Agent Books

This is a really fascinating look at how politics became a battlefront in the war on intelligence. Wilson's role in assisting the CIA becomes a firestorm with repercussions that surround the globe. This is an amazing look at what the toll of speaking up took, and should be a call for all Americans, of all political leanings, to stop, look past party loyalties, and question everything, even it it comes from your own candidate. I found the additional section at the end very helpful for filling in those blank pages. For anyone who is questioning this story you need to ask yourself, what were they going to gain by making this stuff up? Thank you Valerie for speaking up. You've made many Americans more determined to be forthright and honest.

I second Ms. Plame in publishing the book with the exact redactions ordered by the agency. I think it was a brilliant idea to show the world how much material had been censored. It is fascinating to skim through the book and realize that a good percentage of it is blacked out. Notwithstanding the aforementioned fact, the book is riveting and very informative. Highly recommended.

While the book certainly makes the case that Plame was a covert operative who was wronged by the administration, I think what makes it most interesting can be appreciated by anyone outside of their political leanings. We get a candid portrait of what it's like in the center of one of these media storms and Plame offers up plenty of detail on the toll this affair took on herself and her marriage. People should be outraged.

The large section of redacted passages are tough to get around -- I wish the material included at the end could have been inserted as footnotes throughout so the reader doesn't have to jump back and forth.

The author lost credibility (and my continued interest) on page 4 of this non page turner when she stated, "As a teenager, I read William Stevenson's A Man called Intrepid, about the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) days during World War II".

William Stevenson (code named "Intrepid") was a Canadian who served under British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during WWII. He was instrumental in the coordination and set-up of a branch of British Intelligence (British Security Coordination or 'BSC') here in Canada for the express purpose of creating Special Training School STS 103 (Camp 'X' ) that trained allied agents in the techniques of secret warfare for the Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) branch of the British Intelligence Service.

The only connection this book had with the O.S.S. was that it's first director (William "Wild Bill" Donovan) and others were trained here in Canada at Camp 'X' (located about 30mi. east of Toronto along the northern Lake Ontario shoreline, bordering between Oshawa and Whitby). Mr. Donovan went on to create the O.S.S. (forerunner of the CIA) and modeled it's training methods after that which he obtained while at Camp 'X'.

Very little of the book has to do with either the O.S.S. or William Donovan, and is focused much more heavily on the British, Canadian and other Commonwealth countries war efforts in the fight against the Axis powers, prior to the U.S. entering the war.

I guess Ms. Plame's recollection of the book's contents is selective based on personal and nationalistic interests.

This isn't a spy-intrigue-action book, so please don't expect it to be. It's Valerie Plame Wilson's story about ow she happened to become a CIA agent, what it took to reach the levels in the institution that she did. How the scandal started who was and wasn't involved. She explains how the government managed to touch every part of her being to her personal life, social life, professional life, motherhood, finances, you name it. It's a good book, and one American's should read. Especially approaching this 2008 election.

Wanting to re-read this modern classic after some decades, in the course of a second visit to Conrad's writing, I made the mistake to buy this Signet edition.
Don't do that! It sucks. The print is compact and the letters too small. It has no explanatory notes, which would be important for this kind of book. It is a punishment to read this.
Stay away from this edition and buy the Oxford World Classics pocket book instead.
I will review that shortly.

In this novel the bombing of the Greenwich Observatory is the event around which story and characters revolve with the exactitude of circles scribed on paper. The Observatory bombers are not anarchists. The culprits are an agent provocateur who has infiltrated the anarchists' ranks and his half-witted brother-in-law. The mastermind of the plot isn't an anarchist either. He's a Russian diplomat frustrated with the refusal of the London police to arrest the anarchists. In short, a goverment sponsors an act of terrorism in order to provoke a crackdown on terrorists.
The idea Conrad sets out to blow up in the novel is modernism's sin of thinking abstractly about moral and human affairs--abstractly, scientifically, impersonally, and instrumentally. The anarchists think this way; the police do, too; and so do the government officials. Conrad dismisses them all. One person who does not think this way is the secret agent's brother in law Stevie who seems to be the pauper version of Dostoevsky's Idiot Prince Myshkin.
"Mr. Verloc, getting off the sofa with ponderous reluctance, opened the door leading into the kitchen to get more air, and thus disclosed the innocent Stevie, seated very good and quiet at a deal table, drawing circles, circles; innumerable circles, concentric, eccentric; a coruscating whirl of circles that by their tangled multitude of repeated curves, uniformity of form and confusion of intersecting lines suggested a rendering of cosmic chaos"
In a scene straight out of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky Stevie refuses to ride in a cab because of the horse being whipped to pull them. When the Cabman explains that he is trying to feed his poor children the empathetic compassion in Stevie's heart explodes like a bomb within him engendering feeling for the horse, cabman, and his children. He verbalizes his feelings telling us "Bad world for poor people". Verloc, the secret agent, manipulates Stevie's compassion to involve him in his terror scheme which results in disaster. The prose in this novel is some of the finest I have had the pleasure to read. In the future whenever I am about to be less than compassionate I hope to remember Stevie.

