This week on TJC's Up Close, what it means to build and destroy civil societies: Karen Dawisha on "Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?"; Edan Lepucki on her novel, "California"; sociologist Deborah Dash Moore on "Urban Origins of American Judaism."

Interviews with authors of new books that deal with symbols in our daily lives. Cornell University professor Tracy McNulty, author of "Wrestling With The Angel: Experiments in Symbolic Life"; NY Post reporter Maureen Callahan, author of "Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen and the 90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion"; and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton and Buzzfeed Books Editor Isaac Fitzgerald, co-authors of "Pen & Ink: Tattoos & the Stories Behind Them."

This week on Up Close, celebrating the rights to dissent and outspokenness. TJC's Steven I. Weiss talks with PBS host Tavis Smiley about his book "Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Year," and with Carnegie Melon University's Prof. Andreea Deciu Ritivoi about her book "Intimate Strangers: Arendt, Marcuse, Solzhenitsyn, and Said in American Political Discourse."

This week on UP CLOSE, some surprising impacts of the obesity epidemic and why what we thought we knew about dieting might be all wrong. In-depth Interviews with Sarah Varney, author of "XL Love: How the Obesity Crisis Is Complicating America's Love Life," and Nina Teicholz, author of "The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com Interviews with former Parade Magazine editor-in-chief Lee Kravitz on his memoir about his spiritual pursuits, "Pilgrim: Risking the Life I have to Find the Faith I Seek," and Amherst professor Judith Frank on her new novel about a gay couple in Massachusetts adopting the children of a brother lost in a Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel, "All I love and Know."

This week on Up Close, Bloomberg News editor Bob Ivry on his book, "The Seven Sins of Wall Street"; Oakland University Professor Barbara Oakley on her book, "A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science"; activist Andrew Schiff on the re-release of a book his father wrote, "How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes."

Author Ruchama King Feuerman on the surprise success of her novel, "In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist," and New York Times reporter Joseph Berger on his book "The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America" and his decades of coverage of New York's Hasidic community.

How economic choices shape our financial and religious lives. This week on Up Close, Steven I. Weiss speaks with The Reformed Broker, Joshua Brown, co-author of "Clash of the Financial Pundits: How the Media Influences Your Investment Decisions For Better or Worse"; George Washington University Prof Carmel Chiswick, author of "Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition"; and investment advisor Ric Edelman, author of "The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs."

Historian Rick Perlstein examines the pre-presidential life of Ronald Reagan in his book, "The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan"; NYU professor Lawrence Schiffman goes back 2,000 years to explore little-known Jewish texts as co-editor of the new three-volume work, "Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture."

http://newsdesk.tjctv.com This week on Up Close, two memoirs that look at what it means to be an adult from nearly opposite ends. Comedian, actor and writer Annabelle Gurwitch talks about the complications of being in the "sandwich generation" -- having to take care of teenage children and elderly parents at the same time -- in her memoir "I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50." And author Joanna Rakoff recalls her curious experiences working for J.D. Salinger's publishing company, and the trials and tribulations of becoming an adult in the early 1990s, in her memoir, "My Salinger Year."