I am extremely pleased to own a copy of Bulgarian Rhapsody. This is a wonderful book, that offers an in-depth perspective of many aspects of Bulgarian culture. Among the most valuable things about this book is the way it integrates delicious recipes and stories about Bulgaria. This is more than simply a cookbook and is a must-have for anyone even remotely interested in this small Balkan country. I promise you that after reading Ms. Forristal's book, you will fall in love with Bulgaria. This book helped me, a native Bulgarian, to rediscover certain aspects of my own culture! Thank you, Mother Linda!

"Mother Linda's Bulgarian Cooking BULGARIAN RHAPSODY" is among the very few cookbooks published in English about Bulgarian cuisine. The author, Linda Forristal, visited Bulgaria on several occasions since 1990. During her stays in Bulgaria she observed her friends cooking and collected many recipes. Majority of the recipes in the book are authentic Bulgarian (like "tikvenik", "lyuteniza," etc.). There are some recipes, which are imported from Western cuisine, but are favorites in every Bulgarian house (like "Garash cake"). In addition to common recipes, the book includes chapters on Bulgarian holiday cooking and Bulgarian-Jewish cooking. Thus, book represents pretty much the contemporary trends in the Bulgarian cuisine.

The book benefits very much from the rich and tastefully chosen illustrations and design. The reader will find in it fine color pictures of Bulgarian dishes, embroidery, national costumes, dances, architectural monuments.

Valuable additions to the book are Bulgarian proverbs, explanations of cooking techniques and customs which are inserted in appropriate places. Special place is devoted to such unique Bulgarian holidays as March 1st (day of the "Marteniza") and May 24 (the day of the Bulgarian culture). List of UNESCO supported historical and architectural monuments in Bulgaria could be found at the end of the book.

Linda Forristal's love to Bulgaria, its culture and people helped her create a unique book. It is much more than a cookbook: it is a book for Bulgarian style of life. I would rank it as one of the best books about Bulgaria and its cuisine published in recent years.

Until very recently I knew very little about the people of Bulgaria. Thus, I cannot draw on past experience or knowledge of Bulgaria in reviewing this book. However, after reading, and using, "Bulgarian Rhapsody: The Best of Balkan Cuisine", I feel better prepared to meet and understand the people of Bulgaria. This Autumn, I will have that opportunity, along with a mission team of 35 people.

In order to make our entire church feel a part of our "mission", the team sponsored a Bulgarian dinner. Seeing as no one had either been to Bulgaria nor ever sampled Bulgarian cuisine prior to this endeavor, we were all a bit nervous. I supplied recipes from Linda J. Forristal's book to about 15 people. Combined, we prepared nearly half of the recipes from the book and had the most incredible "spread" you could imagine!

The recipes are generally simple, and entirely delicious, and most require foods found regularly at most grocery stores (even in a secluded town of 17,000). We were pleasantly surprised that our mid-western USA tastebuds rejoiced so fully in these "new" foods. We all agreed that although we each had our favorites, there was nothing we didn't enjoy!

It is important to note that the author herself acknowledges a lack of use of certain widespread Bulgarian ingredients, in the recipes she has adapted. Food stuffs such as organs and even lamb, are not to be found in this book. For me, that is fine. For complete authenticity, however, those ommissions must be noted.

I understand that duplicating Bulgarian recipes is not an easy task, but according to a young woman I recently met, this book comes pretty darn close! This woman has recently returned from 6 years in Bulgaria. She told me that she, too, had this book, "Bulgarian Rhapsody..." and that she cried when she first saw the recipes for foods she had fallen "in love" with!

The recipes, as well as the sprinkling of folklore, culture, and history, make this book a definite countertop mainstay in my kitchen!

This book terrified me in its magnification of horrors and atrocities suffered by those in the Communist gulag. What evil was perpetrated on millions of innocent lives during this time. Read this book and you will never forget the gruesome images, the agonizing despair felt by the inmates of these bloody camps. Anyone who thinks that Communism and Socialism are beautiful ideologies should read the accounts of those who lived under such glorious regimes as Stalin and Hitler!

