Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146816

Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse is the third book of the Percy Jackson series.

Percy, Grover, Thalia and Annabeth are off to a new boarding school, Westover Hall and almost get themselves killed in two hours.

Grover had caught scent of two unclaimed demigods, powerful, he called them, and the four were off to rescue them. Percy didn’t have a good history with teachers, but this teacher at Westover Hall, Dr. Thorn, turned out to be a monster, captured Annabeth and warned them about a legendary doomsday monster… and all of it is connected to his old frenemy, Luke.

The hunters come to camp with the news that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, has disappeared. A quest of five, hunters and campers set off to find the goddess, her disappearance being linked to the capture of Annabeth and the rise of the doomsday, with the prophecy….

“Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

 One shall be lost in the land without rain,

 The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

 Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

 The Titan’s curse must one withstand,

 And one shall perish by a parent’s hand.”

The problem being, Percy is not part of the five demigods of the quest.

Will Percy sneak out of camp to go look for his friends or will he leave it up to Zoe and Thalia to get Annabeth back? And what do the two new demigods have to do with this quest?

Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief by author Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books (www.DisneyBooks.com)

ISBN : 978 0786838653

Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief is the first book of the Percy Jackson Series.

It starts when ‘the problem child’ Percy gets kicked from his boarding school…again. He is sent to a summer camp, a camp for kids like him, where he finds the Greek Gods walking straight out of his textbooks .

His Latin teacher turns out to be a centaur who has trained great heroes like Achilles and his best friend turns out to be a satyr, half man half goat, his protector.

 And that’s the least of his troubles. The king of the gods, Zeus has lost the lightning bolt, the source of his power. The gods suspect Percy and he has to bring it back to prove himself innocent.

 He is warned of a friend who will betray him, and to solve that riddle Percy must first find the lightning bolt. He suspects this quest has something to do with his father who abandoned him, and his mother who died saving him.

     “You shall go west, and face the god who has turned

       You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned

       You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend

       And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.”

This is the prophecy he gets from the Oracle, and if he doesn’t catch the culprit, Mount Olympus, the center of the power of the gods will be destroyed.

To solve this quest, he must unravel mysteries more ancient than the gods themselves.

This post today on account of Aug 18 being Percy Jackson's birthday.

Happy Birthday in advance Percy. Fans, you have to wear blue and eat blue food.

Time Flies by author Bill Cosby

Book : Time Flies

Author : Bill Cosby

Publisher : Bantam Books

ISBN : 0 553 27724 3

Bill Cosby is one of America’s leading humorist and stand up comics. His TV Shows “The Cosby Show” and “Kids say the darndest things” are super hits. In the opinion of thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in Bill Cosby is an ace humorist and each of his books are a worth buy.

Bill Cosby brings his unique style of warmth and humour to this book and addresses head on the issue of growing old. He explores this subject with a lot of wisdom and wit. This subject is common to all of us and requires quite contemplation. Cosby takes a hilarious romp through the trials and tribulations and the fact of just being older.

You grow old. You have the luxury of acting senile. Your bones creak . But no one calls you lazy. When the doctor tells you , you have the body of a 49 year old man, you are atleast glad that he didn’t say a 49 year old woman. From time to time Cosby talks to the suits in his closet.

He humorously is happy about loss of memory, as its brings him closer to his mother as both of them forget things at the same time. Or as he comments : You can teach an old dog new tricks, you just don’t want to see the dog doing them. Immortality is a long shot, he admits, but someone has to be the first.

I was at the store buying alfalfa, bean sprouts and carrots and saw a pretty old guy pick up a pack of cigarettes. I went up to him and said- You smoke that? Youre gonna die soon……. He took a look at my sprouts and carrots and said- youre dead already .

As I have always said, every Bill Cosby book is a must buy and a must read.

Dont stand too close to a naked man by author Tim Allen

Book : Don’t stand too close to a naked Man.

Author : Tim Allen

Publisher : Hyperion, New York.

ISBN : 0 7868 8902 0

Tim Allen is a leading humorist and stand up comic from America. His show “Home Improvement” is a super hit. His movies series “Santa Clause” were a super hit.

This Book: Don’t stand too close to a naked Man is a humour book, an autobiography, a book that  explains why men are different from women ….. and guys, its worth the cover price just for the helpful hints on how to deal with the opposite sex…… for example is she asks how she looks in an outfit, never mention her backside, no matter what.

Tim Allen explores the mysteries of the sexes, while giving us real insight into his own life and the twists and turns of fate that landed him both a prison and the successful comedy career, that culminated in the triple crown of show business, a #1 TV show, a film and a bestselling book.

True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole by author Sue Townsend

Book True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole

Author: Sue Townsend

Publisher : Penguin

ISBN: 9 780141 0 10854

True confessions of Adrian Mole is a brilliant humour by author Sue Townsend. These are diary pages of a boy of 16, living in gloomy Great Britain, a less than middle class existence. And all his conversations, aspirations, fantasies, fears and retorts are poured out from his heart onto the pages of his diary.

The diary opens up to a pre christmas scenario. Adrian is waking up to the dreary possibility that Santa and Christmas is losing all its charm and he is not going to get any gifts.  He was made to sit through 2 hours of dreary carols and a nativity play. He has to spend Christmas with his “lousy inbred relatives from Norfolk” and he wonders is it because he is “too worldy, mature and literate” that Beaonos Annuals humour doesn’t appeal to him anymore?

Adrians diary also mentions very heavily his love, his princess Pandora. Some of Adrians friends didn’t celebrate Christmas “as Mrs Thatcher took their jobs”. Adrian also   puts down in his diary the letters to his penpal Hamish and the peoms, in praise of Pandora, he sends to BBC “if the would like to air them”

This and the other books of Adrian Mole series are a laughter riot and a very understated gloomy humour. I am a fan of author Sue Townsend.

Fatherhood by author Bill Cosby

Book : Fatherhood

Author: Bill Cosby

Publisher : Dolphin Doubleday, New York.

ISBN: 0 385 23410 4

Bill Cosby is one of the most famous stand up comics of America. His show ”The Cosby Show “ and “Kids say the darndest things” is one of my personal favorites. My thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in always appreciates humour in any form. I think I own all of Bill Cosby’s books and they are the pride of my library.

Fatherhood is pretending that the gift you love most is a soap on a rope. Fatherhood is knowing that you’re in trouble when the child says “No problem”.

Fatherhood is thinking that the height of fashion is matching socks.

Fatherhood is helping your children learn English as a foreign language.

Fatherhood is not being the boss of the house, bcos you’ve seen the boss’s job and you don’t want it.

In Fatherhood Bill Cosbys special brand of humour, wisdom and plain wonderful humanity come together to create the joyous celebration of being a father. In a marvelous collection of ruminations , anecdotes and vignettes based on his own experience as a son and father, Bill Cosby covers the entire paternal gamut from the happy announcement “it’s a girl” to the challenges of raising a teenager and the perplexing ambivalence of watching kids leave the nest. For men Fatherhood is a must read for everyone who is a father, wants to become a father or who wants to learn more about his own father. And for women it is guide to better understanding the men in their lives, their husbands and fathers.

Fatherhood is another must buy and must read from Bill Cosby.

I'm not really here by author Tim Allen

Book : I’m not really here

Author: Tim Allen

Publisher : Hyperion.

ISBN: 0 7868 6257 2

 

Tim Allen is a leading humorist and stand up comic from America. His show “Home Improvement” is a super hit. His movies series “Santa Clause” were a super hit.

 

In the book : I’m not really here, Tim takes a look at men in their midlife, the crisis, their relationship with their wives, children, friends, universe, God and why its so tough to get a good nights sleep.

 

The book opens with Tim waking from a strange dream. He has been reading late into the night about quantum physics and what he has learnt about the nature of reality really disturbs him. Fortunately he’s got plenty of time to mull it over. Tim is home alone with his dog Spot, and initially he is excited about eating what he wants, watch sci fi videos and complete restoration work on the 1946 Ford. Unfortunately he cant find the one of a kind hood ornament.

 

He encounters very strange coincidences, meets people who seem to know too much about him and wonders if his life is half full or half empty. As he roams from room to room, he ponders how we end up sounding like our parents while raising our kids, men’s fascination with pricey gadgets and how romantic chemistry really works. He describes his own rise to celebrity , the allure of hot cars, and his obsession with his place in the cosmos.

Chilhood by author Bill Cosby

Book : Childhood

Author: Bill Cosby

Publisher : G P Putnam Publishers, New York.

ISBN: 0 339 13647 9

 

Bill Cosby is one of the most famous stand up comics of America. His show ”The Cosby Show “ and “Kids say the darndest things” is one of my personal favorites. My thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in always appreciates humour in any form. I think I own all of Bill Cosby’s books and they are the pride of my library.

