Welcome to Litsy!

Last audiobook finished; I need to catch up on my reviews. No interesting recs from Hoopla app after finishing the last, so I decided to try this out. Turned out to be a suitable follow-up to the one I listened to about Jack Ruby, including more background for the CIA's knowledge and suspicion (very well hidden even from the Kennedy assignation investigation) of Oswald, and Kennedy's and Nixon's relation with security agencies and their impact.

This book is an extrapolation based on a screenplay, with some dialog generated and assumed. The writing is simplistic, and the unbelievable dialog simply odd in places. Only a third of this book is about the spying, much of it is guesswork and assumptions with possible dialog and situations. I was hoping for a profile of Hanssen, his actual misdeeds and the results.

We are having “easy like Sunday morning” on Saturday.

After a series of CIA compromises in Moscow in 1978, the NSA investigated the US embassy and found spying technology so sophisticated that many didn‘t believe the Russians could have planted it, allowing its use to continue for 6 more years. This is a fascinating exploration of how ego and hubris can cause problems and how we‘ve learned so little from this incident and others.

#ReadingEurope2020 #Russia

A fascinating and exhaustive history of intelligence and counter-intelligence, stretching from ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs right up to WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. See my Goodreads review at; https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3002125600. #book #books #christopherandrew #bookstagram #bookphotography #bookish #bookcommunity #nonfiction #dauntbooks #espionage #intelligence #counterintelligence #MI5 #MI6 #history #diplomacy #militaryhistory

Nonfiction about the Cold War. So basically made for me.

My dad recommended this first-person account of how a Cold War spy almost got away with selling some of America's most valuable military secrets. The author, Joe Navarro, was an FBI agent in the Tampa field office when he picked up on physical tells that led him to believe an interview subject was lying. The case would ultimately reveal shocking lapses in nuclear security. An incredible story.

This didn‘t quite live up to its very high early promise, but I as still and engaging and clever thriller. See my Goodreads review at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35004364-need-to-know. #karencleveland #needtoknow #espionage #thriller #dilemma #spystory #cia #sleepercell #coldwar #fbi #counterintelligence #americanfiction