ReaderÃs Picks: Popular Holiday Books
With the addition of an Amazon.com search box on the right side of our page, the amount and range of Balkan-interest goods purchased through us keeps on growing. While the onset of the holiday shopping season here will mostly be marked by readers seeking intriguing Balkan book gift ideas, we certainly wouldn’t want to stop them from throwing in the cart little items like the $350 JVC Digital Camcorder – as one reader recently did. Thanks!Through their recent purchases, readers continue to recommend mostly Balkan-related publications. Books picked up lately included Noel Malcolm’s Kosovo: A Short History as well as the more academic Greece and the Balkans: Identities, Perceptions and Cultural Encounters Since the Enlightenment.
Steady as usual was Scott Taylor, whose Inat : Images of Serbia and the Kosovo Conflict and Diary of an Uncivil War about the Macedonian conflict of 2001 were both picked up by readers.
Most interest, once again, was detected with Edward J. Erickson’s Defeat in Detail : The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913, a very detailed academic study of late Ottoman military strategy and the Balkan wars. In fact, due to the continuing demand for this book, we are pleased to announce that an official Balkanalysis.com review will be executed in the near future.
As always, there were the unusual picks, such as the highly entertaining counterpart to sitting down with some red wine, tagliatelli and the Sopranos, the informative Mafia Encyclopedia.
Here are some other suggestions:
Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives and the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia
This book and accompanying CD chronicles the lives, music and traditions of Greece’s neglected Roma minority, and has made a deep impression on readers being made aware of them for the first time.
The Mission: CIA in the Balkans
A short novel about a Bulgarian in the Cold War who escapes into Greece, only to be trained by the CIA and sent back to spy on the Commies-. However, the protagonist “…voluntarily surrenders to the Bulgarian Intelligence Service and agrees to become a double agent, a decision that exposes him to violence and the risk of death, and one that changes his life forever.”
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia
Rebecca West’s intimate account of a long-lost time in the Balkans remains a classic today.
Tired of ham and roast beef? Add some spice to traditional holiday cooking with a bit of Balkan flair with The Balkan Cookbook: Traditional Cooking from Romania, Bulgaria and the Balkan Countries.
Finally, it’s a little east of the usual neighborhood, but events in the Ukraine of late have increased many people’s interest in this enormous country whose girls “really knocked out” Paul McCartney back in the day. So get to know something of its past in York University Orest Subtelny’s Ukraine: A History. Or, if you’d like to brave the orange-clad masses and head there yourself, bring along the Lonely Planet guide (also covering Belarus and Russia).
For more popular choices also see “readers’ choice” summaries from previous months:
Most Popular Books September 2004
Also, please look at December 2003’s important notice to the readers of the book reviews section.
Thanks,
the Balkanalysis.com Team