Munich by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Munich is another historical thriller from Robert Harris. The setting is the Munich Conference of 1938 at which Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom agreed that Czechoslovakia must give up the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. It’s an important event in the build up towards World War 2, but it’s also something that is fairly well known, and I was curious as to how the author would approach it, and what kind of story he could create with this setting.

The first part of the book a little slow, but we meet two diplomats, one British and one German, who were friends at Oxford. We follow their stories in parallel as the crisis unfolds and eventually they meet again in Munich where each is a junior staff member of his respective delegation. There’s not much more that I can say without getting into spoilers.

The author has used some of the more recent historical research on Prime Minister Chamberlin. It’s always been easy, in retrospect, to condemn his policy of appeasement, but could Great Britain have gone to war in 1938 over the Sudetenland and been victorious? It’s not a simple question.

The Oster resistance group is also part of the novel. There was a plot among some officers in the German Army to arrest and depose Hitler if he tried to invade Czechoslovakia. How realistic this conspiracy was, and it’s actual chance of success are both debatable.

So with the constraints of history, he doesn’t really have a lot of room to maneuver, I think Mr. Harris has done a good job of story telling. I found the book to be a good read; yes it is a little slow in the first part of the book, but the twists and turns in the stories of the two protagonists kept me interested until the end. I recommend this book.

Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book covers a very interesting topic. Given that the Church must be outward facing to accomplish its mission, how do introverts fit into the Church?

The author, an introvert himself, provides compelling evidence that a typical Christian Church is primarily set up to appeal to extroverts, even though introverts make up about half of the population. This can be tremendously off-putting to an introvert who is seeking to find a church where he or she feels comfortable. Or consider an introverted person who feels the need to become an ordained minister; how does he or she lead a congregation?

The author has a number of ideas that can make a church more appealing to introverts and also has suggestions, some of which are based on his own experience, about how an introverted pastor can successfully lead a congregation.

As an introvert myself, I found the book to be quite interesting. I think that some of the author’s analysis can be applied to extroverted organizations, other than the Church. All in all, it’s a very interesting and thought-provoking book.

The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age by David N. Schwartz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Last Man Who Knew Everything is an outstanding biography of Enrico Fermi. Beginning with his birth in 1901, the author takes us through Fermi’s personal and professional lives, his education and career, the decision to emigrate to the United States, his involvement with the Manhattan Project, etc. The flow of the narrative makes it a very pleasant and informative read.

To me, one of the joys of this book is that it explains Fermi’s contributions to physics – beta decay and the weak force, slow neutron capture and fission, nuclear chain reactions, pion-proton scattering, etc – without ever resorting to equations. That is quite an accomplishment given the breadth of Fermi’s accomplishments.

Enrico Fermi was one of the true giants of 20th Century physics. He was a fascinating man and this biography allows us to examine his life and his legacy. I highly recommend this book!

Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England by Catherine Hanley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Louis is a biography of Louis VIII of France, who was the son of Philip II Augustus and father of Louis IX. Louis was King of France for only a very short period of time, approximately three years, so he is probably remembered mostly for his invasion of England in 1216, which is not particularly well-known either.

Briefly, and there are some spoilers here, when the barons rose in revolt against King John after he revoked the Magna Carta, they offered the throne to Louis. Louis accepted the offer and invaded England, where he and the barons rapidly gained control of most of the country. However, King John died unexpectedly, and there was considerable sympathy for his 9 year old son and heir, Henry III. There were some opportunities that Louis missed, but the timing of John’s death was obviously out of his control. Eventually Louis reached a settlement with William the Marshall who led Henry’s forces.

Though he controlled England for a year or so, Louis is not really considered a king of England. It is a fascinating story and the author has done a great job of bringing the story to life. Louis is a relatively obscure figure, but he played an important part in the history of both France and England. I highly recommend this book.

Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Target Tokyo tells the story of the Doolittle Raid on Japan in April 1942. There have been many books on this subject, but this one is different in that it does not focus solely on the raid and the 80 men who flew the B-25s. The story begins with Pearl Harbor, and the beginning of the idea of the raid as a way to strike back at Japan. We also learn about the fears of some of the high ranking Japanese generals and admirals that Japan was not well protected against an air attack. And from here the story unfolds with the selection of the aircraft and the training of the flight crews to be able to take off from an aircraft carrier and fly their bombers to Japan and then on to the unoccupied regions of China.

One of the very interesting things to me, was that during the narrative of the actual bombing mission, we learned not only what the flight crews did, but also where their bombs landed and what damage was caused by the raid, including civilian deaths and injuries.

There is much more to the book: the aftermath of the raid for the 15 crews that made it to China and the one the landed in the Soviet Union, the public relations battle between Tokyo and Washington over the raid, which was complicated by the American authorities not getting prompt notification of the success of the raid, even though all of the planes were lost. And there are stories of the raiders who died in China and those who were captured by the Japanese, some of whom were liberated at the end of the war. But the most heartbreaking part of the book is the story of the Japanese offensive into those areas of China were the raiders landed. The Chinese civilian casualties were enormous.

It is a compelling story, and the author has made the most of some new primary sources of information and so is able to paint a more complete picture of the raid and the aftermath. I recommend this book very highly; if you are interested in the complete story of the Doolittle Raid, this is the book for you.

Great Tales from English History, Vol 3 by Robert Lacey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the third and final volume of the Great Tales from English History series. This volume covers the period from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the 1950s. Like the previous volumes, this one consists of a series of short stories from the history of England, well, actually Great Britain in this case. The stories are in chronological order, but they are not necessarily very tightly coupled into a narrative. So it’s an easy book to read, and you can set it down for a few days and then pick it up again without any problems.

I enjoyed this book, and the entire series, and I recommend them to anyone who is interested in English history. It’s a very gentle introduction to the subject, and a fun and easy read.

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.