The Coffee Trader - David Liss (December)

Did you know that Amsterdam in the 1600's was a cosmopolitan business city - people from all over the world coming to the stock exchange for its commodities, stocks, futures (yes, they dealt in futures then)?

Do you know about the "conversos" - Portugese Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition, yet many secretly practiced the faith of their fathers?

The Coffee Trader is a tale of betrayal and love and family and individuality and loyalty. I found some of the treachery and gambling to be a bit tedious (I refuse to do either, so have little sympathy), but learning of the introduction of coffee to Europe was interesting. The characters were not perhaps as humanly developed as I prefer, but they were somewhat interesting and I appreciated the strong authentic female characters.

Not a great book, but a pretty good one especially for the historical aspects. An interest in commerce or Judaism or coffee should be enough to encourage you to read this book.