Harry Potter and the deathly hallows

By J.K.Rowling.(Duh!) This book is amazing. I could not think of a better way to close the Harry Potter series. I am not going to give away too much info abt the book.
Its the gang's final year at Hogwarts but after Dumbeldore's death in the Half-blood prince there are more important tasks ahead. Dumbeldore has a task for them. To find the horocruxes of Lord Voldermort and destroy them.
The book is 700 plus pages but its non stop action. And the climax is the best. It gives closure to each and every character in the books. Great read.

The Reunion

By Sue Walker. Never heard of this author but took the book because it sounded interesting. Its a long winded story about a group of inmates of a mental health institution for teenagers in England.
Innes Haldane is confronted with the past she has been trying to forget for so many years. A malevolent mother pushed her to the edge of Innes sanity and she had to be admitted to
"The Unit" as it was known. There she meet another set of teenagers Isabella, Danny,Alex, Carrie,Lydia and Simon. Memories of those days come rushing back when she gets a terrified call from Isabella after all these years. She wants to meet Innes but Innes is not ready. She is shocked when Isabella takes her own life in a week. She cannot believe it when she hears that people in that group have begun to die one by one and she fears she will be the next.
She then embarks upon a journey to find a dark secret about the Unit that will ultimately drive them all to their limits of sanity. Too long to keep us interested till the end. We will definitely figure out the secret before Innes finally "gets it". Readable.

Johnny got his gun

By Dalton Trumbo. Its an amazing, terrifying and an inspiring book. I came across this when watching Metallica's video of "The one". It had disturbing scenes from a movie. On reasearching more about it, i found out that the scenes in that video were from a movie based on this book.

This is an anti-war novel written during The Second World War times. Its about a young american in his 20's who leaves his family and loved ones to go to a war which he does not understand and does not mean anything to him. In the war he is struck by a rocket and he loses both his arms,legs,his eyes,nose,ears and his mouth. He ends up in a hospital fed through a tube.

The book is his thoughts and his struggle to communicate to the world that he is not just a piece of meat. He asks the people in the hospital to publically admit to his condition so that more people understand how horrible war is. How we can never justify taking a life for something as intangible as Democracy or Liberty?

The book makes you think and is written beautifully. A must read.

Nineteen minutes

By Jodi Picoult. Its an amazing book about a high school kid who is tired of being bullied and decides to do something about it and shoots 10 kids and a teacher. After the Virginia Tech Massacre, i read up on famous high school shootings like Columbine, this book is eerily close to the Columbine events. There are a lot of differences, in Columbine, there were 2 kids who turned killers and in Nineteen Minutes there is just one sad child.

The book explores the thoughts and struggles of the parents and the children whose lives where never the same after the nineteen minutes of shooting in the schoo. Picoult in her usual style makes you want to read the book in one sitting.

Because it deals with such a sensitive scenario, i found this book amazing and unputdownable!

February woes

No..thats not the name of a book...just that i have ignored the books in February. I read maybe 2 books only the whole month!!! Thats my worst average in a very long time.
You know the way you just go off stuff you love for a spell..well..maybe you dont but i do that a lot. Thats how i went off books in a major way. I would sit in the bus, knowing i had a book in my bag..but would not take it out and read. I was content to just sit there and think.
Okie...so the books that i did manage to finish are readable and forgettable.
The Family Daughter-Mailey Meloy
What does an author do if she has met a writer's block and just cannot think of a new story. She re-writes her first book with a twist. Family Daughter is this author's second book. The first one(which i have not read, thankfully) is called Liars and Saints...it has all the classic elements of an "exciting",abnormal family...a daughter who cant find her roots or her self, a mother who is a wanderer and has never grown up in the real sense, a dead father, a load of guilt, an incestous relationship...a lot of stuff to help us keep turning the pages. The first book was supposedly a third person narrative about Aby Santerre and her family. This time around Aby is spilling the beans...Interesting..but not good enough.
Angel's Flight-Micheal Connelly
This guy is the Nora Roberts of mystery..whenever i go to the library i find his books all over the place..he must have written hundreds of them. I figured since the guy has made such a big attempt..i mite as well give it a try. Its kind of ok. A tired, over-worked and emotionally broken detective Harry Bosch is faced with the case of his life the same night his wife leaves him. An african american laywer is shot dead. What makes this case more important is that this lawyer Howard Elias has made a life of suing the LAPD and now the suspects in his death are also officers from LAPD. The books is a long series of twists and turns and more twists,leaving us heaving a sigh of relief when its finally over. Readable but not exceptional. I have read better Police Fiction.

Coronado

Latest by Dennis Lehane. Its a collection of short stories and a play of the same name as the book. The short stories are all forgettable. But the play is awesome. Its about a father and his son Bobby, a pair of lovers Gina and Will, a psychiatrist and a patient. The conversations of these 3 pairs dont happen at the same time...its a wonderful way to write a very gripping play.
Bobby and his father are talking about a diamond that Bobby stole before he went to jail. His father wants to know what he has done with the diamond...and Bobby wants his father to tell him where Gwen..his lover is. He suspects that Gwen mite have been harmed by his father. Gina and Will plot to murder Gina's husband Hal so that they can be together..and the patient confesses to the psychiatrist that she was an accessory to a murder a long time ago but has not come to terms with it. I will not give out any more spoilers..
The rest of the stories in the book are mediocre. But it mite be that after reading a Kenzie-Gennaro book..u want so much more from Lehane.

