I just got finished with two books, very different, but very enjoyable reads.

The first was The Wolf Of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort, where he details his experiences as the leader of the circus that was his stockbroker firm Stratton Oakmont during the heady days of the 1990's economic boom. Its 500 pages and pretty dense, and it took me awhile to read...I started back in August, took a break until a couple weeks ago, and then go to the end. It was a pretty eye-opening read, dealing in a world where men earn and lose millions of dollars a day. The hedonism was pretty cool to read about as well, especially since it didn't come with the kind of moralizing you expect. Jordan doesn't go, "Well, you know, I feel really horrible about the bad things I did." It's more like, "I did it, I lived it, and it was one hell of a ride that I'm lucky to have survived." He might be a greedy slimeball, but you can't help but like his candor.

I would beg Mark Arbour to read it, but I'm assuming he already has. The guy who wrote Millennium would enjoy the hell out of The Wolf of Wall Street- all that financial mumbo-jumbo greed stuff. I'm sure he probably knew quite a lot of Jordan Belfort types in his former life.

The second was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, which follows the story of Louisa Clark, a small-town English woman who takes a job caring for Will Traynor, a former high-powered businessman who became a quadriplegic after an accident. Having lost his will to live, Louisa takes it upon herself to show him that life is still worth living. Which is a pretty cheesy premise, but the book manages to elevate itself by refusing to make things clear-cut or easy, and the way in which we get to see Louisa come out of her shell as she starts to take steps beyond the provincial life she has cocooned herself in.

Definitely worth a read if you're into romantic stuff.