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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “From Warsaw with love Polish spies the CIA and the forging of an unlikely alliance” by John Pomfret
Kate’s 2¢: “From Warsaw with love Polish spies the CIA and the forging of an unlikely alliance” by John Pomfret
“From Warsaw with love Polish spies the CIA and the forging of an unlikely alliance” by John Pomfret
Oh, Dear Gussie. How can we ever trust anyone is really who they say they are? The real-life intrigue that goes on behind close doors and, even, right out in the open, is shocking and distressing. I’m not sure we are any closer to being safe then we were years ago.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Pomfret (born 1959) is an American journalist and writer.
Biography[edit]
Pomfret was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1959,[1] and raised in New York City. He attended Stanford University, receiving his B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University. Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.
He started his journalistic career at the Stanford Daily as a photographer. After that he worked at a newspaper in Riverside County, California, and after a year was hired by the Associated Press to work in New York City, covering the graveyard shift.
After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and his Asian studies background. There he covered the 1989 student protests in Beijing, after which he was expelled from China because of alleged links with student ringleaders.[2]: 237 He then worked in Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. Hired by the Washington Post in 1992, for more than 15 years Pomfret covered the armed conflicts in these countries and the politics of the post-Cold War era. He later served as the editor of The Washington Post′s weekend opinion section, Outlook.
During his career, he received several awards, including 2003’s Osborne Elliot Prize for the best coverage of Asia by the Asia Society and 2007’s Shorenstein Prize for coverage of Asia. In 1996, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in International Reporting for his work in Congo.
The experiences he had when he attended Nanjing University, and his perspective of the Chinese opening, are narrated in his 2006 book Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China.
Pomfret won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship[3] in 2004 writing about education in China. In 2011, he was awarded the Edward Weintal Award for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University for his work covering America’s relations with China. He was a Fulbright senior scholar in China in 2013, where he researched a book on the interactions between Americans and Chinese. That book, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, was published in November 2016. It won the 2017 Arthur Ross Book Award given by the Council on Foreign Relations.[4] Pomfret’s third book, From Warsaw with Love: Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging an Unlikely Alliance, was published in October 2021 to critical acclaim.[5]
He speaks, reads and writes Mandarin, and speaks French, Japanese, and Serbo-Croatian.[citation needed] He lives near Berkeley, California with his wife Zhang Mei and family.[6]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
From Warsaw with love: Polish spies, the CIA, and the forging of an unlikely alliance DB112237
Pomfret, John Reading time: 8 hours, 58 minutes.
Donald Corren
War and the Military
History, Juvenile
U.S. History
World History and Affairs
“The epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War, told by the award-winning author John Pomfret. Spanning decades and continents, from the battlefields of the Balkans to secret nuclear research labs in Iran and embassy grounds in North Korea, this saga begins in 1990. As the United States cobbles together a coalition to undo Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, six US officers are trapped in Iraq with intelligence that could ruin Operation Desert Storm if it is obtained by the brutal Iraqi dictator. Desperate, the CIA asks Poland, a longtime Cold War foe famed for its excellent spies, for help. Just months after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Solidarity government in Warsaw sends a veteran ex-Communist spy who’d battled the West for decades to rescue the six Americans. John Pomfret’s gripping account of the 1990 cliffhanger in Iraq is just the beginning of the tale about intelligence cooperation between Poland and the United States, cooperation that one CIA director would later describe as “one of the two foremost intelligence relationships that the United States has ever had.” Pomfret uncovers new details about the CIA’s black site program that held suspected terrorists in Poland after 9/11 as well as the role of Polish spies in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In the tradition of the most memorable works on espionage, Pomfret’s book tells a disquieting tale of moral ambiguity in which right and wrong, black and white, are not conveniently distinguishable. As the United States teeters on the edge of a new cold war with Russia and China, Pomfret explores how these little-known events serve as a reminder of the importance of alliances in a dangerous world.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Starry messenger: cosmic perspectives on civilization” by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Kate’s 2¢: “Starry messenger: cosmic perspectives on civilization” by Neil deGrasse Tyson
“Starry messenger: cosmic perspectives on civilization” by Neil deGrasse Tyson
I agree life is precious and we don’t appreciate it as much as we should.
From www.NeildeGrasseTyson.com:
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.
In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a twelve-member commission that studied the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.
In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered in September 2004.
Two of Tyson’s other books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS NOVA documentary The Pluto Files, based on the book, premiered in March 2010.
In February 2012, Tyson released his tenth book, containing every thought he has ever had on the past, present, and future of space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.
During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a cadre of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a popular Podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run Television Series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.
Tyson is the recipient of twenty-three honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson.” And by zoologists, with the naming of Indirani Tysoni, a native species of leaping frog in India. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People Magazine in 2000.
In 2017, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry, which was a domestic and international bestseller. This adorably readable book is an introduction to all that you’ve read and heard about that’s making news in the universe—consummated, in one place, succinctly presented, for people in a hurry.
That was followed in 2018 by Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, coauthored with Avis Lang, in 2019 by Letters from an Astrophysicist, both New York Times Bestsellers, and in 2021 by Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We are Going, coauthored with James Trefil.
Tyson served as Executive Science Editor and on-camera Host & Narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21stcentury continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in primetime on the FOX network, and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Cosmos won four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Critics Choice awards, as well as a dozen other industry recognitions. Tyson reprised his role as on-camera host for the next season of Cosmos—Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel in March 2020 and on the FOX network in September 2020.
Tyson’s latest books are Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization and To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery, coauthored with Lindsey Nyx Walker, both New York Times bestsellers.
Tyson is the fifth head of the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
Neil deGrasse Tyson lives in New York City with his wife, a former IT project manager with Bloomberg Financial Markets.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Starry messenger: cosmic perspectives on civilization DB110636
Tyson, Neil deGrasse Reading time: 7 hours, 20 minutes.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science and Technology
Bestsellers
“In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched. With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Flipping boxcars: a novel” by Cedric Kyles
Kate’s 2¢: “Flipping boxcars: a novel” by Cedric Kyles
“Flipping boxcars: a novel” by Cedric Kyles
Cedric the Entertainer has the perfect culturally appropriate voice for reading this novel, which he wrote with co-author Alan Eisenstock.
I like the title’s reference to both gambling double sixes and the rail car caper. I enjoyed this story.
From PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter
Better known by his stage name Cedric ‘The Entertainer,’ comedian Cedric Kyles has added a new professional role to his resume: fiction writer. For Kyles, 59, who previously authored 2002’s Grown-A$$ Man, a collection of comedic essays, embarking on a novel was a big step he nearly didn’t take. Initially, Kyles says, he hoped to write a television script about his grandfather, nicknamed Babe, who died before he was born. That morphed into a book project, one he undertook with co-author Alan Eisenstock. The result is Flipping Boxcars, a crime caper coming out September 12.
The book is set in the years after World War II when Babe — named for and based on Kyles’ grandfather, who served in France during the war — has returned home to a world in which the only arena for his talents is the criminal underworld. The title refers to both dice — “flipping boxcars” means rolling double sixes — and the railroad-related scheme Babe is drawn into as he looks for one last big payoff.
Tell me more about Babe. Did you grow up hearing stories about your grandfather?
Yeah, my mother was the youngest of her siblings, and I use her as a muse in the book. She would tell me stories about him. He passed before I was born, so as I started to grow up, I would just have these [ideas about] him and things he would say and do based on these little stories that my mother and my uncles would talk about him. I really love the Walter Mosley kind of writing — those stories of characters in the 1940s and men trying to figure out and find their way through all these little hustles, that they can just figure out how to be an entrepreneur. That’s how much mother described Babe to me. He had a restaurant and he was a gambler and he was also a businessman. He had a liquor store with the sheriff. They also moved black market liquor at times. He was a de facto mayor for the Black side of the town. He would get things done for people.
Where was he from?
Caruthersville, Missouri. Their family all kind of grew up in Arkansas and Tennessee, but I only knew him from Caruthersville.
And then he fought in World War II.
Yeah. So the only image that I have [of him] is in his military uniform. We used to have another image of him in a suit, but the house that we all grew up in, where my grandmother used to live, that house caught on fire a few years back and so a lot of things got lost. My mother knew very little about him as a young man. My uncle, her older brother, knew a little bit more about his military life, so we did some research and then figured out the time that he served and then told that story.
How did you take what little you knew and create a full-blown flesh-and-blood character?
