The best thing about Cold War 2.0…

…is Russian spies, concerning which we eagerly await an avalanche of new novels. Novels about Russian spies are way more fun than novels about spies from some -stan or other, or the Middle East.

To celebrate this happy circumstance we are reading the novel, Red Sparrow, the very novel the movie was based on but way, way better than the movie, much as you'd expect. Plus—the best thing—it's the first book of a trilogy.

Let's keep this going.

We are also reading a book about surveillance capitalism called, well, Surveillance Capitalism, which is the book we're taking a break from to read the above mentioned Red Sparrow. Surveillance capitalism, both lower case and initial-caps, is quite a slog. But it's a fascinating and, one imagines, an important subject about which we will have more to say anon.

Meanwhile, read on.