Wildbill is back for 2011

2011 brings me back to the 50 book challenge. I didn't get a lot of books finished last year. Maybe putting a goal out in front of God and everybody will give me some incentive. I look through my library and I see a number of books I would like to read. Now to get at it!

Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing what you are reading this year!
--BJ

1. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
This is an excellent book about the Civil War written by one of the major figures of the war. The book provides a candid, truthful look at the people and events of the war from an intelligent man with personal knowledge of what he wrote about. I will qualify truthful by saying that U. S. Grant was a very confident general and that confidence is reflected at times in his estimation of casualties and the strength of his enemy. In his own mind Grant never came close to losing a battle. That honest vanity is an example of Grant's candor with the reader. His vanity is limited to the accomplishments of the troops under his command. His description of receiving his lieutenant-general's commission is one of the shortest I have ever read.
Grant's writing is very direct with little hyperbole. His intelligence and direct attitude combine to produce a narrative that is focused and has great depth. He gives the reader ample detail for a full understanding of what happened and then moves on. I keep thinking of the Dragnet approach " Just the facts mam." His descriptions of the battles and campaigns he was involved with are told as he saw them in crisp, clear language.
Grant begins his story with a chapter titled "Ancestry, Birth, Boyhood". The table of contents give a short description of the material in each chapter which makes a useful reference. His narration of the events of the Civil War begins after the first 150 pages. In the first chapter on the war he makes a personal observation that I found very interesting. He was going into battle for the first time as a commander and he was nervous. His anxiety was relieved when he saw the enemy soldiers straggling into town and he realized that both sides get scared. He carried that observation with him and never mentioned any nervousness about combat again. If you are familiar with the events of Grant's career you will learn what happened from his point of view. Someone reading about the Civil War for the first time will get an excellent primer on some of the events of the war. His narration is limited to his campaigns until the time he became commanding general. After that time his description includes all of the operations of the Union Army.
There are many battlefield maps, often drawn by Army engineers, some of which are topographical. I found the facsimiles of the communications between Grant and General Buckner at Fort Donelson where Grant acquired his nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant fascinating. Many of the orders Grant sent or received are reproduced in the text. I recognized items in the book which are quoted often in other accounts of Grant and the war. Grant's judgment that the Mexican war was "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker nation" appears often in other books about that war and Grant. A famous anecdote that appears in the book comes from a conversation that Grant had with Lincoln during 1864. Grant told Lincoln that by advancing all the Union troops they would force the enemy to keep detachments to hold them back, or else lay his own territory open for invasion. Lincoln's famous reply was, " Oh yes, I see that. As we say out West, if a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does. I have read that many times in books about Lincoln and the Civil War.
There are other details that I had not seen anywhere else. In the beginning of Grant's discussion of the Overland campaign he provides a three page explanation of the Union's improved quartermaster system. The Union army had wagons that were dedicated to each unit for each kind of supplies. The wagons were marked so that when they went to the supply depot they would be quickly filled and sent back to their unit. Grant's knowledge of all of the details of his command promoted efficiency which that was noticed by his soldiers. I have read that Grant referred to the conduct of the war as "the business". That attitude comes across in his book. In addition to the text there is Grant's report to the Secretary of War on the operations of the army under his command in a 60 page appendix.
Grant's description of Lee's surrender is extremely moving. He describes himself dressed in a soldier's blouse with the shoulder straps of his rank as he usually was dressed in the field. Lee presented in a fine new uniform, a man of great dignity with an impassible face. Grant felt no excitement or joy in the downfall of a foe who had fought long and hard for a cause he believed in. Even though Grant considered the cause, slavery, one of the worst for which a people had ever fought. He lapsed into conversation with Lee and then was reminded of their purpose. When Grant put his pen to paper to write the surrender terms he only knew what was in his mind and wished to express it clearly. After the terms were written and agreed upon Lee mentioned that in the Confederate army soldiers often owned their own horses. Grant acknowledged that they would need them to put in a crop before winter and he would instruct his officers that any man claiming ownership of a horse or mule would be allowed to take it with him. Lee then mentioned that his men needed food and Grant said he would "certainly" provide rations for them. They then separated and returned to their own lines. Grant's men had started a one hundred gun salute for the surrender and he ordered it stopped. "The Confederates were now our prisoners and we did not want to exult over their downfall."
This book is considered by many, myself included, as one of the best books to come out of the Civil War. I think of it as a very good book which happens to be about the war. Grant mentions in his preface that while writing the second volume he learned he was dying. With the same determination he had shown all of his life he lived just long enough to finish it. Grant had been swindled out of all his money just prior to beginning writing the book. After his death his family received over $400,000.00 from the sales of the book. In reading this book I grew to love and respect the U.S. Grant I came to know. At the end of this edition are some notes he wrote to his doctor. In the last note written shortly before his death is a quote I will always remember for what it says about the human condition. " The fact is I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; or to suffer. I signify all three."

Really nice review!
--BJ

Thank you BJ The ! makes it a double compliment.

2.Smiley's People
This is the final volume in John Le Carre's Karla trilogy and the seventh of the George Smiley books. I have read each of the volumes several times and I still enjoy them. Karla is a Russian spy master who in the earlier volumes almost put the Circus out of business using Bill Haydon as a double agent at the top levels of the British spy agency. Karla utilized the relationship between Haydon and Smiley's compulsively adulterous wife Ann to conceal Haydon's treachery from George. Now Karla is undone by his love for a girl who is discovered by the General, Vladimir. The story begins with the murder of Vladimir by a hollow point bullet that leaves his face unrecognizable. All in a time called the Cold War that we thought would never end.
Before he was murdered Vladimir telephoned the Circus to speak to Max. That is his vicar, George Smiley. The General had two proofs and insisted on Moscow rules. It was about the Sandman. After Vladimir was murdered the new boys at the Circus brought George out of retirement to clean things up. George found a cigarette pack hidden up in a tree and began Karla's downfall.
The plot has a full cast of characters each with a small piece of the story. Maria Ostrokova is a Russian emigre in Paris who writes the General out of fear for a daughter she has never seen. The General and Otto Leipzig are Baltic emigres with a shared hatred for the Soviet system. Smiley finds Otto murdered and recovers his piece of the puzzle from Claus Kretzchmer, a German porn entrepreneur. Mikhel, proud of his days in the Estonian cavalry, is a comrade of the General. Villem, or William, Craven does a critical errand for the General based on their family ties from Estonia. Counsellor Grigeriov is an incompetent agent whose fears his wife above all else in the world. George brings Toby Esterhase and Connie or Mother Russia out of forced retirement to assist him. Alexandra Borisovna, a Russian girl forced to live in a religious asylum, is the key to Smiley's revenge.
There is a last visit with Ann while Smiley patiently puts together the pieces of the story. He once again shows his spy craft while interrogating Grigoriev while reading from a blank sheet of paper. The interrogation is a masterful scene, crackling with tension, presided over by the calm and patient George. That's all I can tell or I will give away the ending.
I have read this book several times and still enjoy my visits with George Smiley. The contrast between George Smiley's poignant humanity and the cold realities of the spy world are a unique combination created by a skilled writer. I heartily recommend reading this book.

Makes me want to reread all the LeCarre books. Last year I reread The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which I thought was a terrific book. And the book that hooked me on spy novels.
--BJ

Le Carre is a talented writer and the Smiley books are my favorites.

I love LeCarr's Smiley books. I wish the series could go on forever.

3.Never Call Retreat
This is the third and final volume in the Centennial History of The Civil War by Bruce Catton. At the time this series was published Catton was the editor of the "American Heritage" and had already published a number of books on the Civil War. He won the Pulitzer for history in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox. I have read a number of his books. My favorite is The Coming Fury. That book is the first volume in this series and starts with the 1860 Democratic Party convention and goes through the First Battle of Bull Run.
I have read some opinions that Bruce Catton is dated and reflects an outmoded viewpoint on the Civil War. IMO he is an author who is definitely worth reading. A few examples. There is a conversation between Lincoln and Grant that appears in Grant's Memoirs. Grant told Lincoln that all of the Union armies should advance at once in order to keep all of the Confederate armies occupied and unable to assist each other, using those famous interior lines. Lincoln replies " Oh Yes, I see that. As we say out West. If a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does."
Catton writes
"This remark would have puzzled Meade, it probably would not have been said to Hooker, and it would have made McClellan wince; as the son of a tanner, Grant understood it. The President had a general-in-chief he could talk to."
I have read about this incident in other books but I never read the significance of it explained that way. In his discussion of the Battle of Fredricksburg Catton writes that the night after the battle the Confederate soldiers crept out and pulled the clothes off of many of the Union dead. In the morning when the fog lifted there were hundreds of Union dead in front of the sunken road and wall who were naked. I don't remember reading that fact in any other book in my short time reading about the Civil War. It is a grisly fact but a significant detail that adds to my knowledge of that event. When discussing the Battle of the Wilderness Catton states that Grant got beat nearly as bad as Hooker at Chancellorsville, but Grant was not Hooker. He points out that Grant kept fighting and eventually Lee lost the initiative wrote to Davis that all he could hope for was to save Richmond. Catton includes the fact that when Longstreet fought at Chickamauga ten of his infantry brigades and all of his artillery had not arrived before the battle ended. That fact is significant when discussing the outcome of the battle and I don't recall another author highlighting it.
Catton's excellence extends to his writing style. There is a pace to his writing that provides a steady flow of interesting information. He became a writer as a journalist and journalists have to write a lot of words in a hurry. I have been reading How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. I have found a number of citations to Catton's books and several quotations from this book. I am sure the quotations are used because Catton's writing adds to what the author is trying to say. In reading this book I often felt that the quality of Catton's writing gave me a better understanding of the events and imparted some of the emotion associated with them.
Catton does not limit himself to the military history. He writes about the politics and the social history of the times. There is an interesting chapter on the transition period for the slaves who were freed during the war. Catton makes it clear that the Northerners were racially prejudiced. He describes the Army building "concentration camps" to house the slaves. The slaves were free but they were forced to work for what the landowners decided to pay them. This was a period of incredible change in the role of African-Americans in America.
Lincoln started out advocating compensated emancipation and colonization. He ended up advocating abolition which his Attorney General said would make the blacks equal citizens. There were black men in the Union Army but they were not accepted as equals even when they proved it. IMO Catton was an historian who sought the truth no matter where that search took him. From what I read in this book the author's description of the racial relations of that time is unbiased and accurate.
In discussing political developments Catton points out the growth in the power of the central government that came about during the war. He includes Lincoln's acceptance of one of Salmon Chase's resignation letters and Ben Butler's ambition for the presidency in his coverage of the election of 1864. The military situation rescued Lincoln from predicted defeat and he won easily over George McClellan. The specific provisions of the Wade-Davis bill that were the basis of Radical Reconstruction are set out by the author.
Reading this book definitely gives the reader a very good understanding of the the topic. In addition it is enjoyable to read. Shelby Foote's trilogy provides more detail and is also very well written. Foote's books have much better maps. Maps are important for my understanding of events like battles and the maps in this book were not adequate.
Everything else being equal, analysis of the events is the difference between excellent and good history writing. Catton did an excellent job of picking out the relevant facts and showing how and why they affected events. I am looking forward to reading Terrible Swift Sword, the middle volume in the series. I recommend this book as interesting and well written narrative history .

Another great review! I haven't read that much about the Civil War, but this review makes me want to read about it now.
--BJ

Thanks BJ I appreciate your comments.
I have a couple of Civil War books in the pipeline but I am going to make an effort to do some reading on other topics. I have some good literature on my shelves and have picked out some books on Ancient Greece to read.

4.The Sense of Reality Sir Isaiah Berlin is one of my favorite authors. I have quite a few of his books. He writes about the history of ideas which covers a lot of territory. His knowledge of history, philosophy and literature is encyclopedic. In his obituary Henry Hardy wrote "he showed in more than one direction the unexpectedly large possibilities open to us at the top range of human potential". In other words he was a genius at what he did. I love to read his writing but I have to really study it because he gets over my head so quickly. It is work but it is worth it.
This book like several others by Berlin is a book of essays that was put together by Hardy. Berlin's essays contain more real content than most books and my copy of this book is full of underlining and margin notes done to get the most I can out of what he wrote. I have not studied anything this thoroughly since law school. At the same time his writing is so fluid and full of detail that I find reading it enriching and enjoyable.
The essays are all on different topics. Several discuss aspects of topics that appear often in Berlin's writing. The title essay discusses the limitations on what can be learned in the study of history. He wrote a short interesting book called The Hedgehog and the Fox about Tolstoy's philosophy of history from War and Peace. Berlin's "sense of reality" is what governs what we can and can't know about history. He concludes that the limited knowledge of the facts of history restricts the ability to make broad conclusions about trends in history.
The essay starts out using Stalin and Hitler as examples of the fallacy of the idea that there is some type of human progress in history. Berlin challenges the validity of "systems of history" such as those of Hegel or Marx. There are simply too many variables in the facts of the past to be able to know them much less explain them. Marx may have had some good insights but when his ideas were supposedly put into practice the results he predicted did not come about. That is an incredibly simplistic explanation of one of the ideas in the essay.
Much of Berlin's writing focuses on the effect of the Romantic movement on Western thought. He considers the Romantic Revolution to be the third great turning point in European thought and behavior. Romanticism was a movement that brought about the destruction of the notion of truth and validity in ethics and politics and changed our outlook on the world. Prior to Romanticism one of the central tenets of Western thought was that for every question there is one correct answer, even if we don't know what it is right now. The Romantic movement introduced the concept that some questions have no answer and there could be two conflicting answers to the same question. I have been reading on a book by Berlin titled The Romantic Revolution.
The revolution started with the writings of Rousseau and Kant. Their ideas on individual free choice led others to develop the concept that the greatest act of the individual is the creation of something out of nothing. If the individual really has free choice they are not limited by any objective factors. One individual's choice may be contrary to that of someone else and be equally valid. Motive replaces consequence as the highest value of morality. A person could be admired for their sincerity even if you disagree with their ideas. A good example was the praise by the Governor of Virginia for John Brown's sincerity and commitment. That same Governor was happy to see Brown hang for murder and inciting a slave revolt. This revolution created another imperative that governs our actions. However low we rate the morality of Napoleon we admire his accomplishments and consider him a great man. Now we go back and forth from one ideal to the other in our judgment of what is good or right. This creates a logically unsatisfactory but enriched capacity for understanding men and societies.
One of my favorite essays is about the Marx and the First International. The First International was where the international socialist movement began in London in 1864. Berlin wrote an excellent biography on Marx which I have read and enjoyed. Berlin shows step by step how Marx created an ideology that became the weapon for the working class in their struggle against the capitalist exploiter. Later in the 19th century socialism dissipated into a movement that became one more voice in the political equilibrium that governs society. It helped to create a better world for the working class that lessened their misery and in most countries eliminated the need for the revolution Marx predicted. In the countries like Russia or China where revolutions took place there were no great masses of working people. The great masses of workers formed political parties and developed faith in gradualist methods. Now members of the socialist trade unions sit on the board of directors of corporations instead of fighting at the barricades. Marx used his great insights into industrial society to predict a world that never came to pass. His great theory of history ran aground on the numerous variables in the facts of human life and society.
In an essay on nationalism Berlin writes "a craving for recognition has grown to be more powerful than any other force today." My first thought was that this idea is applicable to the individual as well as society. What else but a craving for recognition motivated Jared. L. Lougher to shoot 19 people on January 8, 2011 or inspires people to become contestants on "American Idol". In Berlin's essay he talks about how this idea motivates the struggle of small nations and minorities all over the world. I am always amazed by Berlin's ability to encapsulate in a few words an insight that has such a wide application.
There are a total of nine essays in the book. Every word in his writing has a purpose and you must read the book for yourself and develop your own conclusions. To say the book is excellent is damning with faint praise. Reading one of these essays was like attending a lecture given by a very wise man speaking to me in an engaging personal manner. Explaining in clear direct language some knowledge he had gained that he wanted to pass on. I am sure I would have come out of the lecture with a smile on my face basking in the moment.

