It’s Thursday! Time to look back at the week, talk about the weather, what we’ve been doing, and what we’ve been reading. We had some glorious weather in the high 60s, followed by rain, and the temperatures are going to fall again. But, it is only March.

I’m reading two terrific books right now, one fiction, and one nonfiction. I’m going to talk about the nonfiction title. It’s just been released. I’ve only read three chapters, but it’s a quick read, and fascinating.

Jonna Mendez’ In True Face is subtitled “A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked”. Her co-author if Wyndham Wood. She describes herself as “Just a girl from Wichita, Kansas, seeking adventure, never dreaming that would translate into a life that was both covert and trailblazing”. Mendez makes no secret what life was like for young women in the late 60s, and the life of a young wife in the CIA in the late ’60s when Mendez met and married her husband, John Goeser. They met while both were working in Germany, and after he proposed, he told hr he was a civil servant working for the CIA. Although Jonna had other jobs, once she married John, she was eligible for an entry-level position as a CIA contract employee, a “contract wife”.

She talks about insiders and outsiders since she couldn’t tell lifelong friends or family what she really did. “Without warning or expectation, I opened a door and walked into the shadows. Many who’d once known me would never hear from the real me again.”

That’s as far as I am in the book. It’s so readable. Here’s a little more from the publisher’s summary.

Mendez had a talent for espionage, and she soon took on bigger and more significant roles at the Agency. She parlayed her interest in photography into an operational role overseas, an unlikely area for a woman in the CIA. Often underestimated, occasionally undermined, she lived under cover and served tours of duty all over the globe, rising first to become an international spy and ultimately to Chief of Disguise at CIA’s Office of Technical Service.

In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. This is the story of an incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it.


What about you? What have you been doing this week? What have you been reading?