The Finest Hotel in Kabul

Finished August 19

The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet

This was an excellent read by BBC journalist Lyse Doucet, who was born in Canada. Covering the late 1960s through the present, this story is about the Intercontinental Hotel, which opened in Kabul in 1969 as part of a global chain of luxury hotels, but owned by the Afghan government. Lyse's experiences with the hotel began in 1988 with her first trip to the country as a journalist with the BBC. She has done significant research including talking to employees of the hotel, previous employees, politicians, former diplomats to the country, other journalist, and guests of the hotel.

She takes us through the changes in leadership, both of the hotel and of the country, the damage done through war and terrorism, the staff who moved through a series of roles at the hotel, staff who moved on to other careers after their time at the hotel, and includes information on both staff and guests who died at the hotel. 

Some long term staff we see several times over the years, while others come for short periods and move on. From the time of the country as a kingdom, through coups, Russian occupation, civil war, Western invasion and occupation, democracy,and two Taliban control periods, we see how the hotel, and the people who knew it, weathered the changes. Parts of the hotel were destroyed and rebuilt, but it remains a place of international relations, celebrations, and a symbol of connection to the larger world.

I enjoyed getting to know the various staff and seeing how they worked. I got a sense of the country and its people. This was an engaging and accessible book that enlightened me. 

Better Off Dead

Finished November 2

Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The book opens with a man that seems to be Reacher waiting for a rendezvous near the Mexican border. When the car that approaches him has more people than he expects, and he finds himself up against four men, some of them with weapons, we know that things might go badly. As this prelude ends, the man is in a morgue and we are left hanging.

We go back to two days earlier, where Reacher is approaching a town near the Texas border when he comes across a Jeep that appears to have been in an accident. When he approaches the vehicle, he is surprised to have a weapon aimed at him. As he backs off when they hear another vehicle approach, and witnesses a deadly encounter, he finds himself wondering just what is going on. 

He finds himself drawn into a woman's search for her missing twin brother, both of them military veterans. She gets him up to speed quickly on the situation, but she might not be telling him everything, and he keeps pushing as things move along to ensure he's not missing anything important. 

He comes up with a plan to get the man behind it all, but unexpected people, events, and devices come along to alter what Reacher has to deal with.

As always, a fast-moving plot, with lots of action, suspense and interesting characters. 

Elevator Pitch

Finished June 29

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

This novel makes you look at elevators in a completely different way. In New York City, an elevator falls and all occupants are killed. It was a nice touch to have one of them doing an actual elevator pitch at the time. When a second elevator accident kills too, questions start arising about what is happening, and what caused the falls. 

Barbara Matheson is a reporter for a New York City paper. She covers mostly politics and business, and lately she's been writing a lot about the mayor, Richard Wilson Headley. .She calls out behaviour that  she considers sketchy, even if it is "how things get done." In this case it is the awarding of a construction contract to a firm owned by a big political donor. As she enters the story, she is at city hall with a crowd of reporters, hoping to ask questions. And she definitely gets a reaction. Along with the mayor are a few of his staff, including his twenty-five-year-old son, Glover. Glover and Richard have a not-always-smooth relationship, but Glover is bright in a techie way and helpful in certain areas. 

Barbara also has a difficult relationship with her child, daughter Arla. Barbara got pregnant when she was young and when the father wanted nothing to do with it, she considered her options. Her parents offered to take on the raising of Arla, and there was no secret that Arla was her daughter, but more recently, after her parents died, there have been tense discussions between the two women. 

Meanwhile, police have found a body, badly beaten and with an attempt to disguise the identity of the victim. As they research his identity and look for why this man was killed, one of them, Jerry Bourque is also dealing with PTSD and guilt from a recent case. 

There is also a group of people in the middle states of the U.S., who have organized their resentment at those on the coast and have acted out their frustrations in violent ways. A couple of them, including the head of the organization are in New York City, and questions arise about the ties to some of the accidents happening there. 

Conversations between a boy and his mother in a different font are interspersed through the story and only make sense as things are revealed near the end. 

I liked how all these storylines wove in and out of each other in a natural way, and not all the clues lead somewhere. 

