THE ANGEL : THE EGYPTIAN SPY WHO SAVED ISRAEL
by Uri Bar-Joseph

The funeral for Ashraf Marwan in Cairo that took place on July 1, 2007, was a virtual who's who among the Egyptian elite. People from the areas of government, business, and security came to pay their respects to one of their own. They knew about his patriotism to his country and wanted to honor him. But, there were others who did not feel this way. They considered him to be a traitor.
Marwan was the son-in-law of the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and worked as a top-level official in his administration. Nasser never really trusted Marwan and didn't really give him anything important to do. Frustrated by being looked down upon (he had quite an ego), Marwan decided that he wanted to go back to school and get a master's degree in chemistry in London. Nasser approved and off Marwan and his wife, Mona, with their son, Gamal (named after his grandfather) went. London was perfect for Marwan and he had the time of his life. Soon he got into trouble financially (he had a weakness for gambling). Nasser was not too happy and wanted Mona to divorce Marwan, but she said no, that she loved him too much and would stand by him. They returned to Egypt and Marwan was only allowed to go to England for a few days at a time for his studies. He was back to the position where he was constantly scrutinized and he knew that he had to change it. On one of those days where he came back to England to continue his education, Marwan called the Israeli embassy in London and offered his services.
Marwan became a spy for the Mossad (Israel's intelligence service). His handlers called him "the Angel." Israel considered him to be the most important spy they ever had. He saved Israel from losing the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack during Yom Kippur in 1973. Marwan worked for them for years and gave Israel incredible information. After Nasser died of a heart attack, Anwar Sadat took over. He treated Marwan like a son and so Marwan had access to even more secrets. Amazingly, nobody in Egypt knew about his other life. It was not until 2001 that details began to come out.
If you like espionage, you will definitely like The Angel. Without Marwan being around, Israel would have lost the 1973 war. There's so much information here. What is really interesting is the blow-by-blow account before the attack. Anybody who enjoys reading about  Middle Eastern history, military intelligence, and spying should not hesitate to read this book. It's an amazing story.
Recommended.

THE RETURN : FATHERS, SONS AND THE LAND IN BETWEEN
by Hisham Matar

When Hisham Matar was eight years old, he and his family left Libya in 1979 and settled for a long exile in Cairo, Egypt. They thought they could be safe here. Libya was ruled by Muammar Qaddafi, a tyrannical dictator. If you opposed him, you were hanged in a public square; those who departed were pursued. Hisham's father, Jaballa, was one of these dissidents. Qaddafi considered him to be a dangerous enemy.
Eleven years later (1980) while Hisham was studying at a university in London, his father was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret police. He was brought to a prison (Abu Salim) in Tripoli where the regime stuck people that they wanted to forget. Hisham never saw his father again. He never gave up hope, though. that his father was still alive.
Fast forward to late August 2011. Tripoli has fallen, Qaddafi is deposed, and the revolutionaries have taken over. The prison cells are emptied, but none of the men are Jaballa Matar. There is no sign of him. Nobody knows anything. Hisham decides that he must take a trip and return to Libya to find out what really happened to his father.
The Return is a book that should be read by everybody so that they can learn what it was like to live under a diabolical monster. In beautiful prose, Hisham gives you an early history of Libya, the period of time when Qaddafi was in power (1969-2011), and what's happening currently. The writing is powerful, honest, revealing, and extremely moving. One has to be very strong to go back to the homeland where there are strong memories and where it took so much away.
Highly recommended.