I really loved reading about this book. I had not heard of it before. Very thought-provoking. Another for the wishlist! :)
--BJ

Thank you BJ. I don't know why I can't just write a two paragraph review but it just doesn't come out that way.

Your reviews are long, but I love them. And the books are really too complex for a short review, I think. I am coming to the end of a controversial book and trying to figure out what I am going to say about it. As you know, I am a kind of fragment comment person. No real review. And I typically shy away from controversy. Wish me luck!
--BJ

BJ I am sure you will do fine. When I have a complex book I will take some notes and sometimes even write an outline of the review before I write it. I guess that is one reason they get so long. Everybody has to have a hobby and writing the reviews is something I enjoy.

Just wanted to thank you for your kind words about my review. You made my day!
--BJ

It sounded like a very interesting book. I really liked your review.

5.How the North Won the Civil War: A Military History of the Civil War
This is a very good book which I enjoyed reading very much. I picked it up to read one chapter and 700+ pages later I had finished reading the whole book. It is not light reading but I felt I learned a lot about the military history of the war. The book is not about the battles of the war. The authors focused on the logistics, strategy and tactics of the war and showed how they were applied in different battles. Their analysis does help to explain how the tactics changed during the war and why.
A central thesis of the book is that the range and accuracy of the rifled musket greatly enhanced the defensive power of armies. The bayonet charge was no longer effective and it was not possible to destroy an opposing army in a decisive battle. At Second Bull Run and Chancellorsville Lee thoroughly defeated the Union armies but they were able to retreat in good order. The authors point out that the army defending Vicksburg was destroyed only because they allowed themselves to be surrounded and starved out.
In the opinion of the authors Grant won the war by using large scale raids to destroy the resources of the enemy and the morale of the people to continue the war. The North had early success with what the authors refer to as battles of penetration. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson gave the Union control of a large area of Southern territory. However, control of territory reaches a point of diminishing returns. The more territory that is conquered the more territory must be controlled. More and more Union troops were required for garrisons and Southern cavalry and guerrillas made long lines of communication difficult to maintain.
Sherman's campaign in the West is a good example of how a battle of penetration turned into a large scale raid. As Sherman advanced on Atlanta he had to protect an ever lengthening rail line for his supplies. The further he got more and more of his troops were required for this task. Once he left Atlanta he cut loose from his communications and supplies and did over 100 million dollars damage to the State of Georgia by the time he had reached Savannah. From Savannah he went north through South Carolina and into North Carolina wreaking destruction.
Sheridan in 1865 made a large scale raid through the Shenandoah Valley that destroyed its ability to feed the armies protecting Richmond.
While Sherman and Sheridan were making their destructive raids Grant was holding Lee's army in place. The famous quote by Lincoln, "If a man can't skin then he must hold a leg while the other man does," describes the situation. When Lee brought his army to Appomattox the rations he was expecting were not there and he had to surrender. He was not defeated in battle but by logistics.
The development of this strategy shows the primary difference between Lee and Grant as generals. Lee fought battles and he was probably the best tactician of the war. Grant fought the war and became its greatest strategist. The authors have a much higher opinion of Henry Halleck than others. Since he was the general giving Grant orders they give him credit for the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson. They also consider his strategic advice as general in chief in Washington very valuable.
I have never read such a detailed description of the Southern railway system. One of the best maps in the book is focused on that topic.
The authors quoted Bruce Catton often for his excellent descriptive language. He appears in the index, which is very good, fifteen times. I liked having the footnotes at the end of the chapter. The only humor in the book comes in the description of the surrender of Joseph Johnston to Sherman.
It is important to have a good working knowledge of the Civil War to appreciate this book. I started it four years ago and didn't like it at all. At this point in my Civil War reading I found it well written and interesting.

"I picked it up to read one chapter and 700+ pages later I had finished reading the whole book."

Now that is a recommendation. I liked how you pointed out that this book is better when one has a working knowledge of the Civil War first. Another nice review!
--BJ

Thank you BJ. I think I am going to take a rest from the Civil War soon.

6. Terrible Swift Sword.
I finished up the Centennial History of the Civil War with the second volume. I have enjoyed reading all three of the books very much. The author is an excellent writer who I am sure if he had wanted to could have written very good fiction. His books have good dialog and are full of interesting characters. The events described in the books changed the course of life in America. All of the elements of good fiction are present gleaned from years of research.
Catton's writing is rich and full of detail. He is telling an epic tale of a great war and revolutionary changes in society. I find the emphasis in this volume on the social changes taking place. The book ends with the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In July of 1861 when the book opened Lincoln was talking about compensated emancipation and colonization. Everyone knew that the slaves would soon be free but racist attitudes still predominated. At the end of the book the war had become a war to end slavery. The Proclamation left room for any state in the Confederacy to end the war and retain slavery but that could never happen.
Another part of the epic story was the relationship between McClellan and Lincoln and the Northern military effort. Lincoln's hopes for McClellan ended when he realized the general "Had a case of the slows". Still the Army loved him. Lincoln once remarked" This is not an army it is the personal body guard of General McClellan."
The rise of Lee from his beginnings in the Seven Days to Second Bull Run was an integral part of the military history. At Second Bull Run John Pope's troops absorbed probably one of Longstreet's greatest smash attacks while the Army of the Potomac looked on. Lee went into Maryland and his Order 191 got lost and found. McClellan had the key to Lee's destruction in his hand and settled for a draw at the Battle of Antietam.
That was enough of a victory for Lincoln to take the Emancipation Proclamation out of his desk where it had waited. Not everyone agreed with emancipation. Major Key of the Army of the Potomac said that the game of the war was to exhaust both armies and make the politicians enter into a compromise that saved slavery. When he repeated that statement in Lincoln's presence he was summarily dismissed from the Army.
This is an excellent series. These books are an unusual combination of incisive analysis and good literature. The topic will always mean something to Americans. At the end of the war the country was on a different path. One, maybe two or three revolutions had taken place transforming America and how it would grow.

7. Adams v. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800
The author showed great skill and knowledge in writing this book. It is just over 200 pages long and it is very informative. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson stand center stage. The author has written a separate biography of John Adams and his portrayal of Adams seems the most compelling of the two. I respect Thomas Jefferson but I do not really like some of the things he did. I think his dealings with James Callender, a journalist who wrote personal attacks on Hamilton and Jefferson's other political opponents for cash, were pretty slimy.
The first half of the book is a concise narration of the political history of the U.S. from 1786 to 1800. The author shows excellent knowledge of the subject matter and the people involved. The writer used a good range of sources. He has his own point of view and he has the facts that support it. He recognized a strong significance in the split between North and South during the writing of the Constitution.
As President Adams focused on foreign policy. The author writes about a disagreement between Adams and his cabinet that may have influenced the 1800 election. The cabinet delayed the sending of an envoy to France and the good news did not get back in time to influence the election. He also points out that were it not for the 3/5th's rule Adams would have won the election of 1800 outright.
One result of the election was an amendment to the Constitution. The authors of the Constitution did not foresee a party system with a tie for the Presidency being possible. I enjoyed the real rough and tumble of political debate in that era. The author has a copy of a contemporary drawing that depicts a fight between two congressmen. One had a cane and the other was using fireplace tongs for a weapon. They were just as vicious in print. Hamilton was a prodigious writer who had a group of followers. His ambition made him increasingly unpopular. Even George Washington began referring to him as Caesar. He split with Adams and hurt Adams vote in New York. Like Jefferson Hamilton thought he was saving the country.
Adams would only play the politician so far. His biggest mistake was signing the Sedition Act into law. It probably cost him the election. Adams had a tempestuous relationship with his son Charles. Charles became an alcoholic and Adams cut him off. He wouldn't visit him when Abigail told him Charles was dying.
The election of Jefferson was a small revolution, or maybe not so small. He definitely saw himself as a cut above his opponents. Jefferson behaved as if he were saving the country from the autocrats. The Federalists did disappear and so did rule by the gentry. The author does discuss the Sally Hemmings question. He refers to the recent DNA evidence and other circumstantial evidence that indicates that Jefferson had a number of children with her. Jefferson had been married once and his wife died. He said he could never fall in love again. Sally Hemmings was the half-sister to Jefferson's wife. There is a group of African-American people named the Hemmings family who have been having family reunions for a long time. They claim a relationship with Thomas Jefferson.
The author is a skilled story teller and this book is very accessible. I would think that the length, or lack of it, would make the book attractive to a non-historian. There are many events in a short book and the story moves well. IMO if it were fiction it would be a good book. There are twenty-five illustrations many of them portraits of the most significant participants. All round it is a good read that I can recommend to everyone.

That book sounds really interesting to me. I read the bio of John Adams last year (by McCullough), which was excellent and left me wanting to know more. Of course, Adams came off better than Jefferson in that book. I have a few books about Jefferson, but none of them are the ones mentioned around LT. I was wondering if I should hold out for that American Sphinx book. I would like to know more about this election. Maybe someday I will get to this book. Thanks for the review.
--BJ

BJ, I noticed that you have Henry Adams History of the United States during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson. It is a very long book but it is very well written and interesting history. It is not specifically about Jefferson but I learned a lot about him reading that book.

Thanks for the recommendation! I should have thought of that. :) I think that one would be better than the other two that I have. I forgot that I had that one.
--BJ

8. The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3-July 13, 1863
I read this book along with The Gettysburg Campaign It was a very interesting and entertaining read, and the two of them together was quite a treat. In this edition the maps are all in color and at times it seemed like I was reading a kid's picture book. The color helps contrast the features in the maps which are full of details. The maps show the topography, fences, roads with the different fields marked off with the types of grains or trees in the fields. There are a total of 121 maps in 29 sets for different aspects of the campaign. The battle maps have a scale from 150 to 300 yards to 3/4" with time intervals between 15 and 40 minutes. To the left of each map is a page of text explaining the action in the map. The only problem I had with the small scale maps was the necessity to go back to a large map to see where I was on the battlefield. I haven't seen a better portrayal of the action of a campaign and I am going to take a look at Gottfried's other books.

9. The Gettysburg Campaign:A Study in Command
This is an excellent book. It is a good narrative history combined with insightful analysis. The author focuses on the command structures of the Federal and Confederate armies and how they functioned. A good example is his discussion of the artillery command structure of the two armies. The Union army had one general in overall command of all of the artillery. The Confederate army had the same position on the official roster but that officer did not have the same authority the actual command of the batteries was done at the division level. After the cannonade preceding Pickett's charge there were only a handful of guns on the Confederate side with enough ammunition to support the infantry. The Union artillery commander recognized the cannonade as a prelude to a charge. He had conserved ammunition which was then used to good effect on the Confederates. The author describes and analyzes the action of the battle at this level all through the book.
Coddington uses a vast array primary sources woven together skilfully to tell the story of the battle. The the words and actions of those who lived through the battle are given center stage. This gives the narration of events the moment to moment immediacy experienced by the men involved in the action.
The extensive use of primary sources and the 200 pages of footnotes show the depth and extent of the author's research. The footnotes are not just citations to sources. They add details and facts to the narration which make them an integral part of the book. A good example of the author's research is his discussion of the number of men in each army. He starts with the numbers from the War Office Study of 1886 which showed a significant advantage for the Union forces. Many authors stop there, accepting those figures without question. Coddington looks at several other factors and concludes that the armies were about equal size at the time of the battle. This type of work gave me confidence that he did his best to provide an accurate portrayal of the battle.
The author starts the book at the point the armies started to move north. When Lee started North Hooker wanted to attack Richmond. This started an argument with Halleck that led to Hooker's resignation. On June 28 George Meade found himself in command of the army. Coddington shows that Meade functioned as a more than competent general in his description of his actions. He gathered his forces and kept his army between Lee and Washington. During the battles Meade was regularly on his horse patrolling the lines and moving units to the point of attack.
Coddington spends more time on Meade's command activities than most other authors. In the three day battle it was Meade who had the interior lines and was able to move troops to the point of Lee's attacks. Lee had difficulty getting his troops to coordinate their actions according to his orders. There has always been some controversy about whether or not Meade wanted to retreat after the first day of the battle. Coddington shows that Daniel Butterfield who had been Hooker's Chief of Staff and continued with Meade manufactured this idea long after the war was over. Lincoln always felt that Meade should have been more aggressive in his pursuit of Lee after the battle. The author looks at the relevant factors and shows that given what the Union army had been through any massive coordinated effort on their part was not realistic.
Throughout the war there were several occasions that seemed to provide opportunities for the decisive battle that would destroy the enemy army. The author of How The North Won The War points out that this was never a real possibility. The military technology greatly increased the defensive power of the armies in the Civil War. The only army that was ever wiped out was the army defending Vicksburg which allowed itself to get surrounded and then surrendered after a lengthy siege. The strategy that won the war was Grant's massive raids that destroyed the ability of the South to continue the war.
This was an excellent book. I enjoyed it and learned a lot. It is good history and good literature. Being good history it takes a bit of work to read but it is well worth it.

10. Learn to Write Chinese Characters
I studied the Chinese language and always enjoyed practicing writing. The author of this book starts out teaching the proper form for writing each of the basic strokes. There are eight basic strokes that are used in different proportions and sizes to make up all of the characters in the Chinese language. The author points out common mistakes that are made in writing each of the strokes. When I was studying a vocabulary of 1,500 characters was adequate to read a newspaper.
From the strokes the author moves to the basic construction of the characters. Each character has a strict order for writing the strokes. Part of learning the characters is learning the stroke order which is always supplied in some type of chart that is used when learning to write the characters. I can say from experience that if the first stroke is not done correctly the character cannot be written correctly. Along with the stroke order there are general rules about writing the characters. When I practice I use graph paper because each character fits in a square box that provides the symmetry of the finished character.
The book concludes with a poem which has twenty characters to be used as an exercise for learning the characters. The poem is written in the traditional and simplified characters to help learn each style.
The book is short but mastering the subtleties of the exercises provided by the author fills hours and hours of practice. All of the exercises are intended to be written with a round point fountain pen. Writing with a brush is an art form that takes a great deal more study and practice.
I felt the book provided many helpful tips for mastering the writing of Chinese. I am trying to spend some time each day practicing along with the material in the book. For me the mastering of the strokes and the proportions of the characters is a bit like meditation. I am glad to be doing it once more.

