MY THOUGHTS
SAM CROMARTIE
A Prisoner of Birth
A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer is a modern-day version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Shortly after Danny Cartwright proposes to his pregnant girlfriend Beth, a barrister coerces him into a fight during which the barrister kills Danny’s best friend who is Beth’s brother. The barrister frames Danny for the murder. Danny is poor and…
Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collin
Catching Fire and Mockingjay, the second and the third (final) books inSuzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series are both fast reads. I finished each in one day. Katniss Everdeen once again has to fight for her life in another set of Gladiator-style games set up for the amusement of the sadistic president of a future empire. Katniss’s courage…
Mirror Image by Sandra Brown
Mirror Image by Sandra Brown is an old book (1990) with an interesting premise. What if a woman survives a mass catastrophe and awakens in the hospital ICU with a new identity. This happens to Avery Daniels when she sustains severe facial fractures, a concussion, burns, and lung damage from smoke inhalation during an airplane…
1421: The Year China Discovered America
1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies is a fascinating nonfiction discussion of the maritime accomplishments of Chinese explorers that preceded the era of Columbus. Menzies describes well-documented voyages by Admiral Zheng He to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and eastern Africa under orders from Emperor Zhu Di. Most of the book revolves…
Livewire by Harlan Coben
In Livewire Harlan Coben returns to his sports agent and former professional basketball player Myron Bolitar. Myron agrees to help his pregnant tennis star client Suzze T find her rock-star husband Lex who disappeared after a facebook post declared that he was not the father of the baby. Myron finds Lex in a nightclub with Kitty Bolitar,…
The Headhunters
I just finished reading The Headhunters by Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian author who is filling the Scandinavian void created by the death of Stieg Larsson. Nesbo’s books are saturated with suspense and unexpected twists that take the reader by surprise. In this book, you find yourself cheering for a very unsympathetic protagonist who is a self-centered liar,…
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Nonfiction biographies can at times be tedious to read, but not this account of the life of Steve Jobs. Walter Isaacson brings his character to life with details that can only be obtained through extensive familiarity with a subject. The fact that Jobs cooperated with Isaacson in this endeavor and encouraged him to reveal all…
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
The Forgotten Man: a New History of the Great Depression published in 2007 is filled with lessons pertinent to the management of today’s depressed economy. The author, Amity Shlaes, discusses the policies that led to the collapse of the world economies in 1929 and the effects of the responses of Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.…
The Expats
The Expats is a first novel for Chris Pavone. Kate Moore sees a chance to redirect her life when her husband Dexter announces that he has received a job offer in computer security from a bank in Europe. It pays so well that she can retire from her job and be a full time mom…
The Hunger Games
I enjoyed Suzanne Collin’s novel, The Hunger Games, and I watched the movie yesterday. The premise is a young woman’s struggle to survive against impossible odds, and at the same time, to preserve her humanity. A different truth struck me. The future world that she painted reflected too closely Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Soviet…