Artemis Fowl

First Line : HO Chi Minh City in the summer.

Artemis Fowl is the first book of Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. This is a die-hard fantasy(as said by its author).

The protagonist Artemis Fowl, 12 years old boy, after whom the novel is named is a geeky, cunning, self centred and criminally minded guy. He believes in the existence of fairies. After putting some hardwork he gets his first lead about fairies’ book. With the help of this book and latest technology he abducts a dwarf(LEPrecon). Artemis asks a tonne of gold for ransom. But the dwarfs would do anything to protect what is theirs. A normal child in this situation would have abandoned the mission but not Artemis.

Eoin Colfer had showed the rough nature of Artemis even in his first meeting with Nguyen. He is ‘stop-at-nothing’ guy. His attribute created a hatred in me. I had never hated a novel character like this before(not a hatred because of boring). Artemis way of decrypting the fairies’ book was really interesting. Yes, Artemis is a talented guy. But at the same time most of the fairies are equally talented like Artemis. So there is no need to tell about the clash between two equally poised opponents. Both the groups were devising their own plan to get the better of the other.

This work of Eoin is interesting with rich fantasy stuff backed by science. He has successfully characterized the personalities of each character. The strength of this novel is its suspense and thrill so this is not a stuff which we can read over and over.

On the whole this novel is worth a read. I’m sure that the fantasy lovers will have a great time with this novel. I give a little above three and a half but a little below four stars to this novel.

Waiting For You

First Line : The best thing about summer camp is the last day

After reading this book of Susane Colasanti, I had the gratification of reading a splendid Romance novel. Yes, I liked this one a lot. I had read few romance novels which I felt like ‘something is missing’ after finishing but not this one.

After the summer vacation, Marisa is waiting for a fresh start with new plans. The main objective of her plan is to get a boy friend. In real life hardly anything goes according to the plan. Her life becomes more and more screwed. Everything is against her and is forcing her into darkness. But the anonymous Dirk in the program ‘All Talk, No Action’ is the only one who understands the problem of Marisa. But she don’t know who he is?

‘Waiting for You’ depicts the life of a teen girl who is trying to overcome her depression. Heyyyyy…. stop… don’t think this is a sad story of some loser. Susane has presented this story in an interesting and hilarious manner. The feelings, dreams and expectations of the teens are portrayed as such. This novel is interesting because it shows the things which happens in our daily life and at times I felt that I had faced this situation in my life. Susane even made me feel that Marisa and XXXX(don’t like to reveal the name to you) are made for each other.

On the whole this is a wonderful novel and I’m sure that this may take some of you back to your high school days. I give four stars for this novel.

One For The Money

First Line : There are some men who enters a woman's life and screw it up forever.

‘One for the Money’ by Janet Evanovich is the first book of Stephanie Plum series. This is about Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter, who solves the mysterious cases.

Stephanie Plum has lost her job and was searching for a new job. Her financial crisis is forcing her to take the bounty hunter job. She finds herself in deep shit before learning even the first step of her new profession. Now she has no other option than to face it with guts.

Stephanie Plum series is slowly becoming one of my favorites(I had read book 2 already). The story is completely enchanting from the beginning to the last. I like the characterization a lot. Generally, in a mystery novel the protagonist will be brave, intelligent or with kiss-ass attitude. But Evanovich has not portrayed Stephanie Plum as an audacious fellow with great skill. She has shown how Plum, who was initially an amateur turns into a professional. Moreover the humour content adds some extra points to this novel.

In this novel Plum didn’t find anything with her skill but she is lucky enough to bump into the persons she was looking for. Everyone in the novel praises Morelli as a man with great brilliance but he does nothing more than waiting outside Plum’s home or driving Plum into nuts. The story would be more interesting if few sleuthing stuffs were included. The more pathetic role was given to the cops. Morelli and the missing witness were just in the city but the cops are too incompetent to locate them.

Apart from these few flaws this is a well written novel. I didn’t feel like boring or wasting the time by taking this novel, not even a smidgeon. I give four stars to this book.

Full House

First Line : Nicholas Kaharchek surveyed his seven new polo students moving across the sandy practice field.

Billie Pearce leads a perfect and predictable life. But her life becomes unpredicted when she and Nick are attracted to each other. Under certain circumstance they are forced for the marriage. The doubt whether ‘Nick really loves her’ is disturbing Billie and at the same time Nick is facing perils from someone…

I have the habit of choosing a book without reading its blurb. This is how I chose ‘Full House’ by Janet Evanovich. I read her Stephanie Plum novel before few days and so I took this book without second thought.

