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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at be.

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Speaker 2: Katherine Rains has our book picks this weekend. Hey Catherine,

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Speaker 2: Morning Jack. Let's begin with The CIA Book Club by

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Speaker 2: Charlie English.

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Speaker 3: So this is nonfiction and it takes place in the eighties,

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Speaker 3: and there's a CIA boss called George Maiden who believed

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Speaker 3: that the freedom of to read good literature was just

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Speaker 3: as important to the people's minds in the Soviet Empire

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Speaker 3: as any other form of freedom that they could have

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Speaker 3: or didn't have, as the case may be. And during

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Speaker 3: the nineteen eighties, the CIA was run by a guy

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Speaker 3: called Bill Casey, who'd been appointed by Ronald Reagan in

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Speaker 3: eighty one. And it's under him that Maiden was able

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Speaker 3: to set his scheme essentially up to push books and

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Speaker 3: photocopies and printing presses into parts of the Soviet Empire.

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Speaker 3: And this book focuses on Poland and particularly the kind

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Speaker 3: of literature that they sent and about Western culture was

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Speaker 3: exactly what the Communist did want. And you know another

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Speaker 3: character also that features really predominantly, and this is an

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Speaker 3: underground Polish publisher, a guy called musau Chikov who injured,

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Speaker 3: beatings and force feeding and exile. And but George Miden

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Speaker 3: was really almost the mastermind behind sending this this literature.

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Speaker 3: And the book's quite complex. There's lots of different people

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Speaker 3: and there's but the chapter's actually become separate parts of

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Speaker 3: the story, and it actually helps you keep track of

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Speaker 3: who's who and who's doing what. And what becomes clear

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Speaker 3: is the extent of the Polish Real Dreams attempts to

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Speaker 3: suppress this non state approved information. And not only were

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Speaker 3: books banned, but every typewriter had to be registered. Access

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Speaker 3: to every photocopyer is restricted, and it even needed a

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Speaker 3: permit to buy paper in any quantity. And even if

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Speaker 3: you wanted to create a business card in Poland, you know,

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Speaker 3: or a rubber stamp, or even a sheet of music,

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Speaker 3: it had to be approved by a sensor. So there's

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Speaker 3: all sorts of things going on. And in fact, one

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Speaker 3: man was even given an eight year sentence for simply

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Speaker 3: distributing a flyer, So you can imagine what would happen

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Speaker 3: if you were caught with illicit printing press. And this

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Speaker 3: book really demonstrates in an incredible way about how the

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Speaker 3: written word can be a weapon in that fight for

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Speaker 3: freedom and how banning books in order to suppress freedom

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Speaker 3: of thought and speech is actually utimately, ultimately was doomed

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Speaker 3: to fail. And it's you know, there's lots of stories

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Speaker 3: in here about smuggling and intrigue and survival and you know,

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Speaker 3: it's a real reminder of those extraordinary events Poland struggle

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Speaker 3: for freedom and you know, really interesting and it wasn't

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Speaker 3: something I had no idea that the CIA Book Club

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Speaker 3: as it's been turned here ever existed. And it's fascinating

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Speaker 3: just you know, and also about the culture and the

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Speaker 3: people and what was going on. So you know, surrounded

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Speaker 3: by that time, really interesting read.

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Speaker 2: Very good, Okay. I next up The Names by Florence Knapp.

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Speaker 3: So this book begins in October nineteen eighty seven, and

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Speaker 3: this young woman, kra Aitken, and her nine year old

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Speaker 3: daughter Meyer are going to a London government office to

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Speaker 3: register the name of their new little baby. Cora's husband

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Speaker 3: is a guy called Gordon, and he's very well liked physician,

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Speaker 3: and he assumes that the boy will be named Gordon,

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Speaker 3: as all of the men and his family are. But Kora,

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Speaker 3: when she gets there, hesitates. She prefers that history will

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Speaker 3: repeat itself, and that her son will become a mirror

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Speaker 3: image of his father, and a man who, like his

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Speaker 3: own father, is incredibly controlling and has a very toxic nature,

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Speaker 3: and he hides this behind this mask of prestige. And

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Speaker 3: so she's trapped in this marriage and she realizes that

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Speaker 3: this is kind of almost her one chance to change

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Speaker 3: the course of her son's life, and she could choose

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Speaker 3: a different name like Bear is her daughter suggests, or

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Speaker 3: the name that she would like to give the baby,

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Speaker 3: which is Julian, And this single decision that she makes

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Speaker 3: at that point, the book splinters into three different futures,

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Speaker 3: So you follow the lives of Bear, Julian, or Gordon

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Speaker 3: told in seven year intervals across thirty five years, so

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Speaker 3: you get the stories of each of those characters. And

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Speaker 3: what the question that the author's asking is that can

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Speaker 3: a name shape your entire path? Does it make you

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Speaker 3: brave or creative, or does it make you like your namesake?

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Speaker 3: And can you follow your passions and your relationships or

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Speaker 3: even your future? And asking about how much of our

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Speaker 3: life is inevitable and how much we controlled and in

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Speaker 3: that single moment defining a person's life and shape in

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Speaker 3: future and It was fascinating and it was interesting, and

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Speaker 3: it was a very powerful storytelling. And I loved the

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Speaker 3: different you know, like how the different characters and the

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Speaker 3: different paths just all in this split second decision take

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Speaker 3: a completely different path.

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Speaker 2: It's really interesting, wonderful, Okay, cool, that's the Names by

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Speaker 2: Florence Knapp. The CIA Book Club by Charlie English was

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Speaker 2: Catherine's first pick.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live

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