London Rules, Herron - B+

            On the day terrorists kill a dozen innocents in a village that dates to medieval times, someone tries to run down Slough Houses's own Roddy Ho. Although all wonder if they'd have preferred his demise, they recognize it as a threat to them all, and they begin to tail him. And lo and behold, a second attempt is made at Ho's house and Lamb saves the day. MI5 determines that whoever attacked Ho was behind the Abbotsford bombing. Lamb realizes that the terrorists are following an old MI-5 template for destabilizing hostile nations, and if Ho is somehow part of a leak, Slough House could be in trouble. As the next step in the secret plan is to assassinate a populist politician, the slow horses divide up to keep an eye on the two likeliest candidates. Tragically, the newest slow horse, JK Coe, inadvertently kills one of the targets. When the slow horses capture the girlfriend to whom Ho leaked the information, they and MI5 headquarters narrow the search. The bad guys are N. Korean and not the usual suspects. While the security services focus on an attack at the memorial service in London, Shirley Dander and JK Coe head to the site of the first attack and stop the terrorists in their tracks. Once again Headquarters would like to shut down Slough House but cannot do so.

The Ghosts of Rome, O'Connor - B-

                  This novel is the second in a series based on a real life hero, Msgr. Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish diplomat assigned to the Vatican. He and the fictional Contessa Landini manage the 'Choir,' a system of escape for downed airmen, escaped prisoners, and anyone running from the Gestapo. In the spring of 1944, Berlin puts a vast amount of pressure on the local SS officer to end the escape line or suffer the consequences, and he in turn escalates the pressure on all in the Eternal City. Thrust and parry by both sides as the Germans close down streets, raid buildings, and sweep up a few, but there are so many in hiding, the process of moving them out of the city continues until the liberation.

                  Unlike its predecessor, this book has a stream of consciousness feel to it that I'm not comfortable with. Historians have estimated that O'Flaherty saved 6500 souls from the Nazi's.

Predator Of The Seas: The History Of The Slaveship That Fought For Emancipation, Taylor - B+

                  In 1807, the UK enacted the Act of Abolition banning the slave trade. Efforts to catch slavers generally failed because the Royal Navy's ships of the line were immeasurably slower than the slavers. 

                  The brig Henriqueta was built near Baltimore around 1820, and like all American ships, she was built for speed. She was purchased by a Brazilian, Jose Lima, who used it to successfully build up his slaver business. The Henriqueta was very fast, and was capable of holding over 500 humans, and transported 504 survivors on her first trip from Africa to Brazil. The brig continued to transport thousands of Africans each year and made Lima one of the richest men in Brazil. However, as the British became more and more frustrated with the continued high level of slaver activity, they decided to impound ships even if there was no contraband aboard. The Henriqueta adopted the ruse of flying under an American flag. She had delivered 3040 slaves to Brazil over six voyages. But, by virtue of a very lucky shot that dismasted her, her seventh was halted and over 500 Africanfreed. The ship was auctioned and purchased by an Englishman and soon was sailing for the Royal Navy as the Black Joke. Evidencing a change in policy, "she would be set free to cruise independently in battling the very atrocities she had enabled." In her first week, she captured a Spanish vessel headed to Cuba with 155 souls aboard. Their next success was a Brazilian with 695 slaves aboard, the largest capture in the history of the West African Squadron. Among the issues facing the squadron were fever, smallpox, and  violent weather.  They also faced the excruciating frustration of capturing slavers more than once. Oft times, the buyer at auction sailed the ships back to Brazil and sold them to the previous owner. They were fighting an uphill battle as slavers delivered far more of the enslaved to Brazil, Cuba and the Indies than ever before. The US did not cooperate in any way and more importantly, France was exempt from interference by virtue of a treaty. Thousands of Africans continued to pour into the New World.  In tropical water, a ship's wood often deteriorated and by 1831, the Black Joke was not what she once was. A heavily armed Spaniard, the Marienereto, vowed to sink her. Although "the scourge of Africa's oppressors" was fading, the Black Joke prevailed. A year later, the Admiralty decommissioned the ship and she was burnt on the shore at Sierra Leone.

            In 1833, Parliament abolished slavery in the colonies effective the following year, and in the Indies in 1838. The Royal Navy was able to end Brazil's trading in 1851. The British patrolled the African coast until 1867 and are believed to have saved 160,000 Africans from slavery. Nonetheless, it should be noted that prior to fighting slavery, the English in the 16th and 17th centuries, enslaved 3.2 million Africans, of whom an estimated 700,000 died in the Middle Passage.

