Reviews (13)

First Time Traveler to Lithuania September 2005
I found the Lonely Planet Estonia Latvia & Lithuania book very helpful on my first trip to Lithuania. Six women traveling, we felt very safe, the maps were well written and made our daily planning easy. Time distances on the bus were accurate. Information on customs made us feel more at ease. We looked for relatives because my grandmother left Lithuania 100 years ago and found them. A bus trip to the city she was from, visiting the Tourist Information Center(as was listed in the book), an English speaking person in the office and we asked for a phone book which listed two phone numbers with my grandmother's last name. Wow, thank you Lonely Planet.

Useful, but needs some work
As usual, Lonely Planet guides give the most detailed information on the "nuts and bolts" of travel (bus and train instructions, locations and practicalities.) We found this particularly useful in a region where we did not share a common language with the people.
Comprehensive and Concise
The authors managed to stuff everything you need to know in a relatively small book. I have been in the Baltics three times and know Latvia quite well, but this book will enrich my next trip (the relatives and locals can only do so much).Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Former Soviet Republics    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel Guides    6. Estonia    7. Latvia    8. Lithuania    9. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (2)

Excellent Lithuania Travel Reference
This is really the only complete travel book on Lithuania available. Complete coverage of the whole country. I especially liked the History chapter and the Further Reading Appendix. I always like to read up on the history of where I'm going and this book is an outstanding resource. The Where to Stay sections were large and useful.
Best available guide to the country (at the time of review)
Make no mistake, I am no devoted fan of Bradt guides. I have read my share of shoddy, poorly edited, lazily researched and prejudiced Bradt guides. So I approached this book with a very healthy dose of scepticism.Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Lithuania    6. Travel & holiday guides    7. Travel / Europe / Eastern   

Reviews (2)

Correction
Number of Estonians is 68 percent, not 65 percent. Go pick up a Lonely Planet book instead!

Well written guide, but needs more details
The Rough Guides are usually written in a colorful, well-researched manner that makes them a joy to have along in order to learn about the places you are visiting while exploring the area, and this book delivers along those lines.Also true to Rough Guide form, however, the book lacks important details regarding transportation: how many buses, how often, where to buy tickets, best routes, etc.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Estonia    5. Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)    6. Latvia    7. Lithuania    8. Travel & holiday guides    9. Travel / Europe / Eastern   

Reviews (6)

A welcome eye-witness testimony
Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale From Lithuania To Jerusalem is the autobiographical story of Solly Ganor, a man who survived the unspeakable holocaust of the Second World War when he was 13 years old through the intervention and rescue of a Japanese American soldier in 1945 (who himself had been releases from a U.S. internment camp for Japanese Americans just a few months earlier. Light One Candle is a powerful and vividly told memoir of struggle, starvation, and the brutal tolls of concentration and extermination camps. Light One Candle is a welcome eye-witness testimony and a very highly recommended addition to personal reading lists as well as academic and community library Holocaust Studies reference collections.

a well written thought provoking account
i have read well over two hundred memoirs.This is worth crying over (not that other ones aren't also) and listening to very carefully.without sentimentality - without profession of feelings that may or may not have been felt but remembered...solly ganor brings the reader inside his mind and heart.

The best personal account of the Holocaust I've read.
In LIGHT ONE CANDLE, Solly Ganor takes the reader into that nightmare world of the Holocaust--I could practically feel the harsh elements, the constant danger of the camps.This book isn't anther rote recitation ofdeath counts.There's so much heart and compassion for all those sweptupin these horrors.The insights into camp life include the primal nature oflife stripped to itsbasics--such as the "storyteller" who keepsthe outside world and traditions alive.Particularly poignant is Cooky,Ganor's childhood friend whose account of the slaughter at the Ninth Fortis more compelling than Dante's own descent into Hell.Ipersonally feelGanor's book is deserving of some national/international award.Actually,reading the book I wonder how Ganor got it all done.It must have been sopainful to revisit these terrible, incomprehensible, sublime, poignantmemories.To me it's the best book on the Holocaust, personal orotherwise--certainly it should be a companion to any serious study of thissubject.To me it hits at the heart, gets into the soul.It's thehumanity of the account,particularly those heart-rending final glimpses ofthe condemned trying to smile as they wave good-bye. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1928-    2. Asia - General    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Ganor, Solly,    5. History    6. History: World    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Jews    9. Kaunas    10. Lithuania    11. Persecutions    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Personal narratives    14. Travelers    15. Biography: general    16. The Holocaust   

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Estonia    3. Latvia    4. Lithuania    5. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (1)

