Reviews and Comments

A few months after finishing The Bureau (definitely one of my favorite TV series ever), I was craving more spy stories. I kept seeing this book recommended. I don't think I even knew if it was fiction or non-fiction before starting it (it's a true story).

For the first half of the book, I thought it was going to be filled with interesting facts but lacking the intensity and drama that I wanted from it. Then I realized that nearly all of the drama was going to be saved for one story, the escape. It turned out to be worth the wait.

There are lots of important, interesting, and fun facts in this book. There are lessons about leadership and planning and trust.

Here are some of my favorite parts:

On some gadgets:

During the war, the Hanslope boffins produced an astonishing array of technical gadgets for spies, including secure radios, secret ink, and even garlic-flavored chocolate—issued to spies parachuting into occupied France to ensure their breath smelled convincingly French on landing. Had Q, the technical wizard in the James Bond series, actually existed, he would have worked at Hanslope Park.

MI6 was still using the old-fashioned Minox camera. The CIA, however, was known to have recruited a Swiss watchmaker to develop an ingenious miniature camera hidden inside an ordinary Bic cigarette lighter, which could take perfect photographs when used in conjunction with a length of thread, 11¼ inches long, and a pin. Using a piece of chewing gum, the thread was stuck to the bottom of the lighter; when the pin at the end lay flat on a document, that measured the ideal focal length, and the button on top of the lighter could be pressed to click the shutter.

On Russian paranoia and secrecy:

Officers were expected to get married, have children, and stay married. There was calculation as well as control in this: a married KGB officer was considered less likely to defect while abroad, since his wife and family could be held as hostages.

[In the embassy in London, ] even manual typewriters were discouraged in case the keystrokes gave something away; there were notices on every wall warning: DON’T SAY NAMES OR DATES OUT LOUD; the windows were all bricked up, except in Guk’s office, where miniature radio speakers pumped canned Russian music into the space between the panes of the double glazing, emitting a peculiar muffled warble that added to the surreal atmosphere.

On (bad) leadership:

In launching Operation RYAN [a search for proof that the US was planning a first strike], Andropov broke the first rule of intelligence: never ask for confirmation of something you already believe. Hitler had been certain that the D-day invasion force would land at Calais, so that is what his spies (with help from Allied double agents) told him, ensuring the success of the Normandy landings. Tony Blair and George W. Bush were convinced that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that is what their intelligence services duly concluded.

The Kremlin, however, assuming that capitalism penetrated every aspect of Western life, believed that a “blood bank” was, in fact, a bank, where blood could be bought and sold. No one in the KGB outstations dared to draw attention to this elemental misunderstanding. In a craven and hierarchical organization, the only thing more dangerous than revealing your own ignorance is to draw attention to the stupidity of the boss.

I came away with a deep appreciation for the work that the spy, Oleg Gordievsky, did and the impact it had on the West's relationship with the USSR. He helped avoid nuclear war and directly recommended the strategy which led to the USSR overextending itself financially, which I had understood (and still believe) is the primary reason for its collapse.

And the story about "the Traitor" is unbelievable.

– originally written 2021-03-29

Excellent. Like the other McCullough books I've read, it takes some time to get rolling. But once it got going, I couldn't put it down (err, couldn't stop listening).

Truman didn't go to college and seemed to fall into his political career. He was one of the last major players in the US who was backed by a "machine," like in the Tammany Hall, graft, and corruption sense. Because he didn't go to college, was raised in a small town, and knew economic hardship, he had an easy way of relating to people.

And everyone liked him. It seems like no one who ever worked with him ever said a bad thing about him.

The Truman presidency happened as a last resort: he was picked at the last minute to be FDR's VP in 1944 essentially because he would offend the fewest people. Jimmy Burns, known as "Assistant President" and handling all domestic policy during WWII after leaving the Supreme Court, had been too outspoken as a racist.

Truman then had a huge impact on history. He decided to go ahead with using the nuclear bombs (he actually only gave approval for the first and left the second up to the military), confronting the emerging threat of the USSR, communism and McCarthyism, then Korea and more.

By far the biggest disappointment on his record is the way he handled labor and strikes. He threatened to draft strikers and generally sided with management.

On the other hand, he alone, even in the Democratic Party, pushed for universal healthcare, and almost alone pushed for civil rights.

There was some interesting overlap in the story with The Making of the Atomic Bomb. More and more, I'm loving the small overlaps across fiction and non-fiction. Truman impacted so much that this gives a lot of cross section for those connections.

– originally written 2021-06-30

I saw this book recommended on Twitter and I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into. The subtitle – "on mushrooms and mourning" – is a great description. The mourning part that is hard to read if you're not in the mood for it is just at the beginning. The way out (or through) is most of the book. Litt Woon finds her new life in mushroom foraging at home in Oslo and around the world.

The book is filled with interesting facts about wild mushrooms, the culture of foraging, and her experiences going from beginner to certified expert. On a deeper level, it's about how foraging helped her create a new life for herself. That she could begin alone, when she was in no mood for company, and transition into new friendships and community built around her new interest made foraging a great fit.

I have been interested in mushrooms since my friend Jon encouraged me to watch a TED Talk by Paul Stamets (mentioned in passing in the book) in October 2013. I learned a lot about mushroom cultivation over the couple years following that as we explored starting a farm in upstate New York, including a visit to Cascadia Farm in Bellingham and two Stamets seminars.

Foraging is completely different, though. I have only gone foraging a handful of times and reading this made me want to go more often. The way I think about foraging didn't change much: I think it's great to go for a walk in the woods and if you find dinner, it's a bonus. If you can only have a good time if you find a basketful, I think you'll be disappointed unnecessarily.

My favorite passage on mourning is this one:

“If there’s anything I can do for you, just call,” people said after Eiolf died. The problem was that I didn’t know what I needed. Obviously there is no standard formula for how to be a good support to someone in mourning, but for me the map of my friends and acquaintances was redrawn after Eiolf’s death. People I had thought would be right there by my side, solid as rocks, never showed their faces, while others who had previously been more peripheral friends provided tireless and thoughtful help. They didn’t give up but followed me at the pace of my grief.

On foraging culture:

I once asked someone I thought was a friend where he had found his mushrooms. Obviously I wasn’t expecting to be given the exact location. It is generally assumed that everyone keeps their favorite sites to themselves. No one expects to be given GPS coordinates. But I did have some small hope of being provided with a little information as to the general location. Instead all I received was the useless and utterly worthless reply of “Oslo.” That earned him a big black mark in my book.

The book has lots of facts like this easy-to-overlook one:

Urban mushrooms are also a good plan B during a long dry spell, when the woods have little to offer but park lawns and grassy areas in graveyards—which are usually watered regularly by strategically placed sprinklers—more or less guarantee that there will always be some good pickings to be had.

I enjoyed it overall and recommend it if you're interested in mushrooms.

– originally written 2021-04-03

Larry McMurtry died today and in tribute I'm recommending this book, my favorite novel. There are so many deep, interesting, lovable characters in this book. I was intensely sad that I could not spend more time with the characters as I approached the end, a feeling I had only experienced with The Goldfinch.

It's a love story and a western (or anti-western). It's about friendships, fatherhood, adventure. It's about life and forgiving yourself. It does not have enough women.

One unusual thing that's stuck with me is the extent that the American West itself is a character. The rivers are almost characters. The idea of judging distance not by miles or hours but by days or weeks to the next river or the next source of water. The idea of understanding geography as anchored by the Rio Grande, the Red, the Arkansas, the Missouri.

It's the kind of writing that fires your whole brain, sharing the sensations of the characters. The sights and smells and pains and fears.

I don't think it's a book for people who love any particular genre. It's for everyone. I think you'll like it, too.

– originally written 2021-03-26

I loved it. It was no surprise that I enjoyed a winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo awards. I was surprised that I connected with the characters and the world in this story more than any fiction I've read in the last couple of years.

In this world, the history department of Oxford has access to a time machine that they use to study the past. The way the machine works, they cannot make any significant changes to the path of time or the people they interact with.

Both the "present" day timeline, in the near-future 21st century, and the 14th century timeline, experience epidemics. I didn't realize I was reading a plague book when I started. I'm not sure I would have sought it out had I known, because COVID is enough plague for right now.

I'm looking forward to continuing the series ("The Oxford Time Travel") with To Say Nothing of the Dog.

– originally written 2021-06-30

A quick, inspiring read by the founder of CD Baby on how he ran his business and why he sold. There are a lot of great stories on how he put his customers first, relentlessly.

Here are a couple favorite quotes:

A business plan should never take more than a few hours of work—hopefully no more than a few minutes. The best plans start simple. A quick glance and common sense should tell you if the numbers will work. The rest are details.

After working on dozens of business plans and models, I came to a similar conclusion. There are a lot of cases where putting in the work to figure out how key metrics and growth drivers would need to compound over time to get to certain hurdles is helpful. For most businesses, I think basic unit economics and thinking about how repeatable those units are is enough.

Make every decision—even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone—according to what’s best for your customers. If you’re ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, “How can I best help you now?” Then focus on satisfying those requests. ... It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.

– originally written 2021-01-31