Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death And Art, Sykes - B

         "These pages will paint a twenty-first century portrait of the Neanderthals: not dullard losers on a withered branch of the family tree, but enormously adaptable and even successful ancient relatives." They lived for 350,000 years before their fossil history disappeared 35,000 years ago. They ranged from Wales to Siberia, and as far south as Iraq. The finding of fossils in the Neander Valley 160 years ago began the study of our most immediate ancestors. As the world of archeology expanded to 20th century carbon dating and 21st century DNA analysis, our knowledge of them has increased almost infinitely. "Genetics can illuminate many shadows archaeology cannot." The source of our understanding is bits and pieces of 200-300 individual Neanderthals. DNA testing has confirmed that all Europeans have about 2% Neanderthal genes, but they were perceptibly different. Their brains were about the same size, but their heads were differently shaped, their noses were larger and they inhaled more air into bigger lungs, their bones were heavier and they were more muscular. Their legs were further apart and  shorter, but their hands were bigger and stronger. They were different from each other, those from Scandinavia having different features than those from the Middle East. "They rode the earth's climate rollercoaster for hundreds of thousands of years, coping with extremes in weather..." They roamed through every type of landscape. Based on their size, it is estimated that they required twice as many calories as today's homo sapiens. The majority of those calories came from meat. They hunted prey from rabbits up to mammoths, always seeking the fattest animals. Fish and birds were also consumed. The evidence also points to their being "herbaceous connoisseurs." They skillfully managed and processed their food supply for a third of a millennium. One issue that has eluded scientists has been their use of fire. They clearly used it to cook, but just how often and where has not been resolved. Equally uncertain to us is the degree of their mobility, because we know they likely moved in small bands, but we do not know how far.  Also, whether or not they ceremoniously buried their dead is unresolved. As their throats and ears were complex, and because they engaged in collaborative ideas, it appears likely that they were capable of some sort of speech. They wore clothing and probably some decorations. How, when and for how long they interbred with homo sapiens remains unresolved, as does how and why they died out as a species. There is so much that we don't know, but we do know that they were not "a failed early release hominin on the road to nowhere.." "Compared to the millions of years before, Neanderthal existence was a major upgrade to hominin life." This topic has always fascinated me. Four decades ago, the discussions and assessments were based upon a rudimentary study of fossils. Today, the ability to study those fossils down to the the cellular level has revolutionized our knowledge

Hello, Transcriber, Morrissey - B+

                Hazel is a transcriber for the Black Harbor, Wisconsin police department. She is 28, in a miserable marriage, and, at long last, is intrigued by her job. Black Harbor is the 'worst' town in the state, but transcribing oral reports that the cops dictate is captivating. A suspect in a case happens to be her next door neighbor. As she pays more and more attention to the case, she becomes fascinated with the voice of the detective and starts to meet him for an occasional soda or coffee. They fall for each other, which is just about as inappropriate a work place relationship as one can dream up. Good plot, a few deft touches and just enough excitement.

               This is the debut novel for a young University of Wisconsin grad who worked for three years as a - police transcriber.

Dead By Dawn, Doiron - B+

           This is a fascinating, fast-paced thriller set in the north woods of Maine and featuring Mike Bowditch, a state game warden and investigator. Mike's in his early thirties, and a graduate of Colby College. He is asked to look into a death by misadventure four years earlier of a 77 year-old who fell off a boat and drowned. Accident or murder? Once Mike reopens this inquiry, he attracts some unwanted animosity and attention that sees his vehicle sabotaged, and him plummeting into the Androscoggin river in the middle of winter. There is a lot of intriguing information about the wilds of Maine, and the folks who live there. Apparently, this novel is part of a long-running series, suggesting a look at the earlier ones is in line.

Rogues Gallery: The Birth of Modern Policing and Organized Crime in Gilded Age New York, Oller - C+

