The Secret Speech: Tom Rob Smith

A sequel to Child 44 , I like the first book better, but this was still a good read. Leo and Raisa have started over with the two girls they adopted. The oldest, Zoya, still hates Leo for the role he played in her parent's death. A document is put out after Stalin's death admitting the wrong doings of those in charge and a revolutionary group starts killing members of the KGB. A woman from Leo's past turns up and instead of killing him she kidnaps Zoya and turns her against the state making her a murderess. The rest of the story follows how Leo tries to get her back.

Lab 257: Michael Christopher Carroll

TERRIFING BOOK. There is an island of the Eastern coast near NY that was owned by the government and used for Biological testing, of germs and their effect on life. It is believed that Lyme disease was a result of the testing and released either deliberately to test the effects or accidently spread through animal migration. It's also believed that West Nile and the Peking duck disaster were results from the biological testing on the island. It wasn't until years later when the island had a noticeable virus outbreak that the realized the ovens they burned the animals in were faulty and had been constructed improperly. I was confused that the vets were upset when the feral cats on the island were executed, (when they shouldn't have been roaming around anyway near viruses) yet the vets killed millions of “test” animals every year. The hard core evidence of testing human subjects and animals people relied on for a living is almost unbelievable, but when reading the section where unleashing disease and letting it do its thing rather than starving people and then having to feed them when you conquer them- explained everything perfectly. I can't believe the haphazardness with which catastrophes were dealt with once Plum Island was privatized- and that they shredded all the tests from the start of the island and destroyed the specimens in the refrigerator. All that work and all the dead animals, people, and livelihoods gone. It sounded like within the last decade anyone could get on the island and there were a lot of suspicious characters. The ending spoke on future terrorism attempts to destroy the US by targeting the food. Between reading this book and the National Geographic one is left with no hope for the future...

The War for Muslim Minds: Gilles Kepel

This book focused more on the historical factors in why relations in the Middle East are so unpeaceful. The first chapter discusses why the Oslo Peace accords didn’t work and what each country was hoping to get out of a treaty. It then goes through presidencies and the formation of Al Qaeda. Then talks about the United States dealing with Saddam Hussein thinking that would end terror and moved on to terrorism in France, Spain, and 9/11. This was very insightful and an interesting read.

The Silver Star: Jeannette Walls

This book was interesting in that it followed a little girl's life, but it was an adult book. The happenings in the book hinted at the author's own life. Two little girls come home every day from school wondering if their mother will still be there, at age 12 "bean" (the protagonist) has lived in several places. Every time the going gets tough mom packs up and leaves. After the mom makes up a boyfriend and leaves after she is found out, the girls worry she won't come back and take a bus to Virginia to their Uncle's house. He takes them in and they become accustomed to life in a little town. The mom shows up and has a nervous breakdown and then leaves the girls with their uncle while she moves to New York. Both girls find work with a man in then who then tries rapping the oldest girl. This book concludes with Mr. Mattox (the employer) winning the court case and then being fired from his job. He is then shot when he is "mistaken for a bear" by Bean's uncle. This was an excellent story. I found it interesting that "To Kill a Mocking Bird" was mentioned, forcing you to compare Bean with Scout.

Sizzling Sixteen: Janet Evanovich

In this book Vinnie gets kidnapped and his wife kicks him out because the mob is looking d=for him- he was doing shady paperwork for money. The bail bond office gets burned down and Stephanie finds out what is really happening with Ranger's help. The bad guy in the end gets taking down for tax fraud. This book was over the top on the slap tick humor, I didn't enjoy this one very much

Bad Monkey: Carl Hiassen

I love this author; this was a hilarious dry humor book. I enjoyed the title where the monkey plays a minor role in the book. A couple on their honeymoon go fishing and catch an Arm. The story searches for its owner. The lead detective was actually demoted to food inspections, but continues to piece the story together. I should have put it together because I came to the correct conclusion on who the bad guy was in the beginning. The wife of the "arm" moves to the Bahamas and collects insurance money from her deceased husband. Many people are weaved into the story including the monkey who supposedly starred on The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The murderer ends up being the husband, sans hand.