Ronnie Miller won’t be eighteen until the end of summer, so she is forced to follow her mom’s rules and has to go to North Carolina to spend the vacations with her dad. She hasn’t spoken to him in three years and still blames him for ruining her life with his decision to leave his job and family in order to pursue a dream of becoming a concert pianist. It was because of his time away that eventually her mother was forced to separate from him.

Till here it seems like the usual Nicholas Sparks novel. Slow start, emotional ride and then an amazing ending. But this one is completely different. Remarkably done and truly touching, The Last Song will surely share shelf space alongside The Notebook and A Walk to Remember for any Sparks fan. This one will make readers sigh with pleasure. Why some might even feel sad having to finish this book and put it down!

As the summer continues both Ronnie and her brother Jonah discover something magical about the little island they have been shipped off to. Slowly but surely, love comes creeping into their lives once again. As each chapter is viewed by a different character in the book stating how they feel about situations going on,Sparks reveals more of the story and at times flashes back to the past to provide more history through each perspective. Each character has something to add to the events of that summer and reading it in their own voice adds to the realness of the story. Painting images into your mind on the many lives that live in the beach environment where Ronnie’s dad lives, Sparks does a fantastic job at illustrating through the characters that despite the past, if there is faith, through God, new beginnings are possible.

Made into a Hollywood movie starring Miley Cyrus, Nicholas Sparks actually wrote the screenplay before he wrote the novel.

The Last Song is an emotionally charged novel. With this book Sparks finds a way to explore not only adult emotions but those of a child on the brink of adulthood who faces fears and mistakes. When readers discover the reason behind the book’s title, there will be feelings of joy, pain, and of course the greatest gift a writer can bestow upon a reader, which is the sadness felt  that a book has just ended because you feel like a friend is being parted with.

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They Hang: Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery by Syeda Hameed

Today’s book comes with a warning. Pick it up only if you have the heart to deal with the brutal face of humanity because after you read They Hang your faith in humanity will be shaken. This is no fictionalised account of the condition of Indian women, nor is it a treatise on gender issues. It is simply a collection of stories – 12 real life stories of women who were gang raped, abused as children, branded as witches, honour killed; of women who gathered the courage to step out of the traditional confines imposed by a patriarchal and cruel society and demand justice. It’s been over a decade, each of their cases drew media attention for a while and then the buzz faded. Till date, justice eludes them. For some, like Maimun from Nuh in Haryana, Huma Farzana from Lucknow, Kashyapi from Ranchi, it is already too late. They are no more. Others are still trying to piece together their broken lives. These are their stories told by the woman who they turned to for protection, for justice. For years, Dr Syeda Hameed, then a Member of the National Commission for Women, tried to fight for them, but to no avail. This book is her protest against a society and a system where women are still denied security and justice; her attempt to stir them and to ensure that these women are not forgotten.
Written in a simple, everyday language, these stories leave you shaken and sleepless. Is this happening in 21st century India? The Incredible India that is broadcasted all over the airports and media channels? If yes, then is India truely incredible? Ask Sajoni or Jahanara or Lily. The answer will be a resounding no. Till families stop killing their own children in the name of honour, till husband’s stop beating their wives for money, till father’s stop abusing their own girls for sexual pleasure, till sexual perverts pose as school principals and get away with it, how can India or any of the people in it call themselves incredible?

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An insatiable hunger for power and a compulsion to win at all costs- this is what it takes to be a Master of the Game. For Kate Blackwell, Sheldon’s strong and shrewd protagonist, success is oxygen and to achieve it, she stops at nothing. She manipulates friends, family, nations – in short everyone – to get what she wants and in the end, she always wins, by hook or increasingly, by crook. There are no regrets, no pangs of conscience, no ultimate shame or dishonour. She does not die a lonely death hastened by heartache. No, even at the ripe old age of 90, she is plotting and maneuvering and the whole world, including the President of the United States is congratulating her. This novel which spans the lives and adventures of four generations is her story; an ode to her ruthlessness. For ruthless she is, but not, as the author shows, heartless. She does not forget her friends and will do anything to ensure that her loved ones are on what she believes is the “right” path.