             Between 1870 and 1910, the city's population grew from 1.5 million to 5 million. Fully 40% of the residents were foreign born, and almost as many were first generation Americans. Crime grew exponentially, and the NYPD had to learn to police the increasingly complex and immigrant-filled city. The man who ushered the police department into the modern era was Thomas F. Byrnes, who joined the department in 1863, the year of the draft riots.  As a captain fifteen years later, he became famous for cracking the Manhattan Savings Institution heist, still the biggest in NY history. It was the first time ever in the city that bank robbers were arrested and convicted. Soon thereafter, Byrnes was promoted to Inspector and put in charge of the Detective Bureau. He initiated the 'rogues gallery' by publishing the daily mug shots of everyone arrested in the city. "Under Byrnes, the NYPD's detective bureau came to rival the great detective departments of Paris and Vienna, Austria." In 1888, the state legislature made him a chief inspector, number two in the police department. Four years later, he was superintendent. His eventual denouement began in the early 90's when crusading moralist, Reverend Charles Parkhurst, began to point out that there still was a great deal of sin and crime that the police let slide. Byrnes countered that they couldn't stop all crime and Parkhurst hammered away on departmental corruption. Byrnes' live and let live approach to minor crime was soon to be over. In 1894, the legislature created the Lexow Commission to investigate corruption in the department. When summing up, the committee's counsel said, "that despite using a microscope, the Lexow Committee had yet to find a business in the city that wasn't being extorted by the NYPD." The committee tried, but couldn't lay a glove on Byrnes. However, he soon met his match in the person of the new police commissioner,  Theodore Roosevelt. TR wanted to clean house, and he did, starting with Byrnes. TR was a high-minded progressive who wanted a professional, depoliticized, and above all, an honest department. He upgraded procedures, enhanced the use of telephones and introduced mobility to the NYPD with his adoption of a bicycle squad. In a short period of time, he transformed the department. Following the letter of the law, Roosevelt closed every saloon in the city over the summer of 1895, leading to his achieving unprecedented heights of unpopularity. He resigned two years later. The reform efforts of the TR and the Lexow Committee affirmed that the department should be clean and honest. However, within a few years, it was back to business as usual with saloonkeepers, prostitutes, and small-timers kicking back to the police. The gangs and violence that once was the exclusive purview of the Irish were replaced by newcomers, the Jews and Italians, who now predominated on the lower east side. The newcomers were rougher and tougher. When the city sent its first Italian-American detective to Palermo to research the criminal records of various gang members, he was gunned down in the Sicilian capital. Thomas Petrosino was the only on duty city policeman ever to die on foreign soil. By the end of the Gilded Age, both the NYPD and the Mafia were established, powerful organizations.

All Her Little Secrets, Morris - B

    This is an excellent thriller set in modern day Atlanta, featuring a 40-ish woman of color, Ellice Littlejohn. She is promoted to general counsel in a large privately owned delivery business. The only problem is that her boss Michael is murdered, and she is sleeping with him and discovered his body. Things start to unravel when Michael's wife acknowledges to her that she knew all along, and discloses information that implies the killer might have been someone at the company as Michael had discovered something very bad and was prepared to resign. Plus, Ellice's estranged half-brother is somehow involved. As it turns out, the company is a den of thieving, money-laundering white supremacists and it takes awhile for Elllice to unravel the mess. The novel fades a bit at the end but still holds your attention.

The White Russian, Bradby - C+

         This is a historical novel set in St. Petersburg (Petrograd after WWI started) in the early days of 1917. Revolution is in the air and the empire is crumbling. Alexander Ruszky, the chief of homicide, tries to do his duty but is caught up in a mess that involves his adulterous wife who is carrying on with a Grand Duke, his brother, his dad, the assistant finance minister, a ballerina who he is in love with and the staff at Tsarskoe Selo.  It sheds very little light on the time and place.

Hero Of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, Duncan - B

        Gilbert de Lafayette was born on Sept. 6, 1757 to a family of noble heritage on his father's side, and significant wealth on his mother's. His father died two years later. He grew up in the Auvergne region in south central France until his mother moved him to Paris when he was 11. A year later, she too died. Gilbert was now the wealthy Marquis de Lafayette. The noble de Noailles family set sights on him as a future son-in-law. He and Adrienne were wed in 1774. The following year he summered at Metz where he was a newly appointed officer in the army, joined the Masons, and began to consider freedom and equality as the foundation of his political philosophy. Before his career could begin though, he was caught on the wrong side of an army reorganization and was out of a commission.

      Dreaming of glory, he turned his attention to America and somehow convinced the Continental Army's recruiter in Paris to offer him a commission as a Major- General. His value was his membership in the nobility, his connection to the crown, and his wealth, which he used to purchase a ship to take him and others to America. He arrived in Philadelphia in the summer of 1777 and was warmly welcomed.  At Brandywine, he fought bravely, was wounded and won praise from Washington.  He worked in 1778  as liaison when the French forces arrived in America, and at year's end returned to France, where he was proclaimed a hero.  He returned to America in 1780, and announced more troops, supplies and funds were on the way. Washington assigned Lafayette a division and tasked him with pursuing an army in Virginia. As both sides traversed Virginia, Lafayette had the good fortune to command the army that actually bottlenecked Cornwallis at Yorktown. The twenty-four year old general was in charge of the attack that led to the British surrender. Lafayette had made his name.

