Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced The Third Reich, Fritsche - B +

   President Hindenburg swore in Chancellor Hitler at mid-day January 30, 1933. The political compromises that led to this decision were driven by desperation. The country was hopelessly divided between the extremists of each side. The Nazis and Communists were electorally equally matched and of much more importance in the body politic than the centrist parties of the Catholic Center and the Social Democrats. Reason had departed from whatever was left of the Weimar Republic. The previous decade-and-a-half had seen defeat, degradation, devaluation, anti-semitism, reparations, and depression. Indeed, the Berlin of that winter was marked by malnutrition, unemployment and grinding poverty. The Nazis  had been a feature on the national scene for years, but powered to the top in 1930-1932 when their share of the Reichstag vote moved from 2.8% to 37%. They accomplished their move by relentless effort all around the country, with a well organized ground game led by the hardest worker of them all, Hitler. He never tired of driving and flying around Germany and making multiple speeches a day. It is believed he spoke to 4 million people in person in 1932. His rabble rousing denunciations of the 'stab in the back' and Versailles resonated across all classes and religions. The Nazis sought to unify the country by first breaking down the barriers dividing the country. That said, the Nazis could not unseat Hindenburg's majority party for the presidency, nor could Hindenburg and the forces of the right find a chancellor other than the 'Bohemian corporal'. The conservatives who acquiesced to Hitler disdained him and his mob and believed they could control him. Von Papen, a recent chancellor, said, "We'll box Hitler in......after all, we've hired him." The right wished to break Weimar and they did, just not quite how they had anticipated.                                                                        There was a massive torchlight rally that night in Berlin, reviewed by Hindenburg and Hitler, celebrating what the Nazi's called the "spirit of 1914." Hitler, hoping for a legislative majority,  persuaded Hindenburg to call Reichstag elections for March 5th. The campaign was the first time the Nazis had access to the radio and they blanketed the airwaves for a month. The Reichstag fire of February 27th proved to be a pivotal moment, as it led the following day to emergency legislation that paved the way for dictatorship. Goring, as Prussian Minister of the Interior, arrested innumerable communists and basically frightened the Reds from voting. On the 5th, the Nazis achieved 44% and the Nationalists 8%, thus allowing a right wing conservative majority to form a government. "The week that followed the elections was the single most consequential in German history." The Nazis attacked Jews, communists, Social Democrats and prepared to take over the state. Newspapers were abolished. "Assertions about communist terrorism produced a concrete policy of ant-terrorism that installed the dictatorship." From one end of the country to the other, brown shirted SA stormtroopers marched to city hall and beat and tortured officials until they quit, were jailed or executed. It was a literal and illegal reign of terror. By the middle of March, the communist and SD parties ceased to exist.  On March 23rd, the Reichstag passed an Enabling Act authorizing Hitler's dictatorship.                                                                                              "Most Germans preferred a Nazi future to the Weimar past." It offered renewal and reunion. "Germans credited the Nazis with finally putting in place the national solidarity they had yearned for after the lost war and years of revolution and counterrevolution." The Protestant establishment viewed the immorality of the Weimar years as if it were the 'passion of Christ', assisted in its degradation by Jews and communists in the big cities. The Nazis also embraced and honored the one-third of German males who were war veterans. They attracted the working man by co-opting May Day by recognizing it as a national holiday and calling it the National Day of Labor. April saw the boycott of Jewish businesses and the removal of Jews, of whom there were about half-a-million, from all civil service positions in the Reich. The SA began indiscriminately beating and murdering Jews in the street. German society was severed, and Jews were excluded.                             The year 1933 marked the end of the post-war period and the ascendancy of the Nazis as the number one news story in the world. All of a sudden, the world became focused on the likelihood of a second war. The Nazis had taken  over Germany quickly and violently and the Germans went along willingly after the first weeks and months. This is a magnificent and highly recommended book. It tells not what happened, but how and why it happened better than any I can recollect. My only quibble is that the author stretches out the last third of the book on events after the first hundred days, and around Europe as well.  But again, I think this is a must for those who seek to try and understand the story behind the century's greatest calamity.

Divided Loyalties, Todd - B +

                   In 22 books over 24 years, the authors have created one of the best, perhaps my favorite, series.  I've always admired their sense of history in England immediately after the Great War,  their ability to study the despair of the men who fought, and the society they returned to. It is excellence seldom seen in a novel or for that matter, a history.  The mystery plots are almost always good, and here, it's great. Rutledge is sent to Devon to explore a murder, which he successfully wraps up, when his irascible boss sends him to another town in the west because one of his colleagues has failed in a case. It's the best one in the series in recent memory

An Underground Guide To Sewers, Halliday - B-

  The 19th was a century of world-wide cholera epidemics and massive urban sewer programs. From time immemorial, mankind created systems to access water and dispose of waste, but never gave much thought to the health consequences of either or both or their interaction. Thanks to Victor Hugo, the world's most famous sewers are those of Paris, which were constructed in the 18th and early 19th century. The era of Napoleon III saw the epic reconstruction of the city by Baron Haussmann, who transformed above and below. He significantly expanded the sewers and built masterpieces for the transmission of storm water and liquid waste to the Seine. He apparently did not want #2 despoiling his sewers and continued the use of nightsoilmen to clean out cesspits. Solid human wastes were added later in the century by a successor City Engineer. The construction of London's sewers coincided with the mid-century realization that cholera was a waterborne disease. London, at two-and-a-half million people, was the largest city in the world and in desperate need of extensive water intake and waste output. The Victorian engineers rose to the task and were the first to separate, and thus allow a more lenient disposal of, rainwater from human waste. The unpredictable storms were allowed to flow directly into the Thames. Human waste was routed far to the east. Around the world, the steps taken in Paris and London led the way forward, and as mankind moved into the 20th century and even larger cities, processes for waste treatment moved to the fore. Admittedly, the most apt characterization of this book is odd.

The King At The Edge Of The World, Phillips - B

                                  This novel begins in 1591, with a group of diplomats sent to London by the Ottoman Emperor. When they leave, unlucky Turk physician, Mahmoud Ezzedine, is left behind as a gesture of good will. A decade later, as Elizabeth I lay dying, all are anxious about whether James Stuart, the likely heir, is truly Protestant.  Mahmoud is now Matthew Thatcher, still a physician, and now a Christian. This transition from the Tudors to the Stuarts was fully seven decades after Henry VIII had left the Catholic church, but religion had been and would continue to be an unsettled source of conflict for another nine decades after Elizabeth's death. Indeed, it wouldn't be until the middle of the 18th century that Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat at Culloden ended the last Catholic threat once and for all. Thatcher is sent to James VI in Scotland by Elizabeth to be his assistant and physician. It is not his health, though, but rather his religious intent, that Thatcher is assigned to monitor. He gains the King's confidence, plays chess with him and slowly poisons him. When called in to administer to him, he does and he observes the King in extremis. He prays to his Protestant God as Thatcher cures him. Thatcher delivers the wonderful news toEngland, easing the way for James I to ascend the throne upon Elizabeth's demise in 1603.

Heaven, My Home, Locke - B+

                                 This excellent novel is set in east Texas a few years ago and features Darren Matthews,  a black Texas Ranger, with a fair share of personal problems and a very complex case. He's got marital issues, and more importantly, one of the local sheriffs thinks he killed a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. He's called out to investigate a kidnapping, perhaps murder, near Caddo Lake on the Texas - Louisiana border. He uncovers a rat's nest of crime, nasty people, true black-white hatred and a nasty side to a dear friend and FBI agent. The fascinating thing about this book is the background of the lake, its history as a safe place for free blacks and native Americans before the Civil War, and how it all played out a century-and-a-half later.

Play The Red Queen, Jurjevics- B+

                                  This is a fascinating, and recommended, novel set in Saigon in the fall of 1963.  The lady of the title is the nickname of a VC sniper who kills American officers with one shot from the back of a Vespa from a pretty good distance. She is talented and lethal and our two Yank MPs are on her trail after her third kill. The only clue they're able to uncover is that she is after either an American silver fox or America's silver fox. Could be Lodge? Could be Diem? They soon find out that victim #3 was about to file a report exposing the obscenely corrupt practices of the Diem's, which the newly-appointed Lodge was trying to stop. They finally catch up to her on the night in November when the coup against the Diems succeeds. The author was a Vietnam vet and a fine writer with great insight into the Saigon of that pivotal year.

