WAAAY smarter than I thought it would be: the characters are realistic, their interactions are identifiable and their growth is palpable. I liked that the author dared to veer off the expected path and let Andie really grow up and make empowering choices. A much better role-model than all the romance chick-lit heroines out there.

Two thumbs up!

So this book really felt like an amalgamation of all the Hollywood action/psychological thrillers I’ve seen recently: Contagion + Source Code + Limitless (and even Rise of the Planet of the Apes with the animal testing!) Nevertheless, it was a fun ride and I enjoyed the plot. The characters were a little stilted but Douglas tried to give them traits and quirks which were dutifully brought up later to give them continuity.

Thumbs up for Wired. I really wish they’d given it a different title and cover though!

frothy, fun, light with a deeply satisfying centre. Ok, some of it reminded me of “Julie and Julia” and some of it was a bit pat (the homeless guy with a castle of gold) but I enjoyed this book most thoroughly. Full entertaining, value for time and money, with some tempting recipes thrown in.

i got to page 223 on attempt #2 (spaced 3 years after attempt #1) and the protagonist is so selfish/stubborn/self-destructive that I am losing patience with Suri’s patience in crafting her. She’s so unsympathetic, that I’ve just had it with this book.

Moving on …

it just hasn’t grabbed me, i’m half way through and i’m done…

While this is not quite as clever as “haroun and the sea of stories” was when it came out, Rushdie’s second foray into the land of Kahani is still a very good one. I liked the story, he’s back with more capriciously named characters and things (the River Silsila :D), but in an effort to contemporize the story, Rushdie’s made his book into a video game, replete with levels and saves, and lives. Oh well. I guess it’s for a different generation than mine. It’s still very enjoyable. Rushdie has a fun imagination, a very defined morality, and a lilting gift for words.

Fans of noir/graphic novels/sumarai/cowboys/pop-up books – you’re in for a treat. Josh Hartnett and Gackt take on a colorful villain in an origami world that’s a visual delight. The whole set is a pop-up circus and I was excited as much by the way it looked as by the tight action and well paced narrative. A+

it’s a little dated even though his observations are always quirky and fun.

I bought this in Schipol airport because I landed an hour early, at 5:30 AM and had time to kill before the taxi came and got me. and this was by far one of the cheaper and most interesting books (especially since the back went on about how it was as good as, if not better than, The Cloud Atlas, which I recently read and totally loved. So I bought it. I was about 200 pages through it when I left Amsterdam and realized only in Germany that I’d left it behind in my hotel room. I’ve looked in airports in Europe and Asia, bookstores in India and finally, a friend found it for me! Voila, I’m finally finishing it!

it’s just the best book ever. I inhaled it – from page 1 I was hooked. This was the first Eco I read and it’s still my favorite. It opened a whole world for me about early Christianity, fundamentalism, and crime. Eco is supremely gifted – I guess he’s the thinking person’s Dan Brown :) I recommend Pahmuk’s “My name is red” after this :)