Great Tales from English History, Vol 2: Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton & More by Robert Lacey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second volume (of three I think) of the author’s series of “Great Tales from English History” and I can safely say that if you liked the first volume, you’ll like this one. The author’s emphasis is on history as a series of connected narratives, and he really focuses on story telling. I think he does a good job.

This volume covers the time from the reign of Richard II to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and so encompasses things like the War of the Roses, Henry VIII, The English Reformation, the Spanish Armada, Lady Jane Grey and the English Civil War to name a few. As in the first volume, each story is presented individually, though they are in chronological order. Because the time span is shorter than in the previous volume, the stories are more interconnected.

While this is probably not suitable for a serious student of English history, it’s a well-written and easy to read introduction to some of the more interesting parts of English history. And I recommend it.

Great Tales from English History, Vol 1 by Robert Lacey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this first volume of of Great Tales from English History. The author has broken out some of the more interesting episodes from English history, beginning with the ancient times and ending with the Peasants Revolt of 1381. Each “tale” is just a few pages, so it easy to put this book down and pick it up again later. While it may be difficult to get an overall view of England during these years, the author does provide some background and connection between some of the tales.

This is probably not a book I would recommend for the serious student of English history, but it covers the basics, and certainly covers most of the common stories of English history. Plus, it’s well-written and easy to read, and so I recommend it.

Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Greeks Bearing Gifts is the latest novel in the Bernie Gunther series. It begins in Munich in 1957 where Bernie has been living under another name and works at a hospital as an attendant in the morgue. And there the action might have ended, except Bernie’s job brings him into contact with a cop who remembers him, which eventually leads Bernie to a new job as a claims adjuster for a Munich insurance company.

In his new job, Bernie is sent to Greece to investigate a large claim involving the sinking of a yacht. The owner of the yacht is a former Wehrmacht officer who has been living in Greece and working as a film maker and diver. He is not particularly helpful to Bernie, and Bernie begins to suspect that because the yacht had been confiscated from a Jewish owner during the war, that it had been destroyed as an act of revenge, which would invalidate the claim. Before Bernie can act on his suspicion the owner is murdered.

This brings in the Greek police, and of course Bernie is a suspect in the murder. To avoid major spoilers, I won’t go into any details of the rest of the story. But the story reaches back to Munich and the lawyer who got Bernie the job at the insurance company, as well as the cop who recognized him. And the gold confiscated from the Jews of Salonika before they were deported to Auschwitz is an important element of the story.

I enjoyed this book, but it’s not one of the best ones of the series. There is a lot of exposition, but not a lot of action, particularly towards the end. Still it’s a good read and I recommend it.

The Second Death: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland by Peter Tremayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Second Death is another mystery in the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne. This volume takes place in 671 and Fidelma and Eadulf are in Cashel and are looking forward to the Great Fair of Cashel. But a strange incident occurs with one of the groups of performers heading to Cashel – the last wagon in the group catches fire and the driver dies.

That’s the start of the mystery, and to avoid any spoilers I’ll refrain from any further comments on plot developments.

Overall, I liked this book. I’ve read quite a few of the Sister Fidelma books and I enjoy them. They’re a good read, usually a pretty good mystery and are full of details about 7th century Ireland. But I would not place this book among the best of the series – the mystery just didn’t seem as interesting as some of the other books in the series. Still I enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans of the series.

A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949 by Kevin Peraino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Force So Swift is essentially the story of a single year, 1949, in Chinese and American history. This year saw the victory of the Chinese Communists over the Nationalist forces and the creation of the Peoples Republic of China, as well as the beginning of the Nationalist government on Taiwan. In the US, President Truman had won the 1948 election and the events unfolding in China were the first big foreign policy challenge of his term of office.

The United States had provided support to the Nationalist forces in China since before the outbreak of Word War II. But after the defeat of Japan, the Nationalist forces Chiang Kai-shek simply could not stop the progress of the forces under Mao. In many cases it was not that they were defeated in battle, but that they just would not fight. Truman and his Secretary of State Dean Acheson realized that there was nothing that could be done to prevent the Nationalist defeat, but could not really say this out loud, due to the onset of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

It’s a fascinating story of both domestic and international politics that is still relevant today; the relationship between the US and the Peoples Republic and Taiwan is very complex and this is a consequence of the events of 1949. The author has done a great job of creating a narrative out of these complicated events. Along the way we meet and get to know the main figures of Truman, Acheson, Mao and Chiang as well as Madame Chiang and people like Congressman Walter Judd. And there are also brief appearances by people like John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

I really enjoyed this book. It is informative on many levels, from the events on the ground in East Asia to US domestic politics. If you’re interested in this time period or just curious about the relationship between the US and China, I strongly recommend this book.

Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain’s Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII by Deborah Cadbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Princes at War is a study of the four surviving sons of George V from the Abdication Crisis of 1936 to the death of George VI in 1952. The eldest son became Edward VIII after his father’s death and became the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated. Prince Albert, the second son, became George VI after the abdication. Prince Henry became the Duke of Gloucester and Prince George, the youngest of the four, became Duke of Kent.

It is a very interesting book to read; certainly it is no substitute for a full biography of any of the four brothers, but it covers the activities of all four through this time period with a focus being primarily on the yers of the Second World War. I knew very little about the two younger brothers, and the author really develops a sense of who they were and what they did during this time period. Gloucester, from whom nothing much was expected, really came into his own and was a major support of George VI. Kent also buckled down, shed his playboy image, and worked hard at his post in the RAF until his death in a still somewhat mysterious plane crash in 1942.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor are something quite different. Certainly both were impressed by Fascism and admired Hitler at least to some extent. In 1940, did this cross the line and become treason? This is still unclear to some extent, but in the summer of 1940 they were both more preoccupied with the furnishings of their houses in Occupied France than they were about the mortal peril that was facing the United Kingdom.

The hero of course is George VI who held the royal family together during the war years, and also rose to the occasion as the war-time head of state. His relationship with Churchill is fascinating, and could be the subject of a whole book by itself.

So if you’re interested in the royal family or Great Britain during World War II, I think you’ll find this book well worth your time.

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

High Noon is the fascinating story of the making of a classic motion picture during the time of the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. I picked up this book because I had seen the movie many years ago as part of a high school media class in high school. I loved the movie and I still do, but back then I had no idea of how intertwined the movie was with the politics of the time.

The book follows the careers of Gary Cooper (Marshal Kane), Carl Foreman (screenwriter), Stanley Kramer (producer) and Fred Zinnemann (director) leading to their work on High Noon. Along the way we learn about the Communist Party in America and the organization in Hollywood, plus the studio system and the political divisions of the motion picture industry. But when the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) comes on the scene things get very interesting indeed. Loyalty oaths, black lists and grey lists, all of these had a profound affect on the motion picture industry and indirectly on American culture.

Carl Foreman was a member of the Communist Party at one point, and was called to testify by HUAC during the filming of High Noon. And in some sense, some of the story of High Noon reflects Foreman’s experiences at this time.

I really enjoyed this book; it’s a fascinating book about art and politics and fear. And in some sense it’s still quite relevant today. I definitely recommend this book.

Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O’Donnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Playing with Fire is an in depth look at the presidential campaign of 1968. As the author notes, it was a transformative year, not just for American politics but also for America as a nation. At the beginning of 1968, it did not look like a particularly interesting political year: the incumbent Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson was expected to be renominated by his party and face a Republican, probably Richard Nixon, in the fall election.

The biggest issue facing Johnson was the war in Vietnam. By late 1967 the war had started to become unpopular and Johnson faced increasing criticism within the Democratic party. One of Johnson’s principal critics was Robert Kennedy; the two men detested each other and had for many years. But Kennedy would not challenge a sitting president of his own party, so it fell to Gene McCarthy, a little known Democratic senator from Minnesota to run against Johnson in the New Hampshire primary.

That was the decision that changed history. The author tracks both the Republican and Democratic races for the nomination and then the fall election. On the Republican side there is Nixon, Rockefeller and Reagan; on the Democratic side there is Johnson, McCarthy, Kennedy, Humphrey and McGovern. It’s complicated story but the author does a good job of breaking it down into easy pieces. Including the October surprise which was about as close to treason as we are likely to ever see.

I was 11 years old during this campaign and I was fascinated by it. This book does a good job of explaining the sequence of events and the reasons behind them. There are some minor editing errors here and there but it’s worth reading if you are interested in politics or history.

Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Apollo 8 is the story of the first manned mission to the moon. It’s a truly amazing story; I was in fifth grade at the time and I remember the flight of Apollo 8 very well. The book follows the mission command Frank Borman, but we also learn the stories of Jim Lovell and Bill Anders as they join the space program and are eventually assigned to Project Apollo.

The Apollo 1 fire resulting in the deaths of three astronauts is a real turning point in the story; the US space program had been very successful to this point, and it seemed that accomplishing President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970 would be easy. The fire, which forced a major redesign of the Apollo spacecraft, put that into jeopardy. Apollo 8 was only the second manned mission in the Apollo spacecraft and the first manned mission to use the Saturn V rocket. It was a very bold decision to send the Apollo 8 crew on a mission to orbit the moon.

This is a great story and it is well-told. Jeffrey Kluger was Jim Lovell’s co-author on the story of Apollo 13, and like that book, this one is a good read. I heartily recommend this book.