THE WICKED BOY : THE MYSTERY OF A VICTORIAN CHILD MURDERER
by Kate Summerscale

During the latter part of the Victorian era in England (1890s), schoolboys were snatching up at a tremendous rate something called "penny dreadfuls." They were known as the pulp fiction of the day and caused quite a bit of concern to the general public. Wild adventures, escapism, violence, and murder were the usual subjects. For young lads who were bored by their rote learning in school, the "bloods" (what the boys called them), were a wonderful diversion. Unfortunately many of the boys were heavily influenced by these stories.
Robert Coombes, at age thirteen, was one such boy. He committed matricide by killing his mother. His brother, Nattie (age twelve) was at first considered an accomplice but after Robert confessed that he did it alone, Nattie ended up giving evidence against his brother. 
The trial was a huge sensation. Neither the prosecution nor the defense could figure out what Robert's motive was. The judge sentenced him to be incarcerated in the most famous villainous insane asylum in the country: Broadmoor. Robert would spend seventeen years there. 
Author Kate Summerscale has done it again. She is a master of writing books about murder in the Victorian age. Her most famous one is called The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher and the review is posted in this blog. Kate's meticulous research on the Coombes family, the brothers (most especially Robert), the trial and how to deal with a child criminal, the asylum where Robert would spend a good portion of his life, and what happens to him after his release makes for quite riveting reading. Even though the subject matter is disturbing, you will want to stick with it and find out what kind of man Robert became.
Highly recommended.

MELVILLE IN LOVE : THE SECRET LIFE OF HERMAN MELVILLE AND THE MUSE OF MOBY-DICK
by Michael Shelden


When Herman Melville published his novel of epic proportions (Moby-Dick) in 1851, he thought for sure that it would finally catapult him to literary fame. Who better than he could have penned this monumental work? Melville was an experienced sailor and had many years at sea on whaling vessels. He had written other books of adventure previously, but none of them had been lucrative for him. And so it went with Moby-Dick. Most of the reviews were bad. Critics called it blasphemous and irreverent. It was a total disaster and during his lifetime barely garnered many sales.
The reason why Moby-Dick did not do well at that period of time was because in Pittsfield, MA (in the Berkshires), many of the people who were from good families were very straitlaced. Most likely they didn't bother to even read the book after hearing about so many bad reviews. 
Melville wrote Moby-Dick inspired by his lover, Sarah Morewood. She was his neighbor and married to somebody else. In fact, both of them were married. He considered her to be his kindred spirit: passionate, unconventional, literary, and intelligent. She understood him the way nobody else did and thought his book was brilliant. She was his creativity.The two of them carried on an affair for years. Nobody knew about it. The secret endured.
Not until the 1920s did Melville's genius come to the fore with scores of new readers. Finally his reputation was restored and has remained so.
Melville in Love is so beautifully written that I didn't want it to end. Michael Shelden is a great biographer. One of his previous books, Mark Twain: Man in White (reviewed in this blog) was just as tremendous. It's always interesting to learn about the man behind one of the greatest novels of all time and Shelden was able to do that effortlessly by showing us what made Melville tick.
If you're a fan of Melville's works, you will definitely want to grab a hold of this delightful tale.
Highly recommended.

FOR THE GLORY : ERIC LIDDELL'S JOURNEY FROM OLYMPIC CHAMPION TO MODERN MARTYR
by Duncan Hamilton 

Everyone who has seen the film Chariots of Fire remembers the thrill of seeing Eric Liddell (actually actor Ian Charleson) fly across the finish line and win an Olympic gold medal (Paris, 1924). He was so extremely fast that he was considered to be the number one sprinter in the world. Liddell was known as "The Flying Scotsman" and broke new records when he ran 400 meters. He could have continued on with his racing and become quite a celebrity. But that was not in the cards for him. Liddell had a higher calling.
When the Olympics were over, Liddell became a missionary eventually moving to China. His strong faith in God kept him totally grounded. He was very lucky to find a strong woman, Florence, who he would marry and have three children with. When war started to rear its ugly head, Liddell sent his wife and children out of the country and put them on a ship to Canada. He could have gone with them but he felt beholden to the Chinese and so he stayed. Unfortunately for him and many other westerners, they ended up in a Japanese work camp.
Eric Lidell was the most incredible human being. He was totally selfless, dedicated to his beliefs, faced adversity with no venom, prayed for his enemies, overlooked imperfections, never judgemental, didn't argue, and would not force his religion on anybody else. Liddell lived to help others in every way that he could.
So, if you vaguely remember the film, it's much more important to read For the Glory. It's very well written and succinctly captures true humanity.
Highly recommended. 
 

