Book Review: Step on a Crack

This is another run of the mill tale from Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. The plot opens somewhat promisingly. The first lady is fatally poisoned and the perpetrator swears that this is only the beginning.

The funeral of the diseased is held in a huge church in New York and is attended by high profile people who include Politicians, Wall Street bigwigs and media celebrities.The church is sieged by a mysterious group of terrorists and as expected they are making demands.

Thrown in the situation is the protagonist, Michael Bennett, a NYD cop and former negotiator. Though he is never in any physical trouble from the terrorists, the task of rescuing the funeral attendees fall on his already burdened shoulders.

Bennett is the father of ten children and his terminally ill wife lies in a hospital close to the church. This is an attempt by the authors to be a thriller-cum-tearjerker and falls flat in both areas.

After watching movies like the 'Negotiator',I found the book pretty mediocre.
My verdict for this book is: Forgettable!

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The Ruins

The Ruins by Scott Smith, hailed by the maestro Stephen King as the best horror novel of the century is engrossing and macabre and creepy. I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Two couples on holiday in Cancun, Mexico. A chance encounter with a few Greeks and a German and the appearance of mysterious map leads them to ';the ruins'. The foursome and some of their new found friends find themselves held hostage by seemingly hostile Mayans brandishing weapons.

The couples soon discover that their worst problems are not from the Mayans and find themselves 'entwined' in an unbelievable nightmare.

I loved Smith's narrative as he first presents the reader with a faint picture of the couples vacationing in Mexico and their surroundings and gradually builds the plot. Then as the plot evolves, so does the growing terror sucking in the reader into the story like a magical spell.

There are flashbacks to past happenings of the individuals, reminiscent of ABC's 'Lost', the mounting tension and the inevitable breakdown of spirit of the victims(reminiscent of the 'Blair Witch Project' ) and the expected end. I honestly felt Smith could have downplayed some descriptions of bodily functions, if not the gore that is taken to extremes in some places.

Nevertheless, Smith's lucid narrative makes this an enjoyable read

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Book Review: Simple Genius

Despite the fact that I really loved the last book I read , I decided that on this trip, I was going to read something light.

It had been a while since I read fiction. I decided to pick up David Baldacci's 'SimpleGenius', the New York Times bestseller, just to get familiar with what 'everyone else' was reading. The first 200 or so pages were not impressive. My first reaction was "So how did this one make it to #1 on the bestseller list?"

The story revolves around two investigators, the stereotypical tall tough nice guy Sean King and his cohort, Michelle Maxwell(who must work thorugh her own problems), the cliched good looking blackbelt. Both are investigating the mysterious death of some guy in a fictitious town in Virgnia. The duo are apparently fixtures in several Baldacci novels.


There are the stereoptyical old maid's tales on CIA and government conspiracies and there is a sterotypical autistic child who holds a deep dark secret which the duo must unravel. There is of course, a parallel plot involving Michelle's secret.

Well, not a bad read and as the saying goes, nothing to write home about. My verdict: It did not deserve the #1 spot in the NY times bestseller list.





Having said all this, I did like Baldacci's narrative and some parts of the book where he explains complex concepts like private-public key in lay person's terms.

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Book Review: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

I decided to take a break from all the heavy reading I do normally and picked up this book on one of my trips.
Being a big fan of Wayne Dyer books, I was not particularly impressed with the first few chapters.Many of Dyer's books have covered the part about silencing the ego, cultivating the observer and focusing on breath.However, as I dug deeper, I was impressed by the author's preachings that I was hooked.


It is amazing how the author takes a complex subject like suffering and even everyday maladies and stresses that most of us experience and simplifies our understandings of them.He also offers a way out of them.


He builds on the Ego's need to identify with things, to want more(very reminiscent of Dyer's profound statement,'Where is the peace in more is better?'), to complain, resent reactivity and to hold on to grievances. It need to prove itself right and make others wrong. The Ego constantly needs fame and can play roles(or as Eric Burns put it, plays games) of victim, abuser and so on.



Many of us hold on to our baggages for most of our lives. Tolle calls these baggages 'pain-bodies' and explains how those with pain bodies suffer and pass on their suffering to those 'willing' to accept them. He also offers us a way out of our pain bodies.



