No comments about A Mind That Found Itself (Large Print Edition): An Autobiography.

5 comments about Cancer Schmancer.

1. A sad commentary on one of the areas of medicine in the United States. It deals with OBGYN and women health. It demonstrated the inadequacy of the OBGYN specialty in dealing with the reproductive-endocrine system of the female. It exemplifies the difficulty for a surgical specialty to deal with a nonsurgical disturbances of an organ systems (reproductive) in the female and the tragedy that results from this inadequacy. The author describes the consequences of almpost "comical proportions" when the various other specialists, outside of OBGYN, attempt to take over and correct the problems. A funy, through tears, look at the the tragedy and the role of the OBGYN specialty in it.



2. Very helpful to women. Whether they have been diagnosed with uterine cancer or not, all women should treat themselves to this book so that should the time come when they experience the symptoms Fran had or know someone who has, they will be educated. And a word of caution: EVEN IF a D & C shows no cancer cells, you STILL can have uterine cancer. I know firsthand of someone who did. The cancer was hidden in the muscle of the uterus, Stage 1-C, undetectable by a D & C. If symptoms persist, a good doctor will recommend a hysterectomy. Don't settle for a "wait & see" attitude. The doc of the person I know said he had not had a case like my friend's in his entire career & made the right decision by recommending a total hysterectomy.



3. It was very interesting, I could not put it down!! I just love Fran! This is an educational and funny read!



4. I had just been diagnosed with endometrial cancer when a friend mentioned that Fran Drescher had a book out about her experience. I'm not a 'celebrity' follower at all but i just wanted to hear a non-medical run through of what to expect. Which was very much in line with what she wrote...the frustration of not being heard when you know something isn't right and trying to find someone who listens and checks it all out just to make sure..and when you finally get the diagnosis....going through what you have to deal with in your own head and everyone elses...she was up front and open about the whole process and very fortunate that it hadn't spread....and that she had the money for good insurance and a good support system....so many in this country don't.



5. Hey, my name is Carina Henzel, I am 23 and I teach English in Brazil. I bought and read Cancer Schmancer in 2002. As I loved it so much, I decided to get some my students to read it this year. So I ordered eight books from amazon.com and got them delivered quickly and in fine state.
   
   I totally recommend the book. It's great, informative and fun. It makes you laugh, cry and fall in love with the person Fran Drescher is. Amazing author, amazing text. I honestly loved it and my students are enjoying it a lot. Two thumbs up!

5 comments about An Unfinished Marriage.

1. There are so many things that the author describes in this book that everyone can relate to at one time or another in their life. She expressed on paper what most of us are thinking when in a relationship but never say. I thought the book was thought provoking and empowering. A delightful read and highly recommended.



2. A sequel to "A Year by the Sea", this book follows Joan Anderson's journey as she and her husband reunite after she spent a year alone at her family's cottage by the sea. I did not quite know what to expect from the book, as frankly, I loved her first book so much, I really didn't want him to come back! Joan is brutally honest with the reader about her feelings as she deals with her struggles of his return, feelings to which I think many women can relate as we deal with the men who come in and out of our lives. Joan's candidness creates a common bond that makes you cheer for her in the good times and cry with her in the bad. This is another great book that speaks to women of all ages as we navigate life's journeys. I highly recommend it!



3. I think every married woman should read this and Joan's previous book 'A Year By The Sea.' I read this several years ago and could easily identify with it then. I just reread it and being a little older and even deeper into my marriage, it just hits home. I have read this off and on for the past week and have found consolation from my own marriage woes and commraderie in knowing that I'm definately not alone in working through certain stages and feelings of marriage. Makes me feel even stronger really for working through the muck and mire instead of throwing in the towel which can be a mighty tempting and attractive option depending where you are.
   
   The memoir picks up where 'A year By the Sea' left off. They are re-entering their marriage. The book reads kind of like a journal, or maybe a personal conversation with a close friend. The chapters are divided by months and seasons of the year. I love the detail and open honesty of it. I like that she not only talks about her marriage, but the changes she and Robin are experiencing as parents while they watch their son transition into his own family.



