Best book I have read this year: The Orientalist by Tom Reiss. Why was this a good read? I learned a different version of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. I learned a lot about Azerbajian, which is a very oil-rich country in southern Russia. This country is still fought over by all the superpowers.

I was interested in the hero of the book, Lev Nussinbaum. He and his father had to flee the Bolsheviks and became refugees in Europe. Lev admired Hitler and Mussolini for defeating the Communists in their countries. He was Jewish but converted to Islam, taking a new name, Essad Bey. Nonetheless, he was persecuted in World War II for being of Jewish origin. What a conflicted man.

He was a writer but couldn't get anything published in the Third Reich, due to being Jewish. So he changed his name {again} to Kurban Said to get published and to get money from his book sales. He ended up as a refugee in Italy in 1945, dying before the war ended...alone and penniless.