The Spy Wore Silk

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The Spy Wore Silk

Author : Aline Countess of Romanones
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781495450808
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (58 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spy Wore Silk by : Aline Countess of Romanones

Download or read book The Spy Wore Silk written by Aline Countess of Romanones and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 1991-03-04 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Spy Wore SilkAmerica's most captivating secret agent tells the true story of a Cold War mission into Morocco with William Casey.“For glamor, adventure and intrigue, this is as good as it gets,” wrote Cosmopolitan of The Spy Went Dancing, Aline Romanones' best selling successor to her memoir of OSS adventures during World War II, The Spy Wore Red. American beauty, Spanish socialite, devoted wife and mother, and spy, Aline, Countess of Romanones, wrote Time, lived a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorius. Now in her third book, Aline unveils a true story of royalty and murder. It is 1971, and news reports of the near-assassination of Morocco's King Hassan II shock Aline. Just months before, she had received veiled warnings of such a plot, but few people had paid much attention. Now it is her job to make sure that the would be assassins do not succeed in their second attempt.With the help of onetime OSS colleague and future CIA chief William Casey, she searches for the conspirators, from the shadowy back streets of the Marrakesh souks to the lavish palaces of Casablanca and Rabat, from exotic desert banquets that turn into terrorist targets to elaborate shooting parties masking treachery and death. With the days running out, she must somehow untangle the complex web of motives and deceptions perpetrated by traitors, Soviet agents, illicit lovers, and uncertain allies, in order to ensure the king's survival-and increasingly , her own. Written with great style and her supreme talent for both suspense and the exotic details of high society, the spy Wore Silk is irresistible real life intrigue. “My husband's role in The Spy Wore Silk fills me with pride. I wish Bill could have read this terrific, gripping story- not only because his patriotism and courage come through so clearly, but also because the book is so much fun.” Sophia Casey, widow of William Casey, CIA Director, 1981-1987

The Smuggler Wore Silk

Author : Alyssa Alexander
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101636092
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis The Smuggler Wore Silk by : Alyssa Alexander

Download or read book The Smuggler Wore Silk written by Alyssa Alexander and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thrilling, seductive adventure from award-winning author Alyssa Alexander… After he is betrayed by one of his own, British spy Julian Travers, Earl of Langford, refuses to retire without a fight, vowing to find the traitor. But when the trail leads to his childhood home, Julian is forced to return to a place he swore he’d never see again, and meet a woman who may be his quarry—in more ways than one. Though she may appear a poor young woman dependant on charity, Grace Hannah’s private life is far more interesting. By night, she finds friendship and freedom as a member of a smuggling ring. But when the handsome Julian arrives, she finds her façade slipping, and she is soon compromised, as well as intrigued. As she and Julian continue the hunt, Grace finds herself falling in love with the man behind the spy. Yet Julian’s past holds a dark secret. And when he must make a choice between love and espionage, that secret may tear them apart.

The Spy Wore Silk

Author : Andrea Pickens
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0446196843
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (461 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spy Wore Silk by : Andrea Pickens

Download or read book The Spy Wore Silk written by Andrea Pickens and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were once orphans from London's roughest slums. Now they are students of Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies, learning the art of spying and seduction. Bold, beautiful, and oh-so-dangerous, they are England's ultimate secret weapons. The most skilled of Merlin's Maidens, Siena must unmask a traitor lurking among an exclusive club of book collectors. Armed with only her wits, her blades, and her sultry body, she joins the gentlemen at a country house party. But her prime suspect, disgraced ex-army officer Lord Kirtland proves as enigmatic as he is suspicious-and sinfully sensuous. Kirtland's instincts tell him the enticing "Black Dove" is hiding more than a luscious body beneath her fancy silks. Yet as he starts to plumb her secrets, a cunning adversary lays plans to destroy them both. To live, Siena must end her tantalizing dance of deception and desire-and decide whether to trust her head or her heart.

