Right I need to catch up with all your blogs and my own ... the pic above, at Goa, is meant to be both an explanation and an excuse for the month-long absence. As for my vacation- summer heat, mangoes, jackfruit and pani puris, need I say more :) The heat did confuse my body into expanding, I'm hoping the brain freeze I endured in freakishly-cold north Minnesota over the weekend, will fool it into contracting to original specs ... soon.

Here's a round-up of movies I caught on the plane. Since, it wasnt the best of viewing conditions some of my perceptions might be colored by the environment, but I'm pretty certain I wont re-watch any of the following to change my mind.

Invictus
A story of how Nelson Mandela united South Africa by means of the Rugby World Cup. With Morgan Freeman in scene-stealing mode as Nelson Mandela and a sincere Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the team captain for SA, this was an enjoyable and uplifting movie.
Rating: 5/ 5





Up in the Air
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is the high-flying executive with a job involving him flying 300 days out of the year since he goes around the country firing people. Bingham loves his life since it enables him to live without baggage, read relationships, and without any responsibility and also give him ample opportunity for his obsession with collecting airline miles. Until a young MBA, Natalie Keener, in his company comes up with the idea of firing people online.

Suddenly grounded, Bingham flounders with the meaning of his life suddenly reconnecting with estranged siblings, educating Keener on the value of building relationships and consequently looking for a stable relationship for himself with Alex Goran (an awesome Vera Farmiga) a feminine version of himself. I have mixed feelings about this movie, I was entertained by a lot of the scenes but it was marketed as a romance which it isn't and the underlying thread of relevancy to the current US economic state didn't work with the rest of the plot. Rating: 3/ 5

The Men Who Stare At Goats
Through school and college, I had a friend who was a born cynic. After moments when everyone was happy/elated/victorious he would ask the question that stumped us each time - 'What is the point?'. I think this movie was meant to be a satirical look at war, but it's no Syriana.

Bob Wilton (Ewan MacGregor) is a small-time journalist. After his wife breaks up with him, an effort at proving himself lands him in war-time Iraq. Here he comes across Lyn Cassady (Clooney), and he remembers an interview with a man whom on first count he had dismissed as a flake, who first mentions a new unit of the army researching parapsychology. As Wilton hitches a ride with Cassady into Iraq and familiarizes himself with the New-Age, free-love thinking of the New Earth Army which believes war can be fought using non-violent methods like psychic and paranormal techniques, staring at goats etc he finds himself slowly undergoing an ideological conversion. If the movie is meant as a metaphor, it was too much for my tired brain to comprehend. Taken at face value ... what was the point ????
Rating: 3/ 5

It's Complicated
Jane (Meryl Streep) suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome and finally at a point in her professional and personal life when she thinks she's settling down, suddenly finds herself playing 'the other woman'. The problem is the man she's having an affair with is her ex-husband Jake. Predictable comedy and much confusion ensues when she also starts dating her recently-divorced, shy, architect, Adam.

So, why do the heroines of romantic comedy have to be so flurried, harried and cute? And didnt Streep play the same role for Mamma Mia. Oh well, it's worth a watch but dont expect too much. Steve Martin sleep-walking through the role and a hammy Alec Baldwin make up the boring love interest and juvenile, selfish ex-husband respectively. Rating: 2.5/ 5

The Proposal
Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is a Canadian immigrant with visa problems who is about to be deported and lose her job, so she forces her harassed assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her. A weekend of bonding with Paxton and his weird family occurs where the protagonists discover it's actually true love. Unfunny, unromantic, AVOID it. The rating is for the obligatory designer dud sightings (Loboutin, Prada and Hermes) which seem to indicate a successful , powerful professional woman in the movies .... and which I quite shallowly enjoyed.
Rating: 0.5/ 5

Series Order
1. In the Bleak Midwinter
2. A Fountain Filled with Blood
3. Out of the deep I Cry
4. To Darkness and to Death
5. All Mortal Flesh
6. I Shall Not Want

WARNING: SPOILERS below. I will mark them clearly but be careful if you have not read All Mortal Flesh.

When I started Julia Spencer-Fleming's Russ Van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson mystery series it seemed that on the surface everything included should work for me. At each book's heart there is a decent mystery and some well plotted characterizations. And Ms. Fleming is an absolute master of creating atmosphere.

Set in the fictional town of Millers Kill in upstate New York, the protagonist Reverend Clare Fergusson is an Episcopal priest new to her parish and is still coming to terms with the harsh winters that occur just south of the border. As someone who hates and loathes snow, ice, wind, hail, sleet, I quickly empathized with Clare whose misery is sketched beautifully in the first couple books.

Here's an example of the kind of writing you can expect ..

There are moments in life that are between: between the blow and the pain, between the phone ringing and the answer, between the misstep and the fall. One that comes to everyone is a moment, or three, or five, between sleeping and waking, when the past has not yet been re-created out of memory and the present has made no impression. It is a moment of great mercy; disorienting, like all brushes with grace, but a gift nonetheless.

Russ Van Allstyne is the Chief of Police of Millers Kill and he often finds Clare barging into his investigations out of impulsiveness and a single-minded desire to help- the victim, the accused, it doesn't matter. (As an aside, what is it with fictional heroines named Clare and a misguided sense of responsibility due to their professions, nurse/doctor and priest?).

