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Category: Historical

Review: Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie

[ 12 ] January 31, 2012
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Reviewed by Colleen Turner

I remember, like many people I am sure, briefly reading about Catherine the Great and her unique place in Russian history while in school, smashed together with so many other historical figures. But who was she really, and what experiences lead her to become such a dynamic woman and leader? Robert K. Massie does a wonderful job giving us a well rounded, complete history of not only this unique persona but the people, country and world around her from her birth into a German family of minor nobility in 1729 to her death as empress of Russia in 1796.

While it is impossible to discuss all aspects of this rather large tome (the book tips the scales at over 600 pages), it is important to note that the author not only highlights the political, religious and professional aspects of this sovereign but gives us a clear view of who Catherine was as a woman and what shaped her decisions in every avenue of life.

Raised under her mother’s ambitious wings and without much familial affection, Catherine was shuttled off to Russia at fourteen to become the wife of Peter Ulrich of Holstein, the designated heir for the current Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Catherine was excited to escape her unhappy childhood and ambitious for how high her star might rise. What she faced, however, was a man-child of a husband who preferred military toys and humiliation to showing his young bride any love, and an empress who kept her isolated and lonely. She had been brought to Russia for one purpose: to produce an heir to the throne. Since her marriage remained unconsummated for nine years, this was not an easy task.

Catherine sought passion, companionship and happiness with twelve lovers over her lifetime (three of which are believed to have fathered her three children and one of which played a key part in bringing her to the throne) but power struggles, jealousies and an inability to balance her personal life with her role in society made it impossible for Catherine to find the love she had so often sought.

It wasn’t until Empress Elizabeth died and Peter became Emperor in her place that Catherine was able to glimpse how her many years of loneliness and abasement at their hands would come to an end. Her intelligence, humor, grace and compassion endeared her to the nobility, church, military and the vast Russian population, all of whom were angered by the changes made by Peter III, and a coup successfully placed Catherine II on the throne as Empress in her own right. While Catherine’s thirty-four years as Empress faced difficulties such as war, disease, religious conflicts and the horrific issues of serfdom and peasant uprisings, she also worked to establish a world of Enlightenment with improvements in tolerance and justice, medicine, education and the arts. While she refused to rule alongside anyone (including her son and heir) she did establish herself, to the best of her abilities, as a “benevolent despot” and took her role as mother of the Russian people to heart. She loved her adopted people and did her best to leave Russia a better place than she came to at fourteen.

While historical non-fiction can so often come across as dry, boring and riddled with excessive facts not necessary to the key topics of the book, I didn’t find this to be an issue with Catherine the Great. I won’t say for a minute that this is a quick and easy read (there is simply too much information to declare that) but I will say that the book flows well and is organized in a way that never made me feel bogged down in the facts. If you take the time and savor the experience, you should come away from this book feeling satisfied that you thoroughly know one of the greatest women in history.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son, their dog Oliver and their fish Finn. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Random House. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Death in the City of Light by David King

[ 7 ] January 29, 2012
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Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

Reviewed by Lauren Cannavino

The amount of research and time needed to construct high-quality historical non-fiction must be staggering and author David King did an excellent job of producing an intriguing, in-depth book.

The story of the shadowy and twisted life and crimes of Dr. Marcel Petiot in Nazi-occupied Paris is detailed, thorough and dark. King mixes police information, conversations, recollections and actual case-related documents to tell the tale. Dr. Petiot used the ruse of a French Resistance escape route to lure victims to his home and dispose of them, while hoarding their clothing and keeping their riches. Once discovered, his victim count continued to rise and his twisted mental state and behavior would become exposed over a long period of time.

Police were called to a home at 21 rue Le Sueur after reports of a heavy and pungent smoke coming from the building. When the police arrived and entered, they were immediately faced with charred human remains, suitcases, scattered clothing and a strange room that resembles a torture chamber. When it was discovered that Marcel Petiot was the owner of the home, the search for the doctor began. What unfolded was a search that involved the Resistance, family members of Petoit, the Gestapo, local authorities and the underlings of Paris.