Notre-Dame: The Soul of France, Poirer - A*

     In life, there are enduring symbols and Notre-Dame has been one for 850 years. It has always been more than a cathedral. "Notre-Dame is one of mankind's greatest architectural achievements, the face of civilization, the soul of a nation. "                   In the 12th century, Paris was the capital of France and a thriving multi-dimensional city. It was "the royal city, the merchant city, the bishop's city and the university city."  Bishop Maurice deSully was the man responsible for the cathedral's construction, which began in 1161 and was vigorously pursued for the next 40 years. It took a century to complete the airy, cohesive, austere and majestic building.  Centuries later, the Bourbons would lavish works of art and gifts on Notre-Dame, as they bestowed on it a central role in their monarchy. The Revolution led to the melting of the cathedral's bells for canon, lead coffins for bullets and the beheading of the 28 kings of Judah on the facade because they were wrongly thought to be the kings of France.  Catholicism was abolished and Notre-Dame became the Temple of Reason.  The new century saw the pope and Napoleon sign a Concordat, reestablishing the church in France and confirmed at a mass at Notre-Dame.  A few years later, in 1804, Pius VII came to Notre-Dame for Napoleon's coronation as emperor.  Hugo's 'Notre-Dame de Paris', published in 1832, led to a movement to restore the cathedral to its former glory.  The twenty-year restoration  began in 1845 with the objective of undoing the previous three centuries of filling in, plastering over, removing of stain glass and other intentional defilements, along with damages inflicted by time and weather.  Also, a new towering spire was added to the cathedral. Its collapse in 2019 was the devastating symbol of the fire at Notre-Dame last year. Paris itself by the middle of the 19th century was an overcrowded, congested and filthy mess. Baron Haussmann's renovations completely redid the Ile de la Cite. He evicted two-thirds of its inhabitants in order to clear the sight lines around the cathedral.                                   The day after he arrived in Paris in August of 1944, De Gaulle walked from the Arc de Triomphe  to Notre-Dame  and cemented himself as liberator and leader of France.  The year 2013 saw the replacement of all but one bell with new, meticulously cast bronze bells, and for the first time since before the Revolution, the bells of Notre-Dame were in tune.  On the evening of April 15, 2019, flames began to leap from the roof. The fire was in the 13th-century oak lattice work roof structure.  An hour after the fire began, the spire collapsed. The firefighters saved the towers and the treasures of  Notre-Dame. The next day, donations were promised by rich and poor, in France and around the world. Securing tarps in place of the roof and stabilizing the walls were the first two jobs addressed. How it will be restored and how its role as a church and museum will be modified all remain to be resolved.  It is now the 'building site of the century' and this is a very good book.

To The Edge of Sorrow, Appelfeld - B +

                                 The author survived the Holocaust as a young boy, hiding in the woods of Ukraine before joining the Red Army. He became a noted Israeli writer specializing in fictional accounts of the war. In this tale, a seventeen-year-old narrates the story of a Jewish band of partizans formed in the summer of 1942, near the Romanian-Ukrainian border. It is mostly about the day-to-day details of patrolling, gathering food and surviving. The focus is on the leader, Kamil, the cook, Tsila, and the ancient old lady, Tsirl, with a memory of everyone's grandparents. As time passes, there is less and less fighting with Germans or local police and the group's goal is to  wait for the Soviets. But Kamil decides to take the offensive and begins dynamiting trains, derailing them and rescuing Jews on the way to the camps. Soon, the hilltop hideout has 172 souls. When artillery is heard far to the east, the camp fears that the Germans will finish them off before the arrival of the Red Army. The Germans shell the camp, killing many, including Kamil, before the Soviets run them off. After a few days, they descend, walk to town and bury their dead in the Jewish cemetery.  They then settle in at a warehouse near the train station. Time passes and they lose their purpose and cohesiveness. Without the camp, they are no longer connected. The Ukrainians try to rob them and the decision is made  to return. Not home, back to the hilltop.

A Gentleman In Moscow, Towles - A*

                                  This magnificent novel was voted book of the year by many a few years back and I thank my friends, Dennis and Catie Grindinger, for encouraging me to take it up. The gentleman of the title is Count Alexander Rostov, condemned by the Reds at the dawn of the USSR for being a gentleman to spend his life in the Metropol Hotel, of which he was so fond.  Even after his suite was taken away and he was reduced to an extremely modest room, he retained his aristocratic grace and poise and continued to enjoy life to its fullest. The Boyarsky Restaurant, once and maybe still, the finest east of Vienna was his daily home and source of great joy. Of course, when the Bolshies decided that the hundreds of thousands of bottles in the cellar needed to reflect the nation's new politics and had all the labels removed, leaving a choice of red or white, he was appalled, but accepting. As he meets and charms the many who pass through, including Nina, a nine year old girl, Anna, a famous actress, and Osip, a Red Army Colonel, we see through the wit and learn details of the tragedies that befell his family and his class. As he soldiers on through the years and in the late 20's starts helping out with the seating and waiting in the Boyarsky, we see the history of the USSR through the lens of the hotel. When the trials begin in the mid-30's, Nina returns and asks him to watch over her 5 year old daughter, Sofia, because she must follow her husband to Siberia. Nina is never heard from again and Rostov is now the guardian of a child, whom he raises to young womanhood. Sofia is brilliant, beautiful and the child of the entire staff of the Metropol. She excels at piano and joins the Moscow conservatory, which is scheduled to perform in Paris in the summer of 1954. The Count begins to dream and plot. He had returned from the City of Light when the Revolution  began and had been dreaming of it for decades. Escape is planned for him and Sofia; Paris for one and home for the other. Truly wonderful.

Spies of No Country: Israel's Secret Agents At The Birth Of The Mossad, Friedman - C

 This is the story of four young Jews, all born in the 1920's in the Arab world, three named Cohen, and one Shosan, who were the foundation of one of the world's premier intelligence agencies, the Mossad.  Only Jews born in the Middle East had any prayer of acting as a spy. The Askkenazi Jews from Europe could not speak Arabic and did not look Arab. Even these four had occasional difficulty. They were the 'Arab Section' and we follow them from January 1948 to August 1949 in Beirut and Haifa. The fighting had begun in late 1947 after the UN agreed with British plans to leave Palestine and that there would be an Arab and a Jewish state in Britain's stead. The British left on May 14, 1949. The men of the 'Arab section' spied, bombed, assassinated, reported on Arab attitudes and in particular, on Arab intentions and plans as the Arab invasion failed. They came in from the cold and helped build the state after the Independence War.

High Five, Ide - B-

                                  As intriguing as IQ's brains and the plot lines are in this series, the vast array of idiosyncratic Los Angelenos is just as much fun. Dodson, IQ's occasional aide and old friend, goes to the park and feeds Doritos to the pigeons. Starsky and Hutch are a pair of women hitmen specializing in hits requiring difficult access. They grew up in the Ringling Brothers circus as part of the high-wire act and needed work after it folded. TK plays music to the elephants at the zoo, and there are just an endless list of gang-banging bad guys, most stupid, but some pretty savvy. I'm not sure where this series is going. It hasn't lived up to its debut performance and after a totally crazy gang war, everybody's looking for IQ and he's headed out of town all alone, and without any plans.

The Hunt For Kimathi, Henderson and Goodheart - B

                                   This is the story of the 1950's hunt for the Mau Mau's most ruthless and merciless leader, Dedan Kimathi. The Mau Mau indiscriminately slaughtered Kenyan whites and native Africans. Kimathi was a 32 year-old rapist and thug in 1952, when he assumed a leadership role in the uprising. By the middle of the decade, the rebellion was mostly suppressed,  but approximately 1500 rebels were still free roaming over a vast forest of 6,000 square miles. Ian Henderson was the policeman who led the hunt for Kimathi that began in late 1955.  His strategy was to capture a terrorist with the help of other terrorists. Over the course of seven weeks, he convinced a dozen Mau Mau to abandon Kimathi in exchange for food, arms and safety from the increasingly erratic and violent Kimathi. The collaborators helped Henderson narrow down the are where Kimathi and his remaining 50 followers were when the rainy season began at the end of March. The hunters captured more and more of the rebels, including Kimathi's brother. By August, they were closer than ever and Kimathi was down to a dozen men. By October, the final operation was ready, and traps were set in all the possible places Kimathi would seek water. One of the rebel's top lieutenants was captured, and led them to his hideout. Starving, alone and near collapse, on the 21st, six Kikuyu tribal policemen wounded him and brought him to a hospital. He was tried, sentenced to be hung and executed the following year. Thanks to my Kenyan friend and Colorado neighbor, Jonathan Block, for the recommendation.

Your House Will Pay, Cha - B+

                                 This is an extremely well-done and nuanced novel about modern LA. The story is about a Korean family and a black family, whose paths crossed in 1991 and again in 2019. Three decades ago, a promising 16-year-old Ava was shot in the back of her head by the female owner of a Korean grocery. Convicted of a reduced crime and given probation, she changes her name to Yvonne Park,  and surfaces much later, when she is gunned down out side her pharmacy. Could it have been a member of Ava's family? Is justice possible? Is reconciliation?

The Last Protector, Taylor - B

                                  Cat Lovett, now Cat Hakesby, married to her elderly master for protection, is approached by her childhood friend, Elizabeth Cromwell, granddaughter of the Lord Protector. Richard, banished son of Oliver, exiled on the continent returns to London in disguise to recoup a possession of his mother's buried in Whitehall. The plans for the building where the Cromwells lived are in the possession of Hakesby and the Cromwells seek his help. However, they are being manipulated by the Duke of Buckingham, who is plotting against Charles II. Marwood, in his role at Scotland Yard, works to unearth the plot, and manages to quiet Buckingham's plans. Since I read the first three in this series a month ago and now this the week it came out, I guess I'm hooked. However, obscure novels set in London in the 1680's are an acquired taste.