Sheldon’s Master of the Game became an instant success when it hit the markets in 1982. Many were surprised; the book lacks the stunning ending and surprises that are a trademark of his works. There are no unexpected twists really – you know that Kate will always have her way. In fact, it is so predictable that you keep expecting that Sheldon will bring in the unexpected, that Kate will fail or at least suffer, but no such luck. Sheldon’s protagonist is invincible. Yet the novel is so fast paced, the character of Kate so absorbing and compelling, that it is enough to keep Sheldon fans glued. The story of a young immigrant and how he and his family form one of the greatest business empires is truely intriguing, if at times a little unbelievable. Sheldon has managed to recreate the 19th century South Africa, where there were more diggers than diamonds; where apartheid was the way of life and where the natives were beginning to protest against the injustices done to them. His portrayal is so live that you can feel the penury, the injustice, the wretchedness. This, many argue, is the best part of the novel and the most fast paced. The rest is about Kate journey to the top. What is truely intriguing is just how non judgemental Sheldon has been with his characters. Not once does he chastise or condemn Kate. Such is his portrayal that whilst the reader may disapprove of her actions or be bewildered by them, may get a little angry at times, but (s)he never loathes her or harbours any ill will. Therein lies his genius. In Kate Blackwell Sheldon has created a character that is neither loveable nor loathsome; just unforgettable. With this book, Sheldon once again proves that he is without doubt the Master of the Game !!!!

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In most of the novels about Henry VIII’s England, Thomas Cromwell plays a role, but he’s never been the main character. The role is often left to be filled by the famous wives of Henry VIII. But Hilary Mantel has woven her tale not only around Cromwell, but through him. Shifting focus from the main event – Henry and Anna, Mantel describes the tumultuous history of this period by showing the struggle faced by those behind the scenes.

The events surrounding the life of King Henry VIII have been retold countless times. Desperate for a legitimate male heir, he wishes to dissolve his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. In the process of doing this, he becomes head of the Church of England, and severs the nation’s ties with the Catholic Church. Wolf Hall is another book entirely, focusing on the intricate and brutal political machinations that resulted in the English Reformation. This political history is given to us through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, a poor blacksmith’s son who grew up to become one of the most powerful political figures in England. All the usual suspects are present, be it Cardinal Wosley, Anne of Boelyn or Katherine of Aragon along with a great cast of fully realized minor characters, both fictional and real. Easy to read from the opening line, the novel flows along almost like you are having a conversation with the key characters. Meticulously researched, the Tudor court is shown, not as a theatre set, but as a living, breathing, melting pot of intrigue and disharmony. Told in the present tense, from a ground level, the focus never wavers from Cromwell’s fascinating person, so much so that it often seems to have been written in the first person. Mantel has patched up a well-worn era in history, making it heftier and sturdier that it was before.

Totally adept in her writing, Mantel writes with originality, nuances and absolutely no clichés. She immerses herself in the period- the food, the clothes, the heat, the stench. Having researched this book for years, and its amazing to see she does not get bogged down by her facts, or by history. Her flair for witty conversation brings her characters to life, giving them flesh and blood where history only gives them stark facts and wooden portraits. If you’ve read books on Tudor history and are looking for something along the lines of The Other Boelyn Girl, you might be in for a surprise. Wolf Hall is a very detailed, well constructed, and well researched book which tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, a solid man covered in the scars of his many former trades; who blends in with the lily-white delicates of the English court. Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009, this is truly fiction at its finest.

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Over half a century old, the brutal episode that tore a country apart is slowly fading from the pages of Indian history. The Partition of India which occurred in 1947 left millions dead, homeless, and displaced. While first person accounts vanish and unpleasant memories slowly suffer silent deaths, Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh offers one of the finest treatments of the subject. First published in 1956, this is a book which has been reprinted, reissued and translated into many languages since then. This classic was penned by Singh when he was around thirty years of age. Infused with the compassion and humility of an author who would become one of the most eccentric and witty columnists of India, the novel  delivers a human dimension to the event through its sense of reality, horror, and believability.