As soon as they meet in the first book they recognize each other as kindred spirits. Or as is romantically put in one of the later books - the missing part of their souls. Clare was in the army for ten years trained as a helicopter pilot before she got her calling and was ordained. She is also trying to deal with the loss of a beloved younger sister. Russ was in the Military Police until he resigned and returned to the town he grew up in. Because of the nature of his work, past and present, he is a recovering alcoholic, but tries very hard not to bring the brutality of his work home to his family.

I enjoyed that the topics covered in the mysteries are wide and varied. From conservation and it's effect on small business, to gay rights, immunization, sociopathy, religion, adoption, immigration and migrant workers.

Initially I was skeptical about the small town setting. How many crimes can there possibly be? But, what I didn't expect was that the setting gives so much scope for elaborating on the lives of the characters, and I enjoyed this aspect too. Russ and Clare have to be doubly careful of their actions, since something as trivial as having lunch together every Wednesday is much remarked and speculated on.

As I read, it quickly became apparent that there were two problems here. And it isn't the religion which I was wary about, going in. The first, you see the little by-line tacked onto all the titles of these books 'A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery' which implies that both Clare and Russ have something to do with solving the mystery at hand. A priest and a cop.

In order to get this scenario to work, Clare should obviously have data about the police investigation and with this plot device Russ comes across looking like an incompetent fool. Because he carries out interrogations with Clare present, or tells Clare details about ongoing investigations, or even discusses suspects with her. Russ would say I've been watching too much Law and Order and he'd be right. Clare also stumbles on the perpetrators (haha more L&O terminology) through a combination of luck, nosiness and by withholding critical information from the police. Anyway, I was willing to let this bit slide, sometimes you just have to have faith in the author's vision and the other good points more than made up for it.

But then we come to the second bigger problem. See, how I slid in that bit about Russ's family before. Family, when I was dying to say wife. Russ is actually happily married for the last 25 years to a beautiful, dynamic woman but over the course of the first book Clare and he fall in love. Now, I love romance in my mystery series and I love the subject of forbidden romance, but I cannot stomach infidelity.

Clare and Russ never let the relationship get physical, she because she is opposed to casual relationships (the priesthood does not require celibacy) and is morally opposed to one with a married man, while he is faithful and does love his wife. As if it makes a difference. I think emotional infidelity is the more difficult of the two to overcome and more of a betrayal to the spouse.

Not having an inkling it was going to occur, I was gobsmacked when this angle turned up in the first book. And what I found more disturbing is that Russ's wife Linda is offline until around the 4th book. We see everything from Clare's or Russ's view, almost making Linda 'the other woman' because as a reader it's obvious you are expected to sympathize a bit with Clare.






~~~~~ SPOILER ALERT ~~~~~~~~~










So, there I was reading each book with a lot of mental cringing, but not able to stop because it's a series and I'm a bit OC after I've started one.

Until the 5th book, 'All Mortal Flesh' where Linda dies. And I was left with a sense of severe disappointment, because at that moment I realized what I actually wanted to read about was something that would get these people out of the mess they were in.

As I mentioned before, Linda's character (the conflict in the first 4 books) never gets her own voice, we are only given impressions from the people around her. Russ tells Clare that his wife doesn't understand him. At social occasions where Russ and Clare are present, she's missing due to a number of reasons, one of them being conveniently that she never goes anywhere where her mother-in-law is also invited. Here's another broad hint to the reader that they shouldn't like the wife too much, since Russ's mother is presented sympathetically and she likes Clare.

Linda has one significant scene in the 4th book and she's offed in the next one. The manner in which she dies is guaranteed to add a source of conflict (guilt) to the protagonists' relationship since the original conflict has been removed.

So, basically Linda's character is just a manipulative plot device and is the reason I was so disappointed by the events of the 5th book. And as I write this I realize how much I disliked both Russ and Clare and the entire infidelity sub-plot. At least this book accomplished one thing, I'm finally done with this series.










~~~~~ END SPOILERS ~~~~~~~~~



I would give the series an overall 3 rating because of the problems I mentioned above. If they do not bother you, then I think it should work for you. If it does, do comment here, I'd love to read a different viewpoint :)

Covet is the first book in the new Fallen Angels series by JR Ward.

Jim Heron is a loner and drifter. After being discharged from the military he has been wandering around picking up odd jobs to make a living. One of these has landed him in Caldwell, NY, as part of the construction crew on Vincent diPietro's house.

Hanging out with his construction buddies in the Iron Mask, Caldwell's new night club, Jim has an odd encounter with the vulnerable Devina. The oddness is ratcheted up to shock the next day, when she gets out of Vin's car at the construction site- apparently he hooked up with his boss's girlfriend. Startled, Jim loses balance, electrocuting himself and ends up with a new job description.

Because, the Earth is a game board, with the angels and demons playing for people's souls. But, the Creator is now tired of the constant fighting between good and evil and has issued an ultimatum, the final deciding factor will be 7 souls. And the player who will manipulate them is Jim, who is the perfect balance between good and evil and thus acceptable to both teams.

In the afterlife 4 angels approach Jim and charge him with the task of saving 7 souls- if he succeeds evil will be vanquished from the world forever and if he does not, the world ceases to exist passing under the dominion of the demons. On this gameboard, the angels and demons play to win, and are not above putting little bit players to help or hinder Jim as the case maybe.

