To read At the Same Time—the nonfiction collection Susan Sontag was working on before her 2004 death—is to grasp what a bold mind and voice we have lost. But this collection, though less groundbreaking than Against Interpretation, Illness As Metaphor and On Photography, also reassures us that Sontag’s writing, wit, grace and resolve will influence future generations. The book is structured according to Sontag’s wishes, with each essay appearing in its unedited form.

Josef Joffe’s Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America takes the reader from the Soviet Union’s implosion in December 1991 through the current Iraq war with clear, engaging and insightful prose. Joffe provides ample historical context, pre- and post-cold war, to address the book’s two central questions: How did the demise of the USSR affect the United States and the rest of the world? What role should America play on a reconfigured international stage?