As I said at the beginning, I also like how Barclay makes you think about ordinary, everyday things in a different way. This is something he does in many of his books, both the standalones like this one and The Accident, and many of the Promise Falls series. His characters are ordinary people who did things that you and I do, and then some of them get caught up in situations beyond what they could ever have expected. Even though this is a long book, it's a quick and satisfying read. 

Invisible Murder

Finished November 8

Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, translated by Tara Chace

I've read the third book in this series and decided to go back are read an earlier one. This is book two. Most of the book takes place in Denmark with the Red Cross nurse Nina Borg, but the story really starts in Hungary, with a young man, Sándor who finds his life upended. He is a law student at university, but he has a secret. His mother is a gypsy, and he started his life growing up with her and his younger siblings, but during a time they were in a children's home, he was taken away by his biological father, given a new last name, and has lived his life in mainstream Hungarian society. When his younger brother Tamás asks a favour, he gets drawn into a situation beyond his control. He cares about his brother, but with his life also in tatters, he feels he has no choice but to follow his brother to Denmark and see if he can help.

Nina is sometimes helping with outreach to groups in need outside of her day job, but she's promised her husband Morten not to do it when he's away working on the rigs. Her relationship with her teenage daughter Ida is a fraught one, with the girl wanting little to do with her. Anton, at eight, is still a joyful child. 

There is also an older man, Skou-Larsen, who is worried about how his wife handles finances, and wants to try to put safeguards in place for after he dies. But there are limitations on what he can do, even though she appears to have fallen for a vacation property scam and lost a big chunk of money. He is also curious about the mosque being build near their home. As a former municipal employee with the building department, he is always curious about permits and details of new developments and worries about whether this one is all it says it is. 

We also see a man, Soren, who is part of PET, the terrorism side of the police force as they hear of a young Hungarian man who has been on some suspicious websites and now appears to be headed his way. His focus on similar online activity at a local university focuses on a young Muslim man who seems to have something to hide.

There is lots going on here, and as Nina gets drawn in to help with a mysterious illness affecting some gypsies squatting in an abandoned gas station, she finds herself in more trouble than she expected, and when Ida gets involved she begins to fear for their lives.

I really enjoy this series, with so many issues in a book. There is racism and religious prejudice, fear of others, domestic abuse, human trafficking, relics of the Soviet times, and so much more.

Girl from Nowhere

Finished August 21
The Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan

This debut novel for teens is fast moving. Sophia Hepworth has grown up with loving parents, but constantly on the move and not really making any friends along the way. Her parents appear to be diplomats, but they are definitely more than that. Her father's public job is facilitating NGOs in developing countries, working for the State Department. He is a spy and many of the skills needed to survive in that world have also been taught to Sophia. She can handle a gun, a knife, and many other tools of defense. She is in good physical shape and can hold her breath underwater for long periods of time. She can get her bearings quickly in places she hasn't been before. She speaks quite a few languages fluently, and knows a decent amount of even more. She has been trained to survive many dangerous situations.
When her family lived in Istanbul, something bad happened to her, and she's been running ever since, and not really recovering from that incident.
Now, her family is finally back in the United States and her parents have retired. They've moved to a small town in Montana, called Waterford. Furniture and smaller items she hasn't seen in years are coming into their new home. Sophia is attending the regular town school and making friends with other girls her age. And there's a boy who she finds compelling.
Of course she stands out. In her first class, French, the discovery that she is fluent has the teacher moving to move her to a different language class, but all the ones on offer are ones that she is fluent in, so she stays. And now her classmates know this about her. They are friendly, but have lots of questions. She answers as truthfully as she feels she can. She has been told that she is no longer in danger, that the men hunting her since Istanbul are all dead, but she still can't be completely honest about her unconventional life.
The boy saves her from a dangerous situation, and only later did she learn his name, Aksel Fredericksen. Then he rescues her again. She notices that he has some of the same skills that she's learned, and that he doesn't seem fazed by her. She likes that. As their relationship grows, the situations that they find themselves up again grow more dangerous. She begins to wonder if she is really as safe as her parents have led her to believe.
This novel is fast-moving and has an edge of the seat plot interspersed with bits of normal love and some romance. It kept me engrossed.

