Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy Of India's Partition, Hajari - B

                                              Thanks to my brother for this recommendation. I had originally passed this up because I had read the very well-done 'Freedom At Midnight' forty years ago.  In that book, the focus was on the British. Here, it is much more about the Indians and the Pakistanis. Partition on August 15, 1947 lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. One of the largest refugee crises of the century sent 14 million people on the road.  The tensions between Pakistan and India remain one of the major flash points in the world. A destabilized nuclear Pakistan torn between its army and civilian rulers, and overwhelmed by religious intolerance, violence, and Taliban extremism is a concern to all. The author's intent is to explain how Partition impacted both societies and laid the groundwork for the strategic disconnect 70 years later.
                                            The division of the Raj was the consequence of the ambitions of two men, both English- educated lawyers, Jinnah of the Muslim League and Nehru of the Indian National Congress. Nehru believed in an India populated by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and a multitude of minor religions.  Jinnah wanted an independent Pakistan as a safe place for the country's Muslims. Nehru held the upper hand until he spent the years from 1942 to 1945 in jail along with the rest of the Congress leadership. They had failed to support the war effort and were summarily imprisoned. During those years, Jinnah was able to convince the public and the leadership of the Raj that a separate Muslim nation was an appropriate part of independence. Congress, although favored by the British leadership - particularly the the last Viceroy, Dickie Mountbatten never recovered its momentum. In the year run-up to freedom, there was endless violence, especially in those locations that were coveted by both sides.  The Punjab in north central India was eventually divided, but only after slaughter perpetuated by both sides and the Sikhs, who were hoping for their own country.  The author poses that had not Mountbatten rushed things, perhaps it would not have been the disaster it became. In light of the religious and ethnic tribalism that sparked violence on a scale comparable t0 central Europe in the recently ended world war, it is hard to imagine how this could have come out any better.
                                             Independence brought chaos to the new capital at Delhi and the forced exile of thousands of Muslims. But, it was and still is the conflict far to the north, high in the Himalayas, over Kashmir, that has assured the countries are mortal enemies. They have fought two wars over it, and the author refers to it as "the wound that keeps the paranoia and hatreds of 1947 fresh for both". The new armies of the two nations fought a border war for over a year and reached a UN sanctioned settlement in 1948. Jinnah died the same year, leaving Pakistan virtually leaderless. The first army coup came a decade later. "Pakistani generals would helm the country for thirty-two of the next fifty years." After the generals lost East Pakistan, they settled on Islam to unite the populace behind the junta. The US poured millions into Pakistan in order to help the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Billions followed during the war on terror. Notwithstanding the Pakistani Taliban and other extremists, Pakistan's strategic concerns are India and making certain that Afghanistan doesn't support India. India in turn expends a fortune and a vast amount of effort to be prepared to defend against a Pakistani incursion. "It is well past the time that the heirs of Nehru and Jinnah put 1947's furies to rest."
                                       

The Strangler Vine, Carter - B +

                                               This delightful novel is set in Calcutta in 1837. Ensign William Avery is selected  to accompany Jeremiah Blake, a former officer of the British East India Company, on a trip to the far north. Their mission is to find Xavier Mountstuart, a writer very unpopular with  the establishment.  The journey provides a wealth of information and background on the castes of the Hindus, the Muslims,  the vast and various political  departments in India, and most interestingly, the Thuggee's, native assassins .  The party lingers at Jubulpore, the town from which the British battled the Thuggee terrorists under the firm hand of Major Sleeman.  As they progress deeper into the country, Avery starts to listen to and appreciate Blake's skepticism about the good being done in the country by the Company. They find Mountstuart when they are imprisoned with him. Mountstuart tells them that the Thuggees are a fiction of Sleeman's imagination, fabricated for the purpose of justifying the vast command Sleeman has constructed. Indeed, Mountstuart was sent by the Governor-general to investigate the Thuggee department. They manage to escape and then are betrayed by a British officer as the plot continues to thicken. Mountstuart is killed and Blake and Avery escape.  The powers that be eventually acknowledge that the Company  benefits from the Thuggee myth and that Avery and Blake are forbidden to disclose the truth. Blake goes to London. Avery accepts a promotion in exchange for silence. This book is a fine example of historical fiction. It delves deeply into the daily details of the British East India occupation and management of India, utilizes many real characters and brings the inquisitive reader into close touch with the time and place.

Trigger Mortis, Horowitz - C

                                                I downloaded this because Simon Schama, noted English scholar and historian, wrote a positive review, and over the years Ive read a few of the novels authorized by the estate of Ian Fleming. The year is 1957 and the principal character is Bond - James Bond.  His opponents are SMERSH and a mysterious Korean, Jason Sin. The insidious cold war plan is to disable a Vanguard rocket so that ground control aborts it and blows it up in mid-flight. Simultaneously, a Vanguard faux rocket and real bomb will be put on the IND tracks and somehow sent on its way from Sin's Coney Island warehouse to midtown Manhattan.  On the way to stopping it, Bond overcomes being buried alive six feet under in a wooden box, races on a motorcycle to catch the speeding train, and rides on the roof of the train, killing innumerable bad guys and derailing the train before the bomb gets to 34th St., where it was supposed to blow-up the Empire State Building. All in all, this is a very weak effort.

Make Me, Child - B

                                               The reviewers seem to like this one. Then again, who is going to criticize what has  just about become a thriller-genre national institution.  I had some discomfort with Reacher getting out of his comfort zone. He spends lot of time on planes and even in a luxury hotel. I'm pretty sure he'd have trouble getting a room at the Peninsula, Chicago's finest hotel, in his 2-day-old $50 outfit from a rural general store. Im also beginning to wonder about his age. He acknowledges graduating from West point in 1983. That puts him in his mid-50's and he's still doing things that I doubt people his age can do.  But, he is Reacher. In this one, he teams up with (and starts a relationship that is still ongoing when the book ends) a former FBI agent and they jointly pursue some very, very bad people. Of course, they do more than pursue. In the end a very insidious venture is finished off.

Danubia: A Personal History Of The Hapsburg Empire, Winder - B

                                              This  enjoyable history appealed to my longstanding interest in the lands of the Hapsburgs. Years ago, I read a book praising the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the proverbial 'old man of Europe'.  The premise was simply stated: the multicultural, multi-lingual lands of central and eastern Europe were  helluva lot better off in the 19th century than they were in the 20th.
                                              This book goes much further into the past  than the 19th century. The story starts in the lands lost by the Roman Empire to the invaders from the east in the 5th century. They were later occupied by Germans, Czechs, Moravians, Slovakians, Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Bulgars, Lithuanians, Serbs, Croats and Maygars. The Hapsburg name first appears in 1273 when Rudolf  I was elected Holy Roman Emperor.  And from 1440 on, only Hapsburgs would hold that title.  Some ruled capably; many did not.  Charles V, through a series of deaths, dynastic marriages and outright flukes, wound up in the 16th century as King of Spain, ruler of much of America and the Holy Roman Emperor.  He held sway over more of the world than anyone ever had.  Charles eventually ceded the eastern lands and the title of emperor to his brother, Ferdinand I.  During Ferdinand's reign, the first great clashes between Christianity and the Muslim Ottomans took place in the Balkans and Hungary. "The frontier zone that marked the border between the Hapsburg lands and the Ottoman Empire was a shifting, frightening reality from the fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth."  The last great Ottoman attempt at Vienna was in 1683.  It came perilously close to succeeding.
                                               After their defeat at Vienna, the Ottomans slowly gave way, and land they had occupied came under the Hapsburg flag.  What had been northern, Alpine, Catholic and German now incorporated Protestant Hungary, Romania and the Slavic north Balkans - a virtual hodge podge of ethnic tensions.  As the process unwound, the people of these newly claimed lands had nothing in common with their rulers. Thus, the retreat of the Ottomans brought no relief to Vienna.  The latter half of the 18th century saw very capable rule by Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II. Joseph, in particular, modernized the state and lifted most of the legal, cultural and social restrictions that had been placed on the realm's Jews. Joseph died in 1790 and within a decade-and-a half (1806), the Holy Roman Empire was kaput. "The enterprising young Napoleon made waking up in Vienna and reaching for a newspaper something to be dreaded." Between the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram and his making the Hapsburg princess, Marie Louise, his wife, Napoleon dismantled the Empire and humiliated the Hapsburgs. But, as the author points out, surviving was the core Hapsburg competency. With the Holy Roman Empire gone, they declared Austria an Empire, survived Napoleon and helped rewrite the ground rules for the post-war era at the Congress of,where else - Vienna.
                                              The year 1848 was a watershed one on the continent. Revolution broke out in Paris, Prague, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest and many smaller cities.  The forces of suppression prevailed, but the genie had been let out of the bottle. People were returned to their status as 'subjects' but had begun to think of themselves as 'citizens' of possible nations. Natural rights were on everyone's tongue. Soon language was seen as a vehicle to nationhood. If there was anyplace where that would not work it was the Austrian Empire, where the teenaged Franz Joseph ascended the throne he would occupy for sixty-eight years. German, Italian and Romanian unification all followed and nibbled at Austria's territories.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire emerged. "The two halves of the Empire carried on in parallel, held together by Franz Joseph's startling longevity. Both halves boomed..." To the south lay the unhappy Balkans, the collapsing Ottomans and the intrusive Russians. What the author calls a "forcefield of nationalism'"created a slow motion disaster for the Empire, which during a century or so first threatened and then destroyed it."
                                             The beginning of the end of course came for the Hapsburgs when Europe spun out of control in August, 1914.  Ironically, the 1917 collapse of Russia placed the Empire in a relatively safe and secure strategic position. It was too little too late for the Empire's many, many nationalities. "The Empire ended and its subjects looked out onto a new and - as it would prove - terrible world. Almost everyone in the old Empire seems to have taken turns to be destroyed by one aspect of the twentieth century or another."
                                            These types of unstructured histories can be trying to read. but they do have their many hidden gems. After all, I've just learned that the Baron von Trapp was part of the Empire's four ship navy that went to China to help put down the Boxer Rebellion. As is the case with traditional structured, even academic histories, I enjoy trying to find out how Europe imploded in the 20th century and this book helps in that pursuit.
                                           