                

War Of The Roses Bloodlines, Iggulden - B+

               After defeating York at Sandal in 1460, Queen Margaret headed south to London where Henry VI was imprisoned. A York army blocked the road. They were outflanked when the queen's forces attacked from behind, carried the day, and recaptured the king. Their success was not rewarded when they were refused entrance to the city of London, and were forced to march away to safer surroundings. When the forces of York came to London, they were admitted and hailed. Edward, Duke of York, decided it was a propitious time, and had himself crowned Edward IV. Two weeks later, he marched north to pursue the forces of the queen. At Towton, the bloodiest battle ever on English soil took place. It was fought on Palm Sunday in a raging snowstorm and the Yorkists sent the Lancasters fleeing. Margaret, the nine year old Prince of Wales, and the enfeebled Henry fled to Scotland. Margaret and her son sailed for France, and left Henry in the care of one of his lords. 

                In 1464, Henry VI stumbled into the hands of a York loyalist, and was returned to the Tower. Edward IV, a young and inexperienced monarch, began to mistreat his most loyal servant and chancellor, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, whose own father had died in battle with Edward's. So offended was Warwick that he conspired with the king's opponents, and captured Edward IV. Now, both crowned kings of England were imprisoned, but there was a difference: the people demanded Edward's freedom and could have cared less about Henry. Warwick eventually concluded he needed to free Edward, and he and his family fled to Paris. As a guest of the French king, he was obliged to meet with two guests, Queen Margaret and her son, the Prince of Wales. Another fine book that leaves me looking forward to the fourth in the series, and the climax of the War of the Roses.

          

Masters Of The Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air war Against Nazi Germany, Miller - B

                  "The Eighth Air Force had been sent to England to join the ever accelerating bombing campaign, which would be the longest battle of World War II." Casualties would be shockingly high. The 8th had 26,000 fatalities, more than the entire U.S. Marine Corps. 

                   The U.S. Air Force came to the war as believers of strategic bombing, the destruction of the enemy's means of production, and the breaking of its morale. It was aided by the Norden bombsight, which American pilots bragged allowed them to drop a bomb into a pickle barrel. The Boeing-made B-17 was a majestic machine that was amazingly fast, heavily armed, and believed to be invincible. Consequently, the planners did not foresee the need for fighter escorts. Between February 1942 and the end of 1943, the 8th grew from seven men and no planes, to 185,000 and 4,000. However, their start was inauspicious. Throughout the second half of 1942, the U.S. put planes over the continent, but the inexperienced crews could not compete with the Luftwaffe's veterans, and their bombing was totally inaccurate. That first year, they were "flying and fighting without proper equipment, armor, warmth, or rest." Their losses were so high and unrelenting that there was a near total collapse of morale and well-being in the 8th. By the time the 8th began to receive reinforcements in the late spring of 1943, they had seen only a fourth of their crews live long enough to complete their 25 mission objective.

           Over that first winter, the Yanks began the construction of over 200 airfields in England to hold the eventual thousands of planes and hundreds of thousands of men set to arrive. The objective of the RAF and USAF was to destroy the Luftwaffe, its bases, and manufacturing facilities prior to the cross-channel invasion of 1944. The first major attempt the 8th made was against two plants in Bavaria, one the Reich's leading manufacturer of ball bearings, the other, a large Messerschmitt plant. On August 17, three hundred and seventy-six B-17's took off, sixty-one were lost and another 100 were so badly damaged that they were pulled from the line. The damage inflicted on the Germans was negligible. At this point, it was evident that long range fighter escorts had to be used or the US bombing campaign would fail. In Germany, the air war now became the Reich's primary concern. Albert Speer and the Luftwaffe's leaders begged for more fighter planes. Hitler opted for flak guns and revenge rockets. A second run at the ball bearing plant in Schweinfurt again led to massive U.S. casualties. Late in 1943, the 8th added a new strategic asset to its planes, air to ground radar. The American could now fly and bomb in northern Europe's perpetually cloudy skies.

