An Influential Movement

As my regular readers will be aware of by now, as part of my ‘quest’ to understand the world I’m endeavouring to read at least some of the treasure trove of significant or influential books that exist in the world. My ‘discoveries’ are by and large random (as you can no doubt tell from the list below) and vary greatly in significance. However, I think they all make at least some contribution to the quests objective. My aim is to add at least 3-4 such books to the list each year. This year’s additions are added at the top of the list in Bold. I don’t have anything specific put aside for this year but I’m guessing that near future contributions will mostly be classical texts of politics and philosophy. I’m definitely feeling a lack of philosophy in my life…..! But to the list….   

Suffragette – My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
The Old Straight Track - Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones by Alfred Watkins
The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence
The True Believer – Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer
The Rights of Man by H G Wells
The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes
The Two Cultures by C P Snow
The City by Max Weber
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
The War of the Flea – A Study of Guerrilla Warfare Theory & Practice by Robert Taber
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton
Seize the Time – The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P Newton by Bobby Searle
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
The Autobiography of Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley
Achtung Panzer! – The Development of Tank Warfare by Heinz Guderian
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
About Looking by John Berger
A Vindication of The Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
War on Wheels – The Evolution of an Idea by C R Kutz
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Design as Art by Bruno Munari
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell
The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
The Rebel by Albert Camus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
A Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Guerrilla Warfare by Che Guevara

I’m very pleased with the addition of 6 books last year with some very serious contenders in there. Again they came from all subjects from science, politics, feminism and a foundational tome of the New Age movement. Let’s see what I can dig up this year!

Cartoon Time.

Plant life 'expanding over the Himalayas'

By Navin Singh Khadka for BBC World Service

10 January 2020

Vegetation is expanding at high altitudes in the Himalayas, including in the Everest region, new research has shown. The researchers found plant life in areas where vegetation was not previously known to grow. A team used satellite data from 1993 to 2018 to measure the extent of plant cover between the tree-line and the snow-line. The results are published in the journal Global Change Biology. The study focused on the subnival region - the area between the tree-line (the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing) and the snow line (the boundary between snow-covered land and snow-free land). Subnival plants are mainly small grasses and shrubs. "The strongest trend in increased vegetation cover was between 5,000 metres and 5,500 metres altitude," said Dr Karen Anderson, from Exeter University, lead author of the report. "At higher elevations, the expansion was strong on flatter areas while at lower levels that has been observed on steeper slopes." Using Nasa's Landsat satellite images, the researchers divided the heights into four "brackets" between 4,150m and 6,000m. It covered different locations in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, ranging from Myanmar in the east to Afghanistan in the west.

In the Everest region, the study found a significant increase in vegetation in all height brackets. Other researchers and scientists working on glaciers and water systems in the Himalayas have confirmed the expansion of vegetation. "It (the research) matches the expectations of what would happen in a warmer and wetter climate," said Prof Walter Immerzeel, with the faculty of geosciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. "This is a very sensitive altitudinal belt where the snowline is. A withdrawal of the snowline to higher altitudes in this zone provides opportunity for vegetation to grow." The research did not examine the causes of the change.

Other research has suggested Himalayan ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate-induced vegetation shifts. "We have found the tree-line expanding in the subalpine regions of Nepal and China as the temperature rises," said Achyut Tiwari, assistant professor with the department of botany at Nepal's Tribhuvan University. "If that is happening with trees at lower elevations, clearly the plants at higher altitudes will also be reacting to the rise in temperature." Some scientists regularly visiting the Himalayas have confirmed this picture of expanding vegetation. "Plants are indeed colonising the areas that once were glaciated in some of these Himalayas," said Elizabeth Byers, a vegetation ecologist who has carried out field studies in the Nepalese Himalayas for nearly 40 years. "At some locations where there were clean-ice glaciers many years ago, now there are debris-covered boulders, and on them you see mosses, lichens, and even flowers."