The Girl In The Spider's Web, Lagercrantz - B +

                                               I have read Sherlock Holmes and James Bond books not written by Conan Doyle or Ian Fleming.  Some of those 'authorized' follow-ups have been pretty good.   This one is very good. Here, the author has the setting, a very good story, Blomkvist and Salander. Unfortunately, very good is not the standard that Larsson established - he often achieved greatness. The emphasis is heavily on the world of hackers and hacking.  Salander hacks an NSA system in a search for her twin sister and information about her father's criminal empire. That leads to the American and Swedish authorities looking for her, while at the same time, the world's leading authority on AI is killed in Stockholm. The son of the AI genius is an autistic savant who is sought after because it is believed he can draw the face of the killer. Pretty soon everybody  is looking for the boy, Salander and a lot of unseemly Russians. I'll leave it at that - no one likes a spoiler.
                                              Lee Child in Sunday's Times review was able to make the distinction between good and great much better I can. He said, " It is no exaggeration to say that as an invention she's in the same ballpark as Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter. She's a classic antihero - fundamentally deranged, objectively appalling, lawless, violent and deceitful, but fiercely loved by millions of readers because she has good reasons for the way she is and a heart of gold. Can she be brought back to life by different author- or will she lie inert on the slab?"  Child concludes "the sublime madness of Larsson's original isn't quite there."  That said, great characters, a solid story and the virtual assurance of a continuation of the battle with her twin sister means that this series has legs.  I'm sure I'll pre-order the next "Girl".

In Dark Places, Robinson - B

                                               This is the most recent book in the DCI Alan Banks series that I first mentioned here two years ago.  In this one, an EU wide theft system (mostly expensive farm equipment and autos that can be put on a truck and disappeared onto the continent) is at the center of the story. The murder of an underling is the starting point. As discussed previously, it is Banks' skill and charm as well as his supporting cast-Annie Cabot and Winsome Jackman -that makes this series fun. Almost all crime novels set in England and Scandinavia (apparently the only European ones I read) written in the last decade or so deal with criminal transgressions that spread far and wide because of the open borders in the EU. I don't know if that has transformed crime and police work, but it certainly has changed novel writing.

Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution, Ackroyd - B

                                               He was thirty-seven in 1603 when, as James VI of Scotland, he entered London and became James I of England. He was met with the beginnings of puritanism and he had little familiarity with the accepted limitations on totalitarian monarchy in his new kingdom.  His profligate ways led to inevitable and ongoing conflict with the Commons, which refused almost all funding requests from a monarch, who believed in the 'divine right' of kings.  Their clashes continued throughout his reign over taxes, foreign policy, negotiations for Prince Charles' marriage, religion - in essence - everything.  In 1621, he dissolved a parliament, arrested some of its leaders and announced he would not govern according to the common will. The battle lines were being drawn between a parliament that had been accreting powers for centuries and a monarch with little understanding of English history,  and who believed he was answerable only to God.  Unlike his mother (Mary Queen of Scots) or his son, he died in bed, in 1625. His reign was praised for a long peace and the King James Bible. He was eulogized with faint praise. He was missed by virtually no one.
                                              Charles I opened his reign with a marriage to a French princess, thus assuring the country of a return to anxiety about Roman Catholicism and it's possible return. Over half a century would pass before civil war, regicide, restoration and revolution would resolve the matter.  Charles I was bound and determined to rule absolutely and he continued in his father's footsteps, battling  with parliament. He dissolved one in 1629; it would be 11 years before he called  another.  He assented to an imposition of the English Book of Common Prayer in Scotland in 1639 and had to back down when the Scots raised an army of 12,000.  He called a parliament and demanded funding; it was  refused.  He dissolved it after three weeks.  Months later, with the Scots again marching, he called what became known as the 'Long Parliament.' Talk of civil war became common.  The Commons impeached and arrested the bishops in the House of Lords.  The King sought to arrest the leaders in the Commons.  Skirmishing broke out. "The partisans on both sides had provoked the conflict, and it was they who would end it." August 22, 1642 is the generally accepted date for the beginning of the English Civil War.
                                          Parliament was better funded and had a larger army. One of their earlier victories was at Marston Moor, where Oliver Cromwell achieved fame as a commander.  He established a national standing army without any aristocratic leaders and dressed them in 'redcoats'. Charles was captured in February, 1647. Negotiations between the puritan New Model Army, the King and a moderate parliament broke down. Charles could have kept his crown had he been willing to compromise. Over the course of the next two years positions hardened.  Cromwell and the obdurate revolutionaries began to suggest that the King should die. They had a brief trial and beheaded Charles I on January 30, 1649. "In truth the trial and death of the king were contrived by a small, if committed, minority who in no way represented the wishes of the nation."
                                            The 'Rump Parliament' abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords.  There was no template for governing under these new circumstances. "Could a representative parliament ever coexist with what was essentially a military dictatorship?" Parliament offered Cromwell the crown; he sensibly declined.  In 1657, he accepted the title of Chief Protector,  " a restored monarchy in all but name".  A year  later, the uncertain reins of government passed upon his death to his son, Richard.  Unsure of how to resolve the ongoing differences between the army and parliament, Richard resigned and fled to the continent.  The army authorized what became known as the Convention Parliament, which included both a Commons and a Lords.  Negotiations with Charles Stuart led to his return and restoration as Charles II.
                                           The reign of the third Stuart was known for "profligacy and sexual license." "The king did not have the patience or the intellect to formulate clear lines of policy or enunciate the ideas that might sustain them."  Religious divisions between the Anglicans and the various dissenter sects continued unabated. Though the affairs of state were desultory, commerce, culture and science made marked steps forward in the later third of the century. Newton, Halley, Wren and the Royal Society took the lead in exploring new avenues of thought. 'The origins of the industrial and agricultural revolutions, conventionally located in the eighteenth century, are to be found in the previous age." By 1685, England had the largest merchant fleet in the world. Trade with the colonies, the continent and the Orient increased and brought immense wealth to the country.  Yet, religion and the succession remained the most compelling issue of the decade. Charles II had many illegitimate children, but it was his brother, James Duke of York who was the rightful heir. Unfortunately, he was Catholic. When Charles II died in 1685, James II succeeded him.  He maneuvered to strengthen the position of Catholics in the country and was blessed with a son and heir in June of 1688.  His daughter Mary, a Protestant, was married to William, Duke of Orange, the man who had fought against Louis XIV.  A Protestant hero was waiting on the continent.  He was invited to invade. An easterly 'Protestant wind' took him across the channel in November.  The 'Glorious Revolution' put an end to what Henry VIII had started a century -and-a -half  ago - England was and would now always be Protestant. More importantly, Parliament reigned supreme.

Murder At The Margin, Jevons - B

                                               This 1978 novel is the first in the Henry Spearman series, the most recent of which was commented on here in April.  The authors and the main character are economists, and these books are occasionally assigned in conjunction with traditional source materials in econ courses.  Spearman is on vacation in the US Virgin Islands at a fabulous beach-side hotel where there are three fatalities. First, a noted curmudgeon is poisoned,  then, a bigoted loudmouth goes snorkeling and never returns, and finally, a recently retired US Supreme Court Justice falls of a perilous cliff.  The backstory is one of racial tension and violence in the Islands.  The arrest of two local 'agitators' does little to sway Spearman's analytical assessment of the murders. His application of his theories to the affair lacks some of the verve of the fourth book I read in April, but is adequate enough.