           The air war over Germany finally turned conclusively in America's favor on January 11, 1944. On a mission deep into Germany, the B-17's were escorted by a new fighter, the P-51 Mustang. A single plane protected an entire group from the Luftwaffe only a few minutes west of Berlin. The Mustang changed everything. It could fly as far east as Poland, was faster and lighter than the Me-109, and was produced in massive quantities. Additionally, the Americans were told to not fly with the B-17's, but rather to push forward and aggressively attack the German fighters. On February 20, the 8th unleashed a massive bombing operation in which they lost a handful of planes and the escorts knocked out a third of their attackers. It was a clear cut victory, and the beginning of the end for the Luftwaffe. They carried their massive raids to Berlin next and dealt the capital  blow after blow. Finally in May, American casualties dropped precipitously, and morale skyrocketed. Gen. Eisenhower diverted both the RAF and USAF to ground support throughout the summer of 1944. When the 8th was released, it attacked the synthetic oil industry and finally hit a strategic target that substantially impeded the German war effort. In the fall, a resupplied Luftwaffe made their final effort, but were overwhelmed as the US was flying missions with 500-1000 bombers constantly. Over the winter, the 8th slowed down its strategic ambitions and began to aggressively bomb German population centers.  After the war, the Allies learned that their bombing of the cities throughout the Fatherland severely depressed front line Wehrmacht troops. When there wasn't much left to bomb, they provided ground support to advancing troops. And by the first week in May, it was at last over.

             History has not been kind to 'Bomber' Harris and the RAF's indiscriminate slaughter of German citizens for the entire length of the campaign. The record of the USAF is held in higher regard, but is still considered somewhat mixed. The only truly successful 'strategic'  bombing was of the synthetic fuel infrastructure in 1944. Almost everything else was area bombing. Their greatest and most important contribution was the defeat of the Luftwaffe. By clearing the skies, they made the Normandy landings and the ensuing successes possible. In many ways, this has been a frustrating read. It tells a story of magnificent bravery, steadfastness, and strength by very young Americans called to war. But at no point does it flow smoothly, and it is very long, almost wearying at times. That said, God bless the Greatest Generation.

                 

                     

                   

Hadrian And The Triumph Of Rome, Everitt- B

                   Hadrian's place in history has been secured by two accomplishments. He realized that further expansion was unsustainable and set about securing and strengthening the existing borders. And he refreshed and rebuilt Athens, leading it to be the cultural capital of the empire.

                  Born the son of a senator in 76 A.D., he lost his father when he was ten. A relative, Trajan, was appointed his guardian. During his education, he fell in love with the Greek language and its literature. The decade preceding his birth saw the empire face two momentous challenges. A series of revolts and the suicide of Nero meant the "elimination of the imperial system's founding family," and the declaration of an independent Jewish state led to a lengthy war. The Flavian dynasty of Vespasian and his two sons followed Nero, and ruled for three decades.  When Hadrian was 20, Trajan appointed him a tribune in his army, and he was with Trajan when Trajan became emperor in 98 A.D. The new emperor's first action was to attack the Dacians on the north side of the Danube. In a multi-year effort, Trajan triumphed, and created the province of Dacia, the first addition to the empire in fifty years. Hadrian was promoted and placed in defense of the province, and was made a consul in 108 A.D. Four yers later, Trajan attacked Parthia with Hadrian as his chief of staff. They added Armenia and Mesopotamia to the empire, but both were soon in rebellion. Trajan died, and his adopted son Hadrian ascended in 117 A.D. He immediately withdrew from the east to the empire's traditional borders, and permanently suspended the policy of seeking to expand the empire.

               Hadrian's goal was to bring peace and prosperity, and he sought to emulate Augustus' reign after he had prevailed at Actium. He was interested in the legal system and was the first to codify Rome's laws. He initiated massive public improvements in Rome, and traveled to all the reaches of the empire.  In 122 A.D., he went to Britain where he took great interest in a wall to separate the colony from the Picts. He extended Latin rights and Roman citizenship throughout the empire, and in particular to his legionnaires. Judaea, once again, rebelled and the rebellion was emphatically quashed in 135 A.D. with hundreds of thousands of Jews killed, enslaved, and exiled. He passed away in 138 A.D., and was succeeded by Antonius, who governed for two decades. He was a great emperor, a successful soldier and builder, but was never  popular with the people or the Senate. Edward Gibbon admired "his vast and active genius," and his "equity and moderation."  The noted Briton considered Hadrian's rule part "of the happiest era of human history."