   Returning to Paris, he took up the life of a wealthy and famous family man with three children. He was one of 144 Notables called to an assembly in 1787 to try and find a solution to the kingdom's precarious finances. It soon became evident that France's financial mess was caused by the profligacy of the Bourbons, and that massive tax revisions were necessary. However, no consensus was reached and the situation continued to deteriorate. The marquis was identified with the reform oriented republicans and lost favor at the court. When the coffers were completely empty in the summer of 1788, the creditors demanded reform through a calling of the Estates-General. Lafayette was part of the first convocation of the Estates-General since 1614, and made a notable speech on the topic of the rights of man. However, events soon overcame the assembly when the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789. A great revolution was underway.  In the new realm, Lafayette was put in command of the national guard, where he had to juggle preserving liberty and keeping order. His design of the guard's uniforms in white, red and blue eventually became the national flag. He deftly averted a peoples attack on Versailles in October and, in the course of seeking a compromise, convinced the king to move to Paris. As the king had indicated a willingness to create a constitutional monarchy, the marquis believed he was heading the revolution toward a peaceful resolution On the first anniversary of Bastille Day, Lafayette hosted a Fete de la Federation involving hundreds of thousands honoring the royal family and the National Assembly. He was at the apogee of his career, and would soon plummet. When the king attempted to escape France in the summer of 1991, Lafayette erroneously told the the government that he had been kidnapped. He had previously assured the Assembly that the king would not run. He was clearly wrong, and was the target of abuse by the angry radicals. When, in the midst of a confusing riotous day on the Champs de Mars, he ordered his men to fire, Lafayette sealed his fate. He resigned in October. He and his family left the city for their ancestral home in Auvergne. A year later, he was accused of treason. Danton, a long term opponent signed an arrest warrant, and the marquis fled the country.  The Austrians considered him an instigator of revolution and arrested him. By doing so, they probably saved his life. His wife was arrested and all of his assets confiscated. The new American ambassador, James Madison, saved Adrienne from the guillotine. The US passed a law authorizing full pay for Lafayette, thus affording him a chance to upgrade his life while imprisoned. Adrienne was set free in early 1795 as a gesture of goodwill to the US. She and her two daughters joined Lafayette in jail. Freedom came in 1797 when Bonaparte defeated the Austrians and they let their French prisoners out.

      Impoverished and unwelcome in France, the family moved to Denmark. He was allowed to return in late 1799 with the admonition to stay out of politics and Paris. The family moved to a chateau in LaGrange that Adrienne's family owned. His citizenship was reestablished, but he and Napoleon were wary of each other. The emperor wanted his support; he wanted liberty and freedom for all. Lafayette focused on his farming and his family. On Christmas Eve in 1807, Adrienne died at the age of forty-eight. Lafayette was saddened by France's losses, but welcomed the downfall of Napoleon. Louis XVIII's restoration bestowed a charter of rights, but it was a gift from the king and not a true constitution. In 1818, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. As the monarchy turned to the right, Lafayette began to work to overturn it. He was involved in a plot that failed, and managed to avoid indictment, but did lose his seat in the 1823 elections. With reaction prevailing, he decided it was time to return to America. Accompanied by his son, Georges, and a secretary, the marquis arrived in New York in the summer of 1824. He was honored for a full year throughout the country, where he visited all twenty-four states and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill by laying the cornerstone for a new memorial. He met just about every luminary in the land including Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Jackson and President Adams. He sailed to France in a US ship christened Brandywine in his honor.

     Charles X was now king and was bound and determined to turn back the revolution. As part of his program was the restoration of the aristocracy's wealth, Lafayette was once again a wealthy man. He was again elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In July of 1830, the king tried to eliminate many of the freedoms that were now part of the body politic. Rioters in Paris put Lafayette back in charge of the National Guard and forced the king to abdicate. He supported the duc d'Orleans for the throne because the duc believed in the principles of the liberals. He and Lafayette stood on the balcony of the Hotel de Ville waving the tricolor flag. Lafayette was again the toast of the country, and Louis Philipe, the new king, vowed to support republican institutions. The king lapsed into the Bourbon's old ways and the opposition had Lafayette removed from power, although he stayed on in the Chamber and continued to argue for expanding the electorate. He wound down his activities in Paris, and died at his country home in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven. His funeral procession in Paris attracted 200,000 spectators. The extraordinary Marquis Lafayette was buried in a churchyard with his wife.

