There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love...

So we have this e-newsletter that goes out to everyone in my company once a month. Its got movies and book reviews, a section called voices where people can publish their thoughts, funny cartoons and so on... I was asked to contribute something for the book review section. I wrote about the most recent books that I had read and thought of publishing them here too...

And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie

There are good books and then there are great books, and there are those that I call a mind-blowing book. This book by Agatha Christie is totally mind-blowing. It keeps you hooked and trust me when I say hooked, I couldn’t set the book down, I could hear my heart pounding and I kept glancing at my bedroom door a hundred times in between, just to make sure it was well bolted. The book was that scary… but it was scary in a neat way, nothing morbid like blood, or gore or demonic spirits. The book starts by describing ten random people and how they all gather together on this island to spend a week vacationing. Before you know it, one of them is murdered and from there the numbers go on decreasing. And the scariest part is nobody knows who the murderer is, they all know that it has to be somebody among themselves, cause the island is completely isolated and uninhabited. So you can imagine how paranoid the characters get and the suspense just keeps mounting till the very end. And when the mystery finally unravels its just mind blowing, it’s something that will still stay with you long after you are done reading the book. I mean you won’t even begin to think something like this even in your dreams, so it just shows the awesome imaginative powers of Agatha Christie. I was totally in awe of her after reading this book, anybody would. So, everybody reading this review please leave whatever you are doing and get hold of this book, bolt your doors and settle inside for a great read. Have fun….

People have different things to say about the Twilight Series, but I liked Twisted DNA's and Anju's reviews the best, they were funny. Mine is not, cause I actually liked the series... well, I liked the first and the third book in the series... the others were a bit of a drag.

Book 1: Twilight

This is one of those books that will stick with you long after you are done reading it. Look at that cover, temptation in the simplest of forms. And this book was wonderful that way, it is a simple love story with a very weird twist that just makes you fall for the two main characters Edward Cullen & Isabella Swan. Like any other love story centered round teenagers, these two meet in high school and Edward initially avoids Bella like the plague... though after a few pages, he can hardly bear to stay away from her. Bella on the other hand is inexplicably drawn to Edward, but she can't seem to explain this aura of mystery that surrounds Edward and his family. I am not going to tell you what Edward is, but trust me when I say that as you discover who he is, you too will find yourself falling hopelessly in love with him as you see how vulnerable Edward feels living among us humans or how his eyes change color when he is trying to control his anger. Stephanie has so wonderfully described Edward Cullen, she creates a very vivid picture of him in your head, whereas Bella is just a sketch, an outline. Meyer said in an interview that she wanted every girl (while reading the book) to see herself as Isabella, she wanted them to fall in love with the perfect picture of Edward... which is exactly what happens.

Book 2: New Moon

Okay, so this second book in the Twilight series isn't as great as the first book, but it's still entertaining. Edward hardly appears in this book, it's more about Bella trying to get on with life after Edward breaks up with her. A kind of numbness takes over Bella's senses... she exists merely because her lungs take in and give out air. She hardly notices what's going on around her, she gets so caught up in the feeling of nothingness... at some point in the story something happens that trigger's a memory of Edward and then the dam breaks loose, waves and waves of pain seem to wash over her and engulf her. Jacob (of the Quileute clan) reappears in this book and he is totally adorable, he is like the sunshine in Bella's bleak and meaningless zombie like existence. Jacob and his buddies Quil and Embry are a funny lot, they are the epitome of youth, sunshine, and they come like wind blown air from the seas. In this book the Quileute legacy is revealed in all its glory; even though the element of surprise is not strong, the descriptions that Meyer uses to convey the legacy is spell binding. Towards the end you somehow know that Edward and Bella get back together (after a lot of gooey and saccharin dripping proclamations of love and forever) after narrowly escaping the Volturi (a conregation of gifted cold ones, who have taken upon themselves the task of upholding their secrecy from the human world).

Book 3: Eclipse

Eclipse forms the third book in the Twilight series, and makes for an awesome read. Here the Quileute legacy stands out like the sparkling sun, its filled with beautiful stories of shape shifters and how they obtained their wolf forms (I absolutely love that part). This book is about Bella trying to stay neural and maintain her friendship with Jacob while trying to placate Edward in the process. The insults that Edward and Jacob parry back and forth is a delight to read... Jacob comes up with some of the funniest sentences you will ever come across. You will definitely fall for Jacob in this book, he is so obnoxious, mischievous and reckless, that he makes you want to scream at him, hit him, laugh and hug him at the same time. The Cullens and the werewolves slowly become friends after they team up to take down a group of newborns. Jacob gets his heart broken when Bella decides to marry Edward and the book ends with the promise of a beautiful wedding in the fourth book 'Breaking Dawn'.

Book 4: Breaking Dawn

This is the final book in the Twilight series, and it's huge.. 768 pages of it. Here the story gets more convoluted, but Meyer weaves it well and every time something weird happens, you are left exclaiming 'what the heck just happened!' But the story progresses and Jacob is as heartwarming as ever, he's got a heart of gold. The front cover depicts a red chess piece in the background and a white queen in the foreground. This indicates Bella's transformation from her old clumsy human self to this new incredibly strong being. Bella realizes that she has an unusual gift too and she saves almost everybody from the wrath of the Volturi, thereby becoming one of the most gifted and powerful cold ones... the ending was not exciting though, it was way too ordinary. There was no immense feeling of joy or excitement, everybody was just relieved that they had 'forever' to look forward to... I mean, what is that... what do you do if you have eternity stretching out ahead of you?