No comments about I visit the Soviets;: The provincial lady looks at Russia,.

No comments about Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark: Volume 2.

No comments about Discovering Moscow: The Complete Companion Guide.

1 comments about The Simple Guide to Customs and Etiquette in Russia (Simple Guides Customs and Etiquette).

1. Really-- a "Simple" Guide to Customs and Etiquette in Russia? No such thing is possible. Russia is such a deep and complex society, the title puts me off now. But... that wasn't the case when I purchased this booklet several years ago.

   We were preparing for our first trip to Russia-Eastern Europe and were looking for anything that might offer some insight, so we picked this one up. It's small, just a bit larger than a checkbook at 78 pages. I thought it would be useful and something I might want to toss in a jacket pocket. The thing is, after finding our first really good travel guide, we've never opened this one again.

   That's not to say there isn't good information in the volume. Slatter talks a bit about the history and turbulent transition taking place in the context of who the Russian people are. From there on out it mostly goes to the travel material.

   The question you have to ask yourself now-- Am I going to depend on this book to get me around Russia? The answer is simply "no." You will want, and need, another guide. A good one will include everyrthing you might read in this booklet.

   For a little more extensive treatment of the social-cultural topics, I'd pick up "The Russian Way" by Zita Dabars or better yet these travel books: "Lonely Planet Russia, Ukraine & Belarus" or "Insight Guides Russia". "Russian Way" takes a similar approach to Slatter's, but expands significantly to more than 70 important topics. Lonely Planet in my opinion prints the best of the travel guides-- you'll find everything that this book has, plus a lot, lot more. Insight Guides are packed with great writing, information, plus hundreds of excellent photos.

   With Slatters book out of print now, you might need to resort to that plan any way.

   The bottom line-- "Simple Guides" are for the . . . Simple.

No comments about Memoirs of Hector Berlioz, Including His Travels in Italy, Germany,Russia, and England, 1803-1865. [Subtitle]: Translated and edited by DavidCairns.

No comments about Ostpreussen: Neue Bilder aus einem geliebten Land.

No comments about Russia's decisive year.

No comments about Northwest of the world;: Forty years trading and hunting in northern Siberia,.

3 comments about Eyewitness Phrase Book: Russian (with cassette).

1. I took two phrase books with me to Russia, this one andthe Lonely Planet one. I used this one the most, because while it didn't cover the wide variety of situations of the Lonely Planet one, it did cover general shopping, traveling, and eating terms just as well. It was also much thinner, and fit perfectly in a passport pouch or the pockets of my cargo pants. It was very easy to find a given section in the book, which minimizes time spent fumbling with the book when you find a need for a phrase you haven't learned yet. The only place where it really lost points was in the food section. It almost exclusively covers 'ethnic' Russian food, which isn't too helpful when trying to read the menu at a fried chicken, pizza, or hamburger joint. If this section were expanded a bit to include a wider variety of foods (and drinks), I would have gotten a lot more use out of the book.



2. You will not learn the language in a short time--concentrate on

   --learning the Cyrillic alphabet (Did you know that "PECTOPAH" means "Restaurant"?)
   --learning some "courtesy" phrases? (Priviet, spaciba, pazhulsta)

   There are many language guides, dictionaries, phrase books and the like, but the 'Eyewitness Travel Phrase Book: Russian' book is a convenient format (fits easily into the back pants pocket) and has a good layout of necessary survival phrases so you can quickly ask "Gdye too-alyet?" (Where is the bathroom?) or "Vi gavareet-ye pa-angleeksee?" (Do you speak English?).




3. Being interested in Russia, it's people and their language, I purchased this book to try to gain a bit of understanding for simple communication using everyday phrases in Russian. It was very helpful and enjoyable to make the connection between the Russian words and their English counterparts. Very useful.

No comments about Bed & Breakfasts and Country Inns: Upper Great Lakes: Delightful Places to Stay and Great Things to Do When You Get There (Fodor's Bed & Breakfasts and Coun).