     

Sharpe's Assassin, Cornwell - B+

                 In the first Richard Sharpe book in 15 years, we find now Lt. Col. Sharpe summoned to see Wellington the day after Waterloo. He is tasked to take his regiment ahead of the Allied advance, enter France, and capture a prison. One of the prisoners, an Englishman named Fox, Sharpe, and about a dozen men head to Paris to try and find a fraternity committed to killing the generals, princes, and kings, who are heading there to to occupy the city and establish a peace. Sharpe pursues the 'Fraternite,' guards the Louvre where the Allies are attempting to recover Europe's stolen art, and wreaks havoc and mayhem on deserving French miscreants.  When it is all done, he retires to Normandy with the French woman he has fallen in love with. Considering the time lapse between novels, and the author's age, this is likely the finale in the 20+ book series.  The Sharpe novels are historical fiction at its best. I've learned a great deal about military tactics as Sharpe climbed the ranks through Flanders, India, Spain, France and Belgium. The British riflemen in green coats scouting the enemy, the French attack in column to the sound of their drums, and the British use of squares against cavalry are three that come to mind. Simply great.

Fools and Mortals, Cornwell - B

             This is an intriguing novel set in London in 1595, and narrated by Richard Shakespeare, younger brother of the Bard. Will is working on, and begins rehearsals for, 'A Midsummer's Night Dream.' There are two concurrent stories in the novel. One is the conflict between the city's players and the Puritans focused on purifying the wretched city of London. Will Shakespeare's players are protected by the Queen's cousin, their benefactor, Lord Hundson.  The second story is about the need for content. Four theaters in close proximity to each other need plays to survive and stealing from Will Shakespeare is part of the strategy at the Swan. Good fun.

Project Hail Mary, Weir - B+

        Only twice before in nine years have I posted a science fiction novel on this blog, and this is the first one set in outer space. The author wrote 'The Martian,' and in this book tackles a possible human extinction event. It becomes apparent to scientists that the sun is losing its power, emitting less heat, and setting the earth on course to be 10 degrees colder in 25 years. Food sources will be so disrupted that a substantial portion of the race will starve. The problem appears to be infrared emissions from nebulae spanning the the solar system. Under the auspices of the UN, the world's powers set up a team that captures the emissions and labels them astrophage. After intensive analysis, the conclusion is to travel to the one solar system,  13 light-years away, that has not been impacted by the astrophage and try to sort out why it hasn't been effected. A three person crew is sent on a suicide mission to garner the solution and send back small probes with the hoped for answer. When Ryland Grace comes out of his induced coma, he learns that his two colleagues are dead. When he arrives at his destination, he realizes that there is another spaceship there. He makes contact with, and starts to work with, an astronaut from the planet Erid. Together, they determine how to eradicate the astrophage and, as a bonus, create enough fuel for Grace to get back to the Earth. He sends off the probes and begins the long flight home. About a month into his return, he realizes that they made a mistake and that the Eridian ship was not going to be able to make it all the way. Does he divert to Erid and help his colleague and billions of Eridians or does he keep going? A special thanks to Wendell Erwin, who I know I actually got all of the science in this bit of science fiction.

These Toxic Things, Hall - B

        This is a very good thriller set in today's LA featuring a young Black woman, recent USC grad, still living at home and working for a digital archaeology firm. She is the target of a serial killer who is sending her texts, but no one can sort out how, when or why she became a target. The fact is that the killer is part of the project that she is working on and is following her every move. Combine the main story with a surprising, dramatic personal turn in the final scene for a proverbial page turner. 

God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire and theMaking of the Modern World, Mikhail - B

     The year 1492 saw Spain enter the New World, and finish expelling the Muslims from the Iberian peninsula.  The encounter between Spain and the Ottomans was the "exigent political struggle" of the day.  Indeed, "The Ottoman Empire, contrary to nearly all conventional accounts...was the very reason Europeans went to America." In the decades before and after 1500, the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful on Earth. It pushed the Portuguese and Spanish out of the Mediterranean, compelling them to sail around Africa. Europeans justified their importation of slaves from Africa to America as necessary to defeat Islam. To a great extent, "the Ottoman Empire made our modern world."

