Compliments
Two new paperbacks we have IN STOCK, would make a great pair to read back to back, or simultaneously.
In western Georgia, [Stalin] traveled with fishing-rods and tackle, and when arrested by the local police he convinced them he was just fishing.
-Young Stalin, Simon Sebag Montefiore (Vintage, $16.95)
Those who felt joy at Stalin’s death were mostly too cautious to show it in public. Any sign of pleasure had to be concealed. Zinaida Belikova, a factory worker in Krasnodar, recalls that many of the town’s intelligentsia, doctors, 
teachers, even Party officials, found it hard to hide their excitement when Stalin died. ‘The mourning ceremonies in Krasnodar were more like a holiday. They put on a mournful face, but there was a sparkle in their eyes…
-The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia, Orlando Figes (Picador, $20)
