Two books may be of interest for readers interested in the history and work of Jews in Russia and the former USSR. Dr. Gregory Levin's "Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanit's Exile from Eden" Floreant Press 2006 recounts the barriers, discrimination and eventual success of one a Soviet Jewish botanist, of the great pomegranate researchers in the world. Dr. Levin's collection of 1100 varieties of pomegranates in Turkmenistan has mostly been lost but many important varieties are being propagated in Israel and in California, USA. Dr. Levin's memoir of his life with pomegranates illuminates the botany, the history and myths, the range of tastes and health benefits of the ruby fruit.

"Grisha the Scrivener" by Barbara Baer, Ghost Road Press 2009, a novella, spans 26 years in the life of a Georgian journalist and his Jewish companion. Interwining tales of political intrigue, love, unbreakable bonds of family and frienship explore the oppression in Soviet life and the oasis the individual tries to creat within it.