Petiot, while not mentally stable, was quick, very intelligent and created a story and an escape that made his capture hard to come by. His victim count was potentially over one hundred and when he was finally apprehended, the trial of the doctor was sensational. The details that were revealed were extremely sinister and often hard to believe, especially when the dark past of Petiot’s life came out. As a reader, I could only wonder how he had evaded arrest for so long, at any point of his life.

Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris is a well-researched and exciting book that focuses on a dark event within an already dark period of time. King does a nice job of filling in tiny details, names and places without becoming boring or tedious with his descriptions. King was also able to compile a lot of information into a fast-paced narrative that never seemed to lag or read like a textbook.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Lauren Cannavino is a graduate student, freelance writer, wine lover, and avid reader. Random musings can be found over at www.goldiesays.com.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Crown. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

[ 9 ] November 13, 2011
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Reviewed by Wendy Fitos

From the time I saw the initial reviews of In the Garden of Beasts, I knew it would be a book that I couldn’t put down. Erik Larson wrote a book that doesn’t disappoint. The time and research that he put into the book makes it worth reading as the story he tells is fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

In the Garden of Beasts opens in 1933 as Hitler is rising in the German political ranks and the undercurrents of “The Jewish Problem” are starting to be exposed. William Dodd is selected as the first American ambassador in the Franklin Roosevelt administration to reside in Germany and provide answers to the American government on his findings of the Hitler uprising.

When Dodd arrives with his family, he discovers that although his government does have an interest in the ongoing attacks of Jewish citizens, the bigger concern is the billion dollars that America is still owed from World War I. Dodd also realizes that his support from the government – with the exception of Roosevelt – is very minimal as he does not come from a wealthy background and does not know how to play the Boys Club game. He is consistently undermined as he reports his findings on the Third Reich; his reports are very accurate and if listened to earlier, could have saved the lives of millions of people. His colleagues continue to spend more time trying to remove him from his position as they realize that his outspokenness and interest in finding a solution take Germany farther away from settling their debt.

As In the Garden of Beasts is a work of non-fiction, Larson does a fantastic job of showing the true sentiments of the American government and public as they begin to hear about the plight of the German Jews. He found that Americans often had anti-Semitic views in the 1930’s and had little sympathy for the situation. William Dodd’s own daughter Martha found the rise of the Nazis glamorous and became a part of the culture until she saw the true focus of the regime take the lives of many in her circle.

Larson also does a great job of working in the class differences that existed in America, and which continue to be a problem today. William Dodd, with his common background, was shunned because he didn’t fear speaking his views against the Germans and in 1937, Roosevelt was forced to remove him from his position. Within two years of Dodd’s removal, all of his predictions came to life as the Germans began what was to be the murder of ten million people and the beginning of World War II.

Review: 5/5

Wendy Fitos is a makeup artist and esthetician with 22 years of experience. Her goal is to educate women on how to create looks that will meet both professional and personal styles. Wendy lives in Cleveland, Ohio and enjoys reading and exercising.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Crown. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Across Many Mountains by Yangzom Brauen

[ 9 ] November 1, 2011
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Reviewed by Alyssa Katanic

Across Many Mountains, by Yangzom Brauen, is every bit the epic journey that the cover promises it to be; the reader walks through the life of three generations of Tibetan women, from the age of six through adulthood. In doing so, the reader is able to recognize the different worlds that each of these women are raised in, and the effect that it has on their view of life itself. This approach would give a beautiful representation of any culture, but it is especially striking to experience the Tibetan culture that few of us are truly familiar with.

