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Rating: 
Summary: Poor reporting, disorganized and disjointed
Review: I am very disappointed in Cidylo's account of her life in Moscow. From the beginning of the book, she does not adequately explain who she is and why she chose to travel to Moscow and why she stayed. After all, if she is Ukrainian and wanted to get to her roots, why didn't she go to Ukraine? The reader is left without an understanding of the author which makes it difficult to trust the author's exploits in Moscow. In addition, for a reporter, Cidylo's writing style is almost unreadable. The chapters titles do not accurately reflect what is in the chapters, and if you can get past that you have to try to follow the writing as Cidylo skips from 1992 to 1997 and then back again. Her stories make no sense and do not do justice to life in Russia. The friends she writes about should be offended. We never get to know who they are, they just pop in and out of Cidylo's random stream of thought. I kept thinking the book would improve, but it did not. I do not recommend this book at all!
Rating: 
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Review: I found this book at the local library and decided that it was worth the read, and it was. Lori brings to life true everyday occurances in modern-day Moscow. They are as she sees them, but a little too observatory for my tastes as I prefer to see through the eyes of my writers. Still, it was a good book and I think that any non-Russian living in Moscow can identify with its humorous, yet at the same time depressing, events of the life. (And yes, all of the clean ones ARE married).
Rating: 
Summary: Go out and buy this book!
Review: I love this book. I bought it on a Friday evening and literally "devoured" it over the weekend. I just couldn't put it down. It has a little bit of everything. Many of the stories (especially the one about the washing machine) are hilarious. I often found myself laughing out loud. There are also some stories that are very moving, and I found myself thinking about them long after I put the book down. If you're looking for a great book, this is IT!
Rating:
Summary: Go out and buy this book!
Review: I love this book. I bought it on a Friday evening and literally "devoured" it over the weekend. I just couldn't put it down. It has a little bit of everything. Many of the stories (especially the one about the washing machine) are hilarious. I often found myself laughing out loud. There are also some stories that are very moving, and I found myself thinking about them long after I put the book down. If you're looking for a great book, this is IT!
Rating:
Summary: Fun, informative and respectful.
Review: I started this book on a trip back from Paris to New York. I was supposed to sleep, but unfortunately (or fortunately) I started to read Lori Cidylo's wonderful account of the time she spent in Moscow.
Her book is respectful, yet lots of fun and informative. I wish I had the courage, time and age to spend five years like this myself, but thank God a writer like Ms. Cidylo made the trip for me. At $... and about seven hours reading time, it is a bargin!
Rating:
Summary: A Dose of Russian Reality
Review: Living in Russia is scary. By the end of every book I read about Russia, I am relieved that I don't live there. No matter how upbeat and positive the authors are, and they are all pretty optimistic, they come back home having had a huge dose of Russian reality.
Lori Cidylo is fantastically optimistic. Even though her Ukrainian parents try to tell her that Russia is no place for her, she takes her college degrees in Russian and journalism and goes to Moscow to freelance. To freelance! She gets a job at a U.S. newpaper bureau there and begins to settle in.
Nothing is easy. Finding an apartment when there are no rental listings or yellow pages is a challenge. Buying a clothes washer is a major project. Finding someone to reupholster her garish sofa is a wild goose chase. She even has to iron her dollar bills (American currency is accepted for many transactions) because no one will accept them unless they are clean and unwrinkled. And don't get her started on the problems with dating Russian men.
But all that seems trivial compared to being in Moscow during the showdown between Yeltsin and his rebellious Parliament. Cidylo dodged tanks, snipers, and thugs to get her story. Everyday life in Moscow had trained her well for being a reporter in a war zone. Having survived traffic that jumped sidewalks without regard for pedestrians and hooligans who fired automatic weapons at random, Muscovites (and Cidylo) went about their business despite the revolution, because it might go on for months, after all.
Cidylo's writing style is smooth and easy to read. Her training as a reporter is apparent. The prose is spare and free of unnecessary description. Five stars!
Rating:
Summary: An amusing and good read
Review: The book isn't perfect, but it doesn't need to be. It tells about the foibles that the author ran into during her time in Moscow. Rather than attempting to explain everything, she focuses in on some things that occured and tells those stories. Her writing is very easy to read and follow, making the book fairly hard to put down. (I ended reading it over an 8 hour period, taking a lunch and Snood break in the middle.)I'm sure I'll re-read this book for the sheer entertainment value...
Rating:
Summary: An amusing and good read
Review: The book isn't perfect, but it doesn't need to be. It tells about the foibles that the author ran into during her time in Moscow. Rather than attempting to explain everything, she focuses in on some things that occured and tells those stories. Her writing is very easy to read and follow, making the book fairly hard to put down. (I ended reading it over an 8 hour period, taking a lunch and Snood break in the middle.) I'm sure I'll re-read this book for the sheer entertainment value...
Rating:
Summary: 00301
Review: While this book is ostensibly about Cidylo's dating travails in post Communist Russia, it also provides a valuable insight into life in Russia during this time. Cidylo was very brave in undertaking this trip. Depressing as her living conditions frequently were, she managed to see the humor in most situations. Her account is informative, humorous and her breezy style is very engaging. Perfect bedtime or beach reading!
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