The Sparrow: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell So the synopsis I gave earlier in a previous blog post really doesn’t do this book justice. I really quite enjoyed aspects of this read, it wasn’t a slog by any means but there were points in the book where I had to do a double take, track back a chapter or two and realise that a single phrasing changed the entire storyline having missed it previously. Having been taught by a few Jesuits in my time and spent a lot of time around Jesuits I was quite interested in much of the scientific aspects of the Jesuit approach to faith. Definitely on my recommendation list.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré This is a 1963 Cold War spy novel by the British author John le Carré. It depicts Alec Leamas, a British agent, being sent to East Germany as a faux defector to sow disinformation about a powerful East German intelligence officer. “What do you think spies are: priests, saints, martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors, too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.” The inner thoughts of a spy are exposed to the reader as he is sent under-cover mission of revenge but in fact the unwitting tool of even cleverer British brains with other motives.