Based on a true incident, Conrad tells the story of Verloc, the secret agent provocateur who is given the task of blowing up the Royal Observatory in London as a way of heaping scorn on anarchists in England. He sends his mentally deficient brother-in-law Stevie with the bomb, which blows up before he can reach the observatory. Stevie is annihilated and when Verloc's wife (Winnie) finds out what happens to her brother, she stabs Verloc with a carving knife.

Conrad insisted his novel was not a political work dealing with anarchy but was only a "work of the imagination." But he captured the seediness and moral deficiencies of everyone involved, from Verloc to Chief Inspector Heat. The last chapter, where Verloc's now-widow is duped by anarchist Tom Ossipon, who steals all her money, is rank with irony. The best chapter, though, the one around which the high reputation of the book revolves, is chapter 11: from its "She [Winnie] knows everything now" to Verloc's stabbing at the end, it ranks as one of Conrad's most suspenseful and dramatic chapters in all his books. [Alfred Hitchcock made use of the incidents in this work for his movie "Sabotage," though Hitch changed the ending and moved the time of the story up to the 1930s.]

As fan of both Joseph Conrad and the spy novel, my biggest complaint about The Secret Agent is that it was oversold as containing insights into 9/11 and the mechanics of terrorism. The Secret Agent is a good spy story (not great) and the writing is perhaps not quite as dense as vintage Conrad can be. This reader did not, however, perceive any particular insights into 9/11 (unless one thinks it really was an inside job).

The story is set in London in 1907. The spy Verloc is double-agent for an unspecified country, presumably Russia, and a member of a small anarchist group. As might be guessed, the characters comprising the anarchists are idiosyncratic to the point of eccentricity. Some members are merely playing, others enjoy the sound of their own voice a bit too much, and one enjoys mixing chemicals to create explosives. At bottom, these anarchists are ineffectual - much talk and little action. Verloc's only income besides his pay as an agent provocateur comes from a sleazy little shop where he sells odds-and-ends - and pornography. Vladimir, who runs Verloc out of the unnamed embassy, threatens to cut Verloc off unless he carries out a magnificent operation.

The story alternatively centers around Verloc's rather odd home life as much as his career as a spy. His wife has married him so that she and especially her developmentally disabled brother Stevie will have some security. When Verloc involves Stevie in the terrorist operation the tale begins its hectic and exhilarating run to the finish.

Conrad weaves an interesting tale of political intrigue and psychological insight. To my eye, the book offers only some insight into the way governments deal with terrorist threats and very little of use in understanding the nature of current threats. Reviewers who rediscovered the book after 9/11 larded the book down with rather grandiose claims of prophetic visions. In the Secret Agent, Conrad gave us a good read (probably a very good read at the time of its writing) and one that belongs on the bookshelf with other notable spy literature (like Smiley's People, Kim (Penguin Classics), Red Gold: A Novel and The Human Factor by Graham Greene to name only a few). That should be enough for anyone.

After 100 years, Conrad's distinctive novel of espionage and counter-espionage is still the apex of the genre, the indispensable masterpiece. It's bleak, mordant, suspenseful, and funny, and it's wildly under-appreciated judging by the other reviews here on amazon.

This is so perfect a spy novel that frankly no other spy novel needed ever to be written. Conrad has said it all. It's tightly plotted, completely plausible except perhaps for a few too-convenient chance meetings on the street, and profoundly insightful into the "politics" of terror. And it's freshly pertinent, even to the point of including an inadvertent suicide bomber.

