Kate’s 2¢: “Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style” by Benjamin Dreyer

“Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style” by Benjamin Dreyer

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Benjamin Dreyer expressively read his book with examples voiced by  Alison Fraser. It was fun to review so many of the rules I learned ‘way back when. One of the suggestions I find hard to implement and read concern using italics for titles. My screen reader doesn’t indicate italics so I don’t know when itlaics are used.  If I increase the verbosity, there is too much chatter to hear the text.

   I like his common-sense approach to our written English language.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

benjamindreyer.com

Benjamin Dreyer (born May 11, 1958) is an American writer and copy editor. He was copy chief at Random House until he retired in 2023.[1] He is the author of Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style (2019). The Washington Post called Dreyer “the unofficial language guru on Twitter”.[2]

Early lifeedit

Dreyer was born May 11, 1958[3] in a Jewish family.[4] He grew up in Queens, New York and Albertson, Long Island.[5] He attended Northwestern University.[6]

Careeredit

Early in his career, Dreyer pursued writing[7] and acting.[5] He worked in bars and restaurants before turning to freelance proofreading, and then copy editing.[5] In 1993, he joined Random House full time as a production editor.[6] He was promoted from group manager to senior managing editor and copy chief in 2008[8] and served as vice-president, executive managing editor and copy chief, at the Random House division of Penguin Random House.[6] until 2023. Supervising the publication of hundreds of titles a year—The New York Times describes Dreyer’s role as “style-arbiter-of-last-resort”—he works with novelist Elizabeth Strout as the sole author he continues to copy-edit himself.[5]

Dreyer’s Englishedit

Dreyer’s English began as a revision of an internal memo to advise copy editors and proofreaders at Random House.[9] The memo expanded to about 20 pages, and eventually Dreyer became interested in developing it into a book. That book, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, was published by Random House in January 2019.[10] It debuted at #9 on The New York Times bestseller list for “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous”[11] and received enthusiastic reviews.[12][13]

In The New Yorker, Katy Waldman wrote that “Dreyer beckons readers by showing that his rules make prose pleasurable… The author’s delight in his tool kit is palpable.”[14] Writing in Paste magazine, Frannie Jackson recommended the book as “invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills and an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language.”[15] The Wall Street Journal’s reviewer, Ben Yagoda, saw “wisdom and good sense on nearly every page”,[16] and noted what he termed a trend of “copy editors’ memoirs-cum-style guides”, comparing Dreyer’s English to “the splendid Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen”, from New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris.[16]

The Washington Post calls Dreyer “the unofficial language guru on Twitter”.[2]

In 2020, Dreyer released STET! Dreyer’s English: A Game for Language Lovers, Grammar Geeks, and Bibliophiles, a card game based on his style guide.[17] Dreyer maintains an active presence on social media, where he frequently comments on grammar, usage, and literary culture.[18]

Personal lifeedit

Dreyer lives in Santa Monica, California.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style DB93768

Author: Dreyer, Benjamin

Reading Time: 9 hours, 41 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Benjamin Dreyer, Alison Fraser

Subjects: Bestsellers, Language

Downloaded: 08/16/2026

Random House editor distills the knowledge that he has gained from working on hundreds of books into a guide on punctuation, grammar, and usage. Provides general rules and lessons as well as tips for specific difficult cases. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2019.

[New York] : Random House Audio, 2019.

Take Action On Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style

Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style DB93768

Author: Dreyer, Benjamin

Reading Time: 9 hours, 41 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Benjamin Dreyer, Alison Fraser

Subjects: Bestsellers, Language

Downloaded: 08/16/2026

Random House editor distills the knowledge that he has gained from working on hundreds of books into a guide on punctuation, grammar, and usage. Provides general rules and lessons as well as tips for specific difficult cases. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2019.

[New York] : Random House Audio, 2019.

Take Action On Dreyer’s English: an utterly correct guide to clarity and style

Kate’s 2¢: “Two plus four equals one: celebrating the partnership of people with disabilities and their assistance dogs” by Kathy Nimmer

“Two plus four equals one: celebrating the partnership of people with disabilities and their assistance dogs” by Kathy Nimmer

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to Mitzi Friedlander narrate these often moving vignettes about assistance dogs.

   I can appreciate all the time, emotion,  and effort Kathy Nimmer put into researching this anthology of personal stories. It seem strange that, although she wrote many from her interviews with people, she used her by-line, instead of the interviewee’s name.  I listened to an interview with her, Graham Buck, and Kathie Zubricky from GEB.