PRETTY JANE AND THE VIPER OF KIDBROOKE LANE : A TRUE STORY OF VICTORIAN LAW AND DISORDER
by Paul Thomas Murphy

For those of you who are obsessed with watching Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs and you truly believe the portrayals of happy, large amounts of servants, this was not the norm in 1871. In Victorian England, in order to be considered respectable (middle-class), the family had to hire at least one servant. Two-thirds of young girls (twelve or thirteen) were maids-of-all-work. Their duties were endless: cook, kitchen maid, housemaid, valet, footman, making beds, washing dishes, childcare, cleaning boots, sweeping, dusting, etc. You get the picture. It was pretty much a miserable existence. With long days of constantly cleaning (fifteen to eighteen hours) and not much time off, maids-of-all-work had a lonely, solitary life. Jane Clouson was one of these unfortunates. She began working soon after turning twelve and would eventually end up being employed by the Pook family. Jane lasted there not quite two years before she left on her own saying that she no longer wanted to be a servant. The truth was that she was in love with Edmund Pook, the son of her master and they were planning to get married. Too bad that Jane was so naive. Edmund was a womanizer and particularly liked to prey upon female servants. He, of course, had no intention of marrying her. She meant nothing to him. He knew that he had to get rid of her. Edmund contacted Jane and arranged for them to meet on an isolated road where nobody goes. The following day, while walking his beat, police constable David Gunn finds her barely alive.
Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane is a very persuasive story that keeps you glued to the page. It is very interesting to read about the legal system in Britain during the nineteenth century; the beginnings of forensic science; the police investigation; and life in England within the 1870s. Author Paul Thomas Murphy used primary sources to recreate a tale of a murder (it remained unsolved for one hundred and fifty years). Murphy has degrees in Victorian studies and it shows. He really knows how to write and draw you in.
If you like Victorian drama, especially a murder mystery that is true, you won't be disappointed.
Highly recommended.

 

THE LAST VOYAGEURS : RETRACING LA SALLE'S JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA : SIXTEEN TEENAGERS ON THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
by Lorraine Boissoneault

How does one celebrate America's two-hundredth anniversary? Reid Lewis, a French teacher from a suburb in Chicago, had the idea of reenacting a 3,300-mile canoe journey from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. He wanted to emulate Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's long voyage. La Salle was the first European that traversed from Montreal to the mouth of the Mississippi River. It would be called La Salle: Expedition II. The expedition would be made up of twenty-three men, sixteen of which would be teenagers who had just graduated high school along with six teachers. They would take the names of the original French voyageurs (look, act, and behave like them), make their own seventeenth-century clothes, build their own canoes, and give performances along the way to the communities. There was no way, though, that Lewis could lead this expedition alone, so he asked his brother, Ken, to help. Canoeing was right up their alley. Just a month prior, the two of them had followed and reenacted the trek of another French explorer (Louis Jolliet), but Lewis and Ken had just paddled half of the Mississippi River. The students would need to do research projects and get up to speed with both the physical and mental trials they would experience. Lewis wanted teachers who could be tremendous assets during the trip. They had two years to plan everything.
The Last Voyageurs is an extremely well-written book about a daring group of young men who were involved in the adventure of a lifetime. For eight months, they left their families and dealt with hardship, difficult personalities, a limited diet, camping out in makeshift tents (canoes turned on their sides with tarps), dangerous waters, learning how to get along with others in very tight spaces, and homesickness. The chapters are laid out with the historical aspect of the original voyage and at the same time, the present trip. In this way, you get the feel of what actually happened three hundred years ago, but also see how the young voyageurs attempted to be like those men and experience what they went through.
I loved reading this story. It's a real page turner. If you enjoy adventure tales, you must get this book. Between the astute sketches of the characters involved and the way author Lorraine Boissoneault melds everything together keeps you riveted. I really did not want this book to end. Hopefully, Boissoneault will surface again with another terrific escapade. I will be eagerly waiting.
Very highly recommended.