Falling In Love, Leon - B +

                                                This is the 24th in the series, the 3rd since this blog began and thankfully, Donna Leon continues at a superb level. An opera singer at La Fenice in Venice becomes more and more wary of endless roses, dozens upon dozens, showing up at her dressing room. It slowly becomes evident that a deeply disturbed person is stalking her, and eventually, hurting those around her. Guido and the team sort things out in another great book. There is a tremendous amount of background information on opera and, as always, wonderful drawings of Venice, her people and spaces.

Rust: The Longest War, Waldman - C

                                               The ubiquitousness and destructiveness of rust is the theme here.  "Rust is costlier than all other natural disasters combined,  amounting to 3 percent of GDP, or $437 billion annually."  This book is a series of rust vignettes and starts with the Statue of Liberty. Almost a  hundred years after installation, engineers discovered that a third of the iron rivets holding the copper skin to the iron skeleton had popped out and half of the frame had corroded. A massive, multimillion dollar renovation, heralded by Ronald Reagan as a highlight of his presidency, followed.  A National Corrosion Restoration Site plaque now honors the effort.  Most of the Statue's problems stemmed from the fact that it was made of iron, not steel, which came along later in the 19th century or stainless steel, the 20th century's major contribution to the war against rust.  The fight against corrosion in cans has lead to the widespread use of BPA (a resin likely not great for humans) in aluminum cans.  The author points out that it would be hard to imagine life without cans. But at the same time, since Rachel Carson published 'Silent Spring' in 1962, the percentage of Americans touched by cancer has doubled.  As the author romps through the world of rust, one of the things we learn is that the Dept. of Defense has a Director of the Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight. NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers ) calculated that corrosion costs the Pentagon $20 billion annually. The Office is so successful that the GAO calculates that its preventative programs have an investment return (savings) of 50:1. The battle against corrosion is ongoing, an integral part of the oil and gas industry and an important aspect of many industries. At the end of the day though, rust and corrosion are about as boring as it gets. I'm not sure anyone could make it an interesting a read.

The Valley, Renehan - B +

                                             This is a fabulous novel set in Afghanistan. Lt.  Black is assigned to an admin function at a vast forward operating base ( F.O.B. Omaha) where he lives a very easy life and has just submitted his resignation papers.  His colonel assigns him a 15-6, which is an  investigation of a civilian complaint involving a dead goat.  The problem is that the task must be performed on-site and the site is very, very deep in the shit. It's a literal Ft. Apache in the wilderness near the Pakistani border.  Everyone knows that Black has been handed a thankless, likely wasteful, task. Matters go quickly downhill when he gets to COP Vega ( the platoon size post in the Valley) where no one wants  to waste time on the shooting of a goat. The local lieutenant is not there, the sergeant in charge is completely indifferent and hostile, and the primary response to his inquiries is - "fuck-off Lieutenant." Men fighting for their life on daily basis couldn't  care less about a 15-6.  Black's attempt to investigate the complaint goes awry and the astute lieutenant figures out that there are many other  things wrong in the Valley.  He concludes that the Yanks are involved in the heroin/poppy protection racket and that men who are supposed to be on the roster really aren't there.   Black is shot in the bang-up last section of  this book, which has been compared to 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Apocalypse Now'.  I thought of my favorite line in 'Apocalypse'  ( "Who's in charge here, soldier? Aren't you?") when all hell breaks lose in the Valley. The Army and all its disconnected hopelessness in combat is set forth brilliantly here. This book is recommended.

Ghettoside: A True Story Of Murder In America, Leovvy - B -

                                               This book is about black-on-black homicide and features a 2007 murder in South Central LA, its investigation and its prosecution.  The thesis of the book is that black-on-black violence is of minimal  consequence to our society, and that that indifference leads to lawless ghettos filled with  endless violence. In essence, "gangs are a consequence of lawlessness, not a cause." The story is told through the eyes of two LA detectives, one black and one white. The white detective is John Skaggs, a sincere man who abhorred the concept of 'another black death that no one cared about' and who achieved the highest clearance rate in the 77th district.  Wally Tennelle, the black man, was a very successful detective and father who chose to stay in the neighborhood he grew up  - the 77th Police district, south of the Ten.  In the 77th, the murder rate was six times higher than the rest of the city.  Black gang members died almost every day. Tennelle's son, Bryant, was gunned down for no reason other than he was in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time - maybe it was the Astros hat he was wearing. After a few months of no results,  the case was assigned to Skaggs.  Skaggs found the shooter and a 22 year-old prostitute who turned into the perfect witness.  Generally, 40% of cases failed because of the lack of a willing witness.  He soon had the 17-year-old killer in the interview room, and at the end of the day, called Wally Tennelle to tell him that arrests would be forthcoming. Additionally, a slightly older gang-banger who provided the gun and instructions to the 17-year-old was also indicted. Two years later, both defendants were convicted and sentenced to life without parole.  Wally Tennelle watched the entire trial, most days in tears.
                                                The author makes her point about lawlessness and society's apparent indifference to black death in the ghetto. She makes it by pouring out detailed information about innumerable murders. This leads to a  problem with  the coherence of the story. Those other murders do not relate directly to the Bryant Tennelle case. A chapter about the case is followed by one completely unrelated.  Leovvy does end with some positive information. In California, over a third of the black men released from prison collect social security disability payments. "Money translates to autonomy. It helps break apart homicidal enclaves by reducing interdependence and lowering the stakes of conflicts." One would hope there is some way to end the urban nightmare told here.

The Reckoning, Airth - B

                                               This is the fourth book in a series about Inspector John Madden. The last one was five years previous; Madden is now retired and the author is eighty.  The story is somewhat haunting as it feels like something I've read recently, but can't place. The setting is post-WW2 Britain and the case involves a series of up -close-and-personal assassinations . Madden is called back because one of the victims wrote to Scotland Yard mentioning his name.  As the deaths pile up, Madden is the one who finds the thread - a WW1 court martial that was a travesty of justice.  The victims are those who condemned a shell-shocked soldier to death. They are tracked down and executed with a bullet to the back of the neck by a seasoned and skilled professional.  But, the soldier left no one in England to seek revenge and his only  daughter is believed to be in Canada. As it turns out, the daughter was  an agent for SOE during the recent war and has only just learned of her father's execution.  She indeed seeks revenge and achieves her goals before Madden stops her.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania, Larson - B +

                                                Between 1907 and May 1915, she completed 201 transatlantic crossings. The Lusitania sailed from NYC on May 1, 2015 with almost 2,000 passengers and crew. Underway, she used 1,000 tons of coal per day in 192 furnaces. Coal and it's storage are an important part of the Lusitania story. She and her sister ship the Mauritania, were built with funds loaned by the Admiralty.  They were capable of conversion to warships and as such, included a critical design. The coal was stored below the waterline in bunkers that ran the length of the ship. On the day she  sailed, the NY papers carried the story of a German advisory against travel through the war zone. Indeed, the German command dispatched six U-boats to the approach to the Irish Sea. Most travelers felt that there was little to worry about because the Lusitania could outrun any sub and, in any case the Royal Navy would come out and escort Cunard's big liners to safety. The passengers did not know that deep in the hold were 1250 cases of artillery shells and 170 tons of Remington rifle ammunition. On the day she approached the Irish coast on the way to Liverpool, there were three ships sunk by a submarine on her route. The Cunard chairman met with the Admiralty and requested help and assistance. None was forthcoming. On Friday May 7, 2015, U-20 unleashed a torpedo at the HMS Lusitania, then about 10 miles off of Old Head, Ireland. It struck at 2:10 PM. There was a second detonation either attributable to boilers blowing up or coal dust exploding. The ship sank in eighteen minutes. Only 764 of 1959 survived. Among the dead were 123 Americans.
                                                A century-long controversy has brewed over why the Admiralty did not assist the Lusitania when it knew U-boats were in the immediate vicinity. Incompetence, or conspiracy to draw in the Americans?  President Wilson sent what is known as the First Lusitania Note to Germany protesting the attack.  A year later Germany backed away from its aggressive sea campaign, only to fully reinstate 'unlimited submarine warfare' in early 1917.  That decision, combined with the Zimmerman Telegram, brought the US into the war in April.  Larson is as fine a storyteller as there is. Although I was skeptical about revisiting this well-worn topic, I am glad I did.

The English Spy, Silva - C +

                                                 I'm afraid I am disappointed in the latest book in the Gabriel Allon series.  Unsurprisingly, he is still not in the Chief's chair and is deeply involved in another operation. He works it with his Corsican resident and English friend, Christopher Keller. Keller is compelled to work for MI-6, in what I suspect is an assignment we will see more of. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes Gabriel's right-hand man. Their opponent  is an Irish hit man hired by the Russians to kill Allon in an incredibly complex operation. The Iranians are also complicit.  Not surprisingly, revenge is obtained.
                                               This series is one of the best out there and one of my favorites. I'll be curious to see what the professional reviewers think. The amateurs have already signaled their approval.  It felt flat, redundant and  out-of-sync to me.