Clear, Davies - B

                 In 1843 Scotland, an impoverished Presbyterian minister is hired to go to a remote Shetland island and evict the sole occupant. John Ferguson is shipwrecked on the shore of his destination and saved by Ivar, the island's last occupant who speaks an obsolete Norn language. As John recovers thanks to Ivar's ministrations, they slowly become friends. It takes a while, but Ivar eventually realizes that John could only be here on a mission from the laird, who Ivar hasn't seen in years. The men become close and closer, and John dreads what he has to do, but his wife, Mary, arrives, sees how close they are and offers to take Ivar in with them. An interesting and very different story.

Strategy For Defeat: The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945, Murray - B+

                "As with all military thought, a wide variety of political, historical, and economic factors guided the development of air doctrines in the period between the First and Second World Wars." Paramount though in the rush to build air forces was a desire to avoid a repetition of the horror of the first war's trench warfare. That said, what followed was not unlike what had preceded, a battle of attrition. Throughout the 1930's, the materials necessary to build an air force - rubber, aluminum, and petroleum were in short supply in Germany. And because the country was a continental power, the Wehrmacht's needs took priority. Thus, the development of the Luftwaffe was "subject to definite economic constraints," and the requirement to support the other armed forces. Goring was an incapable manager, and the only person attending to "strategic planning, force structure, or industrial production." His inadequacies, combined with the economic limitations above, led to the collapse of the air arm late in the war. 

             The rapid victory over Poland was due to overwhelming power, and the close coordination of air power supporting ground forces. In Norway, the Luftwaffe was critical to Germany's submission of the country. In France, "the use of dive bombers to support the Meuse crossings played a major role in one of the most decisive strategic victories in the military history of the 20th century." However as the Luftwaffe was at the outer limits of the range of its planes, it suffered serious losses over Dunkirk. Although the Battle of Britain was a close run thing, to some extent the result was preordained, as the Germans had no aircraft that could compete with the Spitfire and Hurricane. For Barbarossa, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to destroy the Soviet air force. On the first few days, the Soviets lost 3800 planes. However as the year wore on, maintenance and supply systems reached the breaking point in Germany. By December, the Germans had stalled, indeed they were facing defeat. They had not prepared for the losses they suffered, and production could not keep up with the loss of men and material. For all intents and purposes, defeat was now inevitable. Throughout 1942, the Luftwaffe remained focused in the east, supporting the army as it dealt with the burgeoning Soviet response to the invasion. Only in the Crimea region did the Wehrmacht and its air support achieve offensive success. However by the end of the year, the imbalance of men and material was overwhelmingly in the favor of the Allies, who outproduced Germany's airplane production by a ratio of 2.5 to 1. 

            The air war over Germany began in 1942 when the British initiated their bombing campaign, which escalated significantly the following year. They pounded the Ruhr in March at a "terrible cost" and "flirted" with defeat. Success soon followed with the use of chaff to confound local radar. They destroyed Hamburg that summer. The British nighttime area bombing was supplemented by American daytime strategic precision bombing. When the Americans flew into German airspace and beyond the range of their fighter escorts, the Luftwaffe inflicted immense casualties on the 8th Air Force. Because Hitler was so focused on revenge, he encouraged continued construction of bombers and missiles to attack Britain instead of building more fighters to defend the Reich. That said, when Bomber Command began the arduous task of attacking Berlin, Germany was able to hold them off by coordinating a defense based upon ground radar coordination with searchlights, night fighters with radar, and flak to inflict heavy damage on the British to the point that they called off the attacks. Indeed, in the first quarter of 1944, Bomber Command lost 796 planes and crew. The US introduced the long range American fighter escort, the P-51 Mustang, and changed the dynamics of the air war. Reinforced with a massive infusion of men, fighters and bombers, the objective of the 8th Air Force now became the elimination of the Luftwaffe. During "Big Week" in February 1944, the US began flying 1,000 bombers with as many escorts against the overmatched Germans. Luftwaffe losses became "unmanageable."

             The Allies then turned to preparations for Overlord by bombing French rail and marshalling yards, the rail bridges over the Seine, and German fuel and refinery capabilities. When the invasion came, it was only "the skill and tenacity" of Germany's soldiers that prevented a rout. From D-Day to the end of the month, Allied pilots flew 130,000 sorties, ten times the Luftwaffe's. By the end of the summer, Germany and the Luftwaffe were spent. But the Allies in the west failed to capitalize on the situation and conclude the final victory, assuring eight more months of casualties for both sides and the ongoing destruction of Germany.

             This is a magnificent military history, and one those who have an interest and patience will enjoy.

