Just 13 days left before 2010 rolls in and I am without any new year resolution - well, except to lose weight that is :-) But I am trying my best to clear all the tasks that I had left pending this year because I don't want to carry them with me in the new one. These range from the important ones like meeting my financial advisor to take stock of the investments down to the mundane ones like setting my drawer in order.

And as I try to wrap up all projects at work, there is a growing sense of lethargy as if I don't want to push myself any longer this year. Maybe it's a good idea to take a little break in the last lap of 2009 so I can charge ahead with full steam when 2010 dawns on us :-)

I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chatted all the way
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow
And never a word said she
But, oh! The things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me.

-- Robert Browning Hamilton

Have A Little Faith – by Mitch Albom

Someone needs to recommend this book to Osama, LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and a dozen other assorted terrorist organizations that regularly feature in History Channel’s “International Terrorism since 1945” – as a compulsory bedtime reading!

It’s not a story and yet, it’s a story. It’s not a story because it doesn’t have any beginning or end like a typical story. Yet, it is a story of a Rabbi and Priest and a guy who learns that all faiths lead to the same God. I liked this part. It was a soothing balm to the soul that is jaded and worn out reading about people killing each other in the name of religion and God.

But this novel is somewhat naïve too. I wonder how a grown-up man who claims to be a Citizen of the World can think that to accept other peoples’ different faith is to betray his own. And I wonder why he needs to ask his Rabbi what reply he should give when someone says to him “God Bless You!”

If I fold my hands in front of Jesus, will He fail to understand that I am paying my respects?

If I say “Inshallah” to hope that something good will happen, does that make me less of a Hindu?

When in a few days from nowI will roam about my neighborhood looking for the nativity scenes, will I be betraying my Hindu faith?

The answer is a resounding “NO” and I don’t even claim to be a Citizen of the World. So I felt like yelling “Grow up Mitch!”

That said, I will purchase this book someday soon. Because at the rate humanity is going about killing each other, I am sure we all will need it handy – even if to give us a false hope that these people will one day see the light :-(

While My Pretty One Sleeps - by Mary Higgins Clark

I must have liked Clark’s earlier novel somewhat because when I went to return it I asked the Assistant if they had another of her novels lying about. She remembered seeing a few but it took her some time to fish one out – While My Pretty One Sleeps.

If we were given a generous dose of the shenanigans going on in the real estate business in “Before I Say Goodbye”, this time Mary Higgins Clark has chosen the rarefied world of Fashion for her plot.

So this time we have pretty Neeve Kearny with her pretty little boutique tucked away in Manhattan. It’s not any wardrobe malfunction but a prized client’s disappearance that causes wrinkles in her pretty world. Soon, Ethel Lambston’s frozen body is discovered in the state park. And then a few suspects come tumbling out of the cupboard – Lambston’s ex-hubby who can ill-afford the lifetime alimony, her good-for-nothing nephew who also happens to be her sole heir, some of the fashion world’s bigwigs who Ethel has threatened to expose in her new article.

In the midst of all this chaos there is a contract put on Neeve’s life by Nicky Sepetti – the mafia who spent a few extra years behind bars because he was suspected in the murder of Neeve’s mother Renata 17 years back. Neeve’s dad, ex-New York City Commissioner Myles Kearny and publisher Jack Campbell complete the cast.

Alas, I could figure out the murderer halfway through this one as well. To be fair, I wasn’t bright enough to guess the motive :-( But a good read if you can tolerate the constant references to the streets of Manhattan and descriptions of high-end fashion clothing.

Before I Say Goodbye - by Mary Higgins Clark

I had never read Mary Higgins Clark's before. And somehow was under the impression that she churned out Romantic novels. So when I picked up her “Before I Say Goodbye”, it was more to confirm my impression than to find out what it was all about. However, whatever I read seemed interesting enough to take the novel with me.

The story begins when a yacht blows up in waters somewhere near the Statue of Liberty. On board are 4 people - Adam Cauliff, an architect, his assistant Winifred, his business partner Sam and one of the foremen on his sites, Jimmy Ryan. Cops figure that it was no accident. But the list of suspects is rather long. Is it another associate of Adam and Sam who conveniently got into an accident and so couldn’t make it to the meeting? Was it the enraged son of the lady who sold her land to Adam? Was Adam involved in a real estate and construction scam and so was bumped off? Or was the real target Winifred – whose knowledge of the construction business was deemed too dangerous by someone?

These are the questions that Adam’s widow Nell MacDermott is left to grapple with. The dyed-in-the-wool politician grandfather of hers – Cornelius MacDermott – and his sister who believes in peoples’ psychic powers complete the cast. Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot pediatric surgeon Dan Minor who arrives on scene to save the pretty lady from coming to any harm.

And what do I think of this novel? I must begin the answer with a “Well”. :-) It was engaging at the beginning but halfway through the narrative I knew who the killer is. And so thereafter it became a matter of either proving or disproving my theory – even if that meant wading through peoples’ darkening auras. :-)

I seem to be reading books faster than I can post about them here. Here's a lowdown on my latest 3 reads - in reverse order of course!