The Fixer, Finder - B-

                                               Down and out Rick Hoffman, who once had a future in journalism, is sleeping in his father's run-down house when he discovers $3.4M in hundred dollar bills behind a partition. His dad has been in a nursing home and unable to speak for 18 years. When Rick is seen spending a few bucks, let's say $6,000 in cash for dinner with an old flame, he attracts some unwanted attention. It seems that his dad was the 'Fixer' of the title, who while practicing law in a seedy section of Boston, had been the intermediary "cash bank" that fueled the city. The further Rick digs into his dad's story, the deeper he gets into the crime and corruption that was rampant in Boston during the construction of the Big Dig.  What he finds scares some very serious people, and all of a sudden, Rick is on the run.  He gets badly beaten and almost killed. However, he manages a wonderful expose in an on-line magazine, puts some bad guys behind bars and rescues his career and life.

The Knife, Ritchell - B +

                                               "They were the knife of the military, expressly used to hunt down and eliminate terrorist networks throughout the world."  This is a fabulous novel about a squad of men fighting in Afghanistan.  The narrator never mentions what branch of the military they are, but since the author was an Army Ranger, one assumes that that's who they are.  The five men are very, very, close as one would expect when living and fighting together on multiple deployments. One of the surprising facts is the frequency of their assignments. They are sent off on helicoptered lifts day in and day out in their pursuit of terrorists. Personal comfort, readiness or rest don't seem to be taken into consideration.  It's a short, fatalistic read and one worth looking into.

Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, Ackroyd- B

                                               Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 at the age of eighteen. He married his late brother's wife, Katherine of Aragon, and began his reign with a full treasury and the goodwill of his people. However, like most of his predecessors, he longed for triumph on the continent. "He looked upon France as a prize to be taken. War was not only for pleasure; it was dynastic duty."  His advisor Cardinal Wolsey, both the King's Chancellor and the Papal Legate, helped garner for Henry the title Defender of the Faith by coordinating a response to Luther's Ninety-Five Thesis.  However, it was not religion or conquest that obsessed  Henry. His overwhelming need was for a male heir, as Katherine's only child to survive was the Princess Mary.  No woman had ever held the throne and Henry did not wish to risk his dynasty on the chance the country would accept one. Katherine was aging and he needed an alternative. He found that alternative in Anne Boleyn and turned the world upside down in order to put her on the throne. The Pope would not annul his marriage, ejecting Henry's argument that the Book of Leviticus proscribed a man marrying his brother's widow. Wolsey's failure on this front led his arrest and dismissal.  Henry simply replaced the Pope with himself as leader of the Church of England. The die was cast for the Protestant Reformation in England. A later historian called Henry's action the foundation of the independent nation-state. "The Act in Restraint of Appeals declared that all ecclesiastical cases should be determined within England itself with no reference to any supposed higher authority: this meant that the matter of the king's separation would be adjudicated in London and Canterbury rather than in Rome. The Act has been described as the most important statute of the sixteenth century, for it was the one that effectively destroyed the polity of the Middle Ages."  The Church would prove to be a tremendous source of wealth for the crown as Henry confiscated the monasteries and scattered their personnel.  It is estimated that the transfer of land to the crown from the control of the church, the monasteries, the friaries and nunneries, was the largest since the Norman invasion. "Within three years the life of ten centuries was utterly destroyed."
                                                 Anne became queen in 1533 and gave birth later that year to Elizabeth.  Within three years,  she was accused (with some likelihood of truth per the author) of adultery and treason and she was off to the Tower on her way to a beheading. Jane Seymour replaced her and in 1537 gave birth to Edward. She died twelve days afterwards.  Anne of Cleves was married to Henry for six months. She was followed by Katherine Howard, a woman half the king's age, whose confirmed adultery led her to the chopping block.  In his 55th year, in January 1547, Henry departed this world leaving his sixth wife, Katherine Parr and Edward, Mary and Elizabeth to succeed him.  Although the succession was established, Henry's religious inheritance was somewhat ambiguous.  His interest in reform ended when he usurped the Pope's power and took the Church's money.  He personally preferred Catholicism, but he had undermined it and had opened the way toward Protestantism.  Edward's Regents pushed very hard to lay the ground rules for a Protestant nation and fully succeeded. "It can in fact be argued that most of the defining elements of the Protestant creed and practice were formulated during the reign of Edward VI; Elizabeth I merely tinkered with them." Edward died at 15 and, unfortunately for the peace of the realm, was succeed by Mary, the staunchest advocate of the old faith in England.  Many of the nobility and the populace welcomed a return to the tried and true faith.  Although Mary was no tougher on the opposition than her father or sister, she became known as 'Bloody Mary'. She even had Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and architect of English Protestantism, burned at the stake. Her marriage to a Spanish prince was extremely unsettling amongst her people. Her death in late 1558 lead to Elizabeth's assumption of royal power and the beginning of a successful 44 year reign.
                                              Elizabeth restored the Protestant liturgy. "The nation had changed its faith four times in twenty years, and the time had come for an end to innovation. She never allowed anyone to meddle with the order she had established and, with a brief period of interregnum in the 17th century, it has remained largely unchanged ever since." Implementing the final end of Roman Catholicism was a never-ending effort and one of the issues that dominated her reign.  The succession was also in the forefront of everyone's mind for decades. She was a wary, cautious person, determined to not have to share her throne with a husband, suffer the risks of child birth or  being supplanted by a male heir.  She proclaimed she was married to her country and and so she remained for her entire reign.  To her credit, she eschewed foreign wars and overseas entanglements. England was a generally peaceful and prosperous kingdom during her reign.  The over half-a-century of contretemps between England and the Catholic powers of Europe, France, Spain and the Papacy came to a boil when Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587. The following year, the greatest Armada ever seen sailed from Spain, intent on returning the true faith to England. The royal standard had as its motto 'Rise up, oh Lord, and avenge Thy cause'.  The English thumped their enemies, thus raising Elizabeth to the heights of acclaim and success. England became a dominant sea power. "The papal curse had been lifted in the most striking possible manner."  In 1603, Good Queen Bess passed away. She had, on her death bed, approved of the crown passing to James VI of Scotland
                                            A book about the Tudors is a bit of a challenge because of their amazing familiarity and pervasive presence in modern Anglo-American culture.  Between Alison Weir's 8 history books, Hilary Mantel's two recent novels,  'A Man For  All Seasons', many Masterpiece Theatre mini-series, the 'Tudors' on Showtime,  innumerable movies featuring Henry or Elizabeth, and the ubiquitous painting of Henry by Holbein - they are alive, well and with us.  The other problem in this book, at least for me, is the endless theological disputes. I understand that a book  about major religious upheaval must deal with religious issues. Whether it is about transubstantiation, vestments, the Book of Common Prayer, excommunication, the rise of Puritanism or the latest  doctrinal disputes, I find it all trifling. That said, I'm ready for the next volume.

The Whites, Price - B +

                                               This novel is an absolutely superb cop story about the NYPD. The main character is Billy Graves, son of a noted policeman. After twenty plus years,  he is the only one of  five cops who started and worked together back in the 90's still on the Job. His crew consists of Yasmeen,  a private security officer; Whelan, a drunk working as a superintendent in run-down buildings;  Pavlicek, a wealthy real-estate developer; and Redman, a mortician.  Lurking in the background is another active duty cop, a younger man, Milton Ramos, who grew up in the same building as Billy's wife, Carmen.  Early in his career, Billy had shot a man and the bullet went through him  killing, an innocent kid. Billy wound up on the wrong end of a massive publicity circus. Although he was as high as a kite when he pulled the trigger, that fact was never more than asserted or guessed at. He lost his first wife because of this event, but his friends and colleagues stood by him. To a great extent, one of the main sub-plots here is the fierce loyalty that is created amongst police. In this novel, Billy supervises the night shift in Manhattan, and notices that all of a sudden, their 'whites' are dying mysteriously.  A 'white' is the one that got away, the cold-blooded murderer who slipped through the cracks and haunts a cop sometimes for the rest of their life. While trying to sort all of this out, Billy's family is targeted. As it turns out, Carmen is Milton's 'white' because as a 15-year-old, she intentionally gave his brother's apartment number to some guys, who happened to be very bad. All in all, this is a wonderful read, one where you feel as if you are in the middle of a very scary NYC.

