A warm, insightful account of contemporary cultural and social life in Vladivostok, Irkutsk and other places in the Russian Far East. Hudgins, a travel and food writer who administered University of Maryland degree programs in Siberia and the Russian Far East, offers a frequently funny portrait of modern cultural and social life in the Russian hinterlands in the 1990s. She has a particular ear for banquets, celebrations and festivals. With 24 black-and-white photographs and four maps. With chapters on Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian Railway, Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, the Buryats, festivals, schools and markets.  (SIB30, $19.95)