• The Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett

I enjoyed this book a lot. Once again, I loved Follett's characters. Lucy is such as strong woman. Not necessarily intentionally, but her circumstances force her to rise to the occassion. The climax of the book is a lot more brutal than most of Follett's books. I really don't want to give it away, but the basic plot is that the British are chasing a German spy (die Nadel) that may have (or not) discovered British secrets pertaining to the planning of D-Day. They have to catch him before he contacts Germany.

"They were outside a shop that had a huge empty space where once there had been a plate-glass window. A rough sign, hand-painted and nailed to the window-frame, said, 'Even more open than usual.'

Bloggs laughted. ' I saw one outside a bombed police station: 'Be good, we are still open.'" - 90

• Travesties - Tom Stoppard

I finished reading this a few days ago, but have been too busy to post anything. Anyway, after reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead I thought it would be good to read more of Tom Stoppard's plays. The play takes place in 1917 Zurich and is based on the coincidence that James Joyce, Tistan Tzara (the founder of Dadaism) and Lenin were all in the city at the same time. Travesties is written in a form similar to R & G, so expect it to be a bit absurd at times and be ready to say "WHAT THE....!" occasionally. Most of it makes sense, but one or two things just make you shake your head wondering what the guy had to be on to come up with something so random.

"...crucible of anti-art, cradle of Dada!!! Who? What? Whatsisay Dada?? You remember Dada! - historical halfway house between Futurism and Surrealism, twixt Marinetti and Andre Breton, 'tween the before-the-war-to-end-all-wars years and the between-the-wars years - Dada! - down with reason logic, causality, coherence, tradition, proportion, send and consequence, my art belongs to Dada 'cos Dada 'e treats me so..." - 8

"The nerve of it. Wars are fought to make the world safe for artists. Is is never quite put in those terms but it is a useful way of grasping what civilized ideals are all about. The easiest way of knowing whether good has triumphed over evil is to examine the freedom of the artist. The ingratitude of artists, indeed their hostility, not to mention the loss of nerve and failure of talent which accounts for 'modern art', merely demonstrate the freedom of the artist to be ungrateful, hostile, self-centered and talentless, for which freedom I went to war." - 22

"Intellectual curiosity is not so common that one can afford to discourage it." -47

• The Hammer of Eden - Ken Follett

A hippie commune decides to fight the California state government in order to keep their way of life when they've been told that a new dam will be built along their river in Silver City. Soon their home will be at the bottom of a man-made lake if they cannot succeed. However, rather than fight in the conventional terms... they create a terrorist cell and call themselves The Hammer of Eden. The leader of the group steals a seismic vibrator and threatens to create earthquakes (of increasing destruction) until the governor buts a ban on all nuclear projects in California. The FBI must first find out if someone could even cause an earthquake, and then find the group before they can try.

I really liked Agent Maddox's character and her father Bo. The book was really enjoyable and somewhat conflicting. I wanted the commune to keep their land, but I was really pushing for the FBI agent too. There really is that struggle to preserve one's way of life...even though both of their ways are completely at odd with one another.

• The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett

So, I'm kind of at a loss of words. It's late, I've been working like crazy, and I've mentally shut down since tomorrow - um...today - is the start of my weekend. The book was enjoyable for the most part. However, the character Sonja kind of bothered me. She had a somewhat disturbing event in her childhood that just resulted in a fetish that I really didn't feel like reading about. Minus that one issue I liked the book. I love the kid (Billy) - even though he's a minor character for most of the book - Elene, Vandam, and even Wolff. Plot wise it's another spy verses spy theme. There was a few really good explainations off life in Ciaro during WWII and I found a lot of the information fascinating.

"'Quickly' meant 'within the next few days'; 'immediately' meant ' tomorrow.' - 375 (on the nomadic concept of time)

• Triple - Ken Follett

So by now it should be obvious that I like Ken Follett's books. Heck, I bought 6 more of them today. However, this is one of my favorites so far. I've really enjoyed them all, but this one is up there with Pillars of the Earth. Mossad, the KGB, Egyptian Intelligence, the Fedayeen, and a little obscure help from the Italian mafia... seriously, this book has everything! Nat Dickstien, a Mossad agent, has to steal 200 tons of uranium without it being linked back to Israel before Egypt can finish developing it's nuclear weapons program. If he fails, Egypt will win the race and the state of Israel, left unable to defend itself from a nuclear attack, would likely be undone.

I loved the main character and the plot, but more importantly I was happy that Follett discussed some difficult topics. Reading about the way Nat was treated during the Holocaust was somewhat gut-wrenching. Your teachers tend to ignore the topic of sexual experimentation on some of the prisoners. In your mind you know it probably happened (if you're a realistic person) and to read it was difficult, but truth is harsh. (Yes, I know that this is historical fiction, but experimentation did happen during the holocaust so he's not making it sound worst than it was.) Now, the context in which he tells you all this I could have done without. Fair warning: everyone of his books have at least one "bedroom " scene. I put bedroom in quotes for several reasons... sometimes it's not in a bedroom, sometimes it's just wishful thinking, other times it's forced on someone unwillingly, or anywhere in between. The scene is this book was by far the strangest and most uncomfortable of all (so far).

"Growing older he had gained skills but not wisdom. In fact, it seemed to him that he knew more and understood less." - 133

"'So are yours.'" -166 (Please tell me if you found that line odd...in it's original context of course.)

"I once knew a man called Wolfgang. He used to say, 'I just take orders.' Then he use to brake my leg." - 52 (Referring to a German Nazi who had broken his leg several times in a concentration camp, Nat emphasizes why one should not blindly follow orders without questioning them if they seem unethical.)

• Code to Zero - Ken Follett

Once again, I really liked Ken Follett's book. This one was really about the development the main character, Luke. He's lost his memory and has to figure out who he is and what he's forgotten. Throughout his day he realizes that he must be a fairly important person and that he's forgotten something BIG! I really liked the development of the character and the book itself kind of reminded me of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons without the clues being specifically laid out. Luke just has to figure it out on his own and with the help of a few friends...

"'You've read George Orwell. Some animals are more equal than others.'" - p. 413