Singh recreates a tiny Punjabi village on the banks of the Indus River where a large number of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs have been living in harmony for years. As political developments change the way the people have been going about their lives, Singh weaves a beautiful love story set against the backdrop of the communal violence. The skill which sets Singh apart as a writer starts to become apparent as the story quickly unfolds at a rapid pace and the backdrop slowly immerses the plot to become more lively and important than the main players. In his hundred and ninety pages of writing, Singh creates a powerful cast with vivid descriptions for each of the characters. It becomes quite clear that Singh has an eye for detail in the way he knits an engaging, picturesque story.

In Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh succeeds in showing the human dimension of the momentous event of Partition, through ordinary characters we can identify with. The helpless victims of communal hatred, the susceptible young duo with their Romeo and Juliet tale or the uncouth village rogue who makes a supreme sacrifice… through all his characters Singh is able to drive home the point that no one was responsible for the tragedies that befell the people of India. Everyone played their part in the turn of events, and the poor were left in the middle to suffer the effects. Singh shows readers how politics can be so consequential, it travels deep into the lives of even to those who don’t have a clue.

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We listed twenty books by different authors (with one Star Trek episode included) yesterday that drew inspiration from Shakespeare’s works. Here are the sources of the titles given on yesterday’s post.

1. The Moon Is Down – John Steinbeck
BANQUO: How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE: The moon is down. I have not heard the clock. –Macbeth, II.i

The remark adds to a sense of evil foreboding; Macbeth is on his way to murder Duncan.

2. Gaudy Night – Dorothy Sayers
ANTONY: …Come,
Let’s have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let’s mock the midnight bell. –Antony and Cleopatra, III.xiii

Antony is speaking to Cleopatra. Their end is nigh, but they’re going to party.

3. Under the Greenwood Tree -  Thomas Hardy
AMIENS:
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see No enemy
But winter and rough weather. –As You Like It, II.v

Jaques and the other forest dwellers listen to Amiens sing about their idyllic life.

4. And Be a Villain – Rex Stout
HAMLET: O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables–meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain –
At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. –Hamlet, I.v

Hamlet is talking about his uncle/stepfather Claudius, the murderer of his father.

5. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
SECOND WITCH: By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes. [Knocking]
Open locks,
Whoever knocks!
[Enter Macbeth] –Macbeth, IV, i

This is the second scene with the witches. The first time, they accosted Macbeth. This time he is seeking them out. He has begun the downward path into evil.

6. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
TIMON: The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon’s an arrant thief
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun. –Timon of Athens IV, iii

Misanthrope Timon is discoursing on his view that everyone’s a crook.

Nabokov’s story is about the creative fire of the poet. An echo of the “pale fire” from the Timon of Athens quotation is in a line spoken by the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Morning is approaching and he must return to Purgatory:

GHOST: Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And ‘gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me. [Exit] –Hamlet, I,v

7. Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
HENRY V: This story [of Agincourt] shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers –Henry V, IV.iii

Henry is giving his discouraged men a pep talk before a last desperate assault on the French.

8. The Dogs of War – Frederick Forsyth
ANTONY: And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war –Julius Caesar, III.i

Antony, speaking at Caesar’s funeral, desires to stir up the populace against the assassins. After describing the horrors of civil war, he depicts the ghost of Julius Caesar leading the attack.

9. There is a Tide – Agatha Christie
CASSIUS: There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea re we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures. –Julius Caesar, IV, iii

Cassius is trying to persuade Brutus that they must fight at Philippi.

10. By the Pricking of My Thumbs – Agatha Chrstie
See Number 5 above.

11. Not in Our Stars – M. M. Marshall
CASSIUS: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. –Julius Caesar, I,ii

Cassius is urging Brutus to act against Julius Caesar.

12. Chimes at Midnight - Terence White
SHALLOW: Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?

FALSTAFF: We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow. –Henry IV part 2, III,ii

Falstaff and Shallow, in the company of Silence, are reminiscing about their youth. Only rowdies and people up to no good would have stayed out late enough to hear the clock strike midnight.

13. The Mousetrap – Agatha Christie
CLAUDIUS: Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in ‘t?
HAMLET: No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i’ the world.
CLAUDIUS: What do you call the play?
HAMLET: The Mouse-trap. — Hamlet, III, ii

Hamlet has hired actors to present a play with which he hopes to “catch the conscience of the king.” Uncomfortable as the play proceeds, Claudius asks Hamlet for more information.

