Mickey & Billy

Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship by Tony Castro

Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin both played for the Yankees in the 1950s, Mickey's first year was 1951. This book is mostly about Mickey, but also their friendship and the trouble they would get into. All night binges and bar fights, missing flights and trains and generally making the management mad. However, one of them was Mickey Mantle so lots of it was overlooked. Billy was ultimately traded, as he was a 'bad influence', it was thought, but since that did not end Mickey's behaviour that turned out to not be the case. A great narrative of an important time in baseball and the impact the stars made on the game.

Book and Dagger

Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham

The story of the US intelligence agencies, as they started in WW2. At the beginning of the war the US had no military intelligence people. What little had been in place after WW1 was dismantled in the 1920s, so FDR was starting from scratch. Interestingly, the people who put together the 1940 intelligence system chose to focus on people from the humanities. This first version was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which after the war became the CIA. The strategy for recruiting academics and librarians to form the first intelligence service was that they wanted people who were used to and familiar with spending hours doing research in libraries and archives. These were not James Bond type spies, these were people spend hours going over newspapers, phone books, railroad time tables and scientific journals, gleaning information that was useful and that was in plain site. Also, being academics helped provide a cover, they were setup as book buyers in Istanbul and Stockholm, which gave them access to people and material that they could use to compile their reports. Also, since they were secretly working for the government, they had a pretty limitless budget to purchase books and other materials.

A fascinating story of the evolution of the intelligence world.

Skies of Thunder

Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World Hardcover by Caroline Alexander

The story of Berma in WW2. The amazing efforts to supply China with material, lend lease, during WW2. Astounding efforts were made with primitive airplanes to fly over the 'hump', basically the Himalayas. At the same time the Berma road was being constructed, through a dense jungle and over tough terrain. The numbers of lives lost, and the corruption of the Chinese that allowed much of the material to end up in the hands of the Japanese is heart breaking. While the effort was astounding, the author cannot really justify the human and monetary costs.

Neptune's Fortune

Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire by Julian Sancton

This book chronicles a shipwreck of a Spanish treasure galleon that was taking treasure from south America to Spain when it was pursued and sunk by a contingent of British ships. What was different about this ship sinking is that it sunk fairly intact, unlike other ships that sunk at this time was that they other ships were sunk mostly by storms, and their cargo was spread over a large area. The fact that this sunk intact meant that they treasure sure be in one place. This was a well known treasure ship for many years, but the general knowledge was that it was in a location where it was not.

The author also spends a lot of time putting the ship in context by providing a history of Spanish colonialism in central and south America. The ship was found within the legal waters of Colombia, but when it was found Spain tried to assert that it was their ship so their treasure. However, the fact that there is no longer a Spanish empire took precedent over Spain's claim. The author also goes into the history of treasure hunters and the international laws that govern this kind of treasure.

Family of Spies

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor by Christine Kuehn (Celadon Books 2025)

This may be considered hidden history, or maybe hidden in plain site. Fascinating and unusual story of a German family in the 1930s and 40s who ended up spying for the Japanese before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Kuehn family was in Germany, having no luck getting into good positions with the up and coming Nazis. Except one daughter, Rose, who was having an affair with Goebbels. Rose was adopted and turned out to be half Jewish. When this was found out it was arranged that the family would relocate to Hawaii and spy on the US military there for the Japanese. The Japanese paid them very well and they used the income to live large and bought real estate and entertained lavishly. In particular entertaining members of the American military, in order to get intel to pass on to the Japanese. They traveled occasionally to Japan to meet with officials. This went on from the mid 1930s through the 1940s until some of the family was arrested and tried.

It is amazing how open Honolulu was for so long that the father could drive around Oahu and take photos of military installations to pass on to the Japanese. The book is written by the granddaughter of the main spy, whose father never talked of his childhood in Hawaii. She was only able to start to get info on the family activities after enough time passed and documents were made available in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the many fascinating things this book reveals is that because of this spy family the Germans knew that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked right from the time it was being planned.

The Six Loves of James I

The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell

This is an interesting history of Scottish and English history in the late 1500s and early 1600s. This is a complicated history and this book is good at helping to decipher all the moving parts. Here is the basic lineage that this book deals with: Henry VIII had two daughters that lived to adulthood. He did have one son, Edward VI who lived to be 15. His Daughters, Elizabeth and Mary lived to adulthood. Mary became Mary I, queen of Scots, AKA bloody Mary. Elizabeth became the long reigning Elizabeth the first.