Little is known about plants at these even-higher altitudes, as most scientific studies have focused on retreating glaciers and expanding glacial lakes amid rising temperatures. The researchers said detailed field studies on vegetation in the high Himalayas were required to understand how the plants interact with soils and snow. "What does the change in vegetation mean for the hydrology (the properties of water) in the region is one of the key questions," said Dr Anderson. "Will that slow down the melting of glaciers and ice sheets or will it accelerate the process?" The Hindu Kush Himalayan region extends across all or part of eight countries, from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. More than 1.4 billion people depend on water from this region.

[Yet another sign of Global Warming that will, no doubt, be ignored for as long as possible – GRASS is growing on Mt Everest! You have to wonder what the next data point will be….. Isn’t it about time we really started taking this stuff seriously?]

Interesting idea.......

Just Finished Reading: Bomber Boys – Fighting Back 1940-1945 by Patrick Bishop (FP: 2007)

It was much more than a simple belief, it was an article of faith. With little evidence to support the idea it was assumed, all through the Interwar years, that the bomber would always get through to its target and, once there, would cause great devastation, loss of life and general panic. Those who planned for such things knew of only one effective defence – the fear of retaliation – and so RAF Bomber Command was tasked to destroy the enemy if anyone had the temerity to attack the British homeland. When war was declared in September 1939 this is exactly what they did and, for the first time, faced the stark reality. Bombers did not always get through – nowhere near in fact.

It was a rude awakening. Throughout the 1930’s the RAF had taken delivery of some of the most advanced as well as the fastest bombers in the world. With great confidence they attacked their targets in France and suffered greatly for it losing 20, 30, and 50% of their aircraft in a single operation. They were truly unsustainably casualties. Very quickly operations were changed to the hours of darkness. Immediately the casualty rates dropped but so did the accuracy of any bombing with ordnance landing sometimes miles from its intended target. The RAF was simply not ready for precision night time raids. Coupled with this the overall bombloads carried by each plane was pitiful. Even when the aircraft arrived on target the damage caused was negligible. The British were hitting back but the enemy hardly noticed and, for the steady low level losses, the results were much less than hoped for, anticipated or promised. Something had to be done.

In the years that followed the older, smaller and slower bombers were phased out or given other duties. The technology of navigation and accurate targeting improved by leaps and bounds and aircraft grew larger, more powerful and with much increased bombloads. More importantly the sheer number of bombers increased year on year. Where initially 20, 30 or 40 bombers flew out on any particular mission now 100 or more where assigned to each target. Increasingly targets were hit repeatedly giving them little chance to recover and the number of 1,000 bomber raids taking place became increasingly commonplace. But the enemy had been far from idle. The Germans developed an effective radar system slaved to deadly anti-aircraft guns like the much feared Flack-88. Radar was also fitted to a new breed of night fighter. Techniques to mislead bomber streams and the logistics to hit them throughout their long flights both to the target and back again were honed to perfection until few missions returned to base without significant losses. It was a rare crew indeed that completed its 30 mission limit before moving to safer duties.

But eventually the RAF bomber war provided results. With the RAF bombing primarily at night and the USAAF doing the same primarily in daylight the Axis powers in Europe were being ground into dust. Eventually after many loses and many setbacks Strategic Bombing finally lived up to its promise and assisted in the victory in Europe – or at least its defenders have maintained since 1945. Its many detractors have argued otherwise showing that, right up to the end the productive power of Axis industry hardly faltered under Allied bombing despite the appalling loss of life on the ground.

I am familiar with most of the history of RAF bomber command during World War 2. Still this well written and insightful volume kept me more than interested throughout its almost 400 pages. Although ‘Ops’ remained front and centre in the narrative the author spent a great deal of time looking at the lived experiences of the crews themselves, looking at their training, how crews were selected, the stresses of combat, life on base and so on. Likewise the author didn’t shy away from the lived experience of German citizens in the towns and cities that were the RAFs target for tonight. Those sections were particularly disturbing and gave me much pause for thought throughout my time reading this book. The author most definitely did not shy away from the argument, still ongoing today, about the morality of bombing whole cities rather than at least attempting (as did the USAAF) targeting clearly military targets. It’s not a question that can easily be answered although the author gives it a good go.

I think this is my first book by this author and I shall enjoy reading more of his work. Certainly knowledgeable he comes at the subject from many angles and does not shy away from difficult questions or counter arguments. Whilst not afraid to offer his own opinion he gives the reader enough information and argument to make up their own considered viewpoint. Recommended for anyone interested in the campaign or the controversy.

Cartoon Time.

For a Night Out in the Rough part of Town.

The Best Books of 2019

I finished 66 books this year (not too shabby for me) with just 1 (surprising) DNF. As usual I’ll split the Best’s between Fiction and Non-fiction with the Best of the Best in each category in BOLD. At the end of that I’ll do a summary and give my feelings on the year just gone.

Fiction: 

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Replay by Ken Grimwood
The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
House of the Hanged by Mark Mills
Destroying Angel by Richard Paul Russo
The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

Non-Fiction:

The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes
Peacemakers – Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan
Why We Sleep – The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
A Higher Loyalty – Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey
Killers of the King – The Men who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer
Chasing Che – A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend by Patrick Symes
Life 3.0 – Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark
The Vanquished – Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923 by Robert Gerwarth
The New Silk Roads – The Present and Future of the World by Peter Frankopan
Suffragette – My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst
Voyages of Delusion – The Search for the Northwest Passage in the Age of Reason by Glyn Williams
Fractured Lands – How the Arab World came Apart by Scott Anderson
The Arab Uprisings – The People Want the Fall of the Regime by Jeremy Bowen
Secrecy and Privacy in the New Code War by Steven Levy
The Deluge – The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order (1916-1931) by Adam Tooze

So, not a great year for Fiction (at least numbers wise) but another really good one for Non-fiction and not just History this time (although as usual the list is History heavy). I am disappointed in the gender disparity but I’m working on that. I doubt if I’ll be restrictive to the extent of forcing a 50/50 split but I’ll try to increase the percentage of women authors. Saying that, two of the best books of the year (Silent Spring and Suffragette) are both by women and are excellent and influential in their own fields. I was pleased with the publication date spread this year – from 1914 to 2019 and not just at the two extremes but spread throughout the century with a few clumps in the 1950’s, 1970’s and around the Millennium. The other success of the year I think has been my imposition of Probabilistic Reading – meaning that whenever I finish a book I roll a dice (literally) to decide if I drop in a random read at that point. Only a couple made it into my Best List but I’ve had some nice surprises along the way. As mentioned previously with my upcoming Retirement I anticipate the numbers of read books to increase in 2020. I think that 75 should be a pretty safe bet at this point. Ultimately I’m aiming at 100 a year but that’ll take a bit of doing I think. So, here’s to a new year of reading!   

Cartoon Time.

Man who threw 'lucky' coins into plane engine fined

From BBC News

3 January 2020

A Chinese man who was flying for the first time has been fined for throwing "good luck" coins into a plane's engine. The 28-year-old was ordered to pay $17,200 (£13,100) in compensation to the budget airline - called Lucky Air. The plane was grounded after the coins were found near one of its engines. Lu Chao admitted throwing the coins as he boarded an internal flight at Anqing Tianzhushan Airport in eastern China in February 2019. He appeared in court in July but the ruling was only recently made public. The flight was cancelled after staff spotted two 1 yuan coins on the ground near one of the plane's jet engines. Safety checks were carried out, leaving passengers stranded while replacement flights were arranged. Mr Lu was also detained by police for 10 days, charged with disturbing public order, but was made to pay compensation via a civil case.