Not only does Brauen walk us through the lives of her grandmother, mother, and herself, but she is also walking her readers through the history of nearly 90 years of daily life in Tibet and the devastating effects of its Chinese occupation. She doesn’t hesitate to point out how little the western world knows or takes notice of little Tibet, nor does she whine or show bitterness about that. It is just one of the matter-of-fact issues that she points out and does what she can to change while weaving a great cultural and historical story.

Brauen is a wonderful storyteller with great timeline and language skills. She keeps her stories tight without also running too shallow or too deep with detail and personality. I could not help but be amazed at the depth of dedication of her grandmother to her life as a Buddhist nun, her mother’s adaptations to the other cultures she found herself living in and how she got there, or Brauen’s own western life.

Across Many Mountains is epic on many levels: historically, culturally, and relationally. It is awesome to see how an obscure, poor little Tibetan orphan girl travels through life to become a 90-year-old grandmother who has traveled the world and has shared audiences with the Dalai Lama.

For readers interested in adventure, culture, and history (with out the overly “educational” feel), Across Many Mountains is a story not to be missed.

Rating: 5/5

Alyssa is a wife and stay at home, homeschooling mother of five, with two boxers, two cats, a soft shelled turtle named after Bob the Builder, and 7 frogs (admittedly a homeschooling project gone froggy). In all her spare time, she loves to read and believes that there is no such thing as having too many books!

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by St. Martin’s Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres

[ 8 ] October 26, 2011
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Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)

I was born in 1983 and therefore, did not know much about the Jonestown massacre of November 18, 1977 prior to reading A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres. Drawn in by my preference for true accounts, I was at once fascinated by the history of the Peoples’ Temple and horrified at the inevitable disaster; I could not stay away from this book.

Jim Jones was attracted to organized religion from a young age and found acceptance there that he lacked elsewhere in his life. He began preaching early on – on street corners to whomever would listen – and eventually opened his own church in Indiana. People flocked to Jones’ charisma, perceived healing powers and message of equility that rang true with many African Americans in the 1960′s.

Jones’ popularity grew as did church attendance, and he later moved most of his congregation to Redwood, California and then San Francisco. Jones’ still preached equality and acceptance, interweaving his own socialistic ideals. However, his charisma was increasingly buyoed by his drug use, making him more and more paranoid and critical of his followers perceived faults.

While in San Francisco, Jones began encouraging communal living and shared resources; many of his followers were required to sell of their belongings and surrender their earnings. Concocting conspiracy theories – and maybe believing them himself – Jones rented land in the South American country of Guyana and began the process of moving his congregation to the middle of the jungle. Some went willingly, others were not given a choice; Jones separated families, violated custody agreements and brought many children to the newly named Jonestown under the guise of taking them on short trips – few ever came back.

As more members of the Peoples’ Temple arrived in Jonestown, the conditions continued to worsen. There was never enough food, every moment was tracked by Jones or his cronies, and people were subjected to long days of hard labor as well as cruel punishments for any small slights. While some still believed in their leader, others simply stayed quiet; some tried – many unsuccessfully – to escape. Jones, always under the influence of one drug or another, ruled with terror, fabricating stories of American conspiracies against Jonestown.

While some members still dreamed of better days at Jonestown, Jones had only one goal in mind: to go down in history as a revolutionary who died along with thousands of his followers. On November 18, 1997, he carried his dream to fruition when Jonestown became the site of the murder-suicide of 909 people. Surrounded by armed guards, people drank Kool-Aid mixed with deadly cianide; some were forcibly injected. A third of those who died that day were children, many under the age of 10.

Julia Scheeres’ account of the Jonestown massacre is based on a mixture of tapes retrieved from Jonestown, members’ diaries, articles, etc. And yet, A Thousand Lives reads as one fluid piece and as well written fiction that is sadly the grimm reality of recent past. Prior to reading the book, I could not imagine how anyone could force nearly a 1000 people to commit suicide, unless they were willing participants. After learning about the individual members of the Peoples’ Temple and the control Jones exuded over his followers, I can understand how most of them so no other option.

