I love books that take me into the mindsets of people with different worldviews.
This true story of a KBG mole working for Briton’s M16, and eventually involving the US, does just that. It describes differences in spy-craft and approaches to intelligence gathering in these three countries, and impressively the incredible lengths the British go to, to ensure their mole’s safety.
The book is a page-turner. You won’t regret reading it or be able to stop once you start.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with a thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War.
“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the…
Although the book is ostensibly about making money, the real focus is marriage, intimacy, and male-female relations. The part that struck me was the way the male author so sensitively conveys the female side of the story.
The novel has three parts, seemingly telling the story of two couples but really relating three versions of the same story. The central issue is male ego where the husband downplays the wife’s role in his successes so he can get more credit. In one case the wife assumes a secondary position by choice, while in another he actively erases her role in his success; in both cases the wives suffer consequences indirectly.
When an outsider is brought in with a fresh perspective, it takes time before she understands what is happening. The book has surprises that require the reader to remain alert. This book will almost certainly spark discussion.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize The Sunday Times Bestseller
Trust is a sweeping, unpredictable novel about power, wealth and truth, set against the backdrop of turbulent 1920s New York. Perfect for fans of Succession.
Can one person change the course of history?
A Wall Street tycoon takes a young woman as his wife. Together they rise to the top in an age of excess and speculation. But now a novelist is threatening to reveal the secrets behind their marriage, and this wealthy man's story - of greed, love and betrayal - is about to slip from his grasp.
I’ve read many non-fiction books on race that explain how whites can become good allies to “Black Lives Matter” movements, but these books leave so much unsaid.
I felt Picoult’s novel succeeded much better in laying out the sensitivities of race relations. Her characters show where different sides are coming from, without demonizing them. The plot is simple—a black nurse is accused of killing the newborn son of a white supremacist couple and a white lawyer defends the nurse in court. The lawyer believes she is not a racist but finds she really doesn’t understand all the subtleties.
I suspect Picoult as a white writer will be criticized for expressing black pain, but if the problem really is with whites, then airing their ambivalence seems a good way to confront them.
'Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written ... It will challenge her readers ... [and] expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice.' - The Washington Post
When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.
What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
This book describes the more than 40 years that I spent living and working in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Through my diplomat husband, I met elites, as a mother, I knew local families, and as a professional anthropologist, I knew people not usually accessible to foreigners. During these years, my thinking about local cultures changed as I came to know them better. My experiences include wintering over in a Syrian village, years working with a social worker in a poor quarter of Cairo, spending time with royal women in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and working on projects financed by USAID and UNICEF in Pakistan and Afghanistan that involved interacting with the Taliban.
The book’s insights contradict much of the conventional wisdom about the region.
