With Wings like Eagles

The Battle of Britain ranks as significant no matter who writes about it. In Michael Korda’s detailed history the significance goes beyond the participants, especially Air Vice Marshal Dowding, to include many of the men who have become synonymous With “appeasement.”

Both Stanley Baldwin and his successor Neville Chamberlain are viewed as lacking the foresight to see that Adolf Hitler was preparing for war the entire time he was consolidating power in Germany. What is not recognized in characterizing these men in such fashion is that they were struggling against a revulsion to war that had come about with the loss of so many millions of British soldiers during World War I.

Even so, both men provided the money and got out of the way of the development of airplanes and men like Dowding who not only foresaw the best way to defend England from the inevitable air attack that was foreshadowed in H.G. Wells “The Shape of Things to Come,” in which he described a devastating and catastrophic rain of explosives from the sky.

As the rearmament of Germany proceeded along with Hitler’s grand scheme to invade and conquer the low countries of The Netherlands and Belgium, various elements of the defense of England were coming together in the development of both the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter planes, the perfection and deployment of radar stations and the strategic installation of telephone communication and hardened focal points from which the fighter defenses were to be coordinated.

On the other side, Herman Goring was acquiring more power, but his peculiar self-aggrandizement would have telling consequences in the air battle that would determine whether or not Nazi Germany would invade England.

Various decisions among the Nazi leaders led to the development of airplanes that were not adequate for the conquest of the air over the English Channel and England itself. The Stuka dive-bomber was an excellent machine, but was much too slow to evade destruction by English fighter planes. The two-engine “Destroyer” was supposed to be a fighter plane in its own right, but was no match for the nimble Hurricane or Spitfire flown by adroit pilots.

As the summer of 1940 progressed both sides prepared for the titanic struggle that would become the legendary Battle of Britain.

Dowding had numerous fights he had to win before his grand strategy of protecting England could reach fruition: He had to convince Winston Churchill that there was a minimum figure of fighters needed to protect the skies over their country (Churchill, leaning toward sending more fighter planes to France to help the French crush the onslaught of the Nazi armor even though the fighter planes only had bullets that would be totally ineffective against tanks); he had to make sure that there were enough planes available; he had to somehow ensure that there would be enough pilots to man those planes; and finally he had to make sure that all his sub-commanders would follow his grand plan to lay waste to the Luftwaffe before the Germans could do the same to his air armada.

As the battle progressed, it appeared as though the English might be holding their own, but the German commanders knew that to defeat the English air arm they had to put their airfields out of commission. Mistakes were made on both sides, but with the narrowest of margins, the English pilots prevailed.

Korda tries to give the reader a sense of the drama of the fight as well as the real numbers of planes, pilots and damage that actually occurred. He succeeds in what he attempted (to write a coherent history of that part of World War II) and gives the reader a feeling that the time spent reading his book was time well spent.

Nana

Emile Zola wanted to write to escape the grinding poverty he and his family endured during the 19th Century in France. This novel was his first attempt at achieving fame and fortune.

The story opens in an entertainment venue that the operator calls his “bordello.” Nana is the star in a play that attempts to show the foibles of various gods and goddesses. Nana plays Venus in a very risqué costume that delights the male attendees. Her voice, however, is less than stellar but is ruled adequate given the beauty of her body.

In the next chapter we are given detailed descriptions of a dinner that Nana hosted to show that she had come up to the level of the lower aristocracy in France. The dinner turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco since more people showed up than were invited.

To show how the real aristocracy viewed the goings on in the theater, the next chapter shows the effete ins and outs of various members of the nobility. Nana is not viewed as persona grata.

Nana wants no more of the stifling atmosphere of Paris so she adjourns to a country house that she has purchased. Many of her acquaintances accompany her. One of the young admirers whose mother is a member of the nobility has a tryst with Nana who puts off an older member of high society to “mother” the young man who has become her lover.

Returning to Paris she is pursued by a member of the nobility who is a cuckold and is below contempt as far as Nana is concerned. He attempts to bring her around to his way of thinking that they should have a relationship. She wants no part of it and informs him of his wife’s infidelities, giving him the address of the place where the tryst is taking place.

Abruptly in chapter 8 Nana takes up a conjugal relationship with Fontan, one of the men who has been pursuing her. She refuses to take up the offer of the creditors who want her to move back to her old apartment. She is “in love” and wants to relive her youth with its virginal take on life.

The relationship sours quickly but Nana accepts the beatings she gets as well as having to sell herself to get money to maintain the household (makes for juicy 19th century reading).

In an abrupt turnabout Nana returns to the stage and all the problems associated with that aspect of her life. Fontan is also an actor and she has to deal with their ruptured relationship along with the other ins and outs of the theater.

Zola strains the reader’s credulity when he takes Nana from a down and outer to one of the leading lights in Parisian society. His rationale is that she could portray a member of high society on the stage but she could do so in real life.

More ups and downs as Nana moves from one stratum of society to the next. She is never satisfied with who she is or what she has.

Ultimately Nana dies and Zola describes the intimate details of her ravaged body as it is inspected by some of those that knew her in life, but who have other things on their minds as shown by the refrain “To Berlin, to Berlin, to Berlin.”

Last Train to Paradise

Flagler. The name is reminiscent of someone who did something, but what? That association would be common among those who were not familiar with either the history of Standard Oil or Key West.