            

Silent Death, Kutscher - B

                  This is the second novel in the Babylon Berlin series and is set in 1930. Gereon is called out to an accidental death of a famous actress after a spotlight falls from the rafters in a movie studio and kills her. He concludes that the spotlight was manipulated to fail, and that it is a case of premeditated murder. The technician who is likely behind it is missing, as is a second famous actress. Soon thereafter, the technician plummets to his death from a very tall building. All conclude that it was suicide but Gereon is convinced he was pushed off. Then Homicide finds the second famous actress dead in an abandoned movie theater with her vocal cords removed. A third actress's body is found in another closed theater, also with her vocal cords gone. Gereon tries to convince all that the three are related, but no one at the Alex agrees with him. He's suspended for ongoing insubordination, but heads off to follow one more clue at Wannsee. There, he confronts the killer. This novel too is quite good, but unlike its predecessor, it is a straightforward police novel lacking just about any meaningful insights into the last years of Weimar.

Gabriel's Moon, Boyd - B-

              Gabriel Dax is a travel writer uninterested in politics who happens to be in the Congo when Patrice Lumumba asks for an Englishman to interview him and record the conversation. He jumps at the task but never has the chance to even write the article as Lumumba is out of office before Gabriel returns to London. Lumumba had told him the US and the UN wanted him dead "because of the uranium." Soon, he is dead and Gabriel's life begins to go sideways. He's followed, his apartment is broken into, and is of interest to MI-6 and the CIA all because of the tapes he's buried in the yard. He soldiers on trying to write his next book, but is repeatedly asked to do small favors for MI-6, and all along the way, his life is now at risk. Pretty weak tea from an accomplished novelist.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Higginbotham - A*

                As the Apollo program was winding down, NASA turned its thoughts to a vehicle that could leave the earth and return in- tact. "This would require a true spacefaring vessel, and such a vehicle remained the stuff of science fiction." A plane that could withstand the forces of liftoff, survive the "cold soak" of space,  reenter the atmosphere at 2700 degrees Fahrenheit and have  engines that could work both in the atmosphere and in outer space was seemingly impossible. Nonetheless, a plane was designed by NASA and began production at four different contractors.  NASA selected thirty-five new astronauts for the program and dropped the prior requirement that each candidate have extensive flying experience. TFNG's (the thirty-five new guys) included men of color and women for the first time. Columbia took its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 with two NASA veterans, John Young and Bob Crippen, at the controls. It exceeded all expectations and an exultant nation reveled in its success. 

              When the solid fuel rockets were recovered from the Atlantic, engineers were surprised to see that the O rings were charred after a two minute ignition. The massive 150 foot rockets weighed over a million tons and had to be manufactured in four parts before final assembly at Cape Canaveral. The O rings were part of the mechanism that sealed the parts together. NASA and the contractors' engineers believed they had solved the issue after the maiden flight, and there were no problems on ensuing shuttle liftoffs.  However in early 1984, Morton Thiokol engineers discovered another O ring erosion in two different places. The professional conclusion a month later was that future erosion was not a threat to the viability of the engine.  In January, 1985 after a once in a century freezing cold in Florida, the O rings failed to compress quickly enough and suffered significant charring. Senior executives at Huntsville and at Thiokol began to believe that sooner or later, there would be a catastrophic failure. 

             Flight STS 51-L scheduled for January, 1986 included two passengers, Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from New Hampshire who would give lessons from space, and Greg Jarvis, an engineer from Hughes Aircraft selected to launch a Hughes satellite. The rest of the crew were NASA veterans; Ron McNair, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, and Dick Scobee had all flown previously. Only astronaut Mike Smith was a first timer. The crew and thousands of family, friends, and spectators descended on the Cape.  Cold weather scrubbed the launch for Sunday, the 25th, and the 26th. When Thiokol's engineers learned how cold it was, they alerted the Cape to the risks and offered a 14 man unanimous recommendation to not launch. The temperature at launch was forecasted to be 24 degrees colder than any previous launch and the O rings would lose all flexibility, be rigid, and would not hold their seal. NASA vigorously pushed back and the Thiokol men relented. Challenger would launch at 9:38 A.M. on the 28th.

