Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

By the time you receive this, we’ll be gone.

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport

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For some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, I’ve long been fascinated by the last Tsar of Russia and his family. A few years ago I read Nicholas and Alexandra, which is considered sort of the gold standard of histories about them, and I definitely enjoyed reading it. Historically, the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra were much less important than their little brother Alexei, whose hemophilia changed the course of history. In Nicholas and Alexandra, as in real life, the four girls […]

“After all, in this life we do not know what lies before us.”

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I picked this one up after reading a mediocre review here on CBR, so I don’t know why I was surprised that it took me two weeks to slough my way to the finish line. First of all, the title is misleading because the daughters’ stories receive no more attention than their parent’s courtship, Alexandra’s medical drama, Alexey’s hemophilia and the dependence Alexandra began to have for Rasputin. The daughters, their personalities, romantic interests and other facts about them are presented, it just doesn’t feel […]

I Only Wanted To Read About the Sisters

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::sigh:: I am not the target audience for this book. Quick review: If you are in the mood to learn lots about pre-revolutionary Russia and the Romanov family, particularly the personal lives of Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their five children and you enjoy immaculately researched historical monographs then this is absolutely the book for you and you should find the time to read it. If, however, you are like me and already know A LOT about the social and political history of modern […]



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