I turn to some of these stories repeatedly. Tolstoy gives searching portraits of obsessed souls in stories such as "The Devil" (an unforgettable account of lust), "Father Sergius," and "The Kreutzer Sonata." Here is a more "Dostoevskian" Tolstoy than we see in War and Peace. Providing balance in the collection are masterpieces such as "Hadji Murad." Don't overlook this book; it is a convenient compilation of some of the finest literary works of Russia's 19th century. I bought a second copy because my first one wore out.

This paperback gathers many of Lev Tolstoy's most masterfully crafted short works. The Death of Ivan Ilych, Hadji Murad, The Cossacks, The Kreutzer Sonata ... they are all here. While it is impossible to give an adequate review of each of the stories in this collection, I will say that Tolstoy's short stories are a joy to read. His style is vivid, clear, and engaging, and his themes are interesting and profound. Tolstoy tackles the issues of death, war, religion, sex, and others. While I do not agree with many of his views, the beauty and subtlety with which he expresses them is tremendous.

On a more technical note, the translation is more than adequate. While reading Tolstoy in Russian is best, this translation is seamless and does not interfere with the reading. I would enthusiastically recommend this collection to anyone who is intrigued by this influential and quirky author.

Leo Toadstool was a brilliant writer, and, although I didn't find his short pieces as brilliant as his novels, they are nonetheless brilliant. He is the Beatles of prose fiction.

It is refreshing to read genuine literature in an age of popular fiction. Victor Brook's writing combines imagination with interpretative meaning in each of his short stories. These stories appeal to the inner soul and are adventures in life at its best, at its worst, and in the extraordinary. "A Ceiling with Lizards," for instance, is captivating and evokes thought about why the protagonist ever went to India. The mystery behind each story leads you further into the mind of Victor Brook and encourages you to read more. Victor Brook is an artist with words, and his stories are straightforward and characteristic of literature, which belongs to a generation of uniquely gifted authors.

These are stories for study, for re-reading, for analysis, for plumbing the depths of both human experience and the art of writing. Especially, these are stories for sharing with other lovers of REAL literature, those who are able to undertake an analysis of the nature of reality. Challenge yourself!

Coupling beautiful imagery with eloquent stream of consciousness writing, Victor Brook explores life and humanity in a way that is both refreshing and captivating. His ingenious insights will undoubtedly make a lasting impression on every reader. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand life in a new and profound light.

A foreword for this 2nd printing is written by Nancy K. Splain, J.D., Liaison to the American Bar Association's Far Eastern Project - Ukraine. Dr. Splain lived in Ukraine 2001 and 2002. She has traveled many of the same by-ways as Lise did during her escape with her Mennonite people. In this unusual foreword, Dr. Splain describes the lush hills of Crimea where Lise was born and her passion for this book is obvious. Dr. Splain's foreword is an outstanding addition to this award winning book.

Escape to freedom. Survival. How might we lose our freedoms? This author tells it all.

has written this true story in Lise's own, up-lifting and charming words as a child of Dutch-German parents trapped in Russia. I consider it an important addition to the unknown, unadmitted history of Russia's people and Lise's escape with 140 of her people is an amazing story for all ages. This exciting, well crafted book is hard to put down. It is both relevant and powerful. How difficult it is to earn freedom -- how easy to lose it! I Heard My People Cry is felt in the hearts, and seen upon the faces of all mankind. So relevant for day!

I normally race through books like a speed demon, but this was so enjoyable I read it s-l-o-w-l-y - and several times.

Olga was a woman raised in the lap of luxury in the Russian court but was able and willing to work at hard physical labor on farms in Denmark and Canada for decades without apparent bitterness at what many might consider her "fall" from high status.

At the very end of her life with no income and relatives around her, she accepted an invitation from Russian emigrees and spent her last months on a second-floor apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Toronto.

I have been going through some drastic changes in my life - rather unwillingly - and have spent a lot of time thinking about Olga and how she accepted things that happened.

Was she perfect? No, but I wonder if I could have lived her life with so much courage and acceptance.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

This is a wonderful book, written in direct cooperation with the Grand Duchess herself. Born into the purple as the daughter of a Tsar, Olga Alexandrovna ended her life as she had always sought to live it - simply, and with family. Her insights, and the author's, are a wonderful portal to an era of an almost-mythical past. Though this new edition has many errors, I think it's due to sloppy editing of computer scans. I hope that next time around, these errors will be fixed.

