Books like The Enemies of My Country

Submarines are a huge fascination of mine, and this book had plenty of them. What really grabbed my interest in this book were the US Navy submarines that carried nuclear missiles and the procedures that went into launching them. Governments can order the launch of nuclear missiles, but it’s the crew that has to agree to execute those orders. The moral weight of implementing weapons capable of mass destruction is a terrifying thought, which is apparent in the book. 

Written by a former US Naval Submariner, I learned so much about how submarines work and operate. At one point during his career, the author was one of two people whose permission was required to launch a nuclear missile. Crazy!

This book unlocked a new fear of mine, being trapped aboard an aircraft carrier with a serial killer roaming around. I remember reading this one night when the power went out during a storm, and it only heightened the eeriness and my feeling of claustrophobia. 

The author, Brandon Webb, was a former Navy SEAL, bringing firsthand and real-world experience to that of the main character, a Navy SEAL, and how a US Navy aircraft carrier operates. With that, I felt as if I was there, trapped inside a steel box, not knowing who to trust and wondering if I would be the killer’s next victim. 

I’ve always been an admirer of US military history and how fast the technology advances. A concern that became more apparent during my time of service was the threat of being electronically compromised, jammed, or hacked. This book scratched that itch of wondering what would happen if the US military’s most advanced fighter jet were used against us. 

The author was a former US Naval Aviator and a TOPGUN graduate, so when the main character is piloting a F-35 fighter jet, I know what I’m reading is close to the truth. I just loved the level of detail that goes into how fighter pilots fly, talk, and shoot. 

What I loved about this book was that it blended real-world past experiences into a thrilling fiction narrative. Written by a Marine Iraqi War veteran, he does not shy away from the psychological horrors of combat and addresses how one would deal with those issues head-on.

The main character is written as fragile and sometimes broken by what he’s witnessed in the past. I loved how the book breaks the mold of the stereotypical hero, bringing a new sense of realism to the story. 

Exploding wine bottles, guns constructed out of pipes, bullets made of teeth, aspirin explosives: If these sound like props from a B spy movie, it's because, again, truth > fiction. In the early-1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency spent a great deal of effort developing myriad weapons for sabotage. The results were this seventy-two-page illustrated manual, published in 1977 and distributed to American operatives likely to find themselves in situations requiring such improvisation. The manual is also invaluable for writers.

The murder and the laughs in this mystery begin on page one—which is no mean feat. Retired CIA agent Merry Wrath is now leading an Iowa girl scout troop. A murdered Al Qaeda operative tangled in the ropes course puts her back on the case again… and with her old and very attractive handler. Add in a handsome detective, and the sparks and laughs are flying in this good-natured and well-plotted romp.

John Ranelagh’s history of the CIA should be the very first book read on U.S. espionage. At 800 pages, heavily grounded in interviews, it covers the period from before the Second World War to the mid-1980s. It convincingly overturns every misconception about the CIA, including its exaggerated roles in coups, assassinations, and the Phoenix Program.

Actually, the book is a detailed sociological study of the U.S. elite, Presidential governance, and intra-agency biases. Surprisingly, with its foundation in the O.S.S. and recruits from American communists who had fought in the Spanish Civil War, the CIA is a highly professional but liberal institution, sometimes stubbornly out of alignment with the establishment, such as over Vietnam. 

Here is a rare treat: a chance to see inside the homes and workplaces of seventeen great American authors and hear them questioned about their beginnings as writers and their work habits. It’s both a picture book and a series of dialogues. I have been fortunate enough to know and visit several of them personally - Sue Grafton, Evan Hunter, Sara Paretsky, and Donald Westlake - and it’s a joy to see and hear them again explaining their ways of writing a mystery. You soon realize how many different approaches are possible.   

Taking the story from the endgame of the Cold War to the dawn of the War on Terror is this extraordinary book on the rise of Islamist terrorism and the CIA’s efforts to defeat it prior to 9/11. Coll’s research, based on interviews with a vast range of senior officials, is dazzling, yet it never overwhelms a narrative that combines human interest and geopolitical sweep seamlessly. No less impressive is his accomplishment in documenting not just the U.S. and Afghan perspectives but the Saudi and Pakistani as well, all in the same painstaking detail. If this whets the appetite for more of the same, Coll’s Directorate S resumes his account of the intelligence wars in Afghanistan, providing necessary background to understanding the failure of the U.S. occupation there.

In the fight against the War on Terror, many Americans have long forgotten the war that never stopped raging against an enemy that is better funded than many of our governmental organizations, is not bound by any laws or treaties, has a virtually unlimited supply of money, weapons, and soldiers, and is located just south of our borders. 

Patriot Games is an oldie but goody, a fictional novel that sheds light on the realistic way in which our War on Drugs encompasses Special Operations troops working hand in hand with intelligence agencies and law enforcement. I have friends who have fought directly in these drug wars, and who have told me the enemy had all of their names and personal information before they even landed south of the border for their deployments. The War on Drugs is savage and is still raging very close to home, yet we rarely hear… show more.