Another Robert Baer

The Devil We Know:  Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

Oops, I forgot: Another List of Ten Recorded on a Tablet Pre-Surgery

Behind Enemy Lines by Marthe Cohn

Spies in the Family by Eva Dillon

The Black Hand by Stephen Talty

The Billion Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman

The Triple Agent by Joby Warrick

A Spy Among Friends by Ben MacIntyre

The Spy's Son by Bryan Denson

My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo

Code Name Lise by Larry Loftis

Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

It's Like Finding a Winning Ticker

My across the board bet on the Derby yesterday was a losing ticket, but since the only way I am keeping track of all the spy books I've read this year is by saving the receipt tapes I get from the library, I found another loose one this morning when trying to tidy up the hassock that has been my "desk and storage cabinet" over the last six weeks as I recuperate in the recliner from hip replacement surgery.

So after the above excuse, here are two more spy books for my year end thesis on spycraft:

Best of Enemies:  The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War by Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall

The Perfect Kill:  21 Laws for Assassins by Robert Baer5

Forgot one and finished another

Sleeping with the Devil by Robert Baer

Washington's Spies:  The story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose

SPIES The 2019 Theme: Books Read So Far

I may have forgotten some, but since the first of the new year, here's 21 that I remember.

1  Behind Enemy Lines:  The True Story of a Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn

2  Spies in the Family:  An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship that Helped End the Cold War by Eva Dillon

3  A Spy Among Friends:  Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

4  The Black Hand:  The Epic War between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History by Stephan Talty

5  The Billion Dollar Spy:  A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman

6  Code Name Lise:  The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry Loftis

7  Ghost:  My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo

8  One Hell of a Gamble:  Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958-1964

9  The Spy's Son:  The True Story of the Highest Ranking CIA Officer Ever Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia by Bryan Denson

10  The Triple Agent:  The Al-Qaeada Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA by Joby Warrick

11  The Catcher was a Spy by Nicholas Davidoff

12  Spy Princess:  The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu

13  Sisterhood of Spies:  The Women of the OSS by Elizabeth P McIntosh

14  Avenue of Spies:  A True Story of Espionage, Terror and One American Family's Heroic Resistance to Nazi-Occupied France by Alex Kershaw

15  Gray Work:  Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy by Jamie Smith

16  Madame Fourcade's Secret War:  The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson

17  The First Conspiracy:  The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

18  The Company We Keep:  A Husband and Wife True Life Spy Story by Robert and Dayna Baer

19  See No Evil:  The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism by Robert Baer

20  Agent Zigzag:  A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal by Ben MacIntyre

21  Under Fire:  The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi by Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz

The Restless Wave by John McCain

If someone else wrote this book, it would have been a fitting eulogy but the Senator did, and modestly.  Yes, of course, I am a biased reader and it was my attempt to have a private wake.

I am at the point now where I think being a senator, but one of the better ones who have served well on several committees and had significant tenure, should be the qualification for President.  The depth of Mc Cain's knowledge of foreign affairs and temperament would have resulted in an exceptional national leader.

The best way to review it, is to quote at length in his own words:

"In President Obama's last year in office, at his invitation, he and I spent a half hour or so alone, discussing very frankly what I considered his policy failures, and he believed had been sound and necessary decisions.  Much of that conversation concerned Syria.  No minds were changed in the encounter, but I appreciated his candor as I hoped he appreciated mine, and I respected the sincerity of his convictions.  Yet I still believe his approach to world leadership, however, thoughtful and well intentioned, was negligent, and encouraged our allies to find ways to live without us, and our adversaries to try to fill the vacuums our negligence created.  And those trends continue in reaction to the thoughtless America First ideology of his successor."

" I was a Republican, a Reagan Republican.  Still am.  Not a Tea Party Republican.  Not a Britbart Republican.   Not a talk radio or Fox News Republican.  Not an isolationist, protectionist, immigrant-bashing, scapegoating, get-nothing-useful-done Republican."

"Here's one fact fools ignore.  Our Constitution and closely divided polity don't allow for winner-take-all governance.  You need the opposition's cooperation to get most big things done."

"... the formula for success for any major piece of legislation … Strike hardest when external events give you an advantage.  Make necessary compromises to a bipartisan coalition in favor of it.  Use your friendships to recruit as many influential members to your side as you can.  Friends on both sides of the aisle will warn you about problems you might not be aware of, they'll tell you who you can count on and who's quietly working against you.  Box in the cynics with public cand medicat attention, make sure the more transactional politicians know there's a cost to opposing the bill.  Leave critical responsibilities to your hardest-nosed allies, and hope they'll stand up to threats and reprisals … A lot of momentum for an issue is illusory and  based on excessive faith in the media's sustained attention to it and the potency of its public support … That's how the sausage gets made."

"There have been times in the past and there will be times in the future when America's conduct at home and in the world will fall short of our own high standards.  That doesn't mean that our values are imperfect, only that we are.  In those instances, our true friends will encourage us to change course,  But we should never believe that our fallibility disqualifies us from supporting the rights of others.  That isn't humility.  It's an abdication of moral responsibility."

RIP, Mr. McCain

The Lives of the Constitution by Joseph Tartakovsky

OK this was a better book than that gift shop collection of short bios of "notorious" women.  But like that rehash of mostly notorious, as in known rather than scandalous females, these lives of nine men and one woman, has some insights and depth to it.  However, it consists of a broad spectrum or politically correct rainbow of people with everything from direct composition of the constitution to those whose stretch legal interpretation to a much more liberal agenda.

Of course the author starters with the actual "builders:"  After reading a detailed biography, the first chapter is Alexander Hamilton; chapter two is about James Wilson of Philadelphia acknowledged as an underrated founder.  An introduction to a new person for me.  Tartakovsky moves on to "fighters" again with a known and lesser known:  Daniel Webster and Stephen Field.  The next category of exceptional minds is Alexis de Tocqueville.  Then the author goes, I believe, far afield to "dreamers" of Woodrow Wilson and Ida Wells-Barnett.

At least he ends on a high note with "restorers:"  Antonin Scalia.

So the best I can say about this book is that it drove me directly to buy Scalia Speaks, a collection of his speeches complied by his son Christopher, which I will give as a Christmas present to at least two people, and to ask my husband to by me Scalia's tome, "Reading Law."  Stay tuned for more exciting reviews.