In court, Lucky Air said the incident had cost it more than $17,600. Mr Lu argued in court that the airline should have warned passengers not to throw coins at planes. It's not the first time superstitious passengers have been caught throwing coins at plane engines. There have been a number of such cases in recent years, including an elderly passenger who delayed a flight in 2017.

[Lucky? I’m guessing not! Can you imagine the possibilities? I think it’d be a lot safer if they just flew with their fingers crossed if they’re that superstitious. Personally I find flying somewhat tedious rather than frightening. Funnily though a friend of mine hates flying (despite the fact that he’s travelled all over the world) and, as a joke, I started tapping on the side of the plane as we got on. I did this two or three times on our long holiday and then stopped. On our fourth flight he stopped me as we got on and essentially ordered me to tap before he would get on. But neither of us would even think about throwing coins into an engine – a fountain maybe, but not an engine!]

An OLD poster (obviously!).

Just Finished Reading: The Organized Mind – Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2014)

This was not the book I was expecting it to be. I thought it was more about how our IT systems and especially Social Media was overwhelming people in its relentless flood of tweets and pokes. It was somewhat about that but mostly it was about two aspects of the information environment we’re presently swimming in. The main focus of the work was from the neurological side – using the latest research into the human brain to both show its limitations (after all it evolved to keep us alive on the African veldt not on Social media) as well as the best way to organise things taking into account how the brain actually works (and not just how we’d like it to work). It appears that our ‘wetware’ bandwidth is pretty low by technical standards and that explains why we have problems dealing with too many things at the same time – somewhere between 2 and 5 we can just about cope with (and 2 is far better than 5). It was good to see the author repeatedly say that multitasking is a myth. I’ve long held that opinion so I’m pleased that it’s backed up by science. Multitasking is far more like spinning plates. We can keep a number of them spinning but in order to do so we need to rush from plate to plate and give them a nudge. It’s only a matter of time before the energy needed to keep moving between plates exhausts us and all of the plates come crashing to the ground. Naturally we can keep 2 plates revolving a lot longer than 5 or 10. That’s the reality of multitasking – it’s actually time-slicing and each switch of attention costs mental energy. That’s one of the oft repeated pieces of advice in this more than reasonable book: Pay attention to the lowest possible number of things at any one time in order to get things done. Categorise, Prioritise and Act.

The other recurring theme throughout the book is based on the limitations of the data retrieval functions of the brain. It’s entirely possible, as several theories attest, that you remember everything you pay attention to. The problem is getting an accurate and, more important, actionable memory back out on command. That’s not easy. What you can do though is externalise the memory in another form – notes to yourself, diary entries, prompts from your phone or other electronic system or, if you have the money and need such things, a personal assistant to orgainse your life for you so you don’t have to remember a thing except what you’re working on right now. Naturally some of these things are incredibly mundane and I did find myself rolling my eyes a little as the author recommended techniques for organising e-mail on your PC (something I HAVE to do at work if I don’t want to drown under the weight of them as they come in) and paper in filing cabinets. Ever a fan of categorising things the author recommends keeping things in piles as long as you know which pile holds what. This utilises the innate ability of the brain to locate things in physical (or virtual) space. Keeping something in the same place – like keeping your house keys close to your front door – ensures that you know where things are when you need them.

I did have a few issues with the tone of the book rather than (much of) it’s content. The brain/neurology bits where interesting but I did find the author repeated himself a LOT which was rather irritating. Another thing that grated was the fact that over 95% and probably close to 99% of the institutions, scientists and ‘highly successful people (HSPs) were American. This might be invisible to American readers but I think non-Americans might find it odd that it appears that, from the perspective of this book nowhere outside the US either exists or has had any impact or influence on anything he says. But with those caveats in mind overall this wasn’t a bad book at all. I was probably more than a little disappointed that it wasn’t the book I expected so this probably tainted my general opinion of it. I did think it was a bit prescriptive despite the fact that the author often said that individual styles are important in adopting the right information organisation strategy but with a bit of reading between the lines you can pick up on the essence of things rather than the actual list of Do’s and Don’ts. Both reasonable and reasonably helpful especially if you’re having real problems organising aspects of your life and need some pointers.         

