Summer Knight - Jim Butcher

Book 4 of the Dresden files. Summer Knight has all the sarcasm and action I've come to expect from the first three books. The theme in this one is Faeries and Harry Dresden finds himself in the middle of TWO potential wars. This book finally delves a little into Harry's background and the white council. The action scenes weren't as interesting as the first 3 but Harry's ingenuity in getting out of tough situations or dumb luck keeps this book interesting.

If I was putting the Dresden files on a graph, compared to the first 3 books I'd put book 4 at a plateau. It starts off great but then doesn't really get much better. It just keeps building upto something and feels a bit anti-climactic towards the end.

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden

This book is about the hunt for Pablo Escobar, so it's pretty interesting right off the cover. The first half of the book sets up the political and social climate in Columbia to which Pablo was born and how he rose to becoming the most hunted man alive. The second half of the book is about the hunt. The author is an investigative reporter so the book includes a lot of facts from interviews and quotes. But the book still reads like a novel.

In addition to a LOT of political detail and the history of every player involved, there is also some cool information like secret CIA spy aircrafts which seem like normal 2 prop airplanes but have sliding panels and antenna's that pop out once in the air. They used to keep those up in the air around Medellin trying to catch Pablo, he was one evasive SOB. 16 month hunt and hundreds of millions of dollars

The author does tend to go off into tangents about the background of each new player that is introduced but if you have the patience for that it only makes the book and drama involved that much better. The book is very clear about the overarching theme that Pablo's demise was his love for his homeland, Medellin and a couple of pivotal mistakes he made along the way.

Grave Peril - Jim Butcher

The 3rd book in the Dresden files continues the Harry Dresden saga and this story knows no bounds. All hell has broken lose in Chicago with ghosts and ghouls with Harry and this time a trusty sidekick to clean up the mess. This book introduces a whole bunch of new concepts. The NeverNever alternative world that was touched upon in the 1st book is explained further, among other things.

Harry does a lot of cool magic in this, stuff that makes Harry Potter look like a candy ass. And he does it at the brink of death and exhaustion with his never ending sarcastic humor that makes you smile the whole time. The story also develops to a point where you know is almost setting up for something even bigger to take place in the next book. I can't wait for the next one.