Sarah Jane, Sallis - C

                                         The author cranks out best-sellers, and this one received a number of book of the year awards last year. The heroine of the title could best be described as a drifter, who managed to finish college, serve in the Army and wind up as sheriff in some small town in the middle of nowhere. The book is a series of disconnected observations and events, lacking in theme or continuity. The sheriff who hired her lets her know he's leaving and not coming back. Towards the end of the book, we learn that Sarah killed a man decades ago and the former sheriff killed the fella who came to avenge Sarah's actions. It all, apparently, ties in to time in the Army in combat, but it's never spelled out. I don't get it, but maybe that's me.

Thirteen Days In September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David , Wright - B+

"The Middle East from distant times till now is a cautionary story of the failure of war to impose a lasting and just peace. The struggle for peace at Camp David is a testament to the enduring force of religion in modern life, as seen in the ability to mold history and in the difficulty of shedding the mythologies that continue to lure societies into conflict."  Carter was a very religious Baptist who believed God wanted him to make peace in the Middle East. Begin was an extreme right-winger, considered a terrorist by many and focused on the destruction of Arabs. Sadat was considered a visionary, bold yet capable of being flexible. Indeed, he had taken the first step on the road to peace when he visited Israel in 1977. Carter invited Begin and Sadat to meet in September, 1978. Absolutely no one thought there was one chance in a million anything would come of the conference. And the opening discussions appeared to be fruitless. Neither side would give an inch. Carter had hoped to be an intermediary, and realized he had to place a proposal on the table and facilitate an accomodation. A week into the summit, Carter and Sadat had reached the outlines of an agreement, but Begin fought every issue tooth and nail. Carter was convinced Begin was unbalanced and had never intended to agree to anything. Israel had occupied the Sinai since 1967, fortified it and allowed a modest number of civilian settlements. Returning the Sinai without removing the settlements was pointless for Sadat, and unimaginable for Begin. Begin eventually, literally at the 11th hour, relented. He also accepted Carter's nebulous side letter on the West Bank  and Jerusalem. There would be peace between Israel and Egypt and a framework for discussions with the Palestinians. The three men signed the documents in the East Room of the White House.  Six months later, they met again and signed the formal peace treaty. Egypt recognized Israel's right to exist and the two countries have been at peace for over four decades. Many in the Arab world were unhappy with Sadat. He was assassinated four years later.  Begin ignored the framework on the West Bank and Jerusalem and aggressively allowed more and more settlers in. Today, there are half-a-million Jews in what most of the world considers the occupied territories. It is of course why the conference failed one of its two objectives, and the reason for ongoing and endless violence in the area. Begin resigned in 1982 after his invasion of Lebanon dragged on in stalemate. The Carter presidency is oft-derided and mostly forgotten, but he soared at Camp David.                       This book is an excellent primer on the problems of the region. The Bible stories of the Israelites and Egyptians are retold, as is the history of the Zionist movement, the British occupation and Israeli independence. Begin's story recounts his time in Poland, Siberia and as the mastermind of Irgun's terrorist activities. Sadat's history focuses on the degradations of the British occupation and the USSR's heavy-handed friendship. The wars fought, particularly the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, are related.  In essence, this is a history of the Middle East's conflicts viewed through the prism of the Camp David summit. This book is worth the effort. The author is one of our finest writers and it weighs in under 300 pages. Once again, thanks to my brother.

The Red Lotus, Bohjalian - B+

                                 The author is a master of page-turning bestsellers and he's done it again here. The story is about a NYC ER doc who falls for a guy who works in the same building as she does, but is ethically challenged. The scheme that the boyfriend and others are working on involves weaponizing bubonic plague for sale in the international arms markets. Note to those offended by rodents, there's quite a bit here about rats. This is a perfect antidote for self-isolating.

The Printing Revolution Of Early Modern Europe, Eisenstein - B

 This erudite tome reviews the impact on the 15th and 16th centuries of the revolution begun with the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. "The advent of printing is to be taken to mean the establishment of presses in urban centers beyond the Rhineland in  the 1460's." Early books followed scriptal conventions using similar columns, abbreviations, initials and margins. Printing required previously unnecessary collaboration between creators of ideas and the implementers of the trade. Financing the bigger and more complex process brought together disparate specialists, as did distribution, marketing and sales. Learning by reading expanded and took on new importance.  Knowledge of all kinds spread widely, not through just the printed word, but also the illustrations that were equally abundant. Standardization extended beyond style of print to methods of presentation. Montaigne was the first to use the essay to convey ideas to a wide group of people. In addition to the sharing of sophisticated ideas, there was an abundance of 'how to' books on topics as diverse as making a dress and conducting an inquisition. Alphabetizing, indexing, tables of contents and cataloguing became systematized. Page numbers, punctuation and page breaks soon followed. "Typographical fixity is a basic prerequisite for the rapid advancement of learning." The concepts of authorship and literary property rights came to the fore. In essence, a new method of duplicating handwriting began and it transformed intellectual life in western civilization. 

 The shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance was under way when the printing revolution began, thus the focus in this book is on how it was affected by this change. For the medievalists, antiquity was part of their continuum. After a century of printing, it stood out as a distinct historical era. The past was set at a'fixed distance'. A sustained recovery of  the antique heritage could only be accomplished by an abundance of printed materials. Print enabled the spread of ancient languages and scripts. It furthered the study of and the rediscovery of the past. The age of printing accompanied the Renaissance, rather than engendered it. "Under the aegis of the early presses, a classical revival of Italy was reoriented. Under the same auspices, German Protestantism was born. Lutheranism  was from the first the child of the printed book, and through this vehicle Luther was able to make exact, standardized and ineradicable impressions on the mind of Europe." Although no one knows how an academic disputation written in Latin became so widespread, his ideas were literally before the world in a matter of months. The medium also provided the  RC church with the means to respond to the Reformation and to systematize its own liturgy. The new printings of the Bible in multiple vernaculars coincided with the beginnings of nationalism. Because Protestantism spread in many languages, it would be forever divided and lacking Catholicism's unity. "Protestant doctrines harnessed a traditional religion to a new technology with the result that Western Christianity embarked... on a course of historical mutation. Perhaps the civil war in Christendom was not inevitable, but the advent of printing did, at the very least, rule out the prospect of perpetuating the status quo."

 Printing had decidedly different effects on scripture and science*. It was clearly fragmenting and disruptive on the former.  Whereas on the latter, it transcended linguistic divisions and brought unity to scientific knowledge. This book was published in the early 1980's. The author closes with a somewhat prescient thought. "Since the advent of movable type, an enhanced capacity to store and retrieve, preserve and transmit, has kept pace with an enhanced capacity to create, and destroy, innovate and outmode."

* The book also tackles what I consider the desultory topic of the explosion of science in the 16th century. The ideas of  Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler and Descartes  became widely known.

The Bird Boys, Sandlin - C+

                                                  This is a PI novel set in Beaumont, TX in the mid-70's and quite frankly, is not very entertaining.  Phelan sets up an office, hires Debra, recently out of prison, and together they track down a man's long lost brother. The client's a skunk. The brother not so much. They may get to be more than work colleagues. End of story.

The Story Of Silver: How The White Metal Shaped Modern America And The Modern World, Silber - B-

 To qualify as sterling, silver must be 92.5% pure. The standard establishing the pound sterling was announced in the reign of Elizabeth I. In the US, Hamilton established a bi-metallic currency system with a gold to silver ratio of 15:1. The system held until 1873 when Congress demonetized silver. That led to a contraction of the money supply which slowly deflated real estate values and agricultural prices.  William Jennings Bryan, known as the Great Commoner, became famous for making his "Cross of Gold" speech, espousing a return to bimetallism, at the 1896 Democratic Convention. However, the gold standard reigned supreme from the middle of the 19th century until the 1930's. In order to increase the money supply, FDR took the US off the gold standard in 1933. In addition to fixing gold at $35 per ounce, the US took steps to increase the value of silver. Since the Chinese yuan was fixed to silver, this led to a strengthening of the Chinese currency and a severe decline in trade, making the weakened country particularly susceptible to Japanese aggression. Decades later, the Kennedy administration freed silver from government involvement and let the white metal float at market prices. In 1965, all links between US currency and silver prices were severed, leading, at least in the minds of some, to the inflation of the 70's. With inflation perking up and silver the only hard metal hedge, speculation in the new commodities markets was likely. In the early 70's, Bunker and Herbert Hunt began buying contracts and accepting physical delivery of silver. Bunker Hunt was so paranoid about America confiscating his wealth that he shipped his silver to Switzerland. By 1979, inflation was in double digits, silver closed the year at an unbelievable $34.45 oz., and the Hunts were still taking delivery. The Comex Board stepped in in January reducing the number of futures contracts a person could own, thus beginning a slide in the price of silver. The  levered Hunt's were forced to mortgage all they had to avoid bankruptcy. Eight years later, a series of judgements forced them to file Chapter 11. A decade or so later, Warren Buffet made a long play on silver's role as an industrial commodity and made quite a bit of money.          I started this book knowing two things about silver. One was that William Jennings Bryan became famous for excoriating gold and supporting silver. The second was that someone in the Hunt family tried to 'corner' the silver market in the late 70's. That was the limit of my knowledge. And I suspect that is all anyone really needs to know. The author is a renowned financial historian, but most of this is a real  snoozer and I clearly never have, and never will, understand monetary policy or theory. 

