BOOKS Review & Exchange

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Jun 21, 2006
King rat by James clavell

beautiful novel based on a POW camp during the world war, based on true events experienced by the author.

Shogun by James clavell

another beautifully told story about japan in the 16th? i think, century,
really big and rich in detail beautiful and realistic ending, miniseries aired in the 80's.

arso304
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Jul 20, 2006
I think Fast Food Nation should be required reading in all schools.
freza
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Aug 04, 2006
For who asked about Da Vinci Code, I’d say watch the movie but read angels and Demons, to me its much better and more interesting.

Right now I’m reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith, its quite fine, easy read, interesting somehow.

The last book I read was by Philippa Gregory, The Constant princess, and that was really good.
TheLocalGirl
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Aug 15, 2006
TheLocalGirl wrote:The last book I read was by Philippa Gregory, The Constant princess, and that was really good.



i never read novels but they are long and boring but for short cut i don't mind hearing them as per convenient from someone who read them :shock:
PhDFares
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Aug 16, 2006
I highly recommend Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
MaaaD
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Sep 21, 2006
Im reading the kite runner right now...i like it already..

a million little pieces started reading it and enjoying it and there was the controversy on Oprah that he was Lying about most of the facts in the book so i stopped reading don't want to read lies :cry:...
mema
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Sep 21, 2006
"I Sweep the Sun Off Of Rooftops" by Hana Al-Shaykh is very good, intertwining stories of women living in Arab countries. It is a bit dense, but beautifully written.
noni
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Sep 21, 2006
my fav

East of Eden by John Steinbeck..all of Steinbeck's work are worth readn
mema
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Oct 02, 2006
Just started reading "Blue Aubergine" by Miral al-Tahawy...about a young Egyptian woman in growing up in 1967...and her developement admist the political and social occurances...its REALLY good so far!
noni
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Oct 02, 2006
noni wrote:Just started reading "Blue Aubergine" by Miral al-Tahawy...about a young Egyptian woman in growing up in 1967...and her developement admist the political and social occurances...its REALLY good so far!

thanx ur always updating my collection.... :P
mema
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Oct 05, 2006
I read this for a class:

"Travels With A Tangerine" by Tim Mackintosh Smith.

Smith is a scholar on the Middle East and he sets out to follow Ibn Battutah's footsteps...very interesting and well written
noni
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Oct 05, 2006
I just bought the following books to read for the next few weeks:

What would you do to save the World? "Confessions of a Could have been Beauty Queen" - Ira Trivedi

Truth or Dare "A Book of Secrets Shared" - Memoirs by Various Authors

The Girls from Overseas - Nergis Dalal

Azur Like it - Wendy Holden

Anil's Ghost - Micheal Ondaatje

Trance - Christopher Sorrentino

The Kama Sutra - A Penguin Popular Classic!!

I'll put up my reviews as I go along.
PrettyPenny
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Oct 05, 2006
Jeevan wrote:Has anyone read The DA VINCI CODE , would like to know is it worth buying and making a part of ones collection??

cheers,

Jerry


I've read it. Great writing, great story telling, great research done for it. One of the greatest things about it are the codes and riddles that you stop reading to try and figure out. Definitely worth having.

If you enjoy the content, then I would suggest getting:

Dan Brown's Angels and Demons

Baigent, Leigh, & Lincoln's The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail (Title in the US is Holy Blood, Holy Grail), The Messianic Legacy and The Bible Came from Arabia

All three books by Baigent, Leigh, & Lincoln, like Brown's works, are fictional with heavy anchoring to reality through factual research.

I'm not sure how easy they would be to get here.

Speaking of being hard to get, I need to find translations or transliterations of Milton's Paradise lost and Dante's Inferno. Anyone got them by any chance?
bear
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The Girls from Overseas - Nergis Dalal Oct 08, 2006
The Girls from Overseas

This is a good read. Its an interesting look into the lives of 5 foreigners married to Indians and living in Dhera Dhun. Some lovely visual discriptions and an entertaining yet sobering insight into the dilemmas faced by Westerners who try, with various levels of success, to acclimate to life in the East.
PrettyPenny
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Oct 08, 2006
What would you do to save the World? "Confessions of a Could have been Beauty Queen" - Ira Trivedi

A fun read, especially for the girls. A true story about a Miss India contestant (Ira) who didn't make it to the top ten finalist round. Ira, who is studying Economics at Wellesley, has a fresh yet cynical style of writing. I recommend this for light reading by the pool, although it does tend to drag 3/4 way into the book.
PrettyPenny
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Oct 08, 2006
Trance - Christopher Sorrentino

Edgy. Adapted from the real life story of Patty Hearst (of the Hearst empire) who joined the SLA cult and renounced all worldly things to traverse around the country holding people at gun point, robbing banks and so on in order to "start a revolution of the underpriviledged by declaring war on those who had status and money."

