Mike Pezzullo's 'daunting' 2022/23 summer reading list

Hot topic briefs, new policy plans and meeting minutes can be shelved for a few weeks, and replaced with baking recipes and trips to the south coast.

But while most bureaucrats might relish in leaving work at a neat desk on a fourth floor in Barton or Civic, Home Affairs Department secretary Mike Pezzullo appears to be taking it home with him.

And he is helpfully suggesting his staff take it home with them too.

The colourful public service official has a reputation for his esoteric speeches, which are often densely packed with philosophical and historical references and last well over 20 minutes.

So, it should come as little surprise that his summer reading stack is no light, airy escape from the haunting realities of our world.

The secretary's top 10 reads over the summer were revealed in an internal email to department staff on Wednesday but don't expect any New York Times best sellers.

Within the list of mostly freshly-released, and exclusively non-fiction, titles are deep looks into revolutions, foreign policy, intelligence networks and authoritarianism.

Try his top tips Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness by Elizabeth Samet or Lawrence Freedman's Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine.

Or perhaps one to nurse your New Year's Day hangover - Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism by Lucan Ahmad Way and Steven Levitsky.

There's also the pre-Putin tome in Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor, which we hear is a great one to save for a sunny day on a south coast beach.

The list was apparently requested by assistant secretary Michael Odgers earlier this month with Mr Pezzullo obliging as an early Christmas gift to his nearly 14,000 staff.

"A daunting and at times sobering menu for the summer but certainly one that offers rich reflections on the way that individuals and larger forces have shaped, and continue to shape, the world in which live," the internal staff email said.

It's not the first time the security tsar's reading habits have raised eyebrows.

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Home Affairs graduates were encouraged to read a 1008-page biography on former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger as part of the secretary's "book club".

Marketed as an "optional" for the department's young recruits, Mr Pezzullo selects a book for the graduates to read and review.

Book club members work in teams on a report with the secretary making an appearance at a final in-person round-table discussion.

Without further ado, here's what will be on the secretary's nightstand over the break.