What Fiction are you reading this week, November 3, 2024?
"The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night.” – Isabel Allende
I am reading James by Percival Everett. This is exactly what people are saying about it: genius, harrowing and darkly humorous, a literary work of art, a real treasure. I'm glad I decided to buy it.
I'm listening to Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, by Bob Odenkirk. A comedic memoir. He gets in a few good digs against our orange nightmare, so it's got that going for it.
Well, friends, all we can do now is wait and see. May truth and justice prevail.
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Very new. Tons of 5-star reviews. "a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day." 
I’m reading The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. It’s about a women’s boarding house in D.C. during the McCarthy years. I can’t put it down, it’s oh so good.
As Edward R. Murrow would say “Good Night and Good Luck,” I’ll see you on the other side. 
Elyse Graham's book, Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II. Very interesting and fascinating reading, and I'm just getting started.
At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.
In Book and Dagger, Elyse Graham draws on personal histories, letters, and declassified OSS files to tell the story of a small but connected group of humanities scholars turned spies. Among them are Joseph Curtiss, a literature professor who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents; Sherman Kent, a smart-mouthed history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa; and Adele Kibre, an archivist who was sent to Stockholm to secretly acquire documents for the OSS. These unforgettable characters would ultimately help lay the foundations of modern intelligence and transform American higher education when they returned after the war.
Thrillingly paced and rigorously researched, Book and Dagger is an inspiring and gripping true story about a group of academics who helped beat the Nazis—a tale that reveals the indelible power of the humanities to change the world.
ETA: Hope you enjoy James as much as I did.
And important.
Thanks.
Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors.
Welcome to DU and to this group!!!
Glad you enjoyed it. Agree about the spoilers. As for the questions at the end: where did they go? Ha! I think the answer to that is pretty obvious. Politics.
Take care up there in that special state. Thanks for stopping by.
