June 2018 book deals/talk ... Also, what books (F/NF/Tech) influenced your thinking or worldview in a big way?

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I’ll start with some fiction:

[Warning. JLC packs much information into apparently dull, bureaucratic conversations, using inference, suggestion, misdirection. It pays to re-read the conversations that matter.
And most of the conversations with the character of Smiley present do matter. JLC is a master of the writing of conversation in fiction.]

The Quest For Karla

(A trilogy of sorts, made up of three novels that stand independently.)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

(Ignore the otherwise worthy film. It’s good in its own right, but barely touches, and does not evoke, the good and the best qualities of the book. Forget it and read the book. Even the excellent miniseries starring Alec Guiness can’t really compare.)

The Honourable Schoolboy

(Never filmed. At the time, BBC couldn’t afford to film this one, set both in Europe, and all over SE Asia (HK, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand) during the chaos of spring 1975)
This book starts slow. Stick with it. When it finally kicks into gear, it takes off. And the early stuff (excepting the portions in Italy) are detail-by-detail, glance-by-glance, critical.

Smiley’s People

(was filmed as another excellent BBC miniseries, again starring Guiness. Again, not even close to the book in quality. The book is too good for the best of it to get into a screenplay.)

None of these books are much in the way of “action oriented”, tho the 2nd book has some of that flavor.

Fully understanding these books involves understanding some of the intellectual OxBridge “tenor” of the UK 1930-1080. And understanding some of the inherent or commonplace UK aristocratic and educational snobberies threaded thru the UK government power positions and social life of the years 1945-1980.
The books, read carefully, are actually pretty good intro textbooks for these topics.

Which one is my favorite? Whichever one I am reading at the moment.

If you are intrigued, don’t read too much of the linked webpages before you read the books: they might give away to much of the game. And they won’t tell or show why these are masterpieces. For that, one must read the originals.

[Note: writer John Le Carre (David Cornwell) was in the secret service, operating as a diplomat in Germany during the early height of the Cold War, but the careers of many UK and western agents, including his, were blown to the Soviets by Kim Philby and the Cambridge 5.]

[Note: JLC is said to dislike and to avoid most of the world of literary nominations and prizes. Supposedly he won’t consent to his books being nominated (when his consent matters.)]

These books are the centerpieces of a longer series of JLC “Smiley” books.
The early books are good, and give extra background, but don’t compare to these. It’s as if JLC were learning to write great fiction during the early books.

I said these early books are all good. One is far beyond that in quality, and well known.
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Smiley is more a secondary character in this one.

(also, the aging of the characters from the early books to the trilogy mentioned above is a little confusing: JLC kinda re-aged them over the series to slightly different birth years, in order to get the setup right for master trilogy I am recommending. This is a tiny problem and can be ignored.)

After these books in the trilogy come (at present) two more in the same series:

One is
The Secret Pilgrim
It is a collection of novellas set in the “Smiley” world. Smiley barely appears. I love this book. A tiny masterpiece.

The second is newish and I’ve not yet read it.
A Legacy of Spies
It hearkens back to the events in the Cold War masterpiece: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

Here is the list of entire “Smiley” series:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smiley

Here is info re the trilogy I recommend:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_Versus_Karla

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy

Literature / The Quest for Karla
(TVtropes)

“It’s the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?"

“I’ve got a story to tell you, it’s all about spies. And if it’s true, which I think it is, you boys are gonna need a whole new organisation…”
— Ricki Tarr, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

One of the finest spy trilogies of all time, John le Carré’s The Quest for Karla (otherwise known as Smiley Versus Karla) are three spy novels set during the Cold War. It deals with British Intelligence officer George Smiley and his long battle with Russian spymaster Karla. Dealing with betrayal, love and the often mundane nature of spying, it asks awkward and painful questions about keeping secrets from your friends, lovers and indeed yourself.
The series consists of three books published between 1974 and 1979. These are:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Honourable Schoolboy
Smiley’s People

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/best-le-carre-novel/amp

What is JLC’s best novel?

(I disagree with the NYker choice here. It’s a “Philip Roth-type choice” and is a truly great novel. But it’s not JKC’s best, to my mind.)

Regarding the two BBC miniseries of the 1st and 3rd books in the trilogy:
These were filmed long before ST:TNG made Patrick Stewart into a major worldwide acting talent and public star:

Patrick Stewart was cast as Karla.
Very brief (perhaps a min or two, perhaps far less) screen time, non-speaking cameos, and Stewart did not match the books’ descriptions of the physical look of the character of Karla even slightly.

This does not matter. Stewart sells it and kills it