Journey Into the Whirlwind - Eugenia Ginzburg

A book referenced in Masha Gessen's "The Future is History".

An account by a woman who lived through Stalin's Great Terror.  She begins as a staunch and well-respected member of the Communist party, working in academia.  She recounts her personal experience with the quota arrest system that led to her spending two years in solitary confinement and then sixteen years in the work camps around Kolyma.  She explores the insanity, the double-think, the sadism of Stalin's system.  (Though she never really gets to thinking about the underlying point of it all.)  She describes the mind-wrenching logic of the justice system and trial, the types of torture used to get confessions, the daily details of life in the sub-human conditions of both the prisons and the work camps.  She describes people who sell out dozens of others in a useless attempt to save themselves from the Terror.   The sadistic interrogators who themselves later turn up as goners in the camps. 

Strangely, when you read about her on Wikipedia, she never seems to have given up on Lenin and Communism in general, seeing the whole Stalin period as a "Cult of Personality" problem... 

The book gives a good sense of the difficulty of trying to understand such an experience when reason, logic, social values and politics don't explain it.  What was the point of all that suffering and death?  This is what is so hard to get your mind around.

Also, makes it even more frightening or disturbing when you see how Stalin is again becoming a hero, a model, in Russia....

The Future is History - Masha Gessen

Gessen is basically chronicling the rise of Putin and his mafia don status in Russia.  She narrates the main events and steps leading up to the current situation, starting with the fall of the Soviet Union, and makes the links to economic, political and geopolitical events, and how they affected the development of the current system.
She also includes summaries and discussions of other interesting elements that she sees leading to the rise of Putin.
One interesting sub-theme revolves around the first Russian sociologist to actually conduct surveys to get a sense of the public's view and attitudes, and to chronicle the changes from the 90s on.  (She also discusses the impossibility of sociology as a discipline during Soviet times.)
She also references a number of academics and articles which attempt to define the current Russian system of governance - totalitarian?  fascist?  dictatorship?  Unfortunately none of the source material seems to be available in English.  The one she seems to lean most strongly towards is a mafia system - I tend to agree.  Ideology is irrelevant.  The goal of "governanace" is to increase and control both wealth and power.  The system is run by a Don (Putin) who distributes wealth, power, positions as he sees fit. (And also takes them away when he sees fit.)  Ideology serves as a pacifying or distracting element - new Orthodox religion, family values, anti-immigrant and anti-gay policies.
She also chronicles a return to the Soviet system of almost random intimidation and punishment - the use of gay concept, the ever useful tax evasion charge - as a way of intimidating society to follow the leader and not challenge power.
There is also a psycho-analytical sub-theme, which explores the idea of trauma and how it affects a society, interpersonal relations, etc.  The trauma in this case is, of course, the 18 odd years of terror under Stalin.

I find this particularly interesting, as she is exploring a governance model that is gaining prevalence in many countries currently.  What lies behind the strong man phenomenon.

A complex book with lots of threads and ideas.  Worth rereading, probably several times.

We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night - Joel Thomas Hynes

Canadian author from down east.  In the tradition of David Adams Richards, in that he is giving voice to the underbelly, the marginal, the self-destructive in our society - without quite the same Shakespearean depth of Richards, though.  Not a bad read.

Autumn - Ali Smith

A quirky novel by a Scottish novelist.  A novel of echoes and hidden themes.  Kind of the novel equivalent of Lee Friedlander's photos.  Something there, but half-glimpsed, hidden.  Worth rereading to study the central character, Daniel, in more detail.

The Red-haired Woman - Orhan Pamuk

A novel split in two parts.  The first is an exploration of the concept of father/father figure, which is an important figure in many countries, especially in today's more fascistic political climate.  This is obviously tied to contemporary social and political issues in Turkey, as well as a certain social analysis. 
The second part of the book brings in many issues current is Turkey, especially Istanbul.  The main character becomes a property developer, and many of the shady, insider "trading" elements of behind the scenes Istanbul politics appear in the novel.  Pamuk also continues to chronicle the destruction of beautiful Istanbul - the same property development, the choking traffic.  There is also an exploration of loss of values - egocentrism, luxury consumerism, money obsession, an obsession with the West (or some idealized vision thereof).  He also continues his blending of West and East culturally, with specific artwork from both traditions playing a role in the book. 

Interesting and complex.  Worth the read.  Unfortunately, the first half seemed a better read to me than the second half - the second half tends to be a bit too didactic at times, a bit too artificially a novel of ideas.

Exit West - Mohsin Hamid

Hamid is a brilliant writer and profound thinker.  The book is littered with exquisite short, quotable passages.

Loosely based on the current Syrian refugee crisis, he examines the issues around this from many perspectives - who leaves, who goes, the chaos of where they come from, how life in a state of social siege reduces itself and becomes narrower, the different reactions to the need to integrate into your new society.  How some people move forward to greater liberty, how some move back into a more blinkered state, tied to values of their old world even more tightly than when they lived there.

He has a beautiful image of emigration as locating secret doors and passing through them to a new life.  

Mohsin chronicles a lot of this through a delicately outlined love story - and eventual separation -  between the two main characters, Nadia and Saeed.  

Worth a reread, just to catch and note all the quotable passages.

Fox 8 - George Saunders

Another unusual book by this American author.  Actually, more an extended short story.  Told from the perspective of a fox confronting America's endless urban sprawl.  He renders the voice well.  Also looks at modern american society's relationship to the wild, to nature.

Il riposo della polpetta e altre storie intorno al cibo - Massimo Montanari

Divertente collezione di piccoli articoli sul cibo et la cucina.  Racconta la storia di certi cibi, parla di cibi storici et dimeticati, tradizioni della tavola, etc. 
Vale la pena di leggerne alcuni.

Border - Kapka Kassabova

Part travelogue, part self-reflective inner journey.   I am not sure about this using of place almost as a metaphor for some internal landscape of self-exploration, and self-expression, examination of inner conflict and emotions.
What make this book interesting is the setting - the border area between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.  This is an area with a very charged history, from Ottoman times, through the Balkan Wars, and into the 20th C Cold War period.    Kassabova does explore some interesting places in the Rhodopes in both Greece and Bulgaria.  She also explores some interesting sounding areas in the Strandzha area of Bulgaria, and also just on the other side of the border in Turkey.  All places I would like to visit. 
A very topical book, with all the current issues around migration, border crossing, etc.  Much of it currently set in the very area she explores in the book.

La mémoire courte/Short Memory - Eduardo De Gregorio

Un film des années 70 de la France.  Tout l'atmosphère des films de la Nouvelle Vague.  Une intrigue qui développe lentement, beaucoup de prise de vue artistiques (surtout les prises de la voiture qui roule en ville la nuit) et lieux intrigants.  Bande sonore de jazz.  Il faut avoir le goût de ce genre, mais si tu l'as, pas mal comme film.