14. Twice-Told Tales – Nathaniel Hawthorne
LEWIS (Louis, Dauphin of France)

 There’s nothing in this world can make me joy: 
    
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale 
    
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; 
    
And bitter shame hath spoil’d the sweet world’s taste 
    
That it yields nought but shame and bitterness. –King John, III,iv

Lewis is depressed because the fortunes of war have turned against France. His meaning is that a “twice-told” tale is boring and tedious. Hawthorne and other writers used “twice-told tales” in another sense: old stories retold for modern readers.

15. A Muse of Fire – A.D. Harvey
PROLOGUE: O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars and at his heels,
Leash’d in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment…
…can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt? –Henry V, Prologue

Kenneth Branagh opens his film version of the play with an actor declaiming these lines on an Elizabethan stage. Then the scene opens out into the “vasty fields of France” and the realistic action that movies excel in. Shakespeare had to do it all with words and a few stage props.

16. Strange Snow – Steve Metcalfe
PHILOSTRATE [reading]: A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.

THESEUS: Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. How shall we find the concord of this discord?
–Midsummer Night’s Dream, V, i

Theseus is reacting to the comical, contradictory description of the play of Pyramus and Thisbe offered as wedding entertainment by Bottom the weaver and the other “mechanicals.”

17. Walk the Night – Robert C. Reinhart
GHOST: I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. –Hamlet, I,v

18. A Plague on Both Your Houses – Robert. W. Whitaker
MERCUTIO: I am hurt.
A plague o’ both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing? –Romeo and Juliet, III, i

Romeo’s friend Mercutio has been in a fight with Tybalt, a Capulet. Tybalt has escaped without a scratch, but Mercutio is fatally wounded. With his dying breath he curses the senseless hostility between the Montagues and the Capulets that has ended his life.

19. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
MACBETH: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. –Macbeth V,v

Macbeth has come to the end of the road. Lady Macbeth is dead, and MacDuff is at the gates of Dunsinane Castle. All his scheming and criminal behavior amount to a pile of ashes.

20. “Dagger of the Mind” – Star Trek episode
MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision*, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? –Macbeth, II,i

Macbeth is on his way to murder King Duncan. He’s hallucinating because of the guilt he feels.

So how many did you get right?

This is an excellent, epistolary novel by Irish novelist Cecilia Ahern, the youngest recipient of the Nielsen Book Platinum Award. Following the success of her hugely popular debut novel Ps: I Love You, this is sure to be one of the most original books readers would have flipped through in a long time. It seems completely fictional, but consists of nothing but notes passed in school, emails, instant messages, text messages, and good old fashioned letters. The story spans over 40 years through which the two protagonists share their lives together.  Of course, only the important events occur, years sometimes passing in the turn of a couple of pages.

Where Rainbows End book is about Rosie & Alex, two people who start off as best friends at school, and over the years, encounter all the important events together: first loves first jobs, pregnancy, marriage (to the wrong people at that), divorce, losing their jobs, reappearance of old girlfriends/boyfriends – basically everything you dread to happen in your life. Throughout all this, they argue, talk to others about what they can’t tell each other, marry others … The list goes on. They want to be together, but there’s always some kind of obstacle pulling them apart.  It is not until when they’re finally at their retiring age, do they realize that they do love one another more than anything else in the world.

Despite the humor and wit, this is a book which will evoke a mix of cheerful and sad feelings throughout.  It sails through the peaks and valleys of relief, to disappointment, to humor, and back to disappointment again. So many hints, second chances and opportunities are all thrown away just waiting for the right time; this makes it a book that remains most realistic to our lives. Readers will be able to feel the depth of sadness reading about the time wasted, and all the words that were dragged on which keeps the two people in love from being together. One thing that’s quite positive about Ahern’s writing is that there is so much love in her books. Whether it is friends, family, or parental, it is nice to read about a pretty normal/average family in a book with no real drama or disfunctionality. The ending may be a bit predictable. But so is Pride and Prejudice. All the twists and turns and roadblocks and missed opportunities that life takes while Rosie is trying to figure out how to reach her dreams that make this story much more interesting.

