Must Read Novels For Young Adults Who Love To Read

A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

2011-05-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

A Prisoner of Birth is a mystery novel by English author Jeffrey Archer, first published in 6 March 2008 by Macmillan. This book is a contemporary retelling of Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo.
]Plot summary

After proposing to his childhood sweetheart Beth Wilson, Danny Cartwright takes her brother Bernie and her to celebrate at a nearby pub. In the pub, they are accosted by four people. Danny, Beth and Bernie attempt to leave the pub without getting involved in a fracas, but Spencer Craig, one of the four that confronted them, follows them out of the pub along with his friends.

A fight breaks out; Bernie is stabbed and dies. Danny is blamed for his murder in a well-orchestrated plot by Spencer and his friends: a popular actor, an aristocrat, and a young estate agent. Danny is arrested and convicted. Sentenced to 22 years in Belmarsh prison, the highest security jail in South-east London, United Kingdom, he encounters two prisoners, Albert Crann, known as "Big Al," and Sir Nicholas Moncrieff. Meanwhile, outside the prison, Beth is pregnant with Danny's daughter.

Sir Nicholas slowly teaches Danny to read and to write. Their friendship grows closer, and Danny decides to dress like his friend in the hope that it will help his upcoming appeal. Danny begins to gather evidence for his appeal with the help of a young lawyer, Alex Redmayne, but unable to present the new evidence, Danny's appeal is denied, and he must serve his complete sentence in Belmarsh prison.

Nicholas is murdered by a fellow inmate and his death is made to be seen as a suicide. The timely intervention of Big Al leads to the subsequent escape of Danny. On the outside of the prison, Danny pretends to be Nicholas. He finds that he must sort out his friend's family affairs before pursuing his goals of clearing his name and taking revenge upon the four individuals who framed him for Bernie's murder.

A lengthy legal battle between himself and Nicholas' hated uncle Hugo leaves Danny Cartwright in the possession of over 50 million dollars (20 million pounds) with which he plans to expose Spencer Craig and clear his name, so that he will be able to live with Beth and his daughter.

Danny is caught out by Nick's friends and is held in custody, while his counsel begins Danny's bid for freedom the Barrister (QC), Actor and friend are all brought to justice. Alex's father (ex Barrister QC and Judge at the High Court) gains Danny's freedom and his name is cleared. Danny has another child (male) and it's called Nick in honour of his friend and Alex his Barrister is given title of Godfather for all his hard work in freeing Danny.

Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

2011-05-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quest to overcome the evil dark wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aim is to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people, and who seeks to destroy all those who stand in his way, such as Harry's parents.

Since the 30 June 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (re-titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide.[1] The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone. As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has beentranslated into 67 languages,[2][3] and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.

A series of many genres, including fantasy and coming of age (with elements of mystery, thriller, and romance), it has many cultural meanings and references.[4][5][6][7] According to Rowling, the main theme is death,[8] although it is primarily considered to be a work of children's literature. There are also many other themes in the series, such as love and prejudice.[9]

English-language versions of the books are published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic Press in the United States, Allen & Unwin in Australia, and Raincoast Books in Canada. Through 2010, the first six books have been made into films by Warner Brothers; it is the highest grossing film series of all time. The seventh book has been made into two films which are planned to be released nearly eight months apart: Part I was released 19 November 2010 and the series finale is currently scheduled for release on 15 July 2011.[10] The series also originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry Potter brand worth in excess of $15 billion.[11]

Click here to buy online

Click here to access pdf/ebook ( torrent )

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2011-05-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene. The title of the novel refers to, among other things, the fact that the murder victim is found in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed likeLeonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his chest in his own blood.

The novel is part of the exploration of alternative religious history, whose central plot point that the Merovingian kings of France were descendants from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation and books by Margaret Starbird. Chapter 60 of the book also references 'another book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail though Dan Brown has stated that this was not used as research material.

The book has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies. The novel nonetheless became a worldwide bestseller that sold 80 million copies as of 2009[1] and has been translated into 44 languages. This makes it, as of 2010, the best selling English language novel of the 21st century and the 2nd biggest selling novel of the 21st century in any language. Combining the detective, thriller, and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon, the first being his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. In November 2004, Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006, a film adaptation was released by Sony's Columbia Pictures.