Useful little guide
This little guide was a massive help on our recent stay in Vilnius, a lovely, charming city with a gorgeous Old Town. The guide advised us where to eat and what to see in a really handy pocket format (why hasn't anyone thought of this pocket-sized format before?). All in all, an indispensible book if you spend a weekend, week or more seeing this beautiful city. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Eastern Europe - History    2. Europe - Eastern    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel Guides    6. Lithuania    7. Travel & holiday guides    8. Travel / Europe / Eastern   

Subjects:  1. Science/Mathematics    2. Estonia    3. Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe)    4. Geography    5. Latvia    6. Lithuania    7. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Subjects:  1. Business/Economics    2. Europe - Denmark    3. Europe - Switzerland    4. Sailing - General    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Baltic Sea    7. Maritime / nautical trades    8. Motor / power boating & cruising    9. Navigation    10. Sailing   

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Biography: historical    3. European history: from c 1900 -    4. Lithuania    5. Poland    6. Russia   

Reviews (3)

A great companion in the Baltics
This book has good all-around coverage of the three capitals, but where it really shines is in describing history/culture/architecture. Rather than reciting dry facts, this book really makes the past come alive and also gives a real sense of what these countries are like today as they transform. The authors' passion for their subject is infectious. And a lot of thought has gone into this guide - The Riga section even has a little map just to identify each of the Art Nouveau buildings! Invaluable!
Definitely the best regional guide that I've found. As someone who often travels to Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, I really appreciated the fact that there was so much well-researched information all in one place. I've just about worn out my copy.

Baltic Capitals- a waste of money
This book contained nothing that I could not get on-line for free. I consider this to be a complete waste of money. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Former Soviet Republics    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Estonia    6. Latvia    7. Lithuania    8. Southeast Europe    9. Travel & holiday guides    10. Travel / Europe / General   

Reviews (1)

An extraordinary personal document
As a counterpoint to her more comprehensive scholarly work on the holocaust, this book provides several personal vignettes of that period in history.Beginning in New York City the account covers making arrangements for the trip, the author's stay in Vilna, a center of Jewish culture in Poland including elements of daily life, cultural, and political events, her narrow escape from Poland as the Nazi invasion progresses, and the finally agonizing wait in New York as news of the insuing catastrophy arrives in bits and pieces.This book provides insight into what it was like to live through that period in history, and may help those close to them to understand people who actually lived through it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Dawidowicz, Lucy S    4. General    5. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    6. Jewish Holocaust    7. Jews    8. Lithuania    9. Travel    10. Vilnius    11. Yiddish language    12. Literature: Texts   

Reviews (2)

Very good book about Lithuania
Harold C Wilson's book present a remarkable story of Lithuania, a country with a troubled history. The autor's strength is his ability to merge successfully his personal reflections and the stories of the glorious past of the country as well as the astonishing atrocities of 'times of darkness. It's true, honest, amazing sincere and nobody could say better than that. We, Lithuanians, remember, know and respect the past. We are really proud of the present, today, and hope for a brighter future. A few gems but needs help
Harold C. Wilsonexpresses his love and admiration for Lithuania but over and over again! Enough already!It is poorly edited, redundant and the organization of the book is fragmented. The photography needs help! However there are some strong points: the poetry, the history and the stories of the heroism of Lithuanian patriots probably can not be found anywhere else. A good start but edit the hell out of the thing. Get rid of the many references of kugelis and Lithuanian horseradish. Who cares how many times you eat it! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Guidebooks    3. History    4. Lithuania    5. Social life and customs    6. Travel    7. Travel / Europe / Eastern   

Subjects:  1. Former Soviet Republics    2. Travel    3. Eastern Europe    4. Lithuania    5. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (1)

Ugly and useless
This map is ugly and useless!It is totally green.There is no way to distinguish one country from the next, as everything is green!The lines are all green and the land is colored green, so country borders and terrain are indistinguishable.You can't tell where Latvia ends and Lithuania begins, even if you look up close!The map is printed in an unusual foreign language, too.It's not in French, German, Spanish, or English.I'm not sure what language labels everything.Maybe it's Lithuanian.This map does show major roads in red, but who cares about that?!? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Estonia    2. Latvia    3. Lithuania    4. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Subjects:  1. Russia    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign   

Subjects:  1. Description And Travel    2. General    3. History - General History    4. Kezys, Algimantas    5. Lithuania    6. Pictorial works    7. Russia   

Subjects:  1. Europe - Eastern    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Area / regional studies    5. Eastern Europe    6. Places & peoples: general interest    7. Reference works   

Subjects:  1. Description and travel    2. Lithuania   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Canada    3. Description and travel    4. Herson, Benjamin    5. Herson, Morris    6. Jews, Canadian    7. Jews, Lithuanian    8. Lithuania    9. Travel