The Romanovs

The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I knew only the most titillating bits of the Romanovs (Rasputin, the execution of the family), this was highly educational. Who knew that their reign began clear back in 1613, included Peter the Great and Catherine the Great? I didn’t. This book, while long, still spans 300+ years. Montefiore does this brilliantly. While there were some sentences in every chapter I couldn’t make sense of, he does a very respectable job in helping the reader follow a myriad of cousins, servants, lovers. He has multiple lists of characters at the beginning of each chapter and family lines at the beginning of each “act”, but I do wish he also included more maps. He does a good job following all the politics but focuses on some of the more scandalous and eccentric stories and anecdotes, but isn’t that what we all really want to know about anyway? Nice epilogue that shows how the Romanovs legacy still affects politics today. Also tons of pictures in the back.


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His brother Mikhail wittily expressed his “astonishment that a
               man of such excessive stupidity could still lose his mind.”
Alexander understood that “The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when
            it begins to reform,” as Alexis de Tocqueville had recently put it
Newspapers mushroomed. “I’ve never
            been greatly enamoured of writers in general,” Alexander confided to Bariatinsky,
            “and I’ve sadly concluded that they are a class of individuals with hidden motives
            and dangerous biases.”
The literary salons
            of Moscow became the battlefield of a debate on the nature of Russia itself between
            so-called “Westerners” and “Slavophiles.”
First, my orders would not be carried out unless they were the
            kind of orders that could be carried out
Rulers are often
            killed not for brutality but for inconsistency. 

The Subway Girls

The Subway Girls by Susie Orman Schnall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a tempidly interesting book about The Subway Girls, an advertising ploy that was like a mini pageant each month for girls in New York to sell advertising space on the subway in the 1950s. It also follows a professional woman working in advertising today. The point of the book is to show that although some opportunities have opened for women, there are still life choices women have to make concerning work and family. And though women are more often in jobs they weren’t 50 years ago, there is still plenty of biases and prejudices (as well as behaviors) that women still have to fight. It made an interesting jumping off point for book club, but it had immature writing with bad dialogue, questionable motivations, and forgettable plot line.

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What’s interesting to me,” Olivia said, “is that people today talk incessantly about work-life balance and making choices and sacrifices and blah, blah, blah, as if it’s something new that women have to deal with. But listening to all of you, I realize that’s just about being a woman. The times may have changed, but the identity crises we all go through don’t. The societal structures may have a new coat of paint, but they’re still the same impenetrable walls and ceilings underneath that modern gloss. And we’re still expected to do much more than any of us is capable of doing.”

The miniaturist

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book rates 3 stars because it had an original plot line, interesting characters, and was not badly written. However, it was overly contrived to the point of pushing credulity. All of the plot twists made it impossible to really understand the characters and their motivations. Too many actions weren’t explainable, and though the deluge of secrets kept the plot moving, when it was done, its randomness felt more like a gambit than an organic story.

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The True American

The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is 4 1/2 stars. It is a very well-told story of Mark Stroman who shot a Bengledishi clerk Rais Bhuiyan days after 9/11. It chronicles who these characters are, and what they went through in their lives. Rais in particular has some interesting insights into American culture. A few years after the incident, coincidently as Stroman is about to be executed, Rais seeks to forgive Stroman and stop the execution. It goes on a bit long after the climax, but Gridharadas seems to want to show us how the same cycles are played out here in America, and for some ineffable reason, despite support and even some help, some people never seem to see the same opportunities here that immigrants sometimes find. This book has a lot less to do with racism and 9/11 than you would think; it’s more about paradigms that exist in our culture and why. Unfortunately as nonfiction can tell only facts, there are still some ambiguous plot points, but the change that both men went through is hopeful.

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The Animators

The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is called The Animators and it’s ultimately all about art. How art can get you through..... Fill in the blank. It literally goes through every scenario, health problems, friendship, past traumas, death, breakups, etc. etc. It can get to be a bit much. Also doesn’t alleviate the thought that you can’t have a personal life and a creative one. Yes, it ends on a hopeful note but it’s a slog to get there.

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The Screaming Staircase

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved, loved this book. Who cares if it’s written for middle schoolers?! The characters are well-developed, likeable, intriguing. The plot was suspenseful and if I could see the ending coming, I chock it up to my age, and it in no way diminishes the fun. For those tweens wondering what to read, this would be my first recommendation! (Ok, after Holes).

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