Lionel Messi is a poet

This morning I visited a Myanmar elementary school as its students were having a “literature character parade.” I’m sure a lot was lost in translation, but as I understood it the students were supposed to be dressed as their favorite authors, poets or fictional characters.

Naturally, the little girl dressed as Lionel Messi caught my attention. She wore a Messi jersey and had shin guards, wrist bands and pig tails.

Cute?

For sure.

Literary?

I didn’t think so.

But then I asked her, “Who is your favorite author?”

She shrugged.

“You like soccer?”

She shrugged again.

“Then why’d you dress like Messi?”

The girl finally replied, “My dad says he’s a poet.”

Well, okay then.

Tom Yum!

A brilliant tropical sun

Travel: Inya Lake, Yangon

Book Review: The Wolves

I really like the fact Alex Berenson writes literary thrillers. In my opinion, Daniel Silva and Berenson are the best in this genre.

The quality of the writing isn’t the only thing that sets apart the John Wells series from others such as Mitch Rapp and Scot Harvath—Berenson has gotten away from using the “doomsday scenario” involving WMDs and Muslim terrorists in every novel, and instead his plots are intelligent and far more subtle.

In The Wolves, it begins as a simple quest for vengeance. It follows The Counterfeit Agent and Twelve Days as the third book in a series arc centered on billionaire Aaron Duberman. The brief summary: Duberman, who is Jewish but an American citizen, tried to use stolen nuclear materials to start a war between Iran and America. His motivation was to protect Israel from a nuclear Iran.

The Wolves begins after Wells, with help from Ellis Shafer (CIA) and Vinny Duto (former CIA, now a senator), foil the plot. But now the president—who had been sucked in by Duberman’s subterfuge—is protecting himself by hiding the truth from the public, and as a result Duberman gets to skate unpunished for his actions.

Wells decides to go after Duberman on his own. The plot, however, quickly escalates as it morphs into something far more sinister than simple vengeance—and Wells becomes ensnared in a game of cat-and-mouse with politicians and spies from China, Russia and the U.S. … and it all unfolds on the streets of Hong Kong.

Berenson offers a portrait of a warrior who is tired of doing “the right thing” only to come home to politicians bent only on staying in power. Wells is a conflicted protagonist, with emotions and actions and dialogue that are brilliantly written—and the result is an incredibly satisfying novel.

I have just one complaint about this book—someone on the editing team at Putnam really messed up on the Kindle edition (and probably in the print as well, though I haven’t seen it). I found at least seven or eight glaring typos / editing mistakes—and it’s not like I was even looking for them. In one instance, the wrong name was attributed to dialogue. In another, extra quotation marks were randomly included in the middle of a sentence. There were several others, and while I don’t normally get hung up on such things, it’s not like this is an Indie publisher or amateur author.

This is an imprint of Random House.

I’m sure they’ll fix the Kindle edition fast and upload a new version to Amazon, but as someone who really loves this series, the fact the mistakes even exist in the first place is incredibly annoying—because for whatever reason Alex Berenson’s books have never reached the same level of success as some of his contemporaries in the same genre. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but if Putnam were really betting on Berenson and this series, then wouldn’t they put a better team of editors etc. on this book? Anyway, that’s my two cents.

As for the book, it’s a must-read. Long-time fans should love it, and the backstory is told sufficiently well that if you haven’t read the previous books you should still enjoy this one.

5/5 stars.

Use this affiliate link to read more about The Wolves on Amazon.

Travel: Inya Lake at sunset

New Year Celebration: Chinatown, Bangkok

Travel: Bangkok at dusk

My (restored) faith in humanity

I took a walk last night and it put me in a terrible mood. It’s my own fault, really—because I intentionally went to a part of Yangon that would never be recommended on a tourist map. The sheer number of kids that were naked on the sidewalk and bathing in dirty water just pummeled me emotionally. I’ve seen that sort of thing in Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam, and it never gets easy.

But last night was the worst.

I felt helpless, and it made what I’m doing here seem pointless. It simply doesn’t matter how much good you try to do—there is so much misery in this part of the world. There are so few people who are willing to do anything about it.

And then this morning I got an email that really restored my faith in humanity.

A former student of mine is going to Thailand this summer to do missions-oriented humanitarian work for a month. It’s amazing and inspiring and extraordinary—and I am so freaking proud of you, Babo.

Here is the link to her GoFundMe page.

If you can help by posting her link to social media, then that would also be extraordinary.

 

Book Review: Back Blast

I have read and enjoyed this entire series and there is no question that Mark Greaney is a terrific thriller writer—however, this book is a major disappointment.

The premise is that Court Gentry, who has been on the run from the CIA for years, has finally returned to U.S. soil to try and clear his name. This has been building of course for the entire series, and I was looking forward to reading Back Blast to get all the answers about why Gentry had been targeted by the CIA.

Three things bothered me about this book:

It’s length—at 500-plus pages there is way too much nonsensical filler that completely derailed the pace and flow. If the story had been 100 pages shorter then the writing would have been much stronger and enjoyable.

The action bordered on absurdity. In fairness it’s what you expect from a series where the main character is on the run from CIA assassins in every book—but the way he evades his pursuers has become more and more ridiculous. In the past it’s been smart and the violence was in clever, tech-savvy ways. In Back Blast it did nothing but frustrate me.

The last and biggest problem I have with the book is the actual answer as to why Gentry has been on the run all these years. I won’t reveal any spoilers, but suffice it to say the motivations and actions of the people pursuing Gentry and the final resolution were major letdowns after all the time invested in reading this series.

I feel like most longtime fans of the series will want to read it anyway—and I’ll definitely read the next installment because I am a big fan of Mark Greaney—but I don’t think I would recommend Back Blast to anyone. Instead I would suggest the earlier books in the series. They’re much, much better.

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I received a free digital edition from Penguin Random House First to Read in exchange for a honest/unbiased review. Use this affiliate link to read more about Back Blast on Amazon.