It's the scariest book of any year in recent memory, if "scary" is understood to reach beyond mere bumps in the night and encompass the horrifying ways in which a great nation can utterly fail in upholding its own ideals.

In Legacy of Ashes, author Tim Weiner assembles a convincing argument for the dissolution of American government and a return to the calming embrace of British rule, as he takes readers on a tour through sixty-odd years of absolute failures on the part of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The cost of these misadventures is billions of dollars and thousands of lives, and yet the agency's officials and agents conduct themselves with a swagger and hubris totally disproportionate to their own accomplishments. It's a near-endless parade of devastating blunders that makes for a compelling and grueling read.

Legacy of Ashes: The History Of The CIA