Stone cold, by David Baldacci

Uncovering the hidden, secret work of the government is what Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are committed to. New honorary member Annabelle Conroy was last seen in The Collectors, when she swindled $40 million from the guy who murdered her mother; he's after her now. The Camel Club also has to protect Oliver from Harry Finn; Oliver has secrets about Finn that Finn will kill to keep from becoming public. Suspense drama at its best.

Protect and defend, by Vince Flynn

The one bad thing about reading a series featuring a continuing character like Mitch Rapp, CIA, is that sometimes a book ends without a satisfying resolution; you have to read the next book to see what happens. Flynn's last book, Act of Treason, ended that way, but the good news is that this book begins with a great resolution. Mitch works for the CIA but his boss, Irene, and the President both depend on him for his knowledge of Iraq and Iran. When Iran's nuclear power plant implodes and they blame the US and Israel, Mitch works to bring the warring parties together. I learn a lot from this series.

Betrayal, by John Lescroart

Dismas Hardy is back, but most of the story centers around Iraq. Here's an inside (fictional) view of who is getting rich in Iraq, and why. Overtrained and overzealous, former SEAL and now contract security Ron Nolan becomes used to killing "loose ends" who get in his way. National Guard reservist Evan Scholler is a loose end.

Chariots of Fire

Academy-award winning and a joy to watch, this is a story of a Jewish student at Cambridge and a young Scot becoming a minister, both runners, and their excelling at the 1924 Olympic games. Plus the wonderful music!

Rhett Butler's people, by Donald McCaig

If you want to know where Rhett Butler's people came from, make up your own story. This is racist crap. I only read a few pages; if you finish it, please let me know if it gets any better than the comment by a slave to young Rhett: "for a white boy, you was a pretty fair nigger." Back in 1936, when the original Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was published, the narrative can be viewed in the context of the cultural atmosphere of the time, but there is no excuse for continuing this type of hurtful garbage.

Be Kind Rewind

This movie must have been such fun to make! The whole audience at the Gurnee Marcus Theater (it's not playing in Racine) was howling at the main characters' attempts to quickly remake classic movies like Ghostbusters, Driving Miss Daisy, RoboCop, and others; the shorter the better, so more people would be able to check them out. The remade, or "Sweded," movies are on the website. It was like watching Jack Black and Mos Def outtakes. Hilarious.

http://www.bekindmovie.com/