Really Good Books
Growing up, one constant companion in my life were books and novels. Our house was filled with lot of good books than I could ever count and soon I turned into a voracious reader. I realize now that I read books that were probably beyond my comprehension as I would happily read through James Hadley Chase, Perry Mason and John Fowles. But then I did read a lot of books by Enid Blyton, Ruskin Bond and Roald Dahl. There are many people who read books as a hobby to pass their time while there are others who read books to gain knowledge and develop their personality. I have to rather sheepishly admit that I fall in the former category and read books for mere pleasure and can make no tall claims of being worldly wise after reading them. My taste runs into thrillers and adventures with lots of blood, murder, espionage and counter espionage thrown in for good measure. I am not a literary person who can fake interest in highly literary works. I freely admit that I cannot appreciate most novels that delve deeply into human emotions and are considered to be the best in the literary world. So given below are some of the books that I have enjoyed reading and which I consider to be really good books. I realize that some people might consider the selection to be too pedestrian; but try reading these books. They are a lot of fun.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
This is one of the best books to read and I am sure you are going to enjoy reading it as much as I have. This Agatha Christie novel is one of her bestsellers. In this novel, eight people are tricked into coming to a deserted island where their hosts are absent. They are attended by two caretakers. Later the guests notice that each have in their room a framed copy of the poem "Ten Little Soldiers". During dinner a gramophone record starts playing, where each guest and the caretakers are accused of committing a murder. Soon all the guests start dying one by one in a macabre fashion mimicking the poem. It is a very finely crafted novel with an igneous plot.
Night Over Water by Ken Follett
Night over Water by Ken Follett is a novel that is about the final flight of Pan American Clipper from London to New York, just before World War II starts. A disparate group of passengers including a jewel thief on the run, a Nobel but fascist Englishman and his family, an escaping Jewish physicist, an aging Russian princess, an American business woman and a handful of other characters make the setting for this novel. Although the novel is narrated through different characters, still it is successful in capturing the essence of the story.
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
My love for a good murder story is only closely rivaled by my love for good food. In this novel by Julie Powell, the author combines a good story with great food. The book is about a bored and ambition less women who is about to turn 30 and who realizes that she has not made any major accomplishment in her life. To challenge herself, the protagonist Julie undertakes an ambitious plan of making and replicating 524 recipes from the book The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child in a year. All this she plans to do while trying to balance her mid level bureaucrat job, a rocky marriage and somewhat disapproving family. The book is highly humorous and the recipes given in it are quite interesting. I consider it as a really good book because although it has a light and humorous narration, you can still identify with the protagonist's need to prove herself in front of family, friends and most importantly herself.
Fear is the Key by Alistair MacLean
One of my favorites, this novel by Alistair MacLean is a gripping tale of revenge that reaches its climax in the oil rig of the Gulf of Mexico. The story begins with salvage expert John Talbot when he comes to know about the death of his wife and best friends, midair in a plane while carrying precious cargo. Some years later John Talbot kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy oil baron who is in someway connected to the death of his wife and best friend. What follows is an intriguing tale of murder, double crosses and revenge. Although it sounds too gory, the narration is tight and faultless with good insight into the working of the human mind. It is also replete with dry humor and is one of the best to be written by Alistair MacLean.
On The Street Where You Live by Mary Higgins Clark
Some books have such a gripping storyline that it is hard to put it down. The novel On The Street Where You Live by Marry Higgins certainly falls under that category. The protagonist of this novel is a criminal defense attorney who comes to live in small town after the breakup of her marriage. She settles down is a sea side resort near New Jersey and buys her ancestral home. When the renovations for the house is being done, workers discover the skeletal remains of a young woman who had disappeared four years ago. The most amazing thing is that in the hand of this dead girl, there is another finger bone with the protagonist's family ring in it. The double murders send shock waves through this small resort town and the protagonist soon becomes the fancy of the killer as his next victim.
Some other good books to read are:
- The Partner by John Grisham
- The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
- Morning, Noon and Night by Sidney Sheldon
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
- The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Catcher in The Rye by J. D. Salinger
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
