The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia Candace Fleming

It opens with an imperial ball in 1903 to celebrate St. Petersburg’s 200th anniversary, the story then jumps back to the childhood of Nicholas II and Alexandra. It starts getting more in-depth once they are married, which is the same time that Nicholas II becomes Tsar. What follows is a horrific story of incompetence and willful ignorance and a population pushed to action in order to survive.

I knew Imperial Russia had problems, and I knew Nicholas II wasn’t the greatest ruler, but holy crap. Fleming paints a bleak picture that offers them very little redemption. Running parallel to the story of the Romanov family is an introduction to early 20th century Russian history, looking at what life was like for ordinary Russians and the causes and starts of the Revolution. The story seamlessly works in quotations pulled from journals and other primary source documents.

Despite covering so much, she keeps it very readable and it’s a great introduction to the subjects, but I think that readers who already know about the topics covered will get a lot out of it as well. It has two different inserts of photographs and frequently in the text is a pull-out box titled “Beyond the Palace Gates” which contains the words of someone else--a soldier, a factory worker, a reporter, a peasant--to add contrast and context to the main narrative.

The package wins further points with it'scomprehensive back matter--endnotes, bibliography, index-- and being a teen-friendly trim size. (I have very strong feelings on trim size for teen nonfiction. It's a surprisingly huge factor in appeal.)

Overall, it is fascinating and horrifying, and just really well-done and put together. I highly recommend it and keep an eye out for it come award season.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Love is in the air....

Hmmm... blogger and flickr aren't playing well at the moment, so a picture will come at some later point... update 2/13 Finally! Huzzah! Pictures!

A Countess Below Stairs Eva Ibbotson

Anna is a countess who has been rendered penniless through the Russian Revolution. Living in London with her former governess she knows she must find work and ends up as a housemaid in the old-money-but-lost-splendor manor of Mersham. She works hard and tries to keep her blue blood a secret.

Rupert is the newest Earl of Westerholme. He never wanted to return to Mersham, it was supposed to go to his older brother, but George lies buried in Flanders field and Rupert knows George would want the family to hang onto the estate. But how to handle the crippling debt? Enter Muriel, his noveau riche heiress fiancee. The Earl needs her money, she wants his aristocratic title. Too bad she’s a nightmare.

Rupert and Anna soon fall in scandalous love, but it’s never to be, for she’s a poor servant and he’s an engaged Earl. But…

Oh how I loved this. It’s silly. Anna is ever so perfectly good (seriously, she makes Nancy Drew look nasty!) and Muriel is ever so evily bad. All the characters are flat and the plot is predictable and the end is unbelievably nice and tidy and perfect. But, I couldn’t put it down, how was it all going to play out? How was Rupert going to discover Anna’s true identity? Would it all come crumbling down? You knew how it was going to end, but how was Ibbotson going to get you there? It was oh so delicious!