Unfortunately this book defied the very motive of my picking it up in the first place, to take a break from heavy reading. It made me think but offered me hope- Yes, for me this book was a paradox.




As Oscar Wilde put it, a classic is a book that everyone praises but few read. This is a book that fits that description. Many will buy it. Honestly, I cannot see too many who will complete it.

Unlike the touchy-feely style of Dyer's books, this book is indeed heavy reading.



I cannot say I enjoyed this book but it was an eyeopener in many ways.

Here are my favorite quotes from the book.

• Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.' said Rumi. Echart Tolle, the author or 'A New Earth.' puts it differently:
  
  The ego may be clever, but it is not intelligent. Cleverness pursues its own little aims. Intelligence seeks the larger whole in which all things are connected. Cleverness is motivated by self-interest and it is extremely short sighted. Most politicians and business people are clever. Very few are intelligent. Whatever is attained through cleverness is short-lived and always turns out to be eventually self-defeating. Cleverness divides, intelligence includes.

• Emotion in itself is not unhappiness. Only emotion plus an unhappy story is unhappiness.
  
• Unconscious people- and many remain unconscious are trapped in their egos throughout their lives- will quickly tell you who they are: their name, their occupation, their personal history, the shape or state of their body, and whatever else they identify with. Others may appear to be more evolved because they think of themselves as an immortal soul or divine spirit. But do they really know themselves, or have they just added some spiritual sounding concepts to the content of their minds? Knowing yourself goes far deeper than a set of ideas and beliefs.....Knowing yourself deeply has nothing to do with whatever ideas are floating in your mind.Knowing yourself is rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.

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Book Review: The Brothers Bulger

The same review also appears on Lokvani

Book Review: The Brothers Bulger

Author: Howie Carr

Publisher: Warner Books

464 Pages, paperback

‘The Brothers Bulger’ is one of the best true crime/non-fiction books I have read recently. Fast passed in narrative, the book covers the History of one of the most well-known siblings to dominate the Boston landscape in politics and crime. Carr’s narrative is fascinating, spellbinding and packed with crackling wit and was a page turner despite the reason that many of the facts of this story are well-known.

The Bulgers came from the most modest of families in the projects of South Boston and were of Irish heritage. While his brother, Whitey, climbed the infamous ranks of America’s most wanted, second only to Bin Laden, William Bulger grew in Beacon Hill to become the president of the senate. He then moved on to become the de facto head of the University of Massachusetts.

The book traces the early lives of the siblings. Whitey makes an early entry into the world of criminal enterprise, by moving from larceny to assault and battery, robbery and then to murder. Billy, his brother struggles through Boston College High School, and then through BC Law School to subsequently enter politics.

The tale of the two brothers has been almost romanticized for decades, particularly people in Massachusetts. ‘How could one brother, through perseverance reach the presidency of the Senate while his own older brother reaches the zenith of the criminal underworld through deeds of atrocity?’ many of us wonder. This book casts serious aspersions on this folklore.

Carr alleges that the brothers had more in common in their strategies to land them at the top of their respective trades. Each of them also had a series of lucky breaks that he worked deviously to his own advantage.

The GI bill for instance helped Billy, an average student make it through Law School. Backing 1960 senate winner Joe Moakley would subsequently get him into the Senate. A disastrous attempt by the federal courts to integrate Boston’s school system would be Billy’s much needed catalyst to land him the senate presidency.

Whitey’s early bank robbery attempt would send him to Alcatraz for almost a decade between the mid fifties and sixties. This sentence would actually serve as a boon to Whitey. Irish hoodlums that operated in Boston would kill each other in gang wars leaving the coast clear for Whitey to assert his leadership and graduate into more illegal dealings like Jai Alai, racketeering, murder and extortion. An outrageous deal that Whitey and his criminal accomplice Steve Flemmi would make with the FBI would enable Whitey get away with the most heinous of crimes.

Carr alleges that the FBI could have avoided making deals with Whitey as they could have got all their information from Flemmi. The only reason that FBI agent Zip Connolly struck a deal with Whitey was to ensure himself a decent job after his term in the FBI. Whitey’s brother Billy would ultimately help Zip with a senior job at Boston Edison.