The Spy Wore Red

Author : Countess of Romanones Aline
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781495365386
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (653 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spy Wore Red by : Countess of Romanones Aline

Download or read book The Spy Wore Red written by Countess of Romanones Aline and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SPY WORE RED, New York Times best seller listWhen Aline Griffith was born in Pearl River, New York, in 1923, one might have guessed from her exceptional beauty that a career as an actress or a model might be in her future. Few would have imagined that twenty-one years later, she would find herself in Spain as a deep-cover OSS agent, infiltrating the highest levels of Spanish society; or that five years later still, she would marry a Spanish grandee and become one of the most watched, most admired, most fascinating women of international society. This is the story of Aline, Countess of Romanones, a story of courage, beauty and success that will move readers with its amazing combination of autobiographical fact and narrative force. Reading The Spy Wore Red is like stepping into the script of Hitchcock's 1946 Cary Grant- Ingrid Bergman film Notorious. After confiding in 1943 to a young admirer her desire to serve the Allied cause, the fledgling model is recruited, sent to Washington. Trained as a spy and flown to Spain, Her mission: to uncover Madrid's high-society links to the German Nazi regime. As an undercover agent, Aline wends her way through lavish Madrid balls and dinners greeting the crème de la crème of Spanish society noting handshakes, wings and now among suspected – individuals. She and her colleagues live by code name, hers bing”Tiger” and by their wits. When security is breached, Aline is endangered, and she narrowly escapes several attempts on her life. When she falls in love with one of her fellow agents, complications-and hazards- abound. The Spy Wore Red is full of amazing plot turns, and readers will have to remind themselves they are reading a memoir. It is also full of astounding charters and some startling revelations about them: Madrid high society is peppered with Nazi spies, and successful- is to expose them. “My colleague Aline Romanones has written a Fascinating and exiting story evoking those marvelous days we served in the OSS in Europe. Her narrative reflects sensitively and accurately the clandestine intrigue and strategic maneuvers that marked the struggle between the secret services as well as the Allied and Axis powers and the atmosphere and high social live in wartime Spain.”William J. Casey, OSS agent, 1942-45, CIA director, 1981-1987

The Princess Spy

Author : Larry Loftis
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982143886
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis The Princess Spy by : Larry Loftis

Download or read book The Princess Spy written by Larry Loftis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER “As exciting as any spy novel” (Daily News, New York), The Princess Spy follows the hidden history of an ordinary American girl who became one of the OSS’s most daring World War II spies before marrying into European nobility. Perfect for fans of A Woman of No Importance and Code Girls. When Aline Griffith was born in a quiet suburban New York hamlet, no one had any idea that she would go on to live “a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorious” (Time). As the United States enters the Second World War, the young college graduate is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services—forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and titled Europeans. Against this glamorous backdrop of galas and dinner parties, she recruits sub-agents and engages in deep-cover espionage. Even after marrying the Count of Romanones, one of the wealthiest men in Spain, Aline secretly continues her covert activities, being given special assignments when abroad that would benefit from her impeccable pedigree and social connections. “[A] meticulously researched, beautifully crafted work of nonfiction that reads like a James Bond thriller” (Bookreporter), The Princess Spy brings to vivid life the dazzling adventures of a spirited American woman who risked everything to serve her country.

In Bed with a Spy

Author : Alyssa Alexander
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101636106
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis In Bed with a Spy by : Alyssa Alexander

Download or read book In Bed with a Spy written by Alyssa Alexander and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE BREATHTAKING NEW 'SPY IN THE TON' NOVEL OF REGENCY SUSPENSE FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SMUGGLER WORE SILK Revenge has never been so seductive. When her husband is killed at Waterloo, Lilias Fairchild takes up his cavalry sword and boldly storms the front, earning herself the nickname Angel of Vengeance. But there is another angel on the battlefield who is just as single-minded, and just as ruthless… Alastair Whitmore, the Marquess of Angelstone, is a British spy. Code name: Angel. Still haunted by a first love felled by assassins, his mission draws him to Waterloo, where he is captivated by a beautiful and mysterious woman fighting amongst the men—a woman who becomes his most intoxicating memory of war. Passion has never been so dangerous. Two years later, Lilias and Angelstone lock eyes in a crowded ballroom and the memory returns in an exhilarating rush. The history they share, and hide from the world, is as impossible to ignore as the heat of their attraction. But it’s that very connection that spells doom for their scandalous affair. When someone from the shadows of their past proves a dire threat to their lives, passion might not be enough to save them.

