Cool War, Feldman - B

                                          The author is a professor at Harvard Law and brings a very cerebral, thoughtful analysis to the geostrategic issue of the 21st century:  China v. the US.  Conflict is almost inevitable as one country seeks to replace the other as the wealthiest, most powerful in the world. Within recent memory, the rise of Germany and then Japan led to catastrophic wars. The rise of the US was of no concern to Great Britain, because of their shared values and economic interdependence.  But that is hardly the model for the rise of China, as it and the US appear to have virtually nothing in common except a financial interdependency. The degree of that interdependency, though, is extraordinary and the likely reason that the author cites for arguing that the challenges can be managed.  We purchase 25% of China's output and they own 8% of our debt.  That is higher than the  degree of mutual involvement that the UK had with Germany or even the US one hundred years ago. The two major issues that can upset China's peaceful rise are Taiwan and human rights. The Chinese believe Taiwan is part of their country, and the author suggests it is only a matter of time before it is brought back into the fold. The Taiwanese do not currently wish to be part of the mainland, and we are allies of Taiwan. Feldman believes that at some stage an 'accommodation' will have to be made. We will back off and the Taiwanese will be afforded some significant self-governing latitude.  Our messianic belief in imposing our values on others will also require an 'accommodation'  of a bit less interference on our part along with additional personal freedoms in China.  He points out some similarities of consequence between the two countries. The most important is that each has a government that peaceably hands over power to the next in line. Along with its rise, China has forsaken its dictatorship. The author closes with optimism. "The cool war will not be over in a generation. But the generation that inherits it will understand its contours much better and can shape the global future with greater confidence and skill."

Stolen Souls, Neville - B

                                          This author specializes in really, really bad people in and around Belfast.  There are hardened, vicious traffickers in woman from Lithuania; stupid, brutal local thugs; a serial killing madman from England; and dishonest local cops. Pitted against them is Detective Jack Lennon, who is a member of the Police Services of Northern Ireland, which means that if you're Catholic, you are now shunned by everyone you ever knew. To further complicate Lennon's life, his wife was murdered in a previous book and her family is trying to get his daughter from him. Also, Lennon has an enemy in the Intelligence Services, who keeps trying to get him knocked off. The central character about whom the story is built is Gayla,  from Ukraine, who thought she was going to the EU for a decent job.  Trafficking in young women from behind the old Iron Curtain must be a huge issue, as it frequently comes up in mysteries from the EU.  Lennon saves her from both the Lithuanians and the serial killer, but not himself from the duplicitous local police, and he winds up with a bullet in a shoulder. An awful lot of people get shot, but not Lennon's nemesis, thus assuring a budding series.

Brother Kemal, Arjouni - C

                                          This is the last in a German series, set in Frankfurt, about Kemal Kayanaka, a German of Turk parentage and a wise-cracking PI. The author passed away earlier this year in his late forties. Marilyn Stasio, the NY Times book editor for the Crime  section recommended it; I follow her column carefully, thoughtfully and use it as the basis of many of my purchases. This' however, did not resonate with me, as the plot was straightforward and there was virtually no background on either Frankfurt or the Turkish minority in Germany.

A Disease In The Public Mind, Fleming - B

                                          The title of the book is from a comment by President Buchanan about John Brown's Raid, which he referred to as  "an incurable disease in the public mind".  The subtitle is 'A New Understanding Of Why We Fought The Civil War'.  The disease was intense antipathy, visceral public opinion, and bitter sectional rivalries that led to hatred between the North and South.  The differences stemmed back to the beginning of the Colonies, continued through the creation of the nation, and were exacerbated by just about every national decision. The North was opposed to the Louisiana Purchase because it viewed it as an extension of the Virginia slaveocracy and a diminution of the power of New York and New England, who were losing their preeminence to the Virginians. The North was so upset with tariff policies and anti-British legislation that they practically boycotted the War of 1812. As for the South, they looked to St. Domingo (Haiti) and lived in fear of race war, after the French were slaughtered by their slaves. Slave rebellions in the Indies after British emancipation inflamed their anxieties. Even if the slaves were freed, no one had any ideas about how to absorb the generally-considered inferior species into society.  Lincoln, as late as 1858, was a believer in exportation  to Africa. The Abolitionists threw fuel on the fire and called the psychopath Brown a "holy martyr". Perhaps the issue of slavery could only be resolved by war when politics could not solve the problem or delay it further. Certainly, by 1860, feelings were too high for any other solution.

