Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Dear John is trademark Nicholas Sparks-romantic, sappy, sad and redeeming. If you enjoyed any of Sparks’ earlier novels, you will most probably enjoy Dear John, a love story about an army sergeant who falls in love shortly before 9/11. Sparks’ writing is smooth and easy, but the characters and plot are could have been a little more memorable.

Recommended for those who like sappy tragic romantic comedies, but not for those who like a little meat in their reading (in the ilk of Mills & Boons)

This book is a return to Sparks’ old writing style. Quite Similar to The Notebook, and A Walk to Remember, this book is a must read for any Sparks’ fan, as well as anyone wanting an old fashioned love story…full of love, heartache, romance, fulfillment, tragedy, and sacrifice.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song written by Nicholas Sparks is centered around seventeen year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller who visits her dying father. Ronnie is a talented rebellious piano player and is outraged by her fathers alleged “abandonment” . Ronnie soon meets Will Blakelee, who becomes her romantic focus in the novel, and helps her come to terms with her past and present.
The novel taught could teach a couple of life lessons about love, family, and friends. Gah!

Ivan klima – Love and garbage

Klima wrote this sensuously romantic novel on the timeless theme of the clandestine love affair in response to the misogyny and cynicism he perceived in his countryman Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

The narrator – a banned Czech writer, sweeps the Prague streets with a group of the society’s other outcasts-an old sailor given to drink, a sickly teenager, a foul-mouthed former beauty, a failed inventor, and an ex-pilot. As they go about their mindless job, the narrator learns of the dreams and sorrows of his coworkers and meditates on the life and work of Franz Kafka, the power of literature, and his relationship with his dying father. He agonizes over his passionate, tempestuous love affair with a talented sculptor, Daria, but in the end chooses his wife of many years for whom he feels great tenderness. A meditation on death, the nature of love and freedom, commitment and guilt, this poetic and gently sad autobiographical novel by a major Czech writer belongs in all libraries collecting modern European literature.

For readers willing to be moved more by insight than titillation, this is a fine place to begin your introduction to Klima’s world.

The Maruti Story – R C Bhargava

Fantastic target (considered unachievable) by almost everyone – start a public sector company (read government run) to be formed in under two years, find a suitable partner, finalize all legal documentation, get governmental approval, build a factory, develop a supplier base to meet localization regulations, create a sales and service network in every nook and cranny of our wonderful nation and develop and launch a people’s car that would sell 100,000 units in a year, in a sector where Indian expertise was limited. Also to please both its masters in the government and Suzuki Motor Corporation. However, the Maruti project succeeded and in ways that were unimaginable in 1983. The car revolutionized the industry and put a county on wheels. Suddenly, ordinary middle-class men and women could aspire to own a reliable, economical and modern car and the steep sales target were easily met. 26 years later, the company, now free of government controls and facing competition from the world’s major manufacturers who have entered the Indian market,still leads the way. Not only that, cars made by Maruti can be seen in all continents. By any measure, it is an incredible story (inspiring?), involving grit, management skill and entrepreneurship of a high order. R. C. Bhargava, who was at the helm of the company and is currently its chairman enlightens us as to how it was done. BRAVO! BRAVO!

Memories of My Melancholy Whores – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

After a life spent in the arms of prostitutes (count 514 at the age of 50) the main character decides on treating himself to an adolescent virgin for his 90th birthday. His plans are disrupted by an unexpected blossoming of love for the girl who he woos silently for a year. Brilliant novella.