Doctors - by Erich Sehgal

Doctors was published by Erich Segal in 1988, and soon jumped onto the # 1 bestseller on the New York Times list. Erich Segal has been known for extensive research for his novels, and the same was true for this one. There was a lot of research done into the life of doctors, starting from the time that they enter medical school and covering their experiences, the type of training they go through, as well as the problems and challenges they face. Somebody reading this novel would get a good idea of what the life of medical students is like, and carry onto the emotions of adult doctors.
The book covers the life of some of the characters who are part of the 1962 Harvard Medical School batch, with a special emphasis on 2 of these.



The 2 main characters who are the focus of this book, include Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano. These are characters who have grown up as neighbors since they were children, have been very close, very good friends, attended medical school together, and start seeing the harsh elements of life. As medical students and doctors, they come to face an extremely tough education demanding huge amounts of study, face patients who have all kinds of illnesses, many of them tragic. They learn that apparently the medical profession demands that its practitioners should not get personally involved with the problems of their patients, because otherwise they will themselves start to get weak and affected.
The book also takes the lives of other students along with them, such as their brilliant but black colleague Bennett Landsmann, who faces the then huge issue of racism, and ultimately almost falls victim to it. They come face to face shocking problems in the medical fraternity such as misdiagnosis, colleagues who are not competent or indulge in conduct that offends them. The book traces their lives to the point where they have each had their relationships, but ultimately realize that eventually they are made for each other. The book is gripping, and is certainly worth reading.

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (1988)

This is a brilliant book, once you understand it. I must confess, I found it heavy reading, but then I read it again, and then again, and slowly realized what a brilliant book it is. Foucault's Pendulum is a book that delves into conspiracy theories, but the concept in the book is more about detailing how weird conspiracy theories can be, how they can drive people totally delusional, and so on. As a side note, the book is nothing like the much more popular 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown (that dealt with real life conspiracy theories while "Foucault' Pendulum" is more about how conspiracy theories are bunkum, but have enough adherents to provoke strange reactions in people, especially in people who have bought into such theories. Foucault's Pendulum by itself does not promote a conspiracy theory, but integrates many prevalent theories related to the Knight Templars, Freemasons, The Elders of Zion, The Cabalists, The Jesuits, The Bavarian Illuminati, and many others, and adds one more fictional cult of its own - a fictional secret society called the Tres (Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici, Latin for the nonsensical "Synarchic Knights of Templar Rebirth").



The name of the book is fascinating in itself, talking about the famous experiment by the French physicist Léon Foucault, in the year 1851, in the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory. This experiment involved hanging a tall pendulum free to oscillate in any vertical plane; over a period of time, the paths taken by the pendulum will demonstrate the rotation of the earth (Wikipedia); this device forms an integral part of 'The Plan' described in the book.
The book is itself about these 3 characters, Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon (the narrator, describing the events in flashback), who get interested in conspiracy theories, the occult and decide to prepare their own theory called 'The Plan'. Their personal histories are described in detail, including their earlier review of a book on the 'Knights Templar' which describes how the holy warriors did not totally die out when they were suppressed by the French Emperor and the Pope, but instead the remnants of the order went underground, established cells throughout the world in order to eventually take over the world and avenge their destruction. Their are other experiences of interaction with occult ideas and other conspiracy theories.
Eventually, the 3 develop their own conspiracy theory that includes many elements, and weaves together an intricate web, taking the help of the personal computer of Belbo (called 'Abulafia'). Eventually, they start attracting the attention of a secret brotherhood that imagines itself to be secret society described in this plan, and which wants to capture these 3 authors for learning more about what they know, and capture Belbo in order to force him to reveal more. This eventually leads to his death at the hands of the gang when he is unable to provide them more information.
Casaubon escapes, and is left thinking about what they have created, and when he will be eventually captured by this society. He is clear that he will not let them believe that 'The Plan' is real.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)

The concept of a narrator of a detective story has been prevalent for a long time. The most famous probably being the character of Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes who was the perfect foil to Sherlock Holmes. There are some expectations from the narrator of a good detective novel - the narrator can bring their own quirks to the story, but they are expected to layout the story in the way that it actually happened. You don't really expect the narrator to have a significant presence in the story; this was the concept that was used before the advent of this novel.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd turned this whole concept upside down. Here was a narrator who was going along normally like most narrators, and then at the end, there is a huge element of surprise. Hercule Poirot points out that the murder was committed by the character of the narrator, and the narrator admits this as the last element of the story before committing surprise.