4. Joan is always open, honest, fresh, clever and puts things into perspective. Wish she wrote more books!



5. In An Unfinished Marriage, Joan Anderson chronicles some of the events that took place in her relationship with her husband in the months following her year's "vacation" from the marriage. Through ups and downs, the two struggle to readjust to one another, to living together in what had been their small vacation home, to Robin's retirement, and to Joan's newly-developed independence.
   
   Anderson summarizes the book, and the relationship, well when she writes that "...age brings with it the stolid reality that there are no sudden transformations, that the real work of becoming a couple never ends, and that even though we've been married for half our lives, we still haven't figured out how to get it right."
   
   Nevertheless, she ends the book on a cheerful note, on their thirty-second anniversary, leaving us to conclude that, while they may not have figured out how to get it right just yet, they're making progress in that direction.

5 comments about Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.

1. I am not a scholar in early American Republic, so there are simply aspects of this book I can not discuss. But I can say that for a reader who takes history seriously, and wants a quick introduction to some of the primary characters who populated the political history of that period, this is a fine book. Let me get my biggest complaint out of the way first. For the true novice in the history of the Republic, there is no attempt to create a narrative that introduces the central themes nor timeline. There is an assumption on the author's part that you know the differences between Republicans and Federalists; they you understand the temporal and historical difference between 1776 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Continental Congress 10 years later. Without this introduction, I had trouble putting some one the book in proper context.
   
   That said, the book focuses on people, and less on events. It paints serious portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington - just to name a few - and how the interaction between these people gave rise to the Republic. It's very well written, and in large, quite readable. I found that the chapter titled "The Farewell" was a bit less tight, or well constructed than others; on the opposite side, I found the final chapter, "The Friendship," to be compelling reading. I also found the bond between John and Abigail Adams quite fascinating; she was, while always in the background, his main advisor and certainly trusted confident. A fascinating relationship that deserves a book of its own (I suspect there are already hundreds). The book is really just a primer that sets up some of the basic dichotomies that characterized the early Republic, and rather than solve them or fully explain them, it really just sets you up for further study.
   
   I certainly recommend it; I just might suggest you read a book like Gordon S. Wood "The American Revolution" before this one, so you have a context in which to place these chapters. If you already have that background, then jump in. Ellis says that the book is largely a compendium of a lifetime of study, and for many of us, it may be the beginning of our study of the period



2. OK so I read this book for school and had to write about each chapter. After trying to get through the Preface, I discovered this:
   -one, Ellis feels the need to blather on needlessly. This book could have been easily been half the length had the author known the value of good editing
   
   -two, apparently he has never heard of organized writing. You do not talk about one thing, talk about another and then repeatedly go back and forth. It makes this even more confusing to follow along.
   
   -three, hey random interesting facts are cool, but they belong somewhere else, not stuck in the middle of sentence that has a completely different topic.
   
   - four, is this guy a mind reader with a time machine? How does he know what all these guys are thinking at random points in their life? Primary documents will only take you so far. Anything i saw with this kind of tone i did not write about considering it did not look very reliable
   
   Don't get me wrong the book has it moments. The topics for each chapter are very interesting and under normal circumstances would have been enjoyable to learn about. Just tell me when they republish this thing, reworked and edited.



3. Ellis brings to well-crafted life the fragile nature of the American experiment in the first years after the revolution and the Constitution. He uses six short stories or incidents to frame this so-fragile balance between war and peace, Federalist and Republican, the very success or ignominious death of the American experiment:
   
   --The Burr/Hamilton duel (in which Burr, the sitting VP shot and killed Hamilton.
   
   --The compromise dinner (one of many clandestine efforts at the time) between Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison to log-roll a compromise to get federal debt assumption and the location of the future capital agreed to the satisfaction of all.
   
   --One none-event as such, "The Silence" over slavery, which debate was postponed by the Constitutional Convention, but reopened by Quakers, and quickly silenced again by honest and moral men of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery dispositions as detrimental to the continuation of the American experiment.
   
