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Weekly Words about Books APRIL 21, 2013
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A Decade of Change at the CIA: What It Means For the War on Terrorism
| With our country coming off high alert after the tragedy in Boston, a timely new book that hit the independent bestseller list last week should continue to attract attention. The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth was written by Mark Mazzetti, a Pulitzer  Prize-winning reporter covering national security for The New York Times. It's an eye-opening insider account of the transformation of the CIA and America's special operations forces into man-hunting killing machines in the world's dark spaces.
Since 9/11, the CIA has steadily morphed from an espionage and intelligence-gathering agency to an organization engaged in the business of killing America's enemies around the world. As the American military remains our primary fighting machine, the "shadow war" approach of the CIA in hunting individual targets like Osama Bin Laden has been well received in Washington because of its lower costs and risks.
Aside from the tension that has inevitably been created between the CIA and the Pentagon by what is seen as the former's increasing encroachment on the military's turf, Mazzetti also writes about other consequences of the CIA's shift to counterterrorism. In a recent NPR interview, he talked about whether the agency's ability to spy has been hampered. Here's an interesting excerpt:
"One of the things I write about in the book was how behind the curve the CIA was on the Arab Spring. And this caused a lot of frustration at the White House, where the CIA was incapable of sort of getting a grasp on these revolts. And this is a big concern, not only in the CIA but in the White House, other parts of the American government, that the traditional missions of the CIA are being atrophied, or are atrophying, because of this intense focus on manhunting."
The Way of the Knife is an enlightening read for anyone wishing to understand more about our country's evolving fight against terrorism and enemy forces on a global scale. It's fascinating and sometimes frightening - a spy thriller come to very real life.
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Life After Life After Life
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This month's Indie Next list of new books recommended by independent booksellers across the country features two anomalies. Not only was there a dead heat for the top spot on the list - the first time two titles tied for first place to my knowledge - but both books have the same title, Life After Life.
Copyright laws apply to many things, but book  titles is not one of them, so having two books with the same name on the cover is not that unusual. Not surprisingly, Life After Life has been used several times before - mostly for books about reincarnation. But having both published in the same month by two major publishers is less usual, and having booksellers embrace them with equal enthusiasm is unheard of - a bit like the actual concept of life after life to my way of thinking. But I digress.
In case you're wondering, there was little chance booksellers mixed the two books up. As you'll see from the descriptions below, they are very different reads and those who like one may well pass on the other. But the two will forever be linked by their shared Indie Next ranking, and if either or both sound like interesting reads, I can pretty much guarantee you won't be disappointed.
Life After Life by Jill McCorkle is set in a retirement home in a small North Carolina town where the lives, interactions, and self-discoveries of its residents form the crux of the character-driven story.
Terry Gilman of Mysterious Galaxy bookstore in San Diego had this to say:
"Pine Haven Estates is a retirement community, where life and death are inevitable companions. Its inhabitants and the people who care
for and about them are at the center of this story that examines the cycle of life - what it means to be alive as well as how one faces the end of life.McCorkle's first novel in 17 years depicts a community well worth visiting and offers a wonderfully satisfying reading experience."
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson takes the reader on an amazing historical tour by following the multiple lives of one Ursula Todd, who is first born in 1910. Ursula dies and is 'reborn' several times in a series of different life scenarios that span the two world wars and challenge the reader.
Kat Bailey from Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz wrote this about the book:
"With the introduction of Ursula Todd, a woman who lives her life over and over, Atkinson plays with second chances and alternate histories, and poses endless, fascinating questions: What would the world be like if we could start over when things went terribly awry? Could our decisions, big and small, avert wars? Make us
happier? Stop death in its tracks? Life After Life is simply a terrific novel, rich with history and possibility, that will leave the reader pondering long after the final page."
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
I'm not into long, wordy reviews or literary criticism; I'd like HUT'S PLACE to be a quick, fun read for book buyers.If you have any friends who you think might like receiving this column each week, simply click on "Forward this email" below and enter their email address. There is also a box in which to add a short message.
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WHERE TO FIND A BOOKSTORE
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Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
If you live or work elsewhere, you can click here to find the nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.
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