| 1.
Arctic Drift - Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler- Seems
appropriate my first book of
the year (this was true in 2012 as well) is yet another Dirk Pitt
novel. I guess I'm going to finish reading them all this
year (only a couple left) so I can move on and read something else.
This novel pits Dirk Pitt against a rich but greedy Canadian
industrialist Mitchell Goyette who with his public face is a friend of
the environment and green movement but in private will rape and pillage
the land in search of personal profit. Goyette goes to great length to
force the US out of Canadian territory so he can exploit the mineral
riches for himself. He almost causes Canada and the US to go to war.
The book is set sometime in the near future when global warming is
becoming a real serous issue because the politicians were to spineless
to tackle the issue previously (in our time). All of the industrial
countries are being forced to drastically lower their carbon footprint
which is causing the economies of the world to slow down and sputter.
Luckily a scientist, Lisa Lane, stumbles upon a process called
Synthetic Photosynthesis which used the rare element ruthenium to turn
CO2 in the atmosphere into hydrogen and water without other byproducts.
When Goyette finds out about this he wants to control it so he can
still sell oil and gas but he also wants to find a source of ruthenium
so he can control it as well. He could then make money from causing
pollution and from cleaning up the pollution. Goyette's henchman Clay
Zak is a hired killer who Goyette deploys to remove competition. He
crosses Pitts path many time but never seems to put Pitt away. In the
end it is Pitt who puts Zak away, for good. In the end Goyette is
killed as well and his illegal business interests dismantled and the
profits put to good use. This was a good read. |
| 2.
Treasure - Clive Cussler - This novel has the story of finding
the remains of the Library of Alexandria in Texas (of all places) tied
into a evil plot by a powerful crime family, the Capesterre's, to take
over the governments of Egypt and Mexico. The story starts out when
NUMA finds an ancient Roman ship half frozen into ice near Greenland
while helping with a plane crash rescue. The ship's log indicates it
was involved in transporting treasures from Alexandria which were
thought lost in antiquity. Following the clues using NUMA's super
computer, Dirk Pitt and company find that the frozen ship had come from
Roma Texas where the treasures were hidden in hand dug caves along the
Rio Grande. At the same time two of the Capesterre brothers are posing
as religious leaders and trying to make the people of Egypt and Mexico
rise up against their governments to form fundamentalist societies for
their personal control and financial gains. In Mexico Topiltzin (the
name taken by the Capesterre brother) causes the poor to rise up and
start crossing the Mexico US border in an attempt to retake the lands
of the United States. Dirk Pitt and his Senator father are both caught
up in the plot and must work together to make things right. Of course
Al is there as well as a beautiful archaeologist who of course has the
hots for Dirk. This was an OK story but not as compelling as some of
the other Dirk Pitt books. |
| 3.
The Innocent - David Baldacci - This
book paired up two unlikely characters: Robie, a US government assassin
and Julie, a 14 year old girl whos parents had just been killed. They
are brought together while each was running for their lives because of
two different incidents which in the end turned out to be related. The
majority of the story is Robie and Julie trying to piece together their
individual situations only to find out later of the relationship. All
of the people who were in the Army with Julie's father are killed off
and numerous attempts were made on Julie's life. It turned out that one
of the hits Robie made on a Saudi prince actually killed the prince's
security double. When the prince found out it was Robie who made the
hit he conceived a plan for revenge which included pulling Robie into a
plot to kill the President of the United States. This book was good
because the extent of the plot was not known until the last couple of
chapters in the book. This story was compelling enough for me to read
the whole book quickly (at least for me). |
| 4.
