And so I finished yesterday the original version of Justin Petrone's
When to Estonian reader "My Estonia..." is a nice journey to recent past and joy of recognition (main events in the book take place in the year of 2003), then a foreigner finds here most of Estonia's history. Mentioned are wars, deportations, the occupation's years and much more. Description of the events is realistic and deep.
One of the humorous part of the book introduces Estonian cuisine and Estonians eating-habits. It looks like the author becomes quite familiar to pelmeenid, meat dumplings from Russian cuisine, in the end (I wonder, if it's only for their easy and quick way of preparing?)?
I share only a part of this book and story / stories here. Those who became interested can read the rest of the events and emotions themselves already. You can now subscribe for your copy of "My Estonia..." on both American and UK's Amazon.com. But the book is also available for Amazon.com's customers in Germany, France and Japan, and to all Barnes & Noble bookstore clients (Just remember these copies don't include the 6 pages of Photo Gallery. This Extra is only added to Estonian and English version published in Estonia).
Once you've read "My Estonia..." you also may want to know how it was written. Justin Petrone a.k.a. blogger Giustino writes about the process in his blog Itching for Eestimaa.
Palju tänu Justin Petrone'le suurepärase ja kaasahaarava raamatu eest. / Many thanks to Justin Petrone for a great and gripping book. Like many others I'm looking forward to the Part 2 hopefully published next fall.
P.S. Update of Aug 5th, 2010:
I recently learnt pelmeenid actually are from Udmurtian cuisine. So, actually it's one Finno-Ugric food. :-)
7 comments:
Thank you for the book review - I checked at Amazon (on Dec. 10, 2009), and it says the book will ship in 1 to 2 months. I think I might order it. I really enjoyed Douglas Wells' book - "In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment: Destination: Estonia". I read Douglas Wells' book twice! I hope to get to Estonia in the next few years for a visit. I've never been there - my parents are from Estonia. It's very interesting to read about what life is like there. I was born and raised in the USA, but I grew up with blood sausage, sült and other Estonian cuisine in the house, especially at holiday times!
Thank you for you comment, Ohio_AT. "My Estonia..." draws you quite realistic picture of Estonians everyday life and life in nowadays Estonia. So, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book, too. The shipping problem is something to ask people at Amazon or publishers over here. If I notice some info about the shipping period, I'll leave a comment or longer note here (My guess is that maybe the book copies come from Estonia).
Have a peaceful Advent time,
Gerly
To Ohio_AT again:
I was in contact with Epp Petrone, the starter of Petrone Print and Justin Petrone's wife, this weekend. She told me the book is now on Standard Shipping there in US(ships in 2 to 3 weeks) and also explained me the printing method people at Amazon use for it - it's called The Espresso Book Machine http://bit.ly/jPR8n. Me and Epp Petrone also hope some of you will find time to write a small review to Amazon and a comment here after reading J. Petrone's "My Estonia..."
Thank you.
Hope I was a help.
Gerly
I just now ordered the book (Dec. 18th 2009), and now Amazon says it is in stock! I will let you know how long it takes to arrive.
Happy reading soon then. :-)
Enjoy!
Gerly
Yay! The book arrived in the mail today - just 4 days after I ordered it! I'll start reading it soon.
Great blog indeed!
Best wishes from an Italian who... tried to write a blog in Estonian too :)
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