I have very mixed feelings about this book.  99% of the book I enjoyed thoroughly – exciting plot, interesting characters, the flavor of a different culture…but unfortunately the hated 1% is the ending – which sucked.  It was as if Ms. Kazan just decided, “I’m bored with this, new project please.”   

Suddenly the plot halts and there is an epilogue providing scant details of each character’s end days.  What?  Who married who?  What?  The child?  Are you kidding me? 

 The problem with bad ending to me is I have invested time, energy and my emotions in these pages, come on I deserve a little closure!  I bet she would break up by text message…

 Thus I can not recommend this book, however good, because I am still annoyed by how crappy the ending was…If you are so blessed not to get hung up on endings – have at it and sink into the Ottoman Empire - intrigue, murder, politics and sex abound…

Recently I heard an interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin discussing Obama and his spaciousness in thinking.  Obama has a keen ability to stick to the big picture – leaving space for more information, points of view, sense of history and the possibility there is another way…Hence he was able to win the election with a fifty state strategy and keeping to his big message – change.

 Of course, keeping to the big picture can lead to problems (hello new bailout bill of good and bad) – so along with ever-expansive thinking, there needs to be the balance of making final decisions and taking action. 

 Look at your own life – where are you struggling?  Do you need to expand your thinking to a new way of doing things or do you need to make a choice?  Remember – there are no bad choices, because you learn and grow from ALL your choices.  As you already know, some of the best lessons are discovered when you make the ‘wrong’ choice.