Hello, Internet! Madly behind on book reviews again. This time I'm splitting by literary geography. Next up, North America.

( The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal )

Entertainingly, both sections here have two fictional books and one nonfiction. Getting the three that I just didn't like out of the way first:

( Darkship Thieves )

Here's two from my recent trip. At the Spy Museum bookstore, I picked up ( Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad )

I was wandering through a bookstore today and discovered that there is a book titled "There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories". Of course I bought it. How can you not, with a title like that? <3 Russian literature. Also, dear fellow readers of "Anna Karenina", I am mostly done. How are y' ( Read more... )

Long-overdue and necessarily incomplete book review post! This is about 1/3rd of the books I have in my to-review queue.

( Cairngorm John: A Life in Mountain Rescue )

( The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail -- But Some Don't )

I really enjoyed James Olson's highly disturbing "Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying". Written by a former CIA chief of counterintelligence, it presents a series of ethical dilemmas based on realistic scenarios that diplomats, spies, and case officers encounter. After each question, you get the answers of a series of people -- former CIA, ( Read more... )

( Brigid's Charge )

( In the First Circle )

( The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy )