I thought the book was such a insperation. this child was such a light in so many people lives, it seem:s to me c.b might not have lived long but what he did in the 13 years he touched so many people s lives and he took what years he had and lived it to it fullest. i am so glad that this small child didnt fill sorry for his self and he didnt want you to eather, the book was very moveing and so so touching,, i wish that ever body buy;s this book and even better they make a a movie of cb's life wouldnt that be great to show ever one what a gifted and loveing child he was.. lets here it for c.b. and thank god for a wonderfull child the book was a 100 in stars,,,, if i could have rated it my self . a fan of c.b.'s in kentucky

I LOVED THIS BOOK,,, IT WAS GREAT AND I WOULD TELL ANY ONE TO READ THIS BOOK,,,cb was a great kid.. he thought of ever body but his self and you dont find that much hear any more on this earth... ever body bye this book in his memory and keep cb dream alive for him and his familey.. this is all he wanted.. .. iwould give this book 10 stars,,,, he was agreat child,, this book is sad,, but it is real life ,, what this kid went threw. .. cb is truley an angel..... ever body get this book,,, and see for your self what a god sent he really was,,,

Just reading the reviews makes me cry, I can Look at the book without reading it and just cry. C.B.'s book brings faith into everyone's life, If u didn't know C.B. u just get the faith in his words, just imagine Being a close relative to him. C.B. was a gift from God he lightened everyone's day with His bright Beautiful smile. Caring for loved ones friends and strangers before himself That was C. I reccommend this book for everyone, You won't appreciate life till U read the Book and Take a trip down his road, the long struggle. Reading the book makes u feel like ur insides are tieing in knots, it makes u wanna cry most it does make cry. Even though he's gone I know the baby will watch over me and the rest of Family. And he probably will never know How Much I Love Him. And to everyone reading this, please don't take life for granite, love everyone and treat people equal. Well if nothing give respect. In Closing, C.B. I Love U.

Moskva-Petushki, which is translated in English as Moscow to the End of the Line, is Venedikt Erofeev's greatest work, one drunken man's (Venichka's) journey on the Moskovskaia-Gor'skovskaia train line to visit his lover and child in the Petushki. En route, Venichka talks with other travelers in dialogue and he also speaks in monologue about various themes such as drinking, Russian literature and philosophy and the sad, poetic soul of the Russian peasant. As the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly dark, disoriented, hallucinogenic and surrealistic, in proportion to the narrator's alcohol intake.

Moscow to the End of the Line was written in 1970. During this time, Erofeev, himself, was traveling around the Soviet Union working as a telephone cable layer. Erofeev's friends have said the author made the story up in order to entertain his fellow workers as they traveled, and that many of these fellow workers were later incorporated as characters in the book.

The text of the novel began to be circulated in samizdat within the Soviet Union and then it was smuggled to the West where it was eventually translated into English. The official Russian language publication took place in Paris in 1977. With glasnost, Moscow to the End of the Line was able to be circulated freely within Russia, but, rather than stick to the original form, the novel was abridged in the government pamphlet Sobriety and Culture, ostensibly as a campaign against alcoholism. Finally, in 1995, it was officially published, together with all the formerly edited obscenities and without censorship.

Although he is an alcoholic, Venichka never comes across to the reader as despicable. Venichka is not a man who drinks because he wants to drink; he drinks to escape a reality that has gone beyond miserable and veered off into the absurd. He is not a stupid or pitiable character, but rather one who has no outlet for his considerable intelligence. That Venichka is very educated is obvious; he makes intelligent and well-read references to both literature and religion. However, in the restrictive Soviet Union of his time, there was no outlet for this kind of intelligent creativity; Venichka is forced to channel his creative instincts into bizarre drink recipes and visions of sphinxes, angels and devils.

Although many will see Moscow to the End of the Line as satire, it really is not. Instead, it is Erofeev's anguished and heartfelt cry, a cry that demanded change. Venichka is not a hopeless character, however, the situation in which he is living is a hopeless one.

A semi-autobiographical work, Moscow to the End of the Line was never meant as a denunciation of alcoholism but rather an explanation of why alcohol was so tragically necessary in the day-to-day life of citizens living under Soviet rule.

Moscow to the End of the Line is a highly entertaining book and it is a book that is very important in understanding the Russia of both yesterday and today as well. This book is really a classic of world literature and it is a shame that more people do not read Moscow to the End of the Line rather than relying on the standard "bestseller." This book deserves to be more widely read and appreciated.

