Serbia and Montenegro Books

Want your life enriched? Read this book! Want to understand the value of perseverance, the resilience of children, the un-tethered endurance to survive? Read this book! As illustrated through their memoir, Katherine and George teach us more than just an unannounced accounting of post-WWII Eastern Europe. They teach us about family, about the will to live, about the soul and how one can survive anything while suspended by a single thread of hope.

The trauma and pain suffered by the two families is unimaginable. Yet, the world knew little of what was happening to the thousands of innocent ethnic Germans left behind to fend for themselves in the wake of Hitler's crimes. Despite their families having lived in Yugoslavia for some 200 plus years, the ethnic Germans would face a death penalty for having German surnames. While they knew little of Hitler, and even less about his audacious adventures of domination, the German settlers of Yugoslavia turned baron land into the breadbasket of Europe. They were a very proud people demonstrating a strong work ethic as well as developing harmony among all living in Yugoslavia. Yet, their payment for their hard work was to be thrown into concentration camps, stolen from, starved, raped, and murdered; a complete people's way of life decimated. The world in the meantime, with a blind eye turned to Yugoslavia, convicted Nazi war criminals for similar crimes committed in WWII. I can only ask, how hypocritical was this?

Their survival alone is miraculous. But, to learn that these two continued life after losing so much, then immigrating to America to become successful in a new life, is even more amazing. Many of us would have had to seek psychological counseling for life. Not Katherine and George. They pressed on, and found a life that was meaningful and fulfilling. They created that life by centering on family enabled by love. They are by any stretch of the meaning, models for all of us! In the context of a bigger story, they are but two who refused to kneel to tyranny. They are but two who refused to let the communist regime of Yugoslavia win an insane war against good and innocence.

It is with great enthusiasm that I endorse A Pebble In My Shoe as a book that has changed my life. The lessons I have learned from this testimony are still being discovered...a full year after I first read it. You will most surely be rewarded by reading A Pebble In My Shoe!

In her inspiring and thoughtful memoir, A Pebble in My Shoe, Katherine Hoeger Flotz tells the story of her and her husband's separate escapes from persecution at the end of WWII. The story of Katherine and George were equally fascinating, moving, and disturbing. My overall sense, at the end of the book, is one of astonishment. The incredible strength, determination, sense of survival, hopefulness, and faith exhibited from this amazing couple is nothing short of unbelievable. But, what's even more mind-boggling is that their stories are just two of the thousands/millions of other "displaced" ethnic Germans--stories to which the public seems to be largely unaware. But, their story is fully representative of these brave people who left all they knew and loved to start over in a strange, frightening, and challenging USA.

The experiences of Katherine and George are described in Katherine's spare and straightforward style. She doesn't embellish...because she doesn't have to. Instead, she takes the reader on both of their journeys, the Flotz family journey and the Hoeger family journey, and their related family journeys that were occurring simultaneously. I found her words to be emotionally engaging while maintaining an authentic believability and fittingly descriptive point of view. And, Katherine skillfully handles the changes in story line, time period, chronology of events, and character development.

Katherine relates for the reader the searing pain of losing her home, her belongings, and, eventually, her parents and other family members. And, Katherine reveals an extraordinary awareness, throughout her development, of her loving and caring cadre of family members who didn't allow her to be an orphan--who refused to leave her behind. She engages her readers as she shares her story and her ongoing healing from the soul-tearing effects of losing her mother and father as well as other family members while being in constant fear of losing her sister.

I thank Katherine Hoeger Flotz for this beautiful and moving story. I know I will use her words to inspire my own thoughts. And, I know I have learned from her the value of perseverance and faith.

I found the book to be in my "couldn't put it down" category, and, actually, I read it one sitting. As a career educator, I truly believe the book should be required reading for high school students as it shines a bright light on a rarely discussed historical topic while teaching the lessons of strength, endurance, and compassion. Thank you, Katherine, for this amazing story!

This book gives a first hand look at what life was like for the German Donauschwaben who were victims of Tito's ethnic cleansing. At the age of eight, Katherine Flotz' world turns upside down. Through her eyes we learn about the brutal abuse that her family endured. This book also helps us realize that her story is not an isolated incident since she is only one of the 15 million Germans who were displaced (2 million of them murdered)during this time. My hats off to the author for having the courage to write about this difficult period in her life so that we may learn more about it.

In the spring of 1945 World War ll ended. But in Communist Eastern Europe all hell broke loose for millions of Ethnic Germans. Revenge was taken on young and old. Families were torn apart for no other reason then to obtain vengeance. Many people died. The majority of the victims who survived those brutal years still carry these memories in silence. Very few people have dared to go back and recall that time - let alone put down their memories on paper because the pain is to great.

Childhood became none existing. Hunger, sorrow, fear and confusion was what children experienced in their daily lives. As one grows up sometimes that lost child within begs to be set free, to tell the world what it was like growing up during that time. Katherine Hoeger Flotz has listened to her inner child and set it free in A PEBBLE IN MY SHOE. She has taken the painful road back to revisit her childhood in Gagowa, Yugoslavia, and the long trail that finally led her to America. Next to Katherine's story we find her husbands story, running parallel to hers. Both stories come together in America and end when George and Katherine become a family.

I applaud Katherine for having written A PEBBLE IN MY SHOE. We need more books like hers. History through the eyes of innocent children. Maybe then the world would be a better place for all..

E. Walter author of BAREFOOT IN THE RUBBLE

What a wonderful gift from Katherine Hoeger Flotz! A deeply moving memoir of a child's recollections of life in one of Tito's concentration camps. A story not only of survival but of triumph over deadly adversity. This is a most valuable contribution to the too little known saga of the ethnic cleansing of the Donauschwabians after WWII. As a fellow survivor from another village I was often moved to tears as I read this memoir. Enriched by deeply evocative family photos, touching but never vengeful, A Pebble in MY Shoe deserves a wide readership. A triumph from a wise and generous survivor.

Gligoric was/is one of the greatest chess players of the twentieth century ... at one time, (mid-to-late 1950's - through the very early 70's); there was a very small group of players that the (Soviet) Russians really feared. They were Bobby Fischer, (of course!); Miguel Najdorf, Samuel Reshevsky, Bent Larsen, and this player. (GM Svetozar Gligoric)

Gligoric, (11 times Yugoslav Champ.); won many international tournaments and was an extremely feared competitor ... his first major success (a surprise) was Warsaw, 1947; ahead of such players like Boleslavsky, L. Pachman, and V. Smyslov. His string of victories at major international tournaments is almost too long to cover, a few highlights are, first at: Hastings, 1960/61; Reykjavik, 1964; The Hague (zonal), 1966; Tel Aviv (Israel); 1966; Varna, 1971; Los Angeles, 1974; and Montilla, 1977. He also had wins in about a dozen major key matches. (These are only clear firsts, his 'top five' list of tournament finishes would be too long to try and name here!) He is obviously a little older now, and past his {best} playing days.

Gligoric is also one of the most respected teachers and authors who ever lived, at least outside of Russia. He wrote mostly for newspapers and magazines, his few books (today) are considered collectors' items.

Anyone who 'grew up' or played chess in the 1970's will fondly remember his "Chess Life & Review" articles. (I had a very small library of books as a teen-ager, but I carefully saved and indexed all of my magazines, Gligoric's "Game of The Month" was easily the most important theoretical articles that I had access to during that period.)

I respect and revere this player too much to go looking for mistakes with the help of the latest computer programs. (I found no serious mistakes in my rather casual review of about two dozen games.) My favorite game would be his win from the Black side of the Vienna Opening ... against another of my chess heroes, GM Bent Larsen. (Game # 3, beginning on page 20.)

Virtually every opening is represented, but in some instances, we see a rather limited perspective. (For example: Gligoric only plays the Black side of the King's Gambit. He also plays mostly the White side of certain openings like the Gruenfeld.) His list of victims reads like a "Who's Who" of chess from the late 1940's until the early 1980's. Some games are lightly annotated, some are very deeply annotated in the style that players that were familiar with his column in CL&R - would remember fondly.