The Ignorance of Blood

Finished August 8
The Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson

This is the last book in a series of four books featuring Javier Falcon of Seville, Spain. Javier is a busy man, involved in many things. He is an inspector with the local police, but also has ties to the intelligence community and is running a spy for them, a man he has become close friends with.
As the book opens a Russian mobster is switching from one mob to another, taking money and information with him, when he is killed in a freak accident. Falcon gets called to the scene and overseas the transfer of the information and cash to a secure location.
He has been working on a case involving a local judge who is in jail for killing his wife, who also happens to be Falcon's ex-wife. This is also tied to a construction case, where a bomb was set at a site. Falcon isn't sure of the judge's guilt, and is looking at a woman that he was having an affair with, a woman who definitely is hiding something. As he tries to trace back the woman and who she has had contact with, and put some pressure on her, things get ugly, and there seems to be government connections involved.
Meanwhile the man he is running as a spy is having a crisis that he goes to Falcon for assistance on, and Falcon wants to help but feels out of his depth.
And then the youngest son of the woman Falcon has fallen in love with is kidnapped, and he is sure that it is to put pressure on him.
So many storylines, and so much happening emotionally for Falcon as well. He is an upright and honest guy, at least mostly. And when he steps over a line, he doesn't try to blame anyone else for it. He has a good team of officers, ones that work together and are really committed to their work. But for him, when the situation became personal, he changed his feelings about things.
I really liked Falcon, and the strong woman he is in a relationship with. I will look at the earlier books in this series to get more on these characters.

The Middleman

Finished October 5
The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer

This thriller revolves around a man, Martin Bishop, who wants to create peaceful change. His hope for change is common to many of us today, who see big corporations wielding too much power, and see the wealth gap growing. Bishop's followers are mostly young people, stuck in dead-end jobs and seeing no promising future.
The book opens with one of them, Kevin Moore, ex-military, living in San Francisco. One day he receives a cryptic message that he has been waiting for. He dumps his wallet and phone, and walks away from life, waiting at a pre-arranged spot to be picked up. He is one of hundreds of people going through similar actions that day and on the coming few days.
Bishop's movement is called the Massive Brigade, and while some think of them as peaceful as Martin makes them out to be, using the threat of violence to make change, rather than violence itself. But others think of them as terrorists, and, when the group takes responsibility for a series of violent acts, acts that Kevin is made part of, it seems that the question has been answered.
Rachel Proulx of the FBI has been following Martin for years, and believes she understands him to a large extent, and these actions surprise her. Another FBI agent, is assigned to her group, and seems to not always be doing what Rachel expects him to do. When she finds him responsible for an event she did not condone, she starts to ask questions.
But Rachel is sidelined and attacked, and it will be many months before she and others start to ask questions again. This time, will anybody listen to them?

Montrose County

Finished May 23
Montrose County by Bill Greenwood

This thriller follows more than one set of characters, and includes a past timeline for one of them. The chapter headings helpfully give place of action and timeline, and the author also uses quick phrases to link events together between characters. The first character we see is a woman, Sabrina Murdoch, waking from a recurring dream she has related to the past. It's just a glimpse, and we move on to another set of charcters, very far away.
These are a pair of Canadian soldiers working as a remote commando force. Mike Buffalo and Brad Hall have worked together before, and are a good team. They are one of several sniper teams tracking Islamic State fighters, and so far the most successful in terms of hits. The drones that work with these units are operated out of Nellis AFB in Nevada, managed by Lt. Col. Tony Benedetto. As they check in after their hit, they are informed that satellite phones, satellite GPS, and drone coverage will not be available for the next day or so due to an expected solar flare. They are also asked to check on the ground result of a hit on a building where some type of meeting seemed to be happening.
The two capable men make their way by maps and orienteering to the specified site, But there they find something bigger and more disturbing than they would ever have guessed, and circumstances mean they have to use all their creativity and skill to convey what they found back to base.
The next group of people we see are some well-meaning American, intent on doing right by those less lucky in their life situation. Unfortunately, they are a bit too trusting, and in this case, people with bad ulterior motives have taken advantage of their kind hearts. Similar situations play out with other components needed for the planned crime.
Back to the first character, Sabrina, who works in the titled Montrose County in Colorado as a deputy. She has worked there for a couple of years. She has the duty of driving a prisoner over the courthouse. On the way over, she encounters a truck slightly damaged by an encounter with wildlife, and is faced with a situation that she finds difficult to deal with. When she makes it to Ouray, she has a moment to chat with a county deputy that she has begun a relationship with, Rick Sanchez.
We gradually learn of Sabrina's interactions with the locals, including an older rancher named Del and his wife. Del understands her and some of her baggage, because he is a Vietnam vet. At one point, we have a flashback to several years earlier to an intense firefight that Sabrina was involved in while in Iraq and we understand the source of her anxiety and dreams.
As we follow the events with Buffalo and Halls and with Murdoch and others in her area, we gradually move closer to the time of the planned crime, and the suspense builds.
I really enjoyed this thriller, and the way the author gradually revealed the characters to us, giving us a real sense of who they were. The use of humour, creativity, and military detail all made this book a page turner for me. Highly recommended.