Chestnut Man, Sveistrup - B+

                                 A special thanks to my friend, Wendell Erwin, for recommending one of the best thrillers I've read in awhile. This is a page-turning novel set in Copenhagen, featuring a brilliant serial killer. The characters are a social justice minister, a detective who wants out of the murder squad and a washed-up Europol cop sent back home for punishment. The twists and turns are non-stop, the pacing is perfect and the book is as good a police procedural/thriller as any out there.

A Long Night In Paris, Alfon - B

                                  This is a very interesting Israeli novel that has won a prestigious international fiction award. It features a team of semi-official Chinese commandos pitted against Israeli security personnel and Parisian police from one end of Paris to another. The action takes place over a 29 hour period that starts with the arrival of an El-Al flight from Jerusalem landing at  nine in the morning at Charles DeGaulle. As the Chinese are efficient and somewhat indiscriminate, the bodies begin to drop. It's the perfect read for quarantine time.

The Fragility Of Bodies, Olguin - B

                                  This is a fascinating Argentinian novel set in Buenos Aires and featuring a 30ish woman journalist. Veronica comes upon a potential story of kids hit by trains, which she researches and pursues. She starts with the train conductors, many of whom suffer severe emotional trauma after hitting someone. But, the real story is that kids from the ghetto are playing chicken on the tracks, for money and at the behest of gamblers. It's a 100 pesos if you time the jump right. You lose if jump early; you are dead if you're slow. She gets the story, but in a country like Argentina, justice is often partial. This is a different and fun read.

Trace Elements, Leon - B

                                  In this, the 29th novel in the series, Guido follows a hunch that a motorcycle fatality was not the accident that it appeared to be. As is always the case, an exploration of some aspect of life in Venice is center stage. Here it is corruption, venality and pollution, specifically of the water supply, in the Veneto. Donna Leon has lived in and been writing about Venice for decades and presumably, knows the area as well as any American could. She charts the decline of life in Italy, a country haunted by indifference and corruption, and the slow-motion destruction, by rising seas and tourism, of the city she loves. I long ago concluded that writing was the one area of creativity not diminished by age. The author is approaching 80, but continues to crank out mini-masterpieces.

The Deserter, De Mille - C +

                                 The author is a noted storyteller and knows how to tell a tale. My primary issue here is that I think it could have been told in half the time. The deserter refers to a Delta Force officer who did some really bad things in Afghanistan. He was set up by the CIA which is trying to terminate his command with extreme prejudice. The two CID officers sent to Venezuela to find him only know half the story. There's some good background information on the self-inflicted collapse of the country.

Black Sun, Matthews - B

                                  This is a very good novel set in the Urals in the fall of 1961. The Soviet Union's scientists were days away from exploding a thermonuclear game changer. Under the supervision of Andrei Sakharov, they actually dialed down the magnitude of the explosion by changing the tamper from uranium to lead. In the novel, the change of the tamper is the event behind a murder and an investigation by Moscow's Maj. Alexander Vasin from the KGB. I believe it is the first in a series. The author is a historian, who has apparently turned to writing a thriller and has done it very well.

Mengele: Unmasking "The Angel of Death", Marwell - B

 Mengele has "emerged as the embodiment of not only the Holocaust itself but also the failure of justice in the wake of the war." He was born into a caring, upper middle class, Catholic home in 1911. He studied medicine, anthropology and genetics at university. He came under the sway of a professor focusing on racial differentiations. He then studied at the University Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene. Josef Mengele received multiple degrees, and was a published scientist when he joined the NDSAP and SS in 1938. He married the following year. His first job in uniform was to select racially pure Germans among those seeking resettlement in recently acquired Polish lands.  He then spent two very difficult years on the eastern front as a doctor for a combat engineer's division. After a few months working on genetics in Berlin, he was off to Auschwitz in May, 1943, where he came into his own and prospered. Camp doctors had many responsibilities, including the infamous 'selection' process for the newly arrived. In his spare time, Mengele created his own institute for the study of certain cancers, eye color, twins, growth anomalies, and physical anomalies, and he provided specimens to the SS Medical Academy. He was obsessed with and studied gypsies. His infamous twin research was done in conjunction with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. "Certain research required the simultaneous death and dissection of twins." Mengele shipped tissue samples, body parts and the eyes of twins to the Institute. His research was criminal and monstrous, but was part of the scientific establishment. His son, Rolf, was born in March, 1944 and he hoped that his wife and son would move to Auschwitz, but it never worked out. The camp was closed in January, 1945. He was in a Wehrmacht doctor's uniform at war's end, and when he surrendered to American forces. By August, he was released. With millions of prisoners and dwindling food supplies, the Allies were far from thorough. He would spend the next three years as a farmhand in Bavaria. His family spread the word that he was dead, no one knew otherwise, and he made his way in 1949 to Argentina. Argentina was sophisticated and safe.  His father's business in Germany helped him and allowed him to establish himself in Buenos Aires. In 1954, his wife divorced him. A year later, he visited Europe, saw old friends, and met with his brother's widow. Because she had inherited a piece of the business, Karl Mengele, for the strategic well-being of Mengele and Sons,  arranged a marriage between his son and his daughter-in-law. Things were going so well that Josef Mengele applied for and received a German passport in his own name. An anonymous tip in Germany led to an indictment and an extradition request, but by the time it reached Argentina, Mengele had relocated to Paraguay. After the Israelis captured Eichmann, he was on the run. His wife left for Europe and he moved to Brazil. One of the reasons Mengele could hide successfully for so long was his family's money. He received regular financial assistance from Germany. Little is known of his life in Brazil. Rolf visited him in 1977 and they discussed his role in the war but came to no conclusion. He was unrepentant to the end. He drowned on a Sao Palo beach in 1979.                     

Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth To Modern America, Miller - B+

  This history is focused on the extraordinary growth of midtown Manhattan and its role in setting the urban standard for the country and indeed, the world. The city's peak came in the late 1920's and coincided with Gentlemen Jimmy Walker's terms as mayor. He was elected in 1925 with the vigorous support of Governor Al Smith. The charming Walker had dazzled as a State Senator. "New York was the capital of everything - America's financial, industrial, engineering, architectural, publishing, theatrical, musical, radio, advertising, opinion making, sports and fashion center." The city was larger than most states, had a budget bigger than many countries, and was flat-out corrupt and riddled with self-dealing and Tammany managed lawlessness. The 1920's roared in NY because of Prohibition, an absurd law that never had a chance of succeeding in America's big cities. By the time Walker became mayor, there were more speakeasies in NY than there had been saloons before the law. Prohibition was never seriously enforced in NY, and boot-legging was the source of endless crime, corruption and massive amounts of cash. Throughout Manhattan, night clubs sprang up. They were owned by gangsters and were a place where hoods, pols, entertainers and blue bloods all mixed. The mix of cash and the continuous violation of Prohibition's enforcement laws led to the first organizing of crime and the creation of NY's five families. The midtown of Jimmy Walker's NY had been transformed a decade and a half earlier by a construction project on the east side of the city.  The NY Central's rail lines ran north from grand Central Station like an open sore, utilizing coal burning locomotives, polluting, spewing ashes, and making noise. The train yards had eliminated the city's cross streets as far north as 57th St. The company's chief engineer proposed building a new, more efficient terminal, constructing an office building over it, and paving over Park Avenue. This was all made possible by using electric trains. The new Grand Central transformed the city. By the mid-20's, 43 million people per year would pass through the terminal. A massive building boom followed on the east side. Its apogee was the new Park Avenue which became the "most stupendous aggregation of multimillionaires the world has ever seen."  From 5th Avenue to Sutton Place, apartments for the wealthy were going up at a rapid pace. Up and down 5th Avenue below 57th St. and east along 42nd St. to the river, up went one skyscraper dedicated to commerce after another.                                                                                                         A young immigrant from Byelorussia, David Sarnoff, rose through the ranks of RCA and made it a NY based broadcasting powerhouse. It sold radios and produced content, leading to RCA becoming the fastest growing company of the era. RCA created NBC, the nation's first network. Sarnoff purchased the Victor phonograph company and began research into television. Sarnoff was a visionary, but one with rather pedestrian and bland programming ideas. Soon, Bill Paley's CBS network would challenge him and the two titans would go head to head for the next forty years. The focus at CBS was constantly changing entertainers and a vast marketing of every conceivable product. The 1920's also saw two engineering marvels that improved life in the city. The Port was severed by the Hudson River, thus leading to a trans-river ferry system that grew to the point where almost everything  shipped to and fro the American heartland crossed on a lighter. Thirty-five hundred rail cars were floated across the river daily. The states of NY and NJ created a port authority that built the longest tunnel, the Holland, and the longest bridge, the GW, in the world in an attempt to end the ferry system. The Lincoln Tunnel was added a decade later. A century later, there still is no commercial train line under the Hudson.                                    Everything about the city was bigger and better than anyone could imagine when, in the waning weeks of the decade the stock market collapsed, and with it, the whirlwind of prosperity the Roaring 20's had created. F. Scott Fitzgerald said the Jazz Age was brought "to a spectacular death in October, 1929." But, "no other decade in the life of the city was more exuberantly alive or enduringly creative." Thanks to Bill Barry for the recommendation. There is a never ending joy in reading about our 'city'.

