What to Book: “Amaryllis Fox’s riveting memoir tells the story of her ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world’s most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries while marrying and giving birth to a daughter.” This is a thoughtful, humanizing, and very well-written look into the world of spying and diplomacy. And I learned about things in this book that even my friends in government were surprised I knew. (They’re usually pretty surprised that I know anything…) I highly recommend: Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA.

+ What to Movie: If you’re looking for some reaffirmation that the quest for justice never ends as long as there are people willing to fight for it, then do yourself a favor and see the excellent Just Mercy, a great movie about the heroic efforts of the inspiring Bryan Stevenson (who had to be happy he was played by the buffed and attractive Michael B Jordan. I’m envisioning a biopic about a newsletter writer starring Brad Pitt…)

+ What to Doc: Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust, narrated by Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, is a documentary featuring Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein and his efforts to restore violins recovered from the Holocaust. (I saw some of these instruments played in SF earlier this month.)