Russian Life Magazine

This bimonthly magazine published in US,English is one of the rare magazined devoted completely to Russia.I subscribed by the end of 2007 and just received my first issue for Jan-Feb 2008 so nothing much to say.But the first issue seems nice.Price is $38 for 1 year.
The web site is http://www.russianlife.com/.

Edit: Now I finished the first issue, it was a nice reading with interesting stories such as stories of adopted Russian children

Book Review: Olasiliksiz

Title: Olasiliksiz
Writer: Adam Fawer
Year: 2007
Pages: 475

Weird book...strange topic

Book Review: Elde Var Moskova

Title: Elde Var Moskova
Writer: Suat Taspinar
Year: 2004
Pages: 112

I bought this smalle sized book of Suat Taspinar from Pandora online book store without seeing its contents. I read the book but i always got the feeling 'where did i read this before'?
I guess the contents of this book is published on turkrus.com or the author's other book.

Book Review: Mavi Evdekiler

Title: Mavi Evdekiler Frida,Stalin ve Trocki'nin Romani
Writer: Maeghan Delahunt
Year: 2003
Pages: 370

This is a very interesting book,not just in terms of its story but in terms of the way how the story is told. In fact I can not clearly say that the books is a story on x.At some point you find your self as Trocki between your wife Natali and lover Frida Kahlo.At some point you are Stalin feeling anger for Trocki.At some point you are Nadejda Allilueva(Stalin's second wife) considering suicide.At some point you are Svetlana Allilueva(Stalin's sister) observing your father's death.
I bought the book from Kitap Yurdu, online book seller.

I ordered Svetlana Allilueva'nin mektuplari from gittigidiyor.com and I guess it is a Turkish translation of Twenty Letter's to a friend.I wonder how it will be.

Few words on Bucharest

Bucharest, the capital city of a European Union member state, Romania. Nothing much to mention about, it is a small city.City is still covered with the dust and gray shared of communist regime.There are nice and historic buildings but all in bad conditions.All the exreriors are dirty and gray.



This year they host the largest christmast tree of Europe in the Unirea Square. Also a statue of Ataturk is present in one of the squares.

More Moscow Clubs

I have written reviews about Moscow clubs in the previous blog entries but after my visit to Bucharest I realised and remembered how great the nightlife was in Moscow so decided to add more club revies.

Club XIII: Class place with strict face control.The club is localed in a nice bouilding.Nice music, nice athmosphere.
Zona: This 4floored club hs 2 entrances with one 300RUB fee and other called VIP entrance where you pay 600RUB and get a ticket valid for the VIP floor inside.Difference concept and music on all floors,the 3rd floor is a chill out cafe and to access 4th floor you need to go on the VIP lift where you need to show your VIP ticket.
Opera: I did not like the music but the place was big and people were nice.
Bourgeois Cafe: This nice cafe turns to a club after 12 on Friday and Saturdays.
Aero-Cafe : Small place with nice music.

Bucharest Nightlife

On my first weekend at Bucharest I had a chance to visit a few Bucharest clubs.Generally Bucharest clubs can not be compared to the ones in Moscow,in terms of fun,people,quality....
As far as I can see there is no face control in the clubs which is a bad thing....
God bless Moscow! Below I give little info about each club i visited and the prices.Note that 1USD~2.4LEI,or you can think like 1LEI=0.5YTL

Twice: I have been here on a Wednesday night, there were few people and nearly no one was dancnig,music was not bad.This is a cheap club with 5LEI entrance fee and you pay 8 LEI for whisky-redbull.
Club-A: The worst club i have ever ever seen.The place was soo small but they let everyone who as willing to pay 5LEI cover inside.The place was extemely overcrowed and you could not even move!.Everywhere was full of smoke.I could only stay there one hour and left.
Bamboo: After I left Club-A,I jumped to a taxi and asked for The Office club but the driver suggested that Bamboo was better,and he was right.Bambook at least look like the ones in Moscow.Place was big and classy, people looked nicer than the ones in the two other clubs that i mentioned above.The dancers were good.People were having fun...Nice place, bit expensive,30LEI cover and whisky-redbull is 35LEI.
The Office: Nice place,nice music,not bad.But one can not compare to a club in Moscow.20LEI enrance fee and you pay 30LEI for whisky-redbull.
Downtown: Dancers are good,50LEI for cover but you get a ticket which buys you 50LIE drink from the bar.Nice music.

Book Review: Kirmizi Bisiklet

Title: Kizmizi Bisiklet
Writer: Can Dundar
Year: 2005
Pages: 200

This book,full of emotions,is consisted of articles from Can Dundar about being a father,his relationships with this father and his relationships with his son was a father, his thoughts and worried about rising his son and his future.Nice to read,short book.
The Ideefixe link to the book is here.

My recent experiences with online booksellers

Ideefixe used to be my first stop when I deciced to buy a book or search for a topic, recently I had problems finding books that I wanted on that site, so I experienced a few.Here are my first impressions

Ilke Kitap: I was looking for Ahmet Sel's Moskova Insanlari photograph book and none of the other online sellers had this book in their stocks, i saw the book listed on that site and i decided to email them whether to place an order or not.They replied very quicky stating that the book is available and order can be submitted.Great! I placed the order on Friday afternoon and I had the book on Tuesday morning,very fast service. http://www.ilkekitap.com

Pandora: I had similar experience with Pandora,I was looking for Elde var Moskova by Suat Taspinar,another book out of stock from all retailers. The book was listed as available but it was missing in the Beyoglu shop's online stock inquiry so I emailed them also.In one week I got an email message sayin "We supplied the book you are asking,you can not order it".I emailed back that I wanted to buy the book from Bogazici shop and they replied we are sending the book to Bogazici branch,you can gather from the shop in 3 hours.Great service.! Thanks to pandora. http://www.pandora.com.tr

Kitap Yurdu: I placed an order for 3 books and a VCD, all were listed as available and estimated suppy period was listed as 4 days.I submitted the order on Tuesday and when I checked my order on next Monday the status of all items were:Supplied but status of my order was pending for shipment.I emailed them and asked why my order is not shipped for 6 days.One day later they replied that my order is 'Ready to be shipped' and only Wednesday I got my books,so it took 8 days not 4 for the order to be arrived. http://www.kitapyurdu.com

Conclusion: After the great customer satisfaction that Pandora provided,they are my first destinaton for books from now on.I will also consider IlkeKitap if I can not find what I am looking for at Pandora.

5th time in Moscow

At last,on my 5th visit to Moscow, I had a chance to visit Kremlin.