This is a sublime little tale, saturated with humor and pathos. Erofeev (both author & narrator have the same name, heightening the autobiographical tone of the book) is the Dante of the Moscow commuter rail. He stumbles from bar to bar and a purgatory of the 'thirteen varieties of Soviet vodka.' Then, it's onto the train, which takes him some thirty stops from Kursk station and 'The Hammer and Sickle' to the 'end of the line' at Petushki (which I'm told means 'flowers' in Russian) where he is to meet his Beatrice.

But (unlike Dante) Erofeev never seems to arrive. As he downs more and more hooch, the story becomes progressively more blotched and incoherent. It culminates in the Passion of Erofeev, in which our poor hero is driven up against the wall of the Kremlin (though whether its the Kremlin in Moscow or Petushki is unclear) and left screwed.

This is a story about mercy. Read it. It is easily one of the best books I've read in the past year. Then pass the word along, because it deserves to be better known.

Ah, this book...a cherished one for me, pilfered from a friend who's father studied under Nabokov (but later given back). I read this under the serious spell of Knut Hamsun and this book is similiar to "Hunger" but perhaps more humorous. It's about an unemployed, alcholic cable fitter who is fired for charting diagrams of his comrades "idleness" correalated with the days they get drunk. Thrust into a serious drinking binge he is stuck on a train trying to reach Moscow and in between we have flashbacks of him trying to buy vodka before restaurants and stores have opened, giving us recipes of cocktails made out of aftershave ("Aunt Clara's Kiss) that brings on hallucinations and incredible verbal pyrotechnics full of literary ramblings and political rumblings. The whole time his hallucinations are marked by a pair of overcoated angels egging him on or chastising his behavior as he mixes up his route on the train forgetting to disembark and actually heading away from his destination. He finally does reach Moscow and the novel closes like a hand over a movie lens as abruptly as it started. It is a startling book, not only the best of the samizdat novels (works distributed like fanzines secretly during the communist regime) but by far the most dazzling comic novels ever written about desperation and alcholism. It is an incredible book and after reading it you will never have patience for another Bukowski book again.

Joseph Finder knows his stuff! I am an avid reader who reads 1-2 novels a week. After polishing off several Grishams and Pattersons, I was looking for something new. My mom gave me an old copy of The Moscow Club. I could not put it down. The details that Finder weaves through the story are amazing and the pace is breathtakingly quick. There are no places to take a breather and I am still tired from missing way too much sleep. I am about finished with his second book, Extraordinary Powers, and it is just as fine. Time to order his third....

Charlie Stone is a CIA analyst who is asked by his boss to find more information on a document reference called "the Lenin testament". Charlie is reluctant to pursue this, even though he is aware that both his father and another old family friend might be able to help him, because of old scandals within his family.

However, against his better judgement, he does follow up this information, which leads him deeper and deeper into a conspiracy involving people in high places in both the USA and Russia - where people's motives are not what they seem.

Finder has crafted a well written, well paced and enjoyable post cold war novel with this book. It's a what-if situation that could have happened in Russia - but if it did we would probably never know about it. His use of terrorists as scare-mongers to initiate official action is almost eerie in the light of events over the last few years, yet this book was written in 1991, when terrorists did not have the cachet they have now.

With a great story and characters you care about this book is worth picking up to read if you enjoy a good thriller.

It's a shame that such a book is out of print. When I read The Moscow Club, I was litteraly flipping the pages one after another. It keeps you alert all the time because you never know what is going to happen. An excellent way to kill time while you're on a boring trip.

a satirical, very funny and clever dystopian novel

For irony and surrealism this story is a ten. It is, again, a wrenching look at Soviet life, and another Voinovich masterpiece. I won't retell the plot because another reviewer did that well. The society of Moscow in 2042 is based on the droll equation - "Output=Input", and whatever one receives is directly proportional to what one turns in in the way of output. And this is just what it sounds like. Read this book and hope it doesn't happen.

The famous dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich wrote this book a couple of years before the downfall of the Sovient Union. So, in how far this satire about life in the communist "Moscow Republic" of 2042 is still relevant?

I would not exclude the alarming possibility that Russia might still evolve in something like the nightmare of "Moscow 2042".

