There are no two books more diametrically different than Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Dan Brown's Deception Point. Was reading both books simultaneously; God of Small Things (GoST henceforth for simplicity sake) for Daytime Rumination; Deception Point for Bedtime Thrill.

GoST is a chronological Toss-Up; Past and Present are jumbled up to great effect. Taking a leaf out of Margaret Atwood's book, Roy oscilattes between Now and Then with tremendous ease, never (NotEVER) obfuscating. In that, you know what will happen but not how and why. The strength of the book lies in its vivid characters. Through them, Roy offers a cynical look at the frailty of relationships, the ugly human condition, the facade we put on as we deal with people and the like. The language is colourful and witty; descriptions rival that of Hemingway's and dark humour emanates from the pages. Prepare to see some made-up words too and capitalization of general terms. Verdict: Must-read.

Deception Point with its twists and turns, like I've said, cannot be more different. In Roy's words, it "deceives with thrills and trick endings". Expected nontheless, knowing Dan Brown. As with all Brown's books, Deception Point is a well-researched piece of work suffused with steady streams of Thrill and Twist. There's always the mysterious mastermind, whom you least expect for lack of motive, and the good-looking lead guy and gal who are smart and attracted to one another. Not as good as Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code, but interesting nontheless.

Now, taking a leaf out of Dan Brown's book, decipher the following code to win yourself a Gmail account. That's 1GB of email storage and I'm looking for three winners. Here's your first step to solving the code: The KEY is in the source; tap right to view. Happy hunting!