This is one of the finest books I have read from the Romanov treasury. I have a first edition copy that took me almost a year to find and it was worth the wait. Because of Mr. Vorres research and interview skills combined the the story telling of the Grand Duchess, I was unable to put it down. In fact, I am reading it for a second time. There is no better story than that from the one who lives it. Olga was a cut above the others in the Imperial family in that she was devoted to common folk. She is revered and respected for thinking outside the box. A woman ahead of her time and one that refused to abide by the norm. I wish I could have met her in the simplest of circumstances. I recommend this book to those who a truly interested in Romanov history. She does a great justice in defense of her family.

I'd like to thank Pat Mestern for writing the best book I've read in years. I purchased Magdalena's Song on a Sunday and am usually the type of reader that usually takes weeks to finish a book. I enjoyed this book so much I read it, cover to cover, in two days,closed the cover on Tuesday afternoon. What a wonderful book! I couldn't put it down.

I've never before been so caught up in the lives of a book's characters. From beginning to end "Magdalena's Song" kept me entertained, intrigued and totally immersed in the story. The book made me want to pay a visit the area in which the story took place - Ontario, Canada. I've placed "Magdalena's Song" on my list of purchases for Christmas presents for everyone on my list.

Magdalena's Song is well written.Its pages are inhabited by wonderful characters set in a village you won't soon forget. I couldn't put this book down until the last page was turned. A number of us in our reading group are still debating one burning question - but then you'll have to read it to find out what that question is.

Having never truly suffered, most Americans born in the post war years as I was can not really grasp the supreme tenacity of the human spirit. Nina's Journey opened my eyes to just how much suffering brings out the absolute best in some people, the demonic worst in others. Nina Markovna lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when "comrade-citizens" living in constant fear of nighttime purges commonly kept bundles of winter clothes ready year round in the event of imprisonment at short notice. Rampaging gangs of gulag orphans terrorize the towns, their status as children of enemies of the state condemning them to short brutal lives of homelessness and starvation. Nina records the arrival of the German Wehrmacht to Crimea in the early 1940's--instead of fighting them, the beleaguered citizens welcome them as liberators from their own cruel regime. When the Red Army gains the upper hand, Nina's family escapes to Germany as "guest workers" where at war's end, they must avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union at all costs. This book is filled with heart rending scenes of life lived at the ugly edges of endurance, where often the only thing between life and death is the intervention of a single good soul, whose refusal to give in to the hate of war is testimony to the power of love. This book gives witness to the fact that though one person might not be able to do everything, he can do something. And those small somethings saved not only lives, but souls.

This book is without a doubt the most breathtaking, exciting, epic, harrowing, (fill in the blank!) autobiography (or biography) I have ever read. I have loaned this out to at least five other people who have had the same reaction. Nina and her family had perhaps 30 adventures (within one great adventure) any of which would top the most memorable event in the average life today. Nina evades starvation, instant death, rape, murder, treachery, and more in the course of her late teenage years just before and during World War II. Her style of writing and convictions make you know that whatever she is writing about, no matter how unbelievable today, is completely true. Gone With The Wind is a trifle compared to her adventures.

Epic Scenes: Wandering through the river of Russian prisoners captured by the Germans and actually finding her father. Her successful plan to avoid rape by the Russian Army. Her mother's desperate trek to get to work on time in the ice storm or risk imprisonment. Her family's voulunteering for slave labor in Germany to raise their standard of living. The happy ending at the American air base. Scores more.

If this story were made into a movie, it would be the epic to end all epics. Since it tells what actually happened to her, it relates the good relations between the Russian people and the German Army relatively free of the SS influence in southern Russia. Compared to their life under Stalin, the German occupation of Odessa was a golden moment for the average Russian living there at that time--something that the populace paid for with their lives when the Red Army swept in again. By the time Nina loses her Jewish friends to the second, SS-led German invasion, genocide merges with the on-going sorrow of daily life of the Russian people as just something else to endure and survive.

