8. Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse

A classic Wodehouse, with loads of characters, a perfect setting in a countryside and an all confusing scenario.
The Earl of Ickenham is the one who never turns away from someone else's problems and that too when the problem involves his Godson's wedding, he does his best to solve it. And then enters, his old friend who is acting as a butler because he is in love with his master's sister, Phoebe. And Phoebe's son who is blackmailing his own Uncle with a letter.
Confused, well then now enters an American Con Artist and his wife, who also get wind of the blackmailing and try their hands at getting hold of that letter. What do you think will happen ?

Wodehouse is always a classic, and this one is a perfect read on a sunny afternoon, sitting outdoors. Which I couldn't do because I haven't seen the sun for quite some time now. Reading his books always transports me to the old countryside England that has always drawn me towards this country.
The words and the language which he uses makes me love England even more. Now, if only I could find someone who still talks like that.

7. 2 States by Chetan Bhagat

2 states by Chetan Bhagat is a story about an Indian couple who are in love and wants to get married. The book's back cover summarizes the whole plot.
Around the world : Boy loves girl, girl loves boy and they get married.
in India there are a few more steps: Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, boy's parents have to love girl, girl's parents have to love boy, boy's parents and girl's parents should love each other.
That's the plot in a nutshell. About how Punjabi boy and a Tamilian girl fall in love with each other and how they convince their parents for their marriage.
There were many sarcasms involving Tamilian Brahmins and their way of life, and being one did find it little bid bad, but the author actually compromised for it by making equal fun of Punjabis and managed to wade through that thin line. Though the story and the outcome is very much predictable, the author's way of handling it is very interesting and funny.
At the end, it felt like I had just watched a light hearted comedy movie.

I would rate it 7/10 .

6. Total Control by David Baldacci

A typical Baldacci Action paced thriller. Not up to his standard mark though. I liked his Camel Club series much more.
The book starts with a cute couple, Jason and Sidney Archer, who are very much in love, and they have an adorable baby daughter. Suddenly, the husband is killed in a fiery plane crash, and Sidney's life is shattered. Jason is thought to be behind the plane crash, and an FBI team starts following Sidney everywhere. Not just the FBI there are some other people too who are stalking her because they need something from her house.
And Sidney starts discovering the truth little by little and then starts running for her life not knowing whom to trust.

The first half introduces soooo many characters that you really fail to make any kind of connection but as the book progresses the plot becomes much clear and it becomes hard to put down.
And Sidney' sob story about how she misses her husband and the in detail explanation of her crying, fainting, crying, looking at her daughter, crying, looking at her family pictures and some more crying is worse than a Hindi soap serial.
I actually had to flip a few pages whenever the author started about how miserable Sidney is feeling or how her eyes were becoming dry from crying. Who really cares?

If you can go past all this, the book is not all bad.
I rate it 5.5/10

5. Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell

This is the sequel to the previous book I read, The Archer's tale.
And just like the previous one, this too was a wonderful book. I think I learnt a lot about the initial stages of 100 years war than I did in my history classes at school.

After the Battle of Crecy, which ends in the last book, Thomas continues his journey for on the quest of Holy Grail. He meets his cousin on his way who also is in search of the Grail and will stop at nothing. The battles between Scotland and England at York, and the Battle of Calais are mentioned in this book.

Alright then. I think it will be sometime before I manage to read anything else for a while now. My Husband as usual, lost his woollen cap again ( this is the 5th one he managed to lose) so, I have started knitting one for him now.
Until then, Good reading everybody.

4. The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell.

First of all I had never heard of this author. Gopal's manager gave him this book to read (Did he actually think Gopal will read any book!!! After so many struggles from my part, which included me yelling and carrying the book behind him all the time, I could make him read only Da Vinci Code so far)

and well, that was how I ended up with it. I was very apprehensive about starting it, as it was set in 1300's and it was historical fiction and I usually don't read such genre of books. But I was pleasantly surprised. The book was very captivating and entertaining. The details were very good and elaborate.

A brutal raid on the coastal village, Hookton leaves only one survivor, Thomas and he tries taking revenge on the man responsible for this by joining England's army. But apart from this, destiny has one more task for him, the search of the Holy Grail. And in the process he meets many interesting people.

Apart from this fictitious story the places, names and the wars between England and France mentioned here are all true and happened almost exactly as it was explained.

Though its kinda time consuming... definitely not one of those fast paced action thrillers... it's a real good read.

This book also goes by the name "Harlequin"

I already want to read the next in the series, Vagabond.

3. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

The book started out really good and the author was able to maintain the good pace throughout..

It's actually a string of many short stories happening in the same small city of Kittur (a fictitious city)

The characters described are very precise and you get connected to them very well. There is no unnecessary long explanations, leaving a little bit to the reader's imagination and at the end they all bring out the essential flavour to understand the actual workings of any average person in a city of India.

Its a very short read (the book being just 350 pages). So, if anyone is looking for a good book to pass time, this is an excellent recommendation.

Although I must say it's very different from his previous book The White Tiger. Both the books basically deal with the stark contrast between rich and poor this one is slightly sprinkled with humour whereas white tiger was a very dark one.

In many reviews people seem to like white tiger much more than this one, but I couldn't agree on that.

This book is refreshing but White tiger is depressing .

lol...

Books I have read in the past

I have read quite a few books before this. And I am listing some of my favourites

These books were absolutely fantastic and is worth a read. So, if you are confused as to which book to pick up then go no further.

1. My all time favourite - Harry Potter Series.

2. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress.

3. Lord of the Rings Series by JRR Tolkien.

4. Arthur Hailey's Airport, Detective, Money Changers ( Actually I found all his books very good)

5. Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, Not a penny more not a penny less, Shall we Tell the President (Again I am a fan of all his books)

6. Sidney Sheldon's books are a good time pass too.

7. Life of Pi, The White Tiger.

8. Roots by Alex Haley - An absolute brilliant one.

9. Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell

10. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga