Books Books and Books all the way

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This is probably one of the most popular all times children book all over the world. The book is a fantastical story of the adventures of a boy in a Chocolate factory, owned by the eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka.

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. This is the first book of the author’s series of the kid detectives “The Famous Five”. A delightful read of four children and their dog, in their pursuit to solve mysteries.

Noddy goes to Toyland by Enid Blyton. One of the most lovable characters of all times is the little wooden man who lives in toy town, Noddy. It all started with this book and will remain one of the most read of books among all children.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri. This novel is one of the most touching of all children’s stories. It is about a little girl in the care of her grumpy grandfather, living in the Alps of Switzerland.

The Wizard of Oz by L Baum. The story is a fantastical tale of a young girl named Dorothy in the world of Oz and her adventures there.

Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne. The story popularized the adorable honey loving bear with his group of friends.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K.Rowling. This book is what started the whole rage off. The story narrates how a boy wizard discovers his true identity and begins his lessons in wizardry.

Matilda by Roald Dahl. The book is a moral tale of a rich girl who is spoilt by her parents, but just refuses to be so. Her greatest love is to read.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The book consists of a collection of short stories, where the author uses animals to teach true morals.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The novel along with being a delightful children’s book is also considered to be one of the greatest American novels, about the boy’s adventures along the Mississippi River.

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Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Clearly the best detective novel ever written, the plot revolves in Egypt and mainly on the Nile River and a torrid love triangle of two women in love with the same man.

And Then There was none by Agatha Christie. This is one of her best works. A chilling tale about how a group of people who had committed murder previously are tricked into coming to an island, where they are all murdered one by one, in accordance with a nursery rhyme.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. The novel is a brilliant detective fiction which uses this genre to advocate the author’s socialistic criticism. It is also hinted to be autobiographical in nature.

Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is one of the best in the author’s series of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Here Holmes is called for to look into the mysterious suicide of Mr. Baskerville.

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. The story features an African American detective in Southern California, in the post World War II period. The novel addresses complications of race and gender as well.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. The novel is a chilling psychological and detective chase about an unemployed Mr. Ripley who goes on a murdering spree to assume identities and lead a lavish lifestyle.

The Day of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. The tale chases a professional Hit-Man who is appointed by a French Terrorist group to assassinate the French President.

The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout. The novel is based on a profound psychological idea and works with the concept of a popular novel within a novel.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. The novel follows the pursuit of an injured detective to prove the King Richard III innocent of all the crimes he is associated with.

The Black Echo by Michael Connelly. The novel is a first rate detective novel with spectacular bank robberies and mysterious tunnels and FBI attacks and foils. The central character is the Los Angeles detective Bosch.

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The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga. The novel is the winner of the Man Booker Prize of 2008. The work is a brilliant satire on the inequality in India at the face of its growing economy. Instability in the country is brought out through the eyes of a Rickshaw puller’s son’s letters to the Chinese Premier.

The China Lover by Ian Buruma. The work speaks through the voice of three different narrators, telling the life story of the Chinese singer and actress Ri Koran. Each narration is contradictory to each other and is partly a historical novel.

The End of the World Book by Alistair McCartney. The book is an autobiographical novel by this Australian Gay author. Each of the twenty six chapters represents each alphabet and is a delightful effect of controversial topics.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. The work is a deeply observed study of Bengali Americans striving for a better life. These characters living in posh suburbs can somehow not let go of their traditions.

2666 by Robert Bolano. The Chilean author who died in 2003 has risen posthumously. The book is a detective novel with a twist of the surreal.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison. The tale is of a slave child who had been abandoned by her mother. It is part in puzzle and partly in a dream. The novel has strong Seventeenth century American characters.

Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser. The work is a collection of thirteen short stories, which use the normal American families to spin surreal tales out of them.

The Size of the World by Joan Silber. This is also a collection of tales, in this case six, each in a different setting in the world to deal with agility and happiness in people’s lives.

