Library Loot

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Even though I’m working my way through Elyse Graham’s Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II as well as Kim Leine’s The Colony of Good Hope, and about to start Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present didn’t stop me from dropping by the library the other day and borrowing more books. As always I hope to apply these towards a number of reading challenges. So add four more to that towering stack of library books by my reading chair.

A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman’s Harrowing Escape from the Nazis by Françoise Frenkel (2019) – I’m looking to apply this one towards multiple reading challenges including the Bookish Books and Immigration reading challenges.

Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Moudhy Al-Rashid (2025) – Years ago I used to get a lot of ancient history. I think I’d like to start doing that again.

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs by Marc David Baer (2021) – One of several books about the Ottoman Empire and Turkey I’m hoping to read in 2026.

An Honorable German by Charles McCain (2009) – Another piece of historical fiction for The Intrepid Reader‘s Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Something about this book just made me wanna grab it.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading to encourage bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write-up your post, steal the Library Loot icon and link your post using the Mr. Linky on Claire’s blog.

Book Beginnings: Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading Challenge and TBR 26 in 26 Challenge on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, a few years ago I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. After taking last week off I’ve returned with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The call to adventure came in libraries, in faculty offices, at campus football games. Few of those called were remotely prepared for this moment.

Last week I featured John le Carré’s 2003 spy novel Absolute Friends. Before that it was Franklin Foer’s 2004 How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. This week it’s Elyse Graham’s 2024 New York Times best-seller Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my many reading goals for 2026 is to read more books on espionage. After hearing the author Elyse Graham interviewed on the On the Media podcast I knew this had to be one of those books. Once Amazon slashed the price of its Kindle edition back in July I eagerly grabbed a copy. Currently I’m about half way through it and quite happy with my purchase. There’s even a darn good chance it ends up making my year-end list of Favorite Nonfiction.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about Book and Dagger. 

At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.

2025 In Review: My Favorite Nonfiction

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I apologize for the lateness of this post. After being distracted by a million different things here’s my favorite nonfiction books of 2025. Of course if this post looks familiar it’s because it’s pretty much this same darn thing I posted back in November for my Nonfiction Year in Review. As you can see this year’s selection is a mishmash of history, politics, infectious disease and memoir. And if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time you probably know that’s pretty much the kind of books I read.

My Favorites 

For 2026 I’m hoping to read more espionage, history and memoirs. In response to our current political predicament I’m also planning in reading more political stuff. By year’s end I guess we’ll see how well I stuck to those intentions.

Book Beginnings: Absolute Friends by John le Carré

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Not only does Gilion host the European Reading Challenge and TBR 26 in 26 Challenge on her Rose City Reader blog but also Book Beginnings on Friday. While I’m no stranger to her European Reading Challenge, a few years ago I decided to finally participate in Book Beginnings on Friday. After taking last week off I’ve returned with another post.

For Book Beginnings on Friday Gilion asks us to simply “share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight.”

MY BOOK BEGINNING

On the day his destiny returned to claim him, Ted Mundy was sporting a bowler hat and balancing on a soapbox in one of Mad King Ludwig’s castles in Bavaria.

Last week I featured Franklin Foer’s 2004 How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. Before that it was Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow’s 1959 novel Henderson the Rain King. This week it’s John le Carré’s 2003 spy novel Absolute Friends.

Even though I recently featured le Carre’s A Most Wanted Man I couldn’t help adding this one after grabbing a copy a few days ago from my public library. I guess I’ve been in the mood to read the master British espionage author after hearing the Inside the John le Carré Tradecraft Exhibition episode on the excellent Spybrary podcast. One of my many reading goals for 2026 is to read more cloak and dagger stuff set in contemporary times. Perhaps I’ll kick that off with a couple of John le Carré thrillers.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about Absolute Friends. 

