The Krishna Key

Writer: Ashwin Sanghi
Genre: Fiction


What happens when you take Da Vinci Code and add Indian mythology to it? You get the Krishna Key!
Diving deep into our scriptures, the author manages to create a beautiful narration and if you haven't read Da Vinci Code, all the more better.

Prof. Saini is wrongly accused of murdering his childhood friend and historian, Anil Varshney. The flabbergasted Saini realizes that the murder is in line with the norms of a serial killer who is under the impression that he is the Kalki incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Helped by his doctoral student, Priya, he sets out on a voyage to decipher the meaning of the various symbols and writings that he encounters en-route. All this while being pursued by the talented IPS officer, Radhika Singh!

As trusts are betrayed and people get killed for what seems to be an ancient secret, Saini must use his analytical skills to save the lives of people he is associated with.

If you compare it to Dan Brown's book you will be saddened by the fact that it seems to be an Indian replica of his story but if you can let your senses appreciate the references to our own culture and civilization you will be dazed. It’s worth a try!

Sherlock Homes

Writer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Classic/Fiction


Does this book even need an introduction? We are still making remakes of this classic over and over again, decades after it was written. Isn’t that proof enough of the popularity of this book?

I finally got a complete, unabridged collection of the stories of the famous detective from Baker Street. I have been reading it in parts and its going to take me sometime to finish the full set.

But this one is worth every penny!

A suggestion- if you can, read the original; the conversations between Holmes and Watson are music to the ears :)

Prisoner of Birth

Writer: Jeffrey Archer
Genre: Fiction

Danny Cartwright is charged with the murder of his best friend, Bernie Wilson. Elizabeth Wilson, his fiancé and Bernie's sister stands by him against the actual murderer - Spencer Craig. However, Dan is sent to prison and his appeal is turned down a year later. In the prison Dan makes 2 friends, Nick and Big Al. When he escapes from prison, he impersonates Nick and finally manages to get his revenge.

The one para review says it all. It’s not really an interesting plot and I finished it just for the heck of it. Maybe I am biased; no one can better 'Count of Monte Cristo' when it comes to a revenge story. I wouldn't really ask anyone to read it.

Life of Pi

Writer: Yann Martel
Genre: Fiction/Philosophy

Pi Patel (Piscine Molitor Patel) is the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry. His family consists of his elder brother - Ravi, mother, father and many animals who are a part of his zoo. Pi's childhood is a normal one where he gets introduced to multiple faiths and becomes a practicing Hindu, Muslim and Christian - all at once. His parents curious about his religious affluences never discourage him though.

Eventually, owing to the political situation in the country the family decides to move to Canada. They sell most of their animals and embark on a journey to Canada in a Japanese cargo ship along with the remaining animals. Midway, the ship sinks and only 5 survive in a lifeboat. The survivors include - Pi, a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The journey of the survivors is the crux of the book and an interesting part. The food chain ensures that the hyena eventually kills the zebra and the orangutan before being himself eaten by Richard Parker. With only a tiger for company, Pi decides to survive the horrendous journey.

The conversation in Pi's head as he travels with a tiger is the best. Although scary, he understands that the tiger is his only company and acts accordingly by feeding him the bigger share of his fishing expeditions. Together they spend an indeterminate time in the Pacific and before landing ashore in Mexico they have traversed thru a carnivore island and have met another ship wrecked man.

The synopsis is definitely interesting and the book is interesting too.

The Great Gatsby

Writer: Scott Fitzergald
Genre: Classic

The narrator, Nick Carraway lives adjacent to the main protagonist of the book - Mr. Gatsby. He is intrigued by the lavish parties thrown by Gatsby and gets to attend one of them. He notices that the host always stays away from the parties, just occasionally mingling with his guests.

Daisy and Tom Buchanan who live across the bay are related to Nick. Daisy is Nick’s cousin and Tom and Nick have been in the same society in college. Daisy introduces Nick to Jordan Baker, a sportswoman and wants Nick to date him. It’s Jordan who describes the problems in Tom and Daisy's marriage because Tom is involved with another woman. The other woman, Myrtle Wilson is introduced to Nick by Tom in New York.

Meanwhile during one of his encounters with Gatsby, Nick learns that Gatsby hosts grand parties with the hope of meeting Daisy. It enfolds that Daisy and Gatsby were lovers and had separated when the penniless Gatsby was sent overseas by the army. When he returns back, he finds out that Daisy had married Tom and decides to win her back. He uses Nick to get reintroduced to Daisy and tries to impress her with his wealth. Daisy, although happy to meet Gatsby is not the same to him. In the meantime Tom discovers the growing friendship between Daisy and Gatsby.

In one of the encounters, Gatsby, Nick, Tom, Daisy and Jordan decide to go to the city to escape the heat and it is here that Tom and Gatsby have a confrontation over Daisy. However Daisy's noncommittal response to Gatsby’s demand that she leave Tom since she doesn’t love him has Gatsby surprised. They decide to head back home after some heated exchanges between Tom and Gatsby. Daisy and Gatsby drive back home together and on the way Tom's mistress, Myrtle, is killed. On hearing the news, Tom is horrified and poisons Wilson's mind (Myrtle's husband) that it was Gatsby who killed Myrtle. The news works as expected and in the end Wilson kills Gatsby before shooting himself. Gatsby had already told Nick that it was Daisy who was driving the car when Myrtle was killed but he was ready to take the blame.