   I have partnered with seven guide dogs and can attest to how wonderful it is to pick up that harness and confidently walk with my head held up high.   

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Two plus four equals one: celebrating the partnership of people with disabilities and their assistance dogs DB74137

Author: Nimmer, Kathy

Reading Time: 10 hours, 22 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Mitzi Friedlander

Subjects: Animals and Wildlife, Disability

Downloaded: 08/16/2026

A collection of stories, essays, and poems about beloved canine partners from individuals who have disabilities and others. Describes the challenges and rewards of training guide dogs, the first days with a new service animal, and daily life. Shares moments of humor–and of loss. 2010.

Indianapolis, IN : Dog Ear Pub., c2010.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The absence of mercy” by John Burley

“The absence of mercy” by John Burley

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Dan Bloom did a good job of narrating this gruesome, Psychological Fiction. All too often, we can’t admit to what we see right under our nose.

From the WEB:

John Burley was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up near the Chesapeake Bay.  Following college, he served as a paramedic/firefighter in a busy 911 jurisdiction just north of Washington, D.C. He later completed a graduate degree in medical pathology and attended medical school in Chicago, earning his Doctor of Medicine from Rosalind Franklin University before returning to Baltimore to complete an emergency medicine residency training program at University of Maryland Medical Center and the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. 

After graduating from residency, John moved to California, where he began work on his first novel. THE ABSENCE OF MERCY was published by HarperCollins in November 2013. It received the National Black Ribbon Award in recognition of an author who brings a fresh, new voice to suspense writing. 

John currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area where he works as an emergency department physician. His third novel, THE QUIET CHILD, released in the United States in August 2017.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The absence of mercy DB78026

Author: Burley, John

Reading Time: 9 hours, 33 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Dan Bloom

Subjects: Psychological Fiction, Suspense Fiction

In the small Ohio River town of Wintersville, medical examiner Ben Stevenson investigates the worst case of his career–a fifteen-year-old boy was savagely killed and dismembered. When Monica, a friend of Ben’s son, narrowly survives the next attack, Ben fears for his family. Violence and some strong language. 2013.

New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2013]

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Kate’s 2¢: “The 22 murders of Madison May” by Max Barry

“The 22 murders of Madison May” by Max Barry

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to Helen Laser narrate this story about parallel universes and the obsession one man has for an actress he saw in a movie and the people who want to stop him before he murders her again.

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Website

www.maxbarry.com

Max Barry (born 18 March 1973) is an Australian author and software developer. He also maintains a blog on various topics, including politics.

Early life and educationedit

Max Barry was born on 18 March 1973[2] in Stratford, Victoria, Australia.[3]

Careeredit

When Barry published his first novel, Syrup, he spelled his name “Maxx”, “because he thought it would be a funny joke about marketing”, but subsequently has used “Max”.[4][2]

Barry is also the creator of NationStates, an online game created to help advertise his second novel, Jennifer Government, that eventually evolved into its own online community. In early 2004, Barry converted his website to a blog and began regularly posting to it.[2]

Company, published in 2006, was his third novel.[2] In the November 2004 issue of the magazine Fast Company the novel Company was ranked at number 8 on a list of the top 100 “people, ideas, and trends that will change how we work and live in 2005”.[5]

Barry wrote the screenplay for Syrup, which was released in theatres on 7 June 2013. Universal Pictures has acquired screen rights to Company, which will be adapted by Steve Pink. Jennifer Government was optioned by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s now defunct Section Eight Productions. His novel Machine Man initially was an online serial, but has since been updated and published in 2011 by Vintage Books. The film rights have been picked up by Mandalay Pictures.[6]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The 22 murders of Madison May DB107435

Author: Barry, Max

Reading Time: 10 hours, 26 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Helen Laser

Subjects: Psychological Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense Fiction

While investigating a murder, journalist Felicity Staples spots the killer just before he vanishes. Afterwards, Felicity’s universe seems to have shifted slightly–many small details are wrong. She soon learns that the killer is pursuing every version of his victim across time and space. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

[New York] : Penguin Audio, 2021.

Take Action On The 22 murders of Madison May

Kate’s 2¢: “Absolute friends DB57589” by John Le Carré  

“Absolute friends DB57589” by John Le Carré  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Fred Major did a good job of narrating this psychological spy story.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020), known by his pen name John le Carré (/ləˈkæreɪ/ lə-KARR-ay),[1] was an English author.[2][3][4][5] Many of his espionage novels have been adapted for film or television. He has been described as a “sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer”,[6] and is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).[7] Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen.

