8 journalers for this copy...
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Journal Entry 1 by  lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Monday, April 12, 2004
 Fasinating! I have not read much Russian history but have always been fascinated by the last czar. Haunting.
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Journal Entry 2 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Monday, April 19, 2004
Going to send this out as my first bookring. Please journal when you receive the book, if only to note it's safe arrival.
The order is as follows:
1.reader1107 - US (Intl)
2.yourotherleft - US (US)
3.mlbish - US (Intl)
4.ahythloday - US (US)
5.fizzfred - US (Intl)
6.dododumpling - UK (Intl)
7.Arwen-Galadriel - Canada
Back to lauraloo29
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Journal Entry 3 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Sending to reader1107 in the mail. Enjoy!
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Journal Entry 4 by reader1107 from Tucson, Arizona USA on Friday, April 30, 2004
received as part of a book ring -- plan to begin reading it immediately :-)
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Journal Entry 5 by reader1107 at Enjoy! in Controlled Release, Given to a fellow bookcrosser -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Released on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at Enjoy! in Controlled Release, Given to a fellow bookcrosser Controlled Releases.
Sent along to the next person on the book ring. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did! I loved learning about this family and their world!
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Journal Entry 6 by yourotherleft from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Came with yesterday's mail. It looks like quite a long read, but I'll read it as soon as I can and pass it along. Thanks!
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Journal Entry 7 by yourotherleft from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, July 07, 2004
And here's one of these update entries to let you know I haven't eaten the bookring (which I had planned to make before and promptly forgot about).
Anyhow, sorry for taking so long, but I am definitely reading the book. I love the rich detail it has about just about everything having to do with the last tsar. I will attempt to read faster, and appreciate your patience with me. =/
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Journal Entry 8 by yourotherleft from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, August 04, 2004
This is going in the mail to mlbish today. I decided to pass it on seeing as it doesn't seem like I'm going to be able to finish it anytime soon, so maybe I'll just pick up a copy to read at my own leisure in the future. Sorry for holding it up so long! And thanks, lauraloo29, for sharing. =)
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Journal Entry 9 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Monday, August 16, 2004
Caught. Wow! It's so FAT! I'm actually feeling a little nervous about starting this because it seems like such a commitment. But the book will be fascinating, I'm sure. Thanks very much.
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Journal Entry 10 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, September 16, 2004
Just to update you guys, I am working on this book. I should have it out before too much longer. Maybe another 1 1/2 weeks or so? Just a guess. Thanks for being patient while I work my way through the tome. :-) It's really an excellent book. I'm so glad you shared it, lauraloo.
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Journal Entry 11 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, October 14, 2004
Finally finished just now!! Thank you, lauraloo29, for giving me an opportunity to read this interesting book, and for being patient while I chipped away at it during a very (!) busy time in my life.
I had been wanting to know more about the Russian Revolution and the Romanovs, and boy was this the book for that. I may know now more than I really wanted to! (just kidding) I read some reviews, and I guess this is supposed to be one of the seminal books on the topic. It was well written, and for such a scholarly book, I thought it moved along relatively well. Mr. Massie certainly did a good job of keeping his writing from being too dry.
I did have a hard time keeping up with ALL the characters. The royal family was no problem, of course, but the ministers and generals and other government people that constantly moved in and out of the picture were just more than I could manage. Luckily, this didn't really keep me from learning at the detail I wanted to. I am also extremely disappointed at the lack of a good map. It would have been so useful. In fact, I felt that I needed one so badly that I just found and printed my own.
I'm not sure if I should get started on how I felt about Alexandra. I think Mr. Massie's portrayal of her was probably pretty objective, and I'm going to go on that assumption. Why the Tsar would let an annoying, delusional, needy woman help him govern an empire is beyond me. I am sensitive to the fact that it must be terrible to have a son who has such a serious medical condition. But Alexandra's behavior crossed all reasonable boundaries. I was surprised at the decisions (mostly bad ones it seemed) she made on his behalf, and I was appalled at the needling, nagging, bossy letters she wrote to her husband regarding matters that were not really hers to influence. I was sick of reading about who likes 'our friend' and what 'our friend says or wants' and I didn't even have to read them all. I was surprised at the sanguinity which which the Tsar received this 'advice', and waited for him to say to her, "Butt out." But, he never did, and I wonder if it didn't cost him his job (and his life too, I suppose).