For Gatsby's funeral nobody turns up, as against his parties, and its only Nick, Gatsby's father and some servants. Nick has had too much and leaves the locality breaking of his relationship with Jordan and choosing to ignore the Buchanans.

Considered to be a great classic, I got bored of it and wouldn't personally recommend it to anyone.

Art of War

Writer: Sun Tzu
Genre: Management


Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military general was also a well-known strategist. His writings about the philosophy of managing and winning battles have been compiled into a book which is today revered by people around the world.  

It’s difficult to analyze the book for the original consists of notes regarding the various strategies used in warfare with the surety of winning it. But the adaption of the book in so many management techniques easily tells us the importance of the book in modern times.

Its definitely a good and quick read.

Steve Jobs

Writer: Walter Isaacson
Genre: Biography

For the very first time a biography writer presented his subject in a mortal, human sort of way. So my usual disclaimer about auto/biographies that 'read it with a pinch of salt' does not hold true for this one. It’s an extremely well written book.

The man who has been adored and abhorred by millions across the world comes across as an everyday human with a special liking for design. No wonder that apple products are the sleekest in the market that is often adorned with repulsive looking gadgets. Macintosh, which started the PC revolution, to iPad, the journey is very well explained and quite interesting too. His biggest followers and harshest critics all find a mention and have aired their views about the man.

My favourite section of the book is when Jobs takes over Pixar and they come up with Toy Story. Can you imagine a Woody who is total jerk unlike the lovable character we all fell in love with. Believe it or not, the first version of Toy Story was like that and I am scared to imagine what would have happened if it remained that way! Anyway, the creators (that would be John Lasseter) with Job's backing purged the script and made Woody what he is today.

Other interesting anecdotes include Job's product launches where you see the marketing genius convincing the world that it's either his way or a bad way. Charismatic was probably coined for him. Never an Apple fan, I still have to give it to the man to make me realize that nerdy, geeky things can look beautiful too.

Grab a copy, every penny would be worth it. And yeah! that reminds me I should probably pick the other biographies that Isaacson has written.

Fight Club

Writer: Chuck Palahniuk
Genre: Fiction

Probably for the first time picked up a book after watching the movie. So impressive were the conversations in the movie that I knew the book had to be better. Turned out, I wasn’t wrong!

The main protagonist of the book is an insomniac who is trying to get sleep by visiting various support groups for they help him vent his feelings and give him a nice sleep. However this solution to his insomnia goes for a toss when he meets Marla, another fake visitor to the support groups.
On one of his business trips he had met Tyler Durden and when his apartment is destroyed in an explosion he moves in with Tyler. Thus starts his association with Tyler, who, unlike him, is a carefree, no-strings-attached kind of human. Together they start Fight Club, a place where men just gather to fight. Fight Club proves to extremely popular and soon there are branches in every city. Meanwhile, Tyler becomes involved with Marla and this is not liked by our protagonist who feels she is taking Tyler away from him. However he keeps the thoughts to himself.

Tyler starts activities that disrupts society functioning and his Fight Club followers execute dangerous missions under his leadership. The protagonist wants to question him but Tyler disappears and his efforts to trace him lead him to a situation so dangerous that it threatens his existence.

The synopsis may sound vague but trust me it is not possible to explain the book without giving away its major plot. It’s definitely an amazing book with some top notch lines, a few of which I jot down here.


"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."


"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."


"The things you own end up owning you."


"If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?"

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."


"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." [This is my personal favourite]
 

Citadel

Writer: A. J. Cronin
Genre: Fiction/ Classic

Some beautiful old memories prompted me to buy this book.

Andrew Manson, a newly qualified doctor arrives to work under Dr. Page as an assistant. The town of Drineffy is primarily a coal mining community and Manson tries his best to fit into the community and keep his ideals intact at the same time. After some initial hiccups he soon befriends almost the entire town. He also meets Christine and they soon get married and move to a nearby town. Meanwhile Manson is also engrossed in a silicosis research which fetches him laurels and he moves to London with a post on the 'Mines fatigue Board'.

The move to London is uneventful and Manson begins his private practice. However the lure of money catches up with him and he gives up on his ideals and strays away from Christine too. When the bubble bursts he must make amends but not without paying a hefty price.

It’s a story retold so many times that it has probably lost it's sheen but reading the classic is still worth every penny!

The Emperor of All Maladies

Writer: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Genre: Non Fiction

No words to describe this marathon of a book! I took almost 2 months to finish it albeit the time frame is owing to my personal laziness :) But seriously it’s amazing to read an oncologist first hand.

The book is an epic about one of the most dreaded diseases - cancer. The first instances of cancer, the radical surgery procedures, the research that goes into identifying the causes, the palliative medicine, etc. almost everything related to the disease is covered in the book. It could well be reference guide for the medical fraternity (or so I think).

One wonders with so much statistics and information what is it that makes the book interesting. It’s the path that cancer cure has taken! From radical surgeries to regimens to palliative medicine....it explores the world of oncology like no one else. And this is precisely where it scores. Many of my friends kept the book down mid-way but for me every time I picked it up, it seemed to tell me something new that invoked a surprise. For example, that there was an advertisement which read - 'More doctors smoke Camel'  in the 1960s  advocating safe use of cigarettes took me by surprise .The last tobacco ad was aired only on Jan 1, 1971 which made me realize that this dreaded disease was not even linked to the biggest carcinogen till 1960's. Things like these were a sure page turner.

The book is huge and there is a fifty-fifty chance that normal readers would like it but if you want to try something unusual it’s worth a try!