Tsar

Tsar by Ted Bell
This book had been in my "Wish List" for quite a while. I went to the local library and put it on their list of things to get, and they got it in. I had it for two weeks, and finally had time to finish it. There was a lot of interesting things in this book. One drawback that it had for me is that it had fairly graphic depictions of things that didn't need to be treated in such detail. That for me was a big detraction. It could've moved the story along with no need for it. It didn't seem to pick up for me until towards the end. For me, reading about the recent leadership of Russia was very interesting, as I'm fairly uninformed about that subject. The descriptions of places were quite fantastic, and the ending puts the hero in quite a moral dilemma. I didn't particularly like how the ending was written, as it seemed to gloss over some major details, but all in all it was a fairly enjoyable read.

The Appeal

The Appeal by John Grisham
This book was very timely for me, as I read it just prior to the elections. Unfortunately, it shows a sad side of politics which I'm sure happens with all parties. It talks about purchasing elections, and in particular, Supreme Court seats.
This book brought to my attention the importance of Supreme Court justices, and indeed judges at every level of government. It's not something you think about every day, but it does have a large impact on how things work. The saddest thing about this book is that you could very well see it happening. The justice that is purchased in this book has many similar views with myself. I could have seen myself voting for him if given the information that voters would have seen. However, the premise of the book talks about a court case in which a company poisons a towns water with toxins and many in the town die or become very ill. While I have strong feelings that we need some tort reform in this country, I don't think that cases should simply be dismissed out of hand. We need some sort of middle ground.
Anyway, this was an interesting book that can open your eyes to some possibilities that you may not have thought about before.

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
HAL, the spaceship controlling computer in this book, was my main reason for reading this book. I know it may confirm my nerdishness, but I read some excerpts from the book in an article about computer error messages, and thought it would be interesting. I found a copy at the local library and they were selling it for 50 cents. I purchased it and used it for some leisure reading on my plane ride to Phoenix. While interesting, this book ended up becoming quite strange towards the end. I'm not really 100% sure what they were going for. It was interesting, though, and had enough interesting sections to make it worth reading.