Cartoon Time.

Happy NEW Year! Let's Hope that 2020 is THE year things turn around for us all....

It's OK. I have.... some.....

Still no chance of snow here.... Or in Moscow!

General Administration…

My plan was to post about one of my favourite (comparatively Recent) TV shows but I still have 3 episodes of the first series to watch so that’ll have to be shifted to next week/year. In the mean time I’ll just post a short (quite boring) piece about upcoming changes to the labelling scheme/list over on the right-hand side of the Blog page.

I mentioned recently about the addition of a Travel label (still with 5 entries) and I might at some point be adding an associated Exploration label and then have the ‘fun’ of deciding which book falls into which category. I’ve also mentioned a Sport label which will be appearing next year. There’s no book entries in this category (yet) but they are coming – with running and road racing already mentioned.

The other additions have been prompted by my recent trawls through my Random Pix and Art sections looking for images of ships and aircraft to add to my All @ Sea and Up in the Air sections. During the trawl I came across a significant number of train images (I mean who doesn’t like trains, right?), car related items – as well as the recent prompt from Mudpuddle about classic French cars – and, rather surprisingly horses, yes, that’s right, horses. So, coming soon will be the following new labels:

On Track
On The Road
My Kingdom 4

Presently all of these labels will contain pictures only. But I do have several train, car and even horse related books in the pipeline. Yet again I lay the blame at the feet of my ever present butterfly mind. Maybe someday I’ll run out of new topics to be interested in… but then again, probably not. 

Nice hat........ 

Cartoon Time.

Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life

From ESA

27/05/2016

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years. They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet – fuelling the debate on their role in the origin of Earth’s water. But new results reveal that comets nevertheless had the potential to deliver ingredients critical to establish life as we know it. Amino acids are biologically important organic compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and form the basis of proteins.

Hints of the simplest amino acid, glycine, were found in samples returned to Earth in 2006 from Comet Wild-2 by NASA’s Stardust mission. However, possible terrestrial contamination of the dust samples made the analysis extremely difficult. Now, Rosetta has made direct, repeated detections of glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet. “This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet,” says Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument that made the measurements, and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances today. “At the same time, we also detected certain other organic molecules that can be precursors to glycine, hinting at the possible ways in which it may have formed.” The measurements were made before the comet reached its closest point to the Sun – perihelion – in August 2015 in its 6.5 year orbit.

The first detection was made in October 2014 while Rosetta was just 10 km from the comet. The next occasion was during a flyby in March 2015, when it was 30–15 km from the nucleus. Glycine was also seen on other occasions associated with outbursts from the comet in the month leading up to perihelion, when Rosetta was more than 200 km from the nucleus but surrounded by a lot of dust. “We see a strong link between glycine and dust, suggesting that it is probably released perhaps with other volatiles from the icy mantles of the dust grains once they have warmed up in the coma,” says Kathrin. Glycine turns into gas only when it reaches temperatures just below 150°C, meaning that usually little is released from the comet’s surface or subsurface because of the low temperatures. This accounts for the fact that Rosetta does not always detect it.

“Glycine is the only amino acid that is known to be able to form without liquid water, and the fact we see it with the precursor molecules and dust suggests it is formed within interstellar icy dust grains or by the ultraviolet irradiation of ice, before becoming bound up and conserved in the comet for billions of years,” adds Kathrin. Another exciting detection made by Rosetta and described in the paper is of phosphorus, a key element in all known living organisms. For example, it is found in the structural framework of DNA and in cell membranes, and it is used in transporting chemical energy within cells for metabolism. “There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the chemistry on early Earth and there is of course a huge evolutionary gap to fill between the delivery of these ingredients via cometary impacts and life taking hold,” says co-author Hervé Cottin.

