Midnight in Siberia

Finished this book. The author is an NPR reporter who takes the trans-siberian train journey from Moscow to Vladivostok. He wrote this book back in 2014 when things looked calmer in Russia and much rosier in America.

He meets host of people on the train and has beautiful descriptions of people and some of the places enroute, although he keeps coming back to the question "why didn't Russian democracy evolve like America after 1991?"

He hears a range of answers from his passengers, but i have a different appreciation of these answers when in 2024, democracy and democratic institutions seem to be on the decline everywhere on the planet.

Quick read. And you do pick up some Russian cultural norms