Surrender to a Wicked Spy

Author : Celeste Bradley
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312931278
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis Surrender to a Wicked Spy by : Celeste Bradley

Download or read book Surrender to a Wicked Spy written by Celeste Bradley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-10-04 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Royal Four Series.

The Librarian and the Spy

Author : Susan Mann
Publisher : Zebra Books
ISBN 13 : 1420143336
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Librarian and the Spy by : Susan Mann

Download or read book The Librarian and the Spy written by Susan Mann and published by Zebra Books. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mystery loving librarian gets her very own romantic adventure with a British spy in this humorous romantic suspense. Shelve under: Libraries, Spies, Falling in Love, London. Adventure-hungry Quinn Ellington solves mundane mysteries for library patrons while indulging her taste for intrigue with her favorite spy novels. But her latest research project entangles her in a mission to decode the whereabouts of a weapons cache from a priceless work of art before arms dealers beat her to it. Her adventure is filled with fast cars, stolen treasures, international intrigue, and a budding romance with suave, handsome “insurance” agent James Lockwood. Daring rescues and intense covert flirting ensue.

The Spy Went Dancing

Author : Aline (Countess of Romanones)
Publisher : Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN 13 : 9780399135095
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spy Went Dancing by : Aline (Countess of Romanones)

Download or read book The Spy Went Dancing written by Aline (Countess of Romanones) and published by Putnam Publishing Group. This book was released on 1990 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author describes a 1966 mission when she was called out of semi-retirement to uncover a highly placed NATO mole, an assignment for which she recruited an old friend, Wallis Simpson

The Spy Wore Silk

Author : Andrea Pickens
Publisher : Forever
ISBN 13 : 0446196843
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (461 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spy Wore Silk by : Andrea Pickens

Download or read book The Spy Wore Silk written by Andrea Pickens and published by Forever. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were once orphans from London's roughest slums. Now they are students of Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies, learning the art of spying and seduction. Bold, beautiful, and oh-so-dangerous, they are England's ultimate secret weapons. The most skilled of Merlin's Maidens, Siena must unmask a traitor lurking among an exclusive club of book collectors. Armed with only her wits, her blades, and her sultry body, she joins the gentlemen at a country house party. But her prime suspect, disgraced ex-army officer Lord Kirtland proves as enigmatic as he is suspicious-and sinfully sensuous. Kirtland's instincts tell him the enticing "Black Dove" is hiding more than a luscious body beneath her fancy silks. Yet as he starts to plumb her secrets, a cunning adversary lays plans to destroy them both. To live, Siena must end her tantalizing dance of deception and desire-and decide whether to trust her head or her heart.

The Scarlet Spy

Author : Andrea Pickens
Publisher : Forever
ISBN 13 : 0446543055
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (465 download)

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Book Synopsis The Scarlet Spy by : Andrea Pickens

Download or read book The Scarlet Spy written by Andrea Pickens and published by Forever. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were once orphans from London's roughest slums. Now they are stuidents of Mrs. Merlin's Academy for Select Young Ladies, learning the techniques of spying and seduction. Bold, beautiful, and oh-so-dangerous, they are England's ultimate secret weapons... The most ladylike of "Merlin's Maidens," Sofia possesses a natural grace and grandeur to go along with her deadly arsenal of martial skills--which makes her the perfect choice for a dangerous assignment to investigate rumors of government corruption. She must spin through the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair and the sinister back alleys of the city in search of the truth. One misstep on her part could prove fatal as she works to unravel the tangled web of deceit...but keeping the sinfully sexy Deverill Osborne at arm's length is a real test of her mettle. Handsome, witty and charming, Osborne is the darling of the ton. So when he is asked by the Marquess of Lynsley to introduce a lovely young Italian contessa into Society, he is only too happy to oblige...however he soon has suspicions about the contessa. When he catches her stealing valuables from a gentleman's study, should he believe the worst? Or should he trust the tantalizing murmur of her words...and the sultry, sensuous whispers of her body. To unmask the conspirators, Sofia and Osborne will overcome hidden dangers, including their own growing passion...which may be the most dangerous force of all.

Double Cross

Author : Ben Macintyre
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408819902
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Double Cross by : Ben Macintyre

Download or read book Double Cross written by Ben Macintyre and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: D-Dag var ikke kun et resultat af synlige militære operationer, men også i høj grad af efterretningsvæsen og dobbeltagenter

Wild Rose

Author : Ann Blackman
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 158836481X
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (883 download)

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Book Synopsis Wild Rose by : Ann Blackman

Download or read book Wild Rose written by Ann Blackman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2005-06-07 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For sheer bravado and style, no woman in the North or South rivaled the Civil War heroine Rose O’Neale Greenhow. Fearless spy for the Confederacy, glittering Washington hostess, legendary beauty and lover, Rose Greenhow risked everything for the cause she valued more than life itself. In this superb portrait, biographer Ann Blackman tells the surprising true story of a unique woman in history. “I am a Southern woman, born with revolutionary blood in my veins,” Rose once declared–and that fiery spirit would plunge her into the center of power and the thick of adventure. Born into a slave-holding family, Rose moved to Washington, D.C., as a young woman and soon established herself as one of the capital’s most charming and influential socialites, an intimate of John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, and Dolley Madison. She married well, bore eight children and buried five, and, at the height of the Gold Rush, accompanied her husband Robert Greenhow to San Francisco. Widowed after Robert died in a tragic accident, Rose became notorious in Washington for her daring–and numerous–love affairs. But with the outbreak of the Civil War, everything changed. Overnight, Rose Greenhow, fashionable hostess, become Rose Greenhow, intrepid spy. As Blackman reveals, deadly accurate intelligence that Rose supplied to General Pierre G. T. Beauregard written in a fascinating code (the code duplicated in the background on the jacket of this book). Her message to Beauregard turned the tide in the first Battle of Bull Run, and was a brilliant piece of spycraft that eventually led to her arrest by Allan Pinkerton and imprisonment with her young daughter. Indomitable, Rose regained her freedom and, as the war reached a crisis, journeyed to Europe to plead the Confederate cause at the royal courts of England and France. Drawing on newly discovered diaries and a rich trove of contemporary accounts, Blackman has fashioned a thrilling, intimate narrative that reads like a novel. Wild Rose is an unforgettable rendering of an astonishing woman, a book that will stand with the finest Civil War biographies.

The Scarlet Stockings Spy

Author : Trinka Hakes Noble
Publisher : Sleeping Bear Press
ISBN 13 : 1410365743
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Scarlet Stockings Spy by : Trinka Hakes Noble

Download or read book The Scarlet Stockings Spy written by Trinka Hakes Noble and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philadelphia 1777 is no place for the faint of heart. The rumble of war with the British grows louder each day, and spies for and against the Patriots are everywhere. No one is above suspicion. Still, everyday life must go on and young Maddy Rose must help her mother, especially since her father's death at the Battle of Princeton and now with her beloved brother Jonathan off with Washington's army. But when childhood games become life-and-death actions, Maddy Rose is drawn ever deeper into events that will explode beyond her imagining. As young America stands on the very brink of its fight for freedom, it becomes clear that even the smallest of citizens can play the largest of parts, and that the role of a patriot has nothing to do with age and everything to do with heart. In The Scarlet Stockings Spy, Trinka Hakes Noble melds a suspenseful tale of devotion, sacrifice, and patriotism with the stark realities of our country's birth.Noted picture book author and illustrator Trinka Hakes Noble has pursued the study of children's book writing and illustrating in New York City at Parsons School of Design, the New School University, Caldecott medalist Uri Shulevitz's Greenwich Village Workshop, and New York University. She has authored and illustrated numerous books including the popular Jimmy's Boa series, which has been translated into six languages. Trinka lives in Berrnardsville, New Jersey. The Scarlet Stockings Spy is her first book with Sleeping Bear Press. Because Robert Papp's childhood drawings of his favorite superheros were such a pleasure, it was only natural that he would wind up an illustrator. Nowadays, his award-winning artwork appears on book covers and in magazines instead of on the refrigerator. He has produced hundreds of cover illustrations for major publishers across the United States. Robert lives in historic Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Between Silk and Cyanide

