I'm not sure learning and escaping are so contradictory. Some might object to one of my suggestions, Simon Sebag Montefiore's remarkable "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar," as a summer tome, but you'll learn a lot and, somehow, it's morbidly quite entertaining. For escape, and a lot more, I would recommend "Dino," Nick Tosches' bio of Dean Martin, because by the end you won't be quite sure what hit you.
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