Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Happy Hump Day.

I love to read.  I prefer reading fiction but I also read Masonic Books, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction and Biographies -  I have been reading "real" books for awhile.  I have a Kindle and I do enjoy the convenience but I do like the book format best.

I will share three books - two finished and one in progress.


First


The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt

by 
 erased from history. He did not succeed.

The Patriot Threat (Cotton Malone #10)

by 

 Haym Salomon and the way he was treated after the war is a travesty (IHOP)    (April 7, 1740 – January 6, 1785) was  Polish-born  Jewish American businessman and political financial broker who immigrated to  New York  from  Poland during the period of the  American Revolution . He helped convert the French loans into ready cash by selling  bills of exchange for  Robert Morris , the Superintendent of Finance. In this way he aided the Continental Army  and was possibly the prime financier of the American side during the  American Revolutionary War  against  Great Britain}

This was a good read.  I recommend it.
The 16th Amendment to the Constitution is why Americans pay income taxes. But what if there were problems associated with that amendment? Secrets that call into question decades of tax collecting? In fact, there is a surprising truth to this hidden possibility.Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired and owns an old bookshop in Denmark. But when his former-boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files—the kind that could bring the United States to its knees—Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four hour chase that begins on the canals in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia.


The Forbidden Tomb (The Hunters #2)

by 
My first taste of Chris Kuzneski’s work was last years The Hunters , I’m always on the lookout for another great thriller writer, James Rollins, Andy McDermott and co can only turn out so many books a year, after that its the cheesy end of the market, the Dan Brows etc. So finding that the Hunters was not just good, but brilliant was as much a relief as it was a revelation.

In book two “The Forbidden Tomb” we see the return of the excellent, multi-layered and utterly human characters created in book one. A complex team, compiled from each needed skill set for the first mission, and just as apt for this new mission. As such we are treated to another search for the impossible, a hunt to find something lost and no real clues to its location, in this case the Tomb of Alexander the Great. But as i have come to expect in any book of this type, all is not what it seems. Why has the tomb never been found? Why are there so few clues? Is someone protecting the history of Alexander and his Tomb? Who? What? Why? I love the stream of unknown. Read the book and find out! (i cannot give any more away)

For me i found the story breathtaking (i’m a huge fan of Alexander the great and stories about him). The plot isn’t just a balls out action thriller, it has more intelligence than that, it has the ability to keep you guessing all the way to the end. This book has so many twists and turns you just don’t want to put the book down. I think this is the first book in years that has made me physically sit bolt upright and exclaim out loud “No F….ing way!” I take my hat off to you sir, that part of the plot took real balls, i was shocked, surprised, amazed, appalled and yet transfixed by the incident with Jasmine.

This book is truly an action packed thinking man (or woman)'s thriller, with a plot that spans the centuries and is packed with more surprises than is good for the heart. Loved it, and already cannot wait for the next one. I really do promise to make time to read the Payne and Jones series, which if its even half as good, is going to be worth making the time to read.

Highly recommended


     This was a wonderful movie.   Anything with Helen Mirren is something that I will enjoy.  I loved the story based on a true story (which is after all a movie) about the recovery of stolen art.  It also is the story of a woman - Maria Altmann who sought restitution from the Austrians for for the paintings which belonged to her.   Information here.  

And this is just something else to get me over the hump.  

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