The Storm - Clive Cussler with Graham Brown - This was another
Kurt Austin / Joe Zavala adventure. Kurt Austin being a Dirk Pitt
replacement almost to a T and Joe being Al. Anyway this story was about
a crazy Chinese man named Jinn who had a plan to use (billions of)
microscopic robot like beetles to change Earth's weather by reflecting
the Suns energy back into space so that he could sell good weather to
the highest bidder. These robots were release into the Indian Ocean and
upon command from Zinn would open their reflective wings to reflect the
Sun. In other parts of the ocean, they would be deployed to gather the
Suns energy and then submerge to heat the ocean. Using the combination
of these two effects Earth's weather and especially life giving rain
could be directed at will. NUMA gets envolved when one of their
research vessels get caught up in the drifting robots and all hands
aboard are killed. Kurt Austin is sent by Dirk Pitt to find out what
happened which leads him into Jinn sinister plan. The battle of wills
goes back and forth with Kurt finally winning out in the end. This was
an exciting book which I read very quickly. It was interesting even if
the plot was a bit far fetched. |
| 5.
The Columbus Affair - Steve Berry - This was a good story with a
lot of characters as is usual for Steve Berry. In this book Berry
combines the known history of Christopher Columbus and that of Jews
since the sacking of the Second Temple by the Romans with fiction of
his own creation. In this story a wrongly discredited reporter, Tom
Sagan, gives up his Jewish faith to marry a Christian woman with which
he has a daughter. In doing so he is ostracized by his father who,
unbeknown to him, is carrying a secret to the location of artifacts
from the Second Temple which his family has carried for countless
generation. His father dies before he can pass the secret on so he
takes it to his grave, literally. Others are after the Jewish artifacts
for various reasons and Tom is co-opted into digging up his father's
grave by his daughter who has been brainwashed by Zacharias Simon the
bad guy. Simon wants to find the artifacts so he can place them
on the temple mount in Jerusalem thereby causing a war to end all wars
between the Jews and the Arabs/Palestinians. The story travels all over
the globe from Florida to Austria to Jamica where Columbus reportedly
buried the artifacts in a gold mine. Tom figures out clues with the
information found in his father's grave and tries to keep one step
ahead of the others seeking the same treasure. It all ends in Jamica
where Tom and his daughter find the Jewish artifacts. The story ends
before the reader finds out what they plan to do with the treasure.
This was a good book and I was happy to read another Steve Berry novel.
He doesn't write them fast enough like some of my other favorite
authors. |
| 6.
Poseidon's Arrow - Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - A new Dirk
Pitt novel (2012). This story was taken right out of the news recently
about Rare Earth Elements (REES)and their uses in high tech products
and military hardware. In this story an Austrian mining
engineer/billionaire Edward Bolcke, tries to corner the market on REES
while at the same time tries to steal a new propulsion system for a top
secret submarine (which relies on REES). Bolcke tries to buy up all of
the worlds supply outside of China and colludes with the Chinese to
stop their exports of REES so the price will go through the ceiling.
What the Chinese do not know is that Bolcke is hijacking their
shipments and stealing REES from some of their mines for his own
profit. Dirk Pitt gets involved at the insistence of now Vice President
Sandecker when two scientists testing the advanced submarine propulsion
are killed. Pitt has run in after run in with Bolcke who is trying to
kill him and an FBI woman agent Ann who is investigating the killings
and theft of the plans. Pitt and Gordano are shot and stabbed numerous
times but somehow are able to out wit the bad guys and get Bolcke and
his henchmen and get the propulsion system and its plans back into safe
hands. The whole crew including Pitt's children are involved in this
story. This was a good fast, action packed read which I enjoyed. |
| 7.
