The Pure Gold Baby

Margaret Drabble's 2013 novel is an episodic narrative, told by friends, of the life of a woman and her mentally disabled daughter. It is to Drabble's credit that while not much extraordinary happens, her perceptive touch and agreeable prose make The Pure Gold Baby worthwhile.  

Winter is Coming

Garry Kasparov makes a strong case not just against Vladimir Putin, which is easy enough, but against the Western accommodations that have allowed this Russian tyrant to expand his reach, first to Georgia, then Ukraine, and finally, although outside the scope of this book, to the U.S. presidential election. Kasparov's call for a tough response and a morality-based foreign policy is unlikely to be heeded in the next four years, at least, and so the problem of Putinism will likely only get worse.