This twist in the novel was very controversial. After all, the concept of a good detective novel was that you provide the same clues to your reader as available to the detective, and if you hide a major element in the story (such as the narrator having done the killing), then it would almost seem like a break to that concept. Fortunately for this novel and Agatha Christie, except for some critics and reviewers, everybody else accepted this twist easily enough. In fact, many consider this to be among her best works.
The story is about the double murder in the small town of King's Abbott in England. The murder of Mrs. Ferrars happens first, and then the murder of Roger Ackroyd clears the lingering doubt about Mrs. Ferrars death was a murder. There are a variety of suspects with their different motives, with suspicion falling strongly on Ralph, the stepson of Roger Ackroyd backed by many pieces of evidence. And then Poirot steps in, having newly arrived there. What does Poirot do to absolve Ralph of the crime ? As usual, Agatha Christie has spun a great tale.

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie (1938)

Agatha Christie created 2 fabulous characters - Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple; each of them were brilliant at connecting clues, tying them in with human emotions and solving crimes that would baffle other people; in that respect, they were similar to Sherlock Holmes (created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Hercule Poirot was made as a lovable, and yet highly vain character. He knows that he is smart, he can solve cases that no one else can, and he is very vain about his moustache. He is also a perfect gentleman in terms of manners, although with a high ego, he can get easily offended. All these characteristics pale in front of the indisputable fact that he can use clues to evolve a story, change his thinking if the clues don't match, and explore all possible alternatives even if they seem extremely unlikely.



This particular novel, 'An Appointment with death' was released after many other Hercule Poirot stories had been published, so the standard for Hercule Poirot in terms of character and success was already set. Here was a guy who read the same clues as the reader, and others in the story, and yet was able to solve the crime (in many cases, the actual murdered was a surprise to most people - read 'Murder on the Orient Express' as another great book with the same subject).
The novel deals with a family under great stress, the matriarch of the family is a tyrant of the highest degree, controlling the family (interactions, emotions, experiences, she controlled everything). This stifling was causing immense harm to the family members (including possibly breaking up the marriage of her son), and then, while on a trip to the Middle East, she is murdered. There is not much time to solve the crime, and since Hercule Poirot was at the same location, his services were requested. He needs to figure out the various movements, marshal the clues, and see which of the oppressed family members committed the crime.
The initial part of the story where the family is getting discussed between 2 outsiders, Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, is fascinating as you get to understand the family dynamics in fair detail. This is setting the ground to claim that most people in the family also had a reason to kill her, and then Poirot had heard something earlier that seemed like her children were plotting to kill her. In the 24 hours in which he was involved in the case, he works out that the family members had indeed found her dead, but suspected the other and hence tried to save them.
The name of the murderer, when finally revealed, is a major surprise, one which most readers would not have predicted.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (1992)

This was a classic book, published in 1992. The book is supposed to cover the relationship between men and women, and it does do that to a large extent. However, as the book grew more successful, the criticism also grew. There was a lot of analysis of the antecedents of the author, John Gray, trying to prove that his credentials were incorrect (that his degree was false, that he was an associate of the cult leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and that association was his background). The book was also criticized for presenting generalities, for not having enough depth, that the book was sexist, that the book did not reference too many details and research.