11. The Franco-Prussian War:The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871(touchstone error)
This is a well written military history of the most significant war in late 19th century Europe. The war led to the unification of Germany in a ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The balance of power established in 1815 was irrevocably changed by Prussia's creation of a German Empire.
In 1870 the Prussians were enjoying the fruits of their victory over Austria in 1866. Napoleon III had been in power since 1848 and he no longer inspired enthusiasm in the hearts of the French people. Count Otto von Bismarck was at the height of his powers. A meeting between the Kaiser and the French ambassador was described in the Ems Dispatch. After Bismarck's editing and a poor translation it was offensive the French over reacted and mobilized. Napoleon's actions helped to isolate France and deprive her of allies in the war.
After setting forth the causes of the war the author does an informative sketch of the two armies at the beginning of the war. The French army was an all volunteer army professional army of 400,000 men. The Prussians had an army of almost one million men based upon conscription and the use of reserves on the front line. The French rifle was superior in all respects but this was balanced out by the superiority of the Prussian artillery. The Prussian artillery was breech loading while the French was muzzle loading. When the fighting started the Prussian artillery ruled the battlefield foreshadowing the tactics of World War I.
The critical difference between the two armies was their leadership. The Prussian General Staff had great planning capabilities and had developed superior tactics. The French relied on the Napoleonic system of Marshals, great generals who controlled whole armies. In 1870 their generals fought defensively and were enveloped by the Prussians.
The author's use of primary sources provides insight into two major factors that led to France's complete defeat. The rank and file of the French Army had no desire to fight. The French soldier had little confidence in their generals and was not motivated to make sacrifices for victory. The Prussians and soldiers from other German states were young and confident. They had been trained to follow orders and to think on the battlefield.
The morale of the French generals was no better than the rank and file. They were defeatist and steeped in defensive tactics. The Prussians were supremely confident after their victory over Austria in 1866.
The great battle of Sedan where the French army was defeated and Napoleon III captured effectively ended the war. The great victories of the Prussian armies fueled German militarism which contributed to World War I. These victories were as much the product of the incompetence of French leadership as the efficiency of the Prussian armies.
I was interested to learn that Phil Sheridan was an observer of the war for the United States. The author's quotes from Sheridan and the British observer provide some interesting insights into the conduct of the war.
The author picked out a very interesting quotation from a German officer's diary, " every battle is a skein of personal crises only loosely joined by a plan of operations." He is reminding the reader that there is a temptation in looking back on something as helter skelter as a military battle in 1870 to see patterns and order that was not there in the minds of the participants.
I had started this book about five years ago and couldn't get through it. It seems that all of my reading about the American Civil War has changed my attitudes about military history. It is a good book but not excellent and I would limit my recommendation of the book to those interested in military history.

12. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
I enjoyed reading this book very much. It is well written and covers an interesting topic. Eric Foner knows the subject matter very well and the end of slavery in America is an uplifting story. Lincoln was able to bring to life the promise contained in the words of the Declaration of Independence. In contrast to the brutality of slavery and the war that ended it there was a real change for the good in the relationships between blacks and whites in America.( Unfortunately much that has come from that beginning has been very ugly.)
Lincoln always maintained that he was naturally anti-slavery. Despite this he married into a family that owned slaves and included someone who was in the slave trade. There is no evidence of his anti-slavery feelings in his career as an attorney. It was only in the 1850's when he joined the Republican party that he showed his opposition to slavery.
About one-third of the way through the book the House Divided speech is discussed. Given in acceptance of his nomination for the Senate in 1858 this speech brought Lincoln to the attention of Frederick Douglass. Foner points out that Lincoln chose his words carefully in writing this speech. He opposed the extension of slavery without advocating abolitionism. Using the words of the Declaration of Independence Lincoln said the Negro had an equal right to the fruits of their labor which was denied by slavery.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates made Lincoln a well known politician in the Northwest. Douglas was an able opponent who made Lincoln formulate responses to tough questions. In 1860 a speech at Cooper Union put Lincoln on the national stage. Lincoln worked very hard preparing his speech. The theme was that the Founding Fathers wanted to see control of the expansion of slavery leading to it's end. Lincoln wrote a scholarly speech to counter his image as an ignorant Westerner. The speech was immediately popular and was a factor in Lincoln getting the Republican nomination for President.
Lincoln had served one term in Congress from 1846 to 1848. In 1854 His political career was dead in the water. As a Republican Lincoln attracted attention with his anti-slavery attitude without alarming voters. Seward and Salmon Chase were considered more radical on slavery than Lincoln.
At the beginning of the Civil War Lincoln's attitude toward slavery was tempered by political necessities. In 1861 Lincoln was focused on keeping the border states in the Union. If Kentucky and Maryland seceded the South was likely to win the war. In 1861 and early 1862 Lincoln was promoting compensated emancipation and colonization as the way to end slavery. Generals John C. Fremont and David Hunter ordered immediate emancipation for slaves in areas under their control. Lincoln rescinded these proclamations.
In the fall of 1862 Lincoln announced the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and changed the focus of the war to ending slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation announced January 1, 1863 also provided for the enlistment of black soldiers in the Union army. Foner has a map which shows that contrary to what I thought there were some slaves freed by the Proclamation. Emancipation grew stronger with a provision that the families of blacks enlisted in the Union army would be freed. At the same time blacks in the army were guaranteed equal pay. As the war ended Lincoln began pushing for the right to vote for certain blacks.
Lincoln lead the country from compensated emancipation in 1862 to Senate passage of a constitutional amendment ending slavery in April of 1864. The lack of cooperation from conservatives forced Lincoln to more radical measures to achieve emancipation. The war created a revolutionary situation and Lincoln's leadership provided the direction for changes the country has not yet caught up with. Prior to Sherman's capture of Atlanta Lincoln felt certain that he was going to lose the election of 1864. In the face of defeat he maintained his policy of emancipation. In his Second Inaugural Address Lincoln eloquently speaks of the connection between slavery and the Civil War. God willed to remove slavery and gave to both the North and the South a terrible war "as woe due to those by whom the offense came". Perhaps this belief drove Lincoln to lead the country to end slavery no matter what consequence he might suffer.

13. Fer-De-Lance(touchstone picked out wrong book)
This is the first book in Rex Stout's lengthy Nero Wolfe series. It was written in 1934 and I liked the period touches that remind me how much life in America has changed. The main characters, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, complement each other well and bear some resemblance to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson who supposedly were favorites of the author. Although Goodwin is closer to a noir detective than the strictly English Dr. Watson. Wolfe as a detective who never goes out of his house and spends four hours a day with his orchids qualifies as an eccentric and displays the arrogance and genius of Holmes. The house on 35th street in New York City with a live in cook round out the resemblance to the Holmes stories. While the rest of the characters in the book were well written I cannot say the same for the plot. The first half is interesting and has some surprises but after that I could see what was going to happen far in advance.
The last half of the book is not as much a mystery as a morality play. Wolfe exhibits the same attitude as Holmes towards the law. He engineers the ending to cheat the law and see that right is done.
There was enough that I enjoyed that I will proceed with the series. It could be fun to read a series of sixty nine books in order and I have the feeling that they will get better.

Loved your review of the Lincoln book. My mom was a big Nero Wolfe fan, and I think my brother as well, so I ought to check them out. I hope that you did not suffer from these terrible storms and tornadoes.

14. 1861: The Civil War Awakening
The title is very appropriate for the story told by the author. The time period covered is from late 1860 to July of '61. In hindsight we can see that this is the time when the country ripped apart. This author doesn't tell the reader that is happening, he shows them. The author has a fresh look on well known times. The events of this time are portrayed through the lives of a group of people that are not the usual suspects. Abraham Lincoln only has a bit part in this version of the beginning of the Civil War.
It seemed there were facts on every page that I was not familiar with. I learned a lot about the volunteer firemen in N.Y.C. which is not what you usually associate with Civil War history. But, the Civil War is going on all around throughout the book. Charleston Harbor is brought to life as General P. G. T. Beauregard sends some brandy to Major Anderson, who sends it back and Senator Wigfall sticks his head into the casemate to solicit the surrender of Fort Sumter.
The author weaves his history with many events that are not the usual stock in trade of Civil War history.
This book is very well written. Portions of it could come from a very good novel. The author's skill is to communicate the tension and excitement of the times through dialog and events that occurred. The life of Elmer E. Ellsworth is a fascinating story that ends with the beginning of the tragedy of the Civil War. Reading about the Wide Awakes march, march, march helped me to understand where all those soldiers came from.
Ben Butler and the contrabands reads like a practical joke. The whole story is told in great detail and the punchline is the conversation between Ben Butler and the owner of one of the slaves. "I want my property. It's the law." "You're a rebel the law doesn't apply" and more of the same. I had the image of red-faced, frustrated and somewhat poorer man walking away. On a more serious note this event was the first time slaves were freed by action of the Union government. That is the beginning of the real Civil War.
Reading this book I was entertained and learned many facts about a very significant event from a point of view I had never seen before. One of the reasons I enjoy reading history is because of good books like this. This is a book that is for anyone who wants to read a good book and informative enough for a Civil War specialist.

Really nice review! I looked for it on the book page, but I did not see it there.

You were too quick. I have it there now.

Thanks!

15. Barbarous Coast This is a Lew Archer mystery that was written in the 50's, number six in the series. In this book Macdonald"s writing style goes beyond the hard-boiled detective almost to the classic noir of the thirties and forties. The influence of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet is noticeable throughout the book. I was glad to find another author writing in that style. On the surface Archer is a lone wolf detective who is just doing a job. Given time he shows a depth of character and a surprising talent for what he does. In this book he gets knocked out a lot. But then he wakes up and it's so what you knocked me out, I've done that before.
The story starts with Archer trying to find the missing wife of a semi-hysterical young man. The young man is always getting into trouble doing things such as breaking in on people and threatening them. He scares one man so bad he hires Archer to find the young man's wife. The middle of the plot goes in many different directions. There are movie mobsters and an old boxer and as I said Archer gets knocked out a lot. The characters were well written, most were unpleasant but they were individuals and not stereotypes. They left me with distinct memories, like they were people I met. The story moves at a steady pace without ever going over the top. This isn't Mickey Spillane or Dave Robicheaux. I thought the ending was very good. I didn't see it coming and it gave a nice twist to finish off the story.
I have a number of other books by this author and I will be starting another one soon. I feel like I have found another really good author. Macdonald writes with a very distinctive style that I enjoy very much. I have read Hammett's five novels at least twice. There are eighteen books in this series which gives me something to look forward to.

I don't think that I have ever heard of these books. I will have to check them out.

16. Coroner's Lunch I finished this book at least two months ago.
The combination of an exotic setting, Laos in 1976, and the antics of the lead character Dr. Siri Panboun produce a book with a wry sense of humor. At one point in the book Dr. Siri is threatened by someone and he replies something to the effect of, " why should I be afraid of you, I am twenty years older than the average life expectancy in this country. I am living on borrowed time. You would be doing me a favor if you killed me." The title of the book is the punch line to a long running story in the book that I didn't "get" until I had finished the book. Mr. Geung and Nurse Dtui, Dr. Siri's helpers in the morgue contribute to their own light moments to the story. Mr. Geung has a touch of Down's syndrome but his memory makes him indispensable. Nurse Dtui provides strong moral support for the Doctor and she is the one who has to tell the him the big joke.
Laos is a pre-industrial country trying to be a modern one. Dr. Siri has very little equipment but he does have some nasty murders. The murder of three men from North Vietnam has strong political repercussions.
The last segment is told from the point of view of a cold blooded assassin. His identity is a well hidden secret until the end of the book.
The author presents an interesting and I would think accurate view of life in socialist Laos. Dr. Siri had thought that when the revolution took power he would retire. Instead he is told the country needs his skills so he must continue to work. The judge who thinks he is Dr. Siri's supervisor is a petty bureaucrat who would like to be mean but wilts before Dr. Siri's dose of the truth. Dr. Siri's penchant for the truth makes him very unpopular when he proves what everyone believed was the natural death of the wife of a party official was really murder.
A very ugly part of the new government is their clear cut logging of beautiful old forests. The wood is sold overseas and money disappears into the pockets of officials. Dr. Siri is called on to investigate some suspicious deaths that take place at the logging site. This leads to a story of magic and a Hmong exorcism. This was a beguiling episode and my favorite part of the book.
I must tip my hat in thanks to Joycepa an LT member who introduced me to this series. The book was interesting and entertaining. It is well written and I find that I already like the main characters. I look forward to the next title "Thirty-Three Teeth".

17. Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution
This book is about the events in China in 1966 and '67. It was published in 1968 so the author did not have the benefit of knowing about the death of Lin Piao and the long term effects of the Cultural Revolution. The author's basic premise is that Mao was reacting to his mortality and his fear that his revolution would die with him.
Lifton is a psychiatrist and he uses a psychohistorical approach to analyze the events of the Cultural Revolution. I think he could have come up with a clearer explanation of events with a more conventional approach. He makes great use of the term psychism to try to explain Mao's mind over matter approach which denigrated the need for technical experts. Once I began substituting ideology for the term psychism I was able to get a better understanding of what the author was saying.
The author does provide some useful information about Mao's leadership of the Chinese people. His analysis of some of Mao's poems is very insightful. I do feel that he ignores some of the historical realities of political revolutions.
The back yard steel smelters in the Great Leap Forward were an early example of Mao's use of psychism. He preached the idea that the will of the people could replace the technical expertise of engineers and increase steel production without the necessity of large factories. People all over China took their metal utensils and tried to make them into steel in back yard kilns. The end result was that they destroyed all of their metal utensils and didn't make any steel.
In the Cultural Revolution he mobilized the youth as the Red Guards and went on a crusade to destroy the four olds. Ten years later there were millions of Chinese who had missed high school and technological development was retarded because all of the engineers had been sent to work in the fields.
In the end Mao's revolution was no different than the majority of political revolutions. After a period of intense political mobilization the populace tires. Making a living becomes more important than revolutionary ideology. After Mao died Deng Xioaping took power with the idea that what ever works is good. It does not matter if it is a white cat or a black cat as long as it catches mice. China today is socialist in name only. Mao is no longer the great hero that he was. In the end I found this book disappointing. The author creates an historical ideology that ignores the facts. I cannot recommend this book.

Interesting review.

It was a book about interesting times.

18. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
This is a fascinating book about the ratification of the Constitution. The author, Pauline Maier, states in her preface that this is one of the few books whose sole topic is the ratification of the Constitution in all thirteen of the original states. Given the importance of this event it seems unusual that it took so long for someone to write this book. A very important tool that made it possible is The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution. This project which is being done by the Wisconsin Historical Society began in 1976. At the time this book was written twenty-one volumes had been completed. It is anticipated that the completed work will be thirty-one volumes. The author states that without this collection it is doubtful she could have written this book.
The author tells the story with a sense of real life immediacy which imparts to the reader the excitement and suspense of living through the events as they happened. Ms. Maier attributes this perspective to the use of an idea she first heard in a lecture by Barbara Tuchman when she was in graduate school. A writer can build suspense in telling a story even if the reader knows how the story turned out so long as the writer never mentions the outcome until it happens at the proper point in the story. The author's use of this idea with a wealth of carefully selected primary sources makes the historical narrative come alive for the reader just as a great artist is able to convey an experience with a two dimensional representation. The author's skill maintains this level of involvement for the reader throughout the book.
The author begins with the story of George Washington's decision to attend the Constitutional Convention. Washington is hesitant to attend the convention because he has told the Society of Cincinnati that he will not attend their meeting in Philadelphia the first Monday of May 1787. The membership of the Society is divided on the question of hereditary membership and while Washington is opposed to this idea he does not want to confront many of his old friends who support it. His decision to attend the convention provides an encapsulated debate over the need for a new form of government for the country. After the Constitution is signed the author returns to Washington as he follows the beginning of the ratification process.
Prior to the state conventions a variety of newspaper articles and pamphlets begin the "war of written words" which combine to give us many of the ideas discussed during the time of ratification. The author points out that the writings were done largely on a local level. Today we may think that the Federalist papers were read across the country. Actually several states had ratified the Constitution before they began publication. They were primarily read in New York City and did not gain a wider audience until they were published in book form. The men who wrote for and against the Constitution showed a good understanding of the issues involved and command of a wide variety of sources dealing with those issues. Some of the questions they found important such as the presence of a standing army during peacetime are not as important to us today. One other issue they discussed, the "necessary and proper" clause in the powers of Congress, is debated in cases before the present Supreme Court. I doubt the present Congress could carry on a debate about the Constitution at the level shown during the period covered in this book.
Several of the states determined their decision on the Constitution on strictly local political issues. Delaware was the first state to vote for ratification and did so after only four days of debate. They wanted to end the taxes imposed by Pennsylvania on goods they imported from Philadelphia. The last state to ratify the Constitution was Rhode Island on May 29, 1790. By that time the national government had passed a bill prohibiting the twelve other states from trading with Rhode Island. Rhode Island was opposed to slavery and the slave trade and wished to continue to print paper money which is prohibited to the states by the Constitution.
I found the debates in the Virginia and New York conventions very interesting. Virginia elected a group of delegates that were evenly split on the question of ratification. James Madison and Patrick Henry were key figures in the debates. The author does not provide a flattering portrayal of Patrick Henry. He was a great orator but not well educated or knowledgeable about the law. She had several pithy quotes from Thomas Jefferson who loathed Henry. Madison was the great mind. The force of his knowledge and reasoning was irresistible to many.
When Virginia and New York began their conventions only eight states had ratified the Constitution. Each state felt theirs' could be the deciding vote. New York had elected a group of delegates strongly opposed to the Constitution. George Clinton, the Governor of New York, felt the Constitution created a consolidated government which he strongly opposed. Alexander Hamilton was strongly in favor and was a brilliant and energetic debater.
The suspense of the vote in the Virginia convention was palpable. Those opposed had argued for a strong list of amendments to be adopted before the Constitution could be ratified. Delegates from what is now Kentucky were strongly opposed to the Constitution. Ratification was passed by ten votes and numerous amendments were recommended to be included. Shortly after their vote the Virginia convention learned that New Hampshire had been the ninth state to vote for ratification. The Virginia vote had not been as critical as the members thought at the time. The New York convention learned of the votes of the New Hampshire and Virginia conventions before their final votes. They had a choice to either ratify or stay out of the union. Many of the New York delegates still opposed the Constitution. Led by Melancton Smith a group of Anti-Federalists compromised and voted for ratification with a list of recommended and not conditional amendments.
The author covered all these events and more in great detail. She introduced me to many previously unknown delegates to the conventions who played critical roles. A short chapter at the end tells how the lives of many of the delegates ended. James Wilson, a prominent delegate in the Pennsylvania convention, died broken and alone at the age of fifty-five. He had served two stints in debtor's prison while an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Constitutional Convention was empowered by Congress to amend the Articles of Confederation. Instead they created a completely new government which was eventually accepted by the country. After the Constitution was ratified those who had opposed it felt bound to support it. The author does a brilliant job of describing the process that led to this result but she does not address what forces led to the acceptance of the drastic changes proposed in the Constitution. Was it simply a combination of the prestige of the convention delegates, led by George Washington, and the obvious need for improvements in the government? Or was it the genius of the American people aided by Providence?

Another terrific review. This book sounds like a must read, and I added it to my wishlist. I could not begin to imagine what life would have been like in those times. I had no idea that some states voted on the Constitution prior to the Federalist papers. I remember studying them in school. Thanks for bringing the book to our attention here on LT.

19. The League of Frightened Men
This is my second Nero Wolfe mystery and the second book in the series. Rex Stout was a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the title reminded me of the Holmes story The Red Headed League.
During their college years a group of Harvard students engaged in some hazing of a freshman. The freshman, Paul Chapin, was severely injured and has to use a cane to walk. Chapin had recently become a successful writer after years of poverty. During those years he received financial help from some members of the group which he viewed as pity and only made him bitter. Recently two members of the group have died under suspicious circumstances. After their deaths each member of the group received a set of verses which made it sound like Chapin may have murdered the two dead men. Another member, Andrew Hibbard, disappeared followed by a new set of verses to each member. The group are now the League of Frightened Men seeking help from Nero Wolfe.
Wolfe begins his investigation of the case by reading all of Chapin's books. Not the usual technique but appropriate for Nero Wolfe. The police are also working on the case and Paul Chapin is being followed by several detectives every where he goes. Archie Goodwin is very active in the case following up any little clue they can find. Paul Chapin's character is well done. His burning hatred focused by a controlled personality makes him a good foil for Wolfe.
There are several surprises as the story moves along which help to build the suspense. One of Paul Chapin's secret pleasures is discovered adding to the twisted aspects of his character. One of the members is murdered and Chapin is found in the room with the body. It looks like Nero Wolfe is out of a job and then ....?
I enjoyed the story and thought the writing was better than Fer-De-Lance. The book was written in 1935 and I enjoy the atmosphere of those times. On small thing bothered me. Archie Goodwin always refers to Paul Chapin as the cripple. I just didn't like it and I got a small tic in my brain every time I read that phrase. I am trying out this series and also the Dr. Siri Paiboun and Lew Archer series. They are all very good. I better read something quickly this is June 16 and I have thirty-one books to go for the year.

20. Alexander of Macedonia:The World Conquered by Robin Lane Fox.
This is part of the Modern Scholar series. They are audio lectures published Recorded Books advertised as college level courses. They come with a course guide that is about 100 pages long. The author is very knowledgeable and it is a very interesting topic. The time of the audio is equeal to a two hundred page book or twelve lectures of forty-five minutes each. The course was pleasant listening. Mr. Fox's delivery is more like a chat than a lecture. There is a complete narrative of Alexander's life. More than complete it is interesting and full of details. I learned a lot about the people around Alexander. In one of the conspiracies he has to kill Parmenion, his best general. Alexander's attempts to make Persians out of the Macedonians are part of the cultural aspects of the journey mentioned by the author. When it was done I felt I learned as much as I would in a twelve week college course. As part of his research on Alexander the author must have traveled the route of his campaign. He talks about some of the battle sites and how he stood in the doorway to the tomb of Darius I where Alexander stood so long ago. I remember a vivid description of the mountains of the Hindu Kush. There are short discussions of the origin and accuracy of sources, like audio footnotes.
The discussion of Alexander's army was very instructive. I had always wondered how they won all of those battles. The army were full time professional soldiers. They had significant battle experience where they had used the tactics and maneuvers that were successful again and again. The infantry used a spear called a sirissa that was sixteen feet long and was terrifying on the battlefield. The cavalry was the unit that won the battles. They had no stirrups but coming from the right wing with Alexander at the head they attacked the opposing forces with a momentum that broke their lines. According to Mr. Fox some of the infantry was over sixty years old at the end of the battles.
The author was the historical director on the movie about Alexander by Oliver Stone. He participated as an extra in some of the battle scenes. He tells what it was like to be a member of the cavalry. When he described what it was like to be charged by a group of elephants it brought back memories of how big elephants are and their distinctive odor.
All of the details and the personal experiences helped to convey what a great adventure it was to conquer the world.
This was a good introduction to the Modern Scholar series. It was a good class. An interesting speaker with some real knowledge on the topic. Some of this material would probably not be written in a book but it all helped me to understand something about the life of Alexander the Great. I feel comfortable in recommending these audio lectures unless you don't prefer audio books or you are an expert on Alexander the Great.

I am not familiar with the Modern Scholar series, but it looks like a good one. I recently watched a History Channel show on Alexander and it was pretty good. This sounds much better.

When you buy these you can get a preview of the lecturer. This one was very good.

21. Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory by Edward J. Larson.
This book has a Modern Library logo on it and is part of a series named The Modern Library Chronicles. I used the very handy LT series feature and checked some of the other books in the series. There are thirty-two titles that cover the history of everything from communism to the company. While reading the book ( I also listened to an audio edition) I realized that I have another book by this author, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion which is a very good book. He covers the same topic in this book.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It is well written and for me very informative. This book taught me a lot about what I don't know about evolution. When the author started writing about statistical models he got over my head very fast. For the large part the author builds his story using the personalities and contributions of a group of men who over time have created present evolutionary theory. The author does an excellent job of narrating an ongoing conversation between men all over the world about this idea beginning in the late 18th Century. Each person has a different wrinkle on how to understand and explain the development of the different organisms that have inhabited the planet. Always present are those who would deny that evolution exists based upon their religious beliefs.
I was fascinated by the role of Darwin's finches in the whole development of the theory of evolution. They are a group of species of finches that live on the Galapagos islands. A primary distinguishing feature of the different species are their beaks. Some have big squat beaks and some have smaller pointed beaks. The different beaks are adapted for eating different types of seeds. These species all developed from one species of finches that moved to the Galapagos and mutated into the different species that Darwin found. In modern times there has been intensive field work done on these birds to try to understand the process of species differentiation.
In the present day field naturalists find that geographic isolation is very important for the development of new species. The geneticists talk about isolated gene pools.
Many of the scientific ideas that make up the story of this theory originate in one individual. The author's full life portrayals of these men and the effects of their personalities on their ideas was fascinating. The genius Watson who with Crick discovered DNA is a molecular biologist. He is also a rather mean minded person who has no use for the ideas of field naturalists. This narrows the scope of his ideas.
The author has an excellent section on the culture wars. The development of scientific creationism has made the battle for the schools a present day problem. The end of the 20th century saw a resurgence of the groups opposed to evolution. I know in my state the Chief Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals was the head of a group that opposed the teaching of evolution. The author also mentions eugenics, the dark side of evolution.
This is just a smattering of what is covered in the book. It is chock full of interesting people and interesting ideas. The well crafted writing makes it a pleasure to read. I think I will seriously look at some of the other titles in the series. If you have an interest in this topic and are not an expert I recommend this book.

Bill, I have FINALLY made it to your thread! Very nice reviews.

Thank you Joyce. Feel free to drop by anytime.

I do have one comment on your review of Evolution, which takes nothing away from your review: there are plenty of people who not only do not view Watson as a genius, but as a complete jerk (amply borne out by his behavior subsequent to stealing the Nobel Prize), a rather limited scientist who abused the confidentiality of the head of his lab and who outright stole the results Rosalind Franklin's DNA X-ray crystallographic data. He was totally ignorant of the chemistry involved--he had to have Jerry Donahue, an American post-doc organic chemist in the same lab, tell him the correct form of the DNA helix. Reading Watson's own memoirs is a chilling experience. Those who knew Franklin were furious with his portrayal of her; he was accused of lying about her to justify his theft. In his own book, he says he was justified in using this confidential data that was not his because Franklin would never had made any use of it--i.e., to go after the Nobel. Yes, the dear boy states that. Crick went along with it, and then had attacks of conscience-AFTER becoming Sir Francis Crick, of course. First things first. But at least Crick was a good scientist.

One scientist commented that Watson's main contribution to science was to teach aspiring scientists that the only thing that mattered was winning the Nobel Prize--NOT how you got there.

The Nobel in the sciences, like everything else in life, is highly political. One problem Franklin had--and she should have at least shared in the prize--was that she was Jewish in an era where Jews in science were discriminated against in England and the US. Not everywhere, of course, but she would have had a better reception, for example, in France.

There's much, much more to the story but this will do. Non-scientists are always (mistakenly) in awe of scientists, assuming that somehow we're purer or some silly thing like that. Nope. The problem is, as in any book that purports to deal with history of any kind, even scientific: are you getting factual information? Don't assume that because a book is on science or scientific theory that it's nothing but "facts".

Watson, as far as many of us are concerned, was one of the great scientific criminals of our time.

That's something that is good to know. I have read that the politics of academics is vicious because of the few awards, like Nobel Prizes, that are available. That is a real life example of what lengths some people will go to for that prize.

The general problem exists in ALL professions. I just happen to know unsavory details about my own.

Yes, you are quite right (in my experience) about academic politics. I've never worked for the government so can't speak there, but worked both in universities and industry, and I can guarantee you that industry people were babes in the woods when it came to infighting. The other problem that arose in the 90s was the lack of Federal funding for academic research--it plummeted. then academics went after industrial money, and ye gods, it was something else to watch.

Watson is a particularly slimy and vicious example of the slide in ethics; there are many, me included, who say it generally started wiht him. Before that, you didn't read much about it or hear much about it, but afterwards--I'll never forget my shock when I read that a prominent scientist at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute was caught falsifying data to get grant money. Sloan-Kettering was, at the time I was in the biomedical field, one of the top 5 biomedical research institutions in the US if not the world.

Now it's fairly common to read about it in the popular press (cold fusion comes to mind). The incidence is lower than in some other professions because of peer review of papers and replication of experiments in other labs, but it's there and much worse than it used to be before Watson.

A good book to read about Watson's theft and abuse of confidentiality in using Franklin's X-ray crystallographic data is Rosalind Franklin and DNA by Anne Sayre, who was one of Franklin's friends. It was published in 1978; I was a post-doc at the time, and the book passed through the hands of the female post-docs in our department like wildfire (which was easy since there were exactly 3 of us out of about 20 or so). Another example of late but better than never is the number of books and articles about Franklin and placing her in the ranks of the great scientists. Whether that's true or not, I can't say, but Watson could not do the X-ray work and admits it in his book. Without those pix, neither he nor Crick would have had any clue as to what was going on.

