The Family Romanov

I did not want this book to end, it was a fascinating, enlightening, and horrifying read. Having taken Russian history, studied abroad to St. Petersburg for two weeks, and been a huge fan of the animated movie, Anastasia, I STILL learned a ridiculous amount! This book was chock full of amazing facts, details, and accounts and was impossible to put down! This nonfiction novel chronicled the entire family history of the last Romanov family, the political tensions in Russia, and even had great first hand accounts from peasants, workers, and other Russian citizens to contrast with life in the palace. I believe this novel painted a very accurate, albeit not flattering, account of the last imperial family, but the account will still make readers sympathize with untimely demise of the last ruling family. It was simply fascinating, it pulled accounts from diaries, letters, official documents, and more to create a complete picture of the huge divide between the royal family and Russian subjects that left the country ripe for civil war. I was lucky enough to have visited many of the sites mentioned: The Winter Palace, Peterhof,  Tsarskoye Selo, St. Peter and Paul fortress (where I was able to see the final resting place of the Romanav family), and St. Petersburg. Listening to the audiobook also added an extra dimension, because many of the accounts were narrated by Russian voice actors which really helped bring the story to life for the reader (or rather listener). I give this a well deserved five star rating. It's a must read for any history buffs or those curious about the tragedy of the end of the Russian Tzars. Simply fantastic!!!

Enchantments

LOVED this book!! It was easily the best historical fiction I've read all year. One of the reasons I loved this book so much was the fact that it took place in St. Petersburg and I just visited there over the summer and knew pretty much all the palaces and sites they described. It was like reliving my trip!

The story follows Rasputin's daughter, Masha, as she copes with the brutal death of her father and the overthrow of the Tsar. She and her sister are exiled along with the Tsar's family and in their confinement she becomes close with the Tsar's son, frail Aloysha. To pass the time as they await their fate, Masha weaves beautiful stories for the bedridden tsaravvitch, about the history of her family, her father's past as a healer and the young love of Nikolay and Alexandra (Aloysha's parents and former rulers of Russia). 

It's beautiful, sad, and exquisitely written and it will inspire you to check out more about this horribly misunderstood chapter of Russian history. Too often we villify Rasputin as a sorcerer (in Hollywood and in history) but this tale humanizes him and his family and brings to life the distressful last days of the Tsar's family (we all know what happens, but we still power through in this novel hoping that magically history will indeed change itself and save their family).

An absolute must read. You won't regret it! I plan on checking out more from this author. She is one hell of a storyteller!

Trip Highlights

Things I Can't Believe I Got To Do!
1. See works of art by Picasso, Da Vinci, Renoir, Monet, Degas, Caravaggio, Raphael, Matisse, and more! And I got to take pictures of them!
2. Get a behind a scenes tour of the Hermitage and it's amazing library!
3. Meet the director of the BAN (it would be like meeting the director of the Library of Congress!) and getting to see rare materials that aren't put on display (medieval manuscripts, papyrus, 2,000 year old maps, etc!). Talk about red carpet treatment!
4. See the final resting place of Anastasia and the rest of the last Tzar's family!
5. See Peter the  Great and Catherine the Great's tombs!
6. See books signed and authored by Benjamin Franklin!
7. See musical compositions handwritten by Bach, Mozart, and Schubert and get so close to them that you could touch them!
8. See a page from the Guttenberg Bible!
9. See the "8th Wonder of the World" the Amber Room!
10. See Voltaire's personal library shipped over from France!
11. Walk in palace's that the Nazi's once destroyed but have been painstakingly restored!

Things I Don't Want to Forget!
1. Beer with low alcohol content is popular among children
2. No car seats required for babies
3. Tepemok has the best fast food (crepes and borscht!)
4. Drivers are insane, if there are traffic laws, none are followed
5. The metro is mildly terrifying. It's more than 6 stories down and you have to take an insanely fast moving escalator to get to the bottom (it still takes over 4 minutes to get to the bottom though!)
6. Armenian and Georgian food is amazing!
7. Boxed moscato!
8. Brides are EVERYWHERE! They like to pose next to monuments and as such I saw at least a dozen in the city
9. The freaky dead babies in jars at the Museum of Curiosities
10. A typical breakfast consists of hot dogs and macaroni noodles
11. The trololo guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM
12. "The Diamond Arm" a hilarious soviet comedy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062759/
13. Women wear high heels everywhere, to not wear heels is a sin, I'm not even kidding
14. Mr short shorts guy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlN5LC3I4SE
15. My awesome new friends!!!