And as it turns out the first soul he has to save is Vin's, embedded in avarice. Vin comes from a poor background and has a relentless drive towards earning money and surrounding himself with the material trappings of success- cars, furniture, art, complete with the stunningly beautiful model girlfriend, Devina. He doesnt believe in donating his money, wanting some service or return with every dollar he spends. He believes he is happy, but is shocked out of his inertia when he cannot bring himself to propose to Devina.

The revelation comes about when he meets Marie-Terese, a prostitute (with the proverbial heart of gold) at the Iron Mask. Marie-Terese is a single mother who is running from a criminal husband who tried to kidnap her son, is living under an assumed name and doing the only job she thinks she can to pay off the debts she has accumulated. With the demons trying to take over Vin's soul, Vin must look to Marie-Terese, the woman who quietens the greedy beast within him, and Jim for salvation against the evil that threatens to consume him.

Let's get this out of the way- Covet is marketed as a new series and it isnt part of Ward's other series, the Black Dagger Brotherhood. However, to muddy things up a bit, it takes place in the same location as the latter and Trez, Officer de la Cruz and Phury from the BDB have cameos here. Additionally, the style is similar to the BDB, even though the mythology is completely different.

I'm not sure how new readers will relate to this book since there are a few bits that might come across unexplained (the cops carrying out only a rudimentary investigation, for instance) but for me, I was happy enough to return to a much-loved world. And I quite liked the story and the whole angel-demon mythology setup.

As with the other books, there are multiple story-lines. We have Vin and Marie-Terese, the primary romance. A stalker-type fixated on MT (unfortunately this is the track which doesnt work, I had no clue behind his motivation). Four British, croquet loving angels and dog, in an over-the-top, silly track . Jim, and his fallen angel helpers, riding Harleys and wearing leathers :) and Dog (the dogs really, really confuse me). And the demon who has its hooks into Vin.

Interestingly we never see a portion of the climax between the fallen angels and the demons, maybe it's left for the sequel. Only Jim's character really worked for me though, when he's first introduced he's a blank slate, and we pick up bits and pieces of his background as we go along. All the rest are stock Ward characters.

I know it sounds like a lukewarm review, but I did enjoy the book while reading it. I know I'll keep reading since this series has a promising arc and I am still hoping for a read as compelling as the BDB (ummm, ok, gun to my head, like the first 3 books). I do think some of the stories are going to have the demons winning so those should make for some interesting reads. If you are looking for a fun paranormal read, pick this one up . But, if you want to start reading JR Ward, you cannot go wrong with the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

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I received my copy thanks to a giveaway at Reading, Writing and Ranting.

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory is the story of Mary Queen of Scots one of the most romantic historical figures in Tudor history. The tale is told after an uprising by the Scottish lords against Queen Mary and her third husband Lord Bothwell (who plotted the murder of her second husband Herny Stuart, Lord Darnley) and Mary having been forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her son James I, has fled to her cousin Queen Elizabeth I of England for assistance.

Instead of restoring Mary to the throne of Scotland immediately, Elizabeth I and her steward William Cecil, fearing Mary's popularity with the English public and her claim to England's throne, ask the Earl of Shrewsbury and his newly married wife Bess of Hardwick to serve as her hosts until the court can decide what to do with her.

And so the book follows 3 POV's, Mary Stuart's, George Talbot the Earl of Shrewsbury and Bess, Countess of Shrewsbury, herself much married to improve her lot in life, from being the daughter of a humble farmer to the wife of one of the foremost earls of England.

The three years (1569-1572) which the book covers, go over a few plots to depose Queen Elizabeth - from the Northern uprising, to the Ridolfi plot and the execution for treason of the Duke of Norfolk who is pledged to marry Mary.

But, the more interesting portion of these years in Ms. Gregory's novel is the relationship between the three principals. George falls in love with Mary, while being slowly bankrupted by the cost of hosting her and her court, while his wife Bess can only helplessly watch on. It is these three peoples hopes and disappointments in each other that form the major portion of Ms. Gregory's story until the end with Mary being beheaded after being Shrewsbury's prisoner for 16 years.

Being very interested in Tudor history, I snapped up this book as soon as I saw it. I have not read much about the reign of Elizabeth I and since much of it was new, I was quite entertained.

However, once the three principals have their introductory chapters and we are presented with the central ideas - Mary the sacred and anointed Queen, Bess and her struggles to raise herself from poverty and her love of money and the property she has inherited and George being the man of honor conflicted between Mary and his wife and the Queen who commands his loyalty, I don't think I learned much from having the separate POV's. Mary and Bess are both certainly very interesting characters but I think Ms. Gregory missed the chance of exploring their characters completely.

From Ms. Gregory's account, Queen Mary is a tragically romantic figure. Stunningly beautiful and charming she is able to rally countless men willing to risk their lives in her cause. Mary herself is at the center of most of the plots and while being sly enough to spin various conspiracies, I thought her view that her person was sacred and could never be harmed, just because she was a Queen was remarkably naive. Certainly Tudor England had more than enough examples for her to be wary. Look at Henry the 8th's six wives (Mary's uncle, Elizabeth's father) - one queen discarded until she died of loneliness, two beheaded, one set aside because the king didnt fancy her and one dying in childbirth.