Lucky Billy by John Vernon. As is the case with most of his novels, this too is a remarkable historical work about the story of the Lincoln Country War of 1878 and the lost legend of Billy the Kid.

The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma. The story follows the two narratives of a teenage runaway and the other of his ill widower father. Set in 1844 Detroit and Michigan, it is a novel of comedy and errors.

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“The Arabian Nights”. It is a collection of folk tales from Arabia and Persia. The initial frame of the stories consists of Scheherazade telling the tales to her murderous husband in order to stay alive. Most editions contain at least a thousand of these tales.

“Very Good Jeeves”(1930)P.G.Wodehouse. The book is a collection of short stories relating the comic antics of the rich yet foolish master Bertie Wooster and his “gentleman’s gentleman” Jeeves. Their hilarious escapades make this book one of the most memorable of all times.

“Grimm’s’ Fairy Tales”(1825)Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The two brothers in this collection present a series of German folklore and folk tales. These stories were told to them by peasants, aristocrats and the people from the middle-class, recounting old stories they remembered.

“Twice told tales”(1873)Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tone of the author throughout all the stories in this collection is singular and plaintive yet in accordance to the themes. It includes such stories as “The Wedding Knell” and “The Vision of the Fountain”.

“Dubliners”(1914)James Joyce. This collection of fifteen stories is a realistic depiction of the Irish middle-class in the twentieth century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism had reached new heights.

“Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”(1840)Edgar Allen Poe. This is a collection of the author’s previously published short stories, dealing with satires and psychological tales. These include “Morella” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”

“The Prussian Officer and other Short Stories”(1914)D.H.Lawrence. This is one of the best collections of the writer’s short stories which include such celebrated works like “The Odor of Chrysanthemums”, “The White Stocking” and “The Shades of Spring”.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul”(1993)compiled by Jack Canfield and Mark V Hansen. The collection contains a hundred and one of the most inspirational stories and essays that you may come across. Most relate real life stories and motivations for hope  that touch every reader’s heart.

“To Cut a Long Story Short”(2000)Jeffery Archer. The master of story telling here offers a series of short stories which have the reader guessing till the end. It includes stories of all kinds, legal thrillers to intellectual thinking stories, but with the trademark twist in the tale.

“The Veteran”(2001)Frederick Forsyth. The book includes only five short stories, which are all different from each other. Like his other tales, they will have the reader gasping even after the stories end.

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These books cover all spheres of self development, from peer pressure, to career and relationships. There are at least 2000 self help books published all over the world every year.

“The little Book of Calm” by Paul Wilson. The book is rich in wisdom of all kinds, from emotional wisdom to the practicalities of life. This was one of the first and still remains one of the best books that deal with how to counter stress in life.

“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. This is a great book for youngsters who dream of making it big in the financial and corporate world. It is a compilation of lessons learnt by the author himself from biggies in the business.

“The Real Rules” by Barbara de Angelis. This book is on relationships and talks about when the time is right to be honest with one and end a potentially doomed relationship. The book talks about common sense.

“The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. The book is a blend of Christian themes and lessons on self help. It is full of heady advices on how to lead your life better.

“Networking-The art of making Friends” by Carole Stone. This book helps those who are too shy to network with people around them, not only for business purposes but also for striking true friendships.

“How to Talk so Kids will listen and Listen so Kids will Talk” by Elaine Mazlish and Adele Faber. It is perhaps the best self help book written for parents. It helps grown ups to understand what it is like to be a child and why they never seem to listen to adults. It helps one communicate with children.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor E Frankl. It is an inspirational book with an autobiographical section dealing with the holocaust, thus being able to analyze and conclude from his own experiences.

“Winning through Intimidation” by Robert Ringer. This book is not actually about learning how to intimidate people but how intimidation can coerce you into doing things that you do not like, and how to avoid this.

“Food and Mood” by Elizabeth Somer. The book is a guide to how to eat well and feel good in the same time. It talks about how a diet can affect emotions.

“Don’t sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. The principles of the book originate from cognitive therapy and meditation and help one to deal with pressures in life.

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