The King's Evil, Taylor - B

                                  The series progresses, and Marwood's efforts have caught the eye of the King. The challenge is that  the issues are more complex and Marwood finds himself betwixt and between powerful courtiers, including the Duke of York, the King's brother and heir. Marwood is assigned to investigate a murder and stumbles upon paperwork that could possibly characterize the Duke as a bigamist and his children illegitimate. Great insights into the time period in a breezy, easy narrative.

The Fire Court, Taylor - B

                                  In this second novel in the series, we are a few months past the fire  and London is rebuilding. Most of the detritus is gone and the Fire Court is the center of everyone's attention. The court was established by the King to sort through the conflicting claims of all those with any interest in the city's real estate. The lot lines are uncertain, and the rights of the freehold are in conflict with those of the tenants. There is no insurance and no real law on the topic. The court's purpose is to encourage and find for those who can build the fastest. Against this background, Marwood and Lovett look into the murder of a widow with a valuable lease. This series is a fun absorption in a far away place and time.

Ashes of London, Taylor - B+

                                  This is an absolutely fascinating novel set in London in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1666. It is chock full of historical details about the beheading of Charles I, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the reign of Charles II, and tosses in a very good murder/intrigue/theft of a niece's fortune plot to move the story along. The principal characters are James Marwood and Catherine (Cat) Lovett, unrelated and unconnected, except for the fact that they are both children of those who overthrew the first Charles. Marwood works as a clerk for a senior under secretary at Whitehall and Cat has run away from her nefarious uncle. Their paths cross throughout, and as they are the named principals of this series, we will undoubtedly see them again soon.

The Club: Johnson, Boswell, And The Friends Who Shaped An Age, Damrosch - B-

                                 This is a history of an extraordinary group of 18th century Londoners who spent Friday evenings at the Turk's Head Tavern, where they became known as the Club. Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, Richard Sheridan, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson were the cornerstones of the Club. However, it is Boswell, the young Scottish lawyer, and Johnson, a generation older and the compiler of the first dictionary, who are center stage in this tale for the simple reason that they were the most prolific writers. Johnson wrote eloquently and frequently and Boswell was his biographer. Johnson was born in Lichfield, the son of a bookseller. Johnson was unable to finish Oxford for financial reasons. He went to London to become a writer, and edited The 'Gentlemen's Magazine'. He worked for a decade on a Dictionary, which was published in 1755. It is considered a milestone, a masterpiece still recognized as a significant landmark centuries later. He became known as The Great Lexicographer. James Boswell came to London with the approval and financial support of his father, Lord Auchinleck, a noted lawyer and judge. Boswell was a writer, a drinker, and an inveterate note taker, whose journals provide a detailed insight into late 18th century London and which were immensely popular because of his frank and frequent recounting of his vigorous amatory adventures.  In early 1764, Joshua Reynolds suggested to Johnson that they form a club of interesting friends who would meet once per week. Edmund Burke was invited as were half a dozen others. Sir Joshua Reynolds achieved considerable wealth as a portrait painter. He was the first president of the Royal Academy of the Arts. "Of all the members of the Club, Burke was the one who most impressively combined intellectual brilliance, literary skill, and public life." His 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' adeptly predicted the future and is considered a foundation of modern conservatism.  The two most enduring publications from Club members came in 1776: 'The Wealth of Nations' and 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. Smith and Gibbon are still part of many curriculums and are two writers whose works I have enjoyed. Long after the deaths of its founders, the Club continues today as the London Literary Society.                                                                                                  I have never been a fan of group biographies and nothing here has changed my mind. Furthermore, there is not a single sentence in this book about conversations at, or meetings of, the Club.

Curious Toys. Hand - B+

                                  This fabulous novel is set in and around Riverview Amusement park in Chicago in 1915. The protagonist is Pin, a 14 year old girl disguised as a boy who runs drugs for Max, one of the men working there. She sees a young girl go into a ride with a man, but not come out at the end. Pin later discovers her body.  A serial killer, murderer of pre-teen girls, is on the loose. Because she is a constant visitor to all the corners of the park, she sees, hears, and eventually, figures out who the killer is. Pin reverts to Viv, gets an ally, and saves the day. This is highly recommended. 

The Old Success, Grimes - C

                                           Befuddlement is seldom the reaction to a book in this magnificent series.  But for me and apparently many others, the story here is virtually unreadable. This is the twenty-fifth Richard Jury novel and sadly, the author, approaching 90, has lost more than a step. I suspect this is the end of the line.  For the last forty years, it has been a delight as you opened the latest in the series with relish, looking forward to the extended cast of characters in Jury's life. A sad au revoir.

They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967, Maraniss - B+

 This majestic book, published in 2004, won the J. Anthony Lucas Prize and was a Pulitzer finalist. A special thanks to my brother for the recommendation. The book is about two days in October 1967. The 17th and 18th saw an ambush of an American battalion north of Saigon, and a sit-in at the University of Wisconsin against Dow Chemical, manufacturer of napalm. The replacements for the Black Lions Btn. of the First Infantry Division arrived in Vietnam after three sweltering weeks on a WWII era troop transport. The men they would fight were led by an officer who had marched 600 miles south six years earlier. The Americans would be commanded by Terry Allen, Jr., son of the general who led the Big Red One in Africa and Italy. As the sole supplier of napalm, Dow Chemical was quickly becoming the face of corporate America's support for the war. In the fall of 1967, they were scheduled for four days of recruiting in Madison. The University of Wisconsin was more diversified, had a long Progressive tradition  and leaned more to the left than your standard mid-western land grant university. There had been opposition to Dow's visit and clearly, the opposition would ratchet up this time.  In Vietnam, there were now 500,000 Americans busily seeking out the enemy and not necessarily finding him. There were now many, particularly the war reporters in Vietnam, as well as a growing cadre of skeptics at home, who envisioned a stalemate, at best. In the sector the Big Red One patrolled, there was a sense that their opponent was wearing down. In  Madison, the impending Dow visit generated significant preparation by both the students and the University. The students organized and planned their tactics to disrupt the visit. The University let them know what would, and would not, be acceptable conduct and coordinated a plan of action with the campus and city police. The strategy of the US Army was to search and destroy the enemy, but the challenge was that the NVA or VC chose when and where to fight. They knew the terrain and avoided anything like a pitched battle, where the US's superior firepower would defeat them. On the 16th, led by Clark Welch's Delta Company, the Black Lions headed out on another search and destroy mission. Welch was the only lieutenant leading a company in the division and one of the few officers  commissioned  in the field in Vietnam. They engaged the enemy, believed they may have located a sizeable force, and planned a follow-up action for the next day. Welch had been awarded a Silver Star by a general who then  chewed out Lt. Col. Allen because he was supervising his battalion from the air, instead of the ground. Allen determined to attack the VC head on without an aerial prep. On the 17th, Alpha Company, with only half its complement, 75 men, took the point. Delta Company followed. The now grounded Terry Allen marched with Delta. The Yanks walked into an elaborately planned ambush. Within minutes, the commander of Alpha Company, and two his lieutenants were down. Alpha fell back. The Vietnamese closed in on Delta and opened fire. By the time Welch was hit, half of his company were casualties. Terry Allen was shot twice and died when hit a third time. Clearly defeated, the Black Lions were retreating. They were able to evacuate their wounded, but not their dead, who had to be left overnight. The American army practice of fudging the truth began immediately. The division commander declared the battalion had not been ambushed. The Big Red One did not get ambushed - they were too good. Fifty-eight Americans were dead and thirty-one wounded.  The wounded were operated on in Saigon and all but one survived the first night. At MACV, Genl. Westmoreland was concerned enough to fly to the Division HQ to be debriefed. Again, there was no ambush. The Army press release stressed the victory with 103 dead VC, a number that everyone agreed was pretty much out of thin air.  A young ABC reporter, Peter Jennings, questioned the veracity of the army's  report and referred to the engagement as a regiment sized ambush.  On Tuesday the 17th, the protest began in Madison. On the first day, there were speeches and a sit-in near the interview rooms. The police were restrained and the protesters under control. The next day saw more people protesting and the sit-in obstructed access to the recruiters and to some classes. This was a violation of the school's rules. The campus police called for city backup. The Chancellor and the student leaders met, but could not come to terms. The chief of the campus police ordered the cops to break up the crowd in the building where the interviews were conducted and they came in swinging their billy clubs. The thousand demonstrators outside the Commerce Building started pelting the police with whatever was handy. The police responded with tear gas. By the evening, the crowds dispersed. The following day, thousands boycotted classes.     The following weekend was the first major march on Washington. While people were gathering for the trip, soldiers of the US Army were delivering the news of the deaths of sons and husbands to their families around the country. While the Washington marchers headed to Arlington to levitate the Pentagon, two thousand marched to the Capitol building in Madison. After the weekend, LBJ observed "We've almost lost the war in the last two months in the court of public opinion." At Dow, they debated whether to pursue a public relations policy defending napalm and decided to stay quiet. No one surmised that it would be Agent Orange that Dow would pay heavily for in the future. The following weekend in Milwaukee, Richard Nixon spoke of himself as a 'peace candidate'.  The author grew up in Madison and was a freshman at Wisconsin that fall. He has done an extraordinary research job writing this book. He even walked the battlefield with Clark Welch and VC Colonel Triet. Reflecting on events from over half a century ago, I am struck by how fast the tables turned. In the middle of 1967, there were many opposed to the war, but the American center supported it. A year later, after Tet, Johnson's resignation announcement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, my recollection is that support had dwindled and the majority were opposed.

