The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

PAULO COELHO'S enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts. 

Inferno - Dan Brown

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

Next - Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton needs no introduction in the genre of science fiction thrillers. Jurassic Park took the world by storm in the 90s and Crichton became the master of mixing the possibilities of modern research with page-turning suspense. Next deals with genetic engineering on a more human level. In Next, Crichton brings up some provocative dilemmas dealing with the subversive topic of genetic testing and ownership. But when numerous sadly sketched characters and tangential storylines don’t resonate or connect, examining those dilemmas falls flat and Next leaves readers wanting.

Pros

• Crichton still knows how to write a page-turner, no matter how vapid the characters and sloppy the plot(s)
• Next’s critique that scientific research is becoming increasingly like a corrupt business is intriguing
• The faux science journal articles mixed throughout the novel are biting and fun

Cons

• The most memorable characters are a talking parrot and a chimpanzee mixed with a human
• The plot development is practically non-existent and the people or animals involved merely "exist" to serve a topic
• Crichton would have been better off forming a journal of his findings or writing a novella that dealt solely with Alex and her son being pursued cross-country because of their valuable genes

You Can Sell - Shiv Khera

From the author of the bestselling You Can Win, comes another fantastic book that is just what YOU were looking for. It's like the Bible for a sales professional and is sure to be one of your most treasured books.

Who is not selling? A candidate at a job interview, apolitician making speeches to get votes, a boy and girl dating with the intention of getting married . . . all are selling themselves in some or the other way. You Can Sell challenges the age old cliché which delineates sales to be the sole domain of a sales man.

You Can Sell addresses time-tested principles which make a successful sales professional. The word used is 'principles' and not 'tactics'. Tactics are manipulative whereas principles are based on the foundation of values. Many times you hear people saying that to succeed you need to learn the 'tricks of the trade'. Well, this book is different! Good professionals learn the trade, and that's exactly what You Can Sell teaches.

BECOME UNSTOPPABLE AND SELL YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS!

Shiv Khera is an Indian motivational speaker, author of self-help books, business consultant, and activist. He conducts motivational workshops such as Blueprint for Success, and has written several books.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor--and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life--from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy--to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction--to the philosopher who becomes a pirate--to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph--to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad--to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions. This is a mystery story, not about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, "that" is the first of your premises to check

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.

Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

Micro - Michael Crichton

Three men are found dead in the locked second floor office of a Honolulu building, with no sign of struggle except ultra-fine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly unrecognizable to the human eye

In the lush forests of Oahu, an advance in micro-robotics has put unheard-of resources at the fingertips of science; trillions of previously unknown micro-organisms, tens of thousands of species of bacteria, are being discovered, feeding a search for new life-saving drugs and profitable applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a group of graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited to work at a cutting-edge microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies’ exploratory work is conducted under a veil of secrecy and promises the young researchers the chance to wield unprecedented new tools at the limits of scientific discovery. To participate they must commit now and come to Hawaii— or be left behind and watch their peers reap the rewards.

But when the true costs of Nanigen’ s innovations are revealed in Oahu, the graduate students find themselves cast out of the stable certainties of the lab, thrust into a hostile wilderness, prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power.