The Book Of Tomorrow

N.B.  This review is based on an uncorrected proof of the title, so some of the quotations and information might be different from those of the final print.

Ireland’s former prime minister’s daughter Cecelia Ahern proved herself to me that she’s a brilliant story teller with her   novel The Book Of Tomorrow ,  the first ever book of hers that I’ve read.  It was so gripping with a good plot that holds a mystery that reveals itself only near the end, really likable language style, and some philosophical views of life and love.

The story is presented is of being told by Tamara Goodwin, a spoiled teenage girl who’s father is a very rich developer.   She is a very self centered girl, having being brought up without a care in the world. But her world is shattered in to pieces when her father, after getting deep in to debt, takes his own life.  Stripped off from their fancy home and all the riches, Tamara and her mother are forced to live with Tamara’s uncle and aunt in remote and isolated place.  As they get on with this new life Tamara is very concerned about her mother continuing to appear so dazed and indifferent, and her aunt refusing to show her to a doctor, and even more weirdly, trying to hide something.   Things develop in to a whole new level when Tamara comes across a diary that automatically shows entries for tomorrow when she look s in it to it, in her own hand writing! With the help of the diary Tamara tries to predict and manipulate her tomorrows to help her mother out of her daze and find out the secret her aunt is holding.

I’ll quote the very first two and part of three paragraphs of the book so that you can get a feel of how beautifully Cecelia has woven this story.

“….. They say a story loses something with each telling. If that is the case, this story has lost nothing, for it’s the first time it’s being told.  

This story is one for which some people will have to suspend their disbelief.  And, if it didn’t happen to me, I would be one of those people.

Many won’t struggle to believe it though, for their minds have been opened; unlocked by whatever kind of key causes people to believe.   They’re either born that way or, as babies, their little bud like minds are nurtured until their petals slowly open and prepare for the very nature of life to feed them……”

See the symbols she uses to get her point across?

The plot is so gripping in the sense it slowly, very slowly, builds up tension, untwisting a tiny bit at a time yet presenting another twist, creating such intense anticipation of something sinister to happen, a quality I saw in the movie Coraline too. [I didn’t get to read the book.]  It was a little too rushed near the end though, and when the big secret is finally revealed, it is rather unconvincing. Had the secret being a plausible one in a real life situation, this book would have been even better. What I like most about The Book Of Tomorrow is that it makes the reader think about life, love, caring while being one of the best suspense, thriller, fantasy novels ever.   I can’t wait to get my hands on Cecelia Ahern’s other books!

   

    

The Barbary Pirates by William Dietrich, a fast- paced novel with adventure, humor, and history

The Barbary Pirates is novel that is one of a series written by William Dietrich around the fictitious character Ethan Gage. It is written with some relevance to certain true historical incidents and characters as well. to I was a little confused as I just started this book because I had not read any previous books of the series and the language was a bit modern for a book telling a story set back in 1802. But as I kept reading everything came in to light and it was impossible for me to put the book down.

The main character, Ethan Gage, is as American who has a taste for adventure, treasure hunts, and women. Wherever he goes, he attracts trouble. The plot starts when he is given an assignment by Napoleon Bonaparte to find a legendary weapon called “the mirror of Archimedes”, a super-power weapon apparently originated in Atlantis and later used by Archimedes. Gage is accompanied by Georges Cuvier, William Smith, and Robert Fulton in his voyage from Paris to Venice, Thira and Tripoli, to hunt for the mirror, his lost love, and a son he did not know existed. The journey is full of adventure and danger with Gage's arch enemy Aroura Somerset, a clan called the Egyptian rite, and Barbary Pirates in pursuit, desperate to have the weapon for themselves.

I found The Barbary Pirates fantastic as a novel of adventure, thriller, and history, very fast paced and absolutely funny. The dialogs were hilarious, full of sarcasm towards Gage from others for his attraction to trouble.

There is a historical note at the end of the book that clarifies the historical incidents, places and people that the reader encounters in the book. I found it very informative. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to get my hands on the other Ethan Gage adventures soon.

 

HUSH by Kate White

This is a thriller/suspence novel that I found rather dissapointing. It's written around a woman who fleas a scene of homicide.
Lake Warren is a marcketing consusltant, currently working for a fertility clinic. Her husband Jack is filing a divorce, and worse, seems to be wanting the full custody of their two kids. So, Lake has been advised by her lawyer to "keep her nose clean", so as not to make things easy for Jack.
There is this Dr. Keaten, a consultant to same fertility clinic that Lake works for, who is very flirtacious towards her. She too is attracted. After a lustful night spent with him in his appartment, Lakes find him brutelly murdered.
She takes flight, not wanting to call the police, thinking it would affect her custody battle. She tries to act normal. But strange things happen around her. It's as if some trying to scare her. And worse yet, two police dettectives come breathing down her neck. So Lake is determined to direct the police towards who ever the real killer is, with out revealing her being in his appartment when Dr. Keaten got killed.
The plot as a whole is very inconvincing. The author has tried to insert some twists to it, but with hardly any success. Some of them just offer distractions. One other thing I cannot appriciate is the harsh, down right direct way the author expresses Lake's and Dr Kates Love making. It's surprising to expect from a lady author.

Money To Burn by James Gripando, suspence wrapped around cooperate espionage

Pleas note that this review is of a uncorrected proof copy of the book, so the final publication may be different in some aspects than presented here.

I could have read this book from the beginning to the end without stopping, had it not been for my lovely wife and darling little girl, and my day job, of course. For me, it was everything a suspense novel
should be.

The plot starts with Michael Cantella, 28, pretty well up in the cooperate ladder of Saxton Silver, a Wall Street investment bank, going on a trip in the Caribbean with his girl friend Ivy Layton, a trader in
Ploutus Investment, a large hedge fund that is also Saxton Silver's biggest primer brokerage client.

As they cruise around Bahamas in a charted boat, impulse and passion make them jump at marriage. When Cantella awakes with a hang over after the first night following their wedding, he finds no trace of his wife in the boat. After a few days of intense search it turns out that Ivy had fallen victim to a shark attack and not survived.

Seven years pass by. Michael is married again, and in even higher a position in Saxton, but the emptiness caused by Ivy's death remains. And on his 35th birth day, he logs in to his account, only to find out that all his money has been stolen by some one!

That is just the beginning of a chain of bizarre events to follow. Some sort of cooperate espionage seem to be involved in bringing down the stock value of Saxton, some one tries to hurt Michael physical, his laptop is infected with spyware, his wife files a divorce case, and worst of all, he is suspected to be responsible for Saxton's bankruptcy and the killing of the host of a TV shaw of finance. The rest of the story follows with Michael's desperate attempts to get out his mess.

This plot has many twists and turns. As one twist untwists, a new one appears, making it hard for the reader to guess the end. This book is capable of sustaining the reader's curiosity almost to the end.

The book also discusses a timely issue, how greed brings about misery, particularly relating to the way those big shot finance firms operate. The author makes good use of Michael's grand father's character to express it. Had the author elaborated more along this line, this book would have been an excellent piece
of work. As it is, Money To Burn is very much in the league of popular suspense novels, and one of the best of the kind.