Heaven and Hell My Life in the Eagles (1974 - 2001) - Don Felder
with Wendy Holden - This was an amazing story about a kid, Don
"Fingers" Felder from Florida who grew up to be the lead guitar player
for the Eagles. He tells about his early musical adventures such as
sneaking into a tent in an all black neighborhood to hear BB King play
and about the continual conflicts he had with his father who thought he
was wasting his life. Along the way, he was in a band with a young
Steven Stills and taught little Tommy Petty (Tom Petty) how to play
guitar. The bulk of this story covers the life he had as a member of
the Eagles. The fast paced, non stop touring, the incredibly stressful
recording sessions and non stop parties filled with drugs, beautiful
and willing women and sex that fueled their conflicts as well as their
success. He tells of the constant in fighting over money and musical
direction that in the end made each member of the Eagles hate each
other though nobody outside the band's inner circle ever knew it. He
made it very plain that Glenn Fry and Don Henley thought they were the Eagles
(or Gods) and that all of the other members of the band (past and
present) were merely sidemen. For years and years Don Felder tried to
be the mediator in epic clashes of will but in the end he, like Bernie
Leadon and Randy Meisner, was fired from the band. He also tell about
his love life and divorce from his wife Susan after 20 some years. By
the end of the book (written in 2008) his life is starting to recover
from being fired and he was starting a new portion of his life with a
new woman and grand children. I always felt Don Henley had a huge ego
but now I know Glenn Fry did as well which was a big part of the
problem. As expected the story is told from Don Felder's perspective
and was probably how he remembered things. It is obvious from things
that were not said in the book that Don Felder himself had a share of
responsibility for his own undoing. It would be interesting to read a
book by another member of the Eagles to see how Don Felder is
portrayed. |
| 8.
From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust - Ken Scott and - |
| 9.
Serpent - Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos - This is the first
book of the Kurt Austin series. I've read others previously but this is
the book that started the series. Like I've mentioned, this is a Dirk
Pitt novel with Kurt replacing Dirk; Joe replacing Al. Anyway, it was
another fun read about a secret sect "The Brotherhood" that was trying
to keep all records of pre Columbian contact between the old and new
worlds a secret. They did this by killing anyone who uncovered such
information and destroying all artifacts that might malign Columbus. In
this story a string of discoveries were made on various continents that
pointed to Phoenician contact with the Mayans of the new world. It
seems when Rome sacked Carthage someone took the treasures of the city
and conveyed them to the new world and had the Mayan's construct a
secret temple in the middle of a lake to house them. The lake was then
flooded and the temple was hidden from view for centuries. Clues to the
where abouts of the treasure were inscribed on a rock stele found by
Mexicans who were plundering Mayan ruins. A Texas industrialist name
Halcon is trying to find the treasure to finance a war between Mexico
and the US that he believes will result in Mexico annexing a large part
of the American southwest for a new Hispanic country that he would
lead. Of course there is a beautiful female archaeologist that gets
wrapped up in the plot that catches Kurts eye. As a result NUMA is
brought into the fray to stop the plunder of Mayan artifacts and to
catch the bad guys which they eventually do. Like I said a good fast
moving story. Score another for Mr. Cussler. |
| 10. Medusa - Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos - Another good Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala story. In this one a triad of evil Chinese brothers invent a virus and unleash it in their own country with their plan being to first infect the world and then become its saviors by selling the antidote to all who can meet their price. Their master plan is to topple the government of China and become the rulers. When the triad realize that others are working on a cure and are ahead of them they do every thing in their power to seize the work for their own. They steal a top secret American under water laboratory and all of the scientists working there and transport it to a secret location where they force the scientists to finish their work. Of course as soon as they do, the triad decided they are no longer of use and plan to blow up the lab and everyone in it. NUMA gets called in to help the Navy find their top secret lab and protect the scientists working there and to assist where they can on the cure. As usual, Kurt and Joe are almost killed numerous times but escape their fate every time. Also, of course, there are beautiful women involved that Joe and Kurt get to play with. In the end, the lab is saved, the cure is distributed before the pandemic can occur, two of the three brother meet hideous deaths and Kurt and Joe get the girls. Sweet. |
| 11.
Death in Deep Water - Paul Kemprecos - I checked this book out
because this guys has written numerous books with Clive Cussler (see
review above) so I wanted to see what his writings were like. I can see
why Kemprecos and Cussler get along because they are both captivated by
the ocean and underwater technology. This is a story about a Greek
private eye named Socarides (Soc is his nickname) that is called in to
investigate a death at an aquatic park where the main suspect is a
killer whale. The park is up for sale and the death is causing second
thoughts for the Japanese company interested in buying it. Soc goes
undercover at the park to search for clues as to the death/murder. None
of the staff believes the killer whale name Rocky could be responsible.
During the course of the investigation two other murders occur which
indicates to Soc that something strange is going on. The plot is a
little long winded but turns out that Rocky had in fact died and was
replaced by a killer whale that was purchased on the black market to
cover up the fact to get the park opened and sold ASAP. Soc gets to the
bottom of the issue and rounds up the bad guys. This was an OK book but
not nearly as exciting as the books Kemprecos does with Cussler. I may
or may not seek out another of his books. |
| 12.
Fire Ice - Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos - Another good Kurt
Austin and Joe Zavala novel. In this story a wealthy Russian
businessman, Mikhail Razov who claims to be descended from the
Romanovs, is pretending to be be setting up trade cooperatives with the
US while behind the scenes he is planning on causing tsunami's that
will destroy Boston, New York and Washington DC leaving the US in
chaos. He plans to do this by firing missiles with warheads down
through the ocean and igniting the methane hydrate (called fire ice)
frozen there. As a side effect massive amounts of CO2 will be released
into the atmosphere which he believes will cause the US to dry up and
Siberia to become the new grain belt of the world. Razov believes if he
can pull this off he can become the new tsar of Russia. To defeat his
plot the President of the United States instructs NUMA to find the
ships carrying the missiles and put them out of business. Of course the
President cannot be involved in case the operation fails because that
would strain relations with the unstable government of Russia. This was
a good read and I'll be off to the library to find another Kurt Austin
novel. |
| 13.
Lost City - Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos - Another good
Kurt
Austin and Joe Zavala novel. In this story a reclusive arms dealing
family (the Fauchard's) are trying to refine a substance found at
deep under water black smokers into a serum (the Philosopher's Stone)
which can grant immortality to those who consume it. Their goal is for
their family to live forever and rule over the non-immortal people like
gods. During the testing of the serum they create a number of mutants
that they use to control and/or kill any who oppose them. Kurt and Joe
get involved when they are called in to rescue a group of scientists
who are trapped in a laboratory under a glacier in France. Of course
one of the scientist is a gorgeous female named Skye who takes an
immediate liking to Austin. The scientists found a Fauchard ancestor
frozen in the glacier. Come to find out he was the only one in the
family who was trying to prevent WWI all the other family members were
trying to start the war to profit on the arms. He was killed by his own
family as he was considered a traitor. All in all a good story. |
| 14.
The Forgotten - David Baldacci - This was interesting story
about human trafficking. In this story Puller, the main character is an
investigator for the Army. He finds out his Aunt is in trouble in
Paradise Florida and uses his R & R time to go visit her. When he
arrives he finds his Aunt has died under mysterious circumstances (at
least he things so). His Aunt had sent a letter to Puller's father who
was a four star general but now has Alzheimer's saying things were not
right in Paradise before she was killed. Puller's investigation angered
the local police but they got on board as more bodies turned up.
Numerous attempts were made on Puller's life but being an Army Ranger
help him survive. In the end he finds out that a human trafficking
pipeline was using Paradise to move their product and that an extremely
rich local was running the show. In the end Puller and his ragtag army
put an end to the pipeline and the rich business man was given his just
deserts. A rich Columbian criminal who was really running the show got
away in his personal submarine so he may show up in a future novel. Like most Baldacci novels this was a good, riveting story but not something I would read twice. |
| 15.
Devils's Gate - Clive Cussler with Graham Brown - An OK Kurt
Austin and Joe Zavala novel. This time the king of Sierra Leone
conspires with an evil scientist to build a very powerful particle beam
weapon that he wants to use to control the world and to raise Africa's
status as a country that needs to be reckoned with. His weapon is built
off shore of his country and like a laser can only fire at objects in a
straight line. Anything over the horizon would be safe from his threat
except he has also built a huge ship with multiple nuclear reactors
which power superconducting magnets with the task of bending the
particle beam around the curvature of the Earth and thereby allowing
targets anywhere. Kurt gets involved because he spots a burning
freighter during a submarine race him and Joe are attending on their
free time. As he arrives at the freighter he finds people exploding
bombs to try and sink the ship and he is fired upon as he tries a
rescue attempt for the people he presumes are on board. War breaks out
as it is discovered the first target for destruction will be Washington
D.C. Paul and Gamay Trout are deployed to pilot a submersible with a
bomb on it to destroy the weapon while Kurt parachutes onto the
targeting ship and sabotages the power and the cooling mechanism
thereby rendering the superconducting magnets worthless. In the end he
kills his arch enemy Andras and gets the girl scientist (go figure).
This was a decent read but not as riveting as some of Cussler's other
novels. |
| 16.
Deeply Odd (An Odd Thomas Novel) - Dean Koontz - The title says
it all. This was an odd story by anyone's definition. I guess it is a
part of a series but I'm not sure I will read any others. It is about a
guy, Odd Thomas, who is an unemployed fry cook with paranormal powers.
He can see spirits of the departed and has psychic magnetism which draw
him into situations that "normal people" aren't even aware of. In this
story he runs into a cowboy truck driver who tries to kill him in
an alternative universe called Elsewhere. His powers tell him
that this man will be involved in torture and killing of a group of
children so Odd Thomas sets out to find the cowboy and save the kids.
Along the way he meets an old, rich woman who drives a Mercedes Benz
limo who seems to be tuned in to this alternate reality who helps him
search for the children. He eventually finds the children being held
captive in the Mojave desert by a group of devil worshipers who plan on
killing the kids slowly for their and their master's pleasure. Odd
Thomas sneaks into the compound and with the help of a ghost dog and
the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock, he frees the children and lets loose an
evil entity that kills the worshipers and lays waste to the compound.
Like I said, a very odd story. I almost returned this book to the
library numerous times but for some reason (morbid fascination maybe)
read the whole thing. |
| 17.
The Tombs - Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry - A Fargo Adventure -
In this novel Sam and Remi are contacted by a scientist friend Albrecht
Fisher, who has found a major battlefield archeology site in Hungry
that he wants their help investigating. It turns out these discoveries
lead to a discovery of one of five tombs of Atila the Hun and that
Atila purposely left a trail from one tomb to the next in the form of
clues that searchers must solve to eventually find his burial tomb. A
group of middle eastern and Russian mobsters are also searching of
Atila's grave because they believe they are his dependents and they
deserve to have his treasures. When Sam and Remi start getting close
and finding the tombs the mobsters try to kill them in numerous ways.
Eventually they kidnap Remi and Sam has to criss cross Europe to find
and rescue her. The good guys eventually find all of the tombs and turn
over the treasure to the county they found the tombs in. After all of
the celebration is over, the mobsters descend on Sam and Remi's house
in La Jolla, California and pretty much destroy it as they try to
capture and/or kill the Fargo's out of revenge. The bad guys had no
idea how armed and dangerous the Fargo's were and their assault ends in
failure and their eventually deaths after trying to escape from the
U.S. Coast Guard. This was a good, well written story if you can
suspend your logic for awhile to believe that Sam, Remi and Albrecht
can pin point Atila's tombs in a matter of hours while other
researchers have been looking for it since about 500 AD. |
| 18.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses - Tom Standage - This was a
somewhat entertaining book that looks at history through the beverages
people drank. The six glasses are: beer, wine, spirits, coffee,
tea and finally Coca-Cola. I learned a few bits of history from reading
this book including about the British and their tea cravings (and the
lengths they went to to get their tea) and the real history of
Coca-Cola. There was an interesting quote from Robert Goizueta, the CEO
of the Coca-Cola Corporation in 1997 that I found memorable. He said: "A billion hours ago human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago, the Beatles changed music. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning." I would recommend this book to other to read. |
| 19.
Lost Empire - Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood - A Fargo
Adventure - A good read about the (fictional) genesis of the Aztec
civilization. The president of Mexico was just swept into office on his
platform of Mexican identity as decedents of Aztecs. He and everyone
around him changed their names to Aztecs names in support of their
cause. So caught up in this Aztec ultra-nationalism that when he finds
out the true history of the Aztec people he will do anything to hide it
as it would surely cause his downfall. Sam and Remi get involved when
they find a Confederate ship's bell off the coast of Tanzania while
scuba diving on vacation. In trying to understand this anomaly, they
are attacked which only heightens their curiosity. Their adventure into
finding the truth takes them through Tanzania and Zanzibar, into
the rain forests of Madagascar and across the Indian Ocean to Indonesia
and the legendary site of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. During all of
this they are shadowed by henchmen of the Mexican president who try to
stop and kill them at every turn. Eventually they find the ship and
Blaylock, the man who in the 1800's discovered the truth of the Aztec
culture. This was a fun and exciting book (if you can suspend your
skepticism of the plot) with caves, volcanoes and other stuff that I
love. |
| 20.
Dark Watch - Clive Cussler with Jack DuBrul - In this story Juan
Cabrillo and "The Corporation" are hired by a Japanese shipping magnet
to find and destroy the pirates that are plaguing his company's
shipping and sometimes stealing its ships completely. What Juan thought
was going to be an easy score turned into a international adventure.
Turns out a wealthy Russian and wealthy Indian are using snakeheads
(Chinese businessmen who smuggle people out of China for a promise of a
better life elsewhere) to find slaves to mine gold on the Kamchatka
peninsula under the noses of the Russians. When the Corporation
stops a pirate's ship and finds out they dumped a shipping container
filled with the Chinese bound for Kamchatka into the ocean killing
everyone, Juan gets mad and is determined to get even with the
perpetrators. The Corporation goes into high gear to determine who was
responsible which lead to the Russian and the Indian. Of course these
evil men don't give up easily and there are plenty of battles and life
threatening encounters that nearly cost Juan his life. In the end, of
course, they are successful in finding the bad guys and eliminating the
problem. This was a fun read. |
| 21.
Inferno - Dan Brown - Another good book from Dan Brown. This
book is so popular I had to wait for 300+ people to read it before I
got to check it out of the library. I had to read it quickly because I
knew I couldn't renew it any time soon. Dan Brown's books, The DaVinci
Code dealt with the Illuminati, Angels and Demon's dealt with the
Vatican and this book deals with Dante Alighieri the 14th century
Italian poet. The story is about a genus scientist Bertrand Zobrist who
believes the worlds population is going to make life on earth
unbearable very soon and so tries to convince international
organizations to promote birth control and contraceptives to slow the
population bomb. When his comments fall on deaf ears, he hides away
with the help of an (real) organization called the Consortium, and
develops a new vector virus to confront the problem head on. Robert
Langdon is asked by the WHO to help decode the clues left behind by
Zobrist after his suicide, to find the virus they believe is meant to
cause a world pandemic. Zobrist leaves all of the clue as to where the
virus is hidden in terms of Dante's Divine Comedy a topic Langdon is an
expert on. Langdon, being the symbologist that he, is is kidnapped and
given a drug to induce amnesia by the supposed bad guys. He is assisted
in his search by Sienna a beautiful and brilliant doctor who he
believes helped him with his amnesia. The plot is brilliantly executed
in that the people and organizations that you are lead to believe are
evil are anything but and the good guys turn into the bad guys at least
for a while. In the end you find out that everyone involved was good in
some sense. The book is one long chase scene that spans two or three
days with Langdon and Sienna traveling to Florence, Italy, Venice,
Italy and finally Istanbul, Turkey just barely escaping their pursers
each time. In the end, they are to late and the airborne virus which
modifies the DNA of all who are infected, is release into the
atmosphere; accomplishing what Zobrist planned. However, instead of
causing a world wide pandemic as everyone thought, the virus instead
makes a random 1/3 of the Earth's population sterile thereby solving
the population problem without mass death and misery being involved.
