• The best tales of spies and intrigue
• The best books to build realism in your military fiction
• The best novels about life in the Soviet Union
• The best books to vividly capture espionage and resistance in Hitler's Third Reich
• The best (mostly) fiction books about reinventing yourself (that are not self-help)
• The best historical thrillers set just before the Second World War
• The best books to understand Stalinism from every angle
• The best spy novels by Americans who really know the score
• The best books on World War II intelligence history
• The spy and espionage novels I love and encourage my friends to read