Russian Roulette

Spies, history, geopolitics, and massive cultural shifts. But mostly spies. That’s what Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin’s Plot for Global Revolution by Giles Milton focuses on in this amazing book.

Now many of you are going to read the title and think, “That’s not for me.” Okay, fair enough. But even if the title doesn’t pull you in, you might give it a try anyway. It’s that well written, that fun, that crazy.

For instance, D’Aun is not a big fan of history or spy books. But one evening over dinner I was sharing some of the stories from this book — the amazing things done by British spies at the height of the Russian Revolution — and she was incredulous. Seriously, she seemed to say, they really did that?!?

Seriously, they really did that. And this book is one of the better ones at telling the stories. It’s clearly a biased book — I don’t think Putin is going to embrace a book that makes his predecessors look so thuggish or foolish. But all the same, it’s a fun book and well worth reading.

It’s not going to win a Pulitzer or make the bestseller list, but it’s a personal favorite of mine. Highly recommended.