This was a thick book with relatively small font that took a while to
read, but the time spent was worth it. |
| 22.
The Third Secret - Steve Berry - This is a good story about the
secrets and politics of the Vatican. This is the second time I have
read this book because it is such a compelling story. In this story the
current, aging Pope, Clement XV, becomes obsessed with the details of
three Virgin Mary sightings documented in the Vatican archive.
Especially the third secret reveled to three peasant children in
Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Clement's Papal Secretary, Colin Michener
(the protagonist), becomes concerned about his Pope as his
behavior becomes more erratic. It seems only part of the third secret's
message is in the archive so Michener is sent to Romania to search out
a priest who did the original translation from Portuguese to Italian to
get the full message. Luckily the priest kept a copy of his
transcription which is sent back to the Pope which further adds to his
agitation. The Papal Secretary of State, Alberto Cardinal Valendrea,
desperately covets the papacy after narrowly loosing to Clement at the
last conclave. The plan for his papacy is to return the power of the
Pope to ancient levels and force Catholics to return to the old ways.
He wants none of the liberalizations of the modern church. Turns out
Valendrea destroyed the last part of the third secret from the archive
because it contained a message that would rock the church to its
fountains if it ever got out. In Valendrea's mind, the secret and
anyone connected to it had to be silenced at any cost. After comparing
the full texts of all three Virgin Mary encounters, Clement finally has
proof that God exists and knows the message God has been trying to get
out to the faithful but which has been suppressed by the church. The
message basically was this: homosexuality
and gay marriage was OK, priests should merry and have children and
that for woman the choice of child is with the woman alone and men
should never interfere. Of course Valendrea could never let this message out because it would destroy the power the church has over people so he attempts to kill Michener and his girl friend to prevent the secret from being reveled. In the end Clement has a vision from the Virgin telling him to commit suicide as a part of a heavenly plan to get rid of Valendrea and to finally release the third secret to the world. When all of the evidence of wrong doing is collected, Valendrea is forced to commit suicide as well thus ending the fight against reveling the third secret and putting an end to a very evil man. A somewhat convoluted plot but a very good one. As I said, this is a very good story. |
| 23.
Pot Inc. - Greg Campbell - This was a very interesting book
about the fledgling medical marijuana industry by a journalist living
in Fort Collins, Colorado. This book was published just before pot
became legal for recreational use in Colorado. The author, who doesn't
use pot himself, got caught up in the excitement of quasi-legal pot in
the hopes that growing some could tide him and his family over during
tough times in the journalism industry. He talks about his early
attempts at smoking pot in college and how he never got to liked it. He
goes on to interview the who's who of the marijuana universe: current
criminals, former criminals, advocates, staunch opponents, pot gurus,
DEA officials in addition to dispensary owners and medical marijuana
users. People living in Colorado will definitely recognize many of the
people he talks to and talks about. He attends pot workshops and
conferences in order to fully understand the industry and to convince
himself that the government stance on marijuana and its prohibition are
just wrong. He comes to realize that our government has been lying to
us for 70 years about the dangers of pot and that pot has no medical
uses what so ever. He then seeks help from growers across the US in
order to set up his own growing operation in the basement of his Fort
Collins home. He tells some funny stories about how the smell of
marijuana got into everything and that he, his wife and child
reeked of pot most of the time and that every time his doorbell rang he
thought he might get busted. The smell of his growing operation was his
biggest fear for getting caught even though he had read all of
applicable Colorado laws and tried to abide by them. In the end
he harvests a big 2.5 ounces from his plants and after legally selling
the pot he only lost $300 in the process. This book is for anyone who
is interested in how the legalization efforts have unrolled across the
US and how local governments try at every opportunity to kill the new
industry, |