Welcome to Litsy!

I‘ve been working my way through the Smiley novels and I think this is my favorite. In addition to his stellar writing, I appreciate le Carré‘s unflinching look at the world of espionage. No sugar-coating here.

Le Carre just hits the right notes always..

This is the 8th Smiley novel, although George doesn‘t feature heavily. George is invited to speak to a group of Ned‘s Sarratt students. His topics lead Ned to reminisce about past events, so we get are vignettes of Ned‘s service. This book is like a warm hug of nostalgia for fans of the Smiley novels, although I think reading The Russia House, too, would have made the experience even richer. I cried at the end. All the stars for this one.

“The Circus analysts declared them ‘likely and presumed reliable,‘ which, coming from them, was an ecstatic declaration of faith.”

😆

“Radio operators are the opera star of every network. If they don‘t have breakdowns, they have shingles.”

😳😆😆

Dedication: “For Alec Guinness with affection and thanks” 😭💖😭💖

I waffled between Daniel Silva and the latest Le Carre, but I discovered this one is actually part of the Smiley books. It‘s the only Smiley I haven‘t read, so it wins. No contest. I should be reading the Dumas, but honestly, I‘m thinking about pushing all the Dumas back a month and just focusing on my March theme. This is the most excited I‘ve been about reading in months!

The aftermath of the big book sale is usually a book store visit/order to get things we hoped to find and didn‘t. I think that makes a total of 40 new books in one day. 😆