Le Carré’s third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) became an international best-seller, and was adapted into an award-winning film. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author.[8]

His other novels that have been adapted for film or television include The Looking Glass War (1965), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), Smiley’s People (1979), The Little Drummer Girl (1983), A Perfect Spy (1986), The Russia House (1989), The Night Manager (1993), The Tailor of Panama (1996), The Constant Gardener (2001), A Most Wanted Man (2008) and Our Kind of Traitor (2010). In 2008, The Times named le Carré one of the “50 greatest British writers since 1945”.[9] Philip Roth said that A Perfect Spy (1986) was “the best English novel since the war”.[6]

Early life and educationedit

David John Moore Cornwell was born on 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England, son of[10][11] Ronald Thomas Archibald Cornwell (Ronnie Cornwell),[12][13] and Olive Moore Cornwell (née Glassey). His older brother, Tony, was an advertising executive and county cricketer (for Dorset), who later lived in the United States.[14][15] His younger half-sister was the actress Charlotte Cornwell, and his younger half-brother, Rupert Cornwell, was a former Washington bureau chief for The Independent.[16][17] Cornwell had little early memory of his mother, who had left their family home when he was five years old. His maternal uncle was Liberal MP Alec Glassey.[18] When Cornwell was 21 years old, Glassey gave him the address in Ipswich where his mother was living; mother and son reunited at Ipswich railway station, at her written invitation, following Cornwell’s initial letter of reconciliation.[19][20]

Cornwell’s father – who escaped from his “orthodox but repressive upbringing”[21] as son of “a respectable nonconformist bricklayer who became a house builder and mayor of Poole”[22][23] – had been jailed for insurance fraud and was a known associate of the Kray twins. The family was continually in debt. The father–son relationship has been described as “difficult”.[19] The Guardian reported that Le Carré recalled that he had been “beaten up by his father and grew up mostly starved of affection after his mother abandoned him at the age of five”.[7] Rick Pym, a scheming con man and the father of A Perfect Spy protagonist Magnus Pym, was based on Ronnie. When his father died in 1975, Cornwell paid for a memorial funeral service but did not attend, a plot point repeated in A Perfect Spy.[19]

Cornwell’s schooling began at St Andrew’s Preparatory School, near Pangbourne, Berkshire, and continued at Sherborne School.[24] He grew unhappy with the typically harsh English public school regime of the time and disliked his disciplinarian housemaster. He left Sherborne early to study foreign languages at the University of Bern from 1948 to 1949.[25][24]

In 1950, he was called up for National Service in the British Army, and was commissioned in the Intelligence Corps as a second lieutenant on 21 October 1950.[26] He was garrisoned in Allied-occupied Austria, serving as a German language interrogator of people who had crossed the Iron Curtain to the West.[25] He transferred to the Supplementary Reserve of Officers on 1 July 1952, and was promoted to acting lieutenant on that date with seniority from 29 June 1952.[27] In 1952, he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he worked covertly for the Security Service, MI5, spying on far-left groups for information about possible Soviet agents. During his studies, he was a member of The Gridiron Club and a college dining society known as The Goblin Club.[25] He was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 19 October 1954, with seniority from 29 June 1952.[28]

When his father was declared bankrupt in 1954, Cornwell left Oxford to teach at Millfield Preparatory School;[18] however, a year later, he returned to Oxford, and graduated in 1956 with a first-class degree in modern languages with a German literature concentration. He then taught French and German at Eton College for two years, before becoming an MI5 officer in 1958.[24]

Work in security servicesedit

Cornwell ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephone lines and effected break-ins.[29] Encouraged by Lord Clanmorris (who wrote crime novels as “John Bingham”), and while being an active MI5 officer, he began writing his first novel, Call for the Dead (1961). Cornwell identified Lord Clanmorris as one of two models for George Smiley, the spymaster of the Circus, the other being Vivian H. H. Green.[30] As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met the latter when Green was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51). The friendship continued after Green’s move to Lincoln College, where he tutored Cornwell.[31]

In 1960, Cornwell transferred to MI6, the foreign-intelligence service, and worked under the cover of Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn. He was later transferred to Hamburg as a political consul.[24] There, he wrote the detective story A Murder of Quality (1962) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), as “John le Carré” – a pseudonym required because Foreign Office staff were forbidden to publish under their own names.[32][33] The meaning of the pseudonym is ambiguous: he sometimes said he had seen “le Carré” on a storefront, and later said he could not remember an origin.[34] When translated, “le carré” means “the square”.[34]

In 1964, le Carré’s career as an intelligence officer came to an end as the result of the betrayal of British agents’ covers to the KGB by Kim Philby, the infamous British double agent, one of the Cambridge Five.[25][35] Le Carré depicted and analysed Philby as the upper-class traitor, codenamed “Gerald” by the KGB, the mole hunted by George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974).[36][19]

Writingedit

Le Carré’s first two novels, Call for the Dead (1961) and A Murder of Quality (1962), are mystery fiction. Each features a retired spy, George Smiley, investigating a death; in the first book, the apparent suicide of a suspected communist, and in the second volume, a murder at a boys’ public school. Although Call for the Dead evolves into an espionage story, Smiley’s motives are more personal than political.[37] Le Carré’s third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-selling works[citation needed]; following its publication, he left MI6 to become a full-time writer. Although le Carré had intended The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as an indictment of espionage as morally compromised, audiences widely viewed its protagonist, Alec Leamas, as a tragic hero. In response, le Carré’s next book, The Looking Glass War, was a satire about an increasingly deadly espionage mission which ultimately proves pointless.[38][39]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People (the Karla trilogy) brought Smiley back as the central figure in a sprawling espionage saga depicting his efforts first to root out a mole in the Circus and then to entrap his Soviet rival and counterpart, code-named ‘Karla’. The trilogy was originally meant to be a long-running series that would find Smiley dispatching agents after Karla all around the world. Smiley’s People marked the last time Smiley featured as the central character in a le Carré story, although he brought the character back in The Secret Pilgrim[40] and A Legacy of Spies.[41]

A Perfect Spy (1986), which chronicles the boyhood moral education of Magnus Pym and how it leads to his becoming a spy, is the author’s most autobiographical espionage novel, reflecting the boy’s very close relationship with his con man father.[42] Biographer LynnDianne Beene describes the novelist’s own father, Ronnie Cornwell, as “an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values”.[43][10] Le Carré reflected that “writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised”.[44] He also wrote a semi-autobiographical work, The Naïve and Sentimental Lover (1971), as the story of a man’s midlife existential crisis.[45]

With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, le Carré’s writing shifted to the portrayal of the new multilateral world. His first completely post-Cold War novel, The Night Manager (1993), deals with drug and arms smuggling in the world of Latin American drug lords, secretive Caribbean banking entities and corrupt Western officials.[46][47] His final novel, Silverview, was published posthumously in 2021.

Themesedit

Most of le Carré’s books are spy stories set during the Cold War (1945–91) and portray British Intelligence agents as unheroic political functionaries, aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged more in psychological than physical drama.[48] While “[espionage] was the genre that earned him fame…he used it as a platform to explore larger ethical problems and the human condition”. The insight he demonstrated led “many fellow authors and critics [to regard] him as one of the finest English-language novelists of the twentieth century.”[49] His writing explores “human frailty—moral ambiguity, intrigue, nuance, doubt, and cowardice”.[50]

The fallibility of Western democracy – and of its secret services – is a recurring theme, as are suggestions of a possible east–west moral equivalence.[48] Characters experience little of the violence typically encountered in action thrillers and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of the conflict is internal, rather than external and visible.[48] The recurring character George Smiley, who plays a central role in five novels and appears as a supporting character in four more, was written as an “antidote” to James Bond, a character le Carré called “an international gangster” rather than a spy and who he felt should be excluded from the canon of espionage literature.[51] In contrast, he intended Smiley, who is an overweight, bespectacled bureaucrat who uses cunning and manipulation to achieve his ends, as an accurate depiction of a spy.[52]

Le Carré’s “writing entered intelligence services themselves. He popularized the term ‘mole’…and other language that has become intelligence vernacular on both sides of the Atlantic – ‘honeytrap’, ‘scalphunter’, ‘lamplighter’ to name a few.”[50] However, in his first tweet as MI6’s chief, Richard Moore revealed the agency’s “complicated relationship with the author: He urged would-be Smileys not to apply to the service.”[50]

Other writing, film cameosedit

Le Carré records a number of incidents from his period as a diplomat in his autobiographical work, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life (2016), which include escorting six visiting German parliamentarians to a London brothel[53] and translating at a meeting between a senior German politician and Harold Macmillan.[54]

As a journalist, le Carré wrote The Unbearable Peace (1991), a nonfiction account of Brigadier Jean-Louis Jeanmaire (1911–1992), the Swiss Army officer, who spied for the Soviet Union from 1962 until 1975.[55]

Credited under his pen name, le Carré appears as an extra in the 2011 film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, among the guests at the Christmas party in several flashback scenes. He also appears, in uncredited cameo roles, as a museum usher in Our Kind of Traitor 2016, and in the BBC TV production The Night Manager (2016), as a restaurant diner.

Politicsedit

Threats to democracyedit

In 2017, le Carré expressed concerns over the future of liberal democracy, saying: “I think of all things that were happening across Europe in the 1930s, in Spain, in Japan, obviously in Germany. To me, these are absolutely comparable signs of the rise of fascism and it’s contagious, it’s infectious. Fascism is up and running in Poland and Hungary. There’s an encouragement about.”[56] He later wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the West without a coherent ideology, in contrast to the “notion of individual freedom, of inclusiveness, of tolerance – all of that we called anti-communism” prevailing during that time.[57]

Le Carré opposed both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that their desire to seek or maintain their countries’ superpower status caused an impulse “for oligarchy, the dismissal of the truth, the contempt, actually, for the electorate and for the democratic system”.[58] Le Carré compared Trump’s tendency to dismiss the media as “fake news” to the Nazi book burnings, and wrote that the United States is “heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism”.[59][60]

In le Carré’s 2019 novel Agent Running in the Field, one of the novel’s characters refers to Trump as “Putin’s shithouse cleaner” who “does everything for little Vladi that little Vladi can’t do for himself”. The novel’s narrator describes Boris Johnson as “a pig-ignorant foreign secretary”. He says Russia is moving “backwards into her dark, delusional past”, with Britain following a short way behind.[61] Le Carré later said that he believed the novel’s plotline, involving the U.S. and British intelligence services colluding to subvert the European Union, to be “horribly possible”.[60]

Brexitedit

Le Carré was an outspoken advocate of European integration and sharply criticised Brexit.[62] He criticised Brexit advocates such as Boris Johnson (whom he referred to as a “mob orator”), Dominic Cummings and Nigel Farage in interviews, claiming that their “task is to fire up the people with nostalgia [and] with anger”. Le Carré further opined that: “What really scares me about nostalgia is that it’s become a political weapon. Politicians are creating a nostalgia for an England that never existed, and selling it, really, as something we could return to”, adding that with “the demise of the working class we saw also the demise of an established social order, based on the stability of ancient class structures”.[60][63] On the other hand, he claimed that the UK Labour Party has “this Leninist element and they have this huge appetite to level society.”[64]

Le Carré once compared Brexit to the 1956 Suez Crisis, stating that it was “without doubt the greatest catastrophe and the greatest idiocy that Britain has perpetrated since the invasion of Suez… The idea, to me, that at the moment we should imagine we can substitute access to the biggest trade union in the world with access to the American market is terrifying”, he said.[65][66][67] Speaking to The Guardian in 2019, he commented: “I’ve always believed, though ironically it’s not the way I’ve voted, that it’s compassionate conservatism that in the end could, for example, integrate the private schooling system. If you do it from the left you will seem to be acting out of resentment; do it from the right and it looks like good social organisation.” Le Carré also said: “I think my own ties to England were hugely loosened over the last few years. And it’s a kind of liberation, if a sad kind.”[60]

US invasion of Iraqedit

In January 2003, two months prior to the invasion, The Times published le Carré’s essay “The United States Has Gone Mad” criticising the buildup to the Iraq War and President George W. Bush’s response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, calling it “worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War” and “beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams”.[68][69] Le Carré participated in the London protests against the Iraq War. He said the war resulted from the “politicisation of intelligence to fit the political intentions” of governments and “How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history”.[70][71]

He was critical of Tony Blair’s role in taking Britain into the Iraq War, saying: “I can’t understand that Blair has an afterlife at all. It seems to me that any politician who takes his country to war under false pretences has committed the ultimate sin. I think that a war in which we refuse to accept the body count of those that we kill is also a war of which we should be ashamed.”[70]

Iranedit

Le Carré was critical of Western governments’ policies towards Iran. He said that Iran’s actions are a response to being “encircled by nuclear powers” and by the way in which “we ousted Mosaddeq through the CIA and the Secret Service here across the way and installed the Shah and trained his ghastly secret police force in all the black arts, the SAVAK”.[70]

Le Carré feuded with Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses, stating: “Nobody has a God-given right to insult a great religion and be published with impunity”.[72]

Israel and Palestineedit

While researching The Little Drummer Girl, le Carré travelled through the region – including Lebanon – where he met Yasser Arafat. He recounts:

“I have come … to put my hand on the Palestinian heart.” Arafat then seized le Carré’s hand, placing it on his chest. This experience enabled him to see the Palestinians as victims with legitimate claims, and not as merely terrorists.[73]

In a 1998 interview with Douglas Davis, Le Carré described Israel as “the most extraordinary carnival of human variety that I have ever set eyes on, a nation in the process of re-assembling itself from the shards of its past, now Oriental, now Western, now secular, now religious, but always anxiously moralizing about itself, criticizing itself with Maoist ferocity, a nation crackling with debate, rediscovering its past while it fought for its future.” He declared: “No nation on earth was more deserving of peace—or more condemned to fight for it.”[74] In 2003, Le Carré criticised how neo-conservative influences and the Israel lobby shaped U.S. Middle East policy, implying that such manipulation fed continuous conflict. He said the novel (Absolute Friends) was intended to show:

“… neo-conservative group which is commanding the political high ground, calling the shots and appointing the State of Israel as the purpose of all Middle Eastern and practically all global policy.” This frames Israel – not necessarily the nation, but its political positioning – as central to escalatory foreign policy trends fuelling instability.[73]

Le Carré emphasised both empathy and support:

“I stood – and stand – wholeheartedly behind the nation-state of Israel … And wholeheartedly behind the peace process as the guarantor not only of Israel’s survival, but of the Palestinian survival also.”[75]

Personal lifeedit

In 1954, Cornwell married childhood friend Alison Ann Veronica Sharp. They had three sons: film producers Simon and Stephen Cornwell (who in 2011 jointly founded production company The Ink Factory, which has produced several TV series based on Cornwell’s novels), and journalist Tim Cornwell (1962-2022)[76][77][11] They divorced in 1971.[78] In 1972, Cornwell married Jane Eustace, a book editor with Hodder & Stoughton[79] who collaborated with him behind the scenes.[80] They had a son, Nicholas, who writes as Nick Harkaway.[81] Le Carré lived in St Buryan, Cornwall, for more than 40 years; he owned a mile of cliff near Land’s End.[82] The house, Tregiffian Cottage, was put up for sale in 2023 for £3 million.[83] Le Carré also owned a house in Gainsborough Gardens in Hampstead in north London.[84][85]

In 2010, le Carré donated his literary archive to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The initial 85 boxes of material deposited included handwritten drafts of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Constant Gardener. The library hosted a public display of these and other items to mark World Book Day in March 2011.[86][87]

Le Carré was so disillusioned by the 2016 Brexit vote to leave the European Union that he secured Irish citizenship. In a BBC documentary broadcast in 2021, le Carré’s son Nicholas revealed that his father’s disillusionment with modern Britain, and Brexit in particular, had driven him to embrace his Irish heritage and become an Irish citizen. At the time of his death, le Carré’s friend, the novelist John Banville, confirmed that the writer had researched his family roots in Inchinattin, near Rosscarbery, County Cork, and that he had applied for an Irish passport, to which he was entitled having completed the process of becoming an Irish citizen and having Irish ancestry through his maternal grandmother, Olive Wolfe.[65][66][67] His neighbour and friend Philippe Sands recalled:

He became an Irishman through his maternal grandmother. And it was very, very moving, I have to say, to arrive at the place of the memorial to find an Irish flag and only an Irish flag. He had really in the last years, grown very disillusioned with what had happened to Britain and the United Kingdom.[88]

Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89.[89][90] An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.[91] His wife Jane died on 27 February 2021, two months after her husband, at age 82.[92]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Absolute friends DB57589

Author: Le Carré, John

Reading Time: 13 hours, 43 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Fred Major

Subjects: Bestsellers, Political Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Spy Stories

Unassuming Bavarian tour guide Ted Mundy is actually a retired British double agent. After September 11, 2001, old friend and former colleague Sasha contacts him with a new mission: to stop an impending war in Iraq and become very rich in the process. Strong language and some violence. Bestseller. 2003.

Boston : Little, Brown, c2004.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The 9th girl, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska(4)” by Tami Hoag

“The 9th girl, Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska(4)” by Tami Hoag

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed listening to David Colacci narrate this suspenseful story with dual threads.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.tamihoag.com

Tami Hoag (born Tami Mikkelson; January 20, 1959) is an American novelist, best known for her work in the romance and thriller genres. More than 22 million copies of her books are in print.

Biographyedit

Hoag was born in Cresco, Iowa and raised in the small town of Harmony, Minnesota, where her father sold insurance.[1][2] From childhood, she knew she wanted to be a writer. “I had to spend a lot of time entertaining myself,” she told an interviewer in 2016. “I found books at a really young age and fell in love with books.”[3]

Hoag’s first job after graduating from high school was in the La Crosse Tribune circulation department.[3] Before publishing her first novel, she also worked as a photographer’s assistant, trained show horses, and sold designer bathroom accessories. She married and divorced Daniel Hoag, whom she had dated in high school.[1]

Hoag began her career as an author in 1988, writing category romances for the Bantam Books Loveswept Line. After several years of success in that field, Hoag switched her focus to single-title suspense novels. She has had thirteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including five in a 20-month span.[4] Her novel Night Sins became a TV miniseries starring Valerie Bertinelli and Harry Hamlin. Hoag has been invited to do a reading at one of Barbara Bush’s literacy functions.[4]

Hoag and three other authors who made the leap from romance to thrillers at roughly the same time (Eileen Dreyer, Elizabeth Grayson, and Kimberly Cates) have formed a group they call the Divas. The group provides support and encouragement for each other, and Hoag often thanks them in the acknowledgement section of her books.[5]

Hoag owns horses, and often goes for a ride to combat writer’s block. She has competed in dressage at a national level, but stopped competing after breaking five vertebrae in her back during a fall while trying out a horse for a friend.[6] Hoag fully recovered from her accident, and has returned to the competition arena. As of 2012, she was living in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida.[7]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The 9th girl DB76887

Series: Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska

Order in Series: 4

Author: Hoag, Tami

Reading Time: 13 hours, 14 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: David Colacci

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Psychological Fiction, Suspense Fiction

After a girl’s brutalized body falls out of a trunk and into traffic on New Year’s Eve, homicide detectives Kovac and Liska are called to the scene. The victim–nicknamed Zombie Doe–is believed to have fallen prey to a serial killer called Doc Holiday. Violence and strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2013.

Grand Haven, MI : Brilliance Audio, p2013.

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Kate’s 2¢: “200 Monas: a novel” by Jan Saenz

“200 Monas: a novel” by Jan Saenz

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I wonder if Vanessa Moyen blushed a lot as she narrated this story. While I don’t condone black market drug dealing, I liked the ending of this story.

   I couldn’t get a coherent bio on this author, other than this is her debut novel.

NLS/BARD/LOC:

200 Monas: a novel DBC32440

Author: Saenz, Jan

Reading Time: 11 hours, 50 minutes

Production: Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Talking Book Program

Read by: Vanessa Moyen

Subjects: General Fiction, Human Relations, Humor and Humorous Fiction, Psychological Fiction

“Arvy Keening is just trying to get through the week. Tantalizingly close to leaving her college years at Westheimer University behind, all she has to do is pass her finals, pack up her life, and ship off to San Francisco for a prestigious Big Pharma internship. The problem? Arvy just found 200 hits of Molly in her dead mother’s closet. And when two drug dealers come to collect what they are owed, they reveal that the pills are not Molly, but Mona – a rare pharmaceutical that induces intense orgasms. The dealers give Arvy an ultimatum: Sell 200 Monas in 48 hours or die. To aid in her seemingly impossible quest, Arvy recruits Wolf, Westheimer’s resident drug dealer who also happens to be infuriatingly charming and distractingly sexy. In a race against the clock, Arvy and Wolf barrel through their college town, leaving a series of erotic shenanigans in their wake; appealing to horny co-eds, lonely barflies, and a mysterious sorority whose sisters have their own ideas for Mona’s potential uses. But if Mona has a knack for unleashing visceral reactions in the body, what will it unlock in Arvy, who has been repressing grief over her mother’s death for weeks? Unashamedly brash, bold, and blistering, 200 Monas is a truly one-of-a-kind read, a playful and honest examination of sexuality and grief, and a sharp, searing love letter on how to release all that’s inside you.”– Provided by publisher. Commercial audiobook. Strong language, explicit descriptions of sex, and some violence. Adult.

New York : Hachette Audio, 2026.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The lost boys of Montauk: the true story of the Wind Blown, four men who vanished at sea, and the survivors they left behind” by  

“The lost boys of Montauk: the true story of the Wind Blown, four men who vanished at sea, and the survivors they left behind” by  

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Cynthia Farrell narrated this documentary.

From the WEB:

Amanda M. Fairbanks is a journalist who has worked in the editorial department of The New York Times, as a reporter for HuffPost, and at The East Hampton Star, where she wrote investigative stories, features and profiles. Her writing has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Newsweek, The Atlantic and The San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Smith College and a former Teach for America corps member, she has two master’s degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and currently lives with her family in Sag Harbor.

Amanda M. Fairbanks is a journalist who has worked in the editorial department of The New York Times, as a reporter for HuffPost, and at The East Hampton Star, where she wrote investigative stories, features and profiles. Her writing has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Newsweek, The Atlantic and The San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Smith College and a former Teach for America corps member, she has two master’s degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and currently lives with her family in Sag Harbor.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The lost boys of Montauk: the true story of the Wind Blown, four men who vanished at sea, and the survivors they left behind DB120532

Author: Fairbanks, Amanda M.

Reading Time: 9 hours, 59 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Cynthia Farrell

Subject: Adventure

“In the tradition of the #1 New York Times bestseller (and Academy-Award nominated film) The Perfect Storm, and with a nod to Steven Gaines’ dishy tell-all, Philistines at the Hedgerow, a riveting account of a fishing boat and its four young crewman lost at sea in 1984 off the coast of Montauk in eastern Long Island — a “fishing town with a drinking problem,” as the locals have it — and the stunning repercussions of that loss for the families and friends of the four missing men and, indeed, the entire storied summer community of the Hamptons”– Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, 2021.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Twilight Falls Shady Hollow(4) by Juneau Black

“Twilight Falls Shady Hollow(4) by Juneau Black

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Cassandra Campbell Narrated this anthromorphized story. Although the authors kept some of the individual creatures features, I didn’t enjoy using animals this way.

From the WEB:

Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel. They share a love of excellent bookshops, fine cheeses and good murders 

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Twilight Falls DB132776

Series: Shady Hollow

Order in Series: 04

Author: Black, Juneau

Reading Time: 7 hours, 49 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Cassandra Campbell

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Animals and Wildlife, Cozy Mysteries

“It’s spring in Shady Hollow, and romance is in the air. Even reporter Vera Vixen is caught up in the season as her relationship with new police chief Orville Braun blossoms. But true love is not always smooth sailing, as two of the hollow’s young residents come to find. Jonah Atwater and Stasia von Beaverpelt find themselves battling their families in order to be together. And when Alan’s father, Shelby, goes over the top of Twilight Falls, all signs point to Stasia being the murderer. The evidence against Stasia appears overwhelming, and Orville arrests her. It looks like the case is closed, but Vera isn’t so sure. There are almost too many clues indicating Stasia is the killer, leading her to suspect someone is setting Stasia up. Besides, what about the mysterious ghostly creature skulking around town at night? Maybe he or she was involved? As Vera investigates further, her sleuthing puts her in direct opposition to Orville, and soon she’s stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Penguin Random House, 2023.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Aesop’s animals: the science behind the fables” by Jo Wimpenny

“Aesop’s animals: the science behind the fables” by Jo Wimpenny

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Jennifer Dixon did a good job of narrating this interesting, well researched book. I find it amazing that Aesop was so astute in his observations and applied his knowledge to animal behaviors during his time. Only now, the truths of what he wrote, are being proven to be valid.

   It reminds me of all those ‘old wives tales’ that really worked. Now, they’re finding out the why of what works.

From the WEB:

Dr Jo Wimpenny is a writer and former academic researcher with interests in animal behaviour, nature and the human-animal relationship.

I’m a zoologist-turned-author living in Oxford, and I write about animal behaviour, nature and the human-animal relationship.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Aesop’s animals: the science behind the fables DB132642

Author: Wimpenny, Jo

Reading Time: 12 hours, 48 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Jennifer Dixon

Subjects: Folktales, Mythology, Animals and Wildlife

“A critical look at the beloved fables that investigates whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop’s portrayal of his animals. Despite being conceived over two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop’s Fables are still passed from parent to child today, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals still inform our judgments, but have they influenced our views of the animal protagonists as well? And, if so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? Are crows smart enough to reason? Are pigeons so dumb they cannot tell the difference between painting and reality? Are ants truly capable of looking ahead to the future and planning their actions? In Aesop’s Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables and ask whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop’s portrayal of his animals. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest scientific research on some of the most fascinating topics in animal behavior. Each chapter focuses on a different fable and a different topic in ethology, including future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception. At the end of each chapter, the author pulls together the evidence to assess whether Aesop’s portrayal of the animals holds true from a modern, scientific perspective. Through interviews with leading researchers in the behavioral ecology, this book brings these famous tales back to life. People are always fascinated by animal behavior, especially studies that suggest the presence of intelligence and other ‘human-like’ characteristics that reveal how we may share more with these creatures than we ever imagined. Aesop’s Animals builds on this, revealing cutting-edge research findings about animal abilities, as well as enabling the reader to explore and challenge their own preconceived notions about the animal kingdom.” — Publisher’s description. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

London : Tantor Media, Inc, 2022.

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