No comments about The Companion Guide to St Petersburg (Companion Guides).

1 comments about Russian Museum.

1. name architektor+histor

2 comments about Knopf Guide: St. Petersburg (Knopf Guides).

1. This guide was invaluable to us on our regretfully short tour of St.Petersburg. We would read it before touring for background and descriptions of the places we visited. The book is worth having for detailed illustrations of the layout of the Hermitage,Peterhof,PushkinPalace, Yusupov Palace...It is a portable guide even with the color illustrations (i.e.not heavy). Comes with it's own bookmark, too! Highly recommended!



2. We have looked at several books on our two visits to St. Petersburg, and the Knopf is by far the best. It has superb illustrations and thorough descriptions as well as sample tours. It also has excellent historical and political information to set the City in context.

No comments about Colorslide Tour of Soviet Union, A: Russia and the Republics: One Seventh of the World (Guided Tours of the World: Colorslide Travel Program: Panorama).

1 comments about Saint Petersburg.

1. Great introduction to St. Petersburg BEFORE you go to Russia. Gives enough history to appreciate what you are seeing and what you really want to see while there. Color photography is well well done. As with all trips there is so much to see and so little time, this will narrow your choices and assist you in knowing what you are seeing.

1 comments about Culture Smart! Russia: A Quick Guide to Customs & Etiquette.

1. This is a great book to read before traveling to Russia. It clues you into basic cultural patterns and behaviors, letting you know what to expect and how to act yourself.

No comments about Literary Russia : A Guide.

2 comments about Before the Revolution: St. Petersburg in Photographs : 1890-1914.

1. A lavishly illustrated book, depicting the beauty the city of St. Petersburg before its bombardment by the Germans in WWII. Depicting everyday life as well as the monumental architecture of this historic city, with a brief history of this city of Peter the Great. The reader is also told which buildings survived destruction and which didn't. A must for any lovers of Russian history under the last Tsar.



2. The photographs on the daily life in St.Petersburg are exceptional in their composition and inclusion of all classes. The differences in the social classes comes alive in these photographs. Those of the workers and peasants are haunting and capture their downtrodden and meager daily existence. You can understand by studying these views of St.Petersburg that life was very different and the "haves and have-nots" are clearly evident. This a must book for those who make a study of this period an avocation and source of deep historical interest.The book must in the library of any serious historian or avid follower of pre-revoluntionary Russia. The architecture in St.Petersburg was amazing and the book captures all of the cathederals,public and private homes,bridges and market places that are no longer there.

5 comments about Soviets: Pictures from the End of the U.S.S.R..

1. Having traveled in Russia during the Soviet era, I believe that Sherbell, in words and images, has captured the essence of the latter stages of the Empire. The picures and text show a deep understanding and appreciation of the problems of the Soviet system. More importantly, the beauty, humanity and resiience of the Russian people come shining through. It is a terrific photo book.



2. One can always tell looking at a book if the photographer was just a "tourist" in the area, on a brief assignment from a magazine, or if he really "lived" in the story and made it part of his life. There have been numerous failed attempts by western photographers to capture this period of history. Shepard Sherbell's book is different. He obviously not only put his heart into every image, he made this work a part of his life, spending several years in Moscow and in different Soviet republics before, during and after the USSR fell apart. His photographs speak about the human spirit, the dignity of the people, their feelings and day to day worries. It is well balanced.
   But for someone unfamiliar with the subject the advise is - don't try to "consume" all the images at once. The material is too rich. One has to sink into the book little by little, explore it and revisit it again and again.



3. Sherbell is a master of his craft. He takes the reader on a virtual tour of the former Soviet Union. This talented photographer manages to convey the personality and texture of a complex country and period of history with sensitivity and wit.

   "Soviets" is a book that is best savoured one page at a time. The photographs are matched only by the text which, unlike many photography books, adds another level to the work. This is a book that could be placed in the history section of any library as easily as photography.




4. Whether or not you ever visited the Soviet Union in its dying days, Shepard Sherbell's photographs will grab you. His images of that moribund nation reveal the darkest secrets of the U.S.S.R. Those of us who lived through those final moments will recognize the chilling faces of a great power in demise. The crumbling buildings, cracking monuments and crushed spirits of a once-mighty state are beautifully portrayed in this book. It's an eyewitness to a land of infinite impossibilities.

   Make no mistake: THE SOVIETS is not another collection of snapshots from Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater. Instead, its pages are populated with glimpses into the real life of that now-extinct country. Unless you'd lived there, this is a side of the Soviet Union you probably never saw.

   Brace yourself.




