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Hi folks,
My apologies for taking so long to post this hit; a bottleneck at work
kept me busy, and then it was Christmas.  (WHERE is this year going??)
Thanks very much to all who offered suggestions.  The teacher was
impressed by all the great ideas!
Jenny

Here is the original request, followed by the HIT:

"I have a student who is reading Tom Clancy's Executive Orders and loves
books on politics and international intrigue.  He's an excellent reader,
of course.  Any other Clancy novels you would recommend that would be
appropriate? Or any other titles?  I'm always leery of adult situations
when you get into adult books--what about books about the presidency?
All the President's Men?  Thanks for anything that comes to mind."

******Brothers No More by William F. Buckley Jr. is a great book.  I am
a
bleeding heart liberal and disagree with everything Buckley has ever
said but his fiction writing is excellent.  It has been several years
since I read it but I don't remember any adult situations (some
violence, but not gratuitous). He has several other works of fiction
(mystery, political, spy type stuff) which are supposed to be well done.

******There is a great book by William Safire called Full Disclosure.
The president is blinded in a air crash and keeps the info to himself
because he thinks he might be forced to resign. How about some of
Alistar McLean's books.

******You might want to try Brian Freemantle--spies in England
Robert Ludlum

******Robert Ludlum...always a good read...no sex and virtually no
language.

******What about the books of John Le Carre?  I'm thinking about all the
books in his Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy vein.  I can't remember the
name of the spy in the novels, but I think they are pretty clean.

*******Jenny, any and all of Tom Clancy's books fit for your
reader/student.
My wife's on your listserv and asked me to reply.

*******How about "A Man Called Intrepid" or "Eye of the Needle" or some
of the Grisham novels?

******Any book by Will Hobbs would fit the bill.  He writes both adult
(but appropriate) novels and YA novels.  Why not get him into Grisham?

******  They're old but how about the Allen Drury novels.  They were
great political intrigue novels.

******Most of John Grisham's books have some type of judicial plot. They
rarely have adult situations in them, although they do have some
profanity.  His last two books would be ok for a 6th grader (The
Testament and The Brethren).  My absolute favorite is The Runaway Jury.
Hope this helps!

*******The "Op-Center" series is also about int'l politics and (so far
at least-- I've read the first two) has no dubious adult situations. The
"Net Force" series OTOH does include some situations which you might not
want to recommend to a middle-school student.
Both of the above series are in paperback only.
I'm assuming that he's read all the hard-cover Jack Ryan series -- if
not, he should certainly start at the beginning with "Hunt for Red
October" and read the rest of them ("Cardinal of the Kremlin" I found a
bit hard to get into; others move very rapidly.)

*******Have the student try books by Patrick Robinson.  I'm a Clancy fan
(and cannot remember anything in any of them that your student should
not read); Robinson writes similar novels about submarines, espionage,
and US government involvement (White House advisors, CIA, SEALS,...).

Another author the student might try is John Gilstrap -- specifically
Nathan's Run.  While not government intrigue, it concerns a 13 year old
who is on the run from police and FBI for a crime he was forced into.
The boy is MacGyver-ish in his ability to outsmart the police, and the
reader really pulls for him.  I believe I read the movie rights have
been bought for this one (as well as one of the Robinson novels).

A YA author the student might read is John Marsden.  He has 4-5 books
out in his series on a group of teens in Australia.  Returning from a
week in the bush they discover another country (Viet Nam-ish) has
invaded their country.  Another story of us against them as the teens
sabotage the enemy, infiltrate behind enemy lines, and become
underground freedom fighters.

********Paul Erdman's books about international finance & political
intrigue are well plotted and full of suspense.  _The Billion Dollar
Sure Thing_,  _The Silver Bears_, _The Crash of '79_, _The Panic of
'89_, _The Swiss Account_, _Zero Coupon_, and _The Last Days of
America_.

 IMO, anything by Robert Ludlum is superb.  My daughter agrees, & says
_The Scarlatti Inheritance_ is her favorite.  I think I like the Bourne
trilogy better.

James Clavell's _Whirlwind_ is international intrigue set in the Middle
East. _Taipan_ may be even better -- set in Hong Kong.

Jon Land is another writer of political thrillers.  At least one book
reviewer has written that his books are "better than anything by Tom
Clancy."  _The Walls of Jericho_ is about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

If he is into nonfiction thrillers, Barbara Tuchman's _The Guns of
August_  and _The Zimmerman Telegram_ are both about the events leading
up to World War I.  My favorite Tuchman book is _A Distant Mirror_ about
l4th century France and its political intrigues.

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