I did The Gates of Europe. it's a good book, gives you good perspective on Central Europe and Russia. Then I did A Brief History of the Vikings which pretty much makes the point that Europe is nothing but Vikings from Ireland to Turkey. Then I did War and Punishment which isn't as good a book as The Gates of Europe, but it's got some slightly different slices through history. Also it hates the Russians more. Then I tried They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else for... the third time? and I mean... that's not some light reading. So I put it down and tried So You Want to Talk About Race but it's pretty much "eat a dick, white person" and I just couldn't. I was reminded that Clifford Simak is probably the most optimistic person in science fiction and I figured I could use some optimism. So I started City which actually isn't all that optimistic so far.Way Station was great though so I'm not about to give up. I'm two and a half books into the Arkady Renko series. They're grim as fuck. It's kind of amazing to me how we all knew in the '80s how ghastly desperate life was in the USSR and then we all shined it on until all of a sudden the VDV is parachuting into Kyiv.