Eben Kruge, Adams - B

                                               This novella is an imagining of how Charles Dickens was inspired to write 'A Christmas Carol'.  Dickens and his wife took a 5-month-long trip to America in 1842. Near the end of his trip, he stopped off at the West Point Hotel. Here, he dined with the manager who mentioned a local who had recently been transformed for the better. He decides to investigate and meets Eben Kruge, Esq.  The previous Christmas eve, Kruge had buried his wicked uncle and business partner. He tells Dickens of a midnight visit from the ghost of his uncle, a visitation from his once-betrothed, Abigail, and his renunciation of his parsimonious, wicked ways. He states that he had been "the illegitimate offspring of his uncle's avarice." In the closing chapters, he spreads his generosity far and wide. A pleased Dickens renews his trip and two years later, publishes his perhaps most famous and best loved work.

The Train To Crystal City: FDR'S Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II, Russell - C, Inc.

                                                For many in America, it was not a good war.  This is a story that goes beyond the internment of the Japanese on the west coast and deals with the wholesale incarceration of, not just the Japanese, but also Italians, Germans and even Latin Americans. Crystal City, thirty miles from the Mexican border in Texas, was opened in 1942 for the purpose of reuniting families with immigrants who'd been arrested and imprisoned as enemy aliens. Not only were American residents incarcerated, but the US had coordinated anti-Axis plans and protocols with all of the Latin American countries, except Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. The Latin Americans arrested their Axis citizens and shipped many of them to the US.  Their assets were confiscated, and when they arrived in the US, on American troop ships, they were arrested for 'illegal entry'.  By the middle of the war, Crystal City was filled with German, Japanese, Italian and Latin American families.
                                                Unfortunately, there are too many threads running through this book and the camp for the telling of a coherent story. The incarcerated Germans consisted of those supporting the fatherland and those desirous of being Americans. All were part of a US plan to exchange Germans for US POW's. Along with the parents, the camp was filled with American-born minors. There were six German-American exchanges, including one in January 1945. One Cleveland-based construction engineer was arrested, incarcerated, sent to Crystal City, and repatriated to Germany, where the SS beat and imprisoned him. On the Japanese side of the ledger (why some families were sent to Crystal City instead of the west coast camps wasn't apparent to me although, I did start skimming), the major issue was issei v nisei. The immigrant Japanese ( under the Asian Exclusion Act, they could not become citizens) fully supported the Empire and their children did not. The American born-nisei fought in the 442nd Regiment, the most decorated in the war.  Although I do not think the book was up to the challenge, it does depict some fascinating personal stories. Throughout it all, the appalling lack of fair, decent, humane, equitable or American treatment of those considered aliens and their families is frightening and embarrassing. In the 80's, the US apologized to its Japanese-American internees and paid compensation.

A Fine Summer's Day, Todd - B

                                               In this almost twenty-year old series, the author decided to try a prequel. It is the summer of 1914 and Ian Rutledge is arduously pursuing a very challenging case in the face of a total lack of support, if not hostility, from his immediate superior. I thought the book two years ago was not up to par. And I find that this one is not as strong as one would hope. The case is complex and intriguing. The problem is that Jean, the woman Ian proposes to, is a vacuous airhead. She is the daughter of a retired general who is called back to duty in light of what transpires on the continent. She encourages Ian to enlist so that he may see glory as an officer.  The last chapter is set on Boxing Day, 1914, after Ian has finished his training. It is certainly apparent that there is no glory to be had in this war. The fickle Jean articulates her change of heart.  The greatness of this series is the despair of post-war England in the aftermath of the slaughter in the trenches. I view this prequel as just a filler and one that doesn't shed much light on Rutledge's development.

Waterloo: The History Of Four Days, Three Armies, And Three Battles, Cornwell - B +

                                                Napoleon traveled from Elba to Paris in the spring of 1815, gathering support and returning as Emperor to the acclaim of his people and the dismay of the again-deposed Bourbons.  Knowing he was outnumbered, he headed north with 125,000 men to face Blucher with 120,000 and Wellington with 92,000. He had to act decisively before Russsia and Austria could mobilize. On the 16th, Napoleon attacked the Prussians, who constituted the left of the Allied armies, at Ligny.  He defeated but did not destroy them.  Five miles west, Marshal Ney attacked the British-Dutch at Quatre-Bras, but the Allies prevailed and held the junction road.  Saturday the 17th was a day of lost opportunities for the French, who could have trapped Wellington at Quatre-Bras had they attacked. They let him slip away a few miles to the north. Dawn on the 18th saw the British-Dutch at Mont St Jean astride the road to Brussels and the Prussians waiting in support 12 miles to the east.
                                                 The author  makes a comparison to Agincourt as the favored French (at Waterloo they had much more experienced and reliable soldiers), also had to attack over a muddy field. That challenged their artillery, as it limited their  maneuverability, and they couldn't bounce their shells, which was a common early 19th century practice.  He also emphasizes that Wellington took advantage of the reverse side of the hill on the battlefield.  The French were on a crest overlooking a small valley and the British were on the 'reverse side' across the way.  Napoleon delayed until late morning, waiting for the ground to dry, and began his attack on his left. The chateau at Hougoumont, a virtually impregnable set of buildings surrounded by wall and hedges, held fast as the French hurled thousands of men at it.  The Emperor then turned to the Allied center.  Although his artillery made a lot of noise and smoke, it did not inflict significant casualties. By 1PM, he could see the Prussians about six miles away and approaching. He sent 18,000 infantrymen into Wellington's middle. d'Erlons corps reached the crest of the hill when heavy cavalry counter-attacked and sent them back across the valley.  Later in the afternoon, 9,000 cavalrymen attacked 20,000 infantrymen aligned in squares which were impervious to attack. Horses would swerve away from the bayonets of the first and second line and were slaughtered by the muskets of the back lines. The French attacked perhaps as many as a dozen times over two afternoon hours. Throughout the entire day, Wellington rode all along the lines, exposed to fire that killed many of his aides, yet managing, leading, observing and further embellishing his already legendary career.
                                                 "Sometime during the massacre of the French horsemen guns sounded far off to the East."  The Prussians were coming.  By now, it was after six, although there were still hours of sunshine left. The French finally moved up their artillery and began to take a fearful toll on the Allies. "All along the ridge there was death and mutilation."  As the Prussians entered the fray, Napoleon played his last card. He ordered his undefeated Immortals, the Imperial Guard, forward. They crested the ridge, began to deploy in a line and were met with blistering fire by the British. "And when they broke, so did the hopes of France."
                                                  Many have written about Waterloo, including  noted novelists of the 19th century, Stendahl and Hugo.  This is the author's first book of non-fiction and I suspect it is his skill as a novelist that brings this book to life. The weekend before the 200th anniversary, a reviewer in the Financial Times praised it as the best book ever on the battle.



                                                 

Foundations: The History Of England From Its Earliest Beginnings To The Tudors, Ackroyd - A*