The book has been translated into over 40 languages, and adapted into a 2006 film of the same name.

About the author :

Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels, including The Da Vinci Code, which has become one of the best selling novels of all time as well as the subject of heated debate among readers and scholars. Brown's novels are published in 52 languages around the world with 200 million copies in print.

Click here to buy online
Click here to access pdf/ebook ( torrent )

Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

2011-05-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

Kane and Abel is a 1979 novel by British author Jeffrey Archer. The title and story is a play on the Biblical brothers, Cain and Abel. Released in the United Kingdom in 1979 and in the United States in February 1980, the book was an international success. It reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and in 1985 was made into a CBS television miniseries titled Kane & Abel starring Peter Strauss as Rosnovski and Sam Neill as Kane.

The sequel to Kane and Abel is The Prodigal Daughter with Florentyna Kane as the protagonist.

The book tells the stories of two men born worlds apart. They have nothing in common except the same date of birth (April 18, 1906) and a zeal to succeed in life. William Lowell Kane is a wealthy and powerful Boston Brahmin while Abel Rosnovski (originally named Wladek Koskiewicz) is a Polewas born in a situation of great poverty and eventually emigrated to the United States.

William follows the steps of his father, Richard Kane, to become a successful banker. When William was still a child, Richard dies in the Titanic disaster, leaving William fatherless and heir to the Kane & Cabot bank. William displays extraordinary discipline and intelligence as a young man at St. Paul's Schooland later at Harvard. His mother marries Henry Osborne, who turns out to be interested in gambling and women. William hates Henry from the beginning and spends most of the time at Harvard and at his best friend Mathew Lester's home. William dreams of becoming the chairman of Lester's bank one day. Henry spends every last penny of Kane's mother's money on the pretext of speculation, while she dies in a miscarriage. Kane throws Henry out of home.

Wladek Koskiewicz is born in a forest and raised by a trapper family. When he grows up and is found to have exceptional intelligence, Baron Rosnovski asks him to become a companion to his son Leon so Wladek might prove to be a competition to him. Wladek agrees to go to the Baron's castle on the condition that he can bring along his elder sister Florentyna. Soon afterwards, World War I breaks out. Germans attack Poland and capture the Baron, his staff and son in his castle. Leon dies by the hand of a soldier. Before dying, the Baron hands him his silver band of authority. Wladek realises that the Baron was his father when he finds that, like him, the Baron too had a missing nipple. Florentyna is also raped and killed in front of young Wladek by Russian soldiers.

Wladek was then moved to Siberia from where he manages to escape to Turkey after facing many hardships. There, he nearly loses his hand (a common punishment in the Middle East and in the Ottoman empire, predecessor of Turkey, before 20th century) for stealing food but is rescued by two British diplomats. They transfer him to the Polish consulate from where with their help, he migrates to America and assumes the name Abel Rosnovski.

He starts his life as a waiter in the Hotel Plaza, while taking night classes in business at Columbia University. While Abel is working there, Davis Leroy, owner of the Richmond group of hotels, is impressed by his work and appoints him manager of his flagship hotel. Abel converts the ill-managed hotel to a profit-making one and buys stock in the chain. During the Great Depression, the hotel needs a backer and Davis, unable to find one, commits suicide leaving the remaining shares in the Richmond Group to Abel. Before committing suicide, Davis mentions that Kane & Cabot was the bank that didn't support him. Abel thus plans for revenge and considers Kane his arch rival. The bank gets him an anonymous backer. Abel assumes it to be David Maxton, owner of Stevens' hotel. During this time, Abel befriends George and marries Zaphia, both Polish emigres.

Abel changes the name of the hotel from Richmond to Baron and builds up a successful hotel chain. By collaborating with Henry Osborne, who had by now entered politics, Abel plans to ruin Kane and his bank. Abel begets a daughter, named Florentyna in memory of his dead sister while Kane has a son, Richard. Abel during World War II would save Kane's life in France, unaware to each other. He divorces Zaphia when he returns home from the war.

Meanwhile Kane's bank and Lester's bank merge and a provision is made that anyone who has a share of 8% can summon board meetings. Abel tries desperately to obtain 8% of the bank's stock but Kane manages to thwart his attempts. They unknowingly meet each other many times throughout the novel.

