If you read anything this year, read this. This is a true story by an amazing kid. I consider myself more of an atheist than a fundamentalist ... this book helped me understand and have empathy for the nutty fundamentalists.

This is my favorite Greg Iles book (but Spandau Pheonix was an awesome debut). The Quiet Game is a great story about race relations in the south ... and the evil of silence. Great characters ... great writing.

Start with this. Genghis Kahn will become your hero. As good as this book is (and is is great), your reward will come with the next two in the series. I read all three in a two week period.

The first book by Tom Rob Smith and it is powerful, strange, scary, and realistic. Survival in the USSR ... not a pretty picture. Quoting Springsteen ... What if what you do to survive Kills the things you love Fear's a powerful thing, baby It can turn your heart black you can trust It'll take your God filled soul And fill it with devils and dust

Serial Killer ... well-developed characters ... page-turning, can't put it down, read it all night ... you get the idea.

Forbidden affair (successful older man - teenage girl) ... and the girl is murdered ... in Natchez ... same location as "Quiet Game" (read "Quiet Game" first).

A chilling tale of infidelity and past lovers ... supernatural but smart.

I loved this book even though my expectations were low (unlike DeMille's "Gatehouse" ... high expectations and a real disappointment). Unlike other readers, I thought the ending was a good one.

No one does it alone. You've got to work real hard (10,000 hours), be born at the right time, have talent, have parents that nurture your talent, ... it's a combination of advantages ... luck, opportunity, talent, teachers, enthusiasm, and HARD WORK.

If you don't read "Game of Shadows" and "American Icon", keep your mouth shut about PEDs in sport. These two books will convince you that athletes who are cheaters and liars should be shunned.

Art Schlichter was on top of the world ... an all-time great at OSU ... #4 NFL draft choice. However, he spent 10 years in jail for writing bad checks to fund his unbelievably out-of-control gambling addiction (lost 1.5 million). What I found most amazing was how this guy could have been so self-destructive without alchohol and drugs. He accomplished it all with total sobriety.

Garry and Sean ... Kane and Abel ... Rich Man Poor Man ... the real star is Wilbur Smith, one heck of a writer.

Part history part medical science. Mainly ... the ugly nature of war from the standpoint of disease. A good book not a great book.

Both parties are corportate - the system is rigged to the wealthy - as long as people are well fed, they will play the rigged game. We should NOT have military bases in 130 countries. No more war. The federal government is too big & too powerful. Eliminate federal taxes and federal mandates. Most people are Libertarians and don't know it ... they just keep eating and playing the game.