...shoOOonya...

Book: Salvation of a Saint Author: Keigo Higashino No. of Pages: 384 Genre: Fiction, Suspense Thriller,   Publisher: Little Brown Book Group 'The Devotion of Suspect X' was an absolute delight to read last year and recently I realized that there was another suspense thriller by the same author. I had this book added in my 'wish-lists' for my next round of book buying spree. Incidentally, it came up for review on BlogAdda and I applied (giving me a chance to bring it on priority in reading order)   Devotion was about a murder where you know the murder and how it happened … the whole novel is about the cover-up; and the climax leaves you speechless and you are dumbstruck with the 'devotion' of the man covering up the crime. Salvation introduces the murderer in the first chapter and the murder happens in chapter two, also revealing that the death/murder was caused by poisoning. And if you are reading Keigo for the first time, you are won...

Just a few days ago I posted that I am trying a 5 day GM diet … a shorter version of the 7 day diet plan. And now I have to report that it was cut short-er by another 2 days due to preponement of my trip to Lucknow. So now my GM diet survived only 3 days … so I will not be counting this one as an attempt. Will try to go on the diet after I return to Mumbai and have a 2 week period of home-stay. Hopefully mid-May would be a good time for another attempt at GM Diet

Well, last month I wrote about my plans to take up the week long GM diet as and when possible, at least once in 2 months, with a target of shedding about 10 kg in the next one year. During my last atempt at GM Diet at the end of February, I shed some 3 kgs and subsequently gained a Kg ... a net loss of 2 KG helping me get the weighing machine pointer to move from 92 to 90 ...   I am giving it another shot this week. I will not be able to complete the 7 day plan this time since I am travelling to Lucknow this weekend, so I will just follow the diet for 5 days and then move on to Lucknow food for a week. Lets see what difference does this 5-day GM diet make to my weighing scale pointer position ....

Book: The Rozabal Line Author: Ashwin Sanghi No. of Pages: 346 Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller Publisher: Publishing For me, The Rozabal Line was a jumbo combo of pleasant-and-not-so-pleasant surprise after the disappointment called 'The Krishna Key'. I had ordered The Rozabal Line and Chankaya Chant almost a year ago but somehow never picked them up to read. The Krishna Key came up for review and I read it, only to be disappointed by it … further delaying my reading of the 2 novels which I had already purchased. A reminder by my best friend made me read it. She wanted Rozabal so I thought let me read and give it to her and I am glad I did. Note: I said 'glad' not 'happy'. It is not an easy book to read. It does not have a simple plot which can be explained to somebody without confusing them OR without giving them a feeling that this novel is a khichdi or a hotchpotch of several formulae for successful best-selling chartbuster novels. ...

  Continued from previous post …   31. 3I Series by MZ - Novella: The Secret of the Three Impostors by Mark Zahn The Mark Zahn series retains the 'teenage' boys and hence a sense of relief to read after reading the Crimebusters series. In this particular case, thefts are happening in Rocky Beach and the suspects are none other than the trio themselves. Someone is going great lengths at implicating the trio … to the extent that Chief Reynolds catches the members of the three investigators 'red-handed' at the burglary site with the loot in hand !!! The real villain turns out to be someone who is back from an old case … to seek revenge. Someone who was seriously inconvenienced by the three investigators   32. O Henry Shorts: Bexar Scrip No. 2692 by O Henry A story involving a land-shark attempting to grab a piece of land which has suddenly appreciated in value but currently occupied by an old woman and her son. He has been grabbing land but ...

  Continued from previous post …   22. 3I Crimebusters Novella: Murder to Go by Megan Stine & William Stine There is no murder in this novella … only the threat of the murder of millions by slow and gradual food poisoning. As I have mentioned earlier, this new series of 3I is not as exciting as the original although the authors have tried to make it. A girl meets an accident and loses her accident-day memory. She speaks in her sleep/unconsciousness about millions dying and food being poisoned. She is the daughter of the owner of the hugely famous fast food chain which makes the 'poisoning' bit very interesting for the three investigators who begin to investigate. Soon they start getting threats and they have a host of suspects. The climax did not hold too much surprise but was adventurous nonetheless. An incident in the story gave me a feeling that either I have seen the incident being used in some English TV series or I might have actually seen an e...

  Continued from previous post …   11. WGS Shorts: The Open Window by Hector Hugo Munro (Saki) This one is a nice and scary tale about a man who comes to a new town and meets some new people and families and his experience at one of the houses. He visits a house where the French window overlooking the lawns is kept open and a young girl quickly tells him the story behind her mother keeping the French window open on the specific day. It turns out to be the anniversary of the disappearance of the male members of their family who had gone out hunting in the woods through that French window. He is still digesting the fact and wondering what a wrong day for him to visit … and the dead family members appear in the lawns coming towards the French window. Imagine the shock that our gentleman would have received.   12. WGS Shorts: The Image of the Lost Soul by Hector Hugo Munro (Saki) Ancient buildings like cathedrals have a lineup of sculptors. This story revolves aro...

  I started the month with a novel which I received from the author for review. It was not a very good read. Next, I managed to read some ACD stories (after a 2 month gap). Next in the line was a non-fiction book which came for review from BlogAdda. It was the self-help book titled 'F?@K Knows' by Shailendra Singh. It turned out to be a very interesting reading experience. This was followed by several short stories from the big-fat volume titled "World's Great Selected Short Stories". Next, I picked up a short novel 'Murder in Milk Case' by Candice Speare. I followed this with PKD stories and some stories from one of the Hitchcock series books. Up next were the novella from the Three Investigators Crimebusters series and a Prof. Shonku story before another set of Hitchcock stories. More than half the month was over before I picked up my first full length (500 pages) fiction novel of the month – The Sign by Raymond Khoury. Th...

Book: Tantra Author: Adi No. of Pages: 335 Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Thriller Publisher: Apeejay Stya Publishing Frankly, I wasn't very sure about an Indian Author trying to write a 'vampire' book in Indian settings. First of all, we don't really have a history of the traditional vampires in India so putting together vampires and New Delhi was not easy to digest. Top it up with our own Indian lady vampire hunter and the digestion sure was challenged. The back cover blurb also talked about the vampire huntress dodging the social arrange marriage scene … making the indigestion complete. So I had pretty low expectations when I started reading this 'weird' combination. BUT … I was in for a surprise. Adi has mixed the above weird concoction really well and infused Tantra (yeah … the Tantrik wala Tantra) very well into the mix The story is about the Vampire Huntress who takes a 'transfer' from New York to New Delhi with a hi...