Bettie's Books

history, nonfiction, e-book, food-glorious-food, published-2013, teh-demon-booze, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, autumn-2013, lifestyles-deathstyles
Read from September 19 to 26, 2013

NetGalley: Steerforth Press, New Europe Books

From the blurb:

When the legendary Romulus killed his brother Remus and founded the city of Rome in 753 BCE, Plovdiv -- today the second-largest city in Bulgaria -- was already thousands of years old.

Now the stage is set for some interesting history.

Dedicated to my wife,
Magda,
For putting up with me,
and all the books.

The tone is light and accessible as shown by the opening: Section I: Wherein we take a look at some of Eastern Europe's key attributes today, and get a sense for the lay of the land, as it were. So put on your rubber gloves and snap 'em on tight; we're going in.

Nothing now will stop me diving in with affable Jankowski as guide...

Not 'brief' in terms of page count (500) yet under terms of the sweeping subject the strapline is correct, it is a brief introduction.

Joyously written with verve and panache, this is a primer of all thinks Eastern European, and that doesn't mean just Russia.*

Cram packed with photographs, maps, illustrations where my favourite is near the end, a map of Europe divided into beer, wine and vodka regions. I shall try out the recipes too.

Great fun, and I learnt a lot. However he beginning section on languages did get me down as it is not something I am that interested in, so it dropped a star.

* One reviewer has this on just one named shelf: Russia! And that is with all the maps imcluded tsk tsk

Cross-posted to aNobii, LibraryThing, BookLikes, Goodreads, NetGalley




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