Book Review- Fall of Giants

After reading (and loving) Dan Brown's Inferno and then following it up with the disappointing Proof of Heaven  I was looking to read another totally absorbing book and didn't even mind turning to a trashy beach read as long as it was entertaining and I got my literary fix! A friend of mine, whom I actually met through exchanging notes about my blog, sent me this recommendation and promised it would be in equal parts absorbing and educational. At 1000 pages the book was definitely not going to be a quick read but I figured I'd give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!
Trashy beach read this is not, but then again those who have read Ken Follett before would know that. I hadn't, so I didn't, and if my friend hadn't pointed out the educational aspects of this novel, I'd be in for quite a shock. Along with characters that span from Russia to America, German to British, Welsh, Austrian, Scottish and a few others thrown in, we also get to meet Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Lenin, Trotsky, Woodrow Wilson and a few other historical figures. Yes they appear occasionally as characters in the book and the book is that well researched that statements they make or views expressed either historically actually did happen or as the author explains at the end of the book, could have happened. The novel follows the characters through the First World War explaining the why's, the how's and also the behind the scene actions and make you feel like you were really there. History buffs will LOVE this book and non history buffs who are clueless about sequence of events may have to turn to Wikipedia or even better, pull up a few videos about the First World War on Khan Academy like I did, and maybe get a side explanation on what happened and how. Follett takes basic knowledge of history as a given and unfortunately I found myself a bit lost at a few parts. However a little bit of reading will bring you up to speed and absorbed in the happenings. There were a few parts however that I found to slightly drag on, but as I said my knowledge of history is limited and so is my interest level on the same. The novel ends setting the stage for the Second World War which is what the story of the second book revolves around. Sorry I didn't mention earlier that this novel is Book 1 of a trilogy, the next book being Winter of the World which is out already and the third due for release at the end of 2014.
There are too many story lines in this novel for me to tell you what it's all about but as I said World War I is the most important plot, along with women's rights and the class system coming up as side issues weaved into the story. If you're not interested in history at all I'd probably tell you to give this one a miss. However if you're interested in learning about history in an interesting and absorbing way in the form of fiction, Fall of Giants does just that. It may make you ignore friends and family for a few days or weeks (I finished it in a week) but you'll emerge happier and wiser for it. How many books can promise you that?
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Book Review- Proof of Heaven

 

For a while now I have read books about the afterlife, and I think I had first read books about this subject even before my Father passed away 11 years ago. I remember reading books about an NDE (Near Death Experience) even as far back as boarding school in 1994. Since then I've read books on past life regression (Many Lives Many Masters and pretty much all of Brian Weiss's stuff), studied to be a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist myself and undergone many, many past and in between life regressions (the stuff I get up to in my spare time I tell ya!), read books on Auto writing (Sounds of Silence, Laws of the Spirit World ), Spiritual fluffy stuff on the subject (Journey of Souls by Michael Newton) and quite a few other books in the same vein that don't immediately come to mind right now. To say I am curious about the afterlife would be putting it mildly. But then again, isn't everyone? When Proof of Life started showing up on best seller lists I wondered if I needed to read yet another book on the same subject. If there's one thing I had learned from all my own reading and research, was that everyone seemed to have their own theory and their own "experience" as to what happened after. Whether it was Jesus they saw, Meher Baba, Sai Baba, dead relative, their description of the afterlife, angels.. there was absolutely no consistency and while I really wanted to believe in their experiences and my own, I have remained skeptical. I found the varying degrees of each one's descriptions very convenient to their beliefs and I find it amusing that the inconsistency goes so deep they are unable to even agree on an answer to a simple question- does hell exist or not? The spiritualites will have you believe the soul hates being separated from the Creator so Earth IS hell, whereas the religious describe vividly a fiery pit where all the sinners go. Anyhow, when my friend mentioned Proof of Heaven a few weeks ago, I dismissed it saying I really didn't want to give it a go till I later went home and read about the book a bit. The words "Neurosurgeon" and "Harvard University" started to lure me in and I thought, maybe, just maybe this book will be different. It'll be the one that'll tell me what REALLY is going on. After all the author doesn't call it "thoughts" of heaven... he's a neurosurgeon giving me actual proof dammit! 

