminating letters which he doesn’t want to be revealed to his fiancée.

All this is written in Wodehouse’s own comical style, forming a brilliant book.

A quote of Wodehouse which I have wanted to post for long now

   “I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going right deep down into life and not caring a damn “

So, true and only those ardent Wodehouse fans will know that he isnt’t everyone’s cup of tea and once you get used to that English tea you will never want anything else !!

21. Temple by Matthew Reilly

 Bought this book as it was recommended to me by a friend (Thanks Ashok) and also my past experiences with the author’s books were pleasant enough to trust him again.

As expected, I found this was a perfect plot for a Hollywood MI series movie. If you have never seen how a script or a screenplay for a movie would be, Reilly’s book might be the place to start.  This one definitely seems to have been written with Producers and Movie agents in mind.

Apart from all that, the book was indeed very good with a galore of action finding an unlikeliest hero in a university Professor for languages, William Race.

Race is called in to translate a 16^th century transcript written in Incan Language, a task which seems simple enough at beginning. But he gets pulled into all action which involves the Army and Navy of U.S and also some extreme terrorist organizations that are all behind an age old treasure.

Everyone reaches a very old temple in Peru, Southern America in search of Incan Treasure hidden in an ancient temple. Only when they try force opening the door of the temple they realize that "Some Doors are meant to remain unopened ". They are faced with some fantastic beasts which are guarding the temple treasure.

How the U.S team gets past them and the terrorists group who have already reached there and get hold of the treasure forms the main plot.

As if this wasn’t enough there are some locals who have been living there for centuries and also fiercely protecting their treasures.

All this action is pleasantly compensated with a few romantic scenes thrown in.

This entire Drama is unfolded in a brilliant way and told in a very gripping tale.

It’s definitely worth a read. Would rate it 8.5 out of 10

19 & 20. Ice Station and Area 7 by Matthew Reilly

Going to write only one review for both the books as I didn't find anything different in them even though the author tried really hard for that.

Ice station is based on a research centre in Antarctica.

Area 7 is based on a research centre in the deserts of Utah.

Other than that I found zilch.

Both has got a team of marines reconnaissance unit (The same unit as this is a second in the series) In both the books the main theme is that the good people(the marines) are trapped inside the centre with the bad people and are trying to save their asses.

And in both the books there's a time bomb ticking over their heads !

There's just too much of running around. Too much of description of the vehicles in which they are trying to escape and just too much of action going on.

In the midst of all this the main plot of the books just disappears because we are only thinking as to who would get killed next.

Both the books involve scientists who are on the verge of a huge discovery and become the reason to attract all this attention. The Marines unit are the one who try protect them and their discoveries and thus begins all this cat and mouse chases.

Oh! I found one more difference amongst the books. In Ice Station the hero of the book goes deep underwater in the frozen sea to escape briefly from his enemies and in Area 7 he actually goes into the space (yeah you read that right!!)

he actually gets into a space shuttle and it travels above the earth and he ends up in the outer space for a brief amount of time.

Whew !!

18. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner

This is a story about 2 sisters Rose and Maggie who have absolutely nothing in common except for their shoe sizes.

Elder sister Rose has everything going on for her with a high profile lawyer job, a good looking boyfriend, lots of money. She also has loads of designer shoes but never wears them as she is insecure about her weight and just stacks it up in her closet.

The younger sister is a good looking and good for nothing kind. She has dyslexia and lack of confidence in herself and has difficulties finding a job. She stays mostly on her father and step mother's money and at times with her sister.

This goes on until one day Rose comes home and finds Maggie in bed with her boyfriend which leads to big altercation between them and she throws Maggie out of her house.

The younger sister now finds herself on street with nowhere to go when she finds a letter from her grandmother in Florida amongst her old stuff. And so she goes to stay with her grandmother.

The rest of the story is about how the sisters find their true characters and how they really need each other in their lives and how they make amends with each other and their past.

This is truly an endearing and a heart warming story and anyone who has a sister can actually connect with this one even more.

And also for people who are really lazy to read a book they can see the movie which was made with the same title starring Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz as the Elder and Younger sisters.