Nina's Journey is filled with details little understood by Americans today, but what remains is an epic struggle by on Russian girl to survive the upheaval and strife of the late 30's and early 40's. I couldn't put it down.

I have never felt such emotion and drama while reading an autobiography . Nina's Journey should be read by every Amercan high school student as part of History class. I know that I am not the same person I was before I read this book. Never before has a story touched me so deeply and stayed with me like this one has.

"The Simple Sounds Of Freedom" by Thomas H. Taylor, Random House, New York 2002. The title of the book is derived from President Clinton's speech in France on the fiftieth anniversary of D Day.

This is a biography of Joe Beyrle but the book is also a record of praise for the 101st Airborne. Joe Beyrle, from Michigan, was part of the 101st Airborne when that division dropped into Normandy on D-Day, 1944. He was captured, escaped, capture again and shipped off to a German POW camp. After one escape, he is captured in Berlin, the capital city of the Third Reich; he is tortured by Gestapo. Joe is rescued from the Gestapo by the German Army, the Wehrmacht, of all people, who claim him as their prisoner. They were following bureaucratic procedures, a common trait in Nazi Germany. After regaining his strength, Joe Beyrle again escapes, and this time, he is close enough to reach the relative safety of Soviet lines. After identifying himself as an American, Joe decides to stay with the Soviet armored column in order to kill Germans. Thus, he fights on both the Western and Eastern fronts in Europe in 1944-1945, fulfilling the sub-title of the book, "...Only Soldier to Fight For Both America and the Soviet Union in World War II".

As a 101st Airborne combat veteran himself, the author was capable of an excellent job of bonding with Joe Beyrle, so as to produce an almost personal memoir direct from the Joe's memories. At times, it was difficult to distinguish between Beyrle and Taylor. At other times, particularly in Chapter Sixteen, entitled, "Bastogne", it was evident that it was all Thomas Taylor writing in praise of the division he loves, the 101st. From the viewpoint of a biography of Joe Beyrle, such chapters were unnecessary, but their presence rounds out the story and makes a better history of the time. By the way, the photo collection in the book shows Joe Beyrle aging in a remarkably similar fashion to the character of Private Ryan in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan".

I found the story of Joe Beyrle to be almost unbelieveable. How could one person go through so much. I was very anxious to read the book, because I once knew who he was from work. I worked at Brunswick Corporation in Muskegon, as did he. I knew that he was a prisoner of war, and that he had been reported killed in action. However, I didn't know that whole story until now. Many of the comments about Muskegon as familiar to me. Also, I once met his parents, as I am friends with his niece.

Thomas Taylor is an excellent writer. He knows how to make the story interesting, and provides much detail. Even though many of the incidents in the story are not pleasant, they are a part of history. He depicts World War II as brutal and horrible. Let us hope that it never happens again.

An amazing story! Joe Beyrle completely inspires me, never have i heard such an amazing tail based on such an extraordinary person. We should all be thankful that Joe is on our side.

This is a must read as it's the most satisfying book i've read in years. How Tom Taylor put this mans story in to words is beyond me.....very well done!

This book is another in the long line of books to come out of the former USSR after the clod war came to an "end". The author is relating his experiences in the arm of the KGB that was responsible for information gathering, primarily against the U.S. and NATO. If you have read a number of these books in the past there is not a great deal of new information in the book. There are some interesting bits and you get a good look that this authors insight to "the game". If you are an armchair expert on the topic then this is another of the titles you will undoubtedly already have or will need to pick up. If you are the general reader then this is a broad description of the subject, but not the definitive one volume work.

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In my profession I attended a number of C.I.A. classified briefings during the cold war years and became a close friend of at least one high profile Soviet defector. Kalugin's book rings absolutely true to what I and many others already knew with respect to the bumbling and decay of the entire Soviet socialist system. We could have given them all of our classified secrets and they would have found a way to screw it up.

Kalugin's book fleshed out the KGB skeleton as we understood it. He filled in the details. Written in an easy to read style, layman and professional alike will find it fascinating. It is not filled with the statistics, tables, graphs, and charts that many technical researchers are so fond of. Instead, The First Directorate reads like both a fascinating novel and a biography. It takes the reader through the gradual disillusionment of an avid believer in the Communist system to one who gradually began seeing it for what it really was.