“But the important point is that comets have not really changed in 4.5 billion years: they grant us direct access to some of the ingredients that likely ended up in the prebiotic soup that eventually resulted in the origin of life on Earth. The multitude of organic molecules already identified by Rosetta, now joined by the exciting confirmation of fundamental ingredients like glycine and phosphorous, confirms our idea that comets have the potential to deliver key molecules for prebiotic chemistry,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. “Demonstrating that comets are reservoirs of primitive material in the Solar System and vessels that could have transported these vital ingredients to Earth, is one of the key goals of the Rosetta mission, and we are delighted with this result.”

[I know that there has been much speculation of where the original complex chemicals came from that started life on Earth. It’s possible that at least some of them might have come from comets – as long as they survived getting through the atmosphere – but I don’t think that’s where life originated. The way I see it it’s a matter of quantities. The amount of amino acids from space is probably miniscule in the grand scheme of things. I think that most if not all the chemical basis for life originated on Earth – and by extension the chemicals for life on other worlds originated there too. But it’s good to know that complex chemicals can be formed outside of a planetary environment. That indicates to me that such things are extremely common in the galaxy and, by extension, so is life itself.]

One Day I'll Fly Away............

Just Finished Reading: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (FP: 2006)

Istanbul, 1836. Change is coming as inevitably as Day follows Night. After yet another defeat at the hands of Europeans the great Ottoman Empire must modernise or die. In 10 short days the Sultan will issue a new Edict changing rules for dress, commerce, and much more besides. Modernity will be the order of the day. But with any change there is always opposition, those who follow the old ways, those who revere the past and everything it represents, those who will do anything to protect long held traditions. As the day approaches four young Army officer cadets disappear on a night out. One by one their mutilated corpses are found at sites holy to the Janissaries lately crushed by the new administration. As panic begins to spread throughout the city Yashim the eunuch, who has been useful before, is sent for to investigate the killings and prevent, if possible, whatever is coming to challenge the Sultan’s wishes. With time pressing and a cadre of killers more than willing to burn the city to the ground Yashim must not only discover the truth of things but find out who he can trust both within and outside the administration. No doubt the Russian’s would like to see the Sultan fail so that they could apply pressure and gain access to the Mediterranean Sea but is that motive enough? What of the displaced Janissaries? Everything points to their involvement and their resurgence but is that a cover for something else, something more insidious and something far more dangerous? Yashim needs to find out – before it kills him.

Despite having several first novel (but not first publication) faults – some repartition (particularly regarding the fact that the main character/detective is a eunuch and is still angry about it after many   decades) and a little too much exposition (excellent and informative though it was) – this was still a most excellent historical crime novel. Yashim is an outstanding character, self-reflective, sophisticated, intelligent and with a variety of interesting friends and associates and is a superb tour guide to early 19th century Turkey in all its complexity. Rather inevitably my interest in the region and the period has been piqued so I’ll be investigating further. Fortunately I already have several histories of the region in my Middle East pile so I’m set for a while! Also fortunately this volume is the first of 5 books in the series so you’ll be hearing far more of Mr Goodwin. Interestingly the author has written extensively on the region so is coming to the genre with a deep background understanding of the city, its culture and history and this shows (in spades) between these covers. It’s an easy way to learn about the Ottoman Empire without really trying. You might also pick up a few recipe idea as the main character cooks his way through the investigation (the author – not surprisingly – has also produced an Ottoman Cook Book!). As historical crime novels go this is one of the best I can recall in recent years. Some of the murders are a bit grisly so they might put off the more sensitive souls who might be thinking about reading this work but you can always skip a half page or so without missing too much of this highly recommended romp. Definitely more to come!           

Cartoon Time.

MERRY Christmas! I hope that you got something nice in a stocking today!