Mary had a son, James in Scotland who became James the VI of Scotland and when Elizabeth I died childless James VI of Scotland was the nearest heir so became James I of England. This was a complicated and violent time for the British isles. Witchcraft was actively prosecuted and execution for many crimes was common.

In this history, of the six loves of James, 5 of them were male. At the time they were known as the king's 'favorites' and acted as his personnel 'entourage'. Many went on to gain prominent places in the hierarchy of the titled and landed classes. During all of this there is the schism between Catholic and Protestant, and the rivalry and intermarriage of the Hapsburgs and Bourbon families. So it is all very complicated and filled with intrigue. One thing interesting and non conventional about James is that he was a pacifist and never went to war during his reign.

The Bounty

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander

The story of the Bounty and Captain Bligh is fairly well known, several movies have been made of this and numerous books. This book offers very detailed information on the voyage and many of the members of the crew and their families. The original purpose of the Bounty voyage was to bring back Breadfruit plants that were to be brought to the Caribbean to be used as a cheap but viable food source. The Breadfruit is very nutritious and can be used as a single source of food. What was surprising to me was that after the mutiny and Bligh's amazing voyage back to England he made a second trip to get the Breadfruit. This time he was given a much bigger ship and an escort ship with a military force, that way there would not be a second mutiny. This second trip was successful and breadfruit is now a common food in the Caribbean.

Voices from the Kitchen

Voices from the Kitchen: Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers (Beacon Press 2025) by Marc Meyer

This book contains the transcript of 27 interviews with people who work in restaurants in NY. All of them are immigrants, and they tell their stories of how they ended up where they are. It is mostly interesting, but does get a little repetitious as most of the stories are the same. But there are a few excpetional stories. Definately stories of our times.

The Twilight Forest

The Twilight Forest: An Elegy for Ponderosa in a Changing West (Island Press 2025) by Gary Ferguson

The author is a widely published nature writer. In this book he travels through New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and California documenting the decline of the ponderosa pine. He provides background on the evolution of the ponderosa, its place in the culture of the west and information about the different varieties of the ponderosa. Basically his premise is that the ponderosa is in decline and may disapear. Mostly this book is the story of the effects of climate change and how it is reshaping the landscape, in particular in the western US. Very good writing.

The Gardner Heist

The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser

On March 18, 1990 the Isabel Stewart Gardner musuem, in Boston, was robbed of art works worth tens of millions of dollars. The case was never solved and the art works have never been recovered. The theft included 2 Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Monet and several Degas drawings. Since the theft was never solved, this proves a problem writing a book about the event since there is not really an ending to the story. So the author spends a lot of time talking about art theft in general, the state of art museums, famous art thefts and stories of the famous theives and there hauls. A theme throughout is the incompetence of many people who run these museums, and boards that aren't really qualified but made up of people with pestigious names.

1929

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin

A history of the 1929 crash and the major players who were involved. The author does go into the background of finance and Wall Street that setup the conditions of the crash, and then follows up what happened to some of these people after the crash and the depression set in. The author is very good at explaining complex financial concepts in a way that a novice can understand.

The Gales of November

The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

The Edmund Fitzgerald (Fitz) is well known from the Gordon Lightfoot song of the same name. The majority of this book is a history of shipping on the Great Lakes, but goes into detail about the Fitz. The ship was specifically built as an ore transport on the great lakes, and was extremely well known at the time for the records in set. The author also goes into a brief history of the song, which of course gave a wider exposure to the ship beyond people who were 'lakers'.

1942

1942: WHEN WORLD WAR II ENGULFED THE GLOBE by Peter Fritzsche

As the title indicates this is a chronicle of 1942, a pivotal year in WW2. The author does go into the years leading up to 1942 to provide background, while there is not really new material in this book, it is well written and organized.

The Big Year

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

In birding, a Big Year is when a person starts on January 1st and spends the year listing as many birds as they can for one year. While there is no prize invovled it is very competitive for the participants, who become obsessed with having as big a list as possible. While this can involve many people, this book concentrates on the activities of 3 people to tell the story. This was made into a movie, which I have not seen.