                                               This is the first of a planned six volume history of England. As Peter Ackroyd is one of my all time favorites, I've decided to undertake the venture. The word Britain was first used by a Greek traveller in 325 BC. The island was extensively engaged in trade with the continent when Caesar invaded in  55 BC. A hundred years later, the actual 40 year-conquest of England was begun by Claudius. "England's ports, its metals, its taxes helped to sustain the vast engine of Roman commerce." Britain was a breadbasket for the Empire.  By the time the Roman military withdrew in the early 5th century, Christianity had been established south of Hadrian's Wall.  The next invaders were the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes, who over the course of centuries gained the upper hand in England.  The disparate kingdoms of England came together to respond to an external threat when the Vikings arrived on the scene in 790. "In 865, a great host of Danes descended on east Anglia." The areas of the Danelaw in eastern England became the most prosperous in the land.  By the end of the millennium, England was an established society with prosperous cities, with shire boundaries that would last until the 19th century and a feudal system wherein obligations and responsibilities were fully defined.
                                               William, duke of Normandy, felt slighted when the crown of the King of the English went to Harald in 1066 and he invaded.  He prevailed at Hastings and then terrorized London before he was crowned on Christmas day.  He extended his power and began the lengthy, acrimonious contest with the Church over sovereignty. He took the position that only he, and not the Pope, could appoint the bishops of England. The Conqueror was succeeded by two sons, a grandson and a  great-grandson, Henry II in 1154.  Henry's father was Geoffrey of Anjou or Geoffrey Plantagenet.  He was, thus, the first of  more than 300 years of Plantagenet kings. "It was said the family was the scion of Satan himself." Henry II will be forever known as the king who appointed his close friend and Chancellor as Archbishop of Canterbury.  Thomas Beckett did not prove to be as compliant as Henry had wished. After six years of bickering over their respective powers, Beckett ex-communicated the Archbishop of York, sending Henry into a rage, during which he muttered his desire to be "rid of this turbulent priest".  Beckett's death forced Henry to cede power to the Church.  Although it is his battles with the Archbishop that he is most remembered for, his reign also saw the expansion of the common law and the laying of the foundation of the English legal system.  His sons, Richard I and John I, were known for their endless, rapacious taxing and for squeezing every last penny out of their subjects, a series of abuses that led to the Magna Carta in 1215. John also lost most of the French land that his Norman and Angevin inheritance carried and, upon his death, a chronicler of the day said, "Hell felt herself defiled by his admission."  The 13th century saw the reigns of Henry III, for half-a-century, and then Edward I, during which the barons, the new Parliament and the monarchy continued their on going struggle for power, wealth and control. The reign of Edward II saw humiliating defeat at Bannockburn and a three-year Great Famine before he was deposed by his Queen, Isabella, and replaced by his son.
                                                 The inherent tension between the ruled and the ruler was rivaled by a greater one between the kings of England and France. From the time of the Conqueror,  the English monarchs were dukes of Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, Gascony or some combination thereof. Thus, they were vassals of the French king and holders of land on the continent.  Phillip of Valois and Edward III began the Hundred Years War and the author suggests that it continued until Waterloo. Edward III was victorious in 1346 at Crecy, the first of the three famous, yet meaningless, English victories in France that were generally attributed to the merits of the English longbow.  Two years later,  the Black Plague arrived. Over the next thirty years, it returned three more times. The population of England was reduced by a third to a half. It would take 400 years to recover. Nonetheless, the fabric of society held.  In 1356, Edward's son, the Black Prince, not only prevailed when outnumbered at Poitiers, but also captured the French king and held him in London for ransom.  A temporary peace followed. Two decades later both Henry III and his son, died leaving the crown in 1277 to ten year old Richard II who reigned for over twenty years before being deposed by his cousin, the Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV, thus establishing the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets.
                                                 His son, Henry V, reopened the Hundred Years War and achieved immortal fame at Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, Oct. 24, 1415.  He was honored and acclaimed throughout England, but his parliament and barons knew that campaigning in France was expensive business. His success led to his marriage to Katherine Valois, the King's daughter, and an agreement that any son would be acclaimed king of both countries.  He died in August, 1422 leaving an 8-month-old heir. Although Henry V's success in France proved to be of no lasting value, his reign is considered a time in which the nation was established in the popular mind, the language became dominant while both French and Latin fell from common usage, and the Church of England  began to distance itself somewhat from Rome.  It was becoming "this blessed realm."  Unfortunately, Henry VI grew to be an ineffectual king, one who lost whatever was left to the English in France and who had a surfeit of uncles and cousins looking over his shoulder. The contretemps between him and the the Duke of York would lead to the War of the Roses. Over matched, the Lancaster's enlisted the help of Owen Tudor, the King's half brother (Henry V's widow had married a Welsh courtier).  Round one of the thirty-year civil war, which would entail a dozen bloody battles, went to the rebels, as the Duke of York was crowned king as Edward IV.  He was cursed with two malcontent brothers, the first the duke of Clarence, who he had murdered in the Tower and the second, Richard Duke of Gloucester.  Edward died at 40, leaving as his oldest a fourteen-year-old who would be king for only 88 days. Gloucester imprisoned the king and his younger brother (the Princes) in the Tower and was proclaimed as Richard III.  In the summer of 1485, he died at Bosworth Field and Henry Tudor became Henry VII. The crown had repeatedly changed hands through violence, and the new king was no more than a usurper who had to ask the Pope to legitimize his rule.  He married his oldest daughter to the king of Scotland, thus calming centuries of conflict and abandoned the Plantagenet obsession of interfering on the continent.  He died without debt and passed on his throne without controversy.  Henry XIII became king in 1509.
                                               Ackroyd sums up by stating that throughout it all, "below the surface of events lies a deep, and almost geological, calm." "Unlike the provinces and sub-kingdoms of France or of Spain, or the fissiparous states and duchies of Europe, or of the city-states of Italy, England was all of a piece." "Continuity, rather than change, is the measure of the country."  This is a wonderful book and very helpful in organizing the medieval era for me. Although an Irish-American, I must confess that I am an unabashed Anglophile and thoroughly enjoyed this volume.

The Girl On The Train, Hawkins - C +

                                                This is a very intriguing read, one told from a very unique perspective. The narrator    ( Rachel, the girl of the title) is one totally f.....ed up, delusional, drunk, needy voyeur who watches people from a train and makes up tales about their lives. One problem is that one of the families on Blenheim Rd. is her ex-husband, his wife and daughter.  Another person is an unfaithful wife who goes missing on the same night Rachel is in the neighborhood and blacks out for hours.  For three hundred relentless pages, Rachel makes a total fool of herself, continuously lying to all, trying to see her ex, and interfering in the murder investigation by getting close to the victim's husband and psychologist.  The ending is creative enough to make this a bestseller, but it doesn't cut it for me.

Gangsterland, Goldberg - B

                                               This is a very good read and, yet, one very difficult to characterize. It's not a laugh-out -loud, but rather a dry, witty, dark chronicle about Sal Cupertino, a  Chicago-based hit man for the mob. Sal is at the top of the pyramid in his chosen profession when he makes a mistake and the mob determines he is too capable to dispose of. So, they recycle him in LasVegas as a Rabbi. As the author is Jewish, one assumes he can take such liberties, as the now-Rabbi David Cohen combines a life of tending to his flock and doing the mob's bidding in his free time.  However, the responsibilities of the particular temple and its related funeral home are not what one associates with a religious life. Indeed, it is a mob front and one very close to being exposed. This is the authors first book and I believe he flubs the ending.

The Fall Of The Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, Rogan - A *

                                               August 1914 found the Ottoman Empire in disarray.  In the 25 years prior to the war, it had lost 40% of its territory. It had been ruled, more or less, by a triumvirate of Young Turks since 1908 and was besieged on the west by the Balkan powers that they had once ruled. They feared that their co-religionists in the south were hoping for Arab independence. In the east, the Catholic Armenians wanted their own homeland, and just past them were the Russians, who wanted Constantinople. They needed an ally and a lot of help. They allied with Germany and joined the war in November. "Many in the German high command believed that the Ottomans' greatest contribution would come less from the Turkish army than from the internal uprisings Ottoman military action might provoke among Muslims under French colonial rule in North Africa, under the British in Egypt and India, and under the Russians in the Caucasus and Central Asia."  Believed incapable of defending thousands of miles of borders, they were attacked on all fronts. The Russians prevailed in the Caucasus. The British captured Basra and stopped an Ottoman advance on the Suez Canal.  The British and French tried to capture Constantinople by running the Bosporus in late April, 1915. They lost four capital ships, a third of the eastern Mediterranean fleet.  Next, they tried a land advance through the Gallipoli peninsula and successfully landed 50,000 men. However, the Turks vigorously defended their homeland and Kitchner was required to substantially reinforce the effort.  In the end, the Turks' defense was too much.  Each side had half-a-million casualties. The victory strengthened the Central Powers because Bulgaria joined them, thus creating a rail connections between Central Europe and Constantinople. German equipment and material flowed to the Ottomans.
                                               Meanwhile tragedy unfolded in the east. The Armenians were in the proverbial middle. Their homeland was equally divided between the two Empires, but their loyalty was with the Russians. They were considered disloyal fifth-columnists by the Ottoman government.  Although there is no smoking gun, the author states "Ottoman documents and contemporary memoirs suggest the top three Young Turk officials made key decisions initiating the annihilation of the Armenian community of Turkey between February and March 1915." Deportations led to rumored revolt led to the arrest in Istanbul of the Armenian elite led to actual revolt led to violent suppression and ultimately genocide. There is no consensus on the total killed, the numbers ranging from 750,000 to 1.5 million.
                                               The British efforts in Mesopotamia were conducted under the auspices of the Indian government and initially met with failure. After a disastrous defeat at Kut, just south of Baghdad, the Indian Army captured the famed city.  To the west, British efforts were focused on supporting and encouraging an Arab revolt. They had to promise Arab independence after the war in order to achieve their revolt against the Ottomans. Unknown to the Arabs, the promise excluded the British protectorate over the Persian Gulf provinces and French ambitions in the Levant. "So began the fateful link between the Hashemite revolt in Arabia and the British campaign in Palestine that, between them, would ultimately spell the downfall of the Ottoman Empire."  By the end of 1917, Jerusalem fell and, once again, the British promise was further diluted. The Balfour Declaration stated there would be a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  The last year of the war started well for the Ottomans. Russia withdrew from the war and, returned three former provinces to them. Allenby had to transfer 60,000 men to France, resulting in repeated failures to advance east from Jerusalem.  Instead, the British and Arabs headed north and crushed the Turks on their way to Damascus. By the end of October, the Empire signed an armistice agreement with the UK.
                                             "Caught between the conflicting demands of the victorious powers and Turkish nationalists, the Ottomans ultimately fell more as a result of the terms of the peace than of the magnitude of their defeat."  The Young Turk leaders fled to Berlin while a military tribunal sentenced 18 of them to death for the Armenian genocide. Armenians tracked down and assassinated ten of the eighteen.  The Allies stripped the Empire of its Arab provinces and reduced the Turkish homeland significantly. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the general who had won at Gallipoli, rejected the treaty, deposed the Sultan and pushed the Allies out of the country. He renegotiated the treaty, thus creating the modern state with himself as president. "The Ottoman front, with its Asian battlefield and global soldiers, turned Europe's Great War into the First World War. And in the Middle East more than any part of the world, the legacies of the Great War continue to be felt down to the present day."

