Svetlana's Reads and Views

  Name of Book: The End of the Sahara (Nihayat Al-Sahra in Arabic original) Author: Said Khatibi (trans Alexander E. Elinson) ISBN: 978-1-916725-22-5 Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press  Type of book: Algeria, Middle East, Islam, singing,  haram things,  club,  September to October 1988, revolution, movies, mystery, thriller  Year it was published: 2026 (2022) Summary: On an early autumn morning in 1988, on the outskirts of an unnamed Algerian city, a shepherd stumbles upon the lifeless body of Zaza Zaghouani, a stunning nightclub singer who left her hometown seeking a brighter future.  The story is set in 1988 Algeria. It takes place in just forty days, ending as mass protests erupt in the country. In a small town on the edge of the desert, plagued by a locust infestation and a food shortage, teetering on the brink of uprising, the body of Zakia Zaghouani—the singer at the Sahara Hotel—is discovered. Suspicion immediately falls on her lover, who is thrown i...

  Name of Book: The Cut Line ( original Lõikejoon)  Author: Carolina Pihelgas (trans Darcy Hurford)  ISBN: 9781642861624 Publisher: World Editions  Type of book: Estonia, summer, escape, 2020s, abusive relationships, toxicity, family, nature, threat, imminent war with Russia  Year it was published: 2026 (original 2024) Summary: In the dog days of an Estonian summer, Liine flees to the countryside to put a conclusive end to her toxic 14-year relationship. She undergoes every stage of separation in a lone farmstead amid forests. Physical labor and gardening help her withstand her ex-partner’s threats, the incredulity of friends and family, and her own anguish. Dread is pervasive in this novel. Set in the near future, it is filled with vivid depictions of the threat of climate change. All around Liine, nature is facing acute drought and heat. No less menacing is the presence of an expanding NATO base close to the cottage at the Russian border. The world’s largest m...

  Name of Book: Caledonian Road  Author: Andrew O'Hagan  ISBN: 9781324074878 Publisher: W.W. Norton Type of book: Classicism, 2021-2022, performative allyship, gender, parent/child relationships, friends, illegal immigration, LGBtQ+ relationships, art, marijuana, dark web, Eastern European, gang, Robin Hood, technology, elite, downtrodden, death  Year it was published: 2024 Summary: From the author of Mayflies, an irresistible, unputdownable, state-of-the-nation novel - the story of one man's epic fall from grace. May 2021. London. Campbell Flynn - art historian and celebrity intellectual - is entering the empire of middle age. Fuelled by an appetite for admiration and the finer things, controversy and novelty, he doesn't take people half as seriously as they take themselves. Which will prove the first of his huge mistakes. The second? Milo Manghasa, his beguiling and provocative student. Milo inhabits a more precarious world, has experiences and ideas which exc...

  Title of the book: The Oak and the Larch; A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires  Author: Sophie Pinkham  Publisher: W.W. Norton Publishing Date: 2026 ISBN: 978-1-324-03668-5 Summary: A majestic cultural and environmental history that reveals how forests have made—and resisted—Russia’s many empires. From the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to the steppes of Central Asia, Russia’s forests account for nearly one-fifth of the world’s wooded lands. The Oak and the Larch is the first-ever English-language exploration of this vast expanse—a dazzling environmental history of Russia that offers an urgent new understanding of the nature of Russian power, and of Russia’s ideas of itself. Inspired by the majestic oak, which towers over the country’s western heartland, and the hardy Siberian larch, an emblem of survival in the east, award-winning scholar Sophie Pinkham’s magisterial account spans centuries, revealing how forests have nourished ancient Siberian indig...

  Title of the book: Over-thinking about you; Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD and/or Depression  Author: Allison Raskin  Publisher: Workman Publishing Company Publishing Date: 2022 ISBN: 9781523513222 Summary: Dating is hard. But pursuing love and relationships when you live with mental illness can be even more overwhelming. Allison Raskin knows this challenge firsthand and shares her journey with perfect candor. She’s learned from her experiences, and we get to learn from her, discovering new ways to form healthy dating and relationship habits. How do you talk to a partner about your mental health? What is the potential impact of SSRIs on your body? What is the difference between having valid concerns and catastrophizing? It’s all here, from meeting online to how to handle a breakup, from recognizing and avoiding unhealthy relationships to the big one—sex. Woven in throughout are interviews with clinical psychologists, a psychiatris...

  Name of Book: Florenzer Author: Phil Melanson ISBN: 9781324095033 Publisher: Liveright  Type of book: Italy, Renaissance, 1464, 1471-1483, coming of age, LGBtQ character, church, banking, money, legacy, charge, scheming  Year it was published: 2025 Summary: Set in Renaissance-era Florence, this ravishing debut reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men—a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo. Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets. Bras...