The Sellout - by Charles Gasparino

So, being in the industry I'm in (lawyer focusing on real estate and bankruptcy), the collapse of the financial system which stemmed from the real estate collapse has been an interesting topic for me. I've read a few books that detail the "reasons" why things collapsed. Here, Charles Gasparino (who is a reporter who previously worked for CNBC during the time period covered by the book) writes about the Wall Street folks and government officials who created the "sub-prime mortgage mess." He does a great job at describing the historical background of Wall Street, explaining to a layman what a CDO is, etc. (For those that don't know what a CDO is - this would be a good time to get the book and read it to figure it out!)

Towards the end of the book, he's explaining why he picked his title - "The Sellout." His basic premise was that Wall Street executives and the government officials who were supposed to monitor them, "sold out" the long-term principles and goals that they should have had. One of his interviewees commented that his premise assumes that those individuals had any principles or long-term goals to begin with. I think Gasparino does a decent job at telling the stories of some of the individuals who retained their principles throughout the crisis - while at the same time placing blame with those who were ignoring (deliberately, inadvertently, or passively) the signs that led up to the mortgage crisis and collossal bank failure that resulted.

A very interesting book (that I finished while working out each morning at the YMCA). Also, because it's written by a reporter, the book flows pretty well. I don't know about y'all, but I've found that reporters tend to write pretty decent non-fiction.

The Hunter - by John Lescroart

I don't know if I've posted this before or not, but John Lescroart is one of my absolute favorite authors. If you like John Grisham, you'll like John Lescroart even better. Lescroart (pronounced "less-kwah") uses the same characters throughout his novels, so you really grow to care about them. He's got between 15 and 20 novels total, that all feature the same recurring characters. The original books (the first 12 or so), featured two main characters, Dismas Hardy (defense attorney), and Abe Glitzky (homocide detective). These two were best friends, which made for some interesting dynamics in the various cases they dealt with.

The latest few books focus on a different character, Wyatt Hunt. Hunt is a private detective, whose agency is known as the "Hunt Club". He frequently does work for Hardy, and has several interactions with Glitzky's investigators. So, you still see some of the old characters showing up now and then. The last couple of books focusing on Hunt were a little "off the mark" for the way Lescroart had written his previous novels. (Still good, just something seemed to be "missing"...if you knowhutamean.) However, this latest one returns to the quality of the previous books. He must have figured out what was missing.

In this one, Hunt (who was adopted as a child, after his mother died), learns that his birth-mother may not have just died, but been murdered. This sets him on a quest to solve the 30-year-old murder, which was never actually solved by the police at the time it happened. Lots of good scenes...again, if you're into attorney/detective novels, this series is a great one to try.