The Ghost War, by Alex Berenson

Another fast paced, highly entertaining thriller from the author of The Faithful Spy.

The Janson Directive, by Robert Ludlum

I bought this at an airport bookstore when I learned my flight was delayed. The best thing I can say about it is that it took the delay and most of the flight to read, thus giving me something to do.

The Last Patriot, by Brad Thor

The thunderingly uninteresting and possibly religiously bigoted patriot would have been a more appropriate title for this poor excuse for a thriller.

I had to skip several pages of turgid writing to make my way through this to the end.

The Back of the Napkin, by Dan Roam

The notion of this book is to explain how to use simple pictures to solve problems and communicate ideas.

It is a compelling idea, especially because so many business presentations are a boring collection of bullet points (text). A problem exacerbated by poor presentation technique in which the speaker reads the text to the audience. Yawn.

So beyond the use of images as a problem solving technique, I was interested in the use of images as a showing / explaining / selling technique. The book covers both topics well.

But it isn't simple. Or at least not easy. The SQVID notion, for example, is clear: if you want to show a topic, consider if its visualization should be Simple (vs elaborate), Quality (vs quantity), Vision (vs execution), Individual (vs comparative), and Change (vs as-is).

Bottom line: some great ideas for brainstorming, approaching complex problem solving and presenting things. But I will have to have this book at my side as a guide to walk through the techniques for at least the first few times I do this. And I'm not sure that, under the pressure of deadlines, I'll have the fortitude to look at the guidance instead of just pushing forward, seat of pants, to a delivery.

We'll see.

Step by Step, by Bertie Bowman

I heard about this book from an NPR broadcast. It is outstanding reading. I highly recommend it: very well written, interesting, and with several strong messages that will, I expect, benefit any reader.

The Wolfman, by Nicholas Pekearo

This was a fabulous book: well written, great and unusual plot, wonderful characters. Sad that Mr. Pekearo perished in the line of duty in his role as an auxiliary NYPD officer.

Kildar (2), by John Ringo

I liked the prior book for Saturday morning procrastinating chores by reading something silly, so tried this one. It is identical, stylistically, to it's predecessor.

The Marching Season, by Daniel Silva

Silva's books are all suspenseful, interesting and well written. This is one of his earlier novels, that I'd not read before. It was true to form.

Kildar, by John Ringo

This is junk fiction - that is to say, extremely easy reading, no complexity whatsoever. A step above drivel, but hardly literature.

Perfect then for a quick Saturday read.

Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer

Well finally, the last in the series. Perhaps the best written of Meyer's books, it mostly felt good to get it over with and end the sequence.