Summer Knight - Jim Butcher
I finished this one quite a while ago and I don't remember it very well. So I guess that's a bad sign. But I did enjoy the book and, yet again, I was surprised at the ending.... and that's a good sign when it comes to mystery novels.
Harry Dresden, Wizard P.I., is in an incredibly depressed funk now that his girlfriend is gone. He is trying desperately to find the solution to her... little problem, and locks himself in his basement lab. Eviction notices pending, he finally gets back out in the world when weird stuff starts happening. Raining frogs is a bad sign, especially when they are real frogs.
Annnnnd huge war in the land of Faerie ensues, at some point.
I can't wait to read the next one.
The Prince - Machiavelli
I am only vaguely interested in politics at the best of times. So, reading about politics that are not even remotely current.... was painful. Why do the classics seem to let me down?
This is, in a nutshell, Machiavelli's guide to being a prince, and how to deal with situations whether you created a principality, took one over, or were born into one. Subjects don't have to love you, they should fear you, but not hate you. Got that? Good. Because that's the nuts and bolts of it all.
Some of the anecdotes Machiavelli includes to back up his points were interesting, like crib sheets on how certain rulers failed.
And other bits were just... cold and disturbing. You don't want to piss off your subjects, but throwing a few lowly farmers off their land to give to your nobles is ok. They're not important enough to make a difference. That bit sounded pretty current to me.
The Moses Expedition - Juan Gomez-Jurado
This book was thoroughly engaging and I blew through it in no time. I am getting tired so am just going to steal the description from Amazon:
"A lost treasure, a Nazi war criminal, and an expedition to find a legend . . .
After fifty years in hiding, the Nazi war criminal known as the Butcher of Spiegelgrund has finally been tracked down by Father Anthony Fowler, a CIA operative and a member of the Vatican’s secret service. He wants something from the Butcher—a candle covered in filigree gold that was stolen from a Jewish family many years before.
But it isn’t the gold Fowler is after. As Fowler holds a flame to the wax, the missing fragment of an ancient map that uncovers the location of the Ten Commandments given to Moses is revealed. Soon Fowler is involved in an expedition to Jordan set up by a reclusive billionaire. But there is a traitor in the group who has ties to terrorist organizations back in the United States, and who is patiently awaiting the moment to strike.
From wartime Vienna to terrorist cells in New York and a lost valley in Jordan, The Moses Expedition is a thrilling read about a quest for power and the secrets of an ancient world."