The book title says it all - the book says that men and women are wired differently, so different in fact that it would seem that both of them are from separate planets and are on Earth together. The way they think, the way they deal with tension and stress situations, and the way that they communicate with each other, a lot of that is described in generic terms. Does this describe all males and females, does this have the required depth ? No. However, you could describe this book as the Idiot's Guide to the man - woman relationship, and it is a good starting point that will help in the understanding.
If you take 1 situation and how it is explained in the book, it illuminates the techniques used in the book. Suppose the man is worried over something, he expects that he will be left alone (sort of retreating into his cave) while he thinks it over, and maybe doing something else so that he can then approach the problem with a fresh mind. He is not looking for help to solve the issue, and expects that this will be understood by the woman. However, since they are wired up differently, she is unable to understand this entire thinking, and thinks that he is withdrawing from her. A similar situation would happen where a woman is not feeling good, and he will give her space so that she can work things out, while she expects that he will comfort her, and show that he is involved.

Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (Published in 1986)

Foundation and Earth did not satisfy avid readers of Asimov (and fans of the Foundation series). After all, it was still only covering a period midway during the 1000 year period that was required to establish the second Galactic Empire, and neither covered the period after that, nor did it cover the period required for the establishment of Galaxia. Asimov's widow Janet revealed after his death that Asimov was unexpectedly somewhat of a loss after Foundation and Earth to write about what happened post that period. He ran out of ideas, and hence went back to detail the Foundation periods in more detail, with Prelude to Foundation, and Forward the Foundation. Further, Foundation and Earth did not have a very gripping continuous story line, almost with individual stories tending to a final end (that was supposed to establish the robotic theme that combined the Robot Series, the Foundation Series, and the Empire Series).



Foundation and Earth covers the time period immediately after the decision by Trevize in Foundation's Edge to use the basis of Gaia for building up a true Galaxia. However, he continues to have doubts, and is not sure whether he has made the right decision. He decides to continue searching for Earth, sure that the fact that Earth has tried to remove all traces of itself means that once he found Earth, there must be something there that would help him confirm his decision. So he sets out on an expedition along with Golan Trevize and and Bliss (a representative of Gaia) and travel to a number of planets, trying to get traces of the location of Earth.
They reach Comporellon, where they are imprisoned since the local inhabitants want to get control of the advanced gravity ship. In this case, Trevize literally manages to sleep his way out of this problem, and manage to get out of the planet. From Comporellon, they get the location of Spacer worlds (the first time Spacer worlds are mentioned in the Foundation series).
Next they reach Aurora, the most powerful Spacer world in its time, now a planet without humans and Spacers. They have an adventure here when wild dogs almost manage to pin Trevize down and only Bliss manages to save Trevize by using the power of Gaia.
They next land in Solaria, a world which was the most isolated of the Spacer worlds; with the inhabitants of that time even then refusing to meet each in person, instead meeting only through videographic depiction. The inhabitants have developed a great power called transducer lobes which allows them to channelize natural energy into great use, and live in big estates alone (and are now hermaphrodites, capable of handling reproduction alone). The 3 travelers land in the estate of one of them called Bander, who explains their history and eventually wants to kill them. They only manage to escape when Bliss reluctantly kills Bander (she blocks his energy use and that fries his brain since energy is still coming in but is blocked from going out). They also encounter the young child of Bander, Fallom, who will be killed since she is immature and cannot handle the estate. They manage to escape the robots sent to investigate the death of Bander and take Fallom with them.
They still have a Spacer world to go to, and reach Melpomenia, where they need to wear suits since the atmosphere has long vanished. They find a building with the coordinates of all the spacer world, and also encounter a moss that seems to grow on their suits and manage to kill it by using their blasters and then escape the planet without carrying the moss with them. These coordinates give them a way to find the likely location of Earth since they are able to possibly find the position of Earth at the center of these coordinates.
They next go to a Binary sun system from the above process, and reach a watery planet revolving around a star called Alpha Centauri. The inhabitants are friendly, but they soon discover (through a lady who has had sex with Trevize) that they are being poisoned. They also learn that there was an attempt to restore Earth's soil (as mentioned in Pebble in the Sky), but it was abandoned. There was also an attempt to terraform the planet of Alpha, but that was also left half way. They also escape from Alpha, but are pretty sure that they are close to Earth now.
And finally they reach the Solar System of Earth, first seeing huge gas giants including one that has large rings around it (just like the legend), and the third planet has a very large satellite. They have found Earth, but Earth is radioactive and does not support any life. They find themselves getting pulled to the Moon, where they eventually find R Daneel Olivaw, who explains that he called them here. He explains the whole history of how he has been guiding the human race for 20,000 years now, including the settling of Alpha Centauri, the creation of psychohistory, the setting up of Gaia. But he is out of time, his brain does not last long and creating a new one does not help. He wants to combine with Fallom, with her long life as a Spacer, it is enough to ensure that Galaxia is setup; Galaxia is the only way to safeguard the Galaxy against aliens from other Galaxies.

Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (1982)

Imagine being in a position where you are begged by fans and forced by your publisher to write another book. This book is the sequel to a series that was voted as the Best All-Time Series (a one time award that was never repeated). And the book that you write becomes a bestseller for the first time in your career and wins awards from the industry. This is what happened to Isaac Asimov and the book - Foundation's Edge. The book was published in 1982 (and since the Second Foundation was published in 1953, this one was a long time in coming). It was much thicker than the first 3 books of the Foundation series and was also a bestseller on the New York times best-seller list (and given that Asimov was a prolific writer, it took a long time for him to reach the best-seller list).



Foundation's Edge takes the timeline of 500 years after the birth of the Foundation, half-way into the 1000 year period predicted by Hari Seldon for the formation of the next Galactic Empire. The Mule has long been gone, and the distortion introduced in the Seldon Plan by the emergence of the Mule has gone away (due to the careful attention of the Second Foundation). So too has the thought of the Second Foundation, ever since the First Foundation believed it destroyed the agents of the Second Foundation on Terminus.
However, not everyone believes this. The all powerful Mayor of Terminus (and consequently the ruler of the Foundation), Harla Branno, is not sure whether the Second Foundation is truly gone. Similarly, there is a young and impetuous Councilman, Golan Trevize also believes that the Second Foundation exists and is willing to ask this in open Council even though the Mayor is not willing. He has already confided his feelings to another young Councilman Munn Li Compor, who has however disclosed all this to the Mayor. The Mayor is all powerful right now, since there was a opening of the vault and an appearance by Hari Seldon that strengthened her position immensely; she is able to arrest Trevize and send him to exile. She wants him to search for the Second Foundation, while apparently searching for the obscure hidden planet Earth with a older researcher Janov Pelorat. He is given the most advanced ship that the Foundation has, a gravity ship that takes its energy from the gravity forces in space.
Simultaneously, there are more political battles happening in Trantor, the home of the Second Foundation, where 2 upstarts are competing to be the next one to take over as First Speaker, with Stor Gendibal trying to warn about the belief that there is some power stronger than the Second Foundation. In this he is opposed by an opponent Delora Delarmi, who wants to diminish him since that would leave the path clear for her to be the next First Speaker.
In the midst of all this, the entire sequence is actually being guided by the planet of Gaia (Wikipedia), an extraordinary planet where everything is conscious, and part of one. Everything on the planet has one thought, one consciousness, and together the planet wields immense power, even stronger than the Second Foundation. The Gaia concept is also non-threatening in the sense that there is no ambition, but there is a touch of vanity since Gaia believes that the entire Galaxy should be like Gaia, with all elements of the Galaxy being part of one. The reason why Gaia is manipulating everyone is that it wants to bring the situation to a head, and make Trevize decide the future of the Galaxy (he apparently has a very strong intuition, and Gaia wants to him decide whether the future of the Galaxy should be based on the physical power of the First Foundation, or the mental control of the Second Foundation, or the wholeness of Gaia). Whatever decision he makes will be implemented by Gaia.