The Godmother, Cayre - B+

                                  This is a fabulous, brief novel subtitled 'A Crime Thriller' and winner of a number of French awards. Patience Portefeux is an Arab translator for the Paris police, a widow of over two decades, and completely buried by the cost and stress of maintaining her failing mother in a nursing home. Because she hears the plans of drug smugglers and knows of the police plans to stop them, she has a bird's-eye view of France's drug trade and manages to inject herself into the middle of it. Through a series of believable coincidences, she is able to place millions of Euros worth of hashish in her basement and sell most of it off. There are wonderfully told stories throughout this delightful novel, which apparently is being made into a motion picture.

Good Man Gone Bad, Haywood - B-

                                  This novel is the latest in a series featuring Aaron Gunner, south central LA private investigator. He  working on two cases simultaneously, one working for a lawyer defending someone accused of murder and the other, a truly difficult one involving the apparent murder-suicide of his cousin. I'd give it an adequate/serviceable, not much more.

The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy, Krastev and Holmes - B, Inc.

"How liberalism ended up the victim of its heralded success in the Cold War is the story this book aims to tell." The prevailing belief that the collapse of communism would usher in a world of democratic principles proved to be incorrect. The lack of an apparent alternative to free market capitalism led to the anti-western ethos dominating in the post-communist societies today. The newly freed countries of Europe were expected to imitate the west and watch as the west opined on how well they were doing.  They joined the EU and were told what laws to enact in  a sort of supervised democracy. The Central Europeans felt that their identity was being threatened. "The origins of today's anti-liberal revolt lie in three parallel, interconnected, and resentment-fueled reactions to the presumptively canonical status of Western political models after 1989." The first is the Polish-Hungarian frustration with a new system that they viewed as just as 'imposed' as the old Soviet system was. Next, offended by the west's hypocrisy, Russia attempted to mirror it by interfering in the west's politics, just as the west did in Russia's in the 1990's. And lastly in America, the fear of being supplanted and dispossessed  by immigrants and the Chinese has driven Trump's message of US victimization. 

"The post-1989 transition to normality aimed at making possible in the east the kinds of  lives taken for granted in the West." For the Central European countries freed from communism, becoming like the west was the universal consensus after 1989.  The reform by imitation projects, however, did not envision the local impediments to democracy and liberalism.  The most significant problem that stemmed from 1989 was that the young and well-educated could now leave. And they did. Some countries in the east have lost a quarter of their population. Why reform your hidebound country when you can freely move to a better one? The combination of emigration, an aging population and low birth rates has befallen the post-communist east. Thus, in 2015, the countries of Central Europe refused to follow Germany's example and admit hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. Although there are virtually no refugees, Muslims or Africans in Central Europe, the Visegrad Countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) have barred their doors to make sure they never arrive.  Indeed, the Poles and Hungarians point out that they stopped the Ottomans at Vienna in 1683 and Western Europe needs to come around to their way of thinking. It is incredibly naive to think you can absorb and acculturate everyone. 

 Once again, I am unable to finish this book and post this brief synopsis for one point and one point only. I had no idea that the former communist countries suffered such massive outflows of people. I find that fact quite compelling.

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, Miller - C

                                This novel is set in 1809 and features an officer, broken and delirious, returned from war in Spain and deposited at his family's home in Somerset. He was part of a defeated army and had the misfortune of being nominally in charge of a band of stragglers whose atrocities at a small town drew the attention of allied command. When Lacroix recovers, he sets out for the islands off Scotland's west coast rather than go back to the Peninsular. Unbeknownst to him, a two man sanctioned, but unofficial, revenge team is on his trail. The author brilliantly paints amazing pictures of the time including the war, travel around pre-industrial Britain, a hospital in Glasgow and a commune in the Hebrides. But, to my mind, and almost acknowledged by the NYT reviewer,  it is too many loose threads instead of  a compelling story. 

I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank Sheeran "The Irishman" And Closing The Case On Jimmy Hoffa, Brandt - B -

                                 This is Sheeran's story, told in the first person, as he related it over the course of half-a-dozen years to the author, a former prosecutor. He was born in 1920, had a classic impoverished rough and tumble Catholic childhood in Philadelphia, got kicked out of school in the 9th grade, grew to be 6'4" and saw over 400 days of combat in N. Africa and Italy. He came back meaner and tougher, without any moral compass.  He worked different jobs around Philadelphia, and met noted crime boss Russell Bufalino in 1955. Soon thereafter, he did his first 'job' for the Philly mob. Russell then introduced him to Jimmy Hoffa, who offered Sheeran an organizer's job in Detroit. At Hoffa's behest, he occasionally 'took care of somebody'. Bobby Kennedy's Justice Department spent years trying put Jimmy Hoffa behind bars and finally, in 1964, he was sent to 'school' for eight years. He didn't enter a penitentiary until three years later, after all his appeals were denied. After a hefty bribe delivered by Sheeran to John Mitchell, President Nixon pardoned Hoffa in late 1971. Hoffa's one ambition after release from prison was to regain the presidency of the Teamsters. He began to publicly state that his successor was too lenient on the repayment terms of all the mob money lent out by the Pension Fund.  By threatening the powers that be, Hoffa sealed his fate and was gunned down by Sheeran on July 30, 1975. Although the FBI never solved the case, most of the people they thought were in on it, including Sheeran, went to jail for one thing or another. Sheeran told it all to the author late in life as a confession of his sins. 

Many Rivers To Cross, Robinson - B+

                                  This novel is the latest in the acclaimed DCI Banks series that is now over 30 years old. Like almost all writers of European crime fiction for the last quarter-of-a-century, the author delves into the immigration issues that have bedeviled the EU. The victim in this one is a young Syrian boy who somehow got to England, but ran into the wrong people, at the wrong time, in the wrong place. More interesting though, is the ongoing story of a Moldovan woman who appeared in the last Banks novel, and whose story will be continued in the next one. Trafficked out of Moldova by some really bad guys from the Balkans, Zelda has managed to escape, survive and make a bit of a life with one of Banks' friends. She has a unique skill and is a 'super recognizer', who can remember every face she has ever seen and who occasionally works for the British government. She has seen those traffickers and now knows that they are  in the UK. It's an interesting plot line and I don't believe the author has carried a story forward in the past. Indeed,  it's interesting enough that I'm trying to figure out when the next book will be published.

Elevator Pitch, Barclay - B

                                  This is a very solid thriller set in today's NYC.  The title stems from the fact that someone with a very solid political motive and or connection to elevators embarks on a terrorist activity involving sabotaging elevators. The impact on the world's most vertical city is obviously paralyzing and terrifying. The conclusion is a bit weak, but all in all a fun ride.

The Ghost Map: The Story Of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World, Johnson - B

                                 In 1854, London had two-and-a-half million people crammed inside a 30 mile circumference and no system for the removal of waste. That job was left to scavengers who scoured the city for anything of value and night-soil men who emptied the city's cesspools. The city had grown in fifty-years from a million, totally lacked the infrastructure to handle that growth and was literally drowning in its own filth. In September, cholera broke out in the Golden Square neighborhood of Soho and it broke out with a vengeance. A disease that usually took days to kill was now felling entire families in 24 hours or less. 

                                  A well on Broad Street was examined and a sample of its water taken by Dr. John Snow. But the technology of the times was not able to analyze and assess the sample. Snow was the first medical professional to propose that cholera was a waterborne disease. He did so in the face of an establishment that believed in the miasma theory that all illnesses are airborne. So, he decided to track deaths, their location and their source of drinking water.  A week into the crisis, he convinced the supervisors to shut down the Broad Street well. It was the first scientifically driven preventive measure ever taken against the disease. 

                                   Snow put together a map that convinced the local clergyman of the waterborne theory, and it was adopted by the Vestry Committee. Slowly and over time, the theory gained traction. Recognition of the pollution of the Thames as a source of waterborne disease and endless stench led to the construction of a sewer system, moving storm water and waste far to the east and hopefully out to sea. The sewers built in the mid-19th century are the backbone of today's system in London. "Establishing sanitary water supplies and waste management systems became  the central infrastructure project of every city on the planet." Electrification came later, but without a sewer system, the world's cities could not continue to grow and prosper.

                                     This book is much more than a history of a singular event. Rather, it is a far ranging and enchanting story of English history, sociology, and politics along with updates on 19th century medicine and public health. Thanks to my brother Bill for the recommendation.

Reckonings: Legacies Of Nazi Persecution And The Quest For Justice, Fulbrook - B, Inc.

