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Anyone who invests in the stock market knows share prices can go up — and down. That's why they call it a market.

Still, this year, price movements have been fast and furious — shocking investors and prompting many to fear "volatility."

The Chicago Board of Options Exchange tracks the speed of price movements using its Volatility Index (VIX). The new year has sent the VIX soaring, in contrast to last year's unusually smooth performance.

"People talk about the VIX as the 'Worry Index,' " said Jonathan Lewis, chief investment officer at Samson Capital Advisors. "Volatility rises when people get surprised" and decide they suddenly must change their investment decisions, he said.

"Volatility is the market's way of expressing concern that the data and policy pronouncements aren't coming in the way everyone had been expecting," Lewis said.

Anyone who invests in the stock market knows share prices can go up — and down. That's why they call it a market.

Still, this year, price movements have been fast and furious — shocking investors and prompting many to fear "volatility."

The Chicago Board of Options Exchange tracks the speed of price movements using its Volatility Index (VIX). The new year has sent the VIX soaring, in contrast to last year's unusually smooth performance.

"People talk about the VIX as the 'Worry Index,' " said Jonathan Lewis, chief investment officer at Samson Capital Advisors. "Volatility rises when people get surprised" and decide they suddenly must change their investment decisions, he said.

"Volatility is the market's way of expressing concern that the data and policy pronouncements aren't coming in the way everyone had been expecting," Lewis said.

As time passes, each individual must choose his own fate. To fight or to simply back off, to cease from continuing his research or remain an enemy of ignorance — for which the repercussions can be extremely dangerous. One by one, they decide their path. Malianov, insufferable and lovable all at once, is torn. He finds himself being pulled in different directions, all the while considering how his actions might affect his family. The brothers Strugatsky, in this deeply layered novel, weave a disturbing tale, not an overtly political one, but with hushed anti-Soviet undertones at the core. You'll laugh, you'll look around suspiciously, you'll throw the text across the room. You'll pick it back up and go on, gladly welcoming the distraction. Knowledge is a dangerous game.

Juan Vidal is a writer and cultural critic from Miami. He tweets at @itsjuanlove.

Read an excerpt of Definitely Maybe

I've spent most of my life being fascinated by politics, but Washington has grown so stridently dysfunctional, I can barely stand to watch the news. And though I enjoy shows like Veep and House of Cards, they're so devoutly cynical they almost feel like part of the problem.

As an antidote to this, I highly recommend Borgen, the crest of the current wave of Danish TV that's given us The Killing and The Bridge. Taking its name from the Copenhagen castle that's the seat of government, Borgen plays like a more astringent version of The West Wing, a show it clearly borrows from and improves on. Its third and final season is just out on DVD, but you'll want to start at the very beginning, which instantly sucks you into the world of Danish politics, with its idealists and ideologues, sleazy tabloids and state-run TV networks, bullying billionaires and fussy bureaucrats with minds of their own.

Borgen's heroine is Birgitte Nyborg, superbly played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, the principled, low-key leader of the Moderate party. As the series begins, this happily married mother of two rides a freakish turn of events to become Denmark's first female prime minister. But taking office is one thing, knowing how to govern is another. Starting each episode with an aphorism from the likes of Machiavelli, Churchill, or Chairman Mao, Borgen shows us Birgitte learning to run the machinery of power — how to slap down a foe and fire an ally, when to go on TV and when to rise above the fray, when to compromise and when to be steely.

Of course, Birgitte doesn't live in the world alone. Part of what makes Borgen so enjoyable is that it surrounds her with maybe 20 vividly drawn regulars, from the smug opposition leader Hesselboe to the alcoholic old reporter Hannah Holm. Chief among them are Birgitte's spin doctor Kasper Juul, a Don Draper-ish sort who learned how to spin as a way of camouflaging his dark past, and the woman he loves, Katrine Fonsmark. She's a sexy but idealistic reporter who has a poster of All the President's Men on the door of her apartment. Like Birgitte, both are trying to figure out how to be honest in a world where press secretaries must weasel and reporters must answer to corrupt editors or TV execs who curry the government's favor.

“ I'm not sure I've ever seen a show that's better at capturing the personal cost of political life.