Mr. Massie's idea that the Tsarevich's haemophilia brought about the revolution is an interesting one, but I would argue that the burden actually falls much more to Alexandra. I wonder how she would have behaved had her son not been gravely ill. I hate to criticize a woman and imply that they don't to deserve to have positions of authority. Not at all. But this woman, given her state of mind and her circumstances, did not need to hold the power that she did.
Okay, well those are my thoughts. Very interesting. I'm glad I read it.
Off to the next right away!
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Journal Entry 12 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Thursday, October 14, 2004
Oh, I forgot that I wanted to mention that Mr. Massie now has published a sequel to this book. It's called The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. Here is a little blurb about it from amazon:
In July 1991, nine skeletons were exhumed from a shallow mass grave near Ekaterinburg, Siberia, a few miles from the infamous cellar room where the last tsar and his family had been murdered seventy-three years before. But were these the bones of the Romanovs? And if these were their remains, where were the bones of the two younger Romanovs supposedly murdered with the rest of the family? Was Anna Anderson, celebrated for more than sixty years in newspapers, books, and film, really Grand Duchess Anastasia?
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter provides answers, describing in suspenseful detail the dramatic efforts in post-Communist Russia to discover the truth. This unique story, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert K. Massie, presents a colorful panorama of contemporary characters, illuminating the major scientific dispute between Russian experts and a team of Americans, including Drs. William Maples and Michael Baden--fiercely antagonistic forensic experts whose findings, along with those of DNA scientists from Russia, America, and Great Britain, all contributed to solving one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century.
Okay, that was sort of a big blurb. Anway, I have checked it out (on tape) from the library. Once I'm done, I'll let you know how it is (if you're interested).
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Journal Entry 13 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Saturday, October 23, 2004
Mailed today. Thanks for sharing this book, lauraloo, and thanks for being patient!
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Journal Entry 14 by ahythloday from Richmond, Virginia USA on Sunday, November 07, 2004
i am so excited to read this book that i just about wet my pants when i got it in the mail a couple of days ago! haha! but really....i just finished a previous bookring book so i will begin reading this one today...
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Journal Entry 15 by ahythloday from Richmond, Virginia USA on Friday, November 19, 2004
great book! it was very readable and i enjoyed every minute of it. thanks for the great bookring!
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Journal Entry 16 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Monday, January 03, 2005
Oh, I really want to read this book! Unfortunately I have 2 other bookrings to finish first. I should get to this by 1/15 at the most. It is long though so I don't know if I can finish by the beginning of Feb. Cross your fingers and I'll do my best.
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Journal Entry 17 by fizzfred from Sacramento, California USA on Saturday, January 29, 2005
Wow! The story of Nicholas and Alexandra is so very sad and tragic but this book is just so interesting. I have a hard time giving it a 10 because I hate stories that are so full of misunderstandings and sadness. But, this isn't really a story, is it? It actually happened and Mr. Massie did a great job researching it. Although I think he tried as hard as he could to make Alexandra more sympathetic, I, like mlbish, can't cut her too much slack. I wanted to, I really did, but man did she make some BAD decisions! Some of them made me feel physically sick. Probably because I knew how it was going to turn out. I did end up with tears in my eyes in the end though. I found it facsinating how they had so many opportunities to make better judgements but didn't and how the revolution pretty much happened by accident. The vivid descriptions of the way they lived, both in luxury and as prisioners, were also fascinating. I would love to read the next chapter too! Thanks for letting us know about it, mlbish. Thank you also, lauraloo29, for allowing me to jump onto this ring. I am so glad I read it.
I sent it to dododumpling yesterday (1/28/05) via surface mail. I usually say, "enjoy the book" but this is not that enjoyable. :) So, I hope you find this book as interesting as I did.
