A singular triumph—an intimate chronicle of the CIA, its crises, and its opportunities since 9/11.
Peering behind the curtain.
This masterful new history should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the CIA’s place in U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century. Weiner takes us through every foreign policy crisis since 9/11 and describes the CIA’s role, often in astonishing detail. Having written about intelligence and espionage for three decades at the New York Times, his authority is formidable. His previous book on the CIA, Legacy of Ashes, won a National Book Award in 2007. Weiner’s new book stands out for his unprecedented access to CIA officers past and present. As he writes in the foreword: “Among them was the man who created the CIA’s secret prison system, the woman who helped take down the world’s biggest nuclear-weapons technology smuggling ring, a deep-cover spy who had put presidents on his payroll, station chiefs who served on four continents, and the sitting chief of the CIA’s clandestine service—a man who had been undercover for thirty-three years and had never talked to a journalist in his life.” The result is a narrative that defies fiction. Among other crucial moments, the book reveals the soul-searching and finger-pointing that nearly derailed the 2013 release by the Senate Intelligence Committee of the Torture Report, which described in horrible detail the interrogation methods used in the battle against al-Qaida. The book also describes the shocking effectiveness of Russian and Chinese cyberattacks. Weiner pegs the difference between the two foes: “China wanted to know their enemies. The Russians simply want to screw them.” Still, the CIA directed the multilateral decade-long intelligence operations that enabled NATO and Ukraine to prepare for and react quickly to the Russian invasion in 2023. The CIA is the most studied and misunderstood of any U.S. government agency. Weiner’s book is a balanced and nuanced account that should change that.
A singular triumph—an intimate chronicle of the CIA, its crises, and its opportunities since 9/11.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063270183
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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