           The early arrivers at the launchpad on Tuesday were shocked by the amount of ice everywhere. Florida was experiencing its second January in a row of a once in a century freeze. The crew entered the shuttle and the door was closed at 9:07.  When the Rockwell exec in California saw the ice, he told Florida that the manufacturer of the spacecraft could not assure the safety of the orbiter. NASA moved forward as another hold would disrupt the launch schedule for the year. As the countdown proceeded, the man at Thiokol in Utah who had pushed the hardest to stop the launch refused to watch on tv. At 11:39, the Challenger lifted off. Seventy-two seconds into the flight, the Challenger exploded.

           Within days, those who studied the film knew it was the O rings, and in Washington, it was decided that there would be a Presidential Commission to investigate the tragedy. Within a week, a Thiokol executive pointed out that the people from NASA were prevaricating about what happened. The commission, chaired by former AG Bill Rogers, concluded that many NASA people were lying and that their decision making process was "clearly flawed." The insistence to fly when the Thiokol people were opposed was the linchpin of their negligence. The final report was "damning." Those at NASA who lied and misled were quietly retired or shunted aside. The whistleblowers who told the truth at Thiokol became personae non gratae. In a famous appendix to the Rogers Report, a noted Caltech scientist said, "For a successful technology, science must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." Four families accepted the governments compensation, and three received awards after lengthy litigation. When Columbia failed in 2003, the report concluded that "many lessons of the Challenger disaster had gone unheeded." This very sad story is an indictment of any entity that insists on persevering through dissonant information because of the overriding expectations of accomplishing the mission. A truly great book.

            

The Big Empty, Crais - B+

                   Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are back at it for the twentieth time in this LA series. Cole is retained by a young influencer, Traci, the Baker Next Door, who is achieving nationwide fame. She asks Cole to find her dad who disappeared without a trace a decade ago when she was thirteen. The matter was thoroughly investigated twice and the job appears to be hopeless. Cole unravels a complex story one lead at a time. And as he pursues the matter, he is followed, trapped and beaten badly. It turns out dear old dad and his brother were not what they seemed. Almost all of these novels are excellent, and depict the nitty gritty details of life on the underside of the City of Angels.

Precipice, Harris - B

             This novel is set in the second half of 1914. It is based on the love letters written by British PM Herbert Asquith to his much younger mistress, Venetia Stanley. While Asquith focuses on the Irish problem and pines for Venetia, war on the continent comes out of nowhere and becomes unstoppable overnight. Asquith's second wife had been told to foreswear intimacy after a miscarriage, so the PM happily pursues younger women, and falls particularly hard for Venetia. As matters spiral out of control on the continent and a year later in the Dardanelles, the PM becomes embarrassingly dependent on her and writes to her three times a day. Feeling overwhelmed, Venetia pulls away, volunteers to become a nurse, goes to France, and accepts an engagement proposal from an unsuitable (and homosexual) admirer, at which point Asquith wishes her well. The absolutely astounding thing about this novel is that a man in his sixties and prime minister of a vast empire acted like a love struck teenager and shared innumerable matters of state and strategy in violation of common sense and the law. The descriptions of those in the cabinet, particularly Winston, Kitchener, and Lloyd George are fun to read.

The Rivals, Pek - B

            In the second novel about Claudia Lin and her colleagues at Veracity, we once again explore the, for me, incomprehensible world of the technology behind NYC's preeminent matchmaking sites. We also again face the possibility of a murder of someone in the business who believes the big three are using AI to manipulate their subscribers. The things I like about this book are the references to the city's geography and the insight into the Chinese immigrant community in Queens. Claudia's hiding her sexual orientation from her domineering mother is also a hoot.

From Russia With Love, Fleming - B

                        The Soviet secret services decide that an attack must be made on the West and the decision is made to strike at Britain's most effective agent, 007 James Bond. SMERSH is assigned the task and Rosa Klebb's strategy is to embarrass Bond in a honey trap before killing him in Istanbul. She recruits the beautiful Tatiana Romanova and an Northern Irish defector, Red Grant, now a SMERSH assassin. Tatiana contacts the British head of station in Istanbul and offers her defection with the Soviet's latest encryption machine. As she has studied the files of the men in MI 6, she wants to meet Bond. They meet at his hotel and she asks to take the Orient Express. They head west, but there are KGB on the train. Grant disarms Bond outside of Venice, but of course falls to James.

May The Wolf Die, Heider - B-

               Nikki Serafino is an Italian woman working as a liaison  between the local police and the US Navy in Naples. She is tasked with helping find the murderers of two American officers, one shot in his car and the other strangled and dumped in the ocean. There are indications that they may have been trafficking drugs, and a local mafioso confesses. Nikki does not believe it's that simple. She takes a look at some records of people who had been on ships with the two men and susses out the identity of the killer. Quite frankly, not that interesting, and Naples sounds just horrid.