A few of my {former} Internet students also purchased this book. Some of the positive things were that it was helpful to have the key points annotated, and the fact that the book is grouped by openings. The drawbacks were that some games had too many notes, and they found the complex things were explained, but simple maneuvers were not. (This means the best class of player that should buy this book should be 1600 or better.) Some of the lines are a little dated as well. (You could use "Nunn's Chess Openings" to cross-reference these lines.) I guess I would also have to add that I could NOT recommend this book to a beginner, or someone who has not been playing chess for very long.

In closing, I greatly enjoyed this book by Gligoric, the author has a deep love of chess and a level of understanding that few have ever attained. The only qualifier is that it may not be for everyone!

If you're looking for a great book on the life of a fascinating player, this is the book for you. "I Play Against Pieces" covers 130 of Gligoric's best games, categorized by opening. There's a wide range going from the King's Gambit to the King's Indian, the Nimzo-Indian to the Ruy Lopez; he covers tons of openings, which makes it ideal for somebody who wants to get a full taste of chess.
In addition to all the games there is a preface on Gligoric's life, which gives you some insight into his play. After all of the games, he also gives some interesting information on his contributions to opening theory in chess. All these provide an interesting supplement to the games.
The games are very high quality in here too. Gligoric's style of analysis is different than many other authors I've read. He doesn't spend time going over things like "18.Nc4!? (in the 24th USSR Championship Taimanov played 18.Ne4! against so-and-so resulting in [insert 20 move variation] with small advantage to white)" He sees that as useless commentary. No reader really wants to look into sidelines like that. Instead Gligoric takes a very text-based approach to game annotations with comments like "This is a concession to White since now the black bishop is not so well protected along the diagonal, but black was hesitant of abandoning the blockade of the e6 square and gave up on 29...Qe7." Rather than speaking in the merely concrete terms of chess (i.e. reams and reams of trivial variations) Svetozar instead chooses to instruct the reader in the simplest way possible.
So far as I've checked, this method means less variations which means less errors. I've double-checked the first 8 games with Fritz 8 and I've found practically no errors (one was where he mislabeled a mate in x moves when it was really a mate in x+2 moves). The fact that he doesn't get caught up in baffling analyses means less errors, and the errors with the text-annotations are unfound.
If you're looking for a rich game collection which instructs rather than confuses, buy Svetozar Gligoric's masterpiece: "I Play Against Pieces".

I really consider this book a rare jewel in my chess library,well suited to ocassional selfstudy or for mentoring others about the art of positional play, very clear explaining in all the stages of the game as well some historical trivia facts..this book is classic in chess literature..

Svetozar Gligoric`s name is rarely heard among new kids in chess circles nowdays, and this moderate man was never braging caracter. But Svetozar Gligoric is a chess giant. Lived and played in era od absolute soviet domination, he managed to stay on absolute top in fifties and sixties.
I live in Croatia (which was part of Yugoslavia), and this great serbian GM influenced all of us by his calm and clear works, in which this book goes in piedestal of biography chess colection books there are. To the sheer quality of this book I can only compare the book "Life and games of Mikhail Tal", also written by author himself.
Gligoric is not starting his anotations at move 25. No, they begin when he predict player will lost the tread of logic of it, and that usually means somewhere around move 5. Sometimes even at move 1, not to explain the move by itself, but to give a broader picture of game.
Also, games are organized by openings, which greatly helps to follow authors mind paths in differing from game to game.
Author used to play more d4-s as write (70% vs 30% e4), and against d4 played KID, Nimzo, QGD, and vs e4 played mostely e5, and few c5.
He showed his 130 wins, almost every one was against the world top. For example, there are 4 wins vs Fisher(!) amongst lot of wins against Smislov, Botvinik, Larsen, Tal and frankely every
other from top.
Atomic bomb of positional chess.
Apsolutely recomended.

This collection of GM Gligoric's games from the entire span of his long career is rightly considered a classic. He seems to update it once in a decade and it is republished with new material. This edition might be the last update, as the man is probably not playing much chess anymore.