Ms. Gregory's Tudor novels have gained some notoriety because she often propounds theories which are different from other historians. I didnt like The Other Boleyn Girl for the same reasons. But, this time as far as I can make out there are no deviations, Shrewsbury being in love the sole small one, since it is not acknowledged as historical fact. I wonder if that is why the book, while being a good enough read, is sadly flat.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith is a re-telling of Austen's classic, retaining almost 85% of the original but now with 'ultraviolent zombie mayhem'. I must admit when I first heard of it I was conflicted between excitement (I have a fondness for zombies) and being slightly outraged over what promised to be a bloody massacre of Austen's work. The picture on the cover decided me, as I got delicious chills down my spine from the combination of the lady in innocent-white Regency dress, blood-shot eyes and rotting flesh, I knew I had to read it.

To start with, it's the longest I've ever taken to read P & P (over 3 weeks) even though I laughed a bit over the course of the book. While most of the story is Austen's, Grahame-Smith's voice quickly becomes apparent when it inserts itself into the work. I must mention the hilarious illustrations added through the book, often with zombies, Elizabeth and sharp objects.

And so the premise is that England is stricken with a deadly plague that creates zombies or Unmentionables as they are known. The unmentionables have a fondness for soft, mushy brains and can infect humans with a bite. The militia are sent out to various regions in England to help the local population with the unmentionable menace. The Bennett sisters under the tutelage of Mr. Bennet

The business of Mr. Bennett's life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennet's was to get them married.

are a deadly trained team who have vowed to His Majesty to protect Hertfordshire from the plague. Their mother sees ample oppurtunities to get her girls married upon Mr. Bingley (and his battle-hardened friend Mr. Darcy) moving to the neighborhood. However, the Bennett's training under the Chinese masters of the Shaolin earns them the criticism and scorn of the Bingley sisters and Mr. Darcy who have been reared thinking that a "superior" training can be found only under the Japanese masters. Will the Bennett sisters find true love amidst all the violent Katana-wielding, zombie-bashing, ninja-fighting, vomit-strewn pages of this book?

We (and an admiring Mr. Darcy) get the first inkling of the deadliness of the Bennett sisters at the ball where Bingley and Darcy make their appearance and after Darcy has delivered his famous set-down to Elizabeth "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me"... Elizabeth instantly desiring to avenge her honour reaches into her ankle boot to remove a dagger with which to slash Darcy's throat when the ballroom is attacked by unmentionables.

As guests fled in every direction, Mr. Bennett's voice cut through the commotion. "Girls! Pentagram of Death!"

Elizabeth immediately joined her four sisters, Jane, Mary, Catherine and Lydia in the center of the dance floor. Each girl produced a dagger from her ankle and stood at the tip of an imaginary five-pointed star. From the center of the room, they began stepping outward in unison - each thrusting a razor-sharp dagger with one hand, the other hand modestly tucked into the small of her back.

The dainty fighting pose made this bit paisa-vasool for me!

Grahame-Smith tends to get raunchy often, inserting scenes, some which have the capacity to hideously rend Ms. Austen's gentle, well-bred world for the reader forever. The following occurs when Lizzy is in Netherfield to help nurse Jane (who has caught a cold from battling zombies in the rain) and the party are gathered in a parlour where Miss Bingley questions Bingley's intention on throwing a ball at Netherfield warning that Darcy would not like one..

"I should like balls infinitely better," she (Miss Bingley) replied, "if they were carried on in a different manner."

"You should like balls infinitely better," said Darcy, "if you knew the first thing about them."

Elizabeth blushed and suppressed a smile-slightly shocked by his flirtation with impropriety, and slightly impressed that he should endeavour to flirt with it at all.

With all the violence here, it's not surprising that the consequences to people in this book are much more explicit than Austen's subtlety. For instance, Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins because she is stricken by the plague and Wickham is rendered paralysed from the neck down as punishment for running away with Lydia while Lydia has to take care of a cripple for the rest of her life.

So, while not perfect (I would have been happier with it as an original work if it contained less of Austen's work), of all the pastiches that seek to take advantage of Ms. Austen's cash cow, I think I have enjoyed this the most. Atleast, it made me laugh.

In Jo Beverley's A Lady's Secret, Robin, the Earl of Huntersdown, is returning to England from Versailles when he comes across a swearing nun. Convinced that the beauty in nun costume is an adventuress, he offers to provide her an escort looking forward to some amusement over a long journey.

Petra D'Averio or Sister Immaculata, aforementioned nun, is at wits' end. Rejected by Milanese society since she is the bastard of an English lord, she has no friends to support her after her mother's death. She needs to find her father before her old lover Count Ludovico, can capture her. After meeting carefree and rakish Robin she's unsure if she's leaping from the frying pan into the fire. But, she accepts Robin's help and the rest is a sort of comedy of errors on the journey with villainous Italians, murderous peasants, a papillon dog and a hero and heroine whose secrets are revealed over the course of the journey.

The book was likable and entertaining enough that I didnt stop reading. It has some humorous moments, fun banter between the principals and a clever spin on an old nursery rhyme (Who Killed Cock Robin). But, I'm a bit tired of all the stereotypical contrivances of this genre. And I'm sick of rakes who spend the entire book lusting after the heroine or pages full of sexual innuendo only to suffer from instant regret once the deed is done.

