Review: Creatures of Appetite

Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An extremely brilliant, yet arrogant, crazy ex-profiler join hands with a reputed woman with some disturbing past to take on a serial killer. This is what the book is, to be precise.
This book is for people who love thriller, who are ok with blood here and there, who are not offended by abusive words. If you don't like any of the above, then just don't read it.

Jacob is crazy, but intelligent. Arrogant, egoistic but always right. He has his flaws, his secrets, but I really liked him. A mentally attractive male character.
Emma is bold, intelligent, charming. Beauty with brain.
Two Federal officers, with different history and personality, goes on hunting of a child serial killer. When the killer and Feds enter into game, things become too interesting :)

From beginning of the book, it is full of surprises. And it didn't end even at the end.
Though the end hinted that there might be a sequel, I don't know why the author didn't decide to write one! I am sure that too would have been a good read. For me Heartland child murder is not enough. I want Mercy killing too :P

After 1st chapter, I made a mistake of not touching this book. I didn't mean to. I just didn't get a chance.
But once I started, couldn't keep it down without completing.
Edge of the seat thriller..



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Review: A Half Baked Love Story

A Half Baked Love Story by Anurag Garg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Life goes ON. This is what the book is all about. Philosophy spun around tale of romance (It don't get philosophical till epilogue :) so don't worry romance story lovers).

Story began with a spoiled brat, who is our protagonist. Things he do irritate a lot that I just wish he was not real. I was even surprised why author have decided to have such a freak as protagonist.
Real story began when he explains the reason for his nature. From then there is no hate towards him from my side.

Love at school. Between two people of different background (food, state, culture, caste, etc etc). The ways in which the romance/love between them are described, are great!
After a long time, read a love story which actually didn't had much sexual content. Felt happy to see that there are still young Indian authors who can express love as love and love only, without getting physical. It is really tough to write a love story like this since sex is considered part of romance genre. Not that I am against such stories, just that I am surprised to see this type still alive :)
Just beautiful cute love, with no sexual incidents. Hats off!!!

It is not necessary that you should always be with her/him if you are in love. It's just loving them wherever they are, however they are and doing whatever is good for them. Described well in this book!

Pain will change people. Agreed. But that doesn't mean you have to become a jerk. You can and have to reshape yourself for the people around you, for the people who care for you. This is the message that the author missed to tell. Would have been more happy if he did that too!

As the wise say, as the author tried to say, whatever happens life goes on :)




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Review: The Assassin Lotus

The Assassin Lotus by David Angsten
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A thriller embedded with western (Asian) philosophies.

The story starts in Rome and soon moves to Asia.
This is a self-narrating style novel but narration is did by two (two persons self narrate story from their end). Includes some very old religions and cults.

Beginning of the story made me frown. Why does that it has to be Islam when it comes to terrorism?!
Then when the story moves on, I moved on. It was the same mistake people are doing in reality. A group of *** people from specific religion create chaos using religion as their shield. Just a bunch of idiots who misunderstood religion.

Best part about the novel is the embedded philosophy/religious statements. Islam, Buddhism and Hindu philosophies. Though Islam philosophies are used in wrong situations, it is good to read them. After all it's our mind which makes a statement meaningful!

Though the citations mentioned in novel are true (for which I must appreciate the author, David, for his hard-work), I seriously doubt whether it is possible in reality. All the border crossing, killing, etc etc.
But, this is a fiction novel and I shouldn't stress up much on it's reality.

The author mentioned that this is mixture of western philosophies and blood spilled thriller, and he was not sure whether people who like one genre will like the other.
I don't think who should doubt it. It is a perfect mixture of both and being a fan of both, I liked it.
A good read indeed.



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Review: The Last Survivors

The Last Survivors by T.W. Piperbrook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Life after apocalypse. Survival is the only goal of the leftovers when almost entire humanity becomes sort of zombies.

A simple civilization with no technology, no knowledge about history or science or any other major field, no inventions, too much faith in superstitious thoughts.
No complex political structures, country politics. Simple society structure with small simple settlement villages. Threats for life are wild animals, zombies/spores and sometimes their system itself.