Les Standiford plunged into discovering exactly what Henry M. Flagler did both as the driving force in Standard Oil and more importantly as the implacable dreamer who wanted to see his dream of a railroad that reached from Miami (then a hiccough on the east coast of Florida) to Key West (then the most metropolitan city in Florida). The only others who were remotely interested in a link between these two cities were either lacking sufficient funds, expertise or political clout to get the first steel tied to a wooden tie.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

In the Garden of Beasts

Erik Larson was curious about how an American would view the rise of the Nazi phenomenon and its star attraction, Adolf Hitler, so he delved into the posting of Ambassador Dodd, a reluctant and somewhat frugal college professor, and his family to the prestigious post in Berlin.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Drood

For anyone with an appreciation of Charles Dickens and his numerous forays into the depths of the political and social life of late Victorian times, Drood will provide a delicious and fascinating look into Dickens’ life as seen by his friend and confidant Wilkie Collins, himself a noted writer of the times. Be prepared, however, for two possible courses of action: For anyone seeking a book of character development this will fit the bill, for anyone seeking plot development this book will necessitate either enduring those endless passages of character description and development or a rapid skimming to arrive at the next plot point.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

The Brain that heals itself

Dr. Doidge shows in this book how the brain can rewire itself in very dramatic ways.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Adam Bede

George Elliott, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans Cross, starts the novel in a very 19th century manner with the author using her voice to set the scene. Once the initial author intrusive paragraph is read through, the workshop in which Adam is a carpenter is brought to life using both description and dialect. One of the best ways to interpret the dialect is to use the voice of Lionel’s father’s gardener from the TV series “As Time Goes By.”

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Two Years Before the Mast

That which was can never be again. After twenty-four years Richard Henry Dana, Jr. returned to the west coast of America to retrace some of the arduous steps he’d made as an ordinary sailor aboard the ship Pilgrim. He found that so much had changed that he could barely recognize some of the places he’d been as a hide collector.

Dana’s original journey started because of difficulties with his eyes as an academic student at Harvard. Like many of his contemporaries, the sea held the possibility of both a cure and high romance.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Freakonomics

How much time would you spend to find out that most of the ideas you have, “conventional wisdom” is another way of putting it, were wrong?

Leavitt and Dubner put this book together because the former is a peculiar sort of economist and the latter is a fair-to-middling journalist, and they didn’t want to tempt fate by refusing to work together. Their publisher thought the book should be classified as a “business” book, but it is anything but that.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Intellectual Morons: How Ideology makes smart people fall for stupid ideas

Daniel Flynn could have easily titled this book The Iconoclast’s Bible. In his discussion of each of the “icons” that he “clasts” he meticulously examines what they have said and compares it to what they have done. None of the various people and their ideas can escape the rigorous peeling back of the onionskin that has been carefully laid over their sayings and doings.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Firewall

Henning Mankell delves deeper into detective Kurt Wallender’s psyche in this extremely complicated novel of modern vulnerability, both of the world and of Wallender himself.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

The White Lioness

Henning Mankell’s detective, Kurt Wallender, has to confront himself in this novel. He starts a labyrinth of clues without any understanding of what they all mean. A woman goes missing, her husband says that she won’t be found; there are a pair of handcuffs hidden in the wife’s dresser that the husband knows nothing about.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Known and Unknown, a memoir

The prisms that we see national and international life through often distort the events we’re trying to make sense of rather than break them down into discrete, understandable elements.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters

Robert Lewis Taylor published this book in 1958 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Scorpion Down

What do John Walker, confessed and convicted traitor and Soviet spy, the USS Pueblo and the USS Scorpion have in common?

Scorpion Down takes you through a maze of public and classified evidence over a many decades long research by the author to show the connections among the three major threads in this book.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Danse Macabre

You probably won’t be able to buy this book, but if you want to delve into the relationship between Tim Burton and Danny Elfman this is a must read.

Both men grew up with stop motion monster films and other assorted off the beaten track horror films. Neither man had any inkling of the bond that would be cemented in their 25 years of collaborating on motion pictures.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

H.M.S. Ulysses

Alistair MacLean loved to write high adventure stories. This one is no different. He also loved the sea and in particular fighting ships and the men aboard them.

This book delves into the relationships among the men aboard the H.M.S. Ulysses, the impossible task of guarding a convoy leaving Great Britain and heading toward the Arctic port of Murmansk, and the fortunes and fears of how the enemy in the sky and on the sea would engage the ship.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

The Chili Queen

Sandra Dallas describes each of the following characters in some detail throughout the book:

• Addie—owner and madam of “The Chili Queen” hookhouse in Nalgitas, New Mexico.
  Emma—more or less a mail order bride who meets Addie on a train from Kansas City.
  Wellcome—chief cook and bottle washer (when motivated) of The Chili Queen. A large black woman with  a mind of her own.
  Ned—Addie’s toy boy who came west because he hated farming and decided to work (if that’s what it’s called) on the “shady” side of the law.
  John—Emma’s brother, a flinty sort who says little, but exhorts Emma to find a good investment for the   inheritance that Emma considered she was cheated out of. 

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller

Crash Out: The true tale of a hell's kitchen kid & the bloodiest escape in Sing Sing history

David Goewey’s family history was tied to the fortunes of Sing Sing prison as his relatives were employed at the infamous prison near the town of Ossining, New York. If that weren’t reason enough to chronicle the worst prison escape in the long history of Sing Sing then a collection of news stories in the local Ossining newspaper sent to him by his brother, a prison guard, fascinated Goewey and started him on the research that led to his book.

If you wish to read  my complete comments on this book, as well as comments on 64 other books then you can find all of them in "Book Blogs," available on Amazon in either softcover or digital:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Blogs-William-Behr-Mueller/dp/1479375446/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479445121&sr=1-25&keywords=william+behr+mueller