The hero, Robin or Cock Robin is one of those beta heroes I think. Much like the crowing cock, he makes grand promises to the heroine to protect her and falls flat. Often. His only saving grace is he is charming. Petra is a good character, she's gutsy and well able to take care of herself. Since, Petra saves herself each time, it beats me why she is in love with Mr. Cocky. And then we have a married villain pursuing Petra across Italy, France and England only to make her his mistress. Illogical, much? Even Petra wonders why.

I've read Ms. Beverly's medieval romances before and they were good reads. If you want to start off with her, I'd say pick those up.

Rating: 3 / 5

Red Lily is the third part of the In the Garden trilogy. Read the reviews for the first and second parts.

It's almost 6 months after the events of Black Rose. Things have settled down enough at the In the Garden nursery for Roz and Mitch to get married too. Hayley Phillips, Roz's poor cousin, many times removed, is feeling irritable and anxious under the June Tennessee sun. And downright hot whenever she comes across Roz's son, Harper. After circling each other for 2 years, Hayley finally makes her move, to find that Harper has been interested all along.

And of course, as with the previous books, the elements of love and passion combine to bring out the ghost's insanity, this time centered on Hayley and Harper. But, the ghost has learned new tricks, she can now possess Hayley, and she soon finds that she likes inhabiting a body ... a lot!! Can the 6 friends work together fast enough, to find Amelia's grave and ensure she gets the burial she deserves, before she seriously injures Harper and Hayley. And, to do that they have to find out what exactly happened at Harper House, way back in 1892.

Meh. That's my feeling after reading this book. When a ghost is more interesting than the primary couple in the romance, that's what you can expect. Just ... meh.

I think my problem was that even after 2 books, Harper and Hayley just weren't all that interesting to me. Hayley is very young, a great character in the other books, energetic and fun, but here she quickly gets overly emotional. The type who if taken to a nice hotel, gabs about being Cinderella and how no one has ever done anything as nice for her before etc etc, entirely too talkative, even for a book. And who says woo-hoo and awesome a lot.

Harper, it's difficult to get a handle on him. He's a loner, preferring his garden to people, but then you have him involved with a steady stream of women and little bits of sophistication like him sipping wine (sexily) when on a date with Hayley thrown in and he seemed too much a mix of all other Roberts heroes - Roarke, Logan etc for me to understand him. Like any young couple, they spend the majority of the book having misunderstandings and fighting, and that part seemed real to me. The way they resolved the misunderstandings, hmmm not so much.

With the trilogies I read before, Roberts made sure to keep the most interesting couple last, I remember the tension between the vampire and the other-world Princess to be so great that I practically inhaled two books to get the third in the Circle trilogy. I understand why they were last here, after having a baby in the first book Hayley obviously needs time to be interested in a relationship. But, while they were good side characters, they don't work so well at center stage. Add in that the final scene with the ghost was pretty cliche, straight out of a lot of horror books/ movies and I was quite disappointed. I always expect more out of Nora.

But, if you take the overall story binding three books together, you realize what a master Roberts is with pacing. The ghost which seems benevolent in the first part, gets truly unhinged and malevolent in the next two and Roberts keeps feeding us information about her along with the main romances without missing a beat. And the thing that I love best about her books, the family aspect, towards the end you truly get how these people have all come together to be one big, extended family. Characters are so well-defined that scenes like Hayley talking about Harper to his mother, which would have seemed eeky, have exactly the right voice.

And you have to admire Roberts ability to tie together all the gardening analogies with the story and character arcs of women from different generations. And her knowledge on the subject, even if I got cross-eyed reading about all the fecund pistils and swollen stamens. Ok, I'll stop now.

So, overall as a trilogy, it's about average. Do yourself a favor and dont read the books back to back. Sometimes the sentence structure and language can seem very repetitive.

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Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

When I started reading Elizabeth George I noticed that other reviewers compared her to PD James all the time. I've read James before (Children of Men), but never got around to reading her mystery series with New Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh and I figured it was time to pick one up.

Death in Holy Orders is actually book number 11 in the mystery series.

After the accidental death of an ordinand, Ronald Treeves, in St. Anselm's an elite theological college on a remote section of the Suffolk coast, his father unconvinced goes to New Scotland Yard for help in uncovering the truth behind the boys death.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh who has lived at St. Anselm's for a few summers in his youth and has fond memories of the place offers to look into the death on his visit to Suffolk. When he arrives there he learns that the college is hosting a couple of guests for the weekend besides a few ordinances and the resident priests.

If ever there was a case of World's Worst Guests, you'll find it here. There's Archdeacon Crampton who is trying to get St. Anselms shut down, Father Sebastian Morell who has worked very hard to acieve his position as head of St. Anselms and intends to keep it that way. There's Inspector Yarwood who was the examining officer in charge of the suicide of Crampton's first wife. There's Father John who Crampton succeded in putting into prison over charges of sexual abuse and ordinand Raphael Arbuthnot who hates Crampton for what he did to Father John. And there's Arbuthnot and Dalgliesh squaring off over Dr. Emma Lavenham who has arrived to conduct her semi-annual seminars on poetry at the college.