   --Washington's Farewell Address, which established the free and willing succession of power in a vast republic, a thing to be marveled at (see: Revolution, French).
   
   --The collaboration between first Adams and Jefferson as Revolutionary partners, than John and Abigail versus Jefferson and Madison as enemies in the bitter partisan struggle of the two president's terms (1796-1808).
   
   --And finally, the reconciliation between the last two standing of this greatest generation, this "band of brothers" (yes, the phrase used by Jefferson and Adams) in their 15-year correspondence concluding with death on July 4, 1826 within five hours on the 50th anniversary of the celebration of their rise to aristocracy!
   
   Ellis is a good storyteller, and I wept silently reading the final events in realization of the 180 years since how much we how to these great men and their leadership and sacrifice for the greatest experiment in human government.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of tales about a number of the founding fathers, and their relations with each other. The opening vignette has to do with the Burr- Hamilton duel and in the course of this Ellis tells the personal history of each of the protagonists. I learned more about Burr than I learned in grade school or for that matter graduate- school , and this grandson of Jonathan Edwards was revealed to be a far more competent and two- faced politician than even the traditional stereotype of him as traitor, suggests. Hamilton too is shown to be a bit different than I had imagined, and was in fact on a downhill course politically when the duel took place. Ellis does a wonderful job in filling in the historical background and significance.
   I also greatly enjoyed the piece on Washington's farewell including the 'realistic' description of how Washington actually looked. Nonetheless Ellis affirms his greatness, and his clear role as natural leader and first great American hero.
   The final vignette has to do with the twelve- year correspondance of Adams and Jefferson. What is wonderful here is the way Ellis traces the whole story of their long relationship, their working together in the most critical moments and on the most critical documents of the Revolution, their falling out over their struggle for the Presidency, their coming to 'make- up' through the services of Benjamin Rush and through a letter of condolence written by Abigail Adams to Jefferson at the loss of his young daughter. Ellis describes how each of the great men uses the Letters to justify his own view of the Revolution. No matter how times one reads about it one cannot help be moved by the story of their dying five hours from each other on July 4, 1826, at the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration.
   For any lover of American history this work is simply a very great pleasure to read.



5. There is a great tendency to deify the "founding fathers" these days. As if by invoking the phrase "founding fathers", you can gain their approval. Founding Brothers explains very well that the American Revolution didn't happen for us. It happened because the folks who carried it out did it for themselves. Their biggest motivation was the idea that they could get away with it. After that they had to make up the rest as they went along. It was ok: the rewards for succeeding would be the Northwest Territories. It is a good thing this happened before socialism, or it would have been described as socialism by the British and the French Monarchy.
   
   The primary difference between Hamilton and Burr was that Hamilton could balance a check book.
   
   There were also differences between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Thomas Jefferson was good at venerating freedom and Farmers, yet lived as a slave holder and a Planter. Some say he would have freed his slaves if the price of land ever appreciated enough. Land didn't appreciate much, because there was so much new land in the northwest territory and louisiana purchase. John Adams worked for a living and as a yeoman farmer. John Adams could also balance a checkbook.

1 comments about Liza Minnelli (Ulverscroft General).