Florentyna Rosnovski and Richard Kane happen to meet and fall in love without knowing about the rivalry between their fathers. They get married amid vehement protests from their fathers and start a chain of boutique stores named Florentyna's.

Finally, Abel manages to obtain enough shares of the bank and ousts Kane from power. Kane decides to forgive his son and daughter-in-law and expresses his wish to meet them. He dies before he is able to see them and his grandson William. Abel then comes to know that his backer was not David Maxton, but William Kane. Filled with remorse, he reconciles with his daughter and son-in-law. Abel died soon after, and bequeathes everything to his daughter Florentyna, except his silver band of authority, which he leaves to his grandson. It is only in the last sentence of the book that readers learn that Florentyna and Richard gave their son the middle name 'Abel', making his full name William Abel Kane.

Click to buy online
Click here to access pdf/ebook

Artemis Fowl Series By Eoin Colfer

2011-05-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Cover of book one

Artemis Fowl is a series of novels written by Eoin Colfer, protangonizes a teenage genius who will sometimes resort to criminal behaviors, who is named Artemis Fowl II. Artemis Fowl, the main character, is a ruthless and extremely intelligent young (human) criminal whose main goal is the acquisition of money through a variety of often illegal schemes. There are many settings in the series, including Iceland, Siberia, Chicago, Germany, London France Morocco Taiwan and various places in Ireland. One main setting that has been in all the books is the Lower Elements.

The author has described the series as "Die Hard with fairies". There are seven novels in the series so far; the first was published in 2001 and the seventh on 20 July 2010. A film based on the series is also in development, although most details are unclear. The series has sold over 18 million copies as of June 2008. These books have proved to be well loved internationally. In a live webcast 'Eoin Colfer Virtually Live' to promote the release of the seventh book on 20 July 2010, Eoin Colfer stated that he currently plans for the eighth, as of yet untitled, book to be the last in the series.

The Books in the series are :-

Artemis Fowl
The Arctic Incident
The Eternity Code
The Opal Deception
The Lost Colony
The Time Paradox
The Atlantis Complex.

About the author :

Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father (an elementary school teacher, historian and artist of note) and mother (a drama teacher). He first developed an interest in writing in primary (elementary) school with gripping Viking stories inspired by history he was learning in school at the time!

After leaving school he got his degree from Dublin university and qualified as a primary school teacher, returning to work in Wexford. He married in 1991 and he and his wife spent about 4 years between 1992 and 1996 working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. His first book, Benny and Omar, was published in 1998, based on his experiences in Tunisia; it has since been translated into many languages. A sequel followed in 1999, followed by some other books (see below). Then in 2001 the first Artemis Fowl book was published and he was able to resign from teaching and concentrate fully on writing.

He says, "I will keep writing until people stop reading or I run out of ideas. Hopefully neither of these will happen anytime soon. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

Click here to buy online

Godfather by Mario Puzo ( Personal Favorite )

2011-05-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

If you want to really get involved with a book, fall in love with it, get inspired and influenced by the characters, want to keep repeating the various phrases of the book a numerous number of times then

the book you should read is Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”. I’ve read and heard so much about this book and had great expectations of it. Never did I feel that my expectations where let down when I read this book. It is till date the best novel I read. Truly magnificent and keeps the readers totally engrossed with it.

The Novel is all about Don Vito Corleone who is the head of the Corleone Family. The people who love him call him The Godfather with affection. He is a man who has his own rules, who never to go by other person’s authority or force, who gave justice to everyone around, helped the needy and expected only friendship as his fee. He is a very powerful and highly influential person. Believes in only power and force rather than just physical strength. He is a person who respects friendship and is always there for his friends. He single handedly influences the functioning of the entire city. He is married and blessed with three sons Sonny, Freddie and Michael and a daughter Connie. Sonny and Freddie follow their father and becomes part of the family business. Michael is the only one who stays aloof from his family. The novel begins with the marriage of Connie Corleone. Apart from the Corleone Family there are four more very powerful families in the New York City. The Tattagalia family in particular being the rival group to the Corleaone’s.

