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.