Five, Archer - B

                                               This police thriller is set in Salzburg, Austria. The main character is Bea, a policewoman, recently divorced and struggling with her responsibilities to her job and her two children.  She can be very focused and, in this debut novel, Bea is presented with a real mind-bender. A serial killer leaves clues for and taunts the police. The clues are based on the outdoor hobby/game of geo-caching, which is hunting for items hidden in the forest utilizing GPS specifics and written tips. The end is never remotely evident. It's a classic 'beach' read.

Midnight At The Pera Palace: The Birth Of Modern Istanbul, King - B

                                                The Pera was the grand hotel one stayed at before or after taking the Orient Express. "During the interwar years, the Pera Palace was not only the place where transients and newcomers began their reinvention. But for wave after wave of refugees, migrants and exiles, the storied old hotel was a symbol of the transition from a past age to a new one - a place that embodied the ties between the East and West, between empire and republic, and between nostalgia and experiment in the only place on earth to have been the epicenter of Christendom and global Islam." Both the hotel and the new train terminal came late in the 19th century as the diplomatic world awaited the demise of 'the old man of Europe'.  It came with a war that ended with an Allied occupation of Constantinople. It was the only capital city of the central powers that was occupied. British, French, Italian and even Greek troops were involved. In less than a year, a resistance and revolution began under Mustafa Kemal, who was elected president at the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. The peace treaty dismembered the  empire but left the sultan on the throne.  He voluntarily abdicated and lived out his life on the Italian Riviera. "The dynasty of the House of Osman, which had governed an empire for more than six hundred years and had commanded Istanbul for four hundred sixty-nine, was no more." By 1923, the Allies were gone and the Republic established.  The forced expulsion/exchange of a million-and-a-half Turks and Greeks made the country more rural, Turkic and Muslim. Also known as Ataturk, Kemal ruled until his death in 1938. He relentlessly pushed his modernizing agenda of better education, national identification with their Turk heritage, sectarianism at all costs, disestablishment of the Muslim faith, conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum, banishment of the Caliph, synchronizing Turkey's erratic system of keeping time with Europe's, and establishment of equal legal rights for women. Istanbul was the home of 1932's Miss Universe.
                                              WW2 came perilously close, but both sides honored Turkey's declaration of neutrality.  That, however, did not prevent Istanbul from becoming one of the major locales of diplomacy, intrigue and spying.  More than a quarter of the Jews who made it to Palestine during the war came through Istanbul.  Rather late in the game, in February of 1945, Turkey declared war on its former ally, Germany.  Turkey joined NATO in 1952, flirted with the EU and has recently turned back toward Islam. The author clearly pines for the days when it was a much more diverse place. Throughout the narrative, he weaves into the story the role of the Pera, which stood at the commercial and social center of the city. It still stands and has been recently renovated by a firm from Dubai. All in all, this is an interesting read about one of the world's more fascinating cities.

Red Nile: A Biography Of The Worlds Greatest River, Twigger - B -, Inc.

                                               Red is for all the bloodshed along its extraordinary length: 4175 miles. If the Thames were as long, it would flow into the Arabian Sea. The White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria and provides 95% of the water in the river in the winter and the Blue, which is further north and west flowing out of Ethiopia, 85% in the summer. It was the Nile River valley that was the exit from Africa used by the first homo sapiens to head north.  And it was along its annually flooded banks that civilization began.  Those banks remained untamed until the last century and were the foundation of the ancient world's largest source of wealth. Wealth attracts predators, first the Greeks and later, the Romans. "There is every reason to believe that the Roman rule of Egypt, from 45 BC until the arrival of the Arabs in the seventh century, was an effective pillaging of the country from which it never really recovered." The Arabs brought a new religion, created the modern city of Cairo and introduced a tremendous amount of new knowledge to the world. They maintained much of Greek culture and brought it to the west, and they developed medical, astronomical and scientific skills centuries before the Europeans.  Finding the source of the Nile became the ambition of generations of Europeans.  The Blue Nile's source was discovered by a Jesuit missionary, Pedro Paez, in 1621. The White Nile was a bit tougher, as it lay deep in the dark continent. The first failed attempt that we know of was by  centurions sent by Nero in the first century AD. It was not found until 1937, by a German explorer, Dr. Burkhardt Waldecker. The dream of damming the river was partially accomplished by Muhammad Ali in the 19th century, furthered by the British in the early 20th century and finalized by Nasser in  1970.
                                               I find it very hard to finish a book written in the stream of consciousness mode. When a section of a book mentions Herodotus, Napoleon, Agatha Christie and Anwar Sadat, I call it a day. Nonetheless, there's a ton of fascinating information in this book.

One Night In Winter, Montefiore - B +

                                              This is the second novel in this blog this year by the noted historian Simon Montefiore. This one is set in 1945 and is based on a true story.  A group of students (ages 6-18) who attend a special school in Moscow for the children of the elite are arrested.  Their crime was a clandestine worship of Pushkin and a juvenile passion for romanticism. The organs of the state keep them at the Lubyanka and  build a mountain out of a mole hill. The master of all deception, the one whose name is never mentioned, follows the case with particular interest and uses the children to test and diminish the parents. It's a very well done novel and includes details that only someone who wrote 'Stalin: The Court Of The Red Tsar' could dream up. It reminds me of a resolution I made years ago. I swore I would avoid anything to do with the Bolsheviks, particularly of the Stalin era, because of the sheer pain of reading of the deceit, dishonesty, and evil that dominated their perverse world. I'll continue to try to avoid them.

The Long Way Home, Penny - C

                                               This the tenth book in the series. By now, Gamache and his wife are retired and living comfortably in Three Pines. One of their neighbors, Peter Morrow, was asked by his wife to leave and to come back exactly in a year so they could assess where their marriage stood. Clara had usurped Peter's role as the most famous painter in Canada and he had not reacted well. His failure to return leads to a search by the now private citizen and former Chief of the Surete, Homicide Division for Quebec Province.  The search meanders through the area east of Montreal along the St. Lawrence and delves deep into the Canadian art scene. It involves revenge and a long-distance murder utilizing a toxic substance. For whatever reason, this one didn't work for me. I believe I'll call it a day on this series.

The Wright Brothers, McCullough - B +

                                             They were the third and fourth sons of a Protestant minister, Wilbur older than Orville by four years.  They first sold and repaired bicycles and then began to hand-build their own model. To say they were handy would be an understatement.  They could build or repair anything. Wilbur initiated the study of aerodynamics and the pursuit of a flying machine.  They sought a locale to test their first glider and were steered to the Outer Banks by the Weather Service. They were off to Kitty Hawk in the fall of 1900, back the following year and again in 1902. Their third glider was a success. "They knew they had solved the problem of flight and more. They had acquired the knowledge and skill to fly. They could soar, they could float, they could dive and rise, circle and glide and land, all with assurance. Now they had only to build a motor." With the help of Charlie Taylor, their shop assistant, they built a 156-lb. 4-cylinder motor with an aluminum block from Alcoa from scratch. On Dec.17, 1903 the Wright Flyer completed four flights. As successful as they were, it would take almost five years more for them to achieve the recognition, fame, honor and wealth that you would expect from their accomplishments. On August 8, 1908, Wilbur flew the Flyer III in Le Mans, France for only two minutes and two miles, considerably less than they had flown in Ohio. The difference this time was that it was in public before a startled press and government officials. Their place in history was assured. Orville followed up with proving flights on behalf of the Army at Ft. Myers, VA.  Feted on both sides of the Atlantic, they spent their next few years endlessly demonstrating their plane to the people of America and Europe.  They incorporated and later sold their airplane manufacturing business, sued many including Glenn Curtiss, a competitor,  for patent infringement and won every lawsuit they were ever involved in. They fought off all who laid claim to their preeminence as the first aviators. They never married. Wilbur died at 45 in 1912 and Orville at 77 in 1948.  When Ohio born and raised Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, he carried a swatch of the muslin from the wing of their 1903 glider. This is a wonderful American story, set at a time now long ago and told by one of the best.