I started to read this book and I found out that this is not a mystery novel like Plum but it’s a romance novel. The first few pages were interesting and witty but then this turned into kinda erotica. I love romance novels but I hate erotica. I don’t want the novel to be a written pornography.

After reading nearly half the book, the thought whether I should continue with this book crossed my mind. It is exactly at this moment the story just took a turn from its path. Then I was hooked in the story till the last. And the last fifty pages were so thrilling that it filled me with tension.

What can I tell about characters?….All the characters are different, unique and interesting. Billie, the perfect(before meeting Nick); Nick, the playboy; Max, the geek; Sheridan, the possessive; Frankie, the hunk; and Dee Dee, the model. 

I liked this novel but it also had some flaws. Nick was hanging out with Billie just because she was beautiful and hot. But suddenly at the end he was overwhelmed with his love for Billie. The reason for the transformation of his lust into love was not conveyed properly. Billie, the mother of two, a sixth grade teacher, who behaved with great dignity, steps into the shoes of Gloria. This is so stupid to believe.

I had a great confusion in rating this but finally I decided to give three stars to this novel.

Blue Dahlia

First Line : Birthing a bastard wasn't in the plans.

‘Blue Dahlia’ by Nora Roberts is the first book of ‘In the Garden Trilogy’. This shows the love and power of a mother.

Recently widowed Stella moves to Memphis with her two children and a dog. She gets the job in the Harper Nursery. It is the Harper house where the three women Roz, Stella and Hayley, who are sailing on the same boat meets. Then Stella meets Logan, a landscaper. Initially they both hate each other but with time the hatred slowly turns into love. Stella feels hesitant to enter into a long term relationship with Logan fearing what will happen to her two sons. She is also consistently disturbed by a dream featuring Blue Dahlia. More than this, she is unaware of the huge problem the future has kept in store for her to deal.

Nora Roberts portrayed all the three female lead characters as mentally strong women. Stella is a well organized women, she perfectly plans each and everything. In contrary, Logan is a complete mess. But all the characters are altruistic type which is hard to believe and a bit artificial.

Nora Roberts trademark is her description, which is the strength of her book. The description is so lively and the dialogues of the kids and their little kid fights are realistic. What can I tell about the story? It’s nothing but another over familiar, slow paced love story. The climax comes to the rescue of the story which gave me a little thrill.

The cover of this books shows the Blue Dahlia. It reveals nothing about the story but this attractive bright coloured cover made me to choose this book. I give two and a half stars to this book.

Pop Babylon

First line : 'Kylie Minogue is sitting on my face'

Imogen Edwards-Jones have come up with ‘Pop Babylon’ by the information obtained from some folks of Pop industry. This book tells about a year long work of ‘The One Management’, a music company in building a boy band.

Though it tells about the building of ‘Band of Five’, the interesting part of this book is not the story but the anecdotes and the gossips about the pop industry. It tells about the problems involved in forming the girl band, about the drugs and scandals in this industry and the reasons for the failure of most of the bands. The author had brought the evil face of the industry into lime light.

I have read some non fiction but this one is different from them. This book is completely filled with information like ‘How much they spent for Spice Girls album?’ , ‘What is the share of manager, distributors and blah blah’ and a lot like this. This book was not so catchy to me as I’m not interested to know about Pop industry. I recommend this book to the people who are interested to know about Pop world.

The Virgin Suicides

First line : ‘On the morning the last Lisbon girl took her turn at suicide – it was  Mary this time…….’

The Virgin Suicides is a non-fiction by Jeffery Eugenides. The story tells about the life of five Lisbon girls who end their lives by suicide. The story is narrated by the Lisbon’s neighbourhood boys who were in infatuation with the Lisbon girls.

Even though the climax was revealed in the first line, the author made me to read the full book at one go. The book was rich in its description. Jeffrey brought the transformation of Lisbon’s house after Cecilia’s death live before my eyes.

The book is the collection of the things which the nearby people know about Lisbon girls. This also contains the views of various experts about this suicide pact. This book made me to think deeply about the reason which forces the person to suicide. In the case of Lisbon girls I think they were trying to free themselves from this world to live a new life in some other world which they alone can see.

On the whole the book is dark. 

The God of Small Things

First Line : May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month.