One Perfect Lie

Finished May 24
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline, read by George Newbern

This suspense novel takes some time to let the reader into what is truly going on. It starts as Chris Brennan is starting as a teacher and coach at a high school in small town Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. We know that Chris is not who or what he says he is, but we don't know what his real identity is, and we don't find out for a while.
He is interested in a particular group of high school boys, those on the baseball team. He is looking for one that he can get close to, and influence in some way. He has his eye on three particular boys, and those three boys we learn more about, primarily through their mothers.
Raz is the son of Susan Sematov, an executive at the nearby outlet mall. Raz's father died recently and it has affected his normally easygoing and outgoing personality. Susan is worried about him, and his future. They were all hoping that he's be drafted by a good college for his pitching expertise.
Jordan has just made the varsity baseball team after working hard over the summer to improve his skills. His mother Heather Larkin has raised him on her own, working hard at the local country club. But the new ownership is changing the way she feels about her job, and she regrets not being able to go to any of Jordan's games. She worries about the effect some of his friends have, especially those that come from wealthy backgrounds. Evan is one of those kids. His dad bought him a new BMW that cost more than Heather made in the last year, and he seems to throw around his money recklessly. He's always on his phone, and is a boy that likes to party. His mother Mindy Kostis is worried about him and about her marriage. She'd caught her husband cheating before and they'd started fresh after therapy, but he's acting odd again, and she's scared it's starting again. She's afraid that Evan has grown secretive too, and she wonders what he's up to. She's determined not to use alcohol as a coping mechanism like she did during her earlier marital crisis.
As a reader, I wondered what effect Chris would have on these boys, and I didn't like some of his methods to find out more about them.
This is a novel of secrets, of people pretending to be something they aren't, and about families and their ways of communicating with each other. It's about learning to look for the good in people and doing the right thing regardless of what others might want you to do.
I enjoyed it.

A Girl Named Digit

Finished May 16
A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan

This teen novel features Farrah Higgins, nicknamed Digit for her interest and skills in math. After encountering a difficult social situation at school, Digit has attended a high school in a new area of town where only the teachers and administration are aware of her skills, and she hides them from her peers to fit in. She is also seeing a therapist to help her manage her tendency towards obsessive-compulsiveness. Now in senior year, she hangs out with a group of girls she has been friends with the first year of high school. One day when they are watching a popular show together, she notices a series of numbers at the bottom of the screen, When she sees a different set of numbers the following week, and a third set the week after that, she can't keep herself from trying to analyze some sort of meaning from them. She finds them to be a reverse Fibonacci followed by a 911. She tries to figure out various meanings from the 911, One of them is the election of JFK as president on November 9th. At school the next day, her teacher tells them about an airport bombing at JFK airport.
Sure that she is on to something, Digit races home to tell her dad, who is a math professor at UCLA. He discounts the connection, but is willing to take her to the local FBI to make a report.
Digit gets frustrated when they don't take her seriously there, and decides to do a little sleuthing of her own, but she isn't prepared for the danger she puts herself in, and must find someone to help her.
Her second trip to the FBI is more dramatic, and she gets assigned a minder, but she finds herself distracted by the young FBI agent, and they find themselves running from dangerous men more than once as they work toward the people behind the terrorist scheme.
I really liked the character in the book as she discovers that being herself is a lot easier than hiding who she really is, and she finds that she has only looked at the surface of many of the people around her as well. Both a thriller and a coming of age novel, I found this a fun read.