There are no "good guys," it's true, and nobody on any side of things with indomitable physical or mental abilities. Every single personage is picturesquely grotesque. Every character considers himself cleverly invulnerable yet reveals himself to be irremediably foolish. The descriptions of these moral clowns and the deplorable world of mucky squalor and gilded corruption in which they move are the best writing, sentence by sentence, that Conrad ever did -- worthy of Dickens or Dostoyevsky. There's a sardonic, scornful humor in every scene, however grizzly. This is the darkest picture of human nature I've ever read. Even love and loyalty are degenerative psychoses. One expects a certain fatalistic pessimism from Conrad, sprawling across an ungainly plot, with complicated narrative overlays and ambiguous judgments. The Secret Agent is utterly different; it's as terse and unified as its subtitle claims; it's "a Simple Tale."

"Mr. Verloc, going out in the morning, left his shop nominally in charge of his brother-in-law. It could be done, because there was very little business at any time, and practically none at all before the evening. Mr. Verloc cared but little about his ostensible business. And, moreover, his wife was in charge of his brother-in-law."

That's the first paragraph; if you don't already feel in the presence of a master of subtle indirection just from that much, perhaps you'll be as unresponsive to this great novel as the hapless fools would be who populate its pages.

Hitchcock made a film of it in the 1930s. I've never seen the film, but I can imagine that Hitchcock would have read the novel with sardonic glee and captured its humor. It's Hitchcock in prosody.

Yo! Peeps, if I tell it's totally NOIR, will you give it a ride?

An amazing and magnificent book. Dark -- very dark -- and clever. I don't want to give away the plot -- no spoilers! But it's very, very well done. Unlike so many authors (and as one myself, I know how very hard it is to do well), she shows evil convincingly and well. And what a searing indictment of America's prison system!

As good a novel as it is a thriller. Damn! I wish I'd written it.

I have never read another book by Karen Slaughter, so I did not know what to expect and am not sure if this is like her other novels.

That said, I thought this was a really good crime mystery novel. It is one of the only times I can remember a plot twist being so shocking that I actually said "Oh my gosh" out loud. And there is more than one of these moments in the book.

It is also very interesting to see how Slaughter has different characters in different parts of the book describe the same events or people in quite disparate ways. A very nice example of how the story changes depending on who is telling it.

Of course, there are all the things one expects to find in any crime novel: blood, bizarre markers, and a serial killer.

If you are looking for a good, relatively quick crime mystery novel to read that will keep surprising you, you could do much worse that Triptych.

Compelling story, but a very slow start with an obvious political slant that added nothing to the tale. This is the 1st Slaughter mystery I have read - I will try another, but the intrigue has to take the lead and not the personal agenda of the author (especially when the asides do nothing to assist in character development or plot).

Tryptych is the strangly named title of Karin Slaughter's riveting thriller. This is the first book I've read by the author and won't be the last. There are several authors who I've read and won't read again. I'm glad I've found another author than can deliver a great crime thriller. As the plot summary notes, the story revolves around three characters. I don't know if these characters appear in other Slaughter novels, but Triptych can be read without reading her other books.

Det. Michael Ormewood has a struggling marriage and a mentally challenged son. He is frustrated when Will Trent, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation Officer, is brought in to help with an investigation. A old prostitute has been murdered, and details of the murder match other similar crimes committed in Atlanta. Angie Polaski is a vice cop and has a lifelong relationship with Will Trent and a love/hate relationship with Ormewood. The third person in the character triangle is John Shelley. John was raised in a perfect home but he turned to drugs and soon found himself being charged with murder. He was convicted and released on parole. While out of jail and trying to buy a TV on credit, the salesman says he has great credit. It seems that while in jail, someone has been using John's name to live a second life.

There is no point in going into more detail except to say that there are three storylines, Ormewood and the murders, Angie Polaksi and Will Trent, and John Shelley. Author Slaughter gives clues but writes deftly enough to hide the complex relationships between the charcters until all three story lines mesh into one incredible set of events.

These events set in motion an invetible climax that takes way too long in coming. Halfway through the novel, I suddenly grasped what Slaughter set out to do and was amazed at her writing skills. Unfortunately, the book was only half over, and the last half of the book, the reader knows so much more than the other characters that it becomes frustrating to watch the characters not be able to figure out. Still, I enjoyed the novel.

This is a gritty, at times vulgar book, that is shockingly fun. Slaughter's characters all have demons and issues. Prostitution, drug use and murder are all there. Slaughter has hooked me in. She writes a different book that someone like Gerritson or Cornwell or Reichs, yet fans of those authors should love books by Karin Slaughter.

