The Scarlet Thread by France Rivers

Yes, I know, another Francine Rivers book.  But I have been wanting to read it and so I did!  It is a very fast read - 431 pages and it took only two days.  I liked it - it is light reading but nice.

The book weaves two women's stories together - told in tandem.  Although the stories of these women are centuries apart, they face the same issues with life and the men they love.  There is heartache, death, love, and all that makes for a good romance.  However, since Rivers is a Christian author, the women's commitment to God is center.  Both women come to the realization of their faith after tragic circumstances and there lays the heart of the story.

That's all - quick and easy read - and enjoyable.

Inside the Kingdom; Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey

Well, this book was way our of the normal reading I do and I have to say I liked it!  I bought this book for Dad but since he is so ensconced with Churchill, I read it before he did.  It is a fascinating look from an insiders view of Saudi Arabia.

The author (I think he is British) has either lived in or been a part of the kingdom for thirty years.  In this writing, he depicts the nation in it's most recent years - beginning in the late 70's up to the publishing of this book in 2009 - which I believe is banned in Saudi.  (I would be surprised if it isn't.)  Lacey explains and peels back the layers of the culture, the beginnings of the jihadist ideology, and addresses the issues women face there even now.  It is written in a rather personal style rather than an accounting of dates, facts and nameless figures.  Instead he gives personal stories, details of interviews, photographs and important for me, a glossary of names and Arabic terms.  There are so many citizens that want to turn the clock back to the time of Mohammed and this book helps explains the why and how as well as the consequences of that mission. 

It is a very interesting read and I would recommend it.

Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers

This series of books was a gift from Alex and Erin for Christmas.  Erin has read and enjoyed them and she knew I would love them as well - and I did!  Thank you both - I buzzed through all three books in no time!  Francine Rivers is a well know Christian fiction author that appeals to a bit more to a female audience... a little romance involved!

Book One - "A Voice in the Wind"
This book takes you back to the first century in Jerusalem, Rome and Ephesus.  The story begins with the destruction of Jerusalem where the main character Hadassah, a young Jewish girl, is captured by the Roman army and sold into slavery.  Even though Hadassah is the main character, the author goes to great lengths developing the whole "cast" - mainly the rich merchant family, the Valeriens who are Hadassah's owners as well as a German gladiator named Atretus.  The dark side of the Roman Empire is explored  and the gladiator scenes make you sick.  Hadassah ends up having tremendous influence on the Valeriens as she begins to reveal that she is one of the new followers of Jesus - a Christian.  There is a tragic end to the book though and you can't wait to get to Book Two!

Book Two - "Echo in the Darkness"
The story starts right up where book one left off but with the adult Valerian children Marcus and Julia, being more involved in the plot.  Where the first book focused mainly on Hadassah and her struggle to stand for her faith, the second book deals mainly with conflicts surrounding the Valerian family and their responses to the sacrificial price that Hadassah paid.  Fortunately, God has not given up on them. When Julia falls ill, there is a strange woman hidden in veils who assists the young doctor at his shop in the poor part of town.  Hmm... who could it be?  There are marriages gone wrong, murder, sexual tension, mystery, and secret identities...everything that makes for a good read is in book two!

Book Three - "As Sure as the Dawn"
This book picks up the thread of Atretes again and now the story is exclusively from his perspective. The other characters  Hadassah and the Valerians are referred to only in passing. The story starts in Ephesus and then follows Atretes and a woman named Rizpah (who was briefly mentioned in Book One) as they journey north to Germania in search of Atretes' family.  Again, more turns and twists that are sometimes obvious and then others that leave you totally guessing the outcome.  This story is a real battle between good and evil - but proving the power of God prevails in all things.

The whole series reflects God's love, persistent calling of His children, forgiveness and redemption.  I totally enjoyed the series and highly recommend all three books.  Each book is long - nearly 500 pages, but they are fast reads and I was sad when they were done.

Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach

First off, Thank you to Meredith and Michael for this wonderful Christmas gift!  It was a great read and thoroughly enjoyable!  But I read it over two months ago and I can't remember all the details.  I just know I loved it.  The main character, Lizard, and his wacky sister are witness to his parents mysterious murders and the whole book revolves around finding the killer and making sense of the action.  It is funny, entertaining, a bit of mystery and intrigue and well... you know, I think I better do a cut and paste from Amazon!

"At seventeen, David “Lizard” Hochmeyer is nearly seven feet tall, a star quarterback, and Princeton-bound. His future seems all but assured until his parents are mysteriously murdered, leaving Lizard and his older sister, Kate, adrift and alone. Sylphide, the world’s greatest ballerina, lives across the pond from their Connecticut home, in a mansion the size of a museum, and it turns out that her rock star husband’s own disasters have intersected with Lizard’s—and Kate’s—in the most intimate and surprising ways.

Over the decades that follow, Lizard and Kate are obsessed with uncovering the motives behind the deaths, returning time and again to their father’s missing briefcase, his shady business dealings and shaky finances, and to Sylphide, who has threaded her way into Lizard’s and Kate’s lives much more 

deeply than either had ever realized. From the football fields of Princeton to a stint with the NFL, from elaborate dances at the mansion to the seductions lying in wait for Lizard, and ultimately to the upscale restaurant he opens in his hometown, it only takes Lizard a lifetime to piece it all together."

Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Gelman

Oh boy has it been forever since I have posted!  I have 5 books to do, so maybe if I do one a day I will catch up! 
This book was a gift from A & K for Christmas and I loved it!  I read it before leaving for Abu Dhabi so it is still home and my review will be from memory (and Amazon).  If you want to borrow it, I believe it is on the breakfast bar!

The author and main character whose name is Rita finds herself on the verge of divorce.  She was livin' large in a fancy pants life style in LA but at the age of 48 she decides to take an opportunity to head to Mexico for some adventure and time away from her marriage.  Her children had gone off to college and she needed to "find herself".  In doing so, she began a lifetime of travel and exploration.  She is also a children's book author so could support herself and even get funding for her travels from some her clients. Rita never traveled with anything more than she could carry and usually went in search of remote destinations where she was the only guest or outsider in the village.  Her travels took her from Mexico to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Borneo, Bali (where she lived for years) and several other destinations.  From time to time she came home to reconnect with family and friends, but her marriage did not survive.  Her children became travelers as well and frequently spent months with her exploring new territory.  As far as I can tell, she is still traveling!  The book is more than just her travel journals however - she really wants to connect with the people and their cultures.  She learns to cook with the women over open fires all over the world, visits trance healers, studies black magic, and really just awakens your spirit of adventure and makes you say, "Let's go!"  (But I won't be divorcing Dad anytime soon to do it!)  It is well written and a pleasure to read.  Thank you A & K!

January Recap

In January, I finished three books:

"A Man Called Intrepid" - this was a fascinating look at the secret war behind World War II, particularly focused on British work in the United States in the period of American neutrality. It centers on the work of Bill Stevenson, code name Intrepid, who ran the British Security Coordination activity in New York. Officially, it was unacknowledged, but in fact it was a British effort to put their secret warfare activities somewhere outside England in case Hitler invaded. They also tried to influence America to enter the war on the side of the Allies. I didn't realize the extent to which the Nazi sympathisers were involved in US politics, even at very high levels. The Brits ran an incredible spy operation right out of New York City, and also helped birth the OSS, which was a precursor to the CIA. Fascinating book, and looooooong, but worth the read.

"The Quantum Thief" - good hard science fiction. The author is a theoretical physicist, specializing in string theory, and you can tell. The narrative is convoluted, the technology is crazy, the story is fantastic. It's kinda nuts, but it's also very good. There are spies, quantum artificial intelligences, interstellar wars, and bizarre references to video game culture. Worth a read if you like the genre.

"The Hobbit" - I can't believe how long it has been since I've read this. It's not as good as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it's good in its own right. We saw the movie in December, so I had to reread it to remind myself of the real story. The movie is faithful enough to the book, but actually makes the dwarves out to be more heroic than they are in the book. If you haven't read this, it should be high on your list.

The Smartest Guys In The Room

I haven't posted in some time but I think "The Smartest Guys in the Room" is worth mentioning here. First of all, thank Meredith for the Christmas gift, I had been wanting to read this for quite some time.

The book is about the rise and fall of Enron. It is well written and focuses more on the people and their motives than it does on the industry. Working in energy certainly made this more interesting to me but the story of the people is really what makes this a great read.

It has a pretty straightforward structure; Ken Lay grows up and forms Enron, hires Jeff Skilling who comes up with the idea for a "Gas Bank," which revolutionized gas trading. They, and Enron as a whole, embodied the idea that free markets are perfect and capitalism is the most pure form of business where intellect and innovation will reign supreme. There were a few close calls in the trading ops in the early day but Enron started to grow at an incredible rate.

The middle of the book starts to explore decisions that would come back to haunt the company. From their relatively early days Enron did their best to work the rules to their advantage. They greatly expanded the use of mark to market accounting, something still widely used. This section also starts to explain complicated financing structures used to hide debt from the balance sheet. This seems to be where the executives became addicted to hitting Wall St. targets (which also lined their pockets). Quarter after quarter there would be a rush to hit their goal, often by closing deals that were destined to lose money over the long haul (mark to market accounting allows you to book the gain when the deal closes, long before you see any cash. Some of the rules have been changed and, at the very least, disclosures are now more closely watched). The middle of the book could be a bit technical but if you don't understand you aren't alone. It appears that the board of directors, the analysts and many of the accountants didn't really know what was going on.

Eventually reality caught up with their fairy tale and it all started to unwind, quickly. In the month before Enron filed for bankruptcy they blew through nearly $2 billion in cash (this fact help 86 a deal that, perhaps, could have saved some of Enron). The amazing part of the story is the attitude of the Enron executives. Many seemed to believe if something wasn't explicitly illegal there was no moral/ethical reason not to take advantage of a certain situation (the part about California was a good example of this. Also, I enjoyed this part because I cover our CA market and enjoyed confirming my suspicions, CA can't get out of their own way).

This post has grown quite long. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in energy, Wall Street, scandals, history of business, management etc. It's not for everyone but I found the story engaging.

It's not available on Kindle though, that sucks.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Smartest-Guys-Room-Scandalous/dp/1591840538/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360074460&sr=8-1&keywords=smartest+guys+in+the+room