A few weeks ago, I clicked on a Spotify suggested audiobook on East-West relations, and for lack of anything else to listen to, I started Steffen Mau’s “Ungleich Vereint: Warum der Osten Anders Bleibt”. It took only a few concentrated sittings. Since then, I have been immersing myself in several other books on the topic, and am hoping to pen a multi-book review with some autobiographical vignettes in the weeks or months to come.