Master Debating
I am returned from California & the three-day Oxford-style/Worlds-style/Bitish Parliamentary-style debate tournament at Claremont McKenna College. (If you look up C.M.C. on the Wikipedia, you will see a photograph of the Bauer Center, where I spent the better part of Saturday & large swaths of Friday & Sunday.) I am plum tuckered out, and will be playing catch-up for the rest of the week. More detail when I can.

The Queue
Holy smoke, Berlin Game was satisfying in all the ways Horse Under Water wasn't. Also, great Caesar's ghost, Deighton is a relentless cynic! I am most enthusiastically on board for Mexico Set & London Match; I cannot yet commit, but things are looking good for the second & third Bernard Samson trilogies, Spy Hook, Spy Line, & Spy Sinker and Faith, Hope, & Charity, as well as Winter, a prequel to the trilogy of trilogies.

Recently
Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda
Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5
Len Deighton, Berlin Game

Currently
Len Deighton, Mexico Set

Presently
Len Deighton, London Match
Karen E. Olson, Pretty in Ink
Len Deighton, Winter

The Rebel Black Song of the Day
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "Country Roads" from Have Another Ball (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: So much better than John Denver.