1. Peter Carrick has found in Liza Minelli the soft, gullible, almost-too-warm-hearted "place" that makes her one of the best-known performers in the history of pathos-heavy posturing. He locates, with the precision of a man truly at once in love with and at odds with his subject and himself, the part of Liza that makes her fans dance as if they (we) were in some sort of traveling revival--speaking in tongues and crying in praise to all of that which we cannot know. In his third chapter, Carrick is at his best. His words flow out of his pen as if the pen were too full, and poorly contructed: with an ooze at once graceful and horrifying. His passage on the sadness in Liza's laugh is especially gratifying--in part because it is only implicit and never overtly addressed as such in the corpus. Carrick leaves the reader with a picture of Liza--as an imp--childishly surrendering to the whimsical demands made on her by forces that deserve no respect. This lack of respect would be obvious to anyone not looking for a scapegoat. Instead, Liza wants to be a victim--she wants to cry for help like a child and then to reject the tender hand that reaches out to her, all in the name of continued sadness. Only then, as Carrick points out, might she continue to perpetuate the ill-directed love that people feel for her. Such rhetorical strategies on her part both constitute a talent and mask the glaring fact that Liza's talents are found only in her ability to appear vulnerable in the face of a life of money, ill-begotten fame, and unwarranted sympathy. Carrick as an author is himself a sort of dancer--a dancer with cake and pies and all things fresh and good; tumbling down the steps with one too many coconut cream pies, as Liza counts and laughs and cries all at once in a single, huge burst of the emotion that makes her who Carrick thinks she is--the same person he feels he _should_ be. This book is the best treatment yet of Liza--it is must-reading for all those for whom the Over the Rainbow is but a mother's kiss away.

5 comments about Pursuit of Happyness LP.

1. Where the movie of the same name lifted me and inspired me, this book came crashing down on me. It crushed me because it turns out nothing in the movie was true. In fact, far from being the hero that Will Smith portrayed on film, the real Chris Gardner turns out to be a skank, a thief and a murderous thug. The fact that Gardner retains these attributes through to the end of the book and continues to defend them means there is no happy story of redemption and thus, no real happy ending (except that the man is now rich).
   
   Structurally, the book was supposed to be about a father's love for his child but Gardner's son doesn't enter the story until 2/3rds of the way through. Even then, the book continues on into exposition of the father's life, so it is more like a biography. I did like the writer's style but since the book was co-written, I doubt if it was Gardner himself that I was reading.
   
   If you loved the movie, do not buy this book. Continue to believe that Will Smith's character was an honest, moral man who deserved the success he got because he pursued it ethically and persisted against his hardships without complaint.



2. If Chris Gardner had any morals I'm sure they wouldn't have come out in this book as he goes to great lengths to tell you every sexual exploit he's made in his lost, disgusting, immoral life. I couldn't finish it. Talk about all his sexual escapades! ...and his inability to keep his d**k in his pants, and worse still, his inability to keep a wife because of it! He's a moral black hole taking thousands of susceptible people with him into the depths of crude, rude, disgusting, immoral, sex addiction-type behavior. There's nothing HAPPY about this book!
   
   I just threw mine away. If it would have fit in the toilet I would have flushed it. I'm sure it would have gotten stuck in the u-bend causing me even more misery to add to the misery I felt reading this life-sucking black hole of a book.



3. If you're interested in reading the book because you saw and loved the movie, you should be forewarned that you will find the effect of the movie somewhat diluted here, and also that the movie's version of events matches in very few particulars the actual events of his life as recorded in his autobiography.
   
   That said, the book provides much more background about Chris Gardner's life, and it is a fascinating and ultimately triumphant story--and, in the latter part of the story, his commitment to his son does shine through.
   
   His idol-worshipping meeting with Nelson Mandela at the end is a bit much, but otherwise Gardner's story is told with admirable sincerity and intelligence. And best of all, he's completely unapologetic about pursuing material wealth and prosperity, and saying that these are part of his pursuit of happiness. People who've been dirt poor are typically more honest about things like that than the self-righteous idiots who've been comfortable all their lives and never really had to work and then tell us sanctimoniously that "money can't buy happiness"--true, it can't, but it sure helps.
   
   And Chris Gardner's story is well worth the money.



4. I have read a few reviews that where readers preferred the Disneyfied movie to the strong and honest look at a real human life that Chris Gardner exposits in his book. That's a bit sad. I find his honesty refreshing and courageous in a world where many look askance on the rougher edges of our humanness while ignoring the courage it takes to reveal warts.
   
   This book inspired me and is about to change my life. It is the portrait of a man who never succumbed to self pity in spite of many odds stacked against him. He did not give in to bitterness either. He blamed no one for his plight, simply pushed forward and found solutions to each crisis he faced. He has set an example for the many people of all races recovering from abusive childhoods.
   
