The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

Its good to read a Dan Brown novel once in a while. This 3rd installment of Dan Browns' Robert Langdon series is exactly what you'd expect if you've read Angles&Demons and Da Vinci Code. Overall impressions to story and writing style are very similar to the initial 2 books.

Although longer in pages, there's a lot more fluff built into this book and it might even be simpler and faster to read because he doesn't have more then 2-3 parallel stories running side by side. An annoying part was the almost unnecessary suspense built into tiny inconsequential things to give it a 'Dan Brown' feel.

I'd recommend this book to anybody who liked Angles & DaVinci code but personally I would rank the books as: Angels&Demons > Da Vinci Code > Lost Symbol

Star Trek Academy: Collsion Course - William Shatner

This book is William Shatners spin on the teenage years of Kirk and Spock. It is also a kind of "origins" story of how Kirk & Spock met and why/ how they got into Star Trek academy. The personal interactions between Kirk and Spock in this adventure are exactly what you'd expect, a lot of sarcasm built around a well set cohesive story. There is also a background story running about Kirks pre-teeenage years.

With large text print this is a pretty fast read and the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout the book with a bang of an ending. Filled mostly action and lots of things to keep Star Trek geeks engaged.

Bob Dylan Chronicles - Bob Dylan

I picked up this book because the premise sounded interested. An upcoming struggling folk artist in the 80's greenwich village trying to make it big. Its a 1st person narration by Bob Dylan himself to the point where a lot of the chapters just seem like brain farts. He doesn't seem to have any structure at the book level or chapter level. There's a vague chronology of all the events happening in his life but it's really hard to follow and includes A LOT of references to obscure artists that probably only folk music historians would know.

I found myself losing interest in this book about half way through, because frankly I picked up this book to get some interesting stories about his upcoming struggles but it was more of a walk through his Bob Dylans mind.

Next - Michael Crighton

I started this book with the same excitement I've started several other Crichton novels and it starts off like a bond movie would. In the middle of some kind of spy action. But then then about a quarter of the book through and several simultaneous stories later I realized I was starting to lose track of what was important.

The novel delves into several subjects related to transgenics, biotechnology and genetic engineering with Darwinian overtones, wrapped around with an overarching theme that was hard to grasp until almost half way through the book.

Similiar to 'State of Fear', this felt more of a propaganda book. Michael Crichton is truly dead, literally and figuratively.

i, Robot - Isaac Asimov

I saw the movie before I read this book and first impressions, this book is not even remotely related to the movie. Which isn't good or bad, just completely different. The book is a set of short stories, loosely based on the Three laws of Robotics. The arc of the stories is the evolution of the positronic brain and its relationship with humans, from initial deployment to the robots running the world.

The book delves deeply into concepts such as Robot Psychology, breaking down of the 3 laws and 2-way logical discussions based the current problem presented in the story. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interests are peaked by simple analytical problems and their arguments. This might not be the book to sit down and relax to if you plan to read every alternate paragraph with a 7&7 in one hand.

A fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

This is a fact-based multi-generational history of 4 random strangers and how they connected in Mumbai. The book describes the lives of the lower and lower-middle classes in India in the late 20th century. I read this book around the same time I saw Slumdog Millionaire so the description of beggar livelihood and the cruelty involved was especially prominent.

Overall a very long novel, probably due to the detailed description of all the main characters backgrounds, but it comes together very well at the end. A depressing novel, but only to the extent of reality. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a little patience and wants to learn a little bit more about the "real" india.

Never have your dog stuffed - Alan Alda

Alan Alda's biography has exactly what you would expect in a biography. His real name, information about his family, a few major incidents, his life as a struggling actor sprinkled with a few tragedies here and there. A few things I found interesting were that he grew up around strippers & burlesque houses, his dad was a semi-popular actor and his mother literally belonged in a mental asylum. And ofcourse his dealings with these things and how they helped shape him into an actor.

I picked up this book to get an extended dosage of Hawkeye but he is nothing like the womanizing alcoholic he portrays in MASH. Although his hilarious writing style, which reminds me of the dark sarcasm of Marten Troost, keeps the book interesting.

The latter half of the book includes the back-stage stories of MASH and thats when things get really interesting. I found myself saying out loud "Oh Oh I've seen that episode" when he talks about how (or why) those episodes played out the way they did. Apparently the cast n crew were a pretty tight knit group.

I'd recommend this book to anybody looking for a quick read (only about 250), with a fast pace and enough humor to keep you smiling throughout the book.

Death Masks - Jim Butcher

The 5th book of the Dresden files is exactly what you'd expect. The unexpected. There's always unexpected twists in the plot with a little bit more exposure into Harry's past, non stop magic action mixed with the super sarcastic and calm-under-fire nature of Harry Dresden.

After 5 books, I'm still enjoying Harry's character, who I can describe as the House.M.D of the magic world who always finds himself in 24-like plot. All the books have a plot that last about 48 hrs in which Harry's is hunted by multiple parties and he slips out with some beasty magic action everytime he's pushed into a corner. And Death Masks definitely delivers. The plot is my favorite one so far, which includes a duel with a vampire and the return of a great character from Book 3.

Probably my favorite book of the Dresden files so far, but I wouldn't recommend reading this one without going through the rest of the series. The character build-up through the series makes this book that much more enoyable.

Summer Knight - Jim Butcher

Book 4 of the Dresden files. Summer Knight has all the sarcasm and action I've come to expect from the first three books. The theme in this one is Faeries and Harry Dresden finds himself in the middle of TWO potential wars. This book finally delves a little into Harry's background and the white council. The action scenes weren't as interesting as the first 3 but Harry's ingenuity in getting out of tough situations or dumb luck keeps this book interesting.

If I was putting the Dresden files on a graph, compared to the first 3 books I'd put book 4 at a plateau. It starts off great but then doesn't really get much better. It just keeps building upto something and feels a bit anti-climactic towards the end.

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden

This book is about the hunt for Pablo Escobar, so it's pretty interesting right off the cover. The first half of the book sets up the political and social climate in Columbia to which Pablo was born and how he rose to becoming the most hunted man alive. The second half of the book is about the hunt. The author is an investigative reporter so the book includes a lot of facts from interviews and quotes. But the book still reads like a novel.

In addition to a LOT of political detail and the history of every player involved, there is also some cool information like secret CIA spy aircrafts which seem like normal 2 prop airplanes but have sliding panels and antenna's that pop out once in the air. They used to keep those up in the air around Medellin trying to catch Pablo, he was one evasive SOB. 16 month hunt and hundreds of millions of dollars

The author does tend to go off into tangents about the background of each new player that is introduced but if you have the patience for that it only makes the book and drama involved that much better. The book is very clear about the overarching theme that Pablo's demise was his love for his homeland, Medellin and a couple of pivotal mistakes he made along the way.

Grave Peril - Jim Butcher

The 3rd book in the Dresden files continues the Harry Dresden saga and this story knows no bounds. All hell has broken lose in Chicago with ghosts and ghouls with Harry and this time a trusty sidekick to clean up the mess. This book introduces a whole bunch of new concepts. The NeverNever alternative world that was touched upon in the 1st book is explained further, among other things.

Harry does a lot of cool magic in this, stuff that makes Harry Potter look like a candy ass. And he does it at the brink of death and exhaustion with his never ending sarcastic humor that makes you smile the whole time. The story also develops to a point where you know is almost setting up for something even bigger to take place in the next book. I can't wait for the next one.