Patriot by Alex Navalny
Rating = ****

Navalny was a Russian dissident and agitator that dedicated his life to 
being a PITA to Putin. It cost him his life, both figuratively, as he 
spent a lot of time in jail on bullshit charges brought down on him by the 
corrupt Russian government, and literally, as that government finally just 
killed him in a remote prison north of the Arctic Circle. And that was 
after he survived an assassination attempt that put him in a coma for over 
a week.

It's easy to see why Putin was so threatened by him. He is smart, 
charming, and a good communicator. Don't be intimidated by the size of 
this memoir. He dies around the midpoint of the book. The last half is his 
prison diary, which you can kind of skim if you like, as it's a prison 
diary. Not a lot happens most days. Also, you learn some Russian history, 
particularly from the 90s, in that period just after the USSR ceased to 
exist.

Given what's going on here in the US as I write this on January 28, 2025, 
there is a lot to think about in this book. Trump is trying to follow 
Putin's playbook. How are we going to stop him?