This book contains the first hand accounts of many of the people involved in the work camps of Belene and Lovech. Belene is an island located on the Danube where one of the first work camps began. It still functions as a prison today. Lovech was started when 160 men went on hunger strike in Belene. Many of the prisoners were tortured and beaten to death. After death, their bodies were fed to pigs.

The horrific first hand accounts contained in this work documents not only the victims but also their families and the directors and guards at the camp (almost all of which are still deny their involvement and none of which have been brought to justice)

What is most disturbing is not so much that something similiar to the Nazi camps occured in Bulgaria but the fact that noone has had to pay for what they did. This book serves notice to the world that not only did atrocities such as this occur after WWII but that they are still occcuring in Vietnam and other places and will continue to occur as long as we allow it.

The only real deficiency in this book is that it doesn't have any accounts from any gypsies or Turks who undoubtly recieved worse treatment at the hands of the Bulgarian communist party. Also many of the accounts were right after the fall of communism. Having personally talked with some former inmates of Belene and Lovech I cannot help to think that many were still scared to speak out and that many equally horrible events remain uncovered. As one inmate put it "Even now there are very few people willing to talk about their experiences in the campss. They're still afraid! I am too. Yes I'm afraid, but my sons are now grown up and can fend for themselves. So why should I be afraid? Because the gun is still loaded in the hands of old men who won't hesitate to fire. Thus it was and still is in Bulgaria.

Todorov's book is a great read for both students of East European history and political violence. The book is a careful compilation and editing of recently published memoirs and TV documentaries that reveal the brutality of the Communist concentration camps. The book catalogues the senseless suffering of many of the victims of Communism, not because they were dissidents, but because they knew a Western language or liked rock and roll. Todorov also gives us the views of the prison guards and party functionaries and carefully details their duplicity and self-justification. Overall, it is a powerful book that fills an important gap in our knowledge about gulags in other countries besides the ex-USSR as well as reminds us of the brutality of the Communist system.

I'm an anthropology student at Hunter College in New York. Professor Creed teaches here, and this semester I took his "Families and Households in Anthropology" Class. He's an amazing professor, and I look forward to reading this book. If his class reflects anything in the book, I am sure it will be great!

Once you get by some of the academic gobbledygook, this book delivers great insight into the challenges of a Bulgarian village making the economic transition. Creed has obviously 'lived the life' there, as opposed to just parachuting in for a couple weeks. I lived there too and can attest to the veracity of his observations. This is about the best book I can think of for anyone who wants to really know about the people and lifestyle of Bulgaria over the last 40 years.

This book has it all--romance, deception, action, and an exotic setting. What more could a girl ask for? The setting is Sofia, Bulgaria, a place that I knew little about before picking of Ward's novel. I like to read books that have a definite sense of place, that can teach me something new while entertaining me at the same time, and Ward's book is just that kind of book. You'll be swept up into the rocky marriage of Ethan and June, while also learning about Eastern European politics despite yourself. Ward's prose is savvy and fast-paced. I highly recommend!

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. I felt like I was with June when she started this journey, and I felt like I grew and changed with her. Annie Ward has the uncanny ability to express feelings through writing that we all have but can't put into words.

Rice makes reading an ethnography a pleasure. All ethnomusicologists seeking to undertake their own writing project ought to read this book first. His accounts about studying with Kostadin make you feel like you were there learning the gaida, too. Rice's model makes a good case for learning an instrument while conducting fieldwork. Particulary insightful is the author's interpretation of the emic/etic distinction as it relates to the ethnomusicologist.

If you have the slightest interest in music, Eastern Europe in transition, and intellectual thought, then you owe it to yourself to read this book. Proper obeisance is made to the academic gods - Ricoeur, Clifford, Bourdieu, Geertz, Gadamer and the rest - and the references are sincere and thoughtful. But most of all you will be enthralled by Rice's personal account of his discovery of Bulgarian music, and of the lives of a wonderful couple who perform that music and became not just his 'informants' but his friends, indeed his family. The book is personal, revelatory, and stimulating. If only all musical scholarship were this good!