After finishing Inferno earlier today, I started on Proof of Heaven as I knew it would be a quick read as these kind of books usually are. While it took me only a few hours to get through it, the Author could have spared me a lot of time and just written an article on  his experience as that's really what his experience could be described in- a couple of thousand words, if not a few hundred. Most of the book he talks about his childhood and his family and his wife and then what his family members were going through while he was in a coma and how his disease was miraculous and one of a kind, how his NDE was very different (as it allowed him to go "deeper" than anyone else- although we don't know what that means) and how his recovery was also miraculous. There is some scientific jargon thrown in there with some stuff about his being adopted, his almost drinking problem, blah blah yada yada. The juicy bit? He wakes up (although it's not really him so there is no waking and he doesn't remember his life as a human) in some sort of dark gooey jelly like place, then hears music and flies with a woman on the wings of a butterfly, then goes and meets "God" that he refers to as Om (this should make the Hindus and the spiritualites very happy) and then.. he goes back to his body. All the while he had no recollection of who he was in the physical plane or any knowledge of people praying for him but says clearly that it was those prayers that saved him and brought him back, although its unclear how. He did gets lots of learning though about that world and other Universes and lots of things were taught to him, especially the idea that its all about Love. The rest of the learnings he tells us he has full recollection of, but couldn't really put into words as they was so magical, but am sure he won't have any issues doing so a year and another book deal from now.

I feel kind of cheated as I do when I read some non fiction books about like diet, or some major business theories, which could in essence be put into a paragraph but is stretched on for 200 pages. And after I was done with the predictable and cheesy end of the book, I googled the guy a bit. Scientists have slammed the book and the authors claim that he was completely brain dead and hence the images could not have been his hallucinations. Another reviewer on Amazon did some digging and found some malpractice suits the good ol' Doc had tried to cover up so there are those questions about his character. Yet, I'd love to be a believer if there was anything of absolute substance in this book but unfortunately, since his whole experience was barely described, there is really nothing TO believe. So magical heaven or just a dead end? I guess only time will tell. In the meantime I'd suggest you save your precious moments here on earth and not spend them reading this book.

Book Review- Inferno

Inferno is a novel by Dan Brown, the author who is most famous for his book The Da Vinci Code and 3 others in the Robert Langdon series. While I absolutely loved his most famous work and was the first book of his I'd read, I was quite disappointed by the ones that followed. However, Inferno sounded promising, had good reviews on Amazon and I was desperately in need of a good, sort-of-trashy, summer fiction read that would keep me absorbed for a few days. While my book club reads were all incredible books, I find that I usually get more absorbed into works of fiction and books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that are fast paced and well written are usually my favourite kinds. I hoped Inferno would help hit that spot... and boy, did it ever!
Dan Brown is a writer for the masses so anyone looking to read serious literature should turn to Dante's Inferno and not Dan Brown's, although the book is all about Dante and his effect on art and literature. Does the basic premise of the book make a lot of sense? Well, if I was a madman looking to cause widespread global damage, I wouldn't send someone on a scavenger hunt to try and stop me, so in that sense no. In essence, the book is one huge scavenger hunt that starts of in Venice and then sort of takes you on a trip through other historic sites revealing the history behind various pieces of art and sculpture. Am trying to be as vague as possible so as to not give away too much of the story line but I'll just say this- this book will make you want to take an art history class. No joke. I was reading the Kindle edition of the book on my iPad which was great as it gave me direct links to wikipedia articles and other research for a lot of the places and works mentioned through the book. While I've been to all of the cities and places he talks about, the novel actually made me want to revisit each one and pay attention to the detail. If a book can make me want to sight see rather than wanting to hit the nearest shopping center, it must be doing something right.
I got halfway through the book and thought that while the trivia in the book was interesting, the plot had just become boring and predictable. Just then, BAM! The book exploded in twists and turns and became the page turner I was hoping it would be. It takes a while to really suck you in, so am just warning you in case you start to get a little bored a little bit in. Inferno is a great summer read if you're looking for something quick that will really keep you hooked. It was my favourite novel from Dan Brown after The Da Vinci Code and I'd highly recommend it to fans of that novel, especially those who were disappointed in his other works.
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