The Secret World: A History of Intelligence by Christopher Andrew

Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South by Christopher Dickey

Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agency Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephan Talty

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben MacIntyrre

Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's Cold War Against the Catholic Church by John Koehler

The other end of the telescope from the Mossad book.  Here clerical spies recruited by Soviet block nations infiltrate the Vatican, especially during the papacy of John Paul II and his advocacy for Polish Solidarity.  This ends up being a contrast in religions not necessarily in espionage, as the Catholics evidence not knowledge of the presence of agents in the clerical ranks whereas Mossad is a penultimate enforcer as well as expert spy.

Gideon's Spies The Secret History of the Mossad by Gordon Thomas

All 772 pages of it.  Takes a l-o-n-g time to read, especially when there are several new jig saw puzzles to do and trips to take to the ocean.

Ghost Soldieers: The Forgotten Epic Story of WWII's Most Dramatic Mission by Hampton Sides

This is not a spy story; rather it recounts the liberation of the POW camp near the city of Cabanatuan in the Philippines in October 1945.  I finished the book with tears in my eyes and found it difficult to fall asleep last night as I dwelled on the horrors of the camp, the diseases, the starvation, the abuse.  This enemy seemed multiples crueler than those I read about in Germany camps, granted there was not any gas chamber, medical experimentation.  Still I marveled at the human spirit of those who managed to "live" through it and again respected, in awe, of the 6th Ranger Battalion who set them free.

Not to preview too much what I hope to write about my year's adventure into spy world, but I was seeking better to understand how someone possessed the heroism to serve his county in that capacity and to also look into the dark motives of those who spy into the USA.  There is a lot to admire across the agencies, across time, across the globe.  Their souls possess the epitome of patriotism.

So, too, do our armed forces and I was glad to divert into the documentation of this adventure.

Ne'er the less, a spy does pop up on page 183.  "High Pockets," her undercover nom de guerre, was very cleverly "under" as it came from her modus operandi of storing information in her bra.  Operating a cabaret in Manila, the Club Tsubaki, she was known as Clara Fuentes.  She was not a Philippine national nor of Italian extraction as she claimed; she was Claire Phillips, an American from Portland, Oregon.  Encouraged by a soldier in the 31st Infantry into espionage, she opened this club through which Japanese generals, admirals, submarine captains, merchant marine skippers and zaibatsu businessmen passed.  With pseudo-amorous words and plenty of alcohol, she cajoled them to divulge troop movements and conditions of roads and bridges, including discovering that Japanese troops were being transported in vessels marked with a Red Cross for neutrality.

I'm being to conclude that my discovery into spy craft was a search for heroes.

A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe America's Most Important Spy in WWII by Lucas Delattre

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag & Christopher Drew

Last Sam Kean: The Disappearing Spoon: and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the Workd from the Periodic Table of Elements

Off Theme Again, More Sam Kean: The Tale of Three Dueling Neurosurgeons ...

The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery

Not a Spy Book -- The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scinetists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean

Deep Under Cover: My Life a=and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America by Jack Barsky

Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling

Mafia Spies: The Insider Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK and Castro by Thomas Maier

Everyone Spies

The Darkening Web:  The War for Cyberspace by Alexander Klimburg

America's Great Game

The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East by Hugh Wilford

Mostly about the acts and after-effects of Kim and Archie Roosevelt

Now Listing Book by Book

The Art of Intelligence:  Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service by Henry A Crumpton

Off Theme: House to House - An Epic Memoir of War by David Bellavia

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the ceremony that awarded David Bellavia the medal of honor, the first Iraqi war veteran to receive it.  He was an average looking American on the TV who brought his entire company with him, as he believed they were equally heroic in the battle of Fallujah.  My eyes actually teared up as I read the chapter of his reunion with his wife and young son.

I say this biography is off my 2019 espionage theme but since I'm not going to write posts of each of the spy books, rather to summarize in one or two blogs the personal reasons why I chose this theme this year and what I learned about myself and my county by choosing it.  So reading about a military hero is not really the obverse of a spy.  Spies and even double agents tend to be heroes to their nations and often served in the military or defense industry in some capacity before or after being a "spook."

As a preview of one of my rationales, I attempt to discover what makes a person stand above their peers, doing things the vast majority of the populace would never dream of doing, not being a showman and seeking attention or notoriety, but solidly grounded on higher ethical and patriotic grounds.

Sgt Bellavia served in Kosovo before the Middle East and served several tours in Iran.  His beliefs in democracy, religion, and leadership ground him through horrific battles.  He is a vicious infantryman, using 21st century military weapons but leading his men in a brotherhood that is a timeless as the Old Testament.

So one of the things I am subconsciously seeking in this years' books are people whose inspiration I can aspire to, if not attain this late in my career/life. Bellavia, fights in filth against fanatics hopped up on drugs.  Every time an enemy combatant yells Allahu Akbar, he responds with a line from the Exorcist "The Power of Christ Compels You."  To him it means, if not you, who else has to and will do what has to be done.

I hope these don't sound like platitudes, but Bellavia's code of honor personifies many ideals that others might think are platitudinous:

Be an example for your subordinates; don't have them do something you would not do, but rather lead them into that action.

Break the rules for purpose and to advance the desired end game.

Notice not just the heritages of your staff, but their quirks as well as talents.  Cohesion makes results attainable.

Do I think all spies are heroes or act for honorable reasons?  Many of the books I've read so far this year are set during wars, from the American Revolution, WW II, and now into the various wars in the Middle East.  Spies who are working for and not double crossing their nations are heroes who avert fighting.  A double agent is like a fighter who fights not for freedom but for expansionism ,,, to conquer an opposing nation's territory or to fatten a personal wallet.

Only One or Two Sentences in Entire Book Referencing Spy

John Jay:  Founding Father by Walter Stahr

The latest books are longer/heavier and family vacations intervene

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen

Slower Pace During the Summer

Spy Dust:   Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations that Helped Win the Cold War by Antonio and Jonna Mendez

The Pentagon's Brain:  An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top Secret Military Research Agency by Annie Jacobsen

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