Author : Leo Marks
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743200896
Total Pages : 624 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

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Book Synopsis Between Silk and Cyanide by : Leo Marks

Download or read book Between Silk and Cyanide written by Leo Marks and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-04-29 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1942, with a black-market chicken tucked under his arm by his mother, Leo Marks left his father's famous bookshop, 84 Charing Cross Road, and went off to fight the war. He was twenty-two. Soon recognized as a cryptographer of genius, he became head of communications at the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where he revolutionized the codemaking techniques of the Allies and trained some of the most famous agents dropped into occupied Europe. As a top codemaker, Marks had a unique perspective on one of the most fascinating and, until now, little-known aspects of the Second World War. This stunning memoir, often funny, always gripping and acutely sensitive to the human cost of each operation, provides a unique inside picture of the extraordinary SOE organization at work and reveals for the first time many unknown truths about the conduct of the war. SOE was created in July 1940 with a mandate from Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze." Its main function was to infiltrate agents into enemy-occupied territory to perform acts of sabotage and form secret armies in preparation for D-Day. Marks's ingenious codemaking innovation was to devise and implement a system of random numeric codes printed on silk. Camouflaged as handkerchiefs, underwear, or coat linings, these codes could be destroyed message by message, and therefore could not possibly be remembered by the agents, even under torture. Between Silk and Cyanide chronicles Marks's obsessive quest to improve the security of agents' codes and how this crusade led to his involvement in some of the war's most dramatic and secret operations. Among the astonishing revelations is his account of the code war between SOE and the Germans in Holland. He also reveals for the first time how SOE fooled the Germans into thinking that a secret army was operating in the Fatherland itself, and how and why he broke the code that General de Gaulle insisted be available only to the Free French. By the end of this incredible tale, truly one of the last great World War II memoirs, it is clear why General Eisenhower credited the SOE, particularly its communications department, with shortening the war by three months. From the difficulties of safeguarding the messages that led to the destruction of the atomic weapons plant at Rjukan in Norway to the surveillance of Hitler's long-range missile base at Peenemünde to the true extent of Nazi infiltration of Allied agents, Between Silk and Cyanide sheds light on one of the least-known but most dramatic aspects of the war. Writing with the narrative flair and vivid characterization of his famous screenplays, Marks gives free rein to his keen sense of the absurd and wry wit without ever losing touch with the very human side of the story. His close relationship with "the White Rabbit" and Violette Szabo -- two of the greatest British agents of the war -- and his accounts of the many others he dealt with result in a thrilling and poignant memoir that celebrates individual courage and endeavor, without losing sight of the human cost and horror of war.

Russian Roulette

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1620405709
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Russian Roulette by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Russian Roulette written by Giles Milton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the extraordinary and thrilling story of the British spies in revolutionary Russia, led by Mansfield Cumming, who would one day pioneer the field of covert action and become MI6, and their mission to foil Lenin's plot for global revolution. 40,000 first printing.

Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays

Author : Claire Messud
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 1324006765
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays by : Claire Messud

Download or read book Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays written by Claire Messud and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A glimpse into a beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature. In her fiction, Claire Messud "has specialized in creating unusual female characters with ferocious, imaginative inner lives" (Ruth Franklin, New York Times Magazine). Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write opens a window on Messud’s own life: a peripatetic upbringing; a warm, complicated family; and, throughout it all, her devotion to art and literature. In twenty-six intimate, brilliant, and funny essays, Messud reflects on a childhood move from her Connecticut home to Australia; the complex relationship between her modern Canadian mother and a fiercely single French Catholic aunt; and a trip to Beirut, where her pied-noir father had once lived, while he was dying. She meditates on contemporary classics from Kazuo Ishiguro, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk, and Valeria Luiselli; examines three facets of Albert Camus and The Stranger; and tours her favorite paintings at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. In the luminous title essay, she explores her drive to write, born of the magic of sharing language and the transformative powers of “a single successful sentence.” Together, these essays show the inner workings of a dazzling literary mind. Crafting a vivid portrait of a life in celebration of the power of literature, Messud proves once again "an absolute master storyteller" (Rebecca Carroll, Los Angeles Times).