   It is not so easy to get the demons of low self worth and self pity out of your head when they have been placed there by parental figures and communities either convinced of their own moral superiority or simply exercising their own brand of ignorance over a childhood span of 18 years. It is a struggle, daily, until it is rebuilt and often times depends solely on the kindness of strangers who may or may not be from the polished set.
   
   The fact that he prevailed from sheer dogged determination and a refusal to accept the labels others applied to him is a wondrous and beautiful thing and should spark hope into the hearts of those who know his story all too well from personal experience.
   
   If you prefer the pristine bubble of a Disneyified existence, stick to the movie. If you are not afraid of the grit of human life and are not easily offended, read the book. It is far superior and much more satisfying.



5. This book was very motivational and taught me a great lesson in humility, perserverace, and hope. I would recommend to everyone!

5 comments about John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father.

1. I was happy with this source. I received it within a week of ordering, in great condition.



2. Heard JOHN PAUL THE GREAT, written and read by Peggy
   Noonan.
   
   It's the inspiring story of Pope John Paul II, born Karol Jozef
   Wojtyla, who reigned as the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic
   Church, from 1978-2005 . . . in learning more about him, I was
   impressed by his leadership, diplomacy, humility, and holiness.
   
   If anything I would have liked more of a traditional biography; i.e.,
   one that traced his life from birth to death in a straightforward
   chronological manner . . . at times, the book veered a bit too much
   to my liking when it brought in Noonan's background via varied
   mystical musings; e.g., when she says her rosary when an
   altercation breaks out.
   
   What I did like was the author's attempts to be honest in
   her appraisal on John Paul . . . she talks of all the good that
   he did, but also points out the bishops and cardinals:
   
   * (simply) do not understand what a mother and father go
   through, when their son is sexually violated; how it scars
   the child, steals his soul, breaks his heart. They TRY to
   understand, but they fail. They don't even seem to understand how
   the scandals happened in the first place. When the first priest
   violated the fist child and they didn't throw him out--that's how
   it started.
   
   And this, Noonan acknowledges, is:
   * inescapably part of John Paul's legacy . . . the unhappiest
   portion of what he left behind . . .(and) part of what his successor
   will now have to heal.
   
   Unfortunately, it could well have been avoided--according to an old
   nun--had nuns and priests worked closely together . . . in fact,
   according to the author:
   
   * NOTHING helps the world more than good nuns . . . and now's the
   time, she believes, to upgrade their titles--from "Sister" to "Mother."
   For that is what they are.



3. In her book "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father," Peggy Noonan asks a very intregal question which resonates throughout the whole book, which is, "Why do those of us who love him love him" (p. xiv). What I believe she is also trying to ask is, why do those who did not believe at the time they loved him, love him now? Why did he bring so many people together? Why did two to three billion people throughout the world watch his funeral on television? Noonan tries to quietly answer that although he was a larger-than-life man, he taught all of us that by our actions--not our words--our actions can truly change the world. It is how we humbly live our lives, as he did, that his quiet strength taught us to endure.
   
   And endure he did!! Peggy Noonan makes multiple references in her book about how Pope John Paul never looked at his suffering as a burden. We were to understand that with knowing how frail he was at the end of his life, that suffering has to have meaning connected to it. Even in the last few weeks of his life, he did not hide his suffering from his public. She states, "What a death he had. To die in public, with the whole world watching, to work to the very end, to attempt to speak to the world through the window of his Vatican apartments a few days before he died, to struggle and fail and try again, and then to wave, as if he knew we understood" (p. 217). We did understand because he never hid the fact that he was ill, nor did he ever seem to complain. He left the world a gift--which was to make us all understand that we are all connected in so many ways and that our own personal struggles, while difficult and seemingly insurmountable, have a much higher purpose. In the end, Noonan states, "He thanked God for the pain that deepened his understanding of life, and that had been followed by joy" (p.194).
   