  This award-winning book explores how people were transformed by the experiences of the Holocaust. Both the processes of  persecution, and the long-term reverberations, are explored through the experiences of the perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. Early on, the Nazis sponsored state violence in order to reestablish law and order and to clear Germany of undesirables. Before the war, the 1930's saw the construction of camps throughout the country, often in close proximity to major cities. Jews, Roma, homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses were uniformly condemned, imprisoned, tortured, and often murdered. "The work of leading Nazis was made infinitely easier by varying combinations  of support, complicity, acquiescence, accommodation, or capitulation among those who, for whatever reasons, did not engage in courageous acts of resistance or organized opposition." Many advanced their careers by enthusiastically embracing the Nazi's policies. Far more widespread was simple conformity. The first mass victims of Nazi extermination policies met their death in Germany, not Poland. They were the mentally and physically disabled,  whose life was deemed unworthy of living. For the common good, euthanasia of the disabled began in 1939, starting with infants and eventually, children and adults. The medical profession committed the crimes and the state's lawyers looked the other way. The euthanasia killing centers were in Germany proper and became known to the local public, who occasionally raised a mild complaint, but generally accepted what was going on around them. Those who managed the program learned important skills and many were later transferred east to participate in the burgeoning Holocaust. Those who assisted had such small roles in a large programs that they were able to later claim that their contributions were de minimis. 

  The occupation of Poland led to the first ghettos and death camps, and the opportunity for non-Germans to aid and abet the Nazis. For two years, until the invasion of the USSR and the decision to implement the Final Solution the Jews starved and suffered in Poland's ghettos. From that point on, the Jews of Poland, whether in city ghettos or small towns,  and the Jews from the rest of Europe were sent to the charnel houses. As the war's progression led to manpower shortages in German industry, many Jews, as well as POWs, were worked to death as slave laborers. Somewhere between 200,000 and one million people were directly involved in killing Jewish civilians. The invasion of the USSR gave free range to the Einsatzgruppen, who slaughtered 1.8 million Jews in the opening months of Barbarossa. The work of killing innocents was so stressful that the Reich had to devise a more efficient method than shooting in place. Zyklon-B was utilized at Auschwitz and its success led to the scaling up of the Nazi's industrial killing machines.  "Auschwitz remains an iconic site not only of remembrance but also of selective oblivion." Its place in history as the epitome of evil has been sealed by the number of deaths -well over a million - and the number of survivors whose memoirs ably described the horrors that took place there. At nearby Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec, pure extermination camps, where there was no work to be done by the prisoners, there were virtually no survivors. And without witnesses, very few of the managers of the extermination camps were ever brought to justice. The killings returned to Germany as the war waned. The Soviet arrival sent hundreds of thousands on forced marches from the camps into the Reich. Those marches became known as death marches and every corner of Germany saw them. For those who survived, "the experience of persecution was the defining experience of their life, they could never forget or evade the past, only learn to live with it." Their lives changed in a matter of minutes and they went from living a normal life to losing any sense of individuality and even humanity. They became members of a subspecies. For those who survived, "they were neither entirely of  the living nor of the dead, but rather a community apart." Most survivors could only talk about their experiences with other survivors and even then, sparingly. 

  In Poland, occupied Germany and Austria, many were brought to swift justice in the immediate aftermath of the war. Nuremberg saw the trial of the top dozen surviving Nazi leaders and the exposition of their atrocities to the world. The Americans followed up with successor trials against the Army, the Luftwaffe, government bureaucrats, doctors, the Einsatzgruppen, concentration camp officials, industrial leaders,  I.G. Farben, manufacturer of Zyklon-B and others. The British held 358 trials.  Although there were hundreds executed, most were sentenced to jail and almost all of those jail terms were reduced because of a general amnesty in 1950. These men were need back in society to assist West Germany in the Cold War. West Germany also developed what the author calls 'the alibi of a nation', scapegoating the excesses of the SS and the Gestapo and alleging the army was clean. After the victors' trials, each of the successor states, Austria, East and West Germany also held trials, with the focus on activities in those states and involving crimes against fellow Germans or Austrians. 

   At the half way point in this book, I was forced to call it quits. The topic is of immeasurable consequence, one I have an interest in and a meaningful amount of knowledge about. But, the depth of the detail and the fact that in order to deal with a given topic, e.g., the use of slave labor, the author roves far, wide, back and forth and into specifics about one or two people, and then back to industry or state wide topics left me spinning. 

Lady In The Lake, Lippman - B

                                  This novel is a thriller/detective story set in Baltimore in the mid-60's. It is seen through the eyes of the two principal characters, Maddie and Cleo. Maddie is a suburban Jewish mom who decides, at 37, to give it all up and try her hand at a newspaper. Cleo is a younger black woman who hangs out with the wrong kind of men and winds up dead. The book delves into the two worlds the two different woman inhabit, Maddie's road to independence, and Cleo's struggles to find happiness.

The Secrets We Kept, Prescott - B+

                                  This wonderful novel is set on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the 1950's. The American half of the story is about the very bright young women who typed for the CIA at a time when, regardless of education, that was what women did. One actually makes it out of the typing pool to become a courier and eventually, a foreign agent. The more interesting half of the story is set in Russia and features Boris Pasternak, and Olga Ivinskaya, his inspiration for Lara. Pasternak's privileged life as a poet was always on the edge of disaster because it was generally known that he didn't really toe the communist line. Indeed at one point, they sent Olga to the Gulag as a warning to him. His affair with Olga ran for decades and she was an integral partner in the long term writing of Dr. Zhivago. The CIA tie in is that after the novel was published, the CIA was instrumental in getting Russian copies of the book into the USSR. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel, but suffered from a vicious counterattack by the Soviet establishment. The book was not released in the USSR until 1988.

White Hot Silence, Porter - B-

                                  This is a pretty good thriller set in Italy, Russia and Estonia featuring a famous aid worker and humanitarian kidnapped by Russians. The aid worker is married to an American billionaire who has uncovered a nefarious plot hatched in Moscow to disrupt European democracies. The point of the kidnapping is to make him back off from trying to expose the anti-democratic hijinks. There is, for me, one gaping hole in the plot. The Silicon Valley investor happens to have been a Kurdish Peshmerga commander and experienced fighter in a prior life. Things often do not add up in thrillers, but this is too much to ask of one character. The spouse is freed from the Russians, the plot against Europe foiled and the billionaire safely ensconced back in California. 

The Shadow King, Mengiste - C

                                  This is a novel about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.  It is seen through the eyes of an Ethiopian peasant woman, Hirut, who joined the army, fought bravely and escaped Italian captivity. The author had been told stories by her grandfather, and committed to writing the novel after she learned that her great grandmother had also been a combatant. Woman throughout the country joined the resistance, fought beside the men and supported the armies as laborers, cooks and healers. Both Hirut and her rival and ally, Aster, are the leaders of the many women who bravely and effectively fought the Fascist invaders. My preference for all novels, historical or otherwise, is for a straight forward narrative, and this is just a bit too elusive for me. Nonetheless, it is a Booker Prize finalist.

Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream, Lemann - B

                                    The title of this book is a counterpoint to a 1950's one called 'Organization Man'. Then, the American economy and society were dominated by big corporations and other institutions such as unions, governments, colleges and school systems that offered lifetime employment in exchange for security and  conformity. That world is long gone and today's transactional world is its opposite in every measure. Wealth is now concentrated, and the public arena is fraught with anger. "This book aims to lay out the history of our move from an institution-oriented to a transactional-oriented society." The transactional society is now slowly becoming networked by big technology. The history is told through the eyes of Adolf Berle, Michael Jensen and Reid Hoffman. 

Berle was born in 1895 as America was in the middle of its multi-generational struggle to determine how to control the concentration of power in big business. By 21, he had obtained three Harvard degrees. He practiced as a lawyer and gave serious consideration to the role of the corporation and its relationship to its shareholders. He published 'The Modern Corporation and Private Property'. Large corporations with tens of thousands of shareholders were essentially answerable to no one, and only the federal government was capable of controlling them. He became an advisor to Governor Roosevelt  and sketched out the essentials of the New Deal for him. Controlled capitalism came out of the Depression, managed the war effort and treated post-war America to a period of unimaginable prosperity. The large corporation and its people reigned supreme and was responsive and responsible to all stakeholders. In the 1950's, management consultant Peter Drucker proposed that big companies had social responsibilities, and America's biggest, GM, responded by offering health care and retirement benefits to the UAW. This world in which the forces of capital had been tamed began to change in the 1970's when substantial pools of money in pension plans and mutual funds came to the fore. Corporate pension plans owned a third of the stock issued in America, leading Drucker to announce that the workers of America owned the means of production. Soon, the providers of capital would demand higher returns on their investments. 

Mike Jensen enrolled in the graduate economics program at the University of Chicago in the early sixties at a time when the idea that the markets were the proper governing institution of the postwar world was gaining traction. Milton Friedman, among others, argued that corporate America was not sufficiently market oriented. Jensen and a partner published in 1976 a 'Theory of the Firm', castigating corporate managers for not acting as owners and not maximizing profits. Soon thereafter, corporate raiders, mergers, and hostile takeovers were the rage.  One third of the companies on the Fortune 500 did not maintain their independence in the 1980's. Wall Street changed from genteel provider of advice to its corporate accounts to swashbuckling raiders and traders. And more importantly, the social construct of running business for the well being of the community vanished. The Financial Stabilization Act of 1999 further deregulated Wall Street as financiers pushed boundaries more and more.   Eventually, Jensen concluded that the markets had overplayed their hand, as all anyone did anymore was manage for quarterly earnings. The new century saw a headlong rush from deregulation to outright speculation. It all fell apart in the Great Recession. The transaction men had demolished  the organization men, and in turn, were laid low by their own hubris. The system was adrift. 

