Review: The Fourth Protocol (Frederick Forsyth)

Kim Philby is a former British intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union in 1963 after he was revealed to have been spying for the KGB. Now a retired KGB officer, he prepares a memorandum for the General Secretary (or the Soviet president) about the possibility of formation of a Marxist-Leninist government in Britain after the general elections of 1987. Philby and the General Secretary then hatch Plan Aurora, which involves smuggling of a small atomic bomb into Britain and exploding it near a US air base to turn public support in favor of the Labour Party. Once the Labour Party is in power, the "hard left" faction in the party would take over from the moderate left leaders.

The "illegal" agent, Valeri Petrofsky is sent to Britain to accopmplish this mission and the parts of the bomb are sent by different couriers so that it can be assembled there. One of the couriers is attacked by thugs and taken to hospital where he decides to commit suicide to avoid questioning about the polonium disc that he was supposed to deliver to the Soviet agent. MI5 agent John Preston, who investigates the case finds that polonium is used in the initiator of an atomic bomb. Preston's search for Petrofsky forms the rest of the story.

The title of the book refers to the protocol of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (1968) that prohibits smuggling of atomic bombs or their parts into other countries and exploding them there. Like in most of his books, Forsyth blends facts with fiction to make the story sound credible. For example, Philby really did exist and the description of his life until the late 1960s is mostly accurate; the rest of it came from Forsyth's imagination.

In the style typical to Forsyth's books, a major portion of the book explains the working of the intelligence agencies involved (KGB, MI5 and MI6) and the politics that leads up to the plot. It is only towards the ending of the book that the pace quickens up a little and the biggest twists in the story are not revealed until the final few lines of the book.

My Rating: 7/10

Other Reviews:

Between the Covers (Rating: B)

Review: Poirot Investigates (Agatha Christie)

The problem with Poirot Investigates is that it takes away the whole point of reading a Hercule Poirot mystery. In a full length Poirot novel, Christie gives us all the clues we'll need to figure out the mystery. The challenge is to recognize these clues, sort out the "real" clues from the red herrings and find the answer before Poirot reveals it. But with a short story collection like this one, we hardly get any time to make up our minds about what's going on and before we know it, the story comes to an end.

One of the stories in this book, The Million Dollar Bond Robbery was what got me interested in Agatha Christie's books back in my school days. We had this reading excercise in which we were given the first half of the story which contains the background of the crime and Poirot's interrogation of all the suspects. By the end of the hour we had to write down whom we suspected and why, after which our teacher read out the last part of the story. The whole thing depended on whether or not we could read the significance of the reply of a suspect to one completely innocent looking question from Poirot. After that I started looking at Christie's books as on long puzzle with the clues scattered across the book. Most of the time I do get it wrong, but it's great fun to try and guess the ending while I'm reading the book.

Unfortunately, on reading the same story in this book, I found that the story we were given back in school was not the original. And worse, the original did not actually contain any clues about the crime. The clue was added into the story we were given in school so we could have a go at solving it. So much for the story that converted me into a Christie fan! :-( Most of the other stories in the collection too are like that; we have to wait until the end of the story to know the details of the crime. There's not much of a chance to solve the crime ourself.

This is the first Hercule Poirot book I've read that is narrated in first person by Poirot's friend, Captain Hastings. Until now, I have been seeing some similarities between Poirot and Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. But with Hastings as his sidekick, Poirot's and Holmes' similarities become even more glaring. Extreme intelligence, incredible vanity and total lack of respect for his sidekick's intellingence makes Poirot look very much like Holmes. It makes me wonder if Agatha Christie wrote the Poirot/Hastings stories as a tribute to the Holmes/Watson mysteries.

My Rating: 4/10

Other Reviews:

The Relentless Pursuit of Cold Shivers (Rating: 3/5)

Yaaay!!! I'm done with my first book of the new year. Not very impressed with it, though. Now there's a bunch of Agatha Christies waiting to be read; all of them are narrated by Hastings. I hope they aren't as disappointing as this one.

BTT: May I Introduce... & Anticipation

This week's question from BTT:

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
   
2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?
   

My earliest favorite author was Enid Blyton. One of my cousins got me five Enid Blyton books when I was nine years old, and those were the first books that I read. And yes, it was love at first sight. I couldn't stop reading until I had finished all five books. Another author that I liked instantly was JK Rowling, and this time I was reading on a friend's recommendation. Others like Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie too fall into the love at first sight category.

There are a lot of authors that I didn't immediately like but over time they have become favorites, John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon, for example. They're authors that I came across in the library and although I didn't like their books immediately, now they are among my favorite authors.