Today, Mundy is a down-at-the-heels tour guide in southern Germany, dodging creditors, supporting a new family, and keeping an eye out for trouble while in spare moments vigorously questioning the actions of the country he once bravely served. And trouble finds him, as it has before, in the shape of an old German student friend, radical, and onetime fellow spy, the crippled Sasha, seeker after absolutes, dreamer, and chaos addict. After years of trawling the Middle East and Asia as an itinerant university lecturer, Sasha has yet again discovered the true, the only, answer to life — this time in the form of a mysterious billionaire philanthropist named Dimitri. Thanks to Dimitri, both Mundy and Sasha will find a path out of poverty, and with it their chance to change a world that both believe is going to the devil. Or will they? Who is Dimitri? Why does Dimitri’s gold pour in from mysterious Middle Eastern bank accounts? And why does his apparently noble venture reek less of starry idealism than of treachery and fear? Some gifts are too expensive to accept. Could this be one of them? With a cooler head than Sasha’s, Mundy is inclined to think it could.

2025 In Review: My Favorite Fiction

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With the year just about over here’s my list of my favorite novels I read in 2025. Like always almost all of these I borrowed from my small town library or through Overdrive/Libby. As you can see there’s a ton of historical fiction as well as a little cloak and dagger stuff.

My Favorites 

  1. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025)
  2. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
  3. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (2010)
  4. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022)
  5. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (2021)
  6. The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin ( 2021)
  7. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (1991)
  8. Oromay by Baalu Girma (1983/2025)
  9. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016)
  10. The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove (2023)

Honorable Mentions

  1. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019)
  2. Basil’s War by Stephen Hunter (2021)
  3. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon (2024)
  4. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020)
  5. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022)
  6. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022)

2025 European Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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Another year of Rose City Reader’s European Reading Challenge has come to a close. Throughout the year I try to read as many books as possible set in, or about different European countries, or by different European authors. With one country per book and each book by a different author I found myself moving from book to book across Europe, like some modern day armchair traveler’s version of a Bella Époque grand tour of the European continent. I’ve been participating in this reading challenge for years and it’s still one of my all time favorites.

Last year I read and reviewed a personal best of 30 books. This year I’m afraid it was just 18. Just like in past years, there’s a variety of countries represented, ranging from large counties like Russia and Germany to smaller ones like Estonia and Switzerland. For the first time ever it’s all fiction with much of it historical fiction. Tossed in for good measure there’s a little Nordic Noir, a work of alternate history and even one piece of Christian historical fiction.

  1. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2014) – Sweden
  2. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022) – Estonia
  3. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell (2014) – Austria
  4. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025) – Portugal
  5. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019) – Germany
  6. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (2010) – Cyprus
  7. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022) – Romania
  8. The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue (2025) – France
  9. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (1991) – Norway
  10. Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith (2010) – Russia
  11. The Rest Is Memory by Lily Tuck (2025) – Poland
  12. The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr (2016) – Spain
  13. Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason (2013 – Iceland
  14. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016) – Switzerland
  15. The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove (2023) -United Kingdom
  16. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020) – The Netherlands
  17. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022) – Hungary
  18. The Begotten: A Novel of the Gifted by Lisa T. Bergren (2006) – Italy

For next year my goal is at least 21 books. Hopefully with a bit more self-discipline and a little luck I’ll pull it off.

2025 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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The Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge has become one of my favorite reading challenges. I enjoy a good spy novel now and then as well as the occasional piece of Nordic Noir. Plus, in recent years I’ve developed a taste for historical whodunnits set in a various eras and exotic locations. But perhaps above all the challenge synchs well with the European Reading, Books in Translation and Historical Fiction reading challenges. As 2025 draws to a close it’s time to look back on what I read for Carol’s lovely little reading challenge.

  1. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2014)
  2. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022)
  3. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022)
  4. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019)
  5. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025)
  6. Basil’s War by Stephen Hunter (2021)
  7. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
  8. The Second Sun by P. T. Deutermann (2025)
  9. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022)
  10. One Man’s Flag by David Downing (2015)
  11. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon (2024)
  12. The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr (2016)
  13. Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason (2013)
  14. An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant (2020)
  15. Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith (2010)
  16. Jack of Spies by David Downing (2014)
  17. Oromay by Baalu Girma (1983/2025)

This year I read 17 books set in a variety of places ranging from Iceland to Ethiopian-occupied Eritrea. For my efforts I earned the “Detective” level of participation which sounds kinda cool. The Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge has been lots of fun and I fully intend to do it again in 2026. Who knows, I might even read 26 books and make it to “Inspector.”  Tune in next year and find out.

