Snowdrops
by A.D. Miller
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The Return
by Daniel Treisman
(Free Press, $30)
“Making sense of Russia’s complicated political and economic life is not easy,” said Philip Seib in The Dallas Morning News. UCLA political scientist Daniel Treisman’s “detailed examination” of Russia’s shifting landscape since the days of Mikhail Gorbachev will go a long way toward helping interested readers achieve that goal. Though Treisman is often “too generous in his judgments of Russia’s progress,” this book’s “comprehensiveness and clarity” make it invaluable.
Molotov’s Magic Lantern
by Rachel Polonsky
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27)
Rachel Polonsky’s Russian travelogue begins with her time spent living at 3 Romanov Lane in Moscow, said The New Yorker. The apartment building had been home to several important political figures, including Vyacheslav Molotov, “Stalin’s brutal second.” Molotov’s library, still housed at No. 3, serves as inspiration for Polonsky’s travels. “The result is a nuanced appreciation of Russian culture, especially for the intellectual treasures destroyed in the wake of the Revolution.”
When They Come For Us, We’ll Be Gone
by Gal Beckerman
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30)
“If you think the Cold War is dead as the backdrop for any decent espionage story,” Gal Beckerman’s new nonfiction book offers evidence to the contrary, said Thane Rosenbaum in the Los Angeles Times. Beckerman argues that Russian Jews, by refusing to accept official efforts to suppress their religious freedoms, played a significant part in the collapse of the Soviet empire. Ushering us from “dank Moscow apartments” to the “ominous Soviet Star Chambers,” the book “reads like a thriller.”
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Why do Dana White and Donald Trump keep pushing for a White House UFC match?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The president and the sports mogul each have their own reasons for wanting a White House spectacle
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Quiet vacationing: More workers are jetting off on company timeThe explainer You can be in two places at once
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11 cool pools and lazy rivers to try this summerThe Week Recommends You'll want to dive right in
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”