   It seems to me that through her book, Noonan is really calling all of us to examine our own lives, and not to simply that of Pope John Paul II. She does not believe him to be perfect. She admits his shortcomings and his weaknesses--and his failings to the American Catholic Church during the priest sex abuse scandals. She does not turn away from the hard issues that face the church and his responsiblity to world's one billion Catholics. What I do believe is clearly stated is that because of the early deaths he endured--he lost every member of his immediate family by the time he was 20-years-old--throughout his Nazi occupied Poland, throughout his assassination attempt--many sufferings most of us will never experience in a lifetime, she is calling us to examine our own spirituality. She states, "He grew up in a country that was poor, that was bullied, and that was occupied by foreign armies. They didn't have religious freedom through most of his life. Didn't luxurious Western Europe understand what a gift it was to be able to practice your faith in public...Poland knew how to suffer. Poland knew how to pray. So does suffering Africa...people who are so lucky they don't even think they have to pray" (p. 198-199). We live in a time and a place in which great struggle and suffering is not necessarily celebrated. Through John Paul II, Noonan shows us that an extraordinary life begins with humble beginnings and much love. That is above all the gift he gave to us--a deep understanding of love--and forgiveness. And even though many rebel against this true faith, Noonan states that we all want it. "We are grateful when someone stands for it" (p.235).



4. I like this book. Peggy Noonan has done a fine job in that she brings a greater understanding of John Paul the Great to the public. This is not an academic book, but we do not always need an academic book to understand greatness. The book is, by its title, spiritual, but it is also a humanistic book in that it helps us see John Paul as who he was, i.e., a genuine person.
   
   Not being a Catholic, I have developed a greater respect for the Catholic faith because of this book. So thanks to Peggy
   
   dc



5. This was the first book I read by Peggy Noonan and it definitely won't be my last. Noonan is very honest with her writing. She speaks what is on her mind and talks about the good and the bad concerning the Church. This book was very refreshing and I had a hard time putting it down because Noonan writes as if she was just having a conversation with you. If you want a book that will make you stop and think, this is the book for you.

No comments about Fifteen Years in Hell (Large Print Edition): An Autobiography.

No comments about The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Gustavus Vassa, The African (EasyRead Large Edition).

5 comments about The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. This was a great book written during the time that the Romanov bones had been uncovered. It gives an interesting portrayl of Nicholas and Alexandra. Most interesting of all is the love story between Nicholas and his former mistress, Mathilde Kschessinka, who years later would meet a woman claiming to be the daughter of the Tsar (Anna Anderson) and she would recognize her as his daughter because of the 'Emperor's look'.
   
   It is somewhat dated however. Since this book has been published, Russian and American scientists have argued passionately amonst themselves as to whether the remains of Grand Duchess Marie or Anastasia are missing. Then the bones were tested for DNA and proved a match and then they were compared with the tissue of Anna Anderson 'proving' she was not a Romanov. However, these tests are not as valid today as they were then. For more on that, visit my website: http://www.geocities.com/anastasiagrandduchess/
   In 1998, the bones were interred in the Cathedral of Saint Paul, although the Russian Orthodox Church rejected the authenticity of the remains.



2. With Radzinsky the art comes before the history and that's why this is my favourite addition to the "Romanov canon". This is not to overlook how thrilling in terms of new material "The Last Tsar" was when it was first translated and published (the "Yurovsky Note" comes to mind), and all those lovely until then unknown archive sources. These opened up new avenues of thought and allowed Radzinsky to theorise in a way I found compelling. Except, how much of it could be trusted?
   
   This is the problem with this subject in total. It's an epoch in recent history in the process of being re-constructed, after 70 years of communism in effect shut Russian imperial history down. A detailed picture of imperial Russia at the end of empire is in the process of being written. But in Radzinsky's account I caught the flavour of the times and that's more important to me than measuring his facts, weighing his sources. Most serious readers on this subject know enough in 2006 to discount the more imaginative flights in this book, and for everyone else it's a glorious, rackety, heart-rending read.



3. The history is all there in detail. Very interesting, particuarly if you are into tzar history like I am. However, the book is really hard to read. It usually takes me no longer than a week to read a book, but this one actually took me almost 2 months.