It isnt surprising with this setup that tensions run high, tempers are frayed, emotions are shredded and the murder of one of the guests makes it clear to Dalgliesh that a subtle mind is at work. As Dalgliesh and his team start to investigate they uncover a number of surprising secrets of this small group of unlikely suspects.

Having read both authors it is unsurprising that George is compared to James. Here's the same approach to telling a mystery, delving into the psychologies of the motley group of characters until a motive starts to emerge. I think I prefer James going by this book since with her latter novels George has started delving and padding a bit too much.

Being my first Dalgliesh novel, I enjoyed it quite a bit. James' writing is strong, very descriptive, her characters are interesting and while the ultimate mystery and solution may have been slightly weak it did not diminish my enjoyment of wallowing in her artfully created theological universe.

What did diminish my enjoyment is the character of Father John, a man convicted of paedophilia, who unaccountably gets a very sympathetic treatment from all the characters, except Crampton. Paedophilia is a serious crime and I did not like to see it treated as something which should be acompanied by a slap on the wrist and the person who put the criminal behind bars as someone who hounded a poor, weak old man into prison.

Back and forth on this one. I think I'll recommend with 3 points.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

I know I said that I would stop reading Elizabeth George, but after the twist in her last novel - which shocked millions of fans worldwide this Papaya being no exception - I knew that I would have to at least read this one just to see where she was taking the series.

For an introduction to Elizabeth George and her Lynley-Havers mystery series go here.

After the events of the previous book, Lynley has taken some time off from New Scotland Yard and is engaged on a walking tour of the coast of Cornwall, where his ancestral home is located. One day at the foot of a cliff near the picturesque Polcare Cove, the holiday home of vet Daidre Trahair, he finds the body of a climber.

The body is of a local boy, Santo Kerne. Santo is like the Energizer bunny, upto a lot of stuff, none of it good however. Santo has broken up with his girlfriend Madlyn after making her pregnant, has an older lover, a sister who will inherit the family business after him, a father who was suspiciously involved in a similar death years ago and an unstable mother channelling Mrs. Robinson. To add to these are a local boy who loves Madlyn, Madlyn's father and a surrogate grandfather who are mad at what Santo has done to Madlyn. Sex, jealousy, money, rage, the motives for doing away with Santo are plenty and more.

DI Beatrice Hannaford, in charge of the investigation, with a limited number of officers available to her in out-o-the-way Cornwall, quickly realises that she might as well use Lynley's expertise even though he is a suspect. Lynley turns to Barbara Havers for help and soon the duo are doing what they do best.

While George is back to her old style of writing, instead of the police procedural format she chose for the previous one, I didnt find myself getting involved in this story as much. She adds to her repertoire of dysfunctional families, however I knew even while reading that a large number of the sub-plots were getting nowhere and I didnt particularly like any of the characters. And a lot of times the story felt static, even though I skimmed .... a LOT. 620 pages will do that for you.

But, Lynley is back, people!!! And I'm always happy to see Barb who livens up the proceedings the minute she steps in, these two are the sole reason this gets the extra half points in the rating. I did feel it was impossible for him to recover after the last book but George does a great job with continuity for her fans exploring his grief and subsequent re-connection with the world, even having him getting protective of Daidre who the police suspect is lying through her teeth. Of course, this being George she gives that sub-plot no resolution, but at least it shows Lynley almost ready to return to his world.

So, summing up, a book to be read only as part of the series. Others will definitely find it a boring read, and as there are plenty of George's novels in the series which make great reads I see no reason for someone to start here.

I sense George has this evil formula thing going on here, until she keeps cranking out these novels I will be compelled to read them. I'm not going to fight it anymore ....

Amitav Ghosh's mind-boggling The Calcutta Chromosome is an engrossing medley of science fiction, medical thriller, supernaturalism, eastern mysticism and colonial Indian stories. Set in an alternative vision of a run down New York in the 21st century, the protagonist Antar finds an old ID tag of a former colleague, Murugan, a self-proclaimed expert on Sir Ronald Ross. Murugan, was last seen in Calcutta in 1995 and has hence disappeared. Retracing Murugan's steps, Antar as well as the reader is taken on a journey through colonial India in the 1850s, specifically the steps leading to Ross's discovery of the malarian vector. Murugan is convinced that Ross had help with making the discovery, help from someone who already knew everything there was to know about malaria and was pushing Ross in the hopes of unravelling a greater mystery. A secret so secret, that it existed only in the medium that gave it birth, in Silence.

When I first read the book, I was extremely dissatisfied with it. Dissatisfied with the ending Ghosh gives it and with the ultimate failure of my own comprehension. Mostly because I hated feeling dumb.

I knew I had to re-read it, but never got around to it until Avdi's review got me interested all over again. And this time, not being bogged down by where the story was heading I was able to appreciate the book much more. So, I enjoyed Murugan's delightful politically incorrect banter, the malaria research lore, snapshots of contemporary Bengali culture and Ghosh's deft story-telling skills, especially a very RK Narayanesque ghost story of an uninhabited railway station and his subtly evocative narrative style

... morning commuters with the smell of dhal still buried deep in their finger nails ...

I did make a couple more connections I missed the first time around, but if put to the test, I cannot say I still 'get' it. All I know is there's not going to be a third time ....

