In the interests of full disclosure, I know the author casually and had a wonderful lunch with Ken and his wife in their Florida home a number of years ago. I had sought out Ken Timmerman after hearing him speak on a geopolitical matter about which I had intimate knowledge from my years as an international military pilot involved in most major global events between 1972 and 1990. Those were the years Ken was building his resume as a war correspondent in many troubled areas of the world and surviving to become - based on my own highly unique background - the finest geopolitical analyst and author in America. Period. I openly advocated on a local radio program I did in SE Georgia for a major political party to draft him as a VP candidate in the 2024 POTUS election. There would be no better choice; hence my own personal library full of Timmerman’s books.But, you say, Raising Olives in Provence isa very unpolitical bit of prose praising the simple life in an idyllic setting in a famous region of France known for its diverse pleasures. It is not an edgy geopolitical treatise. You are correct, but the talent it takes to produce the latter allows Ken the wordsmith skills to infuse a simple narrative about a country villa growing grapes and olives with a highly-nuanced, true story about values, nature, simple pleasures and the amusing vagaries of the local denizens. It is, also, intermittently spiced with teasing allusions to Ken’s unprecedented experience in the arena of international intrigue. Not too much. Just enough to make the reader more curious about why this particular piece of Eden is really such a metaphor for a complex soul that has examined the Real World in which we all exist. There is a subtle and rather important message that the careful reader will extrude from the light and airy narrative.I took a break from my heavy reading of political and geopolitical works to refresh myspirit a bit. I even read RAISING OLIVES aloud to my wife. It delighted both of us. She thrilled to the anecdotal comments of, to and about Christina (a remarkable Swedish woman in her own right) and I in reading about a version of my own unfulfilled dream.I recognized the small added flavoring from his life story. I did only a tiny portion of whatKen Timmerman has done, but understand his story well and know why he needed his own Special Place to record the experiential treasure stored in his mind.My wife and I, as well as any who read this remarkable work, will walk right alongside Ken as he traverses his own Edenic Garden and learn why it thrills him to the core of his soul…and Christina who said, “Buy this for me, please” in that way only a wise Swedish wife can do for her world savvy husband.Great read. Buy and take a short and refreshing mental vacation.