Reid Hoffman was born in California in the late 60's. He was a gamer, and a Stanford grad who became CFO of PayPal and believed in the power of the network. He went on to found LinkedIn and became a proponent of 'social operating systems', whereby people connected person to person, and not to or from a larger entity. Money was to be made owning the connective infrastructure, not providing the content. In 2011, LinkedIn went public and today has 500 million members. In 2016, the firm was sold to Microsoft.

 The information about and the ideas generated in Silicon Valley are fascinating. But at no point does the author tie them in to the big issues that the previous ideas tackled: how to control big capital and big business, how to weigh the needs of a society, how to regulate and control fair outcomes? He closes with the observation that the organizing ideas of the past cannot make a comeback and that we are both economically and politically in hot water. He suggests a sort of return to basics,  and having interest groups fix the day to day issues and not worrying about grandiose concepts as the solution. 

Throughout the book, the author returns again and again to a neighborhood in Chicago to illustrate his points. Chicago Lawn was once an all white blue collar neighborhood just east of Midway Airport. In the 1950's, it was filled with working class Catholic ethnics, who were the bastion of the postwar world order in America. They worked for the plants in the neighborhood:  General Foods, car parts fabricators and other small manufacturers. Many worked for the city and regardless of where they worked, they voted Democratic and went to church on Sunday. The 60's saw an occasional person of color move in. The 80's saw all of the public companies in the neighborhood close up their local plants and stores. Their withdrawal ended  the economic stability of the neighborhood. The banks that financed homes were gone, and in the 2000's, many, particularly Hispanics, were victimized by mortgage brokers. Soon, community leaders met with bankers, the Governor, Senator Durbin and  the local organizer, Barack Obama, in an attempt to do something about the foreclosure crisis. Of course, they failed. The US saved the financial institutions, but not their customers. 

This has been an enlightening and informative read. I have tended to think of our nation's income inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class as caused by globalization and technology. Perhaps I've overlooked the financial services sectors' deregulation because I prospered from it. Clearly, globalization, technology and deregulation of the financial markets are the three primary reasons for our predicament. That said, the author finished with an almost incoherent whimper.

  

                                   

Chances Are, Russo - B+

                                  This fabulous novel features three men, all blue-collar underdogs who meet while working as 'hashers' in the kitchen of the Theta sorority house at fictional Minerva College in 1967. Most of the girls are from places like Greenwich while the three men are scholarship kids working their way through. The most important event of their young lives comes on Dec. 1, 1969, the night of the first lottery,  when one loses, one wins and one isn't so sure what his number means. On Memorial Day after their 1971 graduation, one of the Thetas joins them for the weekend on Cape Cod. Jacy leaves early on Tuesday morning, leaves a good-bye note and is never seen again. Her disappearance is still center stage when they reunite on the Cape forty-four years later. This is a truly superb exploration of life, love, family, the threat of war, heartbreak, failure, the eked out successes we all seek, and hopefully claim. The fact that it is written by someone my age  provides an eerie immediacy. 

Lock Every Door, Sage - B

                                  When a book is labeled a page turner and it's dedicated to Ira  Levin, you have a suspicion of what follows. On the Upper West Side overlooking Central Park is a hundred year old building filled to the brim with really nasty people. They have a propensity to hire apartment sitters who tend to be young, healthy and without family. To say more  would be inappropriate. This is nice easy fun.

The Accomplice, Kanon - C

                            Max, an ailing and old Nazi hunter,  sits in a cafe in 1962 trying to convince his nephew Aaron, a CIA desk man, to join the family business. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a man walking away and tells his nephew that the man is Otto Schramm, noted number two  to Mengele at Auschwitz. Max's heart attack and death convince Aaron to try to track down Schramm. He goes to Buenos Aires and follows Otto's daughter, Hanna. Aaron locates Schramm and recruits the Mossad, who snatch Schramm off the street. The CIA joins the fray and wants to try and turn Otto, who winds up dead in an escape attempt. Hanna winds up assisting the CIA. Kanon is an accomplished writer in this genre, but I believe he has lost a step here.

City of Windows, Pobi - B+

                                                  This an excellent novel featuring a brilliant astrophysicist who in a prior life had worked for the FBI. Lucas Page had always been a polymath boy genius and currently teaches at Columbia. His FBI career was centered on his ability to envisage bullet trajectories in his head thus eliminating massive amounts of field work. He left the bureau after getting himself very badly shot up. When a sniper starts indiscriminately firing from the heights of NYC buildings, he is pulled back in. He brilliantly sorts it all out and so begins what will hopefully be a very good series.

Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder And Memory in Northern Ireland, Keefe - B +

                         In the north of Ireland, both faiths are in the minority. The Protestants are outnumbered on the island and are deathly afraid of the Republic. The Catholics are the distinct minority in the six counties of Northern Ireland. Somehow, notwithstanding a shared ethnicity and shared back-breaking poverty, they have developed a tribal hatred based on confessional idiosyncrasies to rival any on the planet. That hatred has waxed and waned over the centuries and came to the forefront once again in the late 1960's This book is nominally about the murder in 1972 of Jean McConville, a mother of ten, a Protestant who crossed the line and married a Catholic. What it really is though is a history of the Troubles,  the violent era from  1969-1999, and its aftermath. Sectarian violence accelerated throughout the sixties and in 1972, over 500 people died. The Troubles also meant the return of armed republicanism with the birth of the provisional wing of the IRA. The Provos accepted women for the first time as front line fighters and not handmaidens. The Price sisters, Dolours and Marian, were the daughters of committed members and early joiners. The year 1972 also saw the the legendary Bloody Sunday, when British paratroopers killed thirteen and London imposed direct rule. The British Army soon had 30,000 men in the north and, under the Special Powers Act, could intern anyone for as long as it wished without trial or any form of redress. Indeed, the UK was in full colonial suppression mode, utilizing any and all tools of counterinsurgency, including clandestine assassination. In the waning days of the year, a few men showed up at Jean McConville's apartment and took her away. Her children later said that her crime had been to provide a pillow to a British soldier bleeding to death in the street. Republicans said she was a traitor. A tactic that the IRA had been pursuing was car bombs. They eventually recognized they were killing people in Ireland and no one in Britain was paying much attention. Dolours Price suggested targeting London, and in March, two bombs went off in the capital. There were hundreds of casualties, but no deaths. Dolours, her sister Marian, Brendan Hughes and half a dozen others were captured at Heathrow. They were sentenced to twenty years. They demanded to be transferred to Ireland and be declared political prisoners. They went on a hunger strike and were force-fed for five months, but eventually prevailed and were transferred to Armagh. As the conflict continued, Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA in the north, concluded that a political victory, not a military one, was the true prerequisite to the eviction of the British. But the 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten and the election of Margaret Thatcher, followed by the car bombing of Thatcher's campaign manager, pushed any resolution out to the future. Thatcher was unmoved as Bobby Sands was the first of ten hunger strikers to die in a British prison. However, as anorexia and other health issues plagued the Price sisters, the government remitted their sentences. Gerry Adams was elected to Westminster in 1983, but never attended. He began to push the movement to the political arena, acting on constituency and everyday living matters. Behind the scenes, he discussed the possibility of peace with moderate Catholics. The violence in the eighties toned down and in 1994, the IRA declared a cease fire. In 1998, Adams, retired US Senator George Mitchell and newly-elected British PM, Tony Blair, were negotiating a real peace. The ensuing Good Friday Accord provided that the six counties of the north could, at some stage in the future, join the Republic if a majority desired to do so.  In the new century, the idea of creating an honest record of the past grew and led to the creation of the oral history program at Boston College known as the Belfast Project. By agreement, no one's recollections would be available until after their death. Many of the faithful who spoke to the BC interviewer were disappointed in the GFA. They felt betrayed by Adams for giving up on the fight to evict the British and felt the rationale behind many of their actions, certainly criminal but done for a higher purpose, had now been reduced to the mundane. Two who spoke to BC were Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes. In 2003, the corpse of Jean McConville was found and interred. Before he died in 2005, Brendan Hughes had arranged for his oral transcript to be used in a book, and in 2010, 'Voices From The Grave' told many stories and, in particular, named Adams as the man who ordered innumerable actions including the London bombing and the murder of Jean McConville. Price too said that Adams ordered the McConville assassination. Adams, by then a member of the legislature in the Republic, was arrested in 2014, but no charges were ever filed. Twenty-years after the GFA, Northern Ireland is at peace, but it hasn't really changed. Ninety percent of children go to segregated elementary schools. No one has been held responsible for the atrocities committed by the government or the Provos and no admissions have been made by either side. The population of 1.5 million suffered a total dead during the Troubles of 35,000. The conflict is paused at the moment as Brexit wreaks havoc with the structure of the United Kingdom.This book is on every 'best of' list and is very, very good. My mother's grandmother came from what is now the north and was a staunch Republican. My father's grandfather came from County Cork. Thus, I have always leaned left on this topic and sincerely believe that the British oppressed the Irish for centuries and deserve to be tossed off the island. This story depicts chapter and verse the atrocities inflicted on the Catholics in the north. I'm sympathetic to their right to rebel, but am truly saddened by the cold-hearted extremes of their tactics. There is much blame to spread around on this topic.