Rating: 5/5

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Free Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Grand Pursuit by Sylvia Nasar

[ 4 ] October 18, 2011
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Reviewed by Krista Castner

I thought it would be interesting to read a history of economic theory given the economic challenges we face today. Sylvia Nasar’s Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius certainly fits the history bill. Nasar provides an in-depth survey of economic theory and the people who devised them. The book opens in Dickensian London and ends in present day India. Nasar profiles many of the heavy hitters in economic theory from Marx, Keynes, Hayek to Schumpter and Friedman. I liked some of the interesting personal background information provided for each of the economists but much of the time I wanted Nasar to get to the point more quickly.

Sylvia Nasar won a National Book Critics Circle award for her 1998 book, A Beautiful Mind, which was a biography of economist John Nash. The interconnected stories in Grand Pursuit led me on a economic journey down through history. It was fascinating to see how the success or failure of one economic theory spawned the next great theory. It also pointed up the fact that economics is certainly not a precise science.

I have to admit that some of the early chapters that just seemed to lag to me. I appreciated that Nasar included a couple of chapters on female economists, but I found her forty-seven page chapter on Beatrice Webb about 15 pages too long. This book needed a heavier hand in the editing department. It probably would have been a more compelling book if it were about 150 pages shorter.

Prepare to set aside a good chunk of time if you’re contemplating reading Grand Pursuit. I’m not sure that the payoff for the time invested to read the book is all that good. I did learn much more about the history of economics. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn much that would give me hope that we’re on the cusp of figuring out the next new economic theory that will lift us from our current economic woes. (That however, is not the author’s fault.)

Grand Pursuit did help me remember to keep things in perspective. The economic situation we face today is nothing compared to the accepted status quo that most of population of Great Britain faced in the 1840’s. “There is no going back,” Nasar asserts. “Nobody debates any longer whether we should or shouldn’t control our economic circumstances, only how.”

Rating: 3/5

Krista lives just outside the urban sprawl of Portland, Oregon. Lamentably, her work as a technical writer and business analyst often interferes with her reading which is a true passion.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Simon & Schuster. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling

[ 4 ] September 29, 2011
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Reviewed by Nina Longfield

Pearl Buck in China: Journey to The Good Earth by Hilary Spurling is an extraordinary review of a remarkable woman’s life. Pearl Buck was a woman who knew world leaders and artists. She advocated for equal and civil rights. She introduced the western world to the dying Imperial China of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet, in our modern world, the works of Pearl Buck are nearly forgotten. It is within the pages of Pearl Buck in China that Spurling reintroduces Pearl S. Buck in a fresh, sometimes fierce, scope. Spurling reminds us that Buck wrote several dozen books, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel (The Good Earth) in 1932, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938.

It is in rural China, a place untouched by western missionaries at the time, that Pearl Buck’s life and subsequent career formed its foundation. Spurling’s Pearl Buck in China delves into Buck’s existence in China from Buck’s toddler years to her early adulthood. Spurling writes that “(Buck’s) own bestsellers combine hypnotic elements of fantasy and wish fulfillment with glimpses of more disturbing truths secreted beneath the romantic formulae, and occasionally disrupting it.”

It is in this dreamlike ether that Spurling gives new life to Pearl Buck’s life and career; yet, within the hypnotic elements, Spurling also displays the secreted truths. We, the reader, are shown a little blond child collecting the bones of throwaway female infants and burying them as she had witnessed at official Chinese burials. There is the constant reminder of Buck being different than her neighbors; she is spat on and called demon simply because of her blond hair and blue eyes. Buck flees revolutions with little more than her life. All these elements remained buried with her until they began to emerge through her varying written works.

Spurling’s writing is well structured, clean and engaging. She seems to have thoroughly researched her subject as she correlates Buck’s life with those of Buck’s written creations. Spurling shows how stories and storytelling encompassed Pearl Buck’s life from infancy and through her adult years. It was through stories that Buck could forget her troubles and reinvent herself. “She [Buck] said that every one of her own novels included a character who was a version of herself, and that her imaginary world of dreams, projections, and fictional presences came to seem to her as substantial as the real world.”

