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There are few things that would-be autocrats seem to enjoy more than a military parade, and few things that seem to disappoint them more than one that goes badly.

Just look at Donald Trump, who attempted to host a US military spectacle last summer, ostensibly to celebrate the USA’s 250th anniversary, but conveniently held on his own 79th birthday. Washington DC’s roads weren’t up to bearing the weight of heavy equipment, and washout weather kept the crowds away – much to the visible dismay of a furious Trump.

Now, it seems Vladimir Putin is having his own issues hosting a military parade. Russia is far more experienced at arranging such affairs – they were a staple of the Soviet era – and Moscow’s Red Square hosts a Victory Day parade every year on 9 May.

But this year, it will do so without any tanks or heavy military equipment whatsoever. Similarly, no military cadets will take part either. What is supposed to be a display of national strength, unity and muscularity could be a limp affair, indeed.

Putin is a leader who likes to project Russian strength across the world. His supporters and ministers routinely boast about how easily he could annihilate the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal, saying it is only his forbearance and restraint that stop him from doing so.

Until Russia ran aground so disastrously in what it expected to be an easy invasion of Ukraine, it would similarly boast about how readily it could reintroduce its neighbours to “Mother Russia”.

It is both politically and psychologically significant to Putin, then, that he is able to put on a good military show for the TV cameras, and yet it seems obvious that he is unable to do so. Few official explanations have been given, but pro-Kremlin talking heads in Russian media have suggested that the risk of Ukraine striking Russian hardware is the reason for the decision.

That alone is an astonishing admission of failure. Russia was supposed to be able to roll into Kyiv within days of invasion, after experiencing just token resistance. That Ukraine is still standing independently four years later is a huge symbol of defiance in itself. That it is able, even without US support since Trump’s re-election, to threaten targets deep in Russian territory says more than a military parade ever could.

All of that would be embarrassing enough for Putin, and that’s based on the explanation that sources friendly to him are giving. Critics have an even blunter version of events: it’s possible Russia simply doesn’t have enough military hardware to spare from the frontline to put on show and what it has left wouldn’t be impressive enough.

Putin’s story about Russia is that it is a ferociously strong nation, led by a ferociously strong man. That is how he keeps his grip on power, and how he keeps opposition in check. As he grows older and more isolated, and as his army founders in Ukraine, the gap between his story and reality becomes ever harder to ignore. If it continues, even Russia’s compliant media won’t be able to cover it up for much longer.

With summer around the corner, there is no greater time for a trip to your local bookshop to get a good haul. And if you are looking for something fresh, then you are in luck, as this month brings with it a tonne of great new releases.

From the return of Elizabeth Strout with The Things We Never Say – which is an epic novel distilled into 200 pages – to new fiction from Booker Prize winning Douglas Stuart, as well as fascinating history and science books, here is our pick of the best…

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout 

The Pulitzer Prize winning author’s first standalone novel in over a decade is a balm for the soul. It introduces us to the terrific character of Artie Dam, a history teacher and husband who is far lonelier than he lets on, just as the revelation of a secret upends his life.

Viking, £18.99

Uprising by Tahmima Anam

In this dark, firecracker of a book, a community of sex workers held on a remote island rises up when a new young woman is brought against her will from the city. That it is inspired by a real state-licensed brothel in Bangladesh only makes this novel more captivating.

Canongate, £16.99

John of John by Douglas Stuart

No one can both break and burrow into his readers’ hearts quite like Stuart, whose novels about poverty, love, addiction and identity have earned him a place on the bestseller lists and the Booker Prize. His latest traces the fractures which follow a young man’s return to his family home on the isle of Harris.

Picador, £20

The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander

Lili Lowe is an ambitious young woman whose life goes haywire when she is caught with her married politician boss. But her mother, a former talent agent, has a way of spinning the media frenzy to their advantage. A tonne of fun to read.

Orion, £16.99

Give Me Everything You’ve Got by Imogen Crimp

Ruby knows she has finally made it as a director when the filmmaker she idolises, Ellen, invites her to her country home during a heatwave. But she begins to question things when she finds herself drawn into the tumultuous dynamic between Ellen and her unpredictable daughter.

Bloomsbury, £18.99

Enough by Dawn French

68-year-old Etta gathers her family for what will be a gorgeous weekend, starting with a trip to the beach to watch the sunrise. Then, in this compassionate, wise read from the beloved actor, she makes an announcement which capsizes their world.

Michael Joseph, £22

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

17 years ago, Stockett’s debut novel The Help became a global bestseller and film starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis. Now she is back with a big, fat, sweeping novel, set in 1930s Mississippi and centred on a spirited 11-year-old girl living in the town’s orphanage.

Fig Tree, £20

Prestige Drama by Seamas O’Reilly

This 200-page foray into fiction from the writer of the hit memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is every bit as darkly funny as you might expect. It’s a Derry-set drama about an American actor who vanishes soon after flying over to film a new series, and Diarmuid, the scriptwriter who was the last person to see her.

Fleet, £14.99

This is Also A Love Story by Sally Hayden

With world events as bleak as they are, here is a must-read from the Orwell Prize Winning author: an account of all the love stories she has witnessed while reporting in the most turbulent places across the globe, from Ukrainian couples to Syrian women.