Night School

Finished November 30
Night School by Lee Child, read by Dick Hill

As always, I love listening to Dick Hill read this series. This one reaches back into the past, taking place in 1996, when Jack Reacher was still in the army. He recently completed a mission and as the book opens receives a medal. He then finds himself immediately sent off to a course on interagency cooperation, something that is not considered a prize. His two fellow classmates, from the FBI and CIA, are also fresh off big wins. As they confer, they start to determine that things are not as they've been told.
The case that they have been secretly brought together for is a big one, based on very little information. A sleeper agent in a jihadist cell in Hamburg, Germany, has overhead an unexpected visitor, a courier, indicate that an American is selling something for a very large amount of money. What could he be selling, who is he, and what could be worth 100 million dollars.
Reacher immediately recruits his sergeant, Frances Neagley, who has already figured out something is up, and the three men and their right hand people begin to go through a process of elimination on the way towards identifying the American.
Reacher's instincts tell him that it is better to be in Germany where the last action took place, and the next action may also happen, then in the US where it is very unlikely any of the action will take place, and as things move along, he is proven right. In this book, Reacher takes gambles based on his gut and his experience, and he finds that luck is usually, but not always, on his side.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly and will impatiently await the next in the series.

The Language of Secrets

Finished June 12
The Language of Secrets by Ausma Zehanat Khan

This is the second novel in the series featuring Detective Esa Khattak and his partner Rachel Getty. Here Khattak has been called in by the RCMP's INSET team, the national security team. INSET has been investigating a group they believe to be planning an attack on a number of public targets within the Toronto area, and their inside man has been murdered. Khattak is asked to head the murder investigation in such a way as to not reveal INSET's investigation. The dead man, Mohsin Dar, is an estranged friend of Khattak's, and he is determined to investigate fully while staying within his parameters.
The man he is to report to within INSET, his old team, is a man who resents Khattak's successes, and who makes no secret of his feelings. As Khattak and Getty move forward with the investigation, Getty in an undercover role, they learn that Khattak has been involved in ways they didn't expect. Getty is worried about the civilians that may be hurt if things go badly, and also increasingly aware of the prejudices against Khattak.
As with her first book, The Unquiet Dead, this book explores the diversity of culture within religion, and the ways in which that culture expresses itself, in language such as poetry, and in interpretation of language in ways of peace and of revenge. Khan's experience as a human rights lawyer informs her writing and makes the mystery more complex.
I also enjoy the way personal lives of the characters come into it, with both Getty's and Khattak's families, Getty's love of hockey, and Khattak's of poetry. I look forward to more books in this series.

All The Old Knives

Finished May 1
All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer, read by Ari Fliakos and Juliana Francis Kelly

This spy novel all takes place within a few hours, but with flashbacks to the events surrounding a horrific terrorist incident in Vienna six years earlier that resulted in a lot of deaths. The main characters are all CIA operatives. The two speakers here are Henry Pelham, a field agent at the time of the incident and now in the office, still in Vienna, and Celia Harrison, in the office at the time and now married with children, out of the service.
Henry is following up on internal information that says there was an internal leak in the CIA that contributed to the failure of the authorities to prevent the deaths six years ago. He has already interviewed a couple of others that were in the office at the time, but have since moved on. He insisted on interviewing Celia himself. Henry and Celia were lovers at the time of the incident, and Henry is still in love with Celia, never reconciling himself to her sudden ending of the relationship and quick marriage to a man years older than her.
Celia left the service on her marriage, moved with her new husband to Carmel-by-the-Sea in California and has two young children. Henry is sure that Celia is hiding something, and is determined to find out whether she is protecting someone else or herself. Celia is struggling with her own feelings around the incident, what she did, and what she didn't do.
This is a story of love, of betrayal, of that old story of those who believe that the end justifies the means. The ending is shocking, and sad. A spy novel with a very different ambience.