I really don't expect anyone who is not a scientist to know the ins and outs of the underworld of the profession, but anyone who writes about the story of DNA and does not mention Franklin's work has not done his/her homework, to put it mildly. It is impossible anymore to read modern accounts of what happened without Franklin being given as much credit as the other two; her work is now widely acknowledged. But did they take away the Nobel from that sociopath? No.

I have no idea if Watson is still alive, but I do know that when he was head of whatever lab he wound up in (can't remember what it was but a top-ranked one), his behavior was fairly loathsome. It was widely reported in the mainstream press when, refuting those scientists who disagreed with him, he called them "kooks", "shits", and "Communists". This is a direct quote. It's something you don't forget, even at my age.

He is/was a mediocre, completely unethical pathetic excuse for a scientist. I am fortunate in that I knew really outstanding ones and can say that the Watsons are not representative although they exist, unfortunately.

I read back over what Larson had to say about Watson. Other than his personality Larson commented on Watson's feud with Edward O. Wilson. Watson thought the only work of any importance was being done in his field, molecular biology. He referred to the naturalist Wilson as a bug collector.
It saddens me to see another example of discrimination against women. My mother is one of the most intelligent people I know and I suffered for years watching her being treated as a moron because she was a woman. The Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm said that she suffered more discrimination as a woman than as an African-American.

22. Stilwell and the American Experience in China by Barbara Tuchman
This book was published when I was in college. Dr. Tsung I. Dow who was my Chinese history professor did not like the book because there was a blatant error in a caption to a photograph. I thought he was being tough on the author but he had lived through that era working in Chungking writing for the government. He told me that once Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the Chinese knew that the U. S. was going to defeat Japan. The Chinese waited and planned for the real war. The war for China between the Nationalists and the Communists.
Stilwell fought with the Nationalist government and was continually frustrated because he would not accept this fact. He had been sent by the American government to direct the war against Japan in the Chinese theater. Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell fought constantly about the allocation of U.S. lend lease aid to China.
Tuchman sets out in detail Stilwell's impressive accomplishments as a soldier. At one point he was slated to lead the U. S. invasion of North Africa. Instead his abilities earned him one of the most difficult jobs in the American army. He was selected by George Marshall who had full knowledge of the problems Stilwell faced. Stilwell had an explosive temper that led to sarcastic and sometimes profane remarks. He referred to Chiang as "Peanut" in official correspondence.
The author uses the Stilwell experience to discuss the full range of American relations to China. Prior to 1941 Tuchman was a correspondent in China and during the war she served on the Far Eastern Desk of the Office of War Information. She had clear insight into the disconnect between American policy in China and the realities of the situation.
The American policy in China consisted of one mistake after another. Madame Chiang charmed the American public with her perfect English and her degree from Wellsley College. Chiang was baptised as a Methodist under the influence of his wife. Chiang did not like the Americans and did not favor a democratic government for China. He was offended by Stilwell's attitude to him demanded that Stilwell be recalled. Chaing accused Stilwell of being incompetent and infringing on Chiang's authority as the ruler of China. He accused the U.S. of imperialistic policies towards China. The U. S. ambassador to China did not support Stilwell and finally on October 19, 1944 Stilwell learned that Roosevelt had decided to relieve him of his command. Roosevelt wrongly felt that Chiang was indispensable to the war effort in China.
While I have concentrated on the political infighting that is only a fraction of the content of this book. Tuchman provides the reader with an in depth portrayal of World War II China. Stilwell is described as a good man in an impossible situation. He had a good command of the Chinese language and related well to the people of China.
I enjoyed this book, though not as well as some other of Tuchman's books. The subject matter is interesting and she is very knowledgeable but there is little joy in the story of these times. But the lives of the Chinese people were full of tragedy and misery exacerbated by human stupidity American and Chinese.

#56: I'm saddened but not at all surprised to hear about your mother. And I would say that was true as well of Franklin, especially in England; she would have been better off in France. Yes, she was discriminated against because she was Jewish but she simply was not taken seriously in many quarters in science because she was a woman; I think her gender caused her more problems. I've read comments from other African-American women that were similar to Chisholm's.

#57: I really liked the Tuchman book when I read it. I had just about zero knowledge of that whole era and found her book, just as with all her books but the very last, to be extremely well-written and informative. I particularly love her books on pre-WWI and of course the war itself.

23. The Ivory Grin
This is the fourth Lew Archer novel, written in 1952. I am growing to like Ross Macdonald. He has a sparse hard bitten style and in this book Lew Archer talks like Sam Spade at times. The book opens with Archer being hired to locate his client's ex-employee who is supposed to have stolen some of her jewelry when she left. Archer doesn't believe the story but he believes her one-hundred dollar bill.
The opening leads into a good detective story as Archer works back and forth between two small towns in Southern California. One town is on the beach and rich the other can't see the beach and is not so rich. Archer finds the employee with her neck cut open and starts digging for answers. The plot moves well as he turns up a psycho numbers runner a rich playboy and a woman looking for love with three boy friends.
The characters keep Archer knee deep in lies as they each try to use him for their own interests.
Archer is working to collect a five thousand dollar reward and turns out to be smarter than all of them. While he is smarter he doesn't make a big show about being better than they are. My favorite line in the book comes as he collects the evidence that will lead to his reward. "A hell of a way to make money selling dead men's bones." Macdonald is a good story teller who comes up with multiple plot lines and twists them around each other. The ends winds up real quickly with some surprises I didn't see coming. I have several more Lew Archer books and I look forward to reading them.

This is about an older posting - back in April, you listed a book titled "Learning to write Chinese characters". Who was the author? I've been trying to find it, and have been unable to. Thanks I'm interested more in Japanese, but their kanji is based on Chinese characters.

I am just catching up on all of your wonderful reviews! The whole story about the Nobel Prize is pretty interesting. I have started On the Origin of Species, but I put it down kind of a long time ago. I need to get back to it. I have always heard how easy it is to read, but I find biology difficult.

Billie Jean, I've always wanted to read On the Origin of Species and have never gotten around to it. I have a copy hanging around somewhere--I'd forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder!

I have three Darwin books around here, so I need to get back to that one. It is so famous. I also have The Voyage of the HMS Beagle, which sounds fascinating, and another one on emotions, which I can't recall the title of at the moment.

#63: I understand that The Voyage of HMS Beagle is also fascinating! That may be somewhere here, too--gotta check.

Thanks for the compliment BJ.

The author of Evolution said that Darwin was a very good writer. I have a copy of On the Origin of the Species which I have put on my tbr list. I looked up Darwin on Amazon. I think The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is the title you are looking for BJ, The Voyage of the HMS Beagle is only about 200 pages.

#60 Catarina1, I owe you an apology. The reason you couldn't find the author is because I wrote the title incorrectly. The book is Learn to Write Chinese Characters by Johan Bjorksten (there is an umlaut on the o and an accent on the e in Bjorksten). That should make it easier to find.

Yes, that is the name of the book. The only one that I am aware of that I don't have is The Descent of Man, which I guess is supposed to be the most famous. I will probably get that one, too, to complete my set.

I have a copy of The Descent of Man stored away in a cupboard. I should get around to reading that someday, once I'm out of school (and hence once I'm forced to depend more on my own book collection than on the wonderful gift that is academic libraries). On the Origin of Species was quite good, though.

24. Independence by John Ferling.
I have read two books by this author and I have two to go. He is a professor emeritus which means to me that he is a wise old man. He has an excellent command of the material which produces a fluid detailed narrative. It was a pleasant way to learn about a very interesting topic. The break between the British and the Americans began with the British attempting to impose their authority on the Americans. The Americans were used to being on their own and pushed back instead of submitting. There were taxes and tea parties and the Intolerable Acts. The author explained the escalating actions and reactions between them in a way I found easy to understand. Then in April of 1775 there was Lexington and Concord and the British closed the port of Boston.
This led to the political struggle for "independency". That word was used in the book as if it were a word used during the 2nd Continental Congress. John Adams is portrayed by the author as one of the prime movers for independence. He was kind of grumpy and fussy not at all the personality of a leader. He led through hard work, intelligence and persistence. Adams studied and wrote extensively about government. He was respected for these qualities and was able to exert significant influence on the decision making process.
Ferling does a lengthy biographic sketch on Thomas Jefferson. He did write the document that the book is about. Physically Jefferson was a bit of a misfit. He slouched when he sat in a chair and he had an awkward gait when he walked. He was very curious about a lot of things, he was very intelligent and a creative thinker. There was a committee of five that was selected to write the declaration of independence but it is generally ascribed to Jefferson, most of it at least.
There was a significant group in favor of reconciliation with the British. There were some good reasons to have them as a friend rather than an enemy. To many the idea of the Americans defeating England was a long shot.
What it came down to was that the Americans and the British had distinctly different ideas about what their relationship should be. I enjoyed learning about the British leadership. Many of them were just telling King George III what he wanted to hear so they could keep their job. They were not realistic about what it would take to defeat the Americans. The British had significant casualties at Bunker Hill and they were shocked. The author makes a point of the fact that the Americans were independent long before July 4, 1776. There were signs in the early 1700's that the Americans considered themselves apart from England. Fine writing, lots of interesting people and facts, intelligent analysis. I recommend it highly as good history on this topic and as a good book.

Very interesting, Bill. The TV series, John Adams, pretty much portrays, in a more superficial manner, many of the aspects you touch on. For example, Jefferson. And Adams' grumpiness and fussiness. And at least some of the "higher" reasons why many didn't want to break with England-John Dickinson is portrayed very well indeed, arguing cogently for reconciliation.

Sounds like an excellent book.

I added that one to my wishlist.

I can't recall if I asked you this before, but did you ever get the LOA Lynn Ward books? If so, did you like them? I usually just wait and take whatever they send me, but I am interested in those in particular.

I did not get the Lynn Ward LOA books. I turned them down on the subscription form. For whatever reason I did not think I would like them that much. I have read reviews from several people who liked them very much. You might visit the Library of America Subscribers group. I think there were several comments about those books there. David Cloyce Smith who is the director of marketing and production for LOA is a member of the group. He gives us advance information on the books being published and other news from LOA from time to time.

#25 The Blue Hammer
I am a fan of Ross Macdonald's writing. Amongst mystery books, particularly series, there are many types of genres. I like the type of style MacDonald uses. The hard bitten lone wolf sifting through the past and present of human lives for a livelihood.
I have to give a spoiler alert on this paragraph. There was one part of the ending of this book that was so predictable it took something away from the story. Although it was partially hidden in the other details one prediction I had for the ending came through. This lessened the surprise factor and a bit of my enjoyment reading the book.
Archer has a brief romantic interlude that goes out with a whimper.
End of spoiler alert.
The books begins with Archer being hired to find a missing painting. This takes him to a corner of the world that revolves around a copper mine, paintings, the models that appear in them and three murders. There are several strong women characters that are very well written. I enjoyed the gritty reality of the human drama that formed the story lines woven together in the plot. Events from the past comprise a significant part of the story as we see the lives of the characters over a span of generations.
There are many confusing family connections. Sorting them out would cause another spoiler alert. It is enough to say that they are unusually convoluted.
Archer does a lot of detective work in this book. Asking a lot of questions and trying to separate fiction from fact in the answers. Constantly showing a photo of the missing painting to everyone he talks with. Following the moment to moment of events in the words of the people who lived them. Archer has dogged persistence and an unassuming intelligence.
I felt the author's portrayal of the art world was pedestrian. He seemed to be writing about something he didn't know well. Much better was his depiction of a young couple both the products of very troubled homes. Archer showed them compassion while their parents grabbed at them.
It was appropriate that Archer's last book was set next to the ocean. At one point Archer notices the smell and the feeling in the air from the ocean before he can see it. I pulled this memory out of my own past and enjoyed the moment. It seems that later in his career Macdonald's writing got a little less sparse and more descriptive. I enjoyed this book but it is not one of my favorite Lew Archer's.

Excellent review, Bill.

Thanks for the info!

Excellent is appreciated, thank you Joyce.

#26 Great Maps of the Civil War by William J. Miller
This is a very short book whose primary feature is 32 removable maps that are tucked into pockets made between the pages. The majority of the removable maps are reproductions of maps that were used in different battles and campaigns. If maps are important in trying to study what went on in a battle they are critical if you are commanding the troops. The maps range from small hand made maps to large maps made by lithographic printing.
Besides the removable maps there are maps and illustrations throughout the book they give the reader something besides the printed word to help understand what was happening.
The front and back endsheets have a copy of what the author says was the most successful commercial map of the war. It is a panoramic view of the Gettysburg battlefield done in color. The map that was sold was 21 X 36 inches and was accompanied by a testimonial from General George Meade, a former topographical engineer. It is a beautiful map and I am sure that if I had been a veteran of that battle I would have wanted to have one.
I have gone through the book a number of times and always find some new interesting feature on one of the maps that I had not noticed before. I have also used one or two of the maps when reading about a particular battle that is set forth in the map.
There is a personal connection to several of the maps. One is a pocket map used by General J. E. B. Stuart that is now in Richmond's Museum of the Confederacy. The map that Baldy Smith had drawn of the Cracker Line that helped to supply Chattonooga, and a map that was carried by General McPherson when he was killed in the Battle of Atlanta are in the collection. There are blood stains on McPherson's map which show that he was carrying it when he was shot.
Another map in that pocket shows the work and detail that went into providing accurate maps for Sherman's officers. It is a map of Northern Georgia which covered the area from the North Georgia border down to below Jonesboro. The map was printed on a lithographic press and and newly acquired topographic information could be quickly added to the base map which were then printed and distributed. The enclosed map is said to be a copy of the map that Sherman used.
I find the battle maps to be fascinating artifacts.
There is a very interesting commercial map that was made to be sold with the book "The Lost Cause". It is a large map that covers the entire South except for West Texas. All of the counties in the Southern States are mapped out. There is a chronology of the different battles. I had to use a magnifying glass at times but the detail could be clearly read. The commercial maps provide insight into what was important to the people at the time.
I really enjoy using this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Civil War. The book and the maps provide another level of knowledge about what the experience of the Civil War was like.

The book sounds terrific, Bill. I'm definitely going to have to check this one out.

I can't remember Sherman's background as a young lieutenant but do know that he was familiar with the northern Georgia area because he had served there early on in his career.

I may have to get this book.

SO this is where you're hanging out! I've been missing your excellent reviews for more than half the year. Can't say I've "caught up" now....I've skimmed most of them. But I will take the time to read them all now that I know where you're putting them. I wouldn't be too worried about the numbers, when your reading has this kind of depth to it.