It started because I love the idea of who I believed Babe to be and so I started out trying to write a TV show. The idea was to create a Boardwalk Empire-type show. This idea of these characters and these men who wore suits and did all the dirty deeds of the town and at the same time were the good guys in this very weird way. That was the space where I always saw him existing. And then the opportunity came to write a book, I was like, ‘Well, this is what I would want to write. This world.’
You mentioned Walter Mosley. Who are some other authors that you like?
James McBride is another one who has that same energy that I love. John Grisham, the early stuff, I used to love all those books. Crime stories. You go on a journey inside the story. I love those. I read a lot of biographies, too. I’m reading one on Barry White right now.
Cedric the entertainer
Performing standup as Cedric ‘The Entertainer’. PHOTO: PARAS GRIFFIN/GETTY
Back to Babe. The picture I get from the book is this was a man who was really smart, really hard working, but living in a world where he didn’t have access to a lot of ways to make a living. He was stuck in a box. Would you be that man if you had been born then?
You nailed it. I really feel like at the deepest core, the reason I wrote the book was that I felt like the things that were similar, the things that make me parallel to him — he just didn’t have the opportunities. And [now] his grandson has the ability to be a star, to try things and do things, and literally just live his dreams. And even though we show that he’s in the underworld and he does some things that are risky, all of these things were in a lot of ways the choices that he had to make.
Sometimes the underworld is the only world you have access to.
Exactly. His idea of how he saw himself, how he believed, and how he used his cunningness and his craftiness to his gifted gab, his sense of style, his sense of decorum. He didn’t do everything with a gun and a knife. He would try to figure out a way, the slick way, the smart way to get out of a situation.
Tell me a little bit about the dice. I had no idea that shooting dice was such a big deal!
My grandfather was indeed a famous dice player, and back then, gamblers, dice shooters were famous. He knew how to play cards and do card tricks and sleight of hand stuff, but he was all about the dice.
Do you gamble?
No. I didn’t get that part from him. I’ll do it for fun, and I’ll jump out with the boys every now and then, but I’m never one to put up a lot of money in there. If I lose a hundred bucks, I’m pretty much going to wrap it up.
After writing this book, do you feel like you understand your grandfather better?
A bit. We definitely had to do some research. But I wish, of course, the character that I created, I wish I had the opportunity to sit and talk with him and let him just tell me about days that he’s had in his life, because I believe that I would be right on point. I think that I’m nailing exactly who I believe he is.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Flipping boxcars: a novel DB117797
Kyles, Cedric. Reading time: 8 hours, 26 minutes.
Read by Cedric the Entertainer.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
“Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do? If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score—this time, a plan involving railroad boxcars. Will Babe succeed? Will Rosie continue to support her husband? Are the Feds on to his make-or-break scheme?” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
Kate’s 2¢: “All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
“All the Dangerous Things” by Stacy Willingham
A few take-aways:
–There is no way to imagine it until you’re right in the thick of it.
–Nothing about grief makes sense.
–Nobody ever stops to wonder what takes place in the dead of night. All the things that take place when the world is unconscious.
–We assume the world falls asleep when we do.
–The sleep-walker rarely remembers his episode in the morning, but sometimes they can.
–The risk of developing post-partem depression/psycosis is higher with women with a history of it in their family.
–She wouldn’t have done what she did if someone had been there to listen and help her.
–It’ll be true because they’ll believe it to be true, bending the facts to fit their feelings.
–If you are concerned about the mental health of a loved one, contact: National Institute of Mental Health. Website:
www.ninh.nih.gov/health/find/help
ABOUT — Stacy Willingham
Stacy Willingham is the New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark, All the Dangerous Things and Only If You’re Lucky.
Her debut, A Flicker in the Dark, was a 2022 finalist for the Book of the Month’s Book of the Year award, Goodreads Choice Best Debut award, Goodreads Choice Best Mystery & Thriller award, and ITW’s Best First Novel award. Her work has been translated in more than thirty languages.
Before turning to fiction, she was a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her B.A. in magazine journalism from the University of Georgia and M.F.A. in writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and Labradoodle, Mako.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
All the dangerous things DB111846
Willingham, Stacy. Reading time: 10 hours, 3 minutes.
Read by Karissa Vacker.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
“One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
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