Written clearly with an eye to being the next Hollywood blockbuster, Michael Crichton with his latest novel NEXT has made a bold foray into the world of genetic engineering.

Blending fact and fiction, Crichton has packed in data that startles which he weaves into loosely linked subplots, spinning a breathless tale that challenges our sense of reality. Though cast differently from the high octane stories we’ve come to expect from this amazing writer, NEXT with its amalgam of the comic and the bizarre, the frightening and the sensational, holds the reader’s attention to the very end.

The novel begins on an exciting note. Vasco Borden, private investigator and fugitive recovery specialist, hot on the heels of fugitive Eldo Tolman, is all set to zero in on him before Tolman is about to be seduced by a Russian hooker. In Tolman’s hand is a container of stolen embryos. A short while later, Tolman trapped in an elevator, ends up dead, smothered by the nitrogen that escapes from the container.

“Have you noticed that sometimes what you need just falls into place? Or have you ever bumped into someone on the street just after you’ve been thinking about them? Perhaps you’ve met the perfect partner just by being at the right place at the right time.” So says the succinctly put synopsis of Michael Losier’s book, ‘Law of Attraction – The Secret Behind the Secret.’

According to Michael, the law of attraction operates in everybody’s life whether one believes in it or not. It operates in the lives of people who find themselves in bad relationships over and over again.  When one becomes aware of this law and discovers how easy it is to use the Law of Attraction, one acquires the means to become rich, famous, well-loved and very contented in life. We then have the power to alter our mindsets and mould our thoughts and emotions to bring us the very thing we desire.

No woman of her time has been so extensively written about. Reigning supreme for more than six decades, she was the ultimate fantasy, an American icon whose radiant beauty and tempestuous lifestyle held a nation in thrall for what seems like forever. Captured in the 464 pages of biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli’s captivating book – Elizabeth — is the attempt to explain what made Elizabeth Taylor such an enigma.

Hers was the face that launched a thousand ships. A beauty beyond compare, gentle and caring at her core and born to an affluent family,  Elizabeth Taylor became a legend in her own lifetime. With her childhood nipped in the bud by the ambitions of an over-reaching mother, Elizabeth was catapulted into stardom by the enormous success of her first major film, National Velvet and the sheer willpower of a woman born to be an actress destined to take the world by storm.

It is an extraordinary achievement for a man to get into the heart of a woman, reach her mind and live under her skin. And if that man happens to be Khaled Hosseini, the result can be awesome.
 
In his powerfully written debut novel, the much talked about best-seller, the Kite Runner, Hosseini had delved into the complicated relationship between a man, his son Amir and Hassan, the son of his father’s longtime servant, his latest novel.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, he succeeds in securing an intimate view of what happens when two women come together, caught in the gut-wrenching trap of a cruel destiny. Cast against the turbulent events of a culturally vandalized and wounded country, the story highlights the burdens and enduring strengths of women tyrannized  by men.

Running across the entire spectrum of human emotions, ranging from first time sex, humiliation, the pain of not being able to express love, resentment, envy and the need to be seen as right and appropriate, is Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel – The Man of My Dreams. 

With nothing but the tools of crisp humour, immense observational power and tremendous writing skill, Sittenfeld manages to get under your skin. Her central character, 14 year old Hannah Gavener is endearingly vulnerable yet strong in a very peculiar sense. A product of a dysfunctional family, Hannah wants what all girls of her age seek – a guy who can love her what she is and fill the terrible vacuum in her awfully confused life.