I recommend this game collection over almost any other similar work by other players. Gligoric has the ability to annotate in a very lucid and comprehensible way. As a member of the older generation and as a positional player, his annotations do not include tons of Fritzy lines but are easy to read and follow. On the downside, the analysis is not always very deep as you'd find in a Nunn book, but there is still material here for months of study in this thick tome. And there's some pictures here also, which is rather rare nowadays for a chess book.

Great read. Very accessabile to all interested in what the international community is doing in post-conflict societies.
How does a post-conflict society rebuilds itself in cooperation with international organizations and peace-keeping forces? Holohan answers this important question in the post 9/11 world in the context of two municipalities in Kosovo in 1999. Her research opens up a window into people's daily interactions in these two sites that lead to different results. Whereas one municipality cooperates with UN and other organizations, the other municipality carries on a culture of conflict. The key to understanding the difference lies in the level of trust, flexibility, cooperative problem solving tactics that emerges among the organizations and the people in these two sites.

Holohan's writing is lucid, multi-dimensional and intriguing. She shows the reader how countable democratic institutions emerge and are sustained in unstable societies. Her extensive and interesting field research answers macro as well as micro questions, a truly unique characteristic of good writing. The book is fascinating for policy-makers and sociologists as well as for general readers for its analysis of socio-emotional contents such as trust, friendship, bonds, and skillful problem solving strategies; issues we all face in our everyday encounters with institutions.

I particularly like Holohan's theoretical discussion (Chapter 2),transactive memory (chapter 6) and conclusion (chapter 8). Holohan explains complex theoretical issues in the most simple yet sophisticated manner.
Chapter 6 is about transactive memory, the glue that makes Information technology work in critical times. This chapter is interesting for all especially in this age when Information and computer technologies dominate our lives. Holohan brings back people's power back into this field. The conclusion ties in the micro analysis with the macro one intelligently.

Anne Holohan's book is a must-read for all managers, administrators, peacekeepers and development and aid workers. She takes two municipalities in Kosovo after the intervention in 1999 and compares how their paths towards development and reconstruction diverged. The book is fast-paced and eminently readable, particularly chapters 3 and 4 that are peppered with personal, and at the same time, relevant anecdotes. The second chapter that deals with sociological theory while of interest to academics can probably be skipped by the layperson.

As someone who had once, however briefly, entertained the idea of joining the Indian Administrative Service, this book makes me regret not pursuing that idea. It makes you want to get down to the ground and solve problems with results that are far more tangible than most people's jobs produce. Proper administration is key to development in Kosovo as in the rest of the world and this book uncovers the hidden factors and personalities behind a successful administration.

If there are any criticisms of the book they are that the book is sometimes too harsh on the administrators at Thezren and does not fully explore the drawbacks of Petersen's approach. However, these are minor nits and do not take away from the books readability and its understanding of administrative processes.

This is a gorgeous book on the "father-in-law" of Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. Well written and gorgeously illustrated.

And this price is a steal - at the museum shop of the King's Palace in Cetinje, Montenegro, this book sells for 100 Euros!

I really like history and biographies are my favorite source of historical information. My search for anything related to King Nikola began when I was told that, despite being of a lesser noble family, he had as much royal connections as King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Victoria. The book is very well written and has plenty of photographs in an outstanding edition, and brings important information about the Balkan politics during the twilight of the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. Great book!

This book consists of interviews with about a dozen CENTENERIAN women (women 100+ years old!) in Montenegro compiled in 1990 by A Serb-American. One woman is a Serb muslim, the other a Catholic Albanian and there's a Muslim Albanian and the rest are Serb women.

The women all think back to the Balkan Wars, WWI and WWII. This book shows what Serbs were really about at the turn of the century and what the forces that invaded Serb Montenegro (Turks, Austrians, Germans) were really like.

You hear detailed stories of wars, death, hunger, torture, decapitation. You think the Balkans are a scary place on the news now? Listen to a dozen women 100+ YEARS OLD tell you about how bad it was when they were young.

