Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Another Western take on Russian history, but a worthwhile read

Russia: The Wild East: A History, Part Two: The Rise and Fall of the Soviets by Martin Sixsmith

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I didn’t care for the flavour Sixsmith added to his take on the far history of Russia, yet here I am reading his sequel, covering the entire Soviet empire, start to finish, and enjoying it. In his first book, Sixsmith wrote from the perspective of “Western” approach = good, “Eastern” approach = bad. Everything bad about Russia was therefore the result of the Mongol occupation and its lasting effects on the Slavic mentality. But there are no Mongols here, and Sixsmith actually lived through the […]

Read histories of your country written by foreigners, it’s fascinating

Russia: From Rulers to Revolutions by Martin Sixsmith

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I am Russian. I’ll only add the caveat that while Russian, I moved away as a child, and being Jewish, my family was never strictly considered proper Russians. As a result, my personal knowledge of the country’s history has been built on family stories, anecdotes, historical events told out of context, and a clear bias of personal ideology (you can’t grow up Soviet without developing VERY strong opinions about communism). So I thought it would be interesting to get a more detached, factual overview of […]

An Engaging and Expansive Look at “A Paradoxical People”

Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East by Martin Sixsmith

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My wife and I recently watched the fantastic adaptation of War & Peace starring Lily James and Paul Dano (and Little Women’s James Norton, if you’ve seen it. That was my final straw – I had to learn more about Russian history. Everything I knew was from writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky; as well as Doctor Zhivago and other movies. My usual search for history book advice on the internet wasn’t fruitful – any recommended book would be shot down by others as incorrectly biased or […]

I’d change my title, too, if I got Judi Dench for my movie

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Like Caitlin_D noted when she reviewed Philomena last year, the book should really have been called Michael Hess, as Philomena only has about 10% of the work devoted to her. Still, it’s easy to see how Steve Coogan changed his focus when adapting the book for his movie, and the publisher’s decided to cash in on that by rereleasing the book (which was originally titled, Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search) In Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee’s family forced her into a convent to have her illegitimate. […]

Philomena, should be called Michael

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The book I read was the movie tie-in with a forward written by Judi Dench. I am actually interested in seeing the movie now that I’ve read the book just to see how they made this particular book into a movie (I assume there is a lot of Hollywood embellishments). I say this because, for a book called Philomena, it focuses about 90% of its page space to Anthony Lee/Michael Hess. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I did spend the a day or two […]



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