I missed last week's BTT question, so here it is:

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

I hardly ever read according to a plan, so there aren't too many books that I'm specifically looking forward to. But if I were to mention one book that's being realeased this year that I'm looking forward to, that will be The Solomon Key, Dan Brown's next book. I loved his first four books, and am hoping this one's as good as the others.

I also came across an Excel spreadsheet containing the list, 1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die here. It's a list taken from the book of the same name by Peter Boxall. I've read 20 books from the list, and according to the spreadsheet I must read 18 books a year if I want to finish all the books there. Maybe I'll try to read a few books from that list this year.

BTT: Highlights of 2007

This week's question from Booking Through Thursday:

What were your favorite books this year?

Apart from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there was one other book I read this year that might make it to my all time favorites list -- The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. There were a few other books that I really liked, but nothing that I would call really outstanding. Here's a list of ten books I liked best this year. Last week's meme was about books that were published in 2007, so I'm assuming this one's not restricted to 2007 books. (Other than HP7, none of these books were published last year.)

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling


2. The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason


3. Chasing Cezanne, by Peter Mayle


4. Icon, by Frederick Forsyth


5. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King


6. Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton


7. Three Act Tragedy, by Agatha Christie


8. The Other Side of Me, by Sidney Sheldon


9. N or M?, by Agatha Christie


10. The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks

So what were your favorite books this year? And did any of these books make it to your list? Please do leave a comment.

Best of 2007: The Nominees

Last Thursday, Booking Through Thursday asked for nominations for the best fiction and non-fiction books published in 2007. I've been going through the nominations in the blogs that have replied. Most people (including me) don't usually read books the year they were published so many good books might be missing from these nominations. Anyway I've put together a list of books that were nominated more than once in the fiction category. There weren't many nominations in non-fiction, and there wasn't even a single book that got more than one nomination. Here are the lists:

Fiction

Forty one people have made 125 nominations in the fiction category with ninety six different books. Of these books, only fifteen books were nominated more than once and only three got nominated more than twice. The most nominated book was... Did I hear you shout Harry Potter? No points for guessing that one. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was nominated by ten people. (Where's my prize for being the first one to nominate Harry?) [grins] Six people nominated A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and four nominations went to Eclipse by Stephanie Meyers. To list all the books that were nominated will take too much time, so I'm putting up the list of the books that got two or more nominations:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (10 nominations)


2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (6 nominations)


3. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyers (4 nominations)




Each of these books were nominated twice:




4. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs


5. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani


6. Dangerous Games by Lora Leigh


7. Dead of the Day by Karen E Olson


8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld


9. Ice Blue by Anne Stuart


10. Ice Storm by Anne Stuart


11. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich


12. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon


13. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult


14. Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert


15. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Non Fiction

Only twenty one people gave nominations in the non-fiction category. Twenty five nominations were made and all of them were for different books. Here's the list of the books:

1. Chrysalis by Kim Todd


2. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby


3. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


4. Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart


5. The Gift by Lewis Hyde


6. Have You Found Her: A Memoir by Janice Erlbaum


7. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert


8. Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah


9. Louder Than Words, A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism


10. Mosaic by Amy Grant


11. Mountains So Sublime by Terry Abraham


12. Other Colours by Orhan Pamuk


13. Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin' by Paula Deen and Sherry Suib Cohen


14. Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin


15. Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie


16. The Places In Between by Rory Stewart


17. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Catchart and Daniel Klein


18. Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer


19. Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm by Lauren St. John


20. The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan


21. Taking Things Seriously by Joshua Glen, Carol Hayes


22. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin


23. The Verneys by Adrian Tinniswood


24. The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery


25. Wildwood by Roger Deakin

How many books published in 2007 have you read? And how many of them do you think will make it to your all time favorites list? Do you see any really interesting books missing from the lists? Do leave a comment here, or a link to your reply if you've already answered the meme in your blog.

BTT: Best of 2007

I don't know why I'm doing this week's BTT. I've read only one fiction book published in 2007 so far and non-fiction isn't something I usually read.

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?


2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?


3. And, do "best of" lists influence your reading?

Best fiction book is easy enough for me. Being an incurable Potter fan(atic), I would have suggested Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows anyway. And with that book being the only one published in 2007 that I read, there aren't any other nominees. I'll skip the best non-fiction book nominations, because I haven't read any.

Do "best of" lists influence me? I think they do. I usually pick books at random from the library, but if I find a book for which I've seen a lot of good reviews, there's a better chance that I'll pick it up.

Review: The Other Side of Me (Sidney Sheldon)

I have never read an autobiography before. In a way I'm entering a new genre of books with The Other Side of Me. But now, having read Sidney Sheldon's autobiography, I'm not completely sure if that is an accurate description of this book. Yes, it's all about Sheldon, but the style is so much like that of his other works that I'm almost tempted to label this as a thriller. A look at the opening sentence ought to tell you why...