In this book the Russian author Kartsev, living in München in 1982, makes a time travel to the Moscow of 2042. After the "Great August Revolution" the new leader "Genialissimus" has changed the Soviet Union ... up to a certain point. After Lenins dream of a world revolution and Stalins experiment of 'Socialism within one country', Genialissimus has decided to build "Communism within one city", Moscow. The ideology has changed somewhat, into a hotchpotch of marxism-leninism and Russian orthodoxy (Genialissimus himself is also patriarch!) The decay, from which the Soviet Union suffered, has gone further and further. The rest of the Soviet Union, where people barely survive, has been separated by a Berlin type of wall from the "paradise" of Moscow, where communism has been (sort of) realised. Within the wall everyone gets everything "according to his needs". Only their needs are not decided by themselves, but by the wise Genialissimus. And of course, most people have "ordinary needs", but a chosen few have "extraordinary needs". For the first class, life is dismall even within the priviliged "Moscow Republic". At last, the situation gets so desperate, that people throw themselves in the arms of a "liberator", a fellow dissident writer and (kind of) friend of Kartsev, the extreme Slavophile Sim Karnavalov(probably inspired by Solzjenytsin), who enters Moscow on a white horse and proclaims himself Tsar Serafim the First. Now a new kind of nightmare starts...

This novel is a masterpiece of satire, almost as funny as "The life of Iwan Chonkin" and "The pretender to the trone" of the same author. In my opinion, Voinovich is entiteld to the next Nobel prize for literature.

I READ THIS BBOOK BECAUSE I AM A CREW'member son and I FIND THIS BBOOK VERY REALY HAVE YOU AN ITALIAN EDITION?

When he wrote this book, Alvin Moscow was a reporter (AP, I believe), and in Collision Course he produced one of the greatest news stories ever written. You literally live the agony of the Stockholm's junior officer who had the con when the Andrea Doria inexplicably crossed his bow. You live the agony of Captain Calamai as his magnificent ship does what modern ships are not supposed to do - capsize. There are heroes (among them four heroic ships) and there are cowards, there is tragedy and there is triumph. As a sample of journalistic skill this book has no equal. I have read and reread this vivid and fascinating account of a marine disaster many times. It is a permanent and dog-eared treasure in my non-fiction library.

On the night of July 25, 1956, the Italian liner ANDREA DORIA collided with the Swedish liner STOCKHOLM off Nantucket Sound. The DORIA sank the next morning in 225 feet of water. This is the classic case of "radar-assisted collision" (both ships detected each other 20 minutes before the collision!). "Collision Course" is an excellent account of how the collision came about, and why the DORIA (built to modern damage stability requirements) still sank anyway. The photographs of the sinking DORIA are gripping.

Jack Womack returns to the present in his sly, humorous tale set in contemporary Russia. Only a writer of Womack's prodigious literary gifts could pull off a great novel about Russia that isn't written by a native. He's done an excellent job examining both the business and political elites of Boris Yeltsin's Russia; every word sounds as though it could be written by a distinguished Russian author. His dense, descriptive prose runs wild through this well written tale of business intrigue and corruption, taking us on a mesmerizing literary joy ride laced with ample doses of black humor. At times I found the passages so funny that I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. "Let's Put The Future Behind Us" is yet another excellent novel by this underrated writer; one who deserves a broad readership beyond science fiction fandom.

Snappy prose, well-paced narrative, sharp humor (a few actual 'I-laughed-out-loud-while-reading' sequences).

I think the book really caught a unique time and place in russia's history. The book would have a more topical impact to the reader of 1996-97 but it is still a great read from a talented writer.

I have got to read Womack's other works! I have a friend who big into Russia and he was amazed by the accuracy (he noted especially the description of the Russian concept of "poshloi"), all from a writer who spent little time in the New Russia. This book is well-paced and full of intriguing characters (especially Max)--a must read for...well, anyone! Words fail to describe it; Just read it!

If you're reading this review it's probably because you haven't read Martin Cruz Smith's Red Square yet. And that's too bad, because you're missing a vivid glimpse into both the mafia-riddled new Russia and the loyalties of the human heart. Arkady Renko, the homicide detective hero of Smith's earlier books Gorky Park and Polar Star, returns to Moscow and finds himself battling an international crime ring in a story that crosses the German border and brings him face-to-face with his longed-for lost love. The gripping plot and Smith's masterful ability to capture the nuances of these complex geographical and psychological landscapes make this a book you will remember every time you pick up a copy of your favorite news magazine.

I can't speak for the latest Arkady Renko novel, "Havana Bay," having not read it yet, but for me, the finest of the first three is the magnificent "Red Square," one of the most gripping and memorable thrillers I've read in a long time.

For those that have never read any of Martin Cruz Smith's novels featuring modern fiction most's unique detective (the others being "Gorky Park" and "Polar Star"), you might be surprised by what you find. Smith is no Mickey Spillane--he is a literate, cerebral writer and a first-rate novelist with an unusual gift for both probing, insightful characterizations and heart- pounding, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. His Renko novels can best be described as Saul Bellow meets Robert Ludlum, and Smith's voice is distinctive and unmistakable.