Oleg Kalugin is a genuine hero of both the Soviet Union and its succeeding Russian Republic. He never defected and served both governments with distinction because he was a patriot first and a KGB officer and politician second. He wanted what was best for his country and his people and was for reform, not revolution.

This book shows the KGB for what it once was and how it degenerated into a bumbling state sponsored Mafia that in the end attempted to devour the state itself. At their worst the CIA and FBI could never have been as incompetent as the KGB. Kalugin shows how the KGB had a mixture of competent men with a sense of justice and others who were stupid cold hearted psychopaths. He relates how attempts at reform by the good agents were squashed by others in the system who were both corrupt and incompetent, and how they protected each other from prosecution.

"The First Directorate" presents specific cold war events as they were seen from the other side of the looking glass. Kalugin handled spies and defectors like Burgess and Walker. He noted that he had more respect for someone who turned against their country for idealistic reasons than one who betrayed their country for money.

Much, much, more could be said in praise of "The First Directorate." It isn't about Kalugin as much as it is an expose of the inherent weaknesses of Socialism and especially the KGB whose job it was to protect the Socialist form of government from internal corruption and external infiltration.

Kalugin clarifies many events that changed the world during the 70 years of the USSR's experiment with Communism. He could speak with authority because he was on a first name basis with the top players in both the KGB and the Soviet government.

This book should send chills up the spine of any American wanting to socialize the government and put big government in control of all aspects of our lives, from taxes that redistribute wealth, to control of our schools and businesses.

Buy "The First Directorate" and read it, and you won't be so hard on our guys.

Oleg, now a green-card resident of the U.S. is our most personable and enjoyable former opponent on the intelligence speaking circuit, and both Bill Colby and I supported him in his efforts to move permanently to America. His book is a marvelous account on the general details of his formidable career that culminated in his being elected to the Russian Parliament. Page 222, "Kill the dog!", has a special meaning for professionals the world over.

Bakhtin's "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics" remains an essential critical writing to understand the complex and eclectic critical imagery of Bakhtin. The plurality of consciousness within a novel (polyphony) together with the idea of simultaneity in the relationships among characters confine to this work an extremely contemporary view of what literary creation is like or must be conceived of.
Bakhtin's defense of the independency of the hero from the author stands not only as a strong critique to those critical trends which regard biographical information as the only source to fully capture the essence of a literary work, but also it enables a new kind of open criticism which embraces the role of the reader in the process of authoring a text, that is, providing the text with a meaning. Bakhtin's interest on physiology to capture the real insight of human perception and, hence, of human understanding of a literary work is, in my opinion, a great advance for the reader to become an undisputed element in the literary chain formed by the author, the text and the reader.
Bakhtin's work has rapidly become a cornerstone in the current flow of literary criticism and his "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics" stands as one of his finest achievements.

Bakhtin's critique of Dostoevsky's work has revealed so much more to me about the form of this great author's novels than I would have ever been able to understand for myself. What makes Bakhtin such a masterful theorist is his methodical approach to understanding an author's work discussing the historical influence of form and the critical misinterpretations that have preceded the work. He is so attentive to levels of narration that he is able to identify voices in relation to the author and the other characters. This helps to clarify the structure of the narrative and the many ways we can interpret it. Many people have marvelled at the brilliance of Doestoevsky's work but haven't been able to put their finger on why it is so great. Bahktin not only names the reason, but also gives an incredible amount of thorough evidence as to why this is so in a comprehensible way. The technical theory is easy to understand as he is very careful to define his terms and the reasons he uses them. His survey of the development of literary forms, particularly the carnavelesque is informed and inspiring, but be careful as it is slightly idealistic and, though perfectly relevant, you feel that he is assimilating it a little too easy to his critique of Doestoevsky. The narrative techniques he identifies are not only useful in understanding Doestoevskys work but are incredibly useful in thinking about current authors. This is a very important piece of critical work I have come back to again and again.

Bakhtin's seminal work owes a lot to thinkers like Nietzsche, buy by gum, does he stand on his own. The most brilliant exposition I've read on Dostoevsky (with Rozanov in second place) and perhaps the most perceptive and insightful comments on the literary process and theory this century.

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.

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.

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.