Our adult reading group started in January, but there is still time to join us for a wonderful evening discussing
books about spies through out history. Both Fiction and Non Fiction are discussed with University professors. Funded by the Utah Humanities Council and free to the public.
Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Reading Discussion Series at Brigham City Library
April 4, 2013. Thursday, 7 p.m.
Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS by Elizabeth P. McIntosh /
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Dr. Kathryn Mackay, WSU
The daring
missions of America s World War II intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS), are the stuff of legend, yet the contributions made by the
4,000 women including Julia Child and Marlene Dietrich who served in the OSS
are largely unheralded. To tell their fascinating stories, McIntosh, a veteran
of sensitive OSS and CIA operations, draws on her own experiences and on
interviews with more than 100 OSS women who served all over the world. Captured
in rich detail are the riveting tales of clandestine spies, saboteurs,
cryptographers, cartographers, analysts, and experts in propaganda, recruiting,
and communications. Also to be read and
discussed is the children’s book: Harriet The Spy.
May 2,
2013. Thursday, 7 p.m. Cyber War:
The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard A. Clark Dr. Branden Little, WSU
Richard A. Clarke warned
America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national
security—and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but
equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government,
and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. It
explains clearly and convincingly what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work,
and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to the vast and
looming web of cyber criminals. This is the first book about the war of the
future—cyber war—and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of
losing it.
June 6, 2013.
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Enigma: The Battle for the Code. By Hugh
Sebag-Montefiore
Dr. Kathryn MacKay, WSU
Winston
Churchill called the cracking of the German Enigma Code “the secret weapon that
won the war.” Now, for the first time, noted British journalist
Hugh-Sebag-Montefiore reveals the complete story of the breaking of the
code by the Allies—the breaking that played a crucial role in the outcome of
World War II.
This fascinating account
relates the never-before-told, hair-raising stories of the heroic British and
American sailors, spies, and secret agents who faced death in order to capture
vital codebooks from sinking ships and snatch them from under the noses of Nazi
officials. Sebag-Montefiore also relates new details about the genesis of the
code, little-known facts about how the Poles first cracked the Luftwaffe’s
version of the code (and then passed it along to the British), and the feverish
activities at Bletchley Park, Based in part on documents recently unearthed
from American and British archives—including previously confidential government
files—and in part on unforgettable, firsthand accounts of surviving witnesses, Enigma
unearths the stunning truth about the brilliant piece of decryption that
changed history.
July 11, 2013.
Thursday, 7 p.m.
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Dr. Sally Shigley, WSU
A killer at the
top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in
the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most
heavily guarded man. One man with a rifle who can change the course
of history. One man whose mission is so secretive
not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes
count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no
power on earth that can stop the Jackal.
August 1, 2013. Thursday,
7 p.m.
American Assassin by Vince Flynn /
The Camel Club by David Baldacci
Dr.Sally Shigley , WSU
American Assassin Mitch Rapp
was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world . . . and then tragedy
struck. What type of man is willing to
kill for his country without putting on a uniform? Kennedy finds him in the
wake of the Pan Am Lockerbie terrorist attack. Two-hundred and seventy souls
perished that cold December night, and thousands of family and friends were
left searching for comfort. Mitch Rapp was one of them, but he was not
interested in comfort. He wanted retribution.
The Camel Club: Existing at the
fringes of Washington, D.C., the Club consists of four eccentric members. Led
by a mysterious man known as "Oliver Stone," they study conspiracy
theories, current events, and the machinations of government to discover the
"truth" behind the country's actions. Their efforts bear little
fruit-until the group witnesses a shocking murder...and become embroiled in an
astounding, far-reaching conspiracy.
October 3, 2013.
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer by Victor Cherkashin
Dr. Branden Little, WSU
Cherkashin, a
retired senior KGB officer, working with Feifer, a former Moscow correspondent
for Radio Free Europe, gives readers an insider's view of the spy business from
just after World War II through the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. This is
at once fascinating and chilling. Cherkashin emphasizes the painstaking,
plodding nature of spy work, but he also spikes his account with the stuff of a
le Carre thriller Although the focus is on Soviet spycraft, Cherkashin's
story--especially the recruitment and handling of Americans Aldrich Ames and
Robert Hanssen.. Read this not just as a spy expose but also as a social
history of an especially volatile period in Russia.
November 7, 2013. Thursday. 7 p.m.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner
Dr. Branden Little, WSU
"Must reading for anyone interested in
the CIA or American intelligence since World War II." —The Washington
Post "Legacy of Ashes should be must-reading for every
presidential candidate—and every American who wants to understand why the
nation repeatedly stumbles into one disaster abroad after another.”—The
Boston Globe “A timely and vital contribution . . . [that] glitters with
relevance.”—Los Angeles Times“This is by far the scariest book of the
year.”—The Christian Science Monitor.
December 5, 2013.
Thursday. 7 p.m.
Enigma: A Novel by Robert Harris
Dr. Sally Shigley, WSU
At the heart of
Britain's most precious World War II secret, breaking the Germans' codes lurks
a spy who might be tipping off the enemy. Enter genius cryptanalyst Tom
Jericho, who discovers that a woman with whom he had a sexual encounter has
stolen some undeciphered cryptograms. When she disappears to boot, alarms
galore ring off as the Foreign Office starts investigating and Jericho conducts
a solo, unauthorized inquiry. The suspect's roommate, the mousy Hester Wallace,
joins forces with Jericho, and they decipher the stolen messages.