When Slaughter's first book (Blindsighted) was released, I was actually pretty impressed. Although it was pretty heavy on the violence, it was also pretty heavy on the characters. The plotting was tight and affecting. There was good local color. In short, even though it had many elements that might not have thrilled me, it also had a lot of things that I really liked. I had the feeling that Slaughter had the potential to bring her genre out of the supermarket and airport into somewhere pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, ever since then, I've kind of been waiting for the interesting to happen. Instead of using the ultra-violence as a seasoning, I have the feeling that she has started to depend on it.

(Note: I have the feeling that sometimes I talk about violence like a precious old lady peering over her reading glasses. I really do not object to violence when it is part of the plot, and makes sense in the atmosphere and genre. I do dislike what in last years feels to me an attempt to create the most vicious vile and degrading serial killer around. It is too much, and feels like a violence arms race. It clouds how violent even small acts of violence can be.)

Anyhow, in this sense, Triptych is an improvement over the Grant County books. Violent, yes, but within a rational scale. Unfortunately, in this novel it is the plot tricks which push the book over the top for me. I won't go into the twists and turns, since it could spoil the reading experience. But suffice it to say that the book falls largely flat if you figure out the main gimmick early on, which I did. A high risk strategy, I fear. At least for me, it didn't pay off.

In short, not a bad entry from Slaughter. But it still fails to live up to my initially high expectations of her work.

(I do like Will Trent as a character, by the way. I wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future.)

Flabbergasted was an unexpected pleasure. I didn't know what to expect when I saw that colorful and fun cover. But what awaited me inside was a treat.

I won't go into all the plot details, since many reviewers already have. Let me just say the wonderfully real characters, entertaining plot, and even the author's own quirky sense of humor will make you smile, laugh and maybe even think about God a little differently.

You'll definitely enjoy the ride.

A hilarious look at the church dating scene. The single girls church-hop and rank the churches based on the datability of the single guys there, similar to the way some of my friends have bar-hopped hoping to meet guys.

Plus, I'm always excited to find books with a Christian perspective that aren't preachy and don't feel the need to have someone convert in order to make it "Christian enough."

I ran across this book purely by accident & was blown away by how up beat & happy it made me feel! I would recommend it for anyone looking for a lift in their day. Ray Blackston does a great job!

Flabbergasted is a great book for those looking for a light read that will not offend. Think of "Friends" with a Christian flare. Instead of the coffee shop and Monica's apartment, there are church and accountability groups.

The cast is a great group of young adults with a few older friends who throw in just the right amount of wisdom.

Heading to the beach? This is the perfect book to take along and read in the sand. Or, if you are home in the cold, just snuggle under a big blanket and enjoy this warming read. Perhaps you will even be able to answer the question whether Jesus would have the beer.

I have given copies to girlfriends and my teenage daughter. Everyone has loved it.

Flabbergasted is a refreshingly new look at an age-old problem: finding the right person to spend the rest of your life with. Ray Blackston gives us a side-splitting male viewpoint, Christian without being preachy and on topic without ever being boring. His cast of characters may not look like the people I normally hang around with, but it's clear to me that love life issues know no racial, ethnic or social barriers. I laughed out loud as the irrepressible Jay Jarvis tried his best to look for love in all the right places- and then laughed some more when he found it.

If you need a good, breezy read, grab a copy of this book, sit back and enjoy the ride. Oh, and make sure to do this where you can laugh out loud without fear of embarrassment.

I've been working my way through Ian Fleming this summer, and this book is as much fun as any of the Bond novels. Honey Rider is not the most believable of Bond girls, but the descriptions of Jamaica are marvelous.

Even though Dr. No was dreadfully intolerant by today's standards, had next to no real plot, and neglected to include any substantial characterization, I couldn't put it down.

James Bond is confident, capable, cocky, rather sexist, and perhaps even racist in Dr. No, but the prose is written at such a fast pace, Fleming concocted such a ludicrous villain in Dr. No, and Bond prevailed in such "manly" manners, it's hard not to get engrossed in it all.

Dr. No is a brisk, leisurely read that entertains and quickens the pulse. I didn't find Fleming's writing style terribly adept, but the man knew how to hook a reader, and in the end, some would say that's all that matters.

~Scott William Foley, author of The Imagination's Provocation: Volume II: A Collection of Short Stories

If you can get past the parts of the story about the pink spoonbills, or whatever those birds are called, you will see that Doctor No is one of the best novels in the Fleming series. The story starts off slow, but really picks up when Bond arrives on Crab Key. This is just full of adventure, great dialogue and Bond goes through one of his worst beatings in the last chapters of the novel. If you enjoyed the movie, then you will definitely like this 100 times more since it expands and tells more than the movie does, even going into why his name is Doctor No (which isn't his birth name). This is just a really good book that you won't be able to put down once the real action gets started, just be warned that there is a slow beginning.

