Anatomy of Fear - Jonathan Santlofer

This is a murder mystery with a twist. The author is an artist himself, so this book has a lot of sketches throughout the book that give you a good visual. The other twist is that the protagonist is a police sketch artist with another twist in the story. So as the sketch artist is part of the investigation, he keeps making these sketches and talks about the 43 'Action Units' in your face that he studies. The different parts of the face have reflex responses which he describes and is able to function as a human lie-detector.

Great quick read for anybody. Its not scary by any means, nothing more than an episode of CSI.

The Last Templar - Raymond Khoury

This story and writing style are right along the Da Vinci code, only this book doesn't slow down. I love books that start off with a bang. This one had new developments or twists in the story till the very LAST line, literally. The Da Vinci code mentioned the Knights Templar, the protectors of the church, at some point. This book is completely about the knights templar and shows that their cause was much higher than the church, but not in a religious way.

The thing that I really found engaging about this book was the two parallel stories, one in the 21st century and the other in the 13th century. The author connects both the parallels really well. I definitely recommend this book to anybody who liked the Dan Brown novels but likes it slightly toned down from the plethora of details you get from Dan Brown.

24: Vanishing Point - Marc Cerasini

24 is one of my favourite tv shows of all time, so I picked up one of the books but it just wasn't that good. Maybe I got the wrong one but there just wasn't enough JB in this book and hardly any What-What-Jack-Baeur-Do (WWJBD) moments. I meant thats the reason people watch the tv show. It was a very quick read though and the characters in the story are from all the seasons. There's no real alignment with anything on tv. The one thing this book did have enough of, was action but that would've just been much better on the screen.

Competing on the edge - Brown/ Eisenhardt

This book talks about the strategy of 'Management via Structured Chaos'. Its an interesting concept that Google lives by. In fact Google even hired the author Shona Brown. The concept of competing on the edge is a business strategy that says that in order to be successful you must be in a state of constant change. And in order to maintain success at the edge of innovation you must adopt a strategy called Structured Chaos. Structured Chaos is a style of management in which groups are allowed to do whatever they please within a set of broad boundaries. It gives people enough room to innovate and express themselves.

For example, a developer can be allowed to create any product he wants, as long as it adds value to a one of the company's long term goals.

I would definitely recommend this book to read and compare with other management strategies.

Curious Incident of the dog - Mark Haddon

A very quick read, this book is extremely interesting. And different, its narrated by an autistic teenager who tries to bridge the gap between his and societal norms. Its clear that he's brilliant but completely misunderstood. There's also a sad family story in the background but its interesting to see how totally impervious he is to the emotions involved.

All in all a good read, a refreshing break from the normal writing style of many best selling authors.

Angel of Darkness - Caleb Carr

This sequel to 'The Alienist' delivers what you would expect in terms of a psychological murder mystery. The investigation will, again, break down the antagonist down to their core psychological units. Even the basic concept of a female criminal set in the 1900's is a new one and again the author introduces new concepts such as ballistics and forensic analysis for the use of investigations. All in all a great story.

That being said, this book is just too verbose. There's no reason why it should have been 750 pages, even when the story was over I still have 50 pages to go. In addition the writing style gets downright annoying. The extremely long sentences kept me searching for the subject and made it impossible to speed read and I've never seen so many brackets used in a fiction novel in my life.

Overall a good book to read if you have time and can speed read. But if you're going to read one of Caleb Carr's book, it has to be the predecessor 'The Alienist'.

Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly

As the title suggests this is a law related novel, and since its Michael Connelly its law related suspense. If you like that TV show shark, his character is almost the same as the antagonist. The Lincoln Lawyer is looking for a big break and when he finds it, he realizes that he might've bitten off more than he can chew.

This is a great suspense and law related case. I kept changing my guess' as the investigations went on and thats what kept this book interesting, I couldn't wait to find out what actually happened. I'd definitely recommend this book to anybody looking for a quick suspense novel.

Prey - Michael Crichton

Nano-technology + Crichton. Sounds great. And this book had so much potential but it just got a little bit retarded. Crichton is still a great story teller though so everything was explained with amazing depth and left little room for doubt that something like this could actually happen. But after I finished with the book thats exactly what I thought.

I probably wouldn't read this book again a Crichton fan might find it interesting enough for at least one read. Probably a 2.5 stars on the Crichton scale.

The Sicilian - Mario Puzo

The classic story of a young Italian boy on the lawless island of Sicily who goes from the nothing to the most feared man in Sicily. I loved the way the author shows him going from boyhood to manhood and how he builds his army with nothing but his charm.

Easily the next best Mario Puzo novel after Godfather. The robin hood type main character is so gripping, his character and style is crystal clear in my head years later.

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

This book is legendary. The back and forth chronology of the writing is perfectly aligned. After reading this book, I so badly wanted to be a mafioso. The first thing that caught me was just exactly how organised, organised-crime is. They operate like a small army with well definied business units and a hierarchial structure to employ automatic deniability. An advantage of the book over the also-amazing movie is that the author explains the inner workings of the mafia with vivid details. Also, each character is so well developed, I love the calm and composed style of Don Corleone. And even better was the fact that he came from humble beginnings.

This book is simply epic. No guy should go through life without reading this book at least once. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

Restaurant at the end of the universe - Douglas Adams

A continuation of the original book, this book is also hilarious. Same crew of the starship 'Heart of Gold' is not only at the restaurant at the end of the universe, its also at the end of time. Read the book for more.

Its a much shorter and a quick read, more like a short story. Definitely recommended.

HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Ample sarcasm and absolutely hilarious, especially if you like dry British humor. If I had to pin it down, I'd say the humor in this book is Fawlty towers meets Star Trek. A weird combination but it is really funny.

This book is funny on so many levels, the characters, the concepts and even the slapstick. I definitely recommend reading this book along with other books in this series.

State of Fear - Michael Crighton

I got this book thinking that its Crichton, what could go wrong? His books have been going downhill over the years and this is definitely at the bottom. Crichton has officially gone 'Green'. This book felt more and more like propaganda. The underlying message is that global warming is a hoax and that totally gets hammered in again and again and again.

The positive note is that everything he tries to get across is very well documented and referenced, I almost came away believing that global warming isn't real but thats besides the point. I wanted to read a scientific fiction novel, something exciting and complex, something Crichton. This just isn't it.

The Messiah Code - Michael Cordy

Don't let the title fool you, this isn't a religious epic. It is closer to 'Angels & Demons' as far as the concept of combining religion with science. The interesting catch in this book includes the completion of a genome project which lead to the ability to be able to predict any genetic diseases in babies, even before birth. Combine that with a international conspiracies, unsolved murders and an ancient religious cult that's existed for hundred of years and is somehow connected to modern genetic sciences... and you have 'The Messiah Code'.

I definitely recommend reading this book, especially if you liked the Dan Brown books.

Howard Hughes The Untold Story - Peter Brown

There's several Howard Hughes biography's out there and this listed as one of the top few. The whole book is written like a story chronologically so it keeps it very interesting. There are a lot of facts, for which the author provides several references, and pictures that makes it read more like a story. What really pissed me off was how many women this guy slept with. The Howard Hughes this book shows is absurd with personal relationships, which is completely blamed on his mother, and great visionary. His ability to set his mind on something and achieve it no-matter-what was I'm sure fueled by his obsessive compulsive disorder.

Book reads quick and it'll keep you involved. I found myself just trying to guess what crazy antics this guy is going to be up to next.