A Spy Walks Into This Bar

It’s 1990 and the Cold War is coming to an end, but the game of espionage continues on as America and the West prepares for the First Gulf War with Iraq. The career of longtime CIA officer, William Wythe, is also coming to a sad end at his final posting in Lisbon, Portugal. His last ten years have been spent mostly in an alcoholic blur since his wife died in a terrorist attack meant for him. The Chief of Station wants to be rid of him, a special counterintelligence section of the CIA suspects he may be a Russian mole and the high point of his dark weeks is anonymously playing piano at a local dive in the city two nights a week. But as is often the case in the “wilderness of mirrors” of espionage, all the facts and the people may not be as they seem. An unhappily married Brazilian woman is frequenting this jazz club and growing fonder of William, raising some hope that he may yet have a future worth living. She joins him on a private search for missing Hungarian royal jewels, which may have been hidden in Portugal towards the end of WWII. A modern neo-Nazi group is also on the hunt for those same jewels. All the players cross paths at the Clube de Jazz, which is run by an elderly Italian-American who’d been in America’s wartime O.S.S., the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Did you hear about the scarecrow that won the Nobel Prize? He was outstanding in his field. What kind of cheese can hide a horse? Mascarpone. What about the red ship and the purple ship that collided at sea? Over one hundred sailors were marooned. Did you hear about the paranoid vegetarian? He always feared the wurst. A blonde Essex girl walked into a bar with an Englishman, and Irishman and a Scotsman, and started to change the lightbulb. The barman asked, 'Is this some kind of joke?' The third in the bestselling series of hilarious joke books - packed full of every kind of joke to make you laugh until your sides split. From elephants to mothers-in-law, priests to chickens, 'knock knock' to 'doctor, doctor' and much more besides, A Man Walks into a Bar 3 contains over 2,500 great new gags. Even Queen Victoria would be amused.

This compilation of espionage humor is based on the author's thirty-three years with the CIA as an analyst, operations officer, and manager. Practical jokes, comical essays, poems, bloopers from performance-appraisal reports, and more are all included.

Who knew the CIA needed librarians? More Stories from Langley reveals the lesser-known operations of one of the most mysterious government agencies in the United States. Edward Mickolus is back with more stories to answer the question, “What does a career in the CIA look like?” Advice and anecdotes from both current and former CIA officers provide a look at the side of intelligence operations that is often left out of the movies. What was it like working for the CIA during 9/11? Do only spies get to travel? More Stories from Langley has physicists getting recruited to “the agency” during the Cold War, foreign-language majors getting lucky chances, and quests to “learn by living” turning into sweaty-palmed calls to the U.S. embassy after being detained by Russian intelligence officers. The world only needs so many suave super spies. More Stories from Langley shows how important academics, retired soldiers, and bilingual nannies can be in preserving the security of our nation.

The United States is losing the counterintelligence war. Foreign intelligence services, particularly those of China, Russia, and Cuba, are recruiting spies in our midst and stealing our secrets and cutting-edge technologies. In To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence, James M. Olson, former chief of CIA counterintelligence, offers a wake-up call for the American public and also a guide for how our country can do a better job of protecting its national security secrets. Olson takes the reader into the arcane world of counterintelligence as he lived it during his thirty-year career in the CIA. After an overview of what the Chinese, Russian, and Cuban spy services are doing to the United States, Olson gives a masterclass on the principles and practice of counterintelligence. Readers will learn his ten commandments of counterintelligence and about specific aspects such as running double-agent operations and surveillance. The book also analyzes twelve actual case studies in order to illustrate why people spy against their country, the tradecraft of intelligence, and where counterintelligence breaks down or succeeds. A "lessons learned" section follows each case study, and the book also includes an appendix of recommended further reading. This book will fascinate anyone with an interest in the real world of espionage.

Discover the fascinating true stories of spies and secret agents throughout history in this ultimate collection of espionage trivia. Whether you’re a wannabe 007 or just a fan of subterfuge, the fun facts and legendary stories in this big book of spy trivia are sure to shock and fascinate. Discover how the most infamous spy organizations like the CIA and the MI6 came into existence, how they recruit citizens into their fold, and how they have shaped some of the world’s largest and most memorable historical events. You'll even learn real tactics that spies use on missions, from escaping zip ties to reading the body language of a stranger. This collection spans centuries and countries, including: • One of history's first and most iconic spy operations: the Trojan Horse in ancient Greece • America's first spy organization: George Washington's Culper Ring • Real-life KGB spies from the McCarthy Cold War era: American citizens Ethel and Julius Rosenberg • And much more! Perfect for any person who has been fascinated by the shadowy world of espionage, this fact-packed book quizzes readers on their spy knowledge, from pop culture icons to unsung heroes that history books have forgotten.

From the New York Times #1 bestselling author, Ilona Andrews, comes a fun and action-packed new adventure in the Innkeeper Chronicles! We invite you to relax, enjoy yourself, and above all, remember the one rule all visitors must obey: the humans must never know. Life is busier than ever for Innkeeper, Dina DeMille and Sean Evans. But it’s about to get even more chaotic when Sean's werewolf mentor is kidnapped. To find him, they must host an intergalactic spouse-search for one of the most powerful rulers in the Galaxy. Dina is never one to back down from a challenge. That is, if she can manage her temperamental Red Cleaver chef; the consequences of her favorite Galactic ex-tyrant's dark history; the tangled politics of an interstellar nation, and oh, yes, keep the wedding candidates from a dozen alien species from killing each other. Not to mention the Costco lady. They say love is a battlefield; but Dina and Sean are determined to limit the casualties!

A Guardian and New Statesman Book of the Year The setting is a comedy club in a small Israeli town. An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart on stage; an act of disintegration, a man crumbling, as a matter of choice, before their eyes. They could get up and leave, or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell. Dovaleh G, a veteran stand-up comic - charming, erratic, repellent - exposes a wound he has been living with for years: a fateful and gruesome choice he had to make between the two people who were dearest to him. A Horse Walks into a Bar is a shocking and breathtaking read. Betrayals between lovers, the treachery of friends, guilt demanding redress. Flaying alive both himself and the people watching him, Dovaleh G provokes both revulsion and empathy from an audience that doesn't know whether to laugh or cry - and all this in the presence of a former childhood friend who is trying to understand why he's been summoned to this performance.