In simple, zombie story in future with ancient life style.
1st half of story is pretty normal and boring but with time story gains speed. There are some interesting characters especially the child, William, around who the story spins. I liked that character a lot that I don't want to read the next part of story anytime soon. I don't want to see the end of him :(

Except for few edge of seat moments in second half of novel and the surprises here and there, novel is pretty average.
But towards the end, novel was good and gave hope that the next part will not have the dull start. Hoping next part will be good ..




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Review: You are the Password to my Life

You are the Password to my Life by Sudeep Nagarkar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Simple. Touching. Sentimental.
3 words to describe this book.

Sudeep made the story with good proposition of friendship and love. A story that can play with your emotions.

There were some good quotes in the book.
If you are 90s kid and have been through the era when there was unlimited free text messages that kept flowing your mobile, you can spot a lot of those messages you have received in the book. Me being from that period, felt a bit nostalgic of those good old days :)

The only thing I felt disturbing with the book is, there were too many quotes. It's true that they are good, but still the quantity in which they came in is a bit high. For every second page, reading a paragraph with lot of quotes is a bit annoying. They make the story move slow.




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Review: Deception Point

Deception Point by Dan Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Usual Dan Brown script..
Plenty of information. Suspense plot. This time there is no sign of religion or rituals. It is full of science (astrophysics) and politics (the dirty part mostly).

He is one of my favorite authors :)
I like the way he fills the story with lots of information. He did the same in this book too.

But the problem of reading more of Dan Brown is that the suspense which (is one of the reasons that) attracted me towards him is not there anymore. Before even reaching middle of the story, the antagonist can be judged, provided you have read many of his works already. His writing has became predictive with time. Sad truth!
I think it's time for him to come up with something unusual. It's time for a change..


*********Spoiler Alert*********
This book reminded me digital fortress in many places. Can't help it..
Powerful, good natured Head of a powerful secret organization turns negative because of some reason which he finds to be good enough to do bad deeds.
Female protagonist.
Protagonist trusts antagonist with her life, treats him more of a fatherly figure.
Morally ambitious character which looks bad but not that bad in reality, dies because of antagonist.
Aliased mail ID.
Element of nature playing major role. Almost ends protagonist's life, kills antagonist (fire in digital fortress, water in deception point).



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Review: Falling in Love Again

Falling in Love Again by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Collection of love and romance short stories from the great Ruskin.
In this collection, there are a few heart touching stories that will stay in heart. Then there are few which are just normal and boring.

Nature - something that Ruskin can't avoid. Even when he is writing about love and romance, he just can't keep nature out of context. The places where he explains nature, compares love/partner with nature are lovely.

For many stories, there is no such thing as end or what I feel like not an end. They were merely love incidents happened in somebody's life. Not love stories that will have a proper end. I don't mind if they had positive or negative end, but all I wanted was a solid end, which I couldn't find in many of the stories.

There are few touchy lines here and there like 'love the days I loved her' , 'it's not time that is passing. it's you and I' , 'one should love at all time of life' , etc.

Overall it's a one time read and few can be re-read when touch of love is required :)




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Review: The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple's Guide to Bharat

The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple's Guide to Bharat by Saurav Jha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my 1st travel book (non-fictional) and it didn't stop me from reading any of such genre further. In fact I think I will read the sequels of this book too.

The first few pages made me realize that this is not a fast read. Yes, this is a slow read and it took me almost a month to finish it.

This book is a casual writing from a couple who left their regular job and started traveling, on a tight budget. I think this book will be more realistic to an Indian than a foreigner because the lifestyle and environment reflected in this book is desi and it takes some imagination for non-Indians to understand. But this will give a picture of how normal India is, to non-Indian readers.
New environments, people, little bit of their lives, etc etc make it good to read. Narration is done by both authors in turn. It's a new try and I feel it is kinda cool.

The only negative I feel about this book is there is not much other than traveling, locations, their history and people met in path. A little bit of sarcasm, fun and love here and there, but I think it would have better if they were a little more.
I know it's non-fiction and we can't expect it to be how we like, but I felt them missing and so they came up to me as negative.

The way they wrote this book made me think about such travel. Though I cannot take risky decisions like them (too many dependencies :/ ), travel/exploring might become part of my life because of the authors.
This book will be awesome for travelers and a good read for anybody who love reading. Only exception is, if you are core fiction/suspense fellow, then you might not like it much.




