When Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb isn't busy minding the city's books, he's reading history and genre fiction.
John LeCarre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The first novel in John le Carré's celebrated and New York Times bestselling Karla trilogy featuring George Smiley, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a heart-stopping tale of international intrigue. The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement — especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla — his Moscow Centre nemesis — and sets a trap to catch the traitor.
-Penguin
Art Rooney Jr., Ruanaidh: The Story of Art Rooney and His Clan
Part memoir, part anecdotal history of Pittsburgh's North Side, where the author grew up, and part football book, "Ruanaidh" follows to its conclusion the extraordinary life of Art Rooney, Sr. — the Chief. The strange-looking title (pronounced Ru-ah-nee) is the Gaelic word for Rooney. Candid personality portraits of almost everybody in the Chief's wide orbit are mingled with tales from Art Rooney, Jr.'s own high school and college football playing days, from his time as a failed drama student in New York, from his six months of boot camp training with the Marines and from his subsequent career as personnel director of his father's football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
-Art Rooney, Jr.
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
-Random House
