Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath is back tracking down bad guys (terrorists) who had responsibility for the president’s kidnapping as detailed in The Lions of Lucerne. Author Brad Thor again has written a gripping, exciting, attention-grabbing novel with Path of the Assassin
. Hero and former SEAL Team member Scot Harvath continues his battle against Middle Eastern terrorists, foreign governments, and even the CIA.
The strained relationship continues between lone-wolf Harvath and other United States’ agencies. Even with a common goal Harvath often is at odds with them as they try to capture or kill a mysterious silver-eyed assassin. In an unusual twist a group apparently turns the tables on Islamic terrorists by engaging in a determined campaign to seek vengeance using their own terrorist tactics.
Machiavelli’s The Prince is famous a written “instructions” to his superiors about how to rule effectively and often brutally. Many believe that Machiavelli was the brute, but he was really just the man behind the throne trying to avoid the fate (often death) of unstable rulers.
“…you’re doomed. Doomed to the middle. Doomed to be one of those who are acted upon, not one of those who act. That’s all right. We can take care of that. This book will take you by the shoulders, shake you, and make you begin to live your sorry life differently. To take stock of a situation and ask yourself, before you act: What would Machiavelli do? And the answer, in almost all cases, is: Whatever is necessary.”
In most of my reviews I try very hard not to betray the story and allow you to discover it on your own. In fiction I rarely tell more than what you might read on the inside cover and usually even less. The fact that We the Living
was Ayn Rand’s first novel blows me away. She admits that many of the characters were influenced by her life. From her Forward;
“You know the old saying: Two people can keep a secret provided one of [them's] dead.”
I guess you could call this excerpt from The Night Manager
a theme of this thriller by John Le Carre
. I feel a little odd reviewing a novel by an author who has been writing thrillers as long as he has. I guess my angst comes from the fact that I felt this novel was lacking. It was enjoyable, but it could have been so much more.
You may have heard of Adam Smith and most certainly Karl Marx, but what about John Stuart Mill or Jean-Baptiste Say or John Manard Keynes? These men and many others are the forefathers of classical economic thought and On Classical Economics
is an in depth look at their theories and writings. Author Thomas Sowell is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and one of my favorite writers and a prolific one at that. You can read his regular columns at TownHall.com.
On Classical Economics is not a book for light reading and probably is more for folks who really want to probe the depths of classic economic theory.
Since I was born in the early sixties, much of my knowledge of that decade came from media sources. Over the past few years as I have awakened to how the media/liberal complex works I have torn down the walls of deceit to gain a more complete perspective of that decade. Even with that knowledge, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties provided many surprises and back up for what I already knew to be true. Author Jonathan Leaf provides a detailed accounting of what really happened and that contrary to media/Hollywood myth the sixties were not all that radical;
I received this advanced reading copy of Bird’s-Eye View
from my Mother-in-law. It was interesting reading a book that has numerous typos and I am not sure why a publisher would release such a document. As I begin reading it did not take long to realize that wife’s mother could NOT have read this book. The rather graphic descriptions and language do not jibe with the woman who gave birth to my wife. I happened to be reading this while visiting them this weekend and I made sure that it was not laying around as she probably read some of it. It is a connection that I don’t want to have. As far as I am concerned our parents never had sex.
Most of this book review will consist of excerpts from this inspirational and thought-provoking book by Eric Johnston. My hope is that many of you will pick up and read this timely book as we wade through our current problems. I wish that I could reasonable reprint all of the passages that I have highlighted as I read America Unlimited
.
As you read the passages think about succinct Mr. Johnston’s comments are. I should mention that he was a businessman and the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce. He also had the opportunity to travel at the behest of the President of the United States. At the risk of sounding like an chain e-mail, please read to the end (or skip ahead if you are that impatient) for a rather surprising fact.
I don’t know why I choose some books. The haunting cover of Lost Souls
caught my eye on display in Sam’s Club and I thought it interesting that Dean Koontz was taking a fresh look at Victor Frankenstein. If you are a Dean Koontz fan, you probably don’t want to read any further in this review.
We were recently away visiting family and my wife’s family are prodigious readers. We were discussing some books and my father-in-law said something we all thought funny about a book, but it turned out profound and the very first paragraph of this novel provided a great example. Papa described one book as having too much descriptive stuff. Papa loves action and I just figured that was him as I had never felt that way about a book until this opening paragraph;
lived up to what I had heard, but it grabbed me and pulled me in like I love novels to do. The Secret Service’s main role is to protect the President, however, powerful forces pull off perhaps the crime of the century killing all but one of a Secret Service detail.