The Sacred Cut

Finished January 25
The Sacred Cut by David Hewson

This novel is the third book in the series featuring Detective Nic Costa. Set in Rome, just before Christmas, the city is in the middle of a snowstorm, when an alarm in the Pantheon causes police to arrive.
What they discover when they get there is a tableau they don't know how to interpret. A woman is dead, naked, placed in a certain way, and with marks cut into her skin. But who has done it, and why, and what did the person who set off the alarm see before she ran.
Before the Italians can begin the formal investigation, before Teresa Lupo can do an autopsy, the FBI is there, taking over, and the Italian intelligence seems to be wanting that to happen.
With one of their own citizens dead though, Costa and his fellow officers, not to mention Teresa, aren't so quick to let this go. They want to know what is so sensitive they are being frozen out, and why one of the American agents, Emily Deacon, doesn't seem to know either.
As Emily begins to come around to their way of thinking and their grasp of the situation begins to grow, they also begin to wonder just who the real bad guy is in this situation.
I always enjoy the rebelliousness of Nic Costa, the shrewdness of his boss, Falcone, and the other characters that surround them. This case is interesting, with elements of terrorism and conspiracy.

Dead Men

Finished November 18
Dead Men by Stephen Leather

This spy thriller centers around Spider Shepherd, an agent with SOCA, previously Special Forces. Shepherd specializes in going undercover, infiltrating himself into people`s lives and discovering the evidence needed to put them away. This case is a bit different.
Back in 1994, five masked men forced their way into the home of a RUC Special Branch officer in Belfast, and executed him in front of his wife and young son. Recently, under the Good Friday agreement, those who were in jail for this crime have been set free, and the one man who escaped overseas is back for his show trial that will have him serve no time for this crime. But one by one, the five men are being hunted down and executed, in exactly the same manner the RUC officer was killed.
Suspicion for this crime has fallen on the widow of the police officer, and Shepherd is being sent in to get close to her and learn whether she is the killer.
Meanwhile, a powerful man in the Arab world has been given information that says Shepherd`s boss Charlotte Button and an American agent, Yokely are responsible for the death of two of his sons. He has taken out a contract on them, and is willing to pay whatever it takes. Shepherd is brought into the picture on this situation and he finds it becoming personal. But he must find out just how far he is willing to go to protect Charlie and those he cares about.
This book is gripping, and has both action and sexual attraction going on. Shepherd is a man with a strong sense of ethics, and a character I liked immediately. A great addition to the spy thriller genre.

Occidentalism

Finished September 30
Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies by Iam Buruma and Avishai Margalit

This book's purpose is not to demonize the enemies of the west or assist in the "war on terrorism", but to understand what drives Occidentalism, and to show that the suicide bombers of today have their roots in history that includes the west itself. Understanding doesn't provide excuses, but just additional knowledge in dealing with those who demonize the west.
The book looks at occidentalism from a variety of viewpoints. One is the idea of war against the west, one is the idea of the city as an occidental evil that with an urban reality destroys the local culture. Another looks at the idea of the hero versus the merchant, where the pursuit of economic wellbeing works against the true way things should be. Yet another looks at the philosophy of the mental model of the west as seen by its enemies and how they interpret the west's intent. We then get to religion and the various ways the west is seen as idolatrous, including the way that women are treated. The last is the seeds that bring revolution, looking at various examples and showing how some current situations mirror these historical ones, and theorizing what that means for the world going forward.
Well-researched and insightful, this analysis goes back more than two centuries to trace the roots of anti-Western ideas and sentiments, and places modern terrorists within this historical continuum.

Mandela

Finished May 14
Mandela: An Audio History: Commemorative Edition
Hosted by Desmond Tutu, Commentary fy Nelson Mandela

This CD takes audio footage from different points in the history of South Africa that involves Mandela's story and adds commentary to give additional context bringing Mandela's story to life in an interesting way.
There is a brief introduction and then the story is broken into five parts.
The Birth of Apartheid (1944-1960)
The Underground Movement (1960-1964)
Robben Island (1964-1976)
State of Emergency (1976-1990)
Democracy (1990-1994)
It was interesting to see the change in attitude toward Mandela and his compatriots. From a young man and competent lawyer trying to influence social change, to a terrorist, to hero, to benevolent but wise leader. As he moved into the world seeing him as a terrorist, it was like no one saw how the actions of the government were what cornered him into this behaviour as the only way to bring change. In our current world of multiple terrorist groups, it makes one stop to ask what else is going on that made these men reach the point of violent protest.