     Beginning in the early fourteenth century, the turkic speaking descendants of Osman began to conquer pieces of the deteriorating Byzantine Empire. Mehmet II, the seventh sultan of what was now known as the Ottomans, captured Constantinople in 1453. From that point until the 19th century, the Ottomans stood "at the center of global politics, economics, and war." Mehmet's grandson, Selim, would triple the size of the empire before his death in 1520 at the age of 49. 

    Selim was the fourth of ten sons fathered by the Bayezit, who became sultan in 1581. Born to different concubines, half-brothers and their mothers spent their lives plotting against each other because those who did not become sultan were murdered or exiled. Selim and his mother, Gulbahar, were sent to the far reaches of the Black Sea to govern Trabzon when he was 17.  He would stay there for twenty-five years and was generally considered to have done an excellent job. However, his distance from the capital clearly meant he was not to succeed his father. Nonetheless, he used the challenges of managing a border region to develop his own skills, particularly building military alliances. 

    Raised in Genoa, a city that traded extensively with the Ottomans, Columbus knew full well how Islam dominated from the eastern Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Like his peers, Columbus viewed the world through a religious prism focused on crusading against Islam. Earlier, when the Portuguese had discovered Muslims in W. Africa, a Papal Bull authorized them to "enslave any Saracens." Pagans, Jews, and Muslims were less human than European Catholics, and were the victims of Spanish violence in Europe and America. Columbus spent a decade searching for funding to go west. In Ferdinand and Isabella, he found dedicated 'Moor slayers.' When the Reconquista was completed in January, 1492, the Spanish crown was ready to sponsor Columbus. Attacking the Ottomans from Asia was the plan. The Spanish in the Caribbean were so focused on the Far East that they thought Cuba was Japan,  San Salvador, India and the Yucatan, Egypt. "The vocabulary of the war with Islam became the language of Spanish conquest in the Americas." "Spain conceived of itself as engaged in a perpetual Crusade against non-Christians." Failure of the Amerindians to convert meant that the natives were subject to being enslaved and losing their property. The barbarism of Spain, the only country in Europe ever occupied by Muslims, was condemned by the Dutch, French and English. "Violence, expulsions,  forced migrations, the expansion of religious war, the annihilation of New World peoples, and increased slavery dominated the early modern world in the decades around the paroxysmal  year of 1492." 

    "Much of Selim's time as governor of Trabzon, like much of his later reign as sultan, was focused on facing down the threat of Shiite rebels in eastern Anatolia and the growth of the early modern world's major Shiite power in Iran and the Caucasus." The Safavids dominated the lands west and south of the empire. When they attacked in 1505, Selim struck back with such ferocity that the Safavids appealed to the Sultan for mercy, which Bayezit responded to, thus creating a fault line between Selim and his father. After a raid into Georgia, Selim publicly decried the administrators in Istanbul for being soft, and began to rally more troops to his side.  A second Safavid foray into Anatolia killed the Sultan's grand vizier, further embarrassing Bayezit. Selim rode a horse into battle with his troops; his father and brothers waited in their palaces. He set his eyes on Istanbul and the ultimate prize.  With the help of the Janissaries, the Empire's professional warrior class, Selim was able to bully his father into resigning. He became sultan in April, 1512 in what clearly was a coup.  Soon, all rivals were eliminated and Selim was Sultan. He was assisted by his only son, Suleyman, who someday would be known as the Magnificent. Once he was firmly in control, Selim turned to the Shiite Safavid Empire. He cut off their access to the silk trade, and descended on them with an army of 140,000. He defeated them in battle and took the capital of Tabriz. Selim now ruled the world's largest land empire.

    He next attacked the Mamluk Empire of Egypt, custodian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He crushed the Mamluk army in Syria, killed the sultan, marched to Damascus, then to Jerusalem and Cairo. He defeated the Mamluk defenders in January, 1517, and entered Cairo. Selim had tripled the size and population of his empire. One of the reasons that the Ottomans were so successful was that they maintained the status quo. Almost all local administrators were retained, property rights were respected, taxes were not raised, and freedom of religion was confirmed. In 1520, Selim had his eyes on Morocco and a possible conflict there with the Spanish when he died, in September. Suleyman consolidated and strengthened the empire his father had created. 

    The author is chair of Yale's history department, and a noted Ottoman scholar. The sections of the book on Selim are fabulous. The attempts to equate much of Spain and Catholic Europe's policies as a direct result of, and in response to, the goings on in the Ottoman world feel uncomfortable to me, and also to some of the reviewers I've read.