Get your reading glasses out...

Left completely bored by the redundant TV schedules and with the opressive heat making going out pretty impossible, I ve stuck to more conservative means of spending time. Translation: I've been reading a lot of books the past week. Maybe its luck. Maybe my parents have great taste. Or maybe I'm not that discerning. Either way, I'm totally enjoying myself.

The first book i read, was The Street Lawyer, by (guess) John Grisham. Its a story of a young, workaholic, not-so-rich-but-getting-there guy in law firm in Washington DC. A seemingly freak accident involving a homeless man holding him hostage in office, and asking thoroughly wierd questions, sets off a series of events which turns our protagonists world completely upside down. The book centres around the Homeless in DC, and how a seemingly innocent stroke of neglect up the economic food chain, can doom the lives of those on the bottom.

The next was a half complete, begging to be finished novel called The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum. I always have loved Ludlum for the sheer excess of tech jargon and action in his books, and how the stoyline, though vaguely similar everytime, is always pretty catchy. Although all of Ludlum's protagonists are the military training, Con-Ops/CIA types, with a general tough outside good inside streak, i can't really seem to care when reading his books. Although, it must be said, none of his recent novels even come CLOSE to the Jason Bourne Series. It isn't fair really... Ludlum got unlucky, and painted his Mona Lisa pretty early.

Anyway, Vector is about a highly precise, tailor made Biological Killer called HYDRA. The weapon is made from the victims own DNA, making collateral damage obsolete, and making it the perfect assasins tool. This is set against an increasingly tyrant Kremlin, set out to reclaim the Motherland's role on centre stage. Lt. Cl. John Smith, a Con-Ops operative, is first leaked info on HYDRA, and promptly attacked. With political pressure mounting, Smith has to locate the people behind HYDRA before they get their ultimate Target - The President of the US.

Another Ludlum novel was The Bancroft Strategy. This one is a mammoth book... took me ages to finish. Its about an operative called Todd Belknap, 'The Hound' who sets out to rescue his closest friend from an operation gone wrong. Todd himself has been placed on indefinite leave after a failed Recon mission, and things get worse when every lead that Todd follows ends up being murdered, and him being framed. On the other side of the world, Andrea Bancroft wakes up one day to find a proposal by her wealthy cousins to serve on the board of the prestigious Bancroft Foundation. However, Andrea soon finds herself wrestling with a benign charitable foun dation on one hand, and a cold, calculating, and anonymous 'Genesis' on the other. Andrea and Todd collide in the most unlikely manner, and find out they are bang in the middle of a very, very large conspiracy. Loved the movie-type storytelling, and the absolutely unexpected climax.

The last one i ve read is a 300pg, spellbinding, touching and altogether amazing book called 'The Man from St. Petersburg', by Ken Follet. Set against the lead up to the first world war, it follows a fearless, murderous and cold Anarchist, Feliks, who seeks to assassinate a Russian Prince to prevent Russia's participation in the war. However, his not really best laid plans go to nought, when he is confronted with his past. How this affects Feliks, and the entire political implications of one man's actions, forms the basis of this enthralling story. I loved this book, for the amazing potrayal of a man rediscovering his emotions, in the most unlikely of ways, and the inner struggle between his anarchist ideals, and his rediscovered conscience.

Whoa... sure was a long post... anyways... until next time, Ciao!