Launching Liberty

Launching Liberty: The Epic Race to Build the Ships That Took America to War by Doug Most

This is a history of the Liberty Ships that were the work horse for the Allies in WW2. The ships were built in several locations in the US, and while they didn't exist at the beginning of the war, by the end they were being built at record speeds. Several different companies built these ships, but this books concentrates on the California shipyards of Henry Kaiser. Kaiser was the person who build Hoover damn. As part of his innovation in building the ships, he wanted his workers to have access to health care without having travel far, so he created what would become Kaiser-Permanente.

Bringing Up Beaver

Bringing Up Beaver: Two Orphaned Beaver Kits, Their Humans, and Our Journey Back to the Wild by John Aberth (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

This is the chronicle of a licensed animal rehab person who lives in rural Vermont. He takes in lots different animals, owls, hawks etc. This book covers a little over a year of his taking in a baby beaver, whos parents were killed when there lodge ws demolished. Many people see beavers as a nuisance and try to elimate them from their property. The amount of work that the author goes through to accomodate this baby beaver is amazing. What is especially challenging is that he is rehabbing this animal with the goal of ultimately being released back to the wild and not kept as a pet. He does a lot of evangelizing about how we treat wild life and what should change. A great story of a dedicated volunteer.

Shade

Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch (Random House)

A thorough analysis of a timely and important topic. The author is an environmental writer who has produced this interesting volume on the history and importance of shade its impact on people’s health. Historically shade was engineered into the planning of towns and cities. If we think of the narrow streets of warm weather countries like Spain and Mexico, the narrow streets provide a lot of shade for people in the street during the day when they don’t want to be exposed to the blazing sun. Also, and abundance of trees on streets and in public places like parks providing cooling shades for people walking or hanging out. Several factors have influenced the disappearance of shade as a standard feature of cities, first air conditioning has replaced the need for shade, but this also has had social implications. Instead of hanging out on our shaded front porches and under a tree, we are now all inside and not mingling with our neighbors and socializing. Also in urban settings, law enforcement has suppressed the planting of trees and encouraged their removal as the block the ability of provide surveillance of an area and they provide cover for the ‘bad guys’.

This book could also have been titled ‘Heat’. The author spends a lot of time illustrating the health affects of excessive heat, particularly on people who spend a lot of time out of doors, such as agricultural workers and the homeless. The ill affect of excessive heat becomes exaggerated in the elderly. With the warming of the planet places that were typically very temperate all of a sudden find that they have to deal with excessive heat. Many homes and businesses in these areas do not have air conditioning because they never needed it. This now puts an economic strain on communities and individuals who have to have AC installed and who have to pay for the electricity to operate it.

There are also societal implications to excessive heat, people are much more likely to get angry during heat waves. As the author points out “Heat is an irritant that makes us angrier, more aggressive, and even more vengeful. It can override more rational thoughts.”

Everest, Inc.

Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell

As the title suggests this is a history of the industry of guides bringing people up Everest. It is an interesting evolution of the business. The first people were guided up the mountain in 1982. Which I was kind of surprised about, since I would have thought it would have happened much earlier. Before that it was private adventurers and national teams that would attempt Everest. It is also interesting that after Tenzing Norgay summited Everest with Hillary, he never went up the mountain again. The first companies that would take clients up the mountain, and other Himalaya peeks, were western owned, but employed many native Sherpa to carry loads and set rope. Over the years that evolved into a situation that now most of the companies guiding people in the Himalaya are native Nepalese owned businesses.

There is also a lot in this book about how Everest is viewed in the world and presented in the press. The many failed attempts and deaths on the mountain and the more dramatic moments that receive a lot of publicity. But also presented are the statistics that show that it is not as dangerous as the reputation that it has.

The Light Eaters

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger

Light eaters are plants, who through photsynthesis turn sunlight into energy. This is a well written history of how plants evolved, and how the continue to evolve to adapt to the planet. A lot of interesting bit of popular science.

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 Book 2 of 2: The Revolution Trilogy | by Rick Atkinson

The second in his trilogy of the revolution, this very thorough history took a while to get through but was worth it. It is very dense and detailed tracking these three years of the war. He also spends a lot of time describing what is going on in Europe and England during the war, which is a different approach than a lot of people take.