The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

or H2G2, as I and a few of my friends like to call it.

What do you say about a book which tells you that to learn how to fly, all you need to do is throw yourself at the ground and miss? Or introduces you to a planet where the leading life form is ball-point pens?

The first I heard of H2G2 was - "What do you mean, you have not read HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Have you lived or what?" After having read the book enough number of times to call myself a fan, that about sums up my recommendation of the book as well.

To make readers laugh, or smile is a big achievement for any author. Take P.G. Wodehouse, add tons of irreverence, some sci-fi jargon and you will have Douglas Adams writing H2G2. It is so ironic that you will find H2G2 listed under the heading "science fiction" while there is no other book I have read that takes the mickey out out of science fiction as much as this one.

H2G2 is a cult. It is a book that you will either fall in love with or throw away as being nonsense. "Did you like H2G2 or not?" is not a valid question, the question is, "Are you a H2G2 follower or not?" There are websites dedicated to discussions of what people like best about H2G2, several hours of discussion among friends have been spent agreeing with each other over the beauty of one statement after other from the book.

The thing that I liked about the book, apart from its irreverent humour, is its often philosophical undertone stated in a manner that strikes a chord somewhere without being jarring in the least. Like there is a statement "Two thousand years after a decent man was nailed to a tree for saying that it would be good to be nice to each other for a change; one girl sitting in a cafe suddenly realised that she had solved the mystery of the ultimate question of life, universe and everything. But before she could tell anyone, the planet earth was destroyed to make way for an intergalactic hyperspace pathway" (Not exact words from the book, rather from my memory)

Recommendation - Must read. I use the book as a sure cure after a depressing day at work. Just open at any page at random and read a couple of pages, and I am ready to face the world again.
Rating - ✔✔✔✔✔

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time - Mark Haddon

Simple things! The most enjoyable of the lot! Came across this book as "recommended by librarian" in our local county library, and must thank the librarian for that. The curious incident is not a book to be slotted in some category of mystery, suspense, romance and so on. Its category, if any, is English. The protagonist is a 15 year old boy who knows everything about science and maths but cannot understand people. He is highly intelligent and logical, but cannot decide what data to process and what not, so he gets confused with metaphors and lies. He has never gone beyond the end of his road on his own and cannot manage interacting with strangers. The book is about his life in his words. The narrative does not attempt describing his issues and trying to establish reader sumpathy with his condition. The issue in the book is not the problem with the boy, the issue is the screwed up state that all of us have reached when we cannot communicate without complicating things meaninglessly.
I am blabbering here, I cannot write as well as Mark Haddon. The beauty of this book is that you will instantly fall in love with the protagonist, you will go through his trials and tribulations with him. And the reason I said I don't write as well as Mark Haddon is, the novel does not have one word that you won't use in your normal spoken language, yet the prose in not trashy.
I can describe the plot and characters here, but all that is meaningless. You can always google for all that. My recommendation is to read the book. It is sure to bring to your lips one of those smiles that comes from pure enjoyment.

Recommendation - YYYY

Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

Every once in a while, there comes a book which rises beyond some black marks on bound rectangular pieces of paper and becomes a phenomenon. The popularity charts have to be redesigned to calibrate the way the book catches popular imagination. Often, this popularity wave is based on real talent and brilliant story-telling; at times on sheer "catching the right public mood at the right time".

Da Vinci Code is such a book. By using a new paragraph and using the word "such", I intend to escape the need to classify Da Vinci Code into one of these two categories, I'll leave that decision on the reader. Consider it a tribute from me when I say that whatever the basis - the book's popularity is rivaled only by Harry Potter in the recent times.

Da Vinci Code is a classic conspiracy theory book. Take an established institution, take a somewhat right-wing arm of that, link it to several well-known names/ institution. The conspiracy theory in question is as bizarre as it gets - that Christ was married, that a secret society exists to guard Christ's bloodline through centuries and that the modern church is intent on destroying that bloodline. Crazy enough to get people interested. Add to that several well-researched truths and half-truths and a few carefully chosen fabrications of imagination and voila, the theory is believable enough to make people turning pages to find out more.

Dan Brown, however, is not a historian. He is a fiction novel writer. That of course is his winning point. He presents us with a story based in present, with characters we can relate to. He hits us with the conspiracy theory not as some obscure history, but as the necessary link between the incidents happening in the story. Its the brilliant combination of well-done research, a good enough story and a very interesting twist to history that makes Da Vinci Code the winner.

Weak points - the ending. Almost an anti-climax. Perhaps there was no better way to do it, but I was expecting something more grand. By the end of the novel, you have the shadow of twenty centuries hanging on your head and right when you are expecting a big bang, all you get a is whimpering sound.

Recommendation - What? You mean you have not read it yet?

Rating - YYY
Rating Guide - Y is good. More the hearts, better.

Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

Suppose I am writing a thriller. What should be my choice for the profession of the hero? A professor? A real, practising, middle-aged Harvard professor; not an ex-CIA agent passing time as a professor? What about the heroine? A physicist? What kind of a story is this turning to be? Both the main characters are nerds. What else can I do to completely ruin my story? Create some wild, senseless conspiracy theory about church and make priests as villains? Yes, I have achieved the perfect recipe for a disastrous novel.