Preparation For The Next Life, Lish - B

                                               This novel has received rave reviews and wound up on my list because it is set in a community that I once lived and worked in - Flushing, NY.  Northern Queens and the end of the #7 Line were never anything special, but forty years ago it certainly was middle-class.  Today it is dominated by various Asian immigrant groups and is known as Flu-Shing.  I have walked through it, but never sensed the desperation of life that is set forth here. Everyone is hustling everyone else with an almost incomprehensible ruthlessness. It is life lived in primal fear and total poverty. It is a zero-sum game that almost feels like life on the savannah. A woman from Uighur in the US illegally falls in love with an American who has just done three tours in Iraq. She is totally broke and is trying as hard as possible to get ahead of the financial curve by working for less than the minimum wage in food joints/restaurants/markets etc. He is so spaced out-on 5 different prescription meds for his war wounds, depression, nightmares and schizophrenia that he seldom knows what day it is. They inquire at the City Clerk's Office on the procedure to marry. Hope for them recedes when the son of the nightmarish Irish couple he rents the cellar from for $400 per month returns from ten years in jail. Jimmy is a miserable angry shite and you know something bad is going to happen. It does. But, Zou Lei is as tough as nails and embodies every single character trait for which we honor and praise immigrants as such an important part of our history. I, for one, hope that all of those who are as different from us as our ancestors were from mainstream America a century and a half ago continue to come here, work their fannies off and make it in America.  Queens County is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse place in the world. This street-level view of poverty and - I hate to repeat the word - utter desperation is an eye-opener.  It's not for all, but is for those with an affection for NY, the knowledge that our ancestors were once in this boat, and a sympathy for those on the bottom.

The Deluge: The Great War, America And the Remaking Of The Global Order, 1916 -1931, Tooze- B

                                               This fascinating book is a study of how the US came to dominate the world. The book covers the decade-and-half from the time the US entered the world stage with its entry into WW1 up until it became the last country to fall to the Great Depression.  It is a thoughtful, considerate, and wide-ranging academic treatise. "Mapping the emergence of this new order of power is the central aim of this book." It also addresses how the liberal world order established in the early 1920's came apart, and how the imminent dominance of the US impelled Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito to take such radical steps to establish themselves before they lost all room to maneuver. "By common agreement, the new world order had three major facets - moral authority backed by military power and economic supremacy."  By preaching the moral supremacy of democracy, Wilson broke down the firewall between domestic politics and foreign affairs, thus revolutionizing the balance of power politics of previous centuries.  "If the idea of reordering the world around a single power bloc and a common set of liberal, 'Western' values seemed like a radical historical departure, this is precisely what made the outcome of WW1 so dramatic." He contends that the Western Powers lost their grip in the 20's because the US failed to cooperate with the British, French, Germans and Japanese to stabilize the world economy and assure the collective security.
                                             Although Wall Street had financed the Entente from the beginning, Wilson was firmly neutral and as opposed to Britain's naval reach and continuing imperial aspirations as he was of German aggression. He hoped for a negotiated peace without a winner, but with the US as the acknowledged indispensable power and world leader.  In a January 1917 speech, he spoke directly to the people of Europe in a plea for peace, and in response, an increasingly desperate German high command unleashed unlimited submarine warfare.  With no other choice, the US joined the Allies, but only as an 'associate'. Throughout 1917, significant changes took place in Europe. Russia revolted and withdrew from the war. In Germany, opposition to the war led to a breakdown of the Empire's political structure as the Reichstag and the military government were in constant opposition. The Entente powers prevailed in 1918 as Germany collapsed because of Americas economic muscle and their political cohesiveness. In Britain and France, the political class offered expanded democratic opportunities to their people in exchange for their popular support.  Lloyd George loosened the strings,  gave a seat at the table to the major commonwealth nations and "secured the foundations of the empire as a key pillar in the emerging, world order."  In the final months of the war and into the winter of 1918-19, Wilson was more concerned about the French and British empires interfering with his vision of the future than he was about the fine points of finishing off the Germans. He was desirous of a League of Nations in which the US would stand astride the world as its acknowledged financier, conscience and leader. With his 14 Points encapsulated in the Armistice and praise from all over the world, he expected to succeed in Paris.
                                            As we well know, he did not, as Clemenceau was intent to exact his revenge and he did.  Germany was disarmed, it's forces pushed back from the French border, the Rhineland demilitarized and occupied and the Saar's coal committed to France under a complex League of Nations administration. War guilt was assigned to the Germans and the reparations came in much higher than Germany anticipated or could pay. The author points out that there was a theoretical possibility of a restoration of the pre-world order if, as Keynes suggested, the reparations were manageable and America cancelled it's debts.  Lloyd George upped the reparations and Wilson wouldn't dream of forgiveness. Realistically, it took a second and more massive conflagration before statesmen became that forward thinking. Wilson, characterized here as fickle, arrogant, inflexible and inconsistent, would not compromise with the Senate on Article X of the treaty on collective security.  Felled by a stroke as the nation faced a red scare, violent union-management relations, inflation followed by deflation and recession, Wilson and America left the world stage.
                                           "Layer by layer, piece by piece, issue by issue, the Entente coalition had disintegrated. The price that the collapse of this great democratic alliance would exact defies estimation."  The author asserts that our return to ongoing involvement in the daily affairs of the world would have surprised Wilson, whose view was much more conservative than the worldview  FDR/Truman/Ike implemented. He also makes the case that our involvement is a must - that disengagement is not an option for the USA.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Kolbert - B +

                                               This is a book that was on almost all of last year's notable lists and earlier this year won the Pulitzer for General Non-Fiction.  Our world has seen five mass extinction events and the author points out that we are in the midst of a sixth. I was fascinated to learn that it wasn't until the 19th century that science realized that prior species had become extinct. There was no place in the scientific mindset to comprehend the concept until Georges Cuvier, of the French Natural History Museum, proposed it as the answer to all of the odd fossils that no one could explain. Science came to grips with the concept of extinction and is busy working on the causation and consequences of the first five, of which the meteor-driven 'nuclear winter' is the best known.
                                              While writing this book, the author travelled the world to study the current cycle of events. She started in Panama, where the collapse of the world's frog population has been documented and studied. She has seen where the last Great Auk died in Iceland about one-hundred and fifty years ago. It will come as no surprise that  the change agent initiating the collapse of innumerable species is the planet's most successful mammal - us. And it is not just the consequence of the Industrial Revolution that is at issue here. It is our mobility that has spread disease and destruction throughout the world since we 'left Africa'.  The extinctions are accelerating because of the consequences of almost two hundred years of burning fossil fuels and spewing 365 metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere, which is increasing temperatures and, more importantly, changing the ph factor of the world's oceans.  Whether it is the oceans' coral reefs which appear to be in their last decades or the large herbivores of a shrinking forest, the extinction is ongoing and undeniable. Some wonder if we will follow. Others are confident that we'll figure it out. Either way, this is a superb read.

The Edge Of The World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe, Pye - B-

                                               The author, an Englishman, takes the position that the impact the Mediterranean cultures had on the development of Europe has been well-documented. He argues that the the North Sea cultures are equally important and presents his case. The Frisians, predecessors of the Dutch, were traders, sailors and masters of the watery marshes along the coast, and we're the first to re-introduce and mint silver coins in the 8th century.  Venerable Bede, an English monk, is famous for his 8th century publication of 'The History Of The Church In England', the establishment of the system of dating from A.D. (Anno Dominus), and systematizing the date for Easter.  He studied the tides and the moon's effect on the same and may have discerned that the earth was round.  He is credited, along with the Irish, for spreading books and writings far and wide. The Vikings were raiders, slavers and pillagers who sailed to Vinland in North America, Iceland, Greenland, deep into Russia,  south to Constantinople and as far north as the White Sea. They developed a compass and knew the earth was not flat because when one sailed away from shore, the land fell from sight.  Though they came bringing hell on earth, the Vikings started to settle and in particular, founded towns in Ireland. Limerick, Wexford, Cork, Waterford were settled by the raiders, as was their capital, Dublin. The Dutch were the first society to engage in extensive, if not near universal, realignment of their land through dikes, storm sewers, sluices and  water  pumps.  Although I believe he wanders too far and wide in his discourse (over half of the chapter called 'Science' is about the Mongols), he closes with a few compelling points. The Hanseatic League was the first time merchants gained an upper hand vis-a-vis whoever was governing their various cities. He then draws a straight line to the  Dutch, their extraordinary and sophisticated trading, the Dutch East India Company, share ownership and of course, capitalism.  I do not know enough to know if he makes his case and he does tend to wander. Thus, my enthusiasm is somewhat limited.

Red Eagles, Downing - C +

                                              Downing has written a series that Ive followed and I automatically downloaded this. After I finished, I realized it was his first book from the 1980's. It is a WW2 novel in which a Soviet deception of a German agent in the US leads to a German/Soviet mission to steal uranium that is being transported from Tennessee  to New Mexico. The mission succeeds. The book does not.