Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Choosing to create a full life despite being imprisoned by circumstances

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

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A Gentleman in Moscow was my book club’s pick for February, otherwise I likely would never have picked it up.  Amongst our tiny group one person noped out, one person was struggling 100 pages in (unknown if they finished it), but I found myself curious and kept going.  While the writing could ramble, sometimes giving asides that have no pertinence to the story, I found myself drawn into the tiny world of Count Alexander Rostov sentenced to live the rest of his life at the Metropol […]

The Relentless Tragedy of Empress Alexandra

Alexandra: The Last Tsarine by Carolly Erickson

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This is a solid and very readable biography of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, who was the last Tsarina of Russia. I had never read a biography specifically of her, although I did know a lot about her life through my obsession with Edward VII. Alexandra was his niece, and his sister (Alexandra’s mother) Alice’s tragic death through diphtheria has always stuck with me as particularly sad. I did learn some new facts from this book, which is always a plus for me. It also lives up […]

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 […]



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