Victor Serge is one of the great anti-Stalinist writers of the twentieth century, a man who paid a heavy price for his opposition to totalitarianism. One hesitates to criticise him for that very reason. And…
Brendan Jackson is a British-born artist, photographer and writer who has compiled an extraordinary little book here. Published by the Polish Institute in Tbilisi, it looks at the city through Polish eyes – over a…
Damon Zahariades is a prolific author of short books that are designed to make us more productive, better people. He is also quite fond of exclamation marks and numbered lists (he has a 30-day productivity…
This was an interesting book. According to lead author Baumeister, an academic psychologist, willpower has gotten a bad name since Victorian times. But he builds a convincing case that willpower is something like a muscle…
As far as I can tell, there are only three books by Georgian author Dato Turashvili available in English — and this is the third. It’s a short book, a collection of vignettes some of…
What got my attention and led me to read this book was a citation that seemed to show that Oded Galor had discovered the writings of the forgotten German Communist Karl August Wittfogel. It turns…
Dato Turashvili is one of Georgia’s best known writers, but unfortunately only a couple of his books are available in English translation. This new book is in both Georgian and English and is a lavishly…
This is the third novel by Emily St. John Mandel that I’ve read this month. I’m binge-reading her books in no particular order, starting with the most recent, but that’s also pretty much her style….
Having read (and loved) Sea of Tranquility I was surprised to discover the same characters in this earlier book by Emily St. John Mandel. I may be reading the books in the wrong order, but…
I love a good time travel story – and I loved this one so much that I finished it in two days. (To be fair, it’s a short book.). The author works with two well-worn…