Published in 1958, "Doctor No" is a transitional novel for the James Bond series. Gone is much of the moral queasiness, realism, and psychological turmoil of earlier tales. In its place is a Walther PPK, vodka martinis shaken not stirred, and a supervillain living in a hidden fortress. Given all that, "Doctor No" should be fun at least, but it's not.

Set in Jamaica, site of earlier series entry "Live And Let Die" and the last Fleming novel, "The Man With The Golden Gun", "Doctor No" has Bond investigating the disappearance of two British secret agents. The trail leads to the title character, a six-foot-six bald man with metal pincers for hands, metal contact lenses, and an interest in harvesting guano from an island just beyond Jamaica called Crab Key. No doubt Bond knows No's up to no good. Soon 007 is in the clutches of a madman, facing an imminent and horrible death just as soon as No explains what he's all about over a nice meal.

Maniac, you call him? No couldn't agree more: "All the greatest men are maniacs. They are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal."

What's driving Fleming here is less clear. He seemed to resent having to bring Bond back from death at the end of his last book, really putting the character through the torture test this time. There's a casual cruelty to this book that makes it hard to digest as entertainment. I had a real Quarrel with the fate of one cool Bond ally. And the finale is about as silly as Fleming ever got, Bond fighting tarantulas and an octopus for some silly test of No's that the villain himself can't even bother to watch to completion while there's bird dung to harvest. The villain's fate suggests a sad laugh by a disillusioned author at his readers' gullibility.

Good points include some decent descriptive mileage regarding the mangrove swamps of Crab Key and the social life of Kingston; both the rich whites who live in the affected splendor of the Queen's Club "which for fifty years has boasted the power and frequency of its blackballs", and the blacks who play calypso and drink Red Stripe at scenic outdoor cafes. There's also Honeychile Rider, Bond's latest lady. The movie version famously gave us Ursula Andress in this role, but the character in the book exudes vulnerability more than hotitude, and her backstory is one of the best of any Bond woman.

The movie "Doctor No" was what launched the whole 007 movie phenomenon, still alive and very well at this writing. You can see how it was the right choice, too, as everything here is amped up for cinematic consumption. No lives inside a seaside cliff with a transparent face, so he can watch all the creatures swimming around. Instead of sending men with guns to shoot the birds he doesn't want on his island, he has them drive around in an automotive contraption disguised as a dragon, complete with flame-thrower inside its mouth.

Alas, these ideas would be more welcome if Fleming knew what to do with them. Unfortunately, his much-talked-about "Fleming Sweep" sputters once the story kicks into a higher gear.

"Doctor No" is a series low point that ironically became a franchise high point thanks to the movie. If you are reading the books in order like I am, you have no choice but to read it, but if you are like me, you will find it a surprisingly tedious chore.

Doctor No starts off weakly but finishes strong. Picking up a few weeks after the conclusion of From Russia with Love, Doctor No finds Bond just returning from a long stay in hospital after being poisoned. M is determined to keep Bond out of strenuous duty, so he sends him on a presumably easy mission to investigate the disappearance of British Intelligence's Jamaican operator. And by the way, M seems to add as an afterthought, some people have been dying mysteriously on nearby Crab Key.

Bond resents the easy assignment but has a hunch that the deaths on Doctor No's private island may have something to do with the missing intelligence man and his secretary. He pokes around Jamaica, is sharp enough to detect a poisoned fruitbasket and narrowly avoids being bitten by a giant centipede. He meets up with Quarrel, the Cayman Islander boatman from Live and Let Die, and sneaks onto Crab Key one night. On Crab Key he meets Honeychile "Honey" Rider, who collects rare shells--in the nude, of course--on the island in hopes of earning enough money to correct a broken nose.

Of course, things on Crab Key are not what they seem--or perhaps they are, since there's never much question whether Dr. No is the villain or not. Bond and Honey are captured, tortured, and, in the end, manage to foil Dr. No's plot--and spend some "slave-time" together.

I was disappointed with Doctor No at first. It follows on the heels of From Russia with Love, one of the best Bond novels and one that ends in a major cliffhanger: at the end, Bond collapses to the floor after being poisoned. The end. Doctor No quickly tidies up the loose ends from the last novel and sends Bond on his way to Jamaica. There Bond pokes around, searching for information the reader already knows. But perhaps the biggest disappointment was Honey Rider, who may be the quintessential movie Bond girl, but here is a bit of a cipher.

But while the first third or so of the novel is mediocre, the story dramatically improves once Bond has reached Crab Key and the party beings its trek inland. While there had been only moments of suspense before--the centipede in Bond's bed was a good scene, but only one among a lot of mediocre ones--the suspense steadily builds as Bond and Honey are captured, led before the Doctor himself, and then separated for equally miserable fates.

Bond's dilemma at the climax of the novel reminded me quite a lot of "The Most Dangerous Game," a short story you must Google if you haven't read it. Bond is placed in an obstacle course of Dr. No's design, where he is subjected to claustrophobic spaces, 50-foot drops, cold, heat, spiders, and finally, the sea and its monsters. This section was among the best writing of the Bond series--by this point, I couldn't put the book down.

Doctor No would have been a forgettable entry in the Bond series had it not been for the final half. If you read this novel, be prepared for sometimes boring sections in the first half, but keep reading--the finale is worth it.

Recommended.

The absolute bible on the subject! Second only to my Epocrates software. I'm a physician assistant in an internal medicine practice, and it sits in a place of honor on my desk.

There's a lot of very useful information in this book, but no one over about 40 will be able to obtain it without a magnifying glass. Even with my reading glasses, I find this very difficult to read with my 49-year old eyes. Without them it is impossible.

It sure was easier to read in Medical School 20 years ago. Since then, presbyopia has set in and progressed. I also think that the print size has been reduced over time to include more information without increasing the size of the book. Anyone who finds themselves needing reading glasses or contacts to read larger version. You'll have to carry a magnifying glass with you to use this one.

Unlike the reviewers who gave this book only one star because of the small print, I give it four because of the excellent content. One star deducted for not making the book a bit bigger. I think they could have made it a bit easier to read without compromising portability.

The print is just too small to make it worthwhile to those of us who don't have the vision of youth and don't want the hassle of looking at too small print.

this is a must have for MDs and pharmacists to treat any sort of infection. It has suggested treatments, doses, and durations. In addition, it has a section where microbes that are relatively uncommon and the drugs that treat them. It has renal dosages and common and severe side effects for the drugs. It also has a nice resources page for various items, including drugs that may prolong the QT interval, the CDC, AIDS, etc. I recommend getting the larger version, as sometimes I cannot see the small print.

excellent reference book--BUT the copy i received is in microscopic print and therefore useless to me--I must have missed this fact in ordering--in the future MICROSCOPIIC print should be soelled out

Chick Lit, which goes like this: Chick on the periphery of an industry (in this book--the world of literary agents) tells about industry while struggling to "make it" in the world, and finds true love with another peripheral player. Lots of fashion and/or food descriptions as well as insight into the industry. I happen to like the genre (I skim the fashion and food parts and double read the sex scenes. I'm a guy, after all.) Being a writer who disdains the whole concept of middlemen (sales agents) and the authority (Editors, publishers, & their whores) I found a lot I liked in this story. The author wrote an entertaining story with a fun mystery and lots of unlikable characters; and, I think, was laughing at herself while writing it. She also foreshadowed her second novel, "The Gift," which I will definitely read. Ginsberg's dedication says all you need to know about the story: "For all the writers who have yet to be published and for the book lovers who will one day read their work." Not great writing but good enough, clever.

I really loved reading this book. Angel was a fantastically written character that I identified with. I am an avid book reader, as Angel is, and it's great to read about a character that is as passionate about books as I am. It was great reading a book that is set in the publishing world and I learned quite a bit about what it takes to get a book published, even if it was fiction and had a driven boss like Lucy in it.
This book had a lot of different things thrown in-woman having to deal with a nasty boss, a little romance, and a mystery. But all the themes worked well together. The mystery was really well-written. I didn't figure out who was writing the book that was being sent in chapter by chapter not long before the person was revealed. I had my guesses but I wasn't completely sure.

So I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It can appeal to many people because it's not a fluffy chick-lit book but it actually has depth to it.

Many people will read Blind Submission and see shades of The Devil Wears Prada. They would be correct, but on the surface only. It is so much more. It is quirky, it has a bit of mystery, with some romance and the light touch of a fairy tale, with the required happy ending.