A Hologram For The King, Eggers - B

                                          There is something about nuanced, sophisticated writing that eludes my straightforward mind.  I put this book on my list because the author is someone I've read before, and he is a famous graduate of our hometown Lake Forest H.S.  This very brief tale is of a middle-aged man hip deep in nothing but middle-class trouble. He is broke, he is trying to sell the house that he and his ex lived in, he doesn't have his daughter's college tuition money, he owes money left and right for a failed venture that he tried to make a go of, he's occasionally impotent, and he's off on a sales mission to King Abdullah Economic City to try and right the ship.  In essence, he's an American who has been globalized into middling irrelevance and who is throwing a hail Mary pass to save the day.  His outing eventually starts to feel like 'Waiting For Godot', but after ages of waiting, the King eventually shows up.  Trumped by the Chinese, who now buy more oil than we do and can do the job at half the price, he loses the sale, but doesn't give up. The writing is laser sharp, witty, very well-done and thus, this is a good read.
                                           I then turn to the NYTimes review and learn that I've missed at least half the book. Within a few paragraphs, the reviewer compares Eggers to Miller, Mailer, DeLillo, and Hemingway. "Every detail perfectly advances a vision of American aspirations at a time of economic collapse and mid-life crisis". "It is among other things, an anguished investigation into how and where American self-confidence got lost and - …..defeated". "In places, the book becomes almost a nostalgic lament for a time when life had stakes and people worked with their hands, knew struggle." "In the end what makes 'A Hologram for the King' is the conviction with which Eggers plunges into the kind of regular working American we don't see enough in contemporary fiction, and gives voice and heft to Alan's struggles in an information economy in which he has no information and there's not much of an economy." "In much the same way, Eggers has developed an exceptional gift for opening up the lives of others so as to offer the story of globalism as it develops and, simultaneously, to unfold a much more archetypal tale of struggle and loneliness and drift."  Whew!  And here I thought Springsteen  had summed it all up when he sang, "the foreman said these jobs are going boys, and they ain't coming back."

Perilous Question, Fraser - C

                                    The subtitle of this brief history book is, 'Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832'.  As someone who has read dozens of British history books, hundreds of novels set in the U.K., has subscribed to a British magazine for over twenty years, seen the entire Shakespeare canon on stage, in the movies, and on video, watched innumerable BBC series, studied the common law, and lord know what else, I, like I suspect most Americans, still know very little about British democracy.  After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain settled into the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and change was upon the land. People moved to the burgeoning cities, Abolition was considered, even the Catholics were allowed to vote. The Reform crisis came on the heels of famine, bad times, and rioting in Britain. The death of George IV required a general election and a new Parliament. Reform was electoral reform, as the Commons had become thoroughly unrepresentative of the country.  There were dozens of 'rotten boroughs' where there were Members and very few voters. The most famous of these was Old Sarum, empty since 1217, yet still with two members, while Birmingham and its thousands of workers was without one. The Tories, led by Wellington and with one eye on France where the Bourbons had just been deposed for a second time were in opposition. The Reform Bill carried the Commons three times and failed its first two readings in the House of Lords.  When the Iron Duke and all twenty-three of the Anglican Bishops abstained, the bill carried the Lords and was signed into law by William IV.  From almost two centuries, the modest changes and slight expansion of the electorate (from 3.2% to 4.7%, of a nation of 16 million) hardly seem that dramatic. But, as the author points out,  this reform led to substantial change throughout the century.

The Son, Meyer - B+

                                         This is a wonderful novel, one of the NY Times' 100 Notable Books of the Year.   It is a Texas-sized book and story about the fictional McCullogh clan.  There is one character so fabulously portrayed, such a grizzled fella of the old west, that I thought of Larry McMurtry and put on the soundtrack to 'Lonesome Dove'.  That man is Eli McCullogh, and the opening chapter is presented as a WPA oral project from the year 1936.  The hundred-year-old Eli is telling his story, and what a tale it is.  He was captured as a ten-year- old by the Comanches and was with them for four years.  As he was an outdoor-loving hunter and tracker, he overcame the  pain of losing his family and eventually fit right in as an Indian. He accompanied them on raids, and successfully tracked down a white man and scalped him. He was never freer or happier than when a young brave.  The Indians, though, were under relentless demographic pressure and when they succumbed to smallpox, he returned to the white man's world.  And although it took him decades to be comfortable in that world, he nonetheless prospered. He was a brevet Col. in the Texas Rangers during the Civil War, ran cattle, and ultimately accumulated hundreds of thousands of acres of land. He success stemmed from being ruthless and tough. His approach to preventing rustling on his lands was simple. If someone unauthorized rode onto McCullogh land, he was a dead man. Later, he leased some of his land to the oil companies and just got richer and richer. His Spanish neighbors had held their land for decades before any American's had appeared in the valley. When some of his cattle disappeared, he was quite comfortable blaming the Garcias and participating in the slaughter of the 'Mexicans' and the confiscation of their land.  That act, which took place during the Mexican-American border wars just before WW1, would haunt his grandson and great-granddaughter, the other two major characters in the novel. Additionally, just being a descendant of the Col. was a pretty heavy burden to bear.  This is a wonderful tale of old Texas, an exploration of the never-ending role of race in our society, and a helluva read.

Glorious Misadventures, Matthews - B

                                          This is a very well written history of Nikolai Rezanov, a Russian courtier and nobleman who attempted to solidify Russia's position on the northwest coast of North America. Furs, the 'soft gold' of the pre-industrial era, drove the French into Canada, and the Russians across Siberia into present day Alaska, British Colombia, and as far south as California. The pursuit of, and trade in,  animal pelts was one of the major commercial enterprises of its day and was the reason men crossed the northern tiers of the American and Asian wilds. Rezanov received a charter and funding from the Tsar in 1799 to create the Russian American Company, modeled on the British East India Company, the extraordinarily successful commercial enterprise that conquered for profit. Russia had scattered trading posts in North America, and Rezanov dreamed of expanding them and establishing true colonies. More of a dreamer than a man of talent, he failed utterly, although he actually sailed into San Francisco Bay and spent five weeks treating with the Spanish. He died in Siberia on his way back to St. Petersburg. When the Mexicans achieved independence, they offered Northern California to Russia in exchange for recognition.  Russia declined and sold its interests in America to the US in 1867. This sale was accomplished after the British refused to buy for Canada. The story is rather thin and the author explains how he came upon it. During his sabbatical in San Francisco, Rezanov proposed to the daughter of the garrison's commander. The romance of Rezanov and Conchita has been lauded in poem and novel in both English and Russian and in the USSR's first rock opera. Matthews saw 'Junona I Avos' as a teenager in 1986 in Moscow. Laden with hard American rock and Orthodox religious chants, it was still garnering fifteen minute standing ovations five years after it opened.

Altai, Ming - C +

                                          This book is presented as the sequel to 'Q', although there is but one very tenuous connection.  The authors have even changed their pseudonym.  The story opens with an explosion at the Arsenal in Venice.  One of the Doge's spies, a Catholic hiding his Jewish heritage, is falsely accused and escapes to Constantinople.  We are treated to some fine background information about the Fourth Venetian-Ottoman war, the siege and occupation of Cyprus by the Turks, and the Battle of Lepanto. Sadly for our main character, he is captured and returned to his beloved St. Mark's Square, where the axe awaits all heretics and traitors. Like its predecessor, this book provides insight to a very different and far away time - but, does so with too many twists and turns for me.

Steve Jobs, Isaacson - B +

                                          This is a superb book about an extraordinary man. I started this when it came out in 2012 and put it down (actually - removed it from the carousel on my Kindle Fire). The reason was that I was totally disgusted by his personal conduct, which requires hundreds of descriptive adjectives to try and summarize.  Suffice it to say, I wasn't interested in reading about a guy like that. Marcella recently suggested I give it another try and I'm glad I did.  Once you get through his early years (that is not to say he ever mellowed) and get to some of his accomplishments, his genius, skills, vision, and focus dazzle the mind. His founding of Apple and his commitment to his philosophies about what a computer company should be made him world famous before he was thirty. He was eventually fired at the company he founded and then floundered through NeXT and stumbled onto Pixar.  It was at Pixar where he developed the maturity and skills that would carry him through his second run at Apple. What he wrought is legendary, and Isaacson says that 100 years from now he will be remembered the way we remember Edison and Ford. Although there has been much hyperbole about the man and his recent untimely death, I agree with the author. Jobs himself wanted to emulate Edwin Land and Walt Disney and create lasting businesses and cultures. I can't help but think about how much more successful American businesses would be if their executives had a fraction of his focus on the quality, and his involvement in all phases, of  the products they were creating, building, and selling.  Perhaps it is naive to think that for-profit businesses could be that focused on quality without compromise, but he and Apple certainly made plenty of profits.  This is  a great  book, and I  believe the world is certainly a better place because of Steve Jobs.

The Gods of Guilt, Connnelly - B+

                                         Michael Connelly is one of the most all-time fun thriller/mystery/procedural novelists out there. I love his stuff and read them as soon as they arrive on my kindle - this one showed up yesterday.  Most of his books are about LA cop Harry Bosch, but this is the latest in his burgeoning 'Lincoln Lawyer' series about Mickey Haller.  Mick is hired to defend a cyber-pimp accused of killing a prostitute.  The client claims a frame-up, and an investigation shows that that is the likely truth. Proving it will involve uncovering a DEA-managed plot that ran for over a decade.  Mickey's cast of supporting characters -  his driver, his law clerk, his secretary and his investigator play prominent roles. A trip to a state prison about two hours north of the city is the only time they leave the environs of LA.  The courtroom closing is page-turner and as always, justice is done.

Midnight In Peking, French - B

                                         The author is a British resident of Shanghai, specializing in inter-war Chinese history and present day analysis of Chinese affairs for western publications.  This book is sub-titled 'How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China.'  I think it might better be characterized as haunting her father and embarrassing Old China.  Nonetheless, it is an international best seller, an Edgar Award winner, and is slated for a television mini-series. In January 1937, on the eve of the Japanese conquest of China and initiation of WW2, 19-year-old Pamela Werner was brutally slaughtered in Peking.  Her father was the retired British consul, which meant that a British policeman was required to liaise with the local Peking police. The embarrassment stems from the fact that no one really seemed to want the murder solved.  We learn later that it was committed by a cabal of ruthless psychopaths, a few Americans and a few Europeans, who committed the murder in a White Russian brothel, where they took the young woman after kidnapping her. The inquiries conducted in the winter of 1937 were thwarted by both the British and local authorities. The Brits seemed to be more concerned about protecting the reputation of a seedy school principal, at whose residence Pamela had resided. After they learned that he was a bad apple, they rushed him home to England. Plus, the victim's dad was an eccentric old man, who absolutely no one liked. The whole aim of Chinese justice appears to have been to sweep the crime under the rug and forget about it. In any case, it was quickly forgotten because the Japanese  invaded and occupied the old Imperial capital.  Consul Werner never gave up and solved the case, but was not able to have the perpetrators arrested because war, and then revolution, intervened.  The author discovered the story when he found that the wife of Edgar Snow, the noted journalist who introduced Mao to the world in 'Red Star Over China', feared that the murderers may have been looking for her.  She lived two doors down from the victim and she and Snow feared that the Kuomintang's version of the Gestapo was after them.  The book's success is undoubtedly attributed to the writer's skill and his insight into a forgotten world. China entered WW2 a failed state, suffering from an unresolved decades long civil war, and without a meaningful governing system.

Then We Take Berlin, Lawton - B

                                          This is a really fun novel, set in Berlin, that opens and closes on the day of JFK's "Ich Bin Ein Berliner' speech in June, 1963. I was not aware that the speech was on the 15th anniversary of the Airlift and that the Soviets shrouded the Brandenburg Gate in red.  Joe Holderness, retired from the R.A.F. Intelligence section, is hired by a former (maybe?) C.I.A. colleague to get someone out of East Berlin.  It's necessary to use contacts and information Joe developed during his post-war years as a leader of Berlin's black market. Joe's background in wartime London, as the grandson and trainee of a second-story man is enlightening, as is the story of his girlfriend's surviving in 1945 Berlin. Their stories are a lead into a detailed study of the black market, fueled by American goods and partaken in by the Germans, British, and Russians. The author has done some serious research, provides a detailed bibliography and, most interestingly, has a six book series that I think I'll look into.