Two 'classic' books this month. One moderate in length and the other HUGE! Better get reading now!

'Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find -- through love or through exacting maternal appraisal -- a suitable boy for Lata to marry. Set in the early 1950s, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.'

"It's Los Angeles in the 1930s. Someone has been blackmailing ailing oil

magnate General Sternwood, so he calls in 33-year-old private investigator Philip Marlowe

to find out who it is and how serious a matter it might be. In short order, Marlowe meets the General's daughters -- wild teenager Carmen, and inveterate gambler Mrs. Regan, whose husband has gone missing for several weeks -- both beautiful

and both trouble. Soon, the Sternwood's young chauffeur turns up fatally shot, and the trail leads through a bookstore that deals in fancy, locally-produced pornography and the nightclub of smooth tough guy Eddie Mars. "

"This is one of the key works of noir crime detective fiction. Set in LA in the 30's, it approaches perfection in its detailed presentation of the seedy underlife of the rich and famous."

Happy reading!