The Novel explores itself into the Corleone Family. It start’s of with explaining the influence of the godfather, his relationship with his children. Then we have Sonny who assists his father in his business and is full of brutal force and bad temper. The novel discusses the love life of Michael with Kay Adams an American girl. Then we see the Don aging and how Michael gets involved into the family business and slowly evolves as the next Don. In between there are so many twists and so many characters all given equal importance. The rivalry between the Corleon’s and the Tattagalian’s assisted by Solozzo the Turk drug dealer paves way for the great War of the five families in New York. It is at the end of this war in addition with a few interesting twists Michael is foreseen as the next Godfather. There are many numbers of characters worth a mention but I wish you could do it by reading the book so I keep myself away from doing it.

The plot of the novel is very intriguing. The conversation and the plots involving are all so awesome. I am very sure of the fact you would definitely remember a few phrases of the don. The best of the lot being ‘ I will make him an offer he can’t refuse’,. There are other few like ‘ The Don never asks for a second favor when the first one is denied’,’ I will reason with him’, ‘I offer you my friendship and expects only the same’, ‘ learn from your father how to say ‘no’ to others’. These are very powerful phrases you’re sure to remember.

If you haven’t read the book yet right away go ahead and read it. I am sure you will enjoy it as much I did it. Take my word reading this book ‘ is an offer you can’t refuse’.

Click here to buy online
Click here to access ebook/pdf

Only Time Will Tell By Jeffrey Archer

2011-05-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

About the Book:

The Clifton Chronicles is Jeffrey Archer’s most ambitious work in four decades as an international bestselling author. The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the chilling words, ‘I was told that my father was killed in the war’. But it will be another twenty years before Harry discovers how his father really died, which will only lead him to question: who was his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who worked in Bristol docks, or the first born son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line? Only Time will Tell covers the years from 1920 to 1940, and includes a cast of memorable characters that The Times has compared to The Forsyte Saga. Volume one takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford, or join the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany. In Jeffrey Archer’s masterful hands, the reader is taken on a journey that they won’t want to end, and when you turn the last page of this unforgettable yarn, you will be faced with a dilemma that neither you, nor Harry Clifton could have anticipated.

About the Author

Jeffrey Archer, whose novels and short stories include Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, Kane and Abel and A Twist in the Tale, has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 250 million copies. He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (fourteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries). The author is married with two sons, and lives in London and Cambridge. www.jeffreyarcher.com for more info :)

Click here to buy online

Click here to access pdf/ebook

Just Friends by debutant Sumrit Shahi

2011-05-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

About the Book :

He knows everything about her, right from her favourite books to her favourite bra.

She knows everything about him, right from his favourite soccer club to his favourite x rated websites.

He will complete her English homework, even at three in the night.

She will arrange an Armani suit for him, even if it calls for flirting with ugly guys.

He has her picture in his wallet.

She has his number on speed dial.

They talk to each other all the time.

They talk about each other when they dont talk to each other.

They discuss everything from periods to playstation.

They have tasted alcohol and then thrown up...together.

They have bunked countless tuitions... together.

They cant live without each other.

YET

They dont love each other.

They are JUST FRIENDS...

You may be intially apprehensive of buying a book written by a seventeen year old but a compelling synopsis (which talked of a friendship between a girl and guy who knew everything about each other..from books to bra’s) and an equally appealing cover will make you buy this book and then you will realize that your decision is correct. Sumrit Shahi has penned this novel at the young age of 17 with such flawless english and witty humor, many dialogues would help you flex your muscles. Most importantly, the book is a fresh break from the IIT/IIM stories that one gets to read as it is set in high school.

A must read for all teenagers battling the ever present question “Is it possible to have a best friend of the opposite sex”. Almost every teenager in the world can relate their life situations to certain instances in this book. It is a very splendid effort by such a 17 year old. Hats off to the author for attempting to create a bond with the readers and succeeding in it. Highly recommended for all those who have a friend from the opposite gender.

About the Author :

With seventeen years of wisdom gained more through accidents than conventional learning, Mother Earth supports, a five feet nine inch frame who is currently pursuing Commerce (12th grade). Credited with participation in three Model United Nations Conferences' and wins' in many debates, add to it, his appetite for reading and public speaking, sprinkle the fact that he wants to become a movie director, finally top it with his self confession of being a diehard romantic...you get Sumrit Shahi...

Click here to buy online