‘Where Rainbows End’ is truly an endearing tale. Anyone looking for a good, light travel-read or a good chick lit will relish this novel. If it is true that love can leads us down strange pathways, then this immensely entertaining novel is an apt demonstration of that belief.

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If you read one Danielle Steel book, this should be the one.

Anyone who likes a good, heart warming story will enjoy this book. After all, this is a novel penned by today’s leading lady of love on the most rewarding human emotion – love. This is a story complete with all different kinds of emotions.

Michael Hillyard, architect and heir of a prosperous New York corporation, is in love with an orphaned artist, Nancy McAllister. His mother, Marion, is a steel-eyed woman determined to have the best for her son and the company, and she does not favor the relationship between Michael and Nancy. But the young couple, having been together for years deeply plan to get married. Theirs is a love worth making a promise about.

Pledging to never say goodbye to each other, one day they drive off to elope. But a horrible accident on the road leaves Michael and his friend hurt and Nancy with her face destroyed. In attempt to get rid of the girl, Marion offers a new life for Nancy: She will send the girl to a plastic surgeon in San Francisco to repair her face if Nancy promises never to contact Michael. Realizing there is no hope left, Nancy agrees, and starts a new life in San Francisco under a new identity. Marion tells Michael that Nancy didn’t survive the accident. For the next two years, he becomes a workaholic to numb the pain in his heart, never truly able to forget Nancy. The question remains: Will Michael and Nancy ever reunite?

At certain parts the novel will make you cry, and in other places leave you with a warm happy feeling inside. Steel manages to keep readers guessing and impatient to know how the story will end. Although famous for her love novels, the romance in this book also has certain faults. Time and again the author keeps pointing out that the characters are extremely wealthy and beautiful. This make it seem almost as if Steel feels that average people would not be able to comprehend the love or problems the characters in this book face. The excessive importance of money and power also gives the reader an idea that without money nothing is possible. But once you’ve gotten over the novels faults you begin to realize its good qualities. For example there is a lot of detail given to the reader to help them comprehend what the person is going through and what the environment is like. The excessive descriptions in the novel place the reader into the characters’ shoes, enabling them to see what kind of a situation it is. The manner in which Steel shares the characters’ feelings through the sensitive parts of the book make it seem all the more real.

If this is your first Danielle Steel book, it will definitely leave you curious enough to pick up another one of her novels.

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Have you ever watched those episodes of C.S.I. in which Grissom quotes familiar lines from Macbeth or Julius Caesar and his thirty-something colleagues express amazement at what to them is arcane learning?

Shakespeare isn’t dead. Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, on Apr. 23, 1564, more than 400 years later, he is still revered as one of the greatest writers in the English language of all time. Whether it is Othello, Romeo and Juliet or Sonnet 18, every moment of Shakespeare’s text drips poetry. Evidently he understood the power of language – its ability to paint landscapes, create atmospheres and create compelling characters. His ‘Hamlet’ gave a skilful and remarkably psychologically astute characterization hundreds of years before the concept of Psychology was even invented.

Modern English has and will continue to be heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s writing. Each bit of contemporary literature highlights his continued cultural impact four centuries after his death. Today, we still use hundreds of words and phrases coined by him in our everyday conversation.

Great writers of the yore knew their Shakespeare. Here are some titles drawn from the plays. Can you spot the play that the title comes from?

1. The Moon Is Down – John Steinbeck
2. Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers
3. Under the Greenwood Tree – Thomas Hardy
4 And Be a Villain – Rex Stout
5 Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
6 Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
7 Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
8 The Dogs of War – Frederick Forsyth
9 There is a Tide – Agatha Christie
10 By the Pricking of My Thumbs – Agatha Christie
11 Not in Our Stars – M. M. Marshall
12 Chimes at Midnight - Terence White
13 The Mousetrap -Agatha Christie
14 Twice-Told Tales – Nathaniel Hawthorne
15 A Muse of Fire – A.D. Harvey
16 Strange Snow - Steve Metcalfe
17 Walk the Night – Robert C. Reinhart
18 A Plague on Both Your Houses – Robert. W. Whitaker
19 The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
20 “Dagger of the Mind,” – Star Trek episode

Come back for the answers tomorrow.