More reading

Just finished reading two more interesting novels: Sidney Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans, and Jeffery Archer's: The Eleventh Commandment, both of them portraying women in power misuing their power and heading towards their own downfall.

The Best Laid Plans is about the world of politics and the power of the press. As in all other of Sheldon's novels, the main character is a young woman, Leslie Stewart, who gets dumped by a lawyer who later on becomes the Governer of Kentucky, and then the President of the US. She plots her revenge by marrying a rich senator and using his money to purchase many newspapers and TV stations, with the aim of slandering the President. A quite interesting story, and ends with the downfall of the woman who misuses the press.

The Eleventh Commandment is an international political thriller. Helen Dexter is the chief of CIA, and Tom Lawerence, the President, is about to successfully get the senate to pass an arms reduction bill which would mean less funding to the military and CIA. Without the consent of the President, Dexter carries out an operation in Columbia to assasinate one of the candidates in the Presidential election there, so that that other one, who's an American puppet, gets elected. The assasian is Connor Fitzgerald, who has been with the CIA for 28 years. The president suspects this and threatens Dexter that he will fire her if it came to light that the CIA carried such an operation without his consent. The only way to cover her act would be to get rid of Connor, so she sends him on another assignment to Russia, to target a Presidential candidate there. She sets him up there, and the Russian police capture him and the new President decided to execute him. The story then describes how Connor escapes from his execution and is able to prove the acts of his boss, Dexter, finally leading to her resignation.

Now reading...

Last week, I read two interesting books: John Grisham's The Runaway Jury, and Michael Crichton's Rising Sun.

The Runaway Jury is a typical John Grisham novel (in that it revolves around litigation and the world of lawyers). A group of lawyers files a lawsuit against a big cigarette company on behalf of the widow of a person who dies because of the lung cancer he develops after smoking heavily for 30 years. The tobacco company cannot afford to lose the case, because if they lose once, all hell will break loose and everyone will start filing lawsuits. That's also the reason why the group of lawyers defending the widow is putting a lot of money into the lawsuit, so that they can earn a lot from the lawsuits that will ensue once they win. The novel goes through many details like the effort each side spends on the selection of the jury and how they employ specialists to study the jurors and predict their vote. As the plot develops, both sides are contacted by a woman who can predict exactly how the jury members will behave. As more and more of her predictions come true, its apparent that she is working with someone on the jury. Stakes are very high, and she and her partner (who gets himself on the jury) can manipulate the jury as they want. I'll leave the rest of the plot for you to read. The end may be a little predictable, but overall its a decent novel.

About Rising Sun, it seems to be a departure from Crichton's technological thriller. No doubt some techie stuff is involved, but its far less from his novels like The Andromeda Strain or Prey. Its more of a political/business thriller that takes you into the Japanese business world and the US-Japan business relation. The plot as such is weak. Its an expose of the Japanese penetration into the US business and politics and its dominance. An okay read.

Still in queue are Sidney Sheldon's The Best Laid Plans, and Jeffery Archers The Eleventh Commandment.

As for listening, the latest favorite is Hotel California, by The Eagles (a 70-80 era group).

Wild world

.. by Cat Stevens

Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'
Baby, I'm grievin'
But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there

Chorus:
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
and I'll always remember you like a child, girl

You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breakin' my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you a sad, girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Chorus

Baby, I love you
But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware

Chorus

Hiking resumed

For the last 3-4 weeks, I haven't been doing any outdoor stuff, because either the weather forecast has been rainy or I didn't plan well. The summer is starting now, and its time to resume hiking. So last wednesday, I posted an email on Desi_Hikers for a hike at Purisima Creek Redwoods. I wasn't expecting any replies, but by friday, I did get one reply from Ismail. In any case, I wanted to do the hike, weather or not anyone else was coming.

On Saturday, we started at around 9:40 from Cupertino, and on our way, pulled over at the entrance of El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, and since there was no one else, we decided to hike there instead of Purisima Creek. El Corte is not popular among hikers because there are a lot of mountain bikers there. Fortunately, there weren't many bikers on Saturday, and we were able to cover a sizeable distance of around 8.7-9.0 miles. The hike covered both the "points of interest": the old growth redwood and the vista point. Both were a big disappointment. Apart from that, overall, it was a nice place, and because of the redwoods, it was comfortable even with a lot of sun.

Porbably next week I'll try the Purisima Creek hike again, or just go with some other group.

Now listening

Sheryl Crow's Soak up the Sun, and reading Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs.

Weekend reading

I didn't plan any hikes for this weekend, because I thought there were none planned. Only on Saturday, I realized that I should have checked the Stanford Outing Group: they had two nice hikes planned. I'll have to remember that. Anyway, I want to the library after a long time and finished reading two books over the weekend: George Orwell's Animal Farm, and Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain.