Leaving Berlin, Kanon - B

                                                This is the seventh novel by this book publishing executive turned author.  All are set during WW2 or in its immediate aftermath.  This one takes place in Berlin during the airlift in early 1949.  The plot gets overly complex, if not contrived at times, but offers some insight into an interesting aspect of E. Germany.  The Soviets and Germans tried hard to repatriate famous people who had opposed the Nazis and left.  The most famous was Bertold Brecht, who is an important character in this book.  The problem with anyone who returned to communism from the west or, God forbid, America is of course that they couldn't be trusted.  As this book emphasizes, totalitarianism from the east is no better than home-grown Nazism.

Sashenka, Montefiore - B

                                           This is a grand sweeping novel of  Russia covering the beginnings of the Revolution, to the horrible times of Terror,  through the end of the USSR. It covers three generations of a family and is written by a noted historian.  Montefiore's grandparents fled Tsarist Russia for Britain, and he has been highly acclaimed for his histories of the Stalin era.  This novel was very well-reviewed and is deft at providing some quality background into the winter of 1916-17 and  Stalin's pre-war Terror carried out so capably at the Lubyanka. Although he is a much better historian than novelist, his narrative of the plight of children whose parents were swept up by Beria and his henchmen is quite compelling. This book is from a few years ago and he has just published a complementary novel involving the cousins of the principal characters  here,  I intend to follow up with that a bit later in the year.

The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence And The Coming Global Disorder, Zeihan - B +

                                               I recently saw this author speak on Fareed Zakaria's GPS and downloaded this superb read.  He spends the first chapters discussing the accretion of power.  The key is access to water that allows the movement of material, whether wheat or weapons, from point A to point B without reliance on human or animal effort. He emphasizes the role of the Nile in the rise of Egypt, the Mediterranean for Rome and the Ottomans, and then the deepwater navigation that materially changed matters for the Dutch, Spanish, and English.  And of course, the one country with plenty of rivers and access to deepwater possibilities and vast oceans protecting it from enemies is the good ole USA. Blessed by geography is an understatement. As the victor in WW2, the US chose to not occupy, colonize or otherwise usurp power around the globe. Rather, we opened our markets and protected the sea lanes in order to promote free trade. The author posits that the 'Bretton Woods System' is slipping and the costs of maintaining it are wearing thin in the US.  In the next few decades,  the tsunami of retirements around the world will lead to the draw-down of capital, the scarcity of financing and a turn from the almost continuous good times of the last 70 years. It is this shrinking of available capital that will end the Bretton Woods System of US sponsored free trade and return the world to one more closely resembling a hundred years ago. Only one country is reproducing fast enough that it can survive the pressures of the next few decades and that country also has the good fortune to being very close to energy independence - once again, you know who. In this new era, our friends and allies will be countries that can also benefit us - no more being a generous, free-spending protector of others.  He suggests the first rank are the UK, Denmark, Netherlands, much of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.   In the rest of the world, he sees an aged Japan with enough wealth to access resources from North America and Russia. He sees us leaving the Middle East to its own devices - after all we won't need its oil and we'll no longer wish to provide the security system that assured where its oil went.  He is very pessimistic about Europe and thinks the euro and the EU are on the way out. The Germans will tire of carrying the rest of them.  Russia is in such demographic decline that he fears it striking out in any direction to try and maintain some worldly status;  he believes it is back into Europe  that they will roll.  On this side of the Atlantic, he sees Canada splintering and at least some of it becoming part of the US. He argues that one of the greatest threats to America is the Mexican drug wars migrating north of the border. He contends that China's geography, demographics and poor government "are enough for it to return it the fractured, self-containing mess that it has been for most of its history."  He points out that by allying with China in WW2, we eliminated all of its problems (the intrusive Japanese and European predators) and allowed it to unify and now prosper. If, for example, we pull the plug on protecting the sea lanes, every country that China's oil must pass on the way from the Persian Gulf ( India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam) is an enemy.  Our walking away from 'Bretton' destroys China. According to this author, China's Rise will be short-lived and no threat to us.
                                                   In many ways this is one of the more fascinating 'current affairs' books I've ever read. That said, it is a genre I seldom delve into. I have been asking myself the question for years why is it that we (the US) need to spend so much on our military to keep the world safe for others. Why do we have twelve carrier groups and no one else has one? Shouldn't the Chinese and Japanese pay to keep the sea lanes open to the Persian Gulf?  He certainly believes we will no longer do that because it will become  too expensive. That's music to my ears.  The whole premise of the book is that we walk away from the 'Bretton' system.  He focuses on it becoming too expensive, but does not make the case.  It's a one or two sentence assertion. Is it possible? As a retired financial person, I think it is possible.  But, for all of the reasons he believes we are immune from the world's problems, it is entirely possible that our financial system could and will continue to generate capital and continue to fund the system. There is certainly no whiff of our walking away that one can discern from either party's foreign policy in Washington. Both want to increase military spending.  The other point that he skips over is that bad actors don't often  go down quietly. Countries  like Russia and Pakistan will not slip into oblivion. They'll cause a ruckus.  That said, this is easy to read, fun, thought-provoking and highly recommended.

The Betrayers, Bezmozgis - B

                                              This is a short novel of consequence, one that received many, many awards for 2014. The central character is Baruch Kotler, an Israeli who as a young man  spent 13 years in the Soviet Gulag, after a fellow Jew betrayed him to the KGB. Now he is a world famous member of the Israeli cabinet, and one whose position on building in the West Bank led to his enemies exposing his affair with a much younger woman. Seeking a respite, he and the young Leora flee and eventually decide to spend a week in Yalta, a city where Baruch's father had taken him as a boy. Fate, though, brings him face to face with  Chaim Tankilevich, his betrayer from the early 70's. While debating guilt, innocence and many complex Russian-Jewish matters, Baruch learns that his son has disobeyed orders in the West Bank and has taken a violent, symbolic stance against the Army and the State. The author is a Canadian Jew, born in Latvia and an important young voice among the many Jewish refugees from the USSR.

The Marco Effect, Adler-Olsen, C

                                            This is the fifth Dept. Q novel in two years, and likely my last.  The author is either cranking them out too fast  or simply cannot find any consistency in his story-telling. This one is a real jumble involving: a Danish-funded African improvement program riddled with corruption; one of the program's managers has stolen $2m kroner (and he's a good guy) who the others have bumped off; a government ministry/private bank plot to rip off the program with at least three co-conspirators having a falling out and turing on each other; an African-based hit squad called into Copenhagen; and a Roma-like crime syndicate made up of old hippies;  all before we get to Marco of the title. He is a fifteen-year old street-wise bright and decent kid who has managed to slip the Roma syndicate with too much knowledge and winds up seeking out Carl from Dept. Q in an attempt to keep himself alive while half of Copenhagen is chasing him.  Carl and his crew have lost most of their intrigue and charm by now.  They muddle to a conclusion that at least gives Marco a shot at staying in Denmark

City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York, Mason - C

                                           This book tells the story of the phenomenal physical effect on the City of the Depression partnership of FDR and 'the Little Flower.'  La Guardia was elected as the Fusion candidate for mayor in 1933, just as the New Deal was starting to gain traction.  The Empire State was still the largest in the country and the City was home to 5% of the nation's population and GDP. Spending on infrastructure through the PWA was a centerpiece of the New Deal and led to construction of innumerable parks, hospitals, pools, public housing, libraries, schools, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the Belt Pkwy, the Henry Hudson Pkwy, the expansion of the IND subway system, and La Guardia Airport.  However, WW2 changed the dynamics of Washington's relationship with the country. No longer were the states and cities the partners of the new Deal;  now it was industry and the military that appropriately received all the attention and money. When La Guardia defied his party and campaigned hard for FDR in 1940, he had been promised the War Dept.  Upon giving further reflection to La Guardia'a ability to attract so much attention, FDR forgot his assurance of a cabinet-level position.  Disappointed, overwrought and overworked, the 'Little Flower' did not shine in his 3rd term.  Roosevelt continued to talk about La Guardia being appointed a general but never really pushed the matter forward.  La Guardia died in the fall of 1947, less than two years after leaving office.   I love NYC and had high hopes for this book, but it got bogged down (at least for me) a bit much in hard-core policy and political science, rather than on the majestic construction of the era.

The Forgotten Girls, Blaedel - B

                                               This is a pretty solid Danish mystery novel built upon a long-closed failed institution for the disabled. Two young girls were abandoned by their family and reported dead of pneumonia forty years ago. When one is found dead from a fall in the woods,  a complex investigation begins and of course, finishes with most of the questions answered.

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II, Croke - B

                                               I must admit when my friend Jack Blair mentioned this to me, I wasn't very hopeful. Elephants?  However, this has turned out to be an absolute delight. Elephants were the backbone of the the transportation system used in Burma to export 90% of the world's teak in the 20's and 30's.  English and Burmese companies supervised the harvesting of the trees and the dragging of the trunks to a waterway. After WW1, Billy Williams strode into this world and became one of the finest, if not the best, elephant wallah, in the country. Asian elephants are extremely intelligent, have communication skills and respond well to caring and committed humans.  Williams was one of the most successful people working for the Burmah Teak Trading Co., was promoted and eventually married in 1932. In 1939, over half-a-million people, mostly Indians ,fled from the Japanese invaders west into India and safety. Williams led about 100 company employees and dependents on an elephant safari to safety. For the next six years, he led the Elephant Company which built over 200 bridges that ultimately helped the Empire turn the tide against Japan. He received the OBE in 1945.  This book has been a surprising pleasure.