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Journal Entry 18 by dododumpling from St. Neots, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Monday, February 07, 2005
Arrived over the weekend. Whew, it's a big 'un! :)
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Journal Entry 19 by dododumpling from St. Neots, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Just to update you all: I am reading this, and finding it very interesting! :) I imagine it will take a while for me to get through, so I hope nobody minds if I keep it a little longer.
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Journal Entry 20 by dododumpling from St. Neots, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 05, 2005
What an interesting and thorough book. I studied Russian at university and took a course in Russian politics so I had a reasonable background knowledge of events surrounding the Russian Revolution (although I focussed more on Soviet history). This book contains so much detail and so many snippets of information about imperial family life that I had never come across before (my favourite being in the Epilogue, where Massie sums up what had happened to the main players: Maria Rasputin, daughter of "our Friend", became a lion tamer!!)
Of course, Alexandra's reliance on Rasputin, and Nicholas' failure to prevent Alexandra's meddling, are vividly portrayed ("The Emperor is a saint and an angel, but he does not know how to deal with her.") But surely other factors must come into play, such as the magnitude of the Russian army's sacrifice (something that tends to get obscured I think here in the UK by the horrors of the Western Front); the need for industrialisation; the foreign support which allowed Lenin to cross war-torn Germany and enter Russia, among many, many other things.
And that's why I enjoy learning about history. There are so many different strands that come together to influence events: if X hadn't happened, would Y have happened? If this person and that person had had a better relationship, would events have turned out as they did?
Thanks for your patience, and sorry it's taken me so long to get through this book. Unfortunately, a couple of the centre (photograph) pages have come unstuck: I've mentioned this to lauraloo29.
I'll send this out by the end of the week - I already have Arwen-Galadriel's address.
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Journal Entry 21 by dododumpling from St. Neots, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Thursday, April 07, 2005
Posted off to Arwen-Galadriel at lunchtime today. I've sent it surface mail; the lady in the Post Office said it could take up to twelve weeks, but I've never had anything take that long to cross the Pond surface mail before. It's usually been around a month or so. Fingers crossed this doesn't take too long!
Update: I'm in shock (but in a good way!) So pleased that this book only took a week to travel so far. Hurrah for the UK and Canadian postal systems!
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Journal Entry 22 by Arwen-Galadriel from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Thursday, April 14, 2005
Received today! I have been so looking forward to receiving this book as I am a Russian history major at school or should I say a little bit of a geek when it comes to stuff dealing with Russian history. I have one book ahead of this that is a bookray book but it shouldn't take too long to read. I will journal more once I've done some reading. Thanks for sharing!!!!
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Journal Entry 23 by Arwen-Galadriel from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Wednesday, May 11, 2005
I have to say that this book annoyed me! The idea that one of the main reasons why the Russian empire fell was because of Alexis's illness makes me shake my head. Mainly because he does not give enough attention to all the other events that were going on at the time and that led up to the fall of the monarchy. This isn't to say that Alexis being a haemophiliac didn't have an impact, but I don't agree with Mr. Massie's ideas about the illness being one of the big reasons why the empire collapsed. Despite this disagreement, I do think that the book was well written (even though some of the facts weren't necessarily correct in my opinion) but I'm not sure if I would necessarily recommend this book as a starting point for people to read as an introduction to the topic, as there are some better books out there. But I am glad as having the chance to read the book. Thanks for sharing!
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Journal Entry 24 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Thursday, May 12, 2005
Arrived home today! After approximately 15700 miles, 7 people and 397 days. Its obviously well read but nicely taken care of. I'll have to fix those loose pictures, but I'm just so tickled!
Thank you to all of you who kept it safe and helped it on its journey. :)
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Journal Entry 25 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Monday, July 11, 2005
This book is returning to yourotherleft as a trade. Hopefully she will have time to read it this time. :)
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Journal Entry 26 by yourotherleft from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Tuesday, July 26, 2005
This came in the mail yesterday. Looking forward to picking up where I left off. Thanks!!
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Nicholas and Alexandra