This is heavy reading, and though it may be interesting to some, did not appeal to me (perhaps because I am anti anything fanatical etc).
PrettyPenny
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Oct 25, 2006
Jeevan wrote:finished reading dreamcatcher by stephen king, quite gripping book on aliens. even the movie based on it has been made in a pretty good way.

currently am reading IT by king again

Cheers,

Jerry


Got some Stephen King Books too.. what's the recent one you got?
asc_26
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Oct 25, 2006
I won't recommend you to read DA VINCI CODE.

Is it possible to trade in books here? We can read more and save some bucks. Suggestion please.

My books are not dilapidated nor dog - eared. I would be glad to exchange them with books i haven't read yet.

I got collections of Paulo Coelho, John Grisham (except The Innocent), Author of Daughters of Arabia etc, Franklin Covey, Stephen King, Self-help books and more.

~~~hope to get some positive feedback~~~
asc_26
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Nov 22, 2006
I have just finished reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

It is about an Australian fugitive who escaped from the prison and went to bombay using fake New Zealand passport...

It is really a literary masterpiece....

It might have been my favorite as of the moment. It is highly recommendable to read.
weary_heart
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Dec 11, 2006
Has anybody read The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff?

What's your say?
weary_heart
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Jan 06, 2007
I read every Stephen King book. He is great!!!!

But I read almost everything. I love books.

The only problem is, that I can`t books throw away :roll:

I guess that will be a big big problem, when I move very often.
Need a privat jet.
Tropic23
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Jan 06, 2007
Just started Paulo Coelho's "I sat by the river pedra and wept"....great so far!

next up :

"The Zahir" and "Eleven Minutes"

Now, i personally think "The Alchemist" was awesome...but thats all i had read from paulo coelho...anyone think he ever topped that one?
cyrix
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Jan 06, 2007
I've read 'The Alchemist" - I am not that impressed though.
weary_heart
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Jan 06, 2007
ok... :) try the next one then !
cyrix
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Jan 07, 2007
weary_heart wrote:Has anybody read The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff?

What's your say?


I read the Tao of Pooh in 2000-2001 or so. I can't remember much about it because I've read hundreds of books since. I do seem to think it was cute and worth a read. It's short and quite light if memory serves.

I've recently been into the Jason Bourne series. Pretty decent if you're into the action genre. Not usually my cup of tea but I really did enjoy it.

Has anyone read The Life of Pi? I've heard great things about it. I read it and thought...bah...no big deal. Did I miss something?
giggsy
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Jan 07, 2007
giggsy wrote:I read the Tao of Pooh in 2000-2001 or so. I can't remember much about it because I've read hundreds of books since. I do seem to think it was cute and worth a read. It's short and quite light if memory serves.

I've recently been into the Jason Bourne series. Pretty decent if you're into the action genre. Not usually my cup of tea but I really did enjoy it.

Has anyone read The Life of Pi? I've heard great things about it. I read it and thought...bah...no big deal. Did I miss something?


Im currently reading the The Te of Piglet part- Im enjoying it, brilliant explanation of Taoism - entertaining as well. hehe

Never read The Life of Pi yet.

Ive got another great book called 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu.
weary_heart
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Jan 08, 2007
cyrix wrote:Just started Paulo Coelho's "I sat by the river pedra and wept"....great so far!

next up :

"The Zahir" and "Eleven Minutes"

Now, i personally think "The Alchemist" was awesome...but thats all i had read from paulo coelho...anyone think he ever topped that one?


i have read everything signed by Coelho and one my fav. was Manual of the warrior of light.
eleven minutes is a great book too and u wont be disapointed :wink:
alexandra
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Jan 13, 2007
Here is a link to the 10 best books of 2006:
http://chilloutdubai.blogspot.com/2007/ ... -2006.html
Francheska
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Jan 19, 2007
Free to a good home: Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. I have two copies and am looking to get rid of the paperback.

PM if you want it...
iapetus11
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Jan 20, 2007
This book is really good. You will find that Eleven minutes is so different from his other books. The Zahir is a great read too.

None of his books topped The ALCHEMIST. However, Veronica Decides to Die runs close.

cyrix wrote:Just started Paulo Coelho's "I sat by the river pedra and wept"....great so far!

next up :

"The Zahir" and "Eleven Minutes"

Now, i personally think "The Alchemist" was awesome...but thats all i had read from paulo coelho...anyone think he ever topped that one?
Shermin
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