5. The pictures are elegant even if the subject isn't. Very beautiful book. Know that the book is not intended to show you all aspects of life in Soviet Russia. It focuses more on the downside of life.

5 comments about The Woman Who Walked to Russia: A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend.

1. The least information supplied in this book is about Lillian (last name uncertain), the woman, whose legend has it, walked to Russia. The author is Australian, and that is probably the market for which this book is intended. She sets off on an investigative journal to uncover information about the mysterious Lillian, and comes up instead with a travelogue about travelling in Northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska. Along the way, she fills in details of the scenery, the towns, her menu, her disfunctional friendship with her travelling companion, and offers a half dozen book reviews. For someone like myself, with a solid knowledge of North American current events and Arctic history, the narrative offers very little, and in fact, gives away important details some of books still waiting on my reading list. For others, who are looking for an introduction to the region, or enjoys another person's perspective, they may find some merit in the book. The writing style is fine, and the book does have flow to it. However, don't confuse it with investigative journalism.



2. I read this book while taking a Refugee and Immigrant Perspectives class. In the first third of the book, Pybus presented a historically strong case for her heroine (statistics, archives, interviews, etc.). Then, Pybus begins to profile her own journey - nearly overshadowing her writers' pursuit of Lillian Alling. While I found the final resolution more realistic but slightly less climatic than I had been expecting, Pybus' travels and observations lend themselves to the wild Alaskan frontier and the dangers of walking/driving/living there. Overall, a good read but perhaps should be renamed: The Woman Who Walked to Russia And The Writer Who Drove to Alaska. Now I'm off to read Into The Wild...



3. Pybus purportedly is writing about a woman who, in the 1920's, set out to walk from British Columbia all the way to Siberia. There isn't much information on this woman and Pybus, with a friend, was going to retrace her steps in an effort to find out more.
   That sounds really good. That is why I picked up the book to read it.
   What most of this book is about, though, is how mean Cassandra's friend is to her, how too many people are hunting Alaskan moose, how backwards Americans are, how nice Cassandra is. There is finally a resolution to the "woman who walked to Russia" story but it's only thrown in in a halfhearted way before Pybus throws her whole self into telling us how happy she is to be back with her husband, and that's what really matters, right? If she had spent more time being sympathetic the first 3/4 of the book I could have been happier with the ending. As it was, I was completely uninterested in Cassandra's personal life, having been given regular doses of it throughout the book.
   There are some good descriptions of Yukon & Alaska in this book; it's an area I've visited before, and her descriptions made me miss it. I can get nostalgic without having to tread through 200 pages of complaining about Pybus's sad lot in life.



4. I thought that The Woman Who Walked to Russia, by Cassandra Pybus was a good book. The book showed a relationship between Cassandra and her friend Gerry; and how Cassandra never gave up. I felt that it was important that Pybus never gave up because she felt and was so into Lillian Alling and how she supposedly walked through the wilderness to get back where her home was. Pybus said "To follow Lillian's trek from Vancouver would involve a return trip of ten thousand kilometers, allowing for a side trip to Providenija , and to do the trip I would need to hire a four-wheel-drive vehicle for five to six weeks."(p.41) Knowing that all this would have to be done to find how and what Lillian had to do to get back home is remarkable. If I was in Pybus position I do not think that I would go through all that trouble.
   The relationship between Pybus and Gerry is a good one for the both of them on this trip. They are both from Australia so they can relate on things, but also can snap at each other. For example when Gerry says, "And I got fat!" and later after they ate dinner, "As if nothing has happened between us, she cheerfully dismantles the Tranjia stove, packs up the food box and locks them into the trunk of the car."(p.111) With it just being them two in a car driving it must get crazy at times. Not having anyone else to talk to or having your own place to just get away must be really challenging.
   I liked this book because I never read a book with the people in it being from Australia and looking for someone that they have never met before and them determination just moved me. Also the determination that Lillian had to go back where she was from and here she knew where her home was at.
   
   Natalie San Francisco



5. The woman of the title is nowhere to be found. If you are looking for wilderness adventure, as I was, you will be disappointed. Pybus has almost no information on Lillian Alling's life or supposed epic hike to Siberia. In fact, she doesn't even know her name. Lillian Alling is largely a guess. In the end, she finds a few tidbits and one first hand account and from that weaves a wispy fairy tale. What the reader finds instead is an often fascinating, if unintended self-portrait author -- a woman frightened by wilderness and unable to comprehend anything beyond her own limited and narrow world view. As when she mocks rural Americans or expresses "astonishment" that readers of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" see anything more than hubris in the the book's protagonist.
   
   The interactions between her, her travel companion, and her thoughts along the way are mesmerizing, if often painful.