To figure out how you as a reader will respond to the book, the closest analogy I can think of is putting together a complicated jigsaw puzzle and ending up with a murky outcome, unsure if you put the pieces in the right way around. If you are the type who anticipates a challenge and believe most of the fun was in putting it together, the book will be a rewarding experience. If you are the type focussed on the end goal and are displeased because there's nothing concrete, you might end up feeling cheated.

The time is medieval England, a land of mysticism and rigid faith, where the old religion of Goddess worship and the newly founded Christian religion battle to gain prominence over the hearts and minds of the people. The mystical island of Avalon is the center of the pagan religion, with a temple training Priestesses and Druids into the Mysteries.

But, the island of Avalon is slowly receding into the mists surrounding the lake, as it is pushed further from the memories of men, and only those men who know the location can find it. Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, is determined to bring back the old religion of Goddess worship, prevent Christianity from becoming the one true religion of the land and keep Avalon in the world from which it is being lost.

The 'Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley, starts with the story of Arthur's parents Igraine and Uther Pendragon and proceeds to weave in all the numerous legends surrounding King Arthur and Camelot and a number of characters. We have, Morgaine who is Arthur's half-sister and Lady of the Lake after Viviane, Gwynhwyfar - Arthur's fanatically Christian wife, Lancelet - Arthur's cousin, chief knight and Gwynhwyfar's lover, Mordred - Arthur and Morgaine's son, the Merlin of Britain - one of Arthur's advisers, the famous sword Excalibur, the Round Table of the stories and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

As told from the feminine perspective, Viviane, Igraine, Morgause (Igraine's and Viviane's sister), Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar this forms an interesting re-imagining of the Arthurian legends weaving in all the fantasy elements nicely with the myth of Avalon and the Fairies. The only places I found it to be heavy going was with the endless arguments between the Christian and pagan religions (and there are a LOT of these) and the wearisome, hypocitical, piety of Gwenhwyfar. Also, Arthur as he is written, comes across as being a very ineffectual King - always wanting to please everyone, which is at odds with his fame as a commander of men and a leader on the battlefield.

Well worth a read for a lot of fantasy, medieval culture and for anyone remotely interested in the Arthurian legends. For someone wanting to go a little further back in time to the Romans in Britain, you could watch the Last Legion featuring Aishwarya Rai, though I cannot say I would recommend it!

At 700+ pages the latest Inspector Lynley mystery 'A Traitor to Memory' I read, packs a pounding-when-is-this-tripe-ending-headache-inducing wallop. I have another one waiting in the wings, and I'm not sure that I even want to try reading it. I started re-reading the series in April, it's taken me 3 months to get to the 13th book and while when I first read them I enjoyed the first few immensely (hence, the re-read to catch up with the next in the series), only the grim determination to finish what I've started has kept me reading the last few.

The series deals with a New Scotland Yard detective pair Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, who is also the 8th Earl of Asherton, and his working class partner Seargent Barbara Havers. The pair are assisted from time to time by Constable Winston Nkata. Alongwith these recurring characters we are also introduced to and follow the lives of Lynley's childhood friend, St. James, his wife Deborah St. James, Lynley's wife Lady Helen, Barbara's neighbours Taymullah Azhar and his daughter Haddiyah and a few others.

George's mysteries are different from the traditional detective story in that we get to know the principals exceedingly better over the course of her few books rather than the You're-It-I'm-Done detectives of the drawing room mysteries. What kept me reading in the earlier books was the delightful working relationship between Lynley and Barb, who hates toffs with a passion only secondary to her passion for food and that George started delving into intense psychological issues in the newer books.

But, George's writing is bleak, and her characters inhabit an unnecessarily hopeless world. Lynley has (inadvertently) crippled St. James, was Deborah's lover and Helen was once in love with St. James. As if these werent enough complications, Lynley has additional burdens added to his handsome shoulders. The rest of the characters introduced are often as traumatised and all the emotional angst can become very weary reading. Perhaps what I hate the most about her writing is that she introduces characters, sometimes interesting, and at the end doesnt allow them ANY resolution.

I've also started disliking George's writing because of the raw treatment she gives Havers. Over the course of the books you find that Barb is refreshingly normal, outspoken, courageous, empathetic, loyal and can do more detecting with the tip of her little finger than the perfect Lynley. After reading 10 books in which every character describes her as 'dumpy', the 11th book sees Barb being described as 'pug-like'. I guess Ms. George turned the page over on her thesaurus there.

Anyway, the following is a list of her work. The first few are good reads if you want a decent mystery with interesting characters and some psychological drama, caveat emptor on the rest.

1. A Suitable Vengeance - Lynley, the eighth Earl of Asherton, has taken Deborah Cotton his fiancee to his home at Cornwall. Along with them are Simon St. James, Lady Helen, and a few other guests. A murder at the ancestral mansion, sees Lynley and St. James doing the investigating and has the potential to bring out a bevy of skeleton's in the Asherton closets. The mystery isnt all that well thought out, but this book establishes all the relationships between the principals.

2. A Great Deliverance - A farmer is found mudered with his daughter standing over him, holding an axe and saying 'I did'nt do it'. Scotland Yard detectives Lynley and Havers, forced into a partnership by their superior officer, take this on. Good mystery and Havers and Lynley come to certain understandings about each other.

