Hello Ask Historians, thanks for all your great work. I've developed an interest in Russian history and was wondering if there is a book on Russian expansion into Siberia that is well respected and readable for a layman? I'm also interested in the exploration of Siberia, any ideas?
Although I'm not especially well-read in Russian history, a well known and frequently-cited work on this topic is Yuri Slezkine's Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. The "Arctic Mirrors" refers to the ways that Russians saw the indigenous peoples of Siberia (the "small peoples") as profoundly Other to themselves in ways that colonizers often see the colonized, as opposites of themselves.
I would recommend Michael Khodarkovsky, Russia’s Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800 (Bloomington 2002). It looks mostly at the interaction with the steppe peoples, which is my area of expertise (as far as one might call it expertise, anyway). His main points concern the way the Russians stopped the raids form nomadic tribes and the way they tightened their grip on the steppe.
I don't know how readable it is for a layman, but I didn't find it very tedious to read at all.
The other book I used for my Bachelor thesis concerning Russia was Cristoph Witzenrath, Cossacks and the Russian Empire, 1598-1725: Manipulation, rebellion and expansion into Siberia (London 2007). This book is more focused on the Cossacks and their societal structures.
It's somewhat less friendly to the layman, but perhaps still interesting to you.
I hope I helped!