4. I absolutely loved this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. This was the first biography about Tsar Nicholas II that I had ever read. It gives excellent background information about the country, its history and the politics, so even if you're not at all familiar with Russian history/politics, you can still follow. Excellent purchase!!



5. A man is sitting at a book-covered table in the Central State Archive of the October (1917) Revolution in Moscow. The surviving diaries of the last imperial family of Russia are there, unclassified at last. Reading them, his thoughts carrying him back and forth in time, the man is moved when he finds pressed flowers in the journals of the tsar's daughters: "Souvenirs of a destroyed life".
   
   Edvard Radzinsky is that haunted man, sitting at a table strewn with memories of a broken dynasty. "The Last Tsar" is the product of his research and his sadness. A playwright, Raszinsky is well-qualified to explore the human depths of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II, his family, and the others who were part of their doomed world.
   
   The book gained a great deal of publicity when it was first released here for its sensational assertion that two of the family may have escaped execution on that terrible night in 1918. And this work of popular history merits the attention. This book is likely to become the definitive work on the last years of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
   
   Rarely is a work of history so beautifully written, so thoroughly researched, and so permeated with emotion and insight. A great debt is owed to the translator for her lyrical and poetic voice while retaining a sense of historical authority.
   
   Radzinsky's attitudes and feelings are juxtaposed with those of the two main characters of the story-- Tsar Nicholas and his queen, Alexandra. The inclusion of the author's feelings is unorthodox in a historical work however, in this case, it's a success and it offers a perspective that is both personal and realistic.
   
   The tone of the book is conversational rather than scholarly. It is not difficult to imagine Radzinsky weeping as he sits at the table covered with diaries, though he does not say he did. Certainly, the depth and honesty of his feelings are so evident that we find it difficult to hold back tears ourselves as the tragedy of the Romanov family unfolds.
   
   Radzinsky has a deep respect for the dead Tsar and his wife, but he clearly loves those children. They are the classic innocence, doomed by the destruction of their grand and insulated world.
   
   In the early 90s, exhumation of what is assumed to be the family's grave revealed only nine skeletons. Although the accepted number of victims has always been put at eleven. Even more recently, two bodies were found nearby to the execution site and burial site that some experts believe to be the missing bodies.
   
   The book and the forensic examination raise again the persistant belief that not only the Princess Anastasia, but also the Tsar Evitch Alexi, heir to the Russian throne may have survived the execution. However, these most recent exhumations near the main burial pit appear to show that neither Alexi nor Anastasia survived.
   
   One of the participants in the execution later wrote that Alexi and his four sisters remained alive after the shooting had stopped.
   
   "This had amazed the Commandant", he wrote, "since we had aimed straight for the heart. It was also surprising that the bullets from the revolvers bounced off for some reason and ricocheted, jumping around the room like hail."
   
   That night, the children were wearing clothing into which the family diamonds had been sewn. Seeing that the bullets had not done its jobs, the killers decided to finish off the children with bayonets. A strong, although essentially circumstantial case, is presented that Alexi and Anastasia may, in fact, have survived.
   
   This conclusion appears to have been recently overturned by the finding of the two bodies near the main burial site.
   
   "The Last Tsar" was written as the Soviet Union, the author's homeland itself, was collapsing. The two Russian Revolutions, those of 1917 and 1989, are often intertwined in the book. In the lonely archives and libraries of a dying country, Radzinsky fell into a no-man's land of historical whirlwinds where huge and incomprehensible became understandable. He offers insights into the character of Russian history where, ". . . great and terrible events. . . are usually due to someone's stupidity or laziness," and to the apparently cyclical nature of history.
   
   "Oh, our bitter, bitter revolution," he writes.
   
   This is a book about processes. The tragedy of a family, the drama of a world turned upside down and the mechanics of research and writing are among the subjects.
   
   Radzinsky's superb use of diaries and letters, his simple straightforward arguments and his penetrating thought-provoking style combined to make a very entertaining and convincing book.