 

The book  Childhood is absolutely Bill Cosby country. In this ntertaining and endearing book , which ranges from the warmly to the wildly funny, Cosby hold forth with the most marvelous stories he has ever told about his childhood.

 

There are tales that you will never forget, including his heroic quest for Spanish Fly or the one about when he was the school crossing guard for a day and he was so smitten by his crush that he almost waved his heart throb under a bus. And in a delightful counterpoint to his own legendary childhood, Cosby seasons the general hilarity with comic insights about kids today.

 

Childhood finds Cosby in the territiory he knows best, amid the trials of bed wetting , fears of the Loch Ness monster, tribulations of bad table manners. He holds forth on coping with the early demise of his children’s pets, his own days spent smoking in the boys room, out on the street playing stick ball, and back home lusting after Wonder Woman.

 

Please buy and read every Bill Cosby book.

 

Mother Pious Lady by author Santosh Desai

Book :  Mother Pious Lady
Author: Santosh Desai
Publisher: Harper Collins (www.harpercollins.co.in )
ISBN:  978-81-7223-864-3

The author Santosh Desai is also a columnist for Times of India. The author poignantly touches upon middle class India, poised between its dreams of an upper class lifestyle and yet it lower class earnings and yearnings.He elucidates upon the India emerging from amongst its folds of customs and traditions and yet having the biggest mobile internet users in the world.

Desai writes from personal experience. The name of the Book :Mother Pious Lady is a spoof upon the Matrimonial columns seen in all the newspapers of India. The advertisements usually mention the characteristics of the person in short "Tall, fair, IIM, Engineer, joint fly (family)" and also looking for characteristics in prospective partner " Fair, slim, very beautiful, convent ed" and to add the "Indian touch of respectability"- Mother Pious Lady -Mother is a devout, god loving, pious lady.

He talks about the old and yet new Indian tradition of exchanging old clothes for steel utensils, from vendors who strut their wares from door to door. Desai talks about the handing down of old clothes, books and games from cousin to cousin, sibling to sibling. He remembers the summers holidays of joint families. The gathering of 40 people under one roof, the sharing of all possessions.

Desai also writes an ode to the old Vespa scooter, the dying world of chawls and neighbors   Desai talks about the unique Indian creations pithoo, antakshari. The joy of that late night Vividh Bharati, the Indian males predeliction for scratching in public.  

In fact why am I spoiling your fun by trying to name the small idiosyncrasies of middle class Indian life?   Go.... Buy the book.... Read it and chuckle nostalgically at every chapter. Afterall thats the biggest tension vent that we middle class Indians have.

Carry on Jeeves by author P G Wodehouse

Book: Carry on Jeeves
Author:P G Wodehouse
Publisher:Penguin Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-140-28408-9
ISBN-10: 0-140-28408-7  

For the thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in P G Wodehouse is the God of humor. There never has been been a subtle humorist and wizard of words and comedy and never will be . Me reviewing a P G Wodehouse book would be only to share with you some of the ROFLMAO moments from the book. If you are looking for lierary criticism of any of his books, silently move away from my blog just now. Of all the books of Wodehouse, my favorite books are based on the characters of Bertie Wooster, Jeeves and the Blandings castle. I shall say this at the end of this review again, buy anyP G Wodehouse book that you can and get home a lifetime of reread of laughter.  

The book Carry on Jeeves is a compilation of events that take place in the lives of feather brained Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, his butler.   Book starts with the entry of Jeeves into Bertie' s life. The stage is set for utter dependence of each aspect of Berties life on Jeeves. Jeeves manages to break the engagement of the eternal bachelor Bertie to Florence. Florence was given to reading books, on these lines "of the two antithetic terms in the Greek philosophy one only was real and self -subsisting, and that one was Ideal Thought as opposed to that which it has to penetrate and mould"..... Or in the words of Bertie "utter tosh".  

By and by Jeeves takes charge of Berties life and his friends thrown in. He also saves Bertie during the invasion of an unbidden guest, Lady Malverns son Motty.   Jeeves also has to use his considerable brain to extricate from the soup, Bicky whose uncle the Duke of Chaswick is analysing minutely to decide whether he needs a stipend or not. And in "the aunt and the sluggard"

Jeeves saves Rocky from an entirely opposite situation.   And so on and so forth inthe rummy affair of old Biffy,without the option, fixing it for creddie, clustering around young bingo, berties changes his mind.  

A brilliant humour from PG Wodehouse.  The books of Wodehouse are the prized possession of my library and I guard them with my life from borrowers. A lifetime of ROFLMAOb