The Paradise Guest House

Finished May 4
The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

I enjoyed her earlier novel French Lessons, and found some of the same elements in this book.
Jamie is an American working as a guide for an adventure tourism company. She first went to Bali in 2002 to scout out a new tour for the area. She was caught up in the bombing that happened there. As the book begins, it is a year later and Jamie has returned to Bali as a guest of the government to commemorate the bombing and its victims and to assist the country in moving forward. She is being hosted by the family of a local victim. Jamie is having trouble psychologically coming back, but also has a private mission to reconnect with Gabe, the man who assisted her after the bombing.
The second part of the book takes us back to 2002, and has both Jamie and Gabe describing their experiences from the day of the bombing, to a few days later. The two met when trying to rescue others, and   Gabe provided Jamie with a refuge as well as assistance in the aftermath.
The third part continues the story of 2003, with Jamie facing up to her fears, learning more about this country and what it has to offer, and letting herself heal.
This has romance, but because of the circumstances offers a more complex story of a difficult time for this area that relies heavily on tourism. I found it a quick engaging read, that I truly enjoyed.

A Wanted Man

Finished January 3
A Wanted Man by Lee Child, read by Dick Hill

Jack Reacher continues to find himself in interesting and dangerous situations, and thinks things through as events unfold, measuring and trying to choose the best course of action. He is a man dedicated to justice, not wanting the limelight. He does what he needs to do, and he moves on.
Here, he is on a lonely highway in Nebraska in the winter, hitchhiking eastward, when he is picked up by a sedan carrying two men and a woman. As they group travels on, Reacher notices some inconsistencies in what he notices versus what he is told, and can see that the woman doesn't appear to be as much a part of the team as they've told him she is.
Meanwhile, back in Nebraska, a man is dead, the FBI has started an investigation and people are starting to go missing. Agent Karen Sorenson is on the case and following her own intuition for what to believe and who to confide in.
With page-turning action and lots of suspense, the reader is never disappointed.

Catching Up

I was on vacation last week and didn't blog about the reads I did, so I am catching up today. Didn't read all that much as I was too busy visiting etc.

Finished October 1
Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich, read by Paul Michael
This is the third book in the series featuring Dr. Jonathan Ranson and his wife Emma. In this one Jonathan is no longer with Doctors without Borders, but is on his own in Afghanistan, working as a freelance travelling doctor with an Afghani assistant. He hasn't seen Emma since their adventures in London months before.
After Jonathan barely survives an encounter with an Afghan warlord, and Emma is betrayed and tortured, Jonathan is contacted by Emma's superior, Frank Conner, head of Division. He is asked to undertake a mission into the heart of operations of a Middle East arms dealer that Emma was working with.
Lots of fast action and suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat, which is what I expect from this series.

Finished October 3
Cleo: the cat who mended a family by Helen Brown
Written by New Zealand journalist Helen Brown, this personal memoir talks about how Cleo the cat helped her and her children, particularly her son, adjust to tragedy and change. Helen and her family already had a dog and she wasn't interested in adding a cat to the household, but her oldest son Sam was intent on wanting the cat, and willing to give up birthday gifts in exchange. Helen agreed to adopt the cat as soon as it was ready to leave its mother and Sam picked a name for the kitten. When the family was hit by sudden tragedy, the cat was forgotten until it appeared on their doorstep. Helen was again reluctant, until she saw the smile on her son's Rob's face, which hadn't been their since their loss, and she gave in.
As the family adjusted to the cat, and vice versa, the cat distracted them from their sadness and helped them to move on to a new way of living. Through its long life, Cleo again and again helped guide them, cheer them up and keep them positive.
Wonderfully written even through the heartbreak, this book illustrates the power of pets in our lives and how important they can be for such small creatures.

Finished October 9
The Fraser by Bruce Hutchison
Having travelled to B.C. on my vacation, I figured this would be a good choice for vacation reading. Originally written in 1950, this new edition is a facsimile, faithfully reproducing the original text. Well-researched and engagingly written, this history covers the settlement of B.C. which is tightly tied to the history of the Fraser river. Hutchison was a journalist who spent most of his life from childhood in B.C. and spoke firsthand to some of its early settlers.
I learned so much that I hadn't know about the history of this part of Canada that I was very glad I read the book. The last chapter contains musings about the future of the river, and it would have been nice to see an addendum that looked at what had really happened to the river in the last 60 years and how those changes affected the province.
A great read that includes both the big view and the personal stories, this book should be a must read for students of Canadian history. Others will also like the engaging writing and fascinating stories.