Memoirs Of Hadrian, Yourcenar - B

              Hadrian (76-138 A.D.) was emperor for 21 years, and is generally applauded for focusing on consolidating, not expanding, his domains. He promoted Athens as the cultural capital of Rome. This novel is an imagining of a letter to his successor, Marcus Aurelius. 

             After bemoaning the state of his health, he turned to his story and praised his education in Rome and Athens. His cousin Trajan placed him in the army on the Danube frontier, where he s enjoyed fighting for a man who was more soldier than emperor. He fought well and garnered the approval of the emperor, who married him to Sabina, his grand niece. While back on the northeast frontier, Hadrian began to develop a philosophy of government inconsistent with Trajan's and most Romans. He began to view endless war as a folly, one that drained resources and men, and began to believe a military focused exclusively on defense was optimal. While governor of Syria, Hadrian saw Trajan embark on an ambitious, but in Hadrian's mind, foolish advance east to fight the Parthians, conquer Arabia, and reach farther into Asia. Trajan's plans for conquest faltered, as did his health. He died far from Rome, and designated Hadrian his heir. 

              Hadrian immediately settled the war in the east, and returned to Rome.  He refused the honors and titles the Senate wished to bestow as he designed a less imperial household and continued to treat all with dignity. He was "thankful to the gods" that he had the  opportunity to reorganize the state, not have to save it from some crisis. He traveled the empire, building new cities and endeavoring to negotiate issues with foreign powers to avoid armed hostilities. He spent little time in Rome and preferred Athens. His efforts to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem faltered when a massive anti-Roman uprising by the Jews broke out. It was a four year battle in which the Jews crushed the occupiers before they themselves were put down in a massive loss of life, and the end of Jewish political independence. From there, he returned to Rome to prepare for the end. "Let us try if we can to enter unto death with open eyes." This book is less a telling of the history of his era and more a lengthy and interesting philosophical musing. 

The Things They Carried, O'Brien - B+

      "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, cigarettes, salt tablets, Kool -Aid, lighter, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C Rations and two or three canteens of water." 

     They carried thousands of things into what "was not battle, it was just an endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost." No one in the author's platoon, the lieutenant who led them, or of his buddies, thought there was any reason for them to be there. The did not fight for a cause. They fought to survive.

       O'Brien was drafted in the summer of 1968 after graduating from college summa cum laude. He was so distraught that he drove north from St. Paul and spent six days on the Minnesota-Canada border just thinking about crossing. But he could not leave his hometown, his country, or his life. He concluded "he would kill or maybe die-because he was embarrassed not to." His depiction of being young, uninformed, and petrified while contemplating going to Canada is brilliant.

      As this is a novel with related short stories but no straight line narrative, it is difficult to write about. It is about many things, things that I, and most of us, have not experienced. He weaves tales of comradeship, fellowship, the brotherhood of those who have fought together. Death is pervasive, and the deaths of those left behind are ever present and in the front of the consciousness of the survivors. This is a haunting brilliant book. Thanks to my daughter Lauren for the recommendation.

The True Story Of The Christmas Truce, Richards - B

                     The war was expected to be over by Christmas. By the holiday, it was clear it would not be. Throughout Flanders, British and German soldiers engaged in a spontaneous truce. They fraternized in No Man's Land, swapped food and cigarettes, exchanged jokes and played football. In some sections, the ceasefire lasted a week.  This book tells the story.

                     By mid-October, the front had stabilized and the massive entrenchment had begun. A month later, the rains assured that the trenches became permanently flooded, and everyone was miserable. There was some fraternization throughout the fall by men sharing the same dismal world. As the holiday approached, civilians in both countries sent a significant number of packages. Every German front unit received a Christmas tree, which they decorated at the front while singing carols. On Christmas eve, men from both sides entered No Man's Land and began to exchange Christmas greetings. They serenaded each other with Christmas songs. "The peace that had begun would become even more pronounced on Christmas Day." Fully two-thirds of the British-German front did not fight on December 25th. The fraternization did include some football playing, but no real games. Soldiers from both sides wished they were home, and far away from war. "As the daylight slowly faded, both sides made their way back to their respective trenches." In many sectors, the peace continued on Boxing Day, but it turned into a ceasefire when it began to rain again and everyone had to work to maintain the trenches. As the war became more violent, there would not be a repetition of 1914. "Each nation's senior commanders ensured that there were unequivocal orders to avoid any rerun of the Christmas Truce."

