I just re-read his Bayazet—one of his early novels about “the Seating at Bayazet”—a failed, “300”-like siege of the titular fortress, defended a small Russian garrison, by the overwhelming Turkish force during the war of 1877-78.

A comment about one of my favorite childhood writers from when in grew up in the USSR—Valentin Pikul.’

Some of the books I keep coming back to over the years—Dostoyevsky’s underappreciated shorter-form masterpiece, a controversial study of Jesus’ sayings from 90’s, and a dense academic book that pretty much proves that psi is real.