Staff Picks Week 1: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

Welcome to our new weekly series of Staff Picks: Work-from-Home edition! In this series, our library staff will be recommending some of our favorite books, movies, TV shows, games, podcasts…all kinds of fun stuff that have been entertaining us since we’ve been working from home. This week we’re kicking things off with a recommendation from Rachel and Olivia–Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow.

From Rachel: “Exhaustive reporting on the Harvey Weinstein investigation. I listened to the audio book, which is read by author Ronan Farrow.”

From Olivia: “The book reads with the pace of the novel, but it is actually the true story of the endless and vigorously fact-checked reporting into Harvey Weinstein and the power structures that protected him and. continue to protect others like him. And turns out there’s also an element of a spy novel thrown in?? Pretty wild stuff.” Olivia also recommends The Catch and Kill Podcast, which is available for free on any podcast platform, and can be listened to in combination with the book, or on its own.

From the Publisher: “In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.

All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance they could not explain — until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood to Washington and beyond.

This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. And it’s the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.

Both a spy thriller and a meticulous work of investigative journalism, Catch and Kill breaks devastating new stories about the rampant abuse of power and sheds far-reaching light on investigations that shook our culture.”