Only in this book, you get to hear about the cruelty inflicted ON SERBS not by Serbs for a change. Those called "Turks" are in fact Serbs whose ancestors converted to Islam, today's "Bosnian Muslims" and "Austrians" refers to Croats and these same
"Turks" who - together with the Austrians descended on Serb Montenegro in WWI.

The book also talks about how patriarchy made life a grueling nightmare equally for all the women: Serb, Muslim, Catholic Albanian and Muslim Albanian women. You honestly have to read it to believe that women were actually treated this way by husbands and other family members. It is the ugliest side of Balkan life told by those who experienced it personally. The women are so candid, frank and forthright that you really get into their head and sort of grasp the outdated mentality with which they saw the world until their very last days. These women were young when the greatest technological marvel their mountaineer society could ever see was the wonder that is the sowing machine.

Made me so proud to be a Serb.

This is an exraordinary book that reminds women everywhere of the unbelievable struggle of our ancestors to survive. The women in this book could have been from anywhere in a different time, enduring the worst that the world had to offer, yet they emerge from these pages with a unique strength and dignity in spite of it all. I'd highly recommend this book, not simply as an athropological study, but to anyone seeking where they came from. Because this is a book about the history of us all.

Palairet's contribution to the Balkan Economic history is the sixth volume of the Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic history series. The series are described as a new initiative in the writing of the economic history dictated by the concerns of the history of economic performance, output and productivity with a direct reference to the evolutions and impacts of economic growth or stagnation. The volumes are mentioned as written in line with the mainstream of the series. As far as Palairet's volume is concerned, his outcome, which is basically derived from a long term comparative analysis of the performance of the Balkan economies, reconciles with this phenomenon. His deductive, in-depth study of the Balkan economies from early 19th century until 1914, suggests a deploring performance rather than growth, though agricultural production steadily increased, a level of industrialisation attained, nevertheless per capita output and income never caught up the levels of the pre-modern and pre-liberation times. The pre-liberation times overlapped with the sovereignty of the Ottoman rule for most of the Balkan states except Serbia enjoying an independent status after 1815. Such a long term overall comparative analysis requires periodization which is strictly reflected in the chapter formation of the book. During the period under consideration, Balkan economies had passed through two institutional transformation, the first being the breakdown of the Ottoman decentralised administrative structre, which was major push effect of the Balkan economic growth and the second, the emergence of the independent balkan states which curtailed down the economic development. Agriculture production had severely been hit by the subsistence farming, already set up by the self governments to establish a peasant power base for the new regime. The textile proto-industries could not be able to sustain out-put levels and the market share of the pre-liberation era. I do really impressed by the author's in-depth analysis of the Balkan economies, utilising both the qualitative and the quantitative data, covering almost, as far as we assume, all the primary and secondary sources on Balkan Economic History. Essential feature of the book is to indicate how contraversial is to associate Ottoman political structre with stagnation, underdevelopment and retrogression.

Clark's book is an excellent and thoroughly researched history of the little know civil resistance movement in Kosovo that sprang up in the early 1990s until war broke out in 1998. Clark's research is impeccable (much of it first hand) and this piece is a must read for anyone trying to get a more thorough understanding of this conflict.

The group with which I was traveling drove by minibus the entire length of the Croatian coast and then cruised in a chartered sailboat out of Dubrovnik along the Dalmation Coast as far as Split. The Michelin map was excellent, providing detailed data using attractive cartography.

I found this book to be a very enlightening, interesting and easy to read piece. As I was reading the book it was as if I was transported to the different places and villages that the author visited and it was almost as if I was travelling the journey with her. I wonderful journey and I highly recommend it.

Ably translated by Thomas J. Butler and Saba Risaluddin, A Muslim Woman In Tito's Yugoslavia by Munevera Hadzisehovic is the gripping and true story of a woman who observed first hand the horrific Serbian injustice toward Muslims; the callousness of the Communist Party toward a hard-working citizenry, as well as the detrimental and destabilizing effects of an intolerant state government. A gripping, dark, and forcefully honest presentation of social ills from a personal point of view, A Muslim Woman In Tito's Yugoslavia is recommended for inclusion in Islamic Studies, International Studies, and 20th Century European History reference library collections.