#27 My Business Is To Create: Blake's Infinite Writing
This is an Early Reviewer book and I am very grateful for getting it. I knew very little about William Blake before I got this book. One of the reasons I wanted the book is because Blake was one of the leaders of the Romantic Movement. According to Sir Isaiah Berlin the Romantic Movement was one of the three major turning points in European thought. As I read through the book I could see some of the ideas Berlin discussed in Blake's artistic philosophy.
The book starts with Blake's death. His last act was to do a portrait of his wife in pencil. He worked hard at his art all his life. He is known for producing books, paintings and poetry using relief etching on copper plate. According to the author all of the chemicals he worked with eventually poisoned him. I looked at a couple of sites to see some of his pictures and I like them. He had a very distinct style which I think is recognizable as being from the Romantic Movement.
The primary topic of the book is Blake's artistic philosophy. Blake's ideas were thoroughly thought out filling up this short book. Blake was definitely a radical. His ideas emphasized imaginative perception free of cultural preconceptions. In this context the author mentioned Allen Ginsberg and Jim Morrison. He makes a longer reference to Aldous Huxley and his use of mescaline. (I hope they correct the author's statement that mescaline is a narcotic before the final printing.) Blake reported seeing visions as a young child and many of his visions were associated with his work as an artist. He professed to believe that many of his poems were dictated to him by heavenly voices. The author relates one incident where a friend coming to visit found Blake and his wife in the back garden in the nude. I guess it was a nice day.
One of the reasons I got the book is that it is touted as a helpful book for a would be or published author. The last two chapters of the book discuss some of Blake's ideas on how to write. Blake worked under the influence of inspiration. He did not write 3000 words a day, he waited for the spirit to move him. He spoke about the exuberance of writing and the fourfold realization when his faculties of imagination, feeling, sensation and reason worked together to create art. I am not sure that these ideas would be appropriate for a broad general application.
One of the most significant ideas from the Romantic Movement was that the act of creation by the individual was the highest form of human expression. That is definitely part of Blake's philosophy. The author does say that Blake had a special loathing for Isaac Newton. He stood for the rationalism of the Enlightenment which Blake strongly disagreed with. Some ideas from the Romantic Movement were associated with German militarism and totalitarianism in Europe.
I wanted to like the book and I worked hard at reading it. The book was interesting and there was a lot of information. I just didn't like enough of it to be able to recommend it unless you are interested in William Blake.

I like to take the map book out and play with it. The maps are nice reproductions and nice artifacts. I can get an hour of fun out of it easily.

I remember reading that Sherman knew the country better than the Confederates because of the time he had spent riding around there. I think he was stationed Georgia while he was in the Army.

28. Some Buried Caesar

This is a Nero Wolfe book that is very funny. A good example is a scene early in the book where he is standing on a large rock in the middle of a cow pasture, the prisoner of a prize Guernsey bull who must be secured before Wolfe can leave his place of safety.
Wolfe's adventures begin when he decides to go to a State Fair to exhibit some of his orchids in a competition with a hated rival. Once you go out of the house anything can happen and it does. Archie ends up in jail and becomes the organizer of a labor union for the inmates. Wolfe at times is forced to place his bulk on a folding chair has to drink warm beer. Wolfe is deprived of all of his creature comforts throughout the story making this a very different Nero Wolfe book.
The prize Guernsey bull becomes Wolfe's client when he is accused of murder. The story takes place in a world of rich, arrogant men who like to yell a lot. The bull had been sold to be used by a publicity stunt by a local boy who grew up and got rich. The seller of the bull was from an old money family that were cash poor.
Archie gets seriously hit on by an attractive woman named Lily Rowan. She has quite a reputation and is always asking him to kiss her. He doesn't seem to mind the attention or her name for him "Escamillo". I looked him up. He is a toreador from Carmen.
There is a good plot with plenty of twists. IMO Rex Stout's style is more literary than Raymond Chandler or Ross MacDonald. The solution to the mystery is very logical once Wolfe tells you what it is. In the end he bends the facts to see that justice is done. The scratchy sound of a fountain pen writing, very evocative of the times, is my memory from the final scene. I think my next mystery book will be a Nero Wolfe.

I have finally caught up with all of your wonderful reviews. My mom was a big Rex Stout fan. I don't know why I have never read any Nero Wolfe. I really must try one. I need to place an amazon order, so maybe I will get one of these, too.

Ah, Bill, this is a GREAT review!! And I agree with your assessment of Stout vs Chandler or MacDonald. much the better writer. Archie as union organizer--I've gotta read this book! LOL

Thanks BJ and Joyce for the compliments. I broke down and bought a color nook. The Nero Wolfe books are very reasonable as ebooks. Sorry to show my ignorance but what does LOL mean?

Laugh OUt Loud as opposed to ROFLMAO, which is Rolling On Floor, Laughing My A__ Off.

I really like my Kindle and just wish that more books were available. As for affordability--prices of new books on Kindle can be as much as for hardbacks. For me, that's still ok because it saves the cost of shipping.

I didn't get a color Kindle because one thing you're going to find out about the e-readers is that none of them (unless you go to iPad or equivalent) do the graphics justice. DON'T get any Civil War books with maps or any military history--anything that depends on graphics--on an e-reader.

The reason I got the color nook is because there is an SD card that converts it to an android tablet. That way I get access to all types of ebooks including Kindle. It's my toy for the year.

Very nice--I'm impressed!!

I am also considering that Color Nook. I just can't decide. But I understand that B&N gives away a free ebook every week. They are mostly old out of copyright books, I think, but that is what I read most of the time. Let us know how you like it.

Many "Old out of copyright books" are also available at Project Gutenberg, in case you were not familiar with that site.

Thanks! I have heard of it, but I have not visited it before. I need to check it out.

The advantage of the color nook is that after you put in the chip that makes it a full blown android tablet you can get ebooks from a lot of sites including Gutenberg, Kindle and others. I bought a refurbished model and it was very inexpensive for a full tablet.

Project Gutenberg is excellent--I have a number of classics from them.

#29 The Chill
Alex Kincaid's bride disappeared on their honeymoon and he comes to Lew Archer to help find her. Archer finds her fairly quickly and that becomes the beginning of a well done detective mystery by Ross Macdonald.
After finding Dolly Kincaid Archer learns of her involvement with the murder of her mother which took place 20 years ago. He meets her Aunt who is as hard boiled as any thug on the street. As Archer begins looking into that murder he finds others old and new that are solved when he discovers the secret of a truly bizarre relationship.
The story is given to the reader in bits and pieces as Archer unravels the plot following one clue to another. He is a persistent detective who keeps asking questions until he finds an answer that satisfies his intelligence and common sense. Along the way he is confronted by characters who use lies, deceit or their own brand of mean streak to hide their secrets. They are like Greek actors who have mask after mask removed until the truth comes out.
Macdonald's strength is his plots which twist and twist and turn on themselves. Only when the book is over can you be sure that there are no more tricks and this is really the end. The characters are not as strong as the plots. They seem type cast at times and even Archer is not written with a great deal of depth. Macdonald writes a good fast moving entertaining story. I read three of his books in a row which highlighted repetitions in his stories and the limits of his writing style.

#30 Prisoner's Base
This is number 20 or about one-third of the way into the Nero Wolfe series. I enjoyed this book very much because of the personal involvement of Archie and Wolfe in the story. The book opens with Priscilla Eads showing up at Wolfe's house with a suitcase and hatbox saying she is going to be staying there for a week. Archie accepts her $350.00 knowing that Wolfe will more than likely invite her to leave. After dinner he does and Archie puts her in a taxi after returning her money. Two hours later she is found strangled and her maid is found to have been killed earlier in the evening.
Archie realizes that if he had not put her in the cab when he did she would not have been killed when she was and takes on the responsibility of finding her murderer. Wolfe decides to take on Archie as his client.
Priscilla Eads was going to become the owner of a large corporation at the end of her week at Wolfe's house. A double murder involving a prominent rich young woman prompts a massive police investigation which Archie joins. Wolfe, without consulting Archie, dips into the emergency fund to hire an investigator.
All I can say without being a spoiler is that the murder of the second victim is even more personal to Archie.
Because of her death the wealth which would have gone to Priscilla Eads will go to the top employees of Softdown corporation. The machinations of that part of the story introduce the reader to some truly unpleasant people. They participate in a meeting about her killing and several of them make some statements that are truly bizarre and though not relevant to who killed Ms. Eads are an interesting comment on the possibilities of the human personality. Ms. Eads feminist ideas are an interesting addition to the plans she had for Softdown.
Of course Wolfe knew who it was all along. In a grand finale with everyone present Wolfe names the murderer and he is apprehended. I thought this book was more about Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe than Priscilla Eads and the other women murdered. They both showed character and compassion in their response to the murder of people that were a small part of their lives.

i really have to get back to the Nero Wolfe series--I love those two characters!

This was the first book I read on my color nook and I enjoyed the book and the ereader. There are many of the Nero Wolfe books sold for very reasonable prices as ebooks and I am looking forward to reading more books in the the series.

#31 The Silent Speaker, originally published in 1946.
I am having a really good time reading books from the Nero Wolfe series. They are good murder mysteries and each one is a chapter in a book about the lives of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Archie and Wolfe are intelligent, mature adults and getting to know them is a pleasure.
This mystery begins with the murder of Cheney Boone the head of the Bureau of Price Regulation, a government agency. He is murdered backstage ten minutes before he is to give a speech before the National Industrial Association, a group of businessmen. The BPR and the NIA are sworn political enemies. This leads to a high profile investigation with a great deal of pressure on everyone involved. The NIA is awash in bad publicity and hires Nero Wolfe to find the murderer and get their name out of the papers.
Everyone who was in the room to hear the speech is a suspect. They are mostly rich if not famous people which adds to the pressure on everyone investigating the murder. During the investigation Phylis Gunther, Boone's personal assistant, is murdered on the stoop of Wolfe's home. She had unique knowledge about an important clue and her murder makes solving the case more difficult. She was a beautiful, intelligent woman and Archie had been attracted to her the moment he met her.
The pressure of the investigation leads to a memorable moment when Nero Wolfe slaps Investigator Ash on his right cheek with Wolfe's open palm. The sound of the slap split the room occupied by the Police Commissioner, the District Attorney, Archie and others. After an interview with Boone's widow Nero Wolfe fires his client and to the horror of Archie returns their retainer. He then develops an illness certified by a physician and stays in bed in his yellow pajamas.
The ending was a suspenseful page turner and as I got close to the solution of the murder the low power alarm on my nook went off. I plugged in the nook and was treated to a terrific finish to the story. A second ending added an emotionally rewarding chapter to the story of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. I give the book five stars and look forward to rereading it. It was very nice of Rex Stout to write so many Nero Wolfe stories. I don't expect them all to be this good. It is enough that I will get to spend more time with Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe.

Darn it, Bill, you're making me really jealous! If I remember correctly, I thought the Wolfe stories got better as they go on, even the later ones. I think. But always a good read.

I have had a lot of fun catching up on your reviews. I had intended to read a lot of mysteries this year, but I haven't yet.

I have a question about the Nook Color. My daughter loves art and especially on the covers of books. (She doesn't care for plain covers or really even the photographs.) So I was wondering if there is a comparable "Book Cover" for the books in the ereader? She has a small Sony ereader, and I don't think it has one, but with the crossover with ipad, I thought this one might. Thanks for the info and for the great reviews. :)

#99
I hope I understand your question BJ. The books on the Color Nook have a cover similar to regular books. They are just like the covers on LT. The books display on shelves with a full picture of the cover. There is a feature where you can create different shelves and place collections of different books on them. You might take a look at the website at the B & N website to check out the Color Nook. I bought a Certified Pre-Owned and got a substantial savings. I have installed the N2A card and am using it as an android tablet. I can read nook, kindle and google books and have access to the apps at the android marketplace.

Yes, that was exactly what I was asking. You make it sound wonderful. I am thinking maybe around November I could get one. Does it scan all those squares that smart phones can scan? We see them everywhere. But no iphones here.

I don't think the Color Nook can scan. I don't think it has the hardware. I think that is mostly on the smartphones. I am not sure. I am using mine mostly as a tablet because you get more variety. The Color Nook keeps getting more applications and it has had some good write ups in the tech e-zines.

#32 Over My Dead Body This book is from very early in the series from the story you can tell it is just before WWII.

I am glad I discovered the Nero Wolfe series and very happy there are so many.
This book opens with a visit from a young girl who tells Wolfe in a thick accent that his adopted daughter from Montenegro is in New York with her. As it turns out Wolfe does have an adopted daughter from Montenegro and when Wolfe meets his caller's friend she has the girl's birth certificate. After there is a murder at the studio where the girls teach fencing the real mystery begins. The weapon used was a col de mort. It is a device made for murder that slips over the blunt end of an epee and gives it a sharp point. It was stolen from a glass cabinet in the fencing master's office.
Inspector Cramer decides that the best way to investigate the murder is to spend his time in Wolfe's office. He knows Wolfe will catch the murderer and he wants to be there when it happens. So he stays in the office and keeps four cops outside.
There is a very entertaining vignette between Archie Goodwin and Donald Barrett. Wolfe wants to speak with Madame Zorka and Barrett knows where she is. He tells Archie to take Barrett and get Madame Zorka. Barrett is a rich grifter and he doesn't want Goodwin to know where Madame Zorka is. He offers Archie fifty dollars. Archie says make it a hundred and takes it. Then he gives it to a sidewalk vendor for two packs of gum, keep the change, and offers Barrett some gum. Three pages later Barrett takes Archie to see Madame Zorka, at his apartment. It was close to a Bud Abbott and Lou Costello routine.
Barrett and his father are bankers and their deal for Bosnian forest rights is an important part of the story. Add a character named Princess Vladanka Donevitch, two foreign spies and it is quite an exotic story.
Wolfe having an adopted daughter and how he handles it adds an interesting chapter to the life of Nero Wolfe. Archie can't resist and tells Wolfe he is going to marry her and then he and Wolfe can go to father and son golf tournaments. The book was interesting and fun. The ending was a fast jolt of excitement and suspense that was completely unexpected. Five Stars!

Another great review!

