Spring Break Catchup, Books

Last week was very slow in the Kingdom, due mostly to Spring Break and Easter; plus a dinner party for El Jefe (which was lots of fun) and brief trips out of town at the beginning and the end of the week.

SWMBO had a bug requiring a visit to the local medicos over the weekend. Everything is (very thankfully) okay, but the doctor visit took longer than anticipated, so to pass the time while inhabiting waiting rooms and similar places, El Jefe stepped next door and invested in Jonathan Kellerman's excellent thriller, Obsession. In Obsession, Kellerman's usual protagonist, psychologist Alex Delaware, teams-up yet again with his friend, LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis, to solve a cryptic mystery left by the deceased guardian of an old patient of Dr. Delaware. Lots of seedy bad guys and other interesting characters, and plenty of oh-my-gosh situations ensure that you won't want to put this one down. Burned through it in an evening plus a lunch time.

In other reading, I'm presently working on the second volume of Shelby Foote's trilogy The Civil War. Made some progress in it over the break, and just got through Foote's discussion of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Since El Jefe's of a somewhat pro-Southern persuasion, the rest of the history is sort of downhill, so it's apt to take longer than I originally anticipated to plow through these excellent books.

Plenty of other books are waiting around: when I'm done with Mr. Foote, I think I'm going to change areas entirely and read Adam Tooze's economic history of the Nazi German economy: The Wages of Destruction. I've had this one sitting around for about a year, and have grazed in it a good amount already, but it deseves some more concentrated attention. Mr. Tooze's economic perspective of the constraints (real and perceived) driving German (i.e. Hitler's) decision making in World War II and the years leading up to it is right up my alley, and, in my opinion, long overdue.

On a somewhat lighter note: I keep meaning to read Mario Puzo's The Sicilian (one of his I managed to miss). Also, I have Stephen White's Dry Ice (at last out in paper), which I hope to make a start on soon.

Plus, there's always real life, which lately has had lots to recommend it, plus working (paying the bills, I have found, is usually approved of). In any case, some of this is the reason for the, er, absence of much posting over the past week. El Jefe (and all in the Kingdom save the ever-vigilant Organs of State Security) are in catch-up mode this week, particularly at work. Never fear, something will appear presently: I'm working on something about Iraq, as well as on the business in Tibet.