Within Pearl Buck in China, Buck is drawn as a multifaceted character imbued with significance. I suppose it’s the mark of a good biography that has me reading the subject’s (Buck’s) works once more.

Rating: 5/5

Nina Longfield is a writer living in Oregon’s fertile wine country. When she is not reading or writing in her spare time, Nina enjoys hiking in the hills surrounding her cabin.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Simon & Schuster. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Murder of a Medici Princess by Caroline Murphy

[ 6 ] September 25, 2011
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Reviewed by Colleen Turner

On August 31st, 1542, Isabella de Medici was born to Cosimo de Medici and Eleonora di Toledo, the Duke and Duchess of Florence, Italy. Born the third of eleven children to this power couple she would be the undisputed apple of her father’s eye. For while he was a brutal and vicious politician he was also a devoted and loving husband and father. He would stop at nothing to ensure the relative happiness and advancement of his children and the Medici name.

As happens with all high ranking women of the time, she was married off to Paulo Giordano Orsini on September 3rd, 1558, a political move that would link the powerful, relatively new Medici to the old and established Orsini clan. Paulo was a spendthrift with cruel undertones and was more than happy to have the rich and powerful Duke Cosimo as his father-in-law. On Isabella’s part, she used her father’s control over Paulo to spend as much time away from her husband, ensconced in Rome, and with her beloved father and favored brother, Giovanni, in Florence. Paulo was left with little room to complain about the fact that he was not the ruler of his own wife. As long as he wished to receive benefits from Cosimo, he would have to deal with this stab at his manhood. This was, however, the seed of undoing for Isabella.

In 1562 Isabella’s mother and two of her brothers, Giovanni included, died in close succession. Devastated by her loss and without her constant companion to keep her wildness better contained, Isabella sought out the entertainments and intimacy she had had with Giovanni in other outlets. While she became the first lady of Florence upon the death of her mother, she also established herself as quite the party girl. She began an affair with Troilo Orsini, Paulo’s cousin, a brave, handsome cavalier much like the men from the tales she grew up loving. He was as different from the corpulent and cruel Paulo as can be, and they continued on as semi-secret lovers until her death.

Duke Cosimo de Medici died in 1574, leaving Isabella defenseless from the new Duke of Florence, her brother Francesco, and her own husband. With little love lost between the siblings, she could not count on her brother to support her wishes as her father had done. As she was raised to love life and pleasure and not to calculate for survival, she did not see how set her brother was on ending the scandal he believed she, and other female family members, brought to the Medici name. She did not see, when her husband convinced her to go on a hunting trip to the Tuscan countryside, the demise that awaited her. For the Duke had opened the door for Paulo to finally take his vengeance on Isabella, the woman he believed had made him look like a fool. He took her life on July 16th, 1576, by most accounts strangling her while her retinue was barred from the room.

Murder of a Medici Princess, while interesting, had some of the same downsides I have found in numerous works of nonfiction. It included information that I found unnecessary to the plot (such as the monetary amount of items, the distance between places, etc.) as well as a lot of information about the Medici that didn’t have anything to do with Isabella’s story. The political and historical accounts of Italy and its many families was, while intriguing in its own right, distracting from the main point of the story: Isabella and her eventual murder.

The actual moment of climax was quite disappointing as well, with the discovery of her murder being announced through a letter sent from Francesco to Paulo. All that being said the author’s style of writing was enjoyable and easy to follow which can be difficult with the onslaught of names, dates and locations inherent in nonfiction. If you like historical nonfiction, Murder of a Medici Princess is definitely worth reading. If you prefer the embellishment of fiction, you might skip this for a novel counterpart.

Rating: 3/5

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son and pet fish. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Oxford University Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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