The Last Jihad and The Last Days by Joel Rosenberg

I read the first two of five books by Joel Rosenberg, his first, The Last Jihad, and his second, The Last Days. One follows the other for a reason. He uses the same main characters in both books. Both involve an attempt to solve the Middle East crisis based on the sudden discovery of huge amounts of oil reserves underneath and off shore of Israel , the idea being that both Israelis and Palestinians can become exceedingly rich if there is a way to get them to share in the deal which would benefit them both. But, they have to agree with each other to get any of it since it is going to require a substantial investment by others in the infrastructure, and they won’t do it if there remains political instability. Of course there are the usual terrorist subplots. There are the radicals that want to interrupt any peace attempt and those who don’t want to give Palestine official statehood and those who don’t want to concede that has a right to exist. Both books are well-written and plausible (except for the discovery of oil). He has done his research and I learned more about some of the Middle East struggles, especially within the Palestinians than I had known before. I highly recommend those books to you.

WC Don

I've read all the Rosenberg novels and find the plots fun and the story moves along at a good pace. Each delves a bit more into religious doctrine that some might think a little overbearing and others find integral to the story. he has a nonfiction book called Epicenter than discusses current headlines and how they relate to Old Testament prophecy and that was pretty interesting.

agree on the Child books, good reads that move right along...most all the book have been optioned to hollywood where I think their biggest problem will be who plays Reacher...don't know too many 6 ft 5 inch 225lb actors are out there. Killing Floor is the first as I recall and most all are winners, even if I thought the most recent, Nothing to Lose, was the weakest of the series.

The Blevins books are neat tales, if you like that sort of thing, which I do. He is known for his period-accurate lingo so for that, I also find them fun to read when I want a change from political thriller/police story books.

I'm reading my 2nd Connelly book now. I reported on The Overlook a few weeks back and in that were numerous references to Bosch's previous case called Echo Park. I tried to get if from the library for this trip to Senegal but it hadn't come in by the time I had to leave : (

Our airport has a used book store and guess what was on the rack? Echo Park : )

so I bought it and have 80% read by the end of my decompression day after the flight. will probably finish it tonite (jet lag has it's advantages at times). so far...it rocks. Connelly has graduated to my current power rotation until I run out of titles or interest.

East Coast Don

reporting from (ridiculously humid) Dakar, Senegal