The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson is that rare thing - a sequel that is even better than the book that went before. A suspenseful, remarkably moving novel . . . This is the best Scandinavian novel to be published in the U.S. since Smilla’s Sense of Snow . . . Salander is one of those characters who come along only rarely in fiction: a complete original, larger than life yet firmly grounded in realistic detail, utterly independent yet at her core a wounded and frightened child .

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government.

But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander—the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.

Much like his (Stieg Larsson) first book the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, this complex novel is not just a thrilling read, but tackles head-on the kind of issues that Larsson himself railed against in society, such as endemic establishment corruption and the exploitation of women.

The Shack by William Young

Young approaches the popular topic the love of God and human suffering in a story. Jesus taught in parables and object lessons becasue we learn well from stories. Young's story is an attempt describe a God's character to his children. But God's character is essentially indescribable. We can only understand a part of God's characteristics by what we know and experience in human relationships.

William P. Young's book "The Shack" has an intriguing premise. Years ago, a father name MacKenzie Phillips took his children camping and lost one of them to a man who has kidnapped and killed others. Mack has grieved since then. His marriage has struggled. Understandably, his relationship with God has suffered. Then, one wintry day, he receives a note in his mailbox inviting him back to the woods, to the shack in which his daughter's dress and bloodstains were found. The note, it would seem, is from God.

From this simple yet effective premise, Young leads Mack Phillips back to his point of despair and anger. The encounters he then has with God there in "The Shack" serve as thought-provoking moments for both Mack and the reader. This is not the God of stodgy Sunday school classes. This is not a flannel-graph Jesus. This is not limited to a fluttering dove of the Holy Spirit. The descriptions here are startling, while remaining true to the nature of God's love and grace as portrayed through Scripture. Not only are they startling, they're wise and moving and beautiful.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the black ladies' maids that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working in white families' homes, all just before the Civil Rights revolution. It is so much more than just stories of their sufferings.

Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement, the story is narrated by the three principal characters...Minny and Aibileen, two black maids, and Miss Skeeter, a young, white woman newly graduated from college. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams.

This is a book about love and suffering, hatred and faith, fear and courage. It is about women of strength and dignity who carry on and manage to care about others despite an unjust system. It is a beautiful book, unforgettable in many ways. It is touching, thought-provoking, humorous and compelling. The Help by Kathryn Stockett gentle, yet powerful, moving without being melodramatic, and most of all, realistic in every detail.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger a clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. At random times, Henry suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From Henry's point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time traveling to Clare's childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old.

The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise, Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor. The expressive, evocative performances of both actors convey the protagonists' intense relationship, their personal quirks and their reminiscences, making this a fascinating audio.

Audrey Niffenegger did a beautiful job taking some of the most complex ideas - time travel, marriage, love, children, friends, literary and artistic allusions, religion, death, drugs, childhood, growing, loss, and what it means to be human - and weaving them together poetically and with amazing clarity. For other books on similar subject click here

Hoshruba by Musharraf Ali Farooqi

The Tilism-e-Hoshruba is the subcontinent’s first wholly indigenous Indo-Islamic fantasy epic. It tells the stories of Amir Hamza’s military forces, his grandson and his loyal band of tricksters (masters of wit and disguise) as they go to war with Afrasiyab, the sorcerer who rules the magical land of Hoshruba.

In late nineteenth century Lucknow, Syed Muhammad Husain Jah and Ahmed Husain Qamar, two rival story-tellers, wrote Tilism-e Hoshruba a fantasy in the Urdu language whose equal had not been heard before, and which has never been rivalled since. The writers claimed that the tale had been passed down to them from story-tellers going back centuries: it was a part of the beloved oral epic, The Adventures of Amir Hamza which had come to the Indian subcontinent via Persia and had gained in popularity during the reign of Akbar, the Mughal emperor.

Fantasy, the occult, adventure and romance play themselves out in a typically Indian setting as wizards, sorceresses, tricksters and royalty pitch themselves into the battle for Hoshruba. The characters of the epic are marvels of literary creation, and are much more colourful and dashing than those of the Amir Hamza cycle of tales. For more books click here

Your're Hired by Nasha Fitter

Your're Hired by Nasha Fitter all you need to take your first important steps up the corporate ladder. Whether you are applying for a new job or want to perform better in your present position, You’re Hired! How to Get That Job and Keep It Too will help you answer those questions you just didn’t know whom to ask.

Is this you? Have you every applied for a job and not been called for the Interview? Ever wondered why? Don’t be discouraged! Finally, an easy, step-by-step, written specially for Indian job contexts and situations, is here to help. Fun and easy-to-follow, Your're Hired uses actual CVs, emails and resume's to show you the communication and soft skills errors that prevent people from getting ahead, and how you can avoid them. For other books on Job search refer here...

A New Earth Awakening to Your Life by Eckhart Tolle

Taking off from the introspective work he began with The Power of Now, the number one bestseller that has sold millions of copies worldwide, Tolle provides the spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live. Eckhart Tolle's first full length book in eight years "A New Earth Awakening to Your Life" will be a cornerstone for personal spirituality and self-improvement for years to come. Shattering modern ideas of ego and entitlement, self and society, Tolle lifts the veil of fear that has hung over humanity during this new millennium, and shines an illuminating light that leads to happiness and health that every reader can follow.

Eckhart Tolle is one of the bestselling spiritual teachers of our time. A wise counsellor in this ever changing, chaotic and often violent world, Tolle draws on essential spiritual teachings of all ages and traditions to reveal a fresh evolutionary model of spiritual life for the 21st Century. The simple message in his international bestseller The Power of Now, the that of living in the present, of enjoying the journey rather than always looking to the next goal, has spread fast. For a list of spiritual books click here...

