Lipstick Jungle - Candace Bushnell

As a Sex and the City fan, decided must buy and read this. Well considering that i did not like the S & C book, should have known better. Was just a step ahead of Joan Collins and party.

About three successful women and the light travails of their life. No great shakes. Well however in the end, each of them did exactly as they pleased and did not bow to pressures and all succeeded in their own way not always happy about it. Well true for most of us but did not make great reading.

Pluses - fast paced and could finish in about 5 hours.

Dante's equation - jane jensen

Massive book. read in bits and pieces over six plus months - a rarity in my life. However did manage to complete it.

Very interesting in the beginning. Once the sci-fi bits came in, to me it sagged. Finally picked up again.

Moves back and forth between various players that takes some keeping track especially if you are picking it up after a brief hiatus.

Good stuff.

The burglar who quoted Kipling - lawrence block

I picked this up thinking this is an author i have never heard of. Turns out the series is a reprint after 17 years. Hadn't heard of it before either.

The protagonist is a burglar turned into a bookseller (first editions and stuff) who uses his previous profession occasionally to help him with his current one...in this case goes stealing an old autographed copy of a kipling. turns out more people than his client want it and he is meshed into a murder that he solves in the end - after making decent money in the endeavor.

Most endearing part - Block makes no effort to hide the truth and hence police are bribed left, right and center.

Bit slow but readable and a decent ending for all the trouble. However, doubt if i will buy any more of them. Won't mind borrowing off and on.

One to Ten of Janet Evanovich

This was a busy week indeed...finished all ten of her books in eight days.

Slap stick comedy of the first order...madcap plots, weird characters, unbelievably smart denouements...good to read them once in a while. Though had earlier bought and read them over six years, reading them one after another did not diminish the charm.

Seven up is one of the best of the series. Loved Two for the dough and Ten Big Ones too.

For light reading where you don't want to spend time thinking, this is the best after Dick Francis

The tiger ladies - sheila koul

She tries to cover three generations of Kashmiri Pandit women from her experience - her maternal grandmother, her mother and herself.

Somehow the final product is a hotch-potch moving back and forth with incidents that highlight nothing. definitely not in the same class as "The Wild Swans". More effort to cover the political scenario, its impact on the daily life especially women would have been appreciated. The touches lots of issues and dwells on none leaving you feeling cheated.

One night @a call center - Chetan Bhagat

As an alumni of IIMA, must say his first book "Five Point Someone"made me proud.

This second book is a let down to say the least. The characters are not well drawn, the incidents inane and the plot resolution stupid to say the least. As proud as I am to be an Indian, I would still not believe that the clients in US are so stupid that they would not smell a rat - the callers i accept may be stupid but this stupid is hard to digest.

The protagonist starts off an idiot and ends one. But then how much can he grow in one night...poor guy.

The only part i liked was the use of the net to find an album online.

Only saving grace - can read the book in two hours.