Stasiland (Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall) by An Funder

I've been interested in what went on behind the Iron Curtain ever since I found out that it existed. This meant that as soon as I was offered the opportunity to learn Russian I grabbed it with both hands, and was lucky enough on two occsions to get a personal glimpse behind that curtain and even try out a bit of my schoolgirl Russian.

The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer

A Georgette Heyer Regency romance. Fantastic. The writing is equally as good as other famous regency writers of that time (yes, Jane Austen, I'm looking at you) and this is no exception. There's also a bit of a murder mystery - although the murder happened before the novel begins.

This time the cast includes a dashing nearly-anti-hero, a dashingly reckless hero, a feisty heroine and a reckless young heroine. It jogs along beautifully, nicely paced with no horible surprises - actually not many surprises at all but that's not a bad thing.