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Review : பொன்னியின் செல்வன் #5

பொன்னியின் செல்வன் - தியாக சிகரம் (#5) [Ponniyin Selvan - Thiyaga Sigaram] by Kalki

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

வழக்கமாக இருப்பதை விட அதிக திருப்பங்கள், உற்சாகம், விறுவிறுப்பை இந்த பாகத்தில் காட்டிவிட்டார் கல்கி. முதல் பக்கத்தில் தொடங்கிய வேகம், மணிமகுட விழா வரை சற்றும் குறையவில்லை. கடைசி 100 பக்கங்களில் வேகம் சற்று குறைந்ததாகவே தோன்றியது. எதிர்பாராத பல திருப்பங்கள் இந்த பாகத்தில் உள்ளன. இருந்தாலும், இந்த பாகத்துடன் முடிக்காமல், கதையை கல்கி அவர்கள் இன்னும் தொடர்ந்திருக்கலாம். கதை முற்றியதாக தோன்றவும் இல்லை. அப்படி நடந்தது பிடிக்கவும் இல்லை. :(


கிட்டத்தட்ட 50 வருடங்களுக்கு மேல் ஆனாலும், ஏன் இந்த புதினம் இன்றும் சிறந்த தமிழ் புத்தகங்களில் ஒன்றாக கருதப்படுகிறது என்பதை இதை படிப்பவர் மட்டுமே உணரமுடியும். மூன்றரை வருடம் ஒரு வார தொடர்கதை மக்களால் தொடர்ந்து படிக்கப்படுவது சாதாரணமாக நடப்பதன்று.
அதை கல்கியை தவிர வேறு யாராலும் சாதித்திருக்க/சாதிக்க முடியும் என்று தோன்றவில்லை.


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Accessor - Version 2

Hi everyone. I am back with new version of Accessor. 


Accessor is a small, free software that will allow user to make a folder in windows untouchable (no read, write, cut, copy or delete) or vice-versa. To know more about the software in detail, please click here . The link will take you to the original page of the software where you can find pictorial representation of Accessor in action. 



What's new in this new version of Accessor?
1) Fixed few bugs. This fixes will now allow user to navigate through File System easily.
2) Modified to make it work more efficient.
3) Password protected. 


The password protection was to ensure that even if someone get access to this software in your system, they can't use it. Hope this will help you keep you secrets more secret :)



The password is: sam_tns



As always, reviews and comments are most welcomed. Feel free to ask your queries.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed previous version of Accessor (Accessor - Version 1) :) 


NOTE :

1. Don't use this software to lock C:\Windows or C:\ Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86). The results may be undesirable.

2. 'Run As Administrator' if the software didn't work when you run normally.

3. Since it works with some Administrator level options, some Antivirus programs might consider this software as Virus. Don't worry, Its completely safe :)


You can download this software free of cost here :

Accessor 


Alternative Link :

Accessor


(Please inform if any of the link is dead)


 

Can Human live without Heart

Hell No. How can that be possible?

Well, it is possible. Let me introduce you to the 1st man to live without Heart - Craig Lewis.

Craig Lewis, 55, was diagnosed with 'Amyloidosis'. Amyloidosis is a rare protein related autoimmune disease. The victim's internal organs will be filled with protein and due to viscous nature of accumulation organs like heart, liver, lungs, etc will fail. 


When admitted to Texas Heart Institute in march 2011, the chances for him to survive is too minimal. Almost not possible. But Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier made the impossible, possible.

 (Dr. Billy Cohn, right and Dr. Bud Frazier, left)

Cohn, veteran surgeon-inventor-researcher, have developed a device (along with Frazier) that will help continuous flow of blood throughout the body. Thus the work what heart does, pumping blood will be taken care of this device. This device will facilitate flow of blood without pulse. 


The above two surgically removed the affected heart of Lewis and replaced it with their device (the procedure took less than 48 hours). It worked !!
Lewis was alive to see the next sunrise :)

Unfortunately he was not lucky enough. His other vital organs like lungs, kidneys, etc began to stop functioning and unable to bear his suffering his family requested for Euthanasia. After few months of being alive without pulse, the device was removed from Lewis.


Notably, the end of Lewis was not due to his failed heart or replaced device. So there it is possible to live without heart. Cohn stated that he believe it will work for long term too.

This is not the only device that Cohn has created. He is a great innovator in this field. To know more about him, you can click here .