Anarchist Banker - Fernando Pessoa

   Curious little story/novella.  A long dialogue between two characters where the successful, wealthy banker builds an argument as to why he is a true anarchist, as opposed to the anarchist political movements of the time.  Anarchy means being free, and the only person you can really free is yourself.  All movements are essentially a form of tyranny, as all movements have leaders. To free yourself from money, you cannot destroy it, so you must surpass it by becoming so rich it doesn't limit your freedom.  Clever.

The Uses and Abuses of History - Margaret MacMillan

  In spite of the title, a fairly light read looking at the way history is used by politicians and radicals to further their ends.  She outlines some interesting historical myths used in recent history to justify some horrendous actions - Serbia, post-Vichy France - as well as instances where governments have refused to listen to historical experts with specialized knowledge of countries - U.S. policy in the Middle East, especially Iraq. 
  She also discusses the issues around current governments acknowledging responsibility and apologizing for actions done in the past in different times with different values.  There are two sides to this coin.
   Worth a read, but if you are a thinking consumer of the news and history, not much new here.

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible - Peter Pomerantsev

  A very interesting book about how the modern Russian mafia state works, and how Russia has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Putin.  What makes this book interesting is who's stories the author tells.  This is not an analytical book, a theoretical book, nor a look at well-known key figures.  The author tells the stories of regular, everyday people that he meets in the course of his ten years of working for Russian media. (His difference as a reporter is that he actually grew up in London but kept up his Russian with his dissident parents who had moved there.)
   Some salient points:
   The historical progression goes something like this:  The fall of the Soviet Union leads to the rise of two groups; mega-entrepreneurs who quickly become very rich, and a well-organized criminal mafia with roots in the Gulag system.  This leads to chaos.  The rise of Putin follows, and he uses the KGB structure to rein in/destroy/subsume the independent criminal mafia.  Putin uses his new KGB mafia alliance to destroy or rein in the mega-entrepreneur class.  Slowly the mega-entrepreneurs transfer their wealth to London and leave the country.  Huge amounts of money are extorted, profitable business are taken over, whole areas of the economy are taken over, and the resulting spoils are distributed amongst Putin's underlings.  Slowly the mega-entrepreneurs transfer their wealth to London and leave the country.  The government/mafia inserts itself into most of the economy.
    It becomes clear in the book that Putin controls all levers of power in the country - government, military, criminal organizations, media, the courts, the economy.  It would seem the only crack in the structure is when Putin is no longer, but the result will probably resemble a civil war amongst various underlings to capture the top position - which won't help the country at all; in fact, make everything worse.

   Like China, it would be very interesting to study this phenomenon of countries where revolutionaries have tried to destroy the organically rooted culture and replace it with an entirely new imposed ideologically based culture.  These types of radical breaks do something strange to the society.  It would be interesting to look at this from a sociological point of view.  I wonder if there are parallels to be made with various personal psychological issues and pathologies...

La luna e i Falò - Cesare Pavese

    Otttimo romanzo.  Molto bello, complicato e sottile.  Racconta il ritorno di un uomo alla sua paese de gioventù e l'impossibilità di ritornare al passato.  È un romanzo chi raconta l'alienazione culturale della vita moderne industriale.  Come nel libro 'A Mind at Peace' da Tanpinar, racconta i costi emozionali e sociali del confronto con l'Occidente industriale, ma in questo romanzo la cultura et la vita tradizionali sono quella dei paesani europei - interessante quello perché, esattamente come la cultura turca, benché questo qui sia una società europea, è nonostante straniera alla modernità.

    L'immagine dei falò ritorna nel libro, e ogni volta prende nuovi significazioni, nuove sottigliezze.  Il libro è pieno di belle immagini del paese e del ciclo dei stagioni - e anche di immagine orrendi.