The CIA Book Club
The CIA Book Club by Charlie English is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Economist, for a Consensus Score of 18 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedEnglish tells a Cold War story that's mostly been credited to the wrong people: the covert program that flooded Poland with banned Western literature wasn't primarily a CIA production but a Polish-run operation the Agency helped bankroll. The book's strength, per multiple reviewers, is treating that distinction seriously rather than reflexively centering American spycraft, the real protagonists are Polish émigrés, smugglers, and underground publishers risking prison to move Orwell and Solzhenitsyn across borders.
In the press
“Entertaining and vivid... an impressively detailed account.”
The Washington Post“A well-crafted book about books—and spooks, skullduggery, and a time when ideas mattered.”
Kirkus Reviews
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Economist | 0.95 | 0.85 | 1.00× | 0.81 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.81 → 18 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is The CIA Book Club on?
The CIA Book Club appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Economist.
What is its Consensus Score?
The CIA Book Club has a Consensus Score of 18 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.