Once again, if you're interested in knowing more of what's going on in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, read the Religious Policeman and Mahmood's Den. I have been reading an interesting (but perhaps not very good) book on the entanglement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia by Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington sold our soul for Saudi crude. It's written rather in the style of a thriller, and doesn't go nearly into the depth I'd like into the history and social analysis of Saudi Arabia, but it's interesting as a first book to read on the U.S.-Saudi relationship. If anyone has some better recommendations on Saudi Arabia and the U.S. relationship with it, I'd like to take a look at them.