Angel is passionate about books and runs a bookstore. Her boyfriend encourages her to apply for `the' job at the Lucy Fiamma Literary Agency and gets it. Her boss, Lucy Fiamma, believes that no form of torture is beneath her. But despite her vicious boss, Angel loves her job. She actually seems born to it and proves to have an uncanny knack for `picking' authors.

An anonymous writer sends Angel a manuscript that looks like it could sell. The thing is, the book arrives a little at a time. At first the novel seems innocuous, but soon the manuscript includes personal details about Angel's life. To say that paranoia becomes a part of Angel's life is an understatement. She soon begins to suspect everyone, including her boyfriend (who has his own literary agenda). It's important that Angel discover who the mystery author is, but in doing so, she must carefully navigate all the landmines associated with solving the mystery.

I thoroughly enjoyed Blind Submission. I did think that the boss, Lucy Fiamma, was a bit over the top and can't imagine anyone working for her beyond--say an hour. But the entertainment value of the novel made that point easy to overlook.

Armchair Interviews says: Blind Submission is a fun, dark romp through the literary world and highly recommend it for as a fast-paced, light, madcap romp.

When I started this book, I said to myself "Oh great, it's just The Devil Wears Prada in a literary agent's office." But I was wrong. This book is much more than that. The "mystery" was a little transparent to me (I don't usually figure out who's behind the grand plot only 1/3 of the way through a book), but I was still intrigued enough to read all the way through. And I found the ending very, very satisfying.

This novel shared my nightstand with two well-reviewed novels, namely Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know and The Sister by Poppy Adams. I read the first 30-ish pages of all three books, and then figured I'd continue with the one that hooked my interest.

That'd be "Blind Submission."

This book has mistakenly been labeled a mystery. Not so; our protagonist works at a highly successful literary agency where every unsolicited submission is read carefully by two people. These two prepare and compare notes on these manuscripts before passing judgment. Further, this agency made and continues to make its fortune by carefully culling the ideas sent in by beginning writers.

So clearly "Blind Submission" is science fiction!

Issues of believability aside, Debra Ginsberg has concocted a very entertaining tale. I especially enjoyed the invented snippets of novels and memoirs that came in the agency's slush pile. I hate to call this book an "entertaining lark," but there it is. Nice work, and I look forward to Ginsberg's next book, The Grift.

Sidelight: As most of this novel takes place inside the agency's offices, halfway through it, I was starting to feel the story was a bit confined and stifling. At that moment I came across the line, "It occurs to me that my novel might be...a little claustrophobic." Eerie!

I'm trying to get a book published and this book is an excellent resource on how to write the proper query letter and assemble the perfect proposal submission to a publisher.

And, of course, this book has an exhaustive list of publishers of all kinds as well as literary agents. My only complaint would be that I wish they had an index organizing the agents by the genres they accept. It's a minor quibble on an otherwise flawless book.

I love the resume format for each literay agent! Helped me tremendously in making a decision.

You can read these sort of books morning, noon, or night. But it all comes down to one thing: integrity. And agents have little or none ... The very nature of selling a book is antithetical to artistic achievement. Just look at the trash that sells to the bovine minded public and you'll understand why Jeff Herman recommends medocrity over artistic achievement. Art is beautiful but it doesn't sell. And sell you must if you want to be the next big thing on the Times best seller list. Oprah not excluded. Baa Baa Baa

Jeff Herman is one of the top literary agents in New York. In this book, he offers his own insights, and he also calls on many of the key players in the publishing industry to explain, from their perspective, exactly how the business really works.
Learn what an acquisition editor looks for; what motivates an editor to want to publish your book; and the mechanics of the whole process. Armed with this information, you are in a much better position to contact the editors and agents listed in the book. There are other more famous books about markets available to writers... but this one is the best one... in my humble opinion. Oh... in case you think I'm prejudiced... Jeff is my agent and has done wonders with the material I've given to him: We've submitted four projects, and have four sales! I follow his advice, and do whatever he tells me to do with hesitation.

This and other books like it purport to help writers. It is certainly comprehensive and well done. The reality is that the gatekeepers and the keymasters of the publishing industry are publishing lots of books for writers that do not seem to advance their cause. This book looks more like an advertisement by literary agents for literary agents and editors, rather than anything that is truly meant to help the writers among us. The literati turn their noses up at most of the query letters they receive.

Take a look at the responses most writers get to their queries and you will realize that the literati hold themselves to a much different and lower standard than they require of the writers who query them. This tome makes money for the insider not commensurate with what those who purchase it get in return. His rewards are orders of magnitude greater than any that can be derived by a writer purchasing this work.

This book would be great if I was trying to decide if I wanted to be a Real Estate Agent.

I think some of the content here is relevant, but there's a lot that isn't. The Dummies book would be better, or read up on investing with Investing Without Losing (ISBN 0978834607 NOT on amazn, other stores)

I thought this book was very educational on the basics of real estate. How to get started, what a single day in real estate would be like and much more. If you are considering becoming a real estate agent, this book is a must read to make sure that is what you want to do.

As many of the other reviewers have noted. The author is more focused on being a discount agent in her private practice. She is also is very focus on the technical aspects of real estate and real estate law. It is like taking the real estate exam all over again. I was not looking for hours of useless information like in liscensing school. I was hoping she was going to share really solid techniques to make more money but alas they where limited.
I would recommend Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies by Dirk Zeller. It is well constructed and packed with how to's and systems to increase your income. His insights into prospecting, lead follow up, time management and sales presentations is outstanding. A truly must read for any agent. Save you money on this book and invest it into the "original" guide the Dummies book.

I have recently become licesed and atained both a sales person and a brokers license. I thought the advice on how to pass the state exam was rubbish... here is the best advice ...study till you know the material and then take the test.
The rest of the book was amaturish at best and I will just donate it to our local vets on the next charity drive

I found this book very informative i was able to read it super fast a must read

"The Spy Next Door" is an astonishing easy reading story about a common man with an uncommon ability to elude. Robert Hanssen's 25 year job at the FBI gave him access to carefully guarded national security secrets. Ann Blackman and Elaine Shannon are investigative reporters that give a biography of a man whose life is unbelievable, yet true and amazing.

The "Spy Next Door" page turner includes his life from ostracized child to super spy for the Soviets. The only son of a Chicago Cop, he never received his father's approval, was a high school misfit, who developed deep resentments. On the surface, Bob never made a big deal about anything, but he didn't like surprises and he didn't like being forgotten. He was smart and knew by developing a facade of normalcy - he played the boring man next door. Beneath his shell of normalcy he built his dual lives - "lawful" FBI agent and Soviet Spy; "faithful" husband and playboy; and "loyal Catholic" and aesthetic. He kept an arms length from reality so he could chase an exciting game of cat and mouse. He dropped clues - almost daring people to catch him or pay better attention.

What amazed me is that he could have gotten away with it. Why did he take the risk of reactivating? There was little chance of the FBI catching him as long as he stayed dormant. Hanssen's espionage has little to do with spying and much to do with emotional wants. He is an arrogant man harboring resentments and needed "respect" and friendships from an enemy that laughed at his naive requests for little money and yet giving them key intelligence - causing deaths of our agents - so they would pay attention and he could get retribution - telling everyone "I will show you!"

By blending in, being "common" - no one paid attention to him. The betrayal to this country is enormous.

I have to rate this book at 3 stars. Why? At only 230+ pages, I have to wonder if the book wasn't a rush to judgement and was not as thoroughly researched as it could have been. Basically, the book is a good, quick read and gives the reader an overall view of Bob Hanssen and his exploits as a spy. However, there are a few things that make me believe the book could have been better.

First of all, there was a lengthy dissertation about Opus Dei. Shannon never really adequately explained how the Opus Dei may have contributed to Hanssen's behavior as a spy. Secondly, she mentioned his interest in internet pornography. Well...so how did that affect Hanssen's behavior? She doesn't explain that, so one wonders what was the point of mentioning his interest in pornography in the first place. Third, as another reader mentioned, there are no bibliographies nor an index, nor are there any photos. I have to question Shannon's notes if she doesn't reference them.

Nevertheless, the book is worth a read. I think the book would have benefitted from a better psychoanalysis of Hanssen. ...

I was intrigued by the information in this book.I wanted more detail and a clearer understanding. I remember searching for this book and waiting for it to arrive. I was a little disappointed that it was not better, having seen several interviews with the authors.
I have found that "Spy" by David Wise is a more detailed and better written book. I believe Robert Hanssen and his family cooperated with Mr Wise.

This book was a good read. It seemed to be more thoroughly researched(although there are still open questions) and was not simply rushed out by two greedy authors capitalizing on recent events.

I understand that Bob and Bonnie Hansen's position was not represented in this book. I would've liked more concrete evidence rather than author speculation, but that is implausible in this case.

With the amount of research and time that was invested in this book, I am reasonably satisfied with the result and give this book 4 stars