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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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