The God of small things by Arundhati Roy is a well crafted heart breaking story. This tells about the life of two egg twins Estha and Rahel and their mother Ammu. The consequences they face by breaking the love laws. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how.

This novel is a non linear narrative type. The novel had a very good story but the main plus point of this novel is not the story but how she tells the story. The conversation between the two egg twins are so realistic. She had unveiled the caste problem existing in certain parts of our country. Roy’s description was witty in many places and she had adopted her own style. She has the power to stir our emotions through her writing. Roy made me to live with Estha and Rahel for those four days.

This is one of the best novel I have ever read. This novel made me to wet my eyes. It is simply a magnum opus.

The Trouble with Magic

First Line : I don't know what it was that made me abandon my usual path to work on that particular October Tuesday.

The trouble with magic by Madelyn Alt is a mystery novel. In this story Maggie joins an an antique shop which is owned by Felicity Dow, a witch. Isabella was murdered on Maggie’s first day of work. Stony Hill cops considered felicity as the main suspect. But Maggie’s instinct convinces her that Felicity could not be the murderer. Is Maggie’s instinct right?

The title “The trouble with Magic” made me to read this novel. I expected a fantasy treat but I was greatly disappointed. In the whole book they didn’t use any supernatural powers for their rescue. Felicity was hooked in a murder case at the beginning of the novel but nearly half the book is over before Maggie begin the investigation. Madelyn tells a lot about magic and super natural powers in the first half when it had nothing to do in the second half.

The good thing about Madelyn is the way she tells the story eventhough there is nothing to tell. Her description is interesting. I don’t know to which genre this novel belongs. I saw this novel under fantasy list in a blog but it has no fantasy stuff. According to me this is a crime novel by an amateur crime writer.

Message in a bottle

I recently read Nicholas Sparks’s ‘Message in a bottle’. In this novel, the columnist Theresa Osborn finds a bottle in a beach. The bottle has a letter written by Garrett to Catherine. On reading the letter, tears rolls down from her eyes. She wants to find the man who is in love with his wife, who was taken away from him.

With the help of Deanna, Theresa finds Garrett. Theresa and Garrett are falling in love. But is it possible for Garrett to get over Catherine completely? Can they get into a long term relationship? How will Garrett react if he knows that Theresa came in search of him only after finding his letters to Catherine?

The novel starts well. Bottle in beach with letter, then a letter from her reader and again a letter from a local magazine all written by Garrett. These things not only increases Theresa’s curiosity but also our curiosity to know about Garrett. The initial meetings of Garrett and Theresa is interesting to read. But once they have fallen in love, everything changes.

After falling in love she visits Garrett or he visits Theresa and they do the same thing. The only difference which Spark shows is the place. The novel sags a little in these chapters. Garrett who is in deep love with Catherine falls for Theresa on seeing her. I think, Theresa being the heroine of the novel is the only reason for this.

Eventhough the life of Garrett and Catherine comes scarcely in the novel they are interesting. Every character in the novel wets their eyes on reading Garrett’s letter but I feel nothing like that. At the same time Garrett’s last letter made me feel sad. On the whole this is an average novel.

Anything for you, ma’am

Tejas, an IITian falls in love with Shreya. Shreya is in Chennai, 2000 Km away from Tejas.The novel tells how Tejas goes all the way to see his lady love and what are all the hindrances he faces.

Raheja had given an excellent flow to the novel.I liked it a lot since it is a feel good story. The tag line “an IITian’s love story” made me to think that this is about the love between two in IIT. So I thought that this story will revolve around IIT campus and will be a pastiche of Five point someone. But it barely tells about Tejas campus life and more about his journey to Chennai.

The book is non linear narrative type. The story begins with Tejas rushing to book tickets from Delhi to Pune and then from Pune to Chennai with false identity. Then the author goes back to the past to explain the reason for going to Chennai, then comes to the present to show the problems he encounters and then to past to show how they fall in love and then to present. The book is rich with humour content, especially the first meeting between Shreya and Tejas made me to roll down and laugh. Tejas gets so many problems but he is lucky enough to get someone like America return cousin, Shreya’s friend’s friend, Dad’s friend and the list goes on, to slove the problem.

Eventhough the chapter about DISCO committee takes us back to Chetan Bhagat’s work, the good thing is that he didn’t take it to next chapter. Some may think that the novel is too cinematic but to me there is nothing wrong if the novel is cinematic. So I highly recommend this novel to all fun loving people.