Best-selling author Sidney Sheldon dies in California

Sidney Sheldon is one of my favorite and I enjoyed reading all his Novels released so far. I am left with “The Other Side of Me (The Other Side of Me)”:http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/sidneysheldon/othersideofme.html which is perhaps his last writing.

During his lifetime, Sidney Sheldon won awards in three careers – Broadway theater, movies, television then at age 50 turned to writing best-selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men. Sheldon died Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at local hospital in Rancho Mirage, said his publicist of more than 25 years. He was 89. His wife Alexandra and his daughter, author Mary Sheldon, were by his side.

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Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found“Suketu Mehta (Suketu Mehta)”:http://www.suketumehta.com/ is a fiction writer and journalist based on New York. He have won many outstanding awards, to mention a few – the Whiting Writers Award, the O. Henry Prize and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. His work has been published in the *New York Times Magazine, Granta, Harper’s, Time, Conde Nast Traveler, The Indian Express, Man’s World, Himal and India Magazine*. He also co-wrote the Bollywood Movie *Mission Kashmir*.

In general, if you live in Mumbai/Bombay and love the city, “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found)”:http://www.amazon.com/Maximum-City-Bombay-Lost-Found/dp/0375403728 is a must read and more in particular if you wish to know more about the 1993 Riot in Bombay. The author take you back to the Nineties and you feel like you are traveling around Bombay with the characters and re-living Bombay at that time. It will be unjustified on my part to do a review as I am yet to know the hooks of all about Mumbai, its vastness and I feel that whatever I know about Mumbai is less. Enjoy the book.

In the Line of Fire: A Memoir by Pervez Musharraf

In the Line of Fire by Pervez MusharrafI was asking my friend, “Have you read *In the Line of Fire*”. What he answered was funny that we all laughed aloud, “I will, we should *Know what the Enemy thinks*”. No, we don’t think of Pakistan as our enemy, atleast not me. I personally have no particular enemity with anybody or any country and won’t do that as far as I can. I was once even approached to go to Pakistan to train a team of Flash Developers. It somehow did not materialize as the relation between India and Pakistan suddenly deteriorated at that time. Being in India, I was expecting that the book would either be banned or there would be some hoopla somewhere somehow. But non so far of such incidents, instead the Book was sold out in the first week of its launch in India. Newspapers, Magazines and Tabloid carried articles of the book, most of them in a deregatory criticism. I am not in any position to give my judgement but yes, the book was a little jerky to read, unlike other free flowing english books that I have read so far.
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Head Rush Ajax

“Head Rush Ajax (Head Rush Ajax)”:http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/headra/ is meant for those developers/designers who

* knows html, css and javascript but not yet a guru
* want to learn, understand and remember ajax
* want to talk cool things about ajax to other people
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Don’t Make Me Think

The book promises to keep the content short, to the point and easy to be read on a plane ride (well, a little longer plane ride). “Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability (Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability)”:http://www.sensible.com/ quoted some good points including that of “nothing important should ever be more than two clicks away”, “speak the user’s language” and “be consistent”.

What is says is that, a site should get rid of the question mark. It should have to the point text, words, be accessible and should use the common default form conventions. It is more because most people tends to scan a site most of the time than going through all the details. The book also re-iterates the fact that designers are often reluctant to take advantage of conventions. They are often tempted to re-invent the wheel, largely because they feel that they’ve been hired to do something new, different and not the same old thing.
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Blogwild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging

Finished reading yet another book – “Blogwild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging (Blogwild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging)”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591841178/104-5883021-6553544?v=glance&n=283155, a book targetted to the non-tech-savvy internet users. It tries to explain all about the fun, enjoyment and benefit of blogging. It covers topics ranging from – titles to tag line, posts, permalinks, comments, archives, authors, blogrolls, feeds to trackbacks.

It goes back to the history of blogging too and tries to give you an insight on how online publications started which eventually came to be the blogs of today’s world. The book also assures us that the general blog audience are

* older and more matured audience
* have money and are willing to spend
* willing to shop online

It also discusses about the benefit of blogs with respect to business. How blogs can help market and promot businesses? And eventually how blogs can help make money? Why and how to separate blogs – business, personal, _et al_. Go ahead and read this blog if you have a blog or planning to have.