An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam by Michael Grant

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One of my pleasant surprises last year was Michael Grant’s 2019 thriller A Sudden Death in Cyprus. Merely wanting something set in Cyprus for Rose City Reader‘s European Reading Challenge I didn’t expect much. Low and behold I flat-out loved the book, finding it “fast-paced, intelligent, well-written and pleasantly dripping with dark humor.” So enamored with A Sudden Death in Cyprus I later secured a copy of its follow-up An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam. After ignoring it for a year last week I finally read it. I was not disappointed.

Our favorite former career criminal turned crime writer David Mitre has traded the beaches of Cyprus for the canals, museums and cafes of Amsterdam. Officially on tour to promote his latest novel he’s also agreed to help an old associate track down his missing daughter he fears might be mixed up in the local underworld. But after not one but two amateurish attempt on his life he realizes someone wants him dead, and he’s clueless who it might be. But who should come to his aid but his old frenemy FBI Special Agent Delia Delacorte. She’ll help him catch his intended killer and find the missing young woman but he’s gotta help her foil the looming theft of a priceless Vermeer. He agrees and but soon realizes the only way to ensure the painting doesn’t get stolen is to steal it himself.

The result is a quick paced, frequently humorous romp full of clever plot twists. Mitre is one of those delightful anti-heroes who’s impossible not to like: whips-mart, resourceful and in the end will always do the right thing, even if it might kill him.

Just like Allan Martin’s Winter Blood I can find no mention anywhere online of a follow-up to An Artful Assassin in Amsterdam. Perhaps in the next few years the’ll be one, and if that happens I look forward to featuring it on this blog.

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge has become one of my favorite reading challenges. It’s fun because I’m a lover of history and it synchs so well with other reading challenges I enjoy like the European Reading , Cloak and Dagger and Books in Translation reading challenges. As 2025 draws to a close it’s time to look back on the many works of historical fiction I read over the course of the year.

  1. Winter Blood by Allan Martin (2022)
  2. Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell (2014)
  3. The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O’Melveny (2012)
  4. Metropolis by Philip Kerr (2019)
  5. One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (2025)
  6. Basil’s War by Stephen Hunter (2021)
  7. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
  8. The Second Sun by P. T. Deutermann (2025)
  9. Small Wars by Sadie Jones (2010)
  10. The Bucharest Dossier by William Maz (2022)
  11. The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (2021)
  12. The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue (2025)
  13. The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin ( 2021)
  14. One Man’s Flag by David Downing (2015)
  15. The Rest Is Memory by Lily Tuck (2025)
  16. Shanghai by Joseph Kanon (2024)
  17. The Devils of Cardona by Matthew Carr (2016)
  18. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016)
  19. The Begotten: A Novel of the Gifted by Lisa T. Bergren (2006)
  20. Jack of Spies by David Downing (2014)
  21. The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove (2023)
  22. Budapest in Pieces by Richard Wake (2022)

Last year I read just eight books but this time around I was much more productive earning the “Medieval” of participation. Until I sat down to write this post I was worried my list would be dominated by novels set during World War II but much to my surprise things were all over the place with settings ranging from 16th century Spain to late 19th century Midwestern America. In a rarity for me I even explored the sub-genres of alternate history and Christian historical fiction.

It’s a fun challenge and I can’t wait to read more historical fiction in 2026.

2025 Books in Translation Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

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One of my favorite reading challenge is Introverted Reader‘s Books in Translation Reading Challenge. Just like the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge it synchs well with other faves like the European Reading Challenge and  Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. Sadly, this year I read just four translated works earning me the “Conversationalist” level of participation.

  1. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2014) – Swedish
  2. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (1991) – Norwegian
  3. Oromay by Baalu Girma (1983/2025)- Amharic
  4. Black Skies by Arnaldur Indridason (2013)- Icelandic

For 2026 I’d like to significantly up my production and recapture the coveted “Linguist” level. I’d also like to include more translated works from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. I should also include something translated from one of the classical languages such as Hebrew, Greek or Latin. Lastly, that old anthology of Yiddish literature on the shelf behind me still needs to be read. Maybe in 2026 I’ll finally do so.