Carr alleges that Billy’s reign in the senate was marked with unethical tactics that involved terrorizing his adversaries and through unholy alliances with politicians with power. He also ensured that his allies were strategically placed or promoted to positions of power in Beacon Hill. Billy would ultimately leave the senate for his tenure as the president of the University of Massachusetts where he would continue his tactics to promote and reward his friends and antagonize his enemies.

The book also recounts Billy’s fall from grace, his infamous and humiliating senate hearings, his gigantic golden parachute after his forced resignation. It also covers Whitey’s disappearance and several events that marked the rise and the fall of the Bulgers of Massachusetts. Many prominent figures in politics like Tom Menino, Governors Weld, Swift, Celluci, Dukarkis, the Bushes, John Kerry and Mitt Romney make appearances in this book. Particular noteworthy and humorous are the ridiculous rituals of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations organized and headed by Billy Bulger. This book is an informative and enjoyable read that would enthrall the political geek and the curious reader alike. ‘Certainly worth a read’, is my verdict.

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Book Review: The Da Vinci Code

What I thought of the Da Vinci Code
1st ed edition (March 18, 2003)
Was the ‘greatest story ever told’, the ‘greatest story’ ever sold? How accurate are the modern day versions of the Bible in chronicling the life and times of Jesus Christ? The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown raises these questions offering a groundbreaking revelation that could threaten the integrity of modern day Christian Beliefs. Well, that’s the sale pitch.

The cover story of the December 22nd 2003 issue of Time magazine featured the rise in popularity of early literary texts that never made it into the Bible. It cites reasons for this sudden shift due to new age and modern day believers feeling a strong discomfort with theological restrictions. It christens ‘The Da Vinci Code’ as a ‘carnival baker’ of a thriller that accuses the Roman Catholic Church of suppressing a vital aspect of the life of Christ. Since this book there have been numerous follow up books that attempt to discredit the author and accuse him of cooking up a preposterous theory based on half-truths.

The Da Vinci Code opens with the murder of the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The events that follow place Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon and Cryptologist Sophie Neveu, the grand daughter of the curator in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the French authorities, Opus Dei, a powerful wealthy organization with connections all the way to the Vatican and some other sinister forces. (Opus Dei, a non-fictional organization has a response to this book on its website, www.opusdei.org.)

Through a series of cryptic clues, the duo finds its way to the ‘truth’, which Brown reveals about halfway through the book. I will refrain from revealing this ‘truth. Brown alleges that the present day Bible was a collection of selected texts during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor. In the process of compiling these texts, many significant aspects of the life of Christ, his legacy, and his life were omitted. He also states that the Roman Catholic Church suppressed these facts and presented to the world, a distorted view of Christian faith and the life of Christ.

The most important secret that was held back by the church was known to a selected few belonging to a secret society. This society boasted of personalities like Da Vinci, Newton and Victor Hugo. The book theorizes that Da Vinci presents clues to this truth in paintings like the Last Supper. Once this truth is revealed, the plot simply falls apart in the second part of the book, and finally comes to a very predictable end.

There are however, parts of the book I liked. They had little to do with the plot. For instance, Brown speaks with knowledge about the Louvre and other locales in Paris and London.

As an objective reader, I found some of Brown’s theories a bit farfetched. One that comes to mind is that this book ‘almost’ alludes that Walt Disney incorporated hidden messages in movies like ‘The Little Mermaid’ to clue us in on this ‘Secret revelation’ (Did Disney also belong to the Secret Society?) Though I have not read any rebuttal books yet, it seems obvious to me that Brown has blended a lot of new age mumbo-jumbo like the Yin-Yang theory with his own hand woven interpretations of Da Vinci artworks in coming up with his astounding theories.

The recent shakeup in the Catholic church, the popularity of Mel Gibson’s movie, The Da Vinci Code and its the follow up books are indications that several paradigm shifts are underway. This bold book does mark an important milestone of our time for one reason alone. It tells us more than anything else, that we are at a point where old faiths by themselves are not sufficient for many of us. We are curious beings and need to seek out other probable theories for the way things ‘are’.

Go ahead and read this one just to satisfy your curiosity. Find out what the fuss is all about. However, accept the ‘facts’ with more than a few grains of salt. This book does entertain at least some of the time.


The same review of The Da Vinci Code on Lokvani
To buy the book from Barnes and Noble, click on the image below.

Da Vinci Code

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