3. Payment in Blood - A playwright is murdered in a mansion in Scotland. When Lynley, St. James and Havers arrive to investigate, they find that Lady Helen Clyde is among one of the guests. Entertaining, but long and Lynley makes an intimate acquaintance with a certain green-eyed monster.

4. Well-Schooled in Murder - Lynley and Havers are called on to investigate the murder of a child belonging to a British public school. This is a decent mystery, but the going gets plodding when the author starts to delve into Deborah and St. James' marital problems.

5. For the Sake of Elena - Lynley and Havers investigate the murder of a student at Cambridge. Academic secrets, deceptions and lies are brought to the fore in this well-written story.

6. Missing Joseph - The murder of an English vicar has Lynley and St. James investigating. This is one of the better, more traditional, mysteries in the series, if one is not distracted by Deborah's maudlin depression.

7. Playing for the Ashes - An interesting murder mystery involving Lynley and Havers investigating the death of an English cricketeer. The book is bogged down because George decides to use a first-person POV of an unsympathetic, uninteresting character. Too long.

8. In the Presence of the Enemy - The best mystery in the series, a politician's child is kidnapped and Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. We have all the principals involved in this sordid story of politics and the gritty world of London tabloids.

9. Deception on his Mind - Barb follows her neighbour Azhar and daughter Haddiyah to Essex, where a Pakistani immigrant is murdered and offers her help to the local police. Even though the solution to the crime is totally unbelievable and the characters have no resolution, I enjoyed this book the best and soon realised it was because the incestuous foursome were completely absent here and we get to know Barbara much better.

10. In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner - or as I like to call it The One In Which Lynley is Full Of Sh*t and Barbara comes Out Smelling of Roses. . The daughter of Lynley's former mentor is murdered in Derbyshire and Scotland Yard is asked to investigate. At the end of this one, Lynley adds a suit of armour to the load of emotional baggage he already carries, and seriously if I were him I would have turned Papaya-Slasher a long while ago. Long and contrived.

11. A Traitor to Memory - A mysterious hit-and-run and a murder 20 years old have the team of Lynley, Havers and Nkata on their toes. The weakest in the series, George uses the first-person trick and a dodgy timeline to (supposedly) add interest to a flimsy murder mystery. Long, Bleak and Boring. This Papaya had mush for brains at the end of this book.

12. A Place of Hiding - More Deb and St. James - I just cant take them anymore. Skipped it.

13. With No One as Witness - Lynley, Nkata and Havers investigate a serial killer in London. George proves she cannot write police procedurals and should stick to what she does best. Oh, and she proves that she actually hates her much-vaunted detective creation. At the end of this book, I imagine Lynley to have become like Voldie after he died but didnt die, forced to slither along in darkness, something far, far less than human .... Fans of the series, would do well to stop at the previous one.

14. Careless in Red - Reviewed here.

The success of this movie is no doubt due to the fact that it manages to push all the right buttons - a nod to current events by being set in Afghanistan, a TIC reference to pop culture (imagine all the MySpace junkies gushing at the mention), a forced romance, misplaced American jingoism and a hero with his heart (?) in the right place. And though you cannot fault the pacing or the special effects the resulting effort still seems like an amalgam of all the other superhero movies out there. Complete with a little brown kid instead of the obligatory white one with stars in his eyes, corny PJs, the admiring side-kick cum friend, the mysterious govt organisation and a Transformers-style face-off at the end. Oh, but with less action. I cant believe that Ang Lee got trounced for a splendidly artistically made Hulk and this movie which has even less action is current box office gold. And how about the supposed oh-so-smart dialogue here??!! Does anyone remember the scene between Paltrow and Downey Jr after their dance - 'That was weird. It was totally weird.' Errr ... yes, totally smart!

Robert Downey Jr. does as well as he can with a character forced to spend time making faces at the camera, Gwyneth Paltrow is just bearable, Jeff Bridges does a decent enough job as the Evil-Takeover-Guy and Terence Howard is totally forgettable. Unfortunately, the movie is too.

Someone got their books all messed up! SATC was never The Devil Wears Prada, but somewhere in the middle of an extended wedding gown fashion shoot in Sex and the City, the movie, you get the hideous inkling that this is where the movie is heading. The series always had fashion on the back-burner, all those Manolo's and Chanel's never intruding upon the story lines themselves. In the movie, fashion takes center stage, unfortunately, leaving a very hollow, soulless mess behind.

Given all the drama, conflict and time that went into the making of this movie, it was reasonable to expect something as wonderfully endearing as the show a lot of women love to love. SATC is anything but, endearing that is. Oh, watch it for a pleasant evening playing catch up with the girls, a whole lotta materialistic ogling (of designers and dudes) but dont expect sassy, witty and confident like the girls we knew all those years ago.

After all the relationship problems have been manufactured and resolved, the movie ends basically where the series ended. Life comes full circle, we are meant to see, but really, did it have to involve my wasting 2 and a half hours of that same life to find out? The movie has also altered the personalities of the women, making Carrie come out smelling of roses, if you can believe here it is she offering the sensible and mature advice to the rest of the girls. What a hoot!

Fans would be advised to stick with reruns of the TV show, and not attach too much importance to this candy floss of a movie ....