The Tenth Circle

By Jodi Picoult. Its her latest and after reading a few of her old ones..i guess i expected a lot from this one too. But this felt a lot like Salem Falls with the underage heroine raped. But it has its differences...its a kind of graphic novel with cartoons in the midst. The heroine Trixie Stone is just another high school girl who broke up with her boyfriend Jason and is devastated because of that. Her father Daniel Stone is a cartoonist who has stayed at home to bring up the daughter while his wife Laura worked as a Dante Professor in college.
The Tenth Circle is about a tenth circle in Dante's Hell into which Dante and Virgil are dragged into to meet the Devil himself. The various stages and characters in the book are potrayed in the comic strips throughout the book to bring out the hellish circumstances that the Stone family is going through.
There is Daniel with a childhood he has not discussed with anyone...at the end of the book Daniel is forced to face his personal demons to get his daughter back into his life. Laura struggles with herself and is distraught about her infidelity.
The book has all the classic Picoult elements...an uncomfortable personal situation where the right is never really right and wrong mite not seem so. Interesting read but definitely not as incredible as the other Picoult books.

Gone baby Gone

I think i have already written how much i love Dennis Lehane and the Kenzie-Gennaro team. This was the only book in the Kenzie-Gennaro series that i have not read. Its mind blowing as usual. Patrick's quick wit and Angie's repartee makes the book come alive.
The story too is more interesting than the others in the series. Its about children who are kidnapped from home and the way the nvestigators are haunted by the things they have to see little kids go through.
I dont want to tell anymore about this book because i think you should read this book...no matter what...

Whats with me and Prison???

I seem to be reading a lot of prison books...first Pen Pals by Olivia Goldsmith...its about a Wall Street broker who takes the fall for her boss....and learns that everyone she trusted have let her down...there is a looot of details about women prison...its readable...but in no way comparable to her gems like First Wives Club

The second prison centered book is The vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult...i love this author but this book lacks the emotion that defines her other books...its about a search and rescue person who finds out a devastating truth about her past...readable..

Silent Partner..by Stephen Frey...another readable book...i dont have any glowing comments about this...its too technical about finance to interest you for long....you have to be almost halfway into the book for it to really pick up and go someplace...

Sometimes...there are weeks when none of the books i get my hands on seem to appeal to me...though i blame it squarely on the author and the story...many a times its just that i am too distracted to concentrate and do justice to the book....so i dont know if the problem is with me or the books...i will leave that to u to decide for yourself...

Mercy

Another great book by Jodi Picoult. It involves 2 pairs Allie and Cam who are happily married for 5 years. Cam is the Chief of Police in the county and Allie owns a floweshop right opposite the police station. Allie worships her husband and Cam is in love with the familiarity of Allie. Into this scene enters Jamie and Maggie. Maggie was suffering from terminal cancer and Jamie confesses to Cam in front of the entire village that he killed his wife because she wanted him to end her misery. Allie is moved by the deep love that Jamie had for his wife. Mia Townsend walks into Allie's shop one day and Allie hires Mia to be her assistant. Cam and Mia fall in love and have a relationship behind Allie's back. The rest of the story is the entwining of these heavy duty feelings and wether Jamie is right or wrong in killing his wife. The courtroom drama is as central to this book as the feelings between Cam,Allie,Mia and Jamie. Incredible read.

The Pact

Incredible story..Chris and Emily have been together since they were born. The Hartes and the Golds have been neighbours for years now...All of them expected Chris and Emily to marry one day...but they were shocked when Emily killed herself with a shotgun and Chris was injured.Incredible story with great twists and an exciting court room scenes. We see Jordan McAfee in full force...As always Picoult's stories are based on situations that are very different and very close to heart...imagine how special that relation must have been...when you cant have any memories of childhood that doesnt include the other person....imagine falling in love finally with him....incredible i would say..The book is mindblowing...so is the ending...with some twists and turns and an engaging crime angle to the whole thing..

Shutter Island

It had been more than a month since i read a novel when i took this book to read....i have read Dennis Lehane's Mystic River and was impressed. MR is such a dark book with vivid characterizations. I expected the same from Shutter Island. I was not disappointed.Teddy Daniels,an US Marshal and his partner come to a physichiatric care facility in an isolated island to investigate the disappearence of an inmate...what follows next is an incredible story of paranoia and fear....with incredible twists and turns,the book keeps you hooked till the last minute...The thing about reading such dark books are that they leave an impression no mattter how the book ends or turns out to be. Lehane has that incredible ability to make that happen....Read the book and find out for yourself...

Salem Falls

Its a story of a modern day witch hunt. Few teenage girls in the quiet town of Salem Falls are practising magick,reading books on Voodoo and with the help of a store that sells Witchcraft books and herbs...There is a diner where the owner is a hopeless drunk..whose daughter runs the place. The daughter always sets a place aside for her own daughter who has been dead for many years...refusing to believe that she is actually dead...Into this scene enters a man accused and convicted of having a relationship with a student of his in a school where he worked as football coach...What follows is a interesting story of hate and witchcraft,love and court trial....and the ending is how love wins over everything and makes everything ok....Good read...