books about: russians

books about: russians

books:

Russians

Mikhail Bulgakov

Vintage, 1996

The Master and Margarita (Review)
Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita provides a scathing social commentary on life in Russia during Stalinism. This Gnostic work taking place in the 1930s serves as an excellent new historical look on life under Socialism. Bulgakov's masterpiece, which was ...

The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks)

Nicholas J. Brown

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1996

Best foreign language learner's book, bar none
I have studied on my own at various levels of seriousness 6 languages in my life, (some to the extent of becoming fully fluent, some becoming basically conversational, and some starting and giving up out of disinterest or dislike for the language in general) and amid ...

I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You

Bill Green, Ben Peskoe, ...

Bloomsbury USA, 2007

all the lebowski you can eat, man
all I have to say is, they track down the origin of the whole film. Little Larry's homework.

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

Knopf, 2007

Only imposing in length.
I found my way to Tolstoy circumvently by way of other Russian authors. It seems all roads lead to the count one way or another when it comes to Russian literature. Certainly in my youth the expression, "It isn't 'War and Peace'!" was a sarcastic and thoughtless ...

Crime and Punishment (Signet Classics)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Signet Classics, 2006

A Hard Read
This book is excellent but readers should take the time to read the Translator's Preface before jumping in. This will help to understand the names of the characters and other nuances that apply to a book translated from another language. The book is about redemption. ...

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Vintage, 1993

Crime and Punishment
What can I say that hasn't been said already? This is probably the best fictional study of the effects of guilt and radical ideas on a troubled mind. The prose is flowing, and it's not hard to see why Dostoevsky considered his novels "poems". Dostoevsky's works in ...

Crime and Punishment (Enriched Classics)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Pocket, 2004

A great novel
This is, of course, one of the great novels of all time. Fyodor Dostoyevsky created a number of truly wonderful works over time, such as "The Brothers Karamazov," "The Gambler," and "The Devils" (or "The Possessed"). The "Translator's Introduction" to "Crime and ...

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002

Best Transaltion!
I've read The Brothers Karamazov in an least four translations now, and this is an absolutely delicious translation, the very best. Pevear and Volokhonsky bring great, suggestive depth, and great subtlety to the English text of this very great Russian novel.

Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club)

Leo Tolstoy

Penguin Classics, 2004

Big and beautiful...
Anna Karenina is probably the most detailed work on relationships, families, society, and spirituality ever written... It is detailed to the point of being its own universe - and one that moves with the consistency of a fine tuned machine. One can only approach such a ...

City of Thieves: A Novel

David Benioff

Viking Adult, 2008

I love this book
I just finished the book today and I have to say it's one of the best novels I've read in years. After reading a review in Entertainment Weekly, I decided to give it a try, and I was blown away. I was a fan of the movie "25th Hour," based on Benioff's novel, but had ...

Notes From Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Signet Classics, 2004

Move over Freud
As I was reading Part I, I thought I ought to burn the book to save myself, or possibly end up throwing myself out the window as the underground man longed to be trashed. For 34 pages he went on and on and on about the hideousness of human nature and existence. No ...

Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love

Lara Vapnyar

Pantheon, 2008

Elegant Gems
Ms.Vapnyar has created here six elegant gems which cover the hopes, dreams and disappointments in the Russian emigree community. However, despite this focus on the Russian community in America these stories are universal, which is what makes them most memorable. The ...

Twilight Watch

Sergei Lukyanenko

Miramax, 2007

Twilight Watch
This is an excellently written book, and the Russian/English Translator has done a great job with it. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a great book to read. My wife, ReynaVoop turned me on to this series, and as always, she was right about this book.

The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800

Jay Winik

Harper, 2007

A stunning history book!
The Great Upheaval is a book that's not just a history book, but also a book that makes for great reading. The author pays equal emphais, I think, to rendering an accurate and detailed historical accounting of the last part of the 18th century as well as providing us ...

Doctor Zhivago

Boris Pasternak

Pantheon, 1997

Pasternak v. Reader, Round II
My first reading of Dr. Zhivago was in high school. At 15, the book was a chore. Impenetrable and numerous Russian names (often for the same character) and endless description of the Russian landscape left me exhausted and unimpressed. After rereading and enjoying a ...