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