Fourth Estate, £20

How to Kill A Language by Sophia Smith Galer

When this author’s grandmother died, she realised she had lost her only thread to the North Italian dialect she spoke. And thus began her deep dive into 10 of the 7,000 languages predicted to be extinct by the turn of the century, spun here into a fascinating account.

William Collins, £22

Thirst by John Robins

The comedian and broadcaster tells the story of his life, alcoholism and eventual sobriety through the prism of 12 drinks, starting with his first sip of champagne aged five. It is by turns heart-wrenching and hilarious.

Viking, £20

Imitation Games by Darragh McGee

This much-needed investigation into the way in which gambling has “hijacked” sport, penned by a global health sociologist and leading expert in the field, attempts to answer how exactly we got here, and what we can do about the very human cost.

Bodley Head, £22

Servus by Emma Southon

From the gladiators forced to entertain to the miners who sourced Rome’s marble, this illuminating piece of revisionist history looks at just how much the Roman Empire was built on the back of the people they enslaved.

Hodder & Stoughton, £25

The Secrets of Our DNA by Turi King

From the scientist who identified the remains of Richard III, this lively, myth-busting tour of modern genetics unpacks how DNA solves crimes, rewrites history and shapes our lives. It brims with timely questions about what our genes can (and can’t) reveal.

Doubleday, £22

In the 1960s and 1970s, land art was the preserve of men in bell-bottoms, equipped with planning permission and earth-moving machinery, and intent on reshaping the landscape to their personal vision. American artist Nancy Holt’s first “earth work” could hardly be less typical – made in 1969, Wistman’s Wood is so unobtrusive that for all we know, it might not be there at all.

The work is a poem that Holt wrote and dedicated to her husband, fellow artist Robert Smithson, as they explored Dartmoor during a trip to the UK that year, from their home in New York. “To me, Wistman’s Wood conjured up Bob’s persona in a striking way,” Holt said; she buried the poem there, and then presented Smithson with a booklet containing details of its location, as well as photographs, and texts gleaned from her research into the site’s history, geology, flora and fauna.

The first of what would be a series of “buried poems” dedicated to significant people in Holt’s life is so slight a creation that we don’t know if it was ever discovered or indeed if anyone, Smithson included, ever searched for it. Wistman’s Wood exists principally as an exercise of the imagination, represented rather anti-climactically in a new exhibition at Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex, by the artist’s photographs of the spot.

MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater is the biggest UK exhibition ever dedicated to Holt, who was born in Massachusetts in 1938 and died in 2014 aged 75. She was never as famous as her male peers. Still, over five decades, during which she evolved from small to large-scale work, she was an influential figure of land and conceptual art, best remembered for the monumental Sun Tunnels in the Utah desert, made between 1973-76, and again, not unreasonably, represented here in Holt’s fastidious photography.

Sun Tunnels’ concrete cylinders act like a modern-day Stonehenge, aligning with the sun at the solstices, and channelling sunlight through holes that map constellations onto the cylinders’ interior surfaces. The cylinders – units of manmade infrastructure – serve here as a conduit for the systems of stars and heavenly bodies that rule and regulate life on earth.

Though a long way from the Utah desert, Goodwood’s spectacular South Downs setting, landscaped by celebrity gardener Dan Pearson, demands restagings of Holt’s outdoor works.

Holt gave approval for certain works to be recreated according to her instructions and documentation, fabricated in situ by local craftspeople and, where possible, from locally sourced materials.

Just two have been recreated at Goodwood, including Ventilation System, a sprawling network of shiny steel pipes that extends through the gallery walls to the outdoors, where the pipes periodically terminate in fanned caps that flicker in the breeze like lazy disco balls. Inside the gallery, these elements move more quickly, accompanied by the sound of rushing air. Holt’s idea is to honour and recognise infrastructure that is taken entirely for granted and hidden from public view: just as Wistman’s Wood gave shape to the metaphysical bond between Robert Smithson and a corner of Dartmoor, Holt’s Ventilation System reveals a building’s inner workings.

Except, unfortunately, it doesn’t. Ventilation System is a sham, a dummy network of pipes plugged in to make the noise of working pipes, but actually doing nothing useful at all. Holt was an artist, not an engineer, but in our era of the climate crisis, this lack of functionality feels obscene and distracts from the fact that, though Holt was not exactly an environmentalist, she was certainly sensitive to the environment and its plight.

Her interest in the systems that order and regulate our existence ranges from the manmade – ventilation, electricity networks, heating and drainage – to the movements of stars and planets that shape life on earth, and are more effectively communicated by Hydra’s Head, which was originally conceived for the banks of the Niagara River in upstate New York. “Reactivated” at Goodwood, the work comprises six pools of water mapping part of the constellation hydra. Contained in prefabricated concrete pipes sunk into the hollow of a disused chalk quarry, each perfectly still pool acts as a dark mirror, in which are caught the reflections of sun and cloud, moon and stars.

Photographs were important to Holt, and more than just documentation, but even when accompanied by films and sketches, and a recreation of one of Holt’s indoor works, Mirrors of Light II (1974), they simply do not scratch the surface of Holt’s collaborative and visionary project. Recreating outdoor works, like Hydra’s Head, is more than an act of homage to an artist we should know more about; the logistics and the practicalities of the project demand discussion, co-operation and care – the bones of Holt’s work, and also its soul.

‘Nancy Holt: MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater’ is at Goodwood Art Foundation until 1 November