              "The idea of open, friendly fraternization between enemies has remained in the minds of many as a uniquely First World War concept, forever linked to the Christmas Truce  of 1914.'

Dr. No, Fleming - B

         Bond is slowly recovering from injuries suffered during a recent assignment when M calls him in. M sends him off to Jamaica on a job that he believes will be a short vacay in the Caribbean. When two attempts are made on his life in the first twenty-four hours, Bond concludes that is not the case. His predecessor was likely killed by a gang under the thumb of Dr. Julius No, a recluse who owns and lives on a private island about twenty miles from Jamaica. Bond  heads there under cover of darkness. He runs into a beautiful girl of twenty, Honeychile Rider, who collects and sells rare seashells. When No's men seek them out, they head inland. They are captured and dine with Dr. No, who informs them that there is much going on at Crab Key, including interfering, with Moscow's assistance, with US missile launches. Both Bond and Honeychile are set up to die, when Bond endures torture, survives, kills No and some of his men. They escape back to Kingston and set the authorities onto Crab key. I do not think I've read a Bond book in over sixty years, and am totally shocked at how good it is. 

The Stars Turned Inside Out, Jacobs - B+

                  One morning at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research the home of the massive underground Large Hadron Collider, a scientist is found inside, irradiated, and dead. Dr. Howard Anderby had only worked there for a few months before his death. Inquiries by a former member of the Swiss police and now a private investigator, Sabine Leroux, yield  only that he recently spent a year in China working on their collider project. Also, Dr. Eve Marsh, who had fallen in love with Anderby, failed to disclose it. At Anderby's memorial service, all the scientists receive an app message with a live feed of a body floating in the LHC's xenon tank 1500 feet below ground. Niels Thorne was a scientist turned PR hack, who just about everyone at the LHC despised. However, Thorne left a video with one of the post-docs who brings it to Leroux. It clarifies that both deaths were murders, not accidents. It turns out a little bit of old fashioned espionage was in play.

                This is one heck of a novel, albeit one focused intently on physics. That said, I still haven't the slightest clue what a sub-atomic crash is or a Higgs boson for that matter.

i have no idea what a sub atomic crash is

The Devil Raises His Own, Phillips - B

              This novel is a sprawling, big story set in Hollywood in 1916-18. It is more or less about the beginnings of the movie business, and in particular, 'blue movies.' Everyone is hustling and trying to make a few bucks. The central character is an aged photographer who beds the middle aged women whose pictures he takes, and who shoots his granddaughter's fiance in the leg to stop him from joining the army. Other folks include two women who become fond of a lesbian lifestyle after satiating each other on film, a delusional drunk comedian, a claw hammer wielding escapee from prison, a crooked postal inspector, various drunks, floozies, con-men, and generally people of low character. The books setting forth the vast canvas of the city a long time ago has been broadly acclaimed.

The Hunter, French - B+

                    Cal Hooper, a former Chicago PD detective, has nicely settled into life in rural Ireland with a nearby lady friend, and a modest woodworking business with his apprentice, Trey Reddy.  Trey is the town's impoverished, wild, 15 year old teenage daughter who is growing up with help from Lena and Cal. Trey's con man of a dad makes a rare visit, and soon has roped a bunch of the farmers into a plan to swindle an Englishman he met in London. Cal believes there's more going on here than meets the eye, and Trey warily tries to sort out how to stop her dad from hurting her siblings and her mother. She learns that her dad and the Englishman are really in town to con the locals because her dad is seriously indebted to the Englishman. That requires her to weigh her desire to get back at the townspeople who killed her brother a few years ago against her disdain for her dad and his illegal plans. Cal sorts it out and tells Johnny Reddy to leave town. When Trey finds the Englishman dead one morning, both she and Cal are pretty tight lipped with the local detective, as is the entire town. Trey eventually blows her dad's cover and the locals convince him to leave town. Although the murderer is never uncovered, life returns to normal and everyone settles back into their way of life.

                    This is a truly excellent novel with moments of brilliance. The author excels at rural Irish dialogue and paints a picture of a small town's anxieties, and the communal groupthink that brings them all to a boilng point simultaneously. Really good.