"Red Square" finds Arkady in post-Cold War Russia, investigating murder and intrigue in a society rife with corruption and desperation. He also reunites with his great love from "Gorky Park," and Smith's description of the reunion is among his very best writing. "Red Square" also features Smith's characteristically convoluted plotting, which can at times get confusing, but eventually resolves itself with the most satisfying ending he has yet written for a Renko novel.

All in all, "Red Square," despite a rather slow first 40 pages or so, was one of the most fascinating and unforgettable thrillers of the decade. Outstanding.

All I have to say is if you are thinking of buying this book, do it. If you have not read Gorky Park or Polar Star first, then I strongly suggest you do so. The excellent aspect, I believe, of this book is its connection with the past two. While I enjoyed Gorky Park, Polar Star is where I fell in love with reading about Renko. By the time I read through Red Square, I came immediately online to see if there is another Renko novel to read. There is, Havana Bay, thank goodness, I don't know what I would have done if there wasn't. This is the perfect series of books to read, for anyone who does not mind a little challenge. Enjoy!

This is one of those inclusive and thorough travel guides that's complete. Carried it with me, matched the pages and the places, and it all fit. A lot of history and overview, which makes it better than the books that tell you "turn left at the statue and look at the palace."

The photos are better than most local postcards, too bad you can't tear them out and mail them to friends.

Overall, a terrific companion, but make sure to pack it when you go. The other couple traveling with us kept borrowing ours, and we had to keep asking for it back.

Masha Nordbye has provided far more than a simple guide to these fascinating cities. She writes with a clarity and deep personal knowledge that can bring these places alive for even the most armchair bound traveller. The specifics are there, certainly, but it is her love for these places that establishes this wonderful book as an adventure in just the reading of it. It is alone at the top of the list.

Man,has this author been there - to Moscow and St. Pete - and done just about everything that any of the rest of us might imagine as we plan our trip. A GREAT guidebook with great pics. Don't leave homw without it!!

Phil Penningroth, Longmont, CO

One inaccuracy that I caught in this book (stating that hashish comes from poppies in Afghanistan) made me wonder what other inaccuracies existed in this book. Despite that, this is an entertaining tale that has proved to be decided prescient in what good and bad could come from a liberalized leadership in USSR. The book used a military coup rather than political change to get this change, but the rest is right on.

Great book, it is not often that an author can come up with such a comprehensive book as this on his first try. This had it all, a great story, good characters, wonderful action and a quick pace. This is an exciting book. It really made me happy reading the book; it was like a great game of treasure hunt where you find everything. Each time I was ready for a plot twist, action of drama it was there. The characters just explode in your memory - you do not get them out of your head. Overall great effort.

Never before have I read a spy novel with such political and human depth. The themes and ideas are universal, and celebrate the triumphant spirit of mankind, that makes freedom always triumph over tyranny. I wrote down quotes from the book and have kept them forever. A must read for all lovers of intrigue, about events that could have come to pass, if it had not been for the foresight of Mikhail Gorbachev. Of course all the other elements of a successful spy novel are there: adventure, intrigue, action and excitement .

No one book has more information than this one, and it's simply the best all-in-one traveling companion available. But it isn't perfect. Personal anecdotes and incidents sometimes seem amateurish, and Moscow changes so quickly that some of them are now quaintly outdated. The maps are minimal to the point of being useless; the best maps are in "Great Moscow", "Three Days in Moscow" (if you can tolerate the outdated street names), or one of the building-by-building atlases now available (all of these are published and available only in Russia). Finally, the level of detail is so great that some errors inevitably crept in, and hopefully they will be corrected in the next edition.

Rough Guide's book on Moscow is by far one of the best tour books I have seen for that city. Recently we had the chance to live in Moscow for two months. This book, along with the Rough Guides Russian phrase book, were our constant companions. The Moscow book was essential for giving us really indepth information about most of the sites we went to see. Also, the history section was invaluable to us as we found it necessary to do a little homeschooling of our children while there. I still refer to the history section of the Moscow book to refresh my memory on the complicated story of Russian history.

We also had Fodor's along with us but found that we relied much more on Rough Guides as a source of important and reliable information. Rough Guides is a must if you visit Moscow.

When I packed my bags for Moscow last summer I included about 4 different guide books, and the only one that came home ragged was this one. Absolutely the best I have seen or ever expect to see -- Step by step suggestions to get you exactly where you need to go, maps and more maps, and a small language primer. The thing that puts this book above the rest is that it gives you a complete historical story behind each destination. I came away with beautiful pictures and the history to go with them. This book even features short day trips outside of Moscow. The Rough Guide pocket sized language primer (available from Amazon) is also an essential. Take these two books and prepare yourself for some of the greatest times you will ever have. P.S. -- Check out the new edition