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Netsurfer Recommendations

History of Beauty
Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwen (Translator)
Rizzoli International Publications; ISBN: 0847826465

Let's start with a couple of shortcomings. This book should really be called "History of Western Beauty", since despite its impressive historical depth it skimps on notions of beauty from the rest of the world. Second, the book inexplicably does not credit Italian author Girolamo de Michele on the cover, even though he wrote nearly half the chapters. Having said all this, we're still fans of this big (432 pages) action-packed (in the philosophical sense) survey of beauty through time. At first glance, you might think that this is nothing but a profusely illustrated history of beauty in western art. Indeed, it is astonishing how much artwork fills these pages. Every page has several reproductions of famous and obscure art, ranging from ancient Greek sculpture to modern iconic movie-star photos. All this is tied together with concise text that introduces the philosophical notions of beauty, and inevitably its opposite, explored in each chapter. That sounds kind of heavy, but this is really a delightful browse, the kind of thing you can pick up, read a couple of pages of, then put away for a while while you ponder what you just read. It's particularly useful for artists as a quick survey of the idea of beauty, but makes a neat coffee-table book as well.

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
John Mortimer
Viking Books; ISBN: 0670033561

It is difficult to envision John Mortimer's Horace Rumpole stories without thinking of the actor who played him on TV, the incomparable Leo McKern who died in 2002 (and who was, incidentally, Australian by birth). Yet Mortimer keeps writing the delightful books on which the BBC series was based, making it all but certain that someone will have to assume McKern's mantle at some point. But we digress. In this new book, Mortimer finally tells the story of the famous case that made young Rumpole's career. Fans of the series are well aware of the Penge Bungalow Murders, which Rumpole never fails to bring up whenever a complex legal predicament has him waxing nostalgic for the days when a good old-fashioned bloodstain was what it took to clinch the case. The year is 1942, and a young airman stands accused of shooting his father. Rumpole's head of chambers, C.H. Wystan, does not put up much of a defense, and young Rumpole must ride to the rescue. Along the way, he is introduced to the infamous and larcenous Timson clan who will provide much of his income for many decades to come. On top of that, we finally get to hear the story of how Rumpole hooked up with C.H. Wystan's daughter, the formidable Hilda, a.k.a. "She Who Must Be Obeyed". Need we say more?

Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945
Max Hastings
Knopf; ISBN: 0375414339

Max Hastings's account of the last eight months of World War II is already garnering rave reviews as one of the best history books to cover that chaotic period. In many ways, the battles fought in Germany were the most brutal of the war, with three vast armies wreaking destruction and much of the havoc borne by the civilian population of Germany and Eastern Europe. Hastings mines an extensive vein of new material, particularly eyewitness accounts of all levels of the conflict, including testimony from soldiers bolstered by little known but important accounts from Russian veterans. Beyond recounting the facts, Hastings offers crisp and well informed assessments of why the war had to last as long as it did, of the effectiveness of the various armies and their leaders, and of the strategic and tactical decisions that drove it to its inevitable end. Hastings has produced a first-rate account of the war's end game and how it was fought, and a must read for any history buff.

The Final Solution: A Story Of Detection
Michael Chabon
Fourth Estate; ISBN: 006076340X

We complete our thematic World War II book sweep (not planned, it just worked out that way) with this exquisite volume from the Pulitzer Prize-winning pen of Michael Chabon (" The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay"). The year is 1944, and a familiar 89-year-old detective smokes a pipe and keeps bees in his Sussex Downs retirement. The old man encounters a mute boy with a parrot on his shoulder. The child is a refugee from the war in Europe, relocated to a local boarding house, but it is the parrot, spewing out a stream of numbers in perfect German, who is at the heart of the mystery. The animal is stolen and a related murder brings in the police. The local constabulary is off on the wrong foot, and the famous old detective is once again on the case. Chabon has crafted a wonderfully atmospheric mystery, told from multiple view points and infused with the sensibilities that made Conan Doyle's hero such an enduring character. The only quibble is that the book is both far too engrossing and much too short. You'll probably read it in one sitting. Highly recommended.