Do you try to stay current in your reading, to keep abreast of the market, or do you read from your TBR pile at random? Do you read classic mysteries?
I’ve abandoned all hope of ever keeping on top of my TBR—and that’s a statement of engagement, not defeat. A book indicates I am still curious, still interested in learning about other ways of seeing and feeling. Fiction is not an escape.
Which brings me to demolishing my latest TBR pile: a steady diet of nonfiction for my historical noir thriller, Company Files 5: The Quiet Eagle. I surrendered the manuscript last week. My choice of verb, surrender, feels almost like defeat because my previous novel, Company Files 4: Eyes to Deceit, about the 1953 Iranian coup, was a bear to drum up blurbs and reviews.
Those who did pick it up didn’t always know what to make of it. The novel explored “realpolitik,” which is to say the language drives the action and violence happens offscreen. Bringing the mannerisms and mentality of Cold War architect Allen W. Dulles to life—writing sinister intelligence and seductive power—was the hardest work I’ve done.
And yet, “not interested in the subject” was a familiar refrain.
I’d committed to writing CF5 while the drafts of CF4 rested on my hard drive. If interest in Iran and Eyes was lukewarm, then I fear the response to a novel about the Suez Canal might be… polite.
In my Afterword to The Quiet Eagle, I listed the nonfiction titles I consulted and the unique angle I took with the Protocol of Sèvres for the plot. Every writer of historical fiction squeals when they find a lead into the story—mine was a particularly tasty one.
The more I researched, the more I realized: the United States today is behaving in ways eerily reminiscent of Great Britain in 1956. Not identical, of course—nothing ever is—but enough to make a historian twitch.
Some parallels leapt off the page:
· Reserve currency inertia – Britain still acted as though the pound’s global dominance conferred authority. Today, the dollar occupies that same throne. Power lags behind perception, and sometimes the perception never gets the memo.
· Imperial habit vs. geopolitical reality – Britain’s muscle memory for global influence was formidable. The U.S. shows similar reflexes, stepping into conflicts and projecting influence with the confidence of a power that’s been top of the hill for decades… whether the world agrees or not.
· Alliance shocks and polite betrayals – Suez taught Britain that the United States might not back every unilateral adventure. Today, the U.S. finds itself navigating a world that doesn’t always bend to its will—surprise!
· Intelligence as a comfort blanket – MI6 helped Britain maintain a fantasy of control, even when the facts said otherwise. In a similar way, modern intelligence and strategic planning sometimes prop up national self-perception as much as they inform action.
History doesn’t have to repeat to be instructive. Sometimes it’s enough to whisper, or in this case, to lean over your shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
So where does this leave my TBR? Somewhere between a battalion of unread paperbacks and a carefully curated stack of nonfiction that whispers secrets about past empires and present powers. I don’t worry about keeping up anymore. I read because I’m curious to understand the world in all its stubborn, contradictory glory.
Sometimes that means following a trail into the corridors of intelligence agencies I’ll never want to join, or tracing the habits of nations and people that think the rules don’t apply to them. Other times it means picking up a novel that simply reminds me humans are frustratingly human.
In the end, my reading—like my writing—is less about staying current than about staying attentive. About noticing the patterns, the echoes, the whispers. About keeping an eye on history, not because it repeats exactly, but because it’s rude enough to remind us of what we have not learned.
And if my TBR pile remains a permanent fixture on my desk… at least it’s an honest witness.
And if you’re curious to see the parallels in action—without reading an entire stack of 1950s intelligence memos—there’s a great explanation on YouTube: “The British Empire’s Final Mistake — America Is Repeating It by 2026” by the Wealth Historian. It’s worth a watch if you enjoy history whispering rather loudly.
No comments:
Post a Comment