This is the first book that captures the unique culture of Thrace through extensive photographs of ancient treasures from museums throughout Bulgaria. I am happy to see that all photographs are accompanied with captions providing a wealth of information about the objects as well as info in which museums they can be seen. The preface details the history, culture, and religion of Thrace, and it's filled with fascinating facts. It gives you deeper understanding of the political and cultural complexity of the ancient world and the relationships among Thracians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, etc. There is a timetable at the end that conviniently displays the various periods in the development of Thrace parallel to famous world events.

Needless to say, the book is a must for everybody interested in ancient history. It also makes a great coffee table book, unique and fascinating like Thrace itself.

LOVED THIS BOOK , EASY TO READ AND VERY INFORMATIVE , INTERESTING AND APPEALING FOR KIDS AND ADULTS TOO, IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GENERAL BOOK ABOUT BULGARIA AND CAN ONLY BUY ONE , MAKE IT THIS ONE . IT IS NOT A GUIDE BOOK HOWEVER , ( FODORS OR THE ROUGH GUIDE ARE GREAT FOR THAT) JUST A VERY WELL WRITTEN BOOK ABOUT THIS BEAUTIFUL LAND AND ITS' PEOPLE. I AM ADOPTING FROM BULGARIA AND WAS LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK FOR MY SON , THIS IS IT .

John D. Bell provides perhaps the best account of the history of the Bulgarian Communist Party available in English. Together with Richard Crampton's history of Bulgaria, it is also the best scholarly source of more general Bulgarian history in the 20th century. A must for anyone studying Bulgaria. The book uses interviews of dissidents who fled Bulgaria during the years of communist domination to supplement available archival sources. The result is a magnificently documented narrative that brings to light some controversial and unclear episodes in the history of Bulgarian communism. The book demonstrates, for example, that Zhivkov's power was not unchallenged and that internal dissent, even if it came from the Party or the armed forces, existed even here, in the country widely considered to have been the closest Soviet ally and follower. The book also demonstrates the reciprocity of alliance politics within the Soviet bloc. Challenging the existing convention, John Bell demonstrates that relations within the Warsaw pact were not unidirectional. The Soviet Union responded to various interests of the Bulgarian leadership and often helped their advancement. In addition, the book is thoroughly readable and, provides impartial insight into the almost century-old history of the Bulgarian labor movement and its political organizations.

This is by far the best traslation of the bible available in Bulgarian. The only problem is that it is in old Bulgarian and even some Bulgars have problems with it. It uses a couple of letters no longer used in Bulgaria but after you learn these it is really rather simple. Assuming of course that you already speak Bulgarian. This is also the bible approved by the American Bible society and used by most protestant religions. It is not the bible used by the Bulgarian Orthodox church.

I read this book and couldn't put it down, nor could I get the images out of my head. Some of the details are horrific and the atrocities that this man suffered for his faith in Christ are terrifying. What is more amazing is how he found the courage to endure when most mortals would have given up altogether. I have always been encouraged and inspired when reading books like this, a testimony to the power of God in a life given over in humble obedience to Him. A beautiful, triumphant little book!

I read this book many years ago, and in the midst of moving I lost it and have been trying to find another copy for a long time. What I remember most is what Mr. Popoff went through in his daily life without a Bible, and what we take for granted everyday with Bibles in our homes and not being read. Only but through the Grace of God and Mr. Popoff's strong Faith could he have survived the torment he had to endure.
I promise your life will be richly blessed after reading this book. . You will be counting your blessings everyday.

This book exemplifies the requisition for Christians to submit completely and without reservation to Jesus Christ. Popov was blessed with physical manifestations of Jesus during his darkest hour. His experiences after 13 consecutive years of torture, fear and starvation enabled him to proclaim this period of his life as an experience he would not trade, and without hesitation, to declare it was all worth it. To walk out of the Bulgarian Communist prison system after 13 years, recounting the countless men who came to Christ and went on to be with the Lord, Popov has said it was indeed worth every moment of suffering he was priviledged to endure. This is truly a special man and a wonderful book to read again and again.