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Friday, March 1, 2013

Book Club Friday


This week I finished Catherine the Great.  
Here is the description from Amazon.com:

"The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution. Catherine’s family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and enemies—all are here, vividly brought to life. History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great. In this book, an eternally fascinating woman is returned to life."

I really enjoyed this book.  I have always loved Russian History and even taught myself Russian before studying it in college.  This book was named one of the Best Books of the Year by numerous publications when it came out.  I can understand why, but I don't think it would be of interest to someone who didn't enjoy history or biographies.  I thought it was very well written, but there were a few things that were mentioned but never explained (such as Catherine's son Paul was eventually assassinated when he was Tsar but no further info given). 

Look forward to seeing what everyone else has been reading!
Have a great weekend y'all!

Erika

Linkup here and here

5 comments:

  1. I've actually been wanting to read this one for a while! In middle school I went through a phase were I was obsessed with the Romonavs and read everything I could on them. Which in a way is funny, knowing how little historical fiction I've read it Russia. But hopefully I can finally find the time to pick this one up!

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  2. I've wanted to read this for a long time! I love history and biographies, but I don't know Russian. Go you!

    Stopping by from the linkup :)

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  3. I admire that you have time to read books. That something I hope to do soon when my LO is a little older. :)

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  4. I love historical fiction! This book sounds really interesting!

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