BUT there is a way out, you know! The novel I can be writing can be Angels and Demons. And I can be Dan Brown!

Angels and Demons takes you into the world of ancient societies and symbols, into the rather bloody past of the Catholic Church. It is very difficult to resist a well-yarned conspiracy theory and Angels and Demons comes out at the top. Dan Brown’s protagonist, Robert Langdon, the rather-charming Harvard symbologist, who became more famous in the later work, Da Vinci Code, makes his first appearance in Angels and Demons and leaves you wanting more of him. Angels and Demons is not as sensational as Da Vinci code, relying less on sensationalising big names like Leonardo Da Vinci and more on the actual conspiracy theory and the involvement of the characters in it.

Angels and Demons is a beautiful symphony of diving into the past to explain a theory and then relating it to the current-day happenings in the narrative. The story moves at a fast pace, the facts and the theory are presented interspersed with exciting happenings and the book never becomes too theoretical. I won’t say anything about the plot, just go read the book.

In the end, I must mention the ambigrams in the book are simply amazing. Too good! Dan Brown must hand over half of his royalties to his artist for creating those beautiful pictures. And those of you, who don’t know what an ambigram is, read the recommendation below.

Recommendation – Go for it! In all probability, you may like it better than Da Vinci Code.

Rating – YYY
Rating Guide – Y is good. More hearts means better.

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

In childhood, my grandfather used to tell me stories from Vedic mythology and I was fascinated. My grandmother, on the other hand, used to tell me stories from her experience. How once dacoits entered her house and she caught one of them! Or how my grandfather used to be respected as a doctor in all those villages where he was posted! While my grandfather’s stories served to inspire me to higher and more complex things in life, I always used to enjoy my grandmother’s stories more. Perhaps because they were truer to life; or perhaps because it was a story of my people.

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is one such story. A story written at our level. It’s not really about my people, I being an Indian and the story being set in Africa, but it feels like one. Alexander McCall Smith spins a story of humanity that sounds like a friend telling you a set of interesting incidents.

And what an interesting story it is! The No. 1 Ladies Detective agency is the story of Mma Ramotswe, Botswana’s first and only lady private detective. It’s the story of a woman wanting to do something unique and unconventional, not for the sake for being different, but for the sake of a belief that she would be good at it. Mma Ramotswe does not dazzle you with the brilliant logical reasoning of Sherlock Holmes, the Victorian manners of Ms. Marple or the psychological understanding of Hercule Poirot. Instead, she brings the art of detective-work to mere mortals like us with her sheer human warmth, honesty and a determination to do what’s right; with a generous dollop of common-sense thrown in. Her cases are not of wives’ poisoning their husbands, there is no Professor Moriarity plotting world domination; there’s just missing husbands, wayward daughters and lost children. The sort of cases which move detective work from the pages of fiction to real-life.

Alexander McCall Smith narrates the stories with the ease of an accomplished master. He makes you smile that knowing smile when you identify with what the protagonist is doing because you would have done the same thing. Not one but several times. And wins you over in the process. So much so that when the book ends, you feel like – “Is that it?” I am sure every reader will await the next book of the series with eagerness.

Recommendation – Go for it.

Rating - YYY
Ratings Guide – More the number of hearts, better the book. 5 is maximum.

Leave it to Psmith - P G Wodehouse

What better to start this blog by writing a review for one of my all time favourite books by one of my all time favourite authors.

To begin with, a couple of lines for those who do not know P G Wodehouse and are expecting a review on the author. You have not lived. P G Wodehouse is one of the best romantic comedy writers of all times, with a flair for language that will lighten you up in any situation. My doctor has issued me a serious warning that when I am in public and reading Wodehouse, I should tell them so lest an unsuspecting crowd should see my regular giggles and laughter and declare me insane.

Anyway, onto Psmith. The debate about the favourite Wodehouse-ian character is endless, still Psmith is always one of the forerunners. Or rather, the only forerunner apart from Mulliner and Jeeves, because all other liked Wodehousian charachters are liked for they being back-runners, be it Bertie Wooster or Lord Emsworth or any other member of the Drones club or Anglers' Rest.

The book is P G Wodehouse at his best (I'll say that of course because this is the book I am reviewing). It has all the ingredients of a classic Wodehouse plot. It has strict aunts who are disapproving of thier nephews and nieces, it has a member of Peerage whose sanity can at best be called questionable, it has young members of nobility who have not done one ounce of work in life and yet seem to think they know all about life, it has a string of events where someone needs something, then steals it, then someone else steals from him/ her, then loses it and so on, it has a beautiful girl who first rejects, then accepts and then rejects our man, Psmith.

But most important of all, it has Psmith. The man who is the solution for everything. Unlike Jeeves, who HAS the solution for everything, Psmith is the solution himself. That he is most often the problem himself is irrelevant to this review. Psmith is the hero, the detective, the burglar, the romanic, the practical-guy, the problem and the solution. You are bound to fall in love with the smooth guy.

And if you thin all I have said above is senseless words, I would agree. Go read the book, I can't write as well as Wodehouse. And I didn't want to talk about the plot.

Recommendation - GO read it.

Rating - YYYYY
Rating Guide - More Ys means good. Best book gets 5 hearts, worst gets 1. I don't review books which don't deserve even 1 heart