John Beales

I’ve read a lot of Tom Clancy books over the years, and other thrillers, but for some reason have never read anything by Robert Ludlum until now. I’m not sure how I missed his work, after all, he’s the guy that wrote The Bourne Identity, but somehow I managed to stay away. Earlier this spring a neighbour put a bunch of books out in the recycling, and I picked them up. There was a treasure trove of thirty-six books out there, two by Robert Ludlum, including The Holcroft Covenant, which is a pretty good read.

Reading The Holcroft Covenant reminded me of older times and stories, when there were more people who remembered the World Wars than didn’t, and conspiracy theories could be created about secret Nazi societies run by generals who escaped prosecution after the war, and perhaps by their children. The story lines of The Holcroft Covenant weave themselves slowly together, and in true thriller fashion I frustratingly figured out what had to be done long before the characters did. For a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat, (or bed, or whatever), this is a good one, although don’t try to read it all in one sitting like some other books that I have read recently, it’s a bit long for that, (but every page earns its place).

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Another thriller down, and written by the same author as the previous book, (I kind of go in batches). In The Sinner Tess Gerritsen gave us another book that’s easy to read and hard to put down. It allowed me to, hopefully, get my fill of escaping into a world of mystery. Also, it’s not crazy long so it is a good book for a long flight, depending on how fast you read.

Time to get back to the computer-related brick I have on the nightstand.

Want to read it yourself? Get it from one of these places and I’ll receive a small kickback:

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I’m behind on writing up the books I read. A few weeks ago I read another of the Alphabet Mysteries, B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton. It was quick, entertaining, twisty, (in a good way), and fun. If you like whodunnits, (apparently whodunnits is a real word – my spellchecker didn’t pick that up), then you’ll probably like B is for Burglar, and in all honesty, the whole series.

There are a bunch more of these on the shelf waiting to be read, but I don’t want to go too fast since I tend to read them in one, quite long, sitting, and I have other things that I have to do. I am looking forward to reading them, though.

Want to read it yourself? Get it from one of these places and I’ll receive a small kickback:

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A few weeks ago I had seen nothing but computers and computer books and needed a break from the code floating in my dreams, so I found a book to escape into for a bit. I went to my bookshelf and pulled out the Tess Gerritsen book Bloodstream. An escape into the world of teenage axe murders in small-town Maine. These Tess Gerritsen books are often pretty spooky as far as thrillers go and this one is as well. It’s easy to read, you don’t have to think much, (except a bit to keep the characters in line, something that I usually have to put a bit of effort into, no matter the author or book), and it’s super entertaining, with a bit of freaky science thrown in for fun.

Want to read it yourself? Get it from one of these places and I’ll receive a small kickback:

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If you are familiar with Breaking the Vicious Cycle or the previous edition, Food and the Gut Reaction, you may find it odd that this is the book I read right after reading the 432-page monster Bread, which is all about baking and eating complex carbohydrates, but such is life. I’ve recently had a good reason to learn a lot more about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and Breaking the Vicious Cycle is the source of that diet.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a diet intended to help heal the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, as well as Celiac Disease, and perhaps autism. The theory is that people affected by these diseases have trouble properly digesting complex carbohydrates, and undigested complex carbohydrates feed intestinal bacteria that shouldn’t be fed, which wreaks havoc in the digestive tract, so, by eliminating all carbohydrates other than simple glucose from the diet those bacteria, (which aren’t really desirable), have nothing to eat and die off and the digestive tract is able to heal itself.

I first heard about the SCD diet years ago and have seen it work for people, but I never fully educated myself about the theory behind it. It was really interesting to finally see why the SCD diet is thought to work instead of semi-blindly following instructions.

If you or someone you know is struggling with IBD or Celiac Disease, I highly recommend looking into the Specific Carbohydrate Diet as a natural way to help manage your disease. It may not help you, but on the other hand it may.

Want to read it yourself? Get it from one of these places and I’ll receive a small kickback:

Amazon.com (USA) Amazon.ca (Canada) Amazon.co.uk (UK)