Thanks for all the info on the Nook. :)

#33 Persian Fire
The story of the Greco-Persian wars is one of the great tales from history. At the time they were fought the Persian Empire comprised a large majority of the civilized world in the West. The city-states of Greece would have been a rather small province of the Empire if they had been conquered. Western Civilization would have been much different if the Greeks had been conquered and lost their freedom. The story has been told many times but this author by telling the tale from the Persian point of view brings a new perspective to well known people and events. The book is full of interesting details which help to bring the people and events of that time alive for the reader. The author plays no favorites and shows the reader the warts and all of the heroes on both sides. The violence and cruelty that were the daily fare of the dealings between the people of those times provide good reasons for the author's sometime cynical attitude toward humanity.
The book begins with the conquests of Cyrus and the establishment of the Persian Empire. A vast area from India to Egypt to Asia Minor was consolidated under Persian rule in a short period of time. Ancient kingdoms such as Egypt and Babylonia were made part of the new empire. Reading this section I learned a lot about what I don't know about the people and places that made up the Persian Empire. At the same time I got a start on a topic that merits further reading. I found the description of the Persian religion particularly fascinating. Xerxes saw himself as the embodiment of the Truth set on earth to eliminate the people of the Lie, including the Greeks.
The author's discussion of the development of Sparta and Athens adds some new insight to those topics. The life of the Spartans at all times sacrificed the individual for the group. They ruled conquered tribes who provided the Spartans with the necessities of life. The Spartan men spent their life either in training or in battle. The male rite of passage was to use a dagger to sneak up on and murder one of the serfs or helots. Athens had Solon the lawgiver. After a long period of tyranny democracy was developed by Cleisthenes to make good his victory over Isagoras for political power in Athens. These Greek politicians were much less idealistic than the Founding Fathers.
Xerxes assembled a massive army composed of troops from all over his empire. This army crossed the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges and began the conquest of Greece. Athens and Sparta had executed ambassadors sent to them by the Persians and were to be slaughtered if they surrendered.
The politics amongst the city-states was chaotic. Themistocles rose to power in Athens and pushed the city to build a large fleet. The Spartans were defeated and massacred at Thermopylae but their story lived on and was the basis for a recent popular movie. The Battles of Salamis and Plataea drove the Persians from Greece and ended their attempts to conquer Greece.
The book is well written and the actions and emotions of the parties are conveyed with impact. The fear of the Greeks as the awaited the attack of the Persians was palpable. The ferocity of the combat is very real. The joy of the Greeks in victory deteriorates into squabbling and Themistocles dies in exile a subject of the Great King. It was left to a Macedonian youth born in 356 bc to write the final chapter in the struggle with Persia.

Nice review, Bill. Sounds like a fascinating book.

Thank you Joyce. I look forward to reading The Rubicon Holland's book about the end of the Roman Republic.

Wow, that book sounds great! I think I saw the very beginning of the movie that you referenced but could not watch the entire show. Another great review, Bill!

#34 The Zebra-Striped Hearse
The Lew Archer series by Ross Macdonald needs very little introduction. Macdonald was the heir to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and wrote the novels from 1949 to 1976. This one begins with Archer being hired to investigate the prospective son-in-law of Colonel Blackwell with the hope that he will dig up some information that will stop the marriage. Burke Damis, the subject of Archer's investigation, is an artist who is a bit of a wild man. The Zebra-Striped Hearse is the the rolling home of a group of surfers who live on the beaches of Southern California.
The book quickly becomes a murder investigation as Archer digs into Damis's past. The story has some colorful locales, Lake Tahoe, Mexico and Malibu. The character I enjoyed most was a woman artist who lived in Mexico and had been living with Damis before he hooked up with Harriet Blackwell. She was serious about being an artist and someone who would be worthwhile taking the time to have dinner with. Archer ran into a female movie idol from his youth in Mexico who quickly threw him out of her house.
The book is not one of Macdonald's best which means it is a pretty good murder mystery. The plot has the usual quota of twists and turns and you think it is over three times before the final surprise. I enjoyed the book, but I can only give it three and one-half stars. The plot got lost in itself a couple of times and there were very few interesting or likeable characters. Still even going through the motions at times Macdonald is a good author and reading this book was a nice way to spend the time.

#35 Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization by Karen Horney.
The author was born in 1885 and trained as a psychiatrist and psycho-analyst. She had fundamental disagreements with Freud and is known as a Neo-Freudian. This book was written in 1950 and is considered her major work.
The author theorizes that unfavorable conditions for growth in a child create a basic anxiety which lead to dysfunctional coping mechanisms classified as neurosis. Her book is a discussion of the basic features and types of neurosis and their practical consequences. Contrary to the language in the title the book is not a work of psycho-babble. It is very accessible to the general reader and I was impressed by her common sense approach to her subject.
I felt that I learned a great deal from this book that applied directly to my life. I generally make an effort to avoid being a follower of another person's theory or guide on how to live my life. This book is an exception to my rule. Reading this book I developed a great deal of respect for the author's intelligence and experience dealing with human behavior. One reading of this book just scratched the surface of ideas and insights that will be very useful in my day to day life. Since I first began seeing a counselor when I was eight years old I am sure that I qualify as a neurotic person.
A good example of her approach is her chapter titled "The Tyranny of the Should". I am very familiar with how the things I feel I "should" do can run my life at times. The author explains how people develop a long list of items they should do in response to insecurity about how to be liked and successful. Then the failure to do something they should do brings on self-hate, which is another chapter in her book. There were many other features of neurotic behavior that I found interesting and useful.
The author uses examples from many sources to illustrate the different types of neurotic behavior she deals with in her book. Many of the examples from literature impressed me with her intelligence and the broad application of her theories. Her examples from her practice as a psycho-analyst showed a real compassion for her patients as individuals and that her work was based upon a real caring for people and was not just an intellectual exercise.
The last part of her book discusses the application of her theories in therapy. Combining her theories with these practical applications give me an excellent way to use her book in my life. I think that anyone can benefit from her practical insights into human behavior. I listened to an audio edition of this book and I will be sure to get a print copy for personal use. This is an exceptional book about human behavior. It is the culmination of a life's work from a uniquely intelligent and caring person. It has my highest recommendation.

#36 Feast Day of Fools
This is the latest book by James Lee Burke. Burke is one of my favorite authors and I have written numerous rave reviews about his books. Unfortunately this will not be one of them. The combination of high expectations and a pallid performance equal a letdown, which is how I felt about this book. Thinking about why I realized that starting with the characters there was just too much repetition from previous books.
It seems like 3/4 of the characters have appeared in previous books. Preacher Jack Collins is back from Rain Gods and has a larger role than he did in that book. His clashes with Holland lack the emotional impact they carried before. The other major villain is a psychotic Russian who reaches a new high in cruelty in the murder of a wanna be preacher. His mercenary thugs make rookie mistakes in aid of the plot as they allow prisoners to retain makeshift weapons. Anton Ling and Krill are the only major new characters and they seem made up from of bits and pieces of characters from the past.
Instead of being caught up in fast paced action I put this book down twice and finished it mostly out of curiosity. The Texas scenery does not lend itself to the beautiful descriptive language I usually expect from Burke and he is unable to make the lightning crackle with the same edge that leaves a whiff of ionized air hanging in the sky.
This does not mean that I will not reread my favorites from the Dave Robicheaux series. I do not think I will reread this book. I can only give two and one-half stars and hope Burke's next book is much better.

Interesting, Bill. I have never been particularly taken with the Holland series. I've had Rain Gods on my shelf for a long time, and haven't read it. If that was a Robicheaux book, I would have dropped everything to read it NOW.

I looked at my review of Rain Gods and I really liked that book. A large part of the plot was the story of three couples with strong female characters. Esther Dolan was the wife of a Jewish man from New Orleans who was in the porn business. She had a Siberian family background and beat up a contract killer by hitting him on the face and head with a large cooking pot. It was a terrific scene.
I read a couple of other reviews that said Feast Day of Fools was one of Burke's weakest books.

Hmmm...ok. Now I really need to get to Rain Gods. Thanks for the boost. I believe I will save Feast Day for some inconceivable day when I've read nearly everything else on my shelves!

#37 The Wycherly Woman
There is much about this volume in the Lew Archer series that is repetitive of other volumes in the series. Archer is hired to find someone who is missing. In this story a man comes back from a two month cruise and finds that his daughter disappeared the day he left on his trip. The man who hires Archer is rich, arrogant and yells a lot, a character that appears in almost every book in the Archer series. There are three murders in the book, as in many of the other Lew Archer books. Although contrary to form none of the mysteries is a murder at least ten years old.
Archer is consistent and persistent; beginning with one question and following where the answers lead him until all the mystery is solved. I think of him at times, and not in humor, as the energizer bunny of detectives. You wind him up and he keeps going and going.
Archer does not move in the circles of rich and glamorous. Many of the people he questions are cab drivers, hotel clerks and other inadvertent witnesses to crime. In this story he bribes an elderly hotel bellboy for information and talks an overweight manager of some rental cabins into letting him into a room where a suspect has registered. All part of his constant digging for facts that will solve the mystery.
Macdonald has gems of wisdom in his dialogue. "The reason you pray is to keep the circuits open just in case there is someone on the other end."
The story moves back and forth between Southern and Northern California providing a good amount of action. There is a short section involving psychiatric issues of a suspect that helps move the story along. Suspense builds as the story moves to the end and characters have their masks removed to reveal their true identity. Then after you think the case has been solved there is one last twist in the plot.
The well paced action kept the pages turning. The plot and Archer's encounters with a wide variety of characters maintained my interest. Not Macdonald's best but a good piece of entertainment.

#38 To Lose a Battle: France 1940
Germany invaded France on May 10, 1940 and France asked for an armistice on June 17. When the French public learned of the request for an armistice their reaction was not the indomitable will to fight portrayed by Barbara Tuchman in Guns of August, this time the nation breathed a sigh of relief. I read this book because I wanted to learn why in 1940 the French folded up that way. I now have a much better understanding of what occurred. In almost 700 pages the author sets forth a thorough narrative of the events that occurred in those six weeks. In addition, the place of this event in the ebb and flow of French history is a prominent topic in the book.
The author brings the reader into the various conferences with detailed descriptions of the participants, what they said and how they looked. He uses Diary excerpts, letters, battle reports to help tell the story of life in that time. The short letters which Rommel wrote to his wife from the battlefield add a personal touch. The scream of the dive bombing Stuka's and roads full of refugees are all part of the narrative. The operative word for the book is thorough. At times it was a little bit like work. Finishing the book gave me a momentary sense of accomplishment.
Germany invaded France three times in the modern era; 1870, 1914 and 1940. In 1940 just as in 1870 the French Army and their generals lost because they expected to lose. The French Army in 1940 was still suffering from the massive losses of WWI. When it was too late they appointed a 73 year old hero of WWI, General Weygand, to save them.
The one mistake the Germans made was halting their drive to the English Channel to destroy the Allied armies for three days. This made possible the miracle of Dunkirk which allowed the British army and 100,000 French soldiers to survive.
My major criticism was the lack of adequate maps. There are only six one page maps at the beginning of the book and they are difficult to read. The author also seemed to presume that his reader was fluent in French. Throughout the book are phrases in French with no translation. Maybe I should be fluent in French but I am not and this was a constant source of irritation.
The book was remarkable for the lack of bloodshed present. There are casualty numbers but none of the carnage that war is made of. A touch of hypocrisy from an intellectual who went to school in the U. S. during WWII
The book was a good thorough depiction of what happened that was dry and ponderous in some stretches. It was written to inform and not entertain the reader. I read the book to learn and I was rewarded with the knowledge I sought.

#39 Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
This play of August Wilson is set in 1911 at the home of Seth and Bertha Holly. Seth rents out rooms in his house and Bertha provides two meals a day. Bynum, a rootworker, and Jeremy a young kid who works on the road and plays guitar are living at Seth's when the play begins. The story centers around Harold Loomis who is looking for his wife Martha. He and his daughter Zonia move in to Seth's house at the beginning of the play. Harold pays Rutherford Selig, who is a traveling salesman and a people finder, to find his wife.
During the play Harold goes into a spell and Bynum talks him out of it. Seth doesn't like Harold going into a spell and tells him he will have to move. Zonia gets to know Reuben, the boy next door, who kisses her and says she will be his wife. Jeremy picks up with one woman and then runs off with Molly Cunningham who is real slick.
The play takes place in Seth's kitchen or in the back yard. August Wilson is an excellent playwright. I don't say that lightly. I enjoyed spending time in the world of Seth, Bertha and the others. Seth and Bynum play dominoes while Bynum sings " Joe Turner's Come and Gone". Everybody eats a biscuit with grits and gravy for breakfast and fried chicken on Sunday. It's a friendly place.
Wilson's skill is in making the play an authentic portrayal of this experience. I felt that this play focused on the issue of personal power. It included several incidents that illustrated how racism deprived African Americans of power over their lives. To make sure you can't forget at the end we learn who Joe Turner is and get a real cruel example of white supremacy at work in the lives of some nice people who just happened to be African American. Read this play and then talk about the good old days.

#40 And Be A Villain
I felt this was an above average Nero Wolfe mystery. It begins with Wolfe soliciting a client, which is unusual. Someone drank the sponsor's product on a radio show and died. It was murder by cyanide poisoning. Bad publicity for everybody. Wolfe comes up with a clue and then turns it over to Cramer. Archie doesn't like Wolfe being so lazy so he stirs things up a bit.
Wolfe gets a phone call and according to other sources this is the first time we hear from "Zeck". The plot turns 180 degrees and then Wolfe invites all the usual suspects over to his office.
The end (without naming anyone) is the classic question all around the room and then name the murderer.
The dialogue was very good and once Wolfe got back to work so did the plot. Four Stars

#41 In The Best Families
This is one of the best Nero Wolfe mysteries I have read so far. Wolfe is hired by a woman who is neurotic about being ugly to find out where her husband is getting his money since she cut him off. The series continues its' homage to Sherlock Holmes by adding a dash of Professor Moriarty. After his client is murdered Wolfe gets a call from Arthur Zeck with a warning not to pursue the case. A little later Archie goes out for a bit and when he comes home the door to the house is open and Wolfe is gone.
Nobody will believe that Archie doesn't know where Wolfe is even when Archie goes into business for himself with his own office and some classy business cards.
Lily Rowan does a cameo appearance, as pretty as ever. This isn't the end of the series so Wolfe does reappear with an entertaining if not terribly believable cover story. I really enjoyed the book and the ending is definitely worth the price of admission.

I can't believe how far behind I got on your thread. You have read lots of great books (and one not so great). I added several to my wishlist. I just bought a few history books in Joplin. Right now I am reading Freakonomics, which is a book that my daughter read in school. It is strange and interesting. I am not sure that I buy all the conclusions though. Thanks for the great reviews -- several thumbs up from me.

Hello BJ good to see you. I have been reading your thread. I will have to be sure to leave a note.

#42 The Red Box
This the ninth book I have read in the life of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and I am starting to notice the patterns in the series. This was not one of the best mysteries and the common elements of the series helped to make it a good read. Now I can understand why Joyce bought 36 of the series recently.
Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe complement each other well. Archie is excellent at what he does from his secretarial skills to being the voice of the series. Wolfe is the resident genius in the art of detecting. They each have their props. Archie has his notepad and the roadster. Wolfe has his beer and the bottle caps.
This is the story of the Frost family. Dudley and Calida, Llewellyn and Helen. The murders are pretty nasty and one is very clever. At the end there is the traditional get all of the suspects in Wolfe's office and name the murderer. That is another one of the author's set pieces. It does create some drama and a real moment of suspense.
I am enjoying the stories more all the time. This book I waited so long to post I had to read it over.

I looked back through your thread and saw that Fer-de-Lance is the first book in the series. I think I will add it to my amazon order if I ever make it. My mom was a huge fan of Nero Wolfe and I think my brother also. I wonder why I never picked one up? I just stuck with the Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers books for some reason. Anyway, there is no time like the present. And, as you know, I haven't bought too many books lately. :)

Bill, forgive me if this has been treated on your thread before, but have you seen any of the TV series with Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin, and Maury Chakin as Wolfe? I thought it was extremely well done.