At the age of seventeen, working as a delivery boy at Afremov's drugstore in Chicago was the perfect job, because it made it possible for me to steal enough sleeping pills to commit suicide.

Sheldon starts with a description of his childhood during the 1930s. It was the time when the Great Depression had left a great many people poor and unemployed, and Sheldon's parents too weren't spared. Then he moves on to the early days of his career when he didn't achieve any success even as he struggled with manic depression (that nearly led him to commit suicide at the age of 17) and then finally to his successful career in Broadway, and in television and Hollywood.

The style of the book, as I mentioned before, is that of a novel. Every sentence is designed to make sure that you read the next. It's nearly as un-put-down-able as any of his novels, but the final third of the book slows down the narrative a little bit. Once he becomes successful in Hollywood, there are so many anecdotes about celebrities that it starts getting a bit irritating.

Sheldon uses a very interesting metaphor to describe his life -- that of an elevator that's always going up or down. He started off at the bottom floor, had bumpy ride upwards and finally settles somewhere near the top floor in the 1970s when he switched over to writing novels. My biggest disappointment with the book is that Sheldon's career as a novelist is hardly mentioned. The book is good for anyone who wants to read about his television and Hollywood careers. I didn't know a thing about that part of Sheldon's life, and I think a lot of fans of his books are going to agree with me on that. And looking back at the book now, I must admit that leaving out his writing career wasn't such a bad idea after all. Being the brilliant storyteller that he is, Sheldon knows better than anyone that people like reading about an elevator that's on a bumpy ride more than about one that's comfortably perched on the top floor.

Rating: 7/10

BTT: Catalog

This week's question from Booking Through Thursday:

Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to? [grin])

If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?

Having only around 20 books in my "collection", cataloguing my books isn't something I have to worry about. Whenever I buy books, they get "borrowed" and never manage to find a way back to my hands. Even if they do, they are often so badly mutilated that I sometimes feel that having them back in such condition is worse than not having them at all. So I'm left with a collection that cannot be called a collection at all. And I really don't see the need to catalogue such a small collection.

I wanted to post about a related topic, that is cataloguing books that you read instead of those that you own. For this, I've tried almost all the methods mentioned in the question. I started off with the trusted pen and paper option. I used to write the names of all the books I read on sheets of paper. Later when I got my computer I started using Excel to list the books. I switched to using a simple text file soon afterwards.

Recently I joined Shelfari (my profile's here), which looks great, but I wish the website were a little bit faster. I hate having to wait for two minutes to add one book to my list. So I started adding books to Google Books' MyLibrary and importing the list to Shelfari, but never got very far. (I've only added 40 odd books to my shelf so far.) LibraryThing also did interest me, but there's a limit of 200 books that you can catalog if you're using a free account.

Right now I'm using a little Python script to catalog books on the computer. It is command line and a bit of a chore to work with, but it's been working fine for me so far. But at the same time, I've gone back to using the good old pen and paper method just in case the computer decides to go on a holiday (which it did recently).

PS. That's four BTTs in a row now, but not even a single book review in over a month. Maybe I should spend less time blogging and more time reading.

BTT: Out Of Print

This week's question on Booking Through Thursday suggested by Island Editions.

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again?

I can't really think of such a book. Most out of print books would still be available as ebooks on websites like Project Gutenberg. But there are a couple of J K Rowling books -- Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Magical Beasts... -- that aren't really out of print, but are very difficult to find anywhere. The names of Kennilworthy Whisp and Newt Scamander that appeared on the covers of the books probably lead the books to be almost unknown to many people even though they were actually written by Rowling. And while I'm on the topic, I should say that I really hope that Tales of Beedle the Bard somehow doesn't remain out of print for too long. (Keeping a Rowling book out of print ought to be made a criminal offence.) ;-)

BTT: Rolling

Late again. I'm nearly in time for this week's question. Anyway here's last Thursday's question from Booking Through Thursday:

Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that... Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors...

Not really. Unless I'm looking for books belonging to the same series, the books I read are usually unrelated to the previous ones. Even if I were to read "a string of books that all take place in Paris" there's no guarantee that I'm going to like all of them. I might love one book about Paris and hate the next one, so there's not much point in searching for books related that way.

Coincidentally, though, I actually am on a roll right now. I've just finished reading two Agatha Christie mysteries and picked up a third one -- all three books involving Hercule Poirot. The only other time when I go on a roll is when I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series, reading the entire series in order. But otherwise, I hardly ever think of two books belonging to different genres, by different authors as related to each other.