We are like that only by Rama Bijapurkar

Taking cues from economics, demography, history, culture, philosophy and good old common sense, Rama Bijapurkar tries to make sense of the complex and inscrutable Indian market—the many Consumer, their diverse and schizophrenic consumer behaviour and the way to make your company’s fortune in this billion plus market. In "We are like that only" Bijapurkar answers many questions like, Why is the India market untenable? Will India really be the world’s next consumption powerhouse? Does the Indian middle class really exist? What is the exact purchasing power of this market? Is there really a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid? Why are demand patterns so capricious? Is rural India a sophisticated or a primitive market?

Quote from the book: ‘The Indian market is about a lot of people consuming a little bit each that adds up to a lot . . . the Indian DNA is about continuity with change; it is about “THIS as well as THAT”; about cobbling together clever and low-cost solutions that are ingenious combinations and adaptations of products available in the market.’

Irreverent and insightful, Bijapurkar answers all these questions as it casts an unblinking eye on twelve key facets of Consumer India. It successfully fathoms how much Indians earn, how they consume, what they consume and what dictates their consumption choices. A list of good related books...

Books on JavaScript

JavaScript is the Netscape-developed object scripting language used in millions of web pages and server applications worldwide. Contrary to popular misconception, JavaScript is not "Interpretive Java". In a nutshell, JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language supporting prototype based object construction.

JavaScript can function as both a procedural and an object oriented language. Objects are created programmatically in JavaScript, by attaching methods and properties to otherwise empty objects at run time, as opposed to the syntactic class definitions common in compiled languages like C++ and Java. Once an object has been constructed it can be used as a blueprint (or prototype) for creating similar objects. The basic syntax is intentionally similar to both Java and C++ to reduce the number of new concepts required to learn the language. Language constructs, such as if statements, for and while loops, and switch and try ... catch blocks function the same as in these languages (or nearly so.)

The first ever JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich at Netscape, and has since been updated (in JavaScript 1.5) to conform to ECMA-262 Edition 3. This engine, code named SpiderMonkey, is implemented in C. The Rhino engine, created primarily by Norris Boyd (also at Netscape) is a JavaScript implementation in Java. Like SpiderMonkey, Rhino is ECMA-262 Edition 3 compliant. Netscape's JavaScript is a superset of the ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ECMAScript) standard scripting language, with only mild differences from the published standard. To see a list of related books click here

Books on Rakhi

Raksha Bandhan is the sacred festival that falls in the auspicious shravan month i.e,in the month of july-august every year.It is being considered as the day to express the eternal love between brothers and sisters.The reason considered behind the celebration is- sister pray for the well being of brother and brother inturn promise the sister to be with her throughout her life and to accompany her in all situations of life.

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The elder brother in return offers rakhi gifts to his sister and vows to look after her same while an elder sister returns offers to her younger brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed each other sweets. With the advancement in technology one can send customized rakhi gifts too. One can choose from photo gifts or rakhi greeting cards

The origin of this festival is usually traced back to the historical incidents of Indra's fight with Vritra-Indra that resulted in Indra's loss. Then, his wife had tied a thread around his wrist and empowered it with divine powers to make sure Indra emerged victorious in the duel that followed.

In parts of Gujarat, day is celebrated as Pavitropana. On this day people perform the grand pooja or the worship of Lord Shiva. It is the culmination of the prayers done through out the year. A few noted books on Rakhi are Rakhis Ma Rasebase.

Vedic Mathematics by Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja, V. S. Agarwala

Vedic Mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of Mathematics which was rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). the real beauty and effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics cannot be fully appreciated without actually practising the system. One can then see that it is perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.

According to Bharati Krishna's research all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras or word-formulae. For example, 'Vertically and Crosswise` is one of these Sutras. These formulae describe the way the mind naturally works and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution. But

In the Vedic system 'difficult' problems or huge sums can often be solved immediately by the Vedic method. These striking and beautiful methods are just a part of a complete system of mathematics which is far more systematic than the modern 'system'. Vedic Mathematics manifests the coherent and unified structure of mathematics and the methods are complementary, direct and easy.

Interest in the Vedic system is growing in education where mathematics teachers are looking for something better and finding the Vedic system is the answer. Research is being carried out in many areas including the effects of learning Vedic Maths on children; developing new, powerful but easy applications of the Vedic Sutras in geometry, calculus, computing etc. To see a list of all books click here

The lost symbol by Dan Brown

The Lost Symbol will be the third book to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon; the first two were 2000's Angels & Demons and 2003's The Da Vinci Code. The Lost Symbol, formerly known under the working title as The Solomon Key, is an unreleased novel by American writer Dan Brown.The book will be published on 15 September 2009 with an initial print run of 6.5 million copies.

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

Brown’s longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, “Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.”

“The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait,” said Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

For the entire listing of books click here...

Tribute to Michael Jackson continued

Time described Jackson's influence at that point as "Star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too". Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984, which was to have repercussions for the rest of his life. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center. On May 14, 1984, he was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.

With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.[48] It had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success, spawning seven hit singles in the U.S., five of which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, more than any other album.[49] As of 2008, the album had sold 30 million copies worldwide.

Jackson's skin had been a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, it gradually grew paler. The change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that he was bleaching his skin.[37] In 1986, he was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the vitiligo partially lightened his skin, and the lupus was in remission; both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight.

To view a list of good albums, music and books go here