I have never seen those. I was thinking that the way the stories are staged it would be a natural for television. I had William Cannon cast as Nero Wolfe. I will have to go exploring. Thank you Linda!

Do you mean William Conrad, Bill? (He played a character named Cannon.) He did do Wolfe earlier, but I think he was less convincing than Chakin. He had the bulk right, but that's about all.

Yes William Conrad. I thought he had a great voice. I have listened to him as the radio Matt Dillon.

It will be a surprise if I get to 50.
In the words of mehitabel. toujours gai, toujours gai

A couple of weeks ago I read Joe Turner's Come and Gone. I thought I could read three of his plays real quickly. I found out I can't read Wilson's plays like that. They take some thought to digest. I should be able to finish the three by the end of the year.

#43 Black Money
Black money is the money that never shows up on the books. Big sums of cash that make you instantly rich.
A seductive Frenchman comes out of nowhere and woos the girlfriend of rich, young man who hires Archer to get her back. This is a typical opening for the author. The Frenchman, Francis Martel, is a unique character and a showcase of the author's skill. He has a vital and dangerous demeanor and is never who he appears to be. This character whose unusual story fashions the plot makes this one of the best Lew Archer mysteries.
The Frenchman is slick and rich. He is always on the edge of violent outbursts fueled by a pathological desire to control of his new fiance and hostility for anyone who tries to interfere with their relationship.
Harper weaves a web ensnaring the truth with his constant questions. The author uses a seven year old suicide to add another level to the plot. Macdonald will often have three murders including one from the past. The setting for the story, a country club in Montevista, California, brings its cast of the rich and used to be rich to fill out the story. Archer stays the same dead pan detective who throws in enough snappy dialog to let you know he is always listening. The end is a series of surprises as the characters shed their masks and meet their fate.
I give it four and one-half stars for the nasty Frenchman..

#44 The Second Confession
This is a well written thoroughly entertaining entry in the Nero Wolfe series. There is, however, a feature that is central to the plot that greatly detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
The story begins with Wolfe being hired to prove that a young man who is seeking to marry his client's daughter is a Communist. At the time the book was written being a Communist was slightly less worse than being a rapist and the father is sure that this information will end any thoughts of romance in his daughter.
I have always found the stereotype of the evil Communists threatening the American way of life to be silly at best. Using this idea as a central theme of the book lowered my estimate of Nero Wolfe's genius.
The primary characters in the book are Mr. Wolfe's client and his family. It is decided that Archie will worm his way into the graces of the client's daughter and deflect her attraction from Lony Rony the would be Communist. This ends up with Archie developing an interesting relationship with the client's other daughter which we are led to believe continues after the mystery is solved. Archie gets more than his usual share of good lines in this book and bolsters the importance of his character to the series.
This book also brings back the appearance of Mr. Zeck. He first tries to scare Wolfe off of the case and then pays him a substantial fee to solve the murder of Mr. Rony.
Wolfe engages the help of top members of the Communist party to solve the mystery. Their appearance at the final meeting where the murderer is named has a touch of irony. The bad guys helping the good guys to catch the bad guy.
It is a good series with lots of volumes and I look forward to reading the further adventures of our heroes.

#45 The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919
This was a very well written book that told the singularly depressing story of the Italian campaign against Austria-Hungary in World War I. The title derives from the fact that many of the battles took place in the Southern Limestone Alps. During the winter the area was covered with snow and when the snow melted the men were fighting over mountains of white carbonate rock. The rock would splinter up in great chunks when hit by artillery shells causing many more casualties than artillery striking earth.
This is one of the few books I have seen exclusively devoted to the Italian campaign. The author writes as thoroughly about the Italian political events as the battles. There are several references to how the war led to the rise of Italian fascism. Italy went to war in order to gain territory from Austria-Hungary. The Italian Irrendenta was a movement aimed at the unification of all ethnically Italian people. Prior to entering the war the Italians negotiated the Treaty of London guaranteeing them portions of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians for their assistance to the Allies.
The author does a very good job of portraying what the war was like for the Italian foot soldiers who fought in conditions that were more than miserable. The Italian army had very poor equipment when they started the war. Their stocks of artillery and machine guns were the lowest of any major army in the war. The worst enemy of the Italian soldier was their Supreme Commander, Luigi Cadorna. Cadorna was more than a strict disciplinarian. In some cases he had groups who had failed in battle decimated. As the unit stood at attention one man out of ten was selected and shot. Cadorna forbade the practice of sending food packages to Italian soldiers who were captured. He refused to reward cowards. His favorite tactic was to group his men as tightly as possible and order them to charge straight ahead. On several occasions the Austria-Hungarians quit shooting and told the Italians to go back so no more would be killed. It was not war it was murder. Cadorna was finally fired in November of 1917 after a disastrous battle where 275,000 Italian soldiers surrendered.
In 1918 Italy's allies provided them strategic materials and they were able to fashion the weapons and munitions needed by the army. Eventually Austria-Hungary succumbed to Italy's manpower advantage as their polyglot nation fell apart at the end of the war.
It was a long book and it did drag on at times. The author seemed in full command of the source material and made excellent use of primary sources. If you want to learn about the Italian Campaign this is the book to read. You may want to ask how important it is to you before you make the commitment to read this book. This is not a history book for the general public.

Well I have 15 days to go and five books to reach 50. I'll have a lot of reading time over the holidays. Who knows I just might make it. I haven't quit yet.

I saw a segment on James Lee Burke on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN, the Catholic channel, and it reminded me that I have been wanting to read some of his books.

I can't seem to finish books these days, but I think you can make it! :) Good luck! And, by the way, you have already had a terrific reading year.

I wonder if it was the same one I saw a few years ago, billiejean. I have it on tape, in fact. If you haven't read Burke, I recommend starting with the earlier Robicheaux novels to ease into him. His later stuff is awfully hard to take, even if you're already a fan. I started a re-read of the series a couple years ago, but only got up to the third one, for some reason.

I found the violence in some of the later books to be consistently over the top. Reading the Lew Archer and Nero Wolfe stories I noticed the lack of out of control rages that typified some of Burke's later books.

#46 The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage
I was looking forward to this book but it did not meet my expectations. There were portions of it that I enjoyed and were very informative. The courting and the time the couple spent in Springfield is a topic I did not know much about. Abraham Lincoln was not at all a ladies man. He was not relaxed with women and the impression I got was that Mary picked him as much as he picked her. He broke up their courting because he was concerned he had contracted syphilis. For a year he took some pills with mercury in them to make sure he was cured. It made me very glad I live in the era of antibiotics.
Mary always had a lot of ambition for Abraham. Supposedly she turned down Stephen A. Douglas to marry him. Their life in Springfield was ordinary Middle America. Mary was supportive but she did not participate in Abe's political life. I think that was his idea. When Tad was born Mary was injured during the birth. That was the beginning of her health problems.
As Lincoln advanced in his career he did start making a healthy income and Mary enjoyed spending it.
They were both loving parents and their children had the run of the house. Lincoln stayed busy in politics even when he was not in office. The author emphasized Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War and said it made him very unpopular. I don't recall any other sources that gave that much significance to anything Lincoln did in congress.
This is an example of the problem I had with the book. I wasn't sure if I was reading an accurate historical narrative or whether the author had dramatized the story and bent the truth when it got in the way of the story he wanted to tell. It is unfortunate that I listened to an audiobook and couldn't look at any footnotes but there is another example that convinced me I could rely on the author's facts.
Late in the war Jubal Early went up the Shenandoah and went into Maryland. He got to within seeing distance of Washington but was never a serious threat. The author told an exaggerated version of Abraham Lincoln's time spent at Fort Stephens. The seriousness of the situation was overblown and the author intimated that Lincoln exposed himself to fire in order to get killed. My interpretation is that Lincoln didn't realize how tall he was and he didn't think he was going to get shot.
Mary does not come off well. She spent over the budget to refurbish the White House and got caught up with some shady people to hide the amount of the bills. The deaths of her sons, only Robert lived to adulthood, and the assassination were more than she could take. The book stops when the marriage ends. The rest of Mary's story is pure tragedy anyway.
I wouldn't read it again and I can't recommend it. There was more melodrama than history.

#47
Not Quite Dead Enough
This is a Nero Wolfe book set during World War II. It has two stories in it the first one with the same title as the book.
The story begins with Lily Rowan of escamillo fame chasing down Archie who is now a Major in Army Intelligence. Ann Amory, a friend of Lily's has troubles and Lily wants Wolfe to look into the situation. Archie goes to find Wolfe and gets a big surprise. Wolfe and Fritz are training for the army. Not only does Wolfe leave the house he and Fritz are running all over New York.
Archie finds Amory murdered and then comes up with a pretty clever trick to get Wolfe involved in solving the murder. The story is going along fine and then it ends very quickly. It's as if the author was told he only had three pages left for the book and he just made up an ending. Minus one point.
The book gives a flavor of how serious everyone was about hating the Germans and winning the war. Having grown up in America the superpower it is hard to imagine how it must have been to really be afraid the enemy would destroy us.
Booby Trap
This is the second story and there is no double entendre involved. Many of the characters carry over from the Army Intelligence group from the first story. It begins with Wolfe insisting that Archie return a super hand grenade to the Army. He was given one for his intelligence work around it. The grenade later blows up in the office of Colonel Ryder killing the Colonel. At the time Ryder dies they are looking into the suspicious death of Captain Cross another member of the group. Before Ryder dies John Bell Shattuck, a highly placed civilian, had brought the group an anonymous letter he received about the death of Captain Cross.
Wolfe is working as a consultant with the Army and starts an investigation of Ryder's death. Ryder's secretary, Sergeant Dorothy Bruce, is the mystery lady of the story. She caught Archie's eye from the first time he met her. They get to know each other better during the story with perhaps more to come. The ending is a little better than the first story but not much. Fewer pages means less story.
This is my least favorite Nero Wolfe out of the eleven I have read so far. I don't like the novellas and the author's treatment of the war situation did not ring true.

Three books to go with most of seven days left. I have one I should finish today. I haven't quit yet.

#48 The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877
I have read very little about this period in history. This book was a good outline of the facts of these times and the dispute among American historians about radical reconstruction. It is well written and provides a surprising amount of information on the subject. One of the themes of the book is the ongoing dispute with earlier interpretations of what happened during the Reconstruction Era.
The first chapter discusses the writings of William A. Dunning and several other historians in the 1920's who characterized Reconstruction as "The Tragic Era". They saw radical reconstruction as a time of oppression of the South by the radical reconstructionists. The remainder of the book shows that what was termed oppression was primarily an unsuccessful attempt to get the Southerners to embrace the doctrine of racial equality. The fact that white supremacy triumphed in the South shows how little real oppression actually took place.
There were significant efforts, including the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, to guarantee political and social equality to the newly freed slaves. The failure to provide any meaningful economic assistance rendered the blacks powerless against the ante-bellum power structure who maintained their economic power. That and the lack of any national commitment to the idea of racial equality defeated the efforts of the radicals to bring about a meaningful "Second Revolution".
Andrew Johnson is portrayed as a man whose own weaknesses doomed his efforts to control the reconstruction process. He was an ineffective politician handicapped by personal feelings of insecurity that rivaled Richard Nixon's. Escaping impeachment by one vote he lost all political support for his policies.
I enjoyed this book as a good start on the era that followed the Civil War. The author does an excellent job of pointing out the errors of the earlier historians. He makes it clear that the real tragedy of reconstruction was the inadequate effort to bring the freed slaves into the mainstream of American society. I look forward reading more about this critical time in American history.

#49 The Far Side of the Dollar
This is a very dark tale that spends more time than usual taking the reader on a tour of the nasty side of life. It is also on of Macdonald's best books.
The story begins when Archer is hired to find the son of a rich family who cut his way through a wire window in a high class mental hospital. The parents have received a ransom call and the boy's mother goes from scared to hysterical while the father drinks. The nicest character in the book is the boy's girlfriend who lives next door and talks to Archer in a childhood tree house. Anything after the ransom call would be a spoiler.
The plot is wound real tight going back twenty years. There is an ex-boxer who is now just a thug and his used to be beautiful almost wife.
Violence and murder puts Archer in jail. He just keeps asking questions learning everybody's dirty little secrets and there are plenty to go around. The characters were all well done with not a stereotype in the bunch. Even Archer's old girl friend has skeletons in her closet.
The ending is a confrontation with a venal evil that gives the book one last surprise. There are a lot of surprises in the book and the tone goes from dark to darker. Macdonald takes Hammett and Chandler to another level in an excellent book.

I checked the calendar. I have one book to go and three days left. Plus one of the days is a Saturday. 50 here I come.

Attaboy! Let nothing interfere.

Thanks for the recommendations regarding the Burke books. He seemed so tame on tv!

I will catch up on all your wonderful reviews in the new year, but I wanted to stop by and say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thank you Linda and BJ. The holidays are really good for what ails you.

#50
The Emperor's Pearl This book is a volume from the Judge Dee mystery series. Judge Dee lived from 630 to 700 b.c.e. and the books are set in the Tang dynasty. Judge Dee was a county magistrate in Poo-Yang a prosperous area on the Grand Canal. He was responsible government affairs, including criminal investigations, in his county. I enjoy the study of Imperial China and these books give a good feel for what life was like in that era.
In this book there are four murders instead of the usual three. Judge Dee solves the murders using logic to sift through clues and come to a conclusion. He works with Sergeant Hoong, an old family retainer, who he tries out his theories on. The logical approach is straight from Confucianism and Judge Dee provides a good example of Confucianism in action.
There is an element of the supernatural which appear in many of the Judge Dee books. It adds some flavor of the unusual to the story. It you want to know the story of the Emperor's Pearl you will have to read the book.
China during the Tang dynasty was a very cosmopolitan society with people from all over East Asia. Miss Violet Liang is a good example. She is about 6' tall and a trained fighter from Mongolia who shows her talents in the book. She had been a favorite in the Imperial Palace who ended up in Poo-Yang due to politics in the Imperial palace.
I always enjoy these books and hadn't read this one in a long time. A nice way to end the year.

Recap

Making 50 was close but I will go for it again next year. That seems to be my stretch point. I quit watching TV entirely this year. Too many good books to read.

This was my year of the mystery. I read a total of 23 mysteries. Many from the Lew Archer series and over 10 from my newly discovered Nero Wolfe series. The Lew Archer are hard bitten detective stories that I enjoy. He continues the tradition of Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
The Nero Wolfe are a little more literary and very good books. Plus the Nero Wolfe series are the continuing story of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe which adds another dimension to them. Nero Wolfe has 63 books in the series so I have plenty to go.

I read 21 history books. I thought it was a nice selection from Alexander the Great to, The White War, WWI on the Italian front.
Ratification was my favorite history book of the year, followed by The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command and To Lose a Battle:France, 1940-1941

Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization was my surprise hit of the year. It was an excellent book that I am sure I will read again.