Page 75 - The Baltic Capitals & St. Petersburg
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We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust by Ellen Cassedy (Memoir) A heartfelt and
personal investigation into the Lithuanian Holocaust by an American journalist who uses her
own family history to illustrate this dark era.
Russia
Among the Russians by Colin Thubron (Travel Narrative) The marvelous account of a 10,000-
mile journey by car from St. Petersburg and the Baltic States south to Georgia and Armenia in
1981. A gifted writer and intrepid traveler, Thubron grapples with the complex Russian identity
in this lyrical book.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Literature) Tolstoy’s tragic love story of the beautiful, but
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but the one translated by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richa Pevear is especially acclaimed.
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean (Fiction) When Marina was young she was a tour
guide for the world-renown Hermitage Museum…but how could both she and the artworks
she loved survive when her city is besieged by the Nazis?
Peter the Great, His Life, and World; The Romanovs, The Final Chapter; and Nicholas and Alexandra
by Robert Massie (Biography/History) Three important works by a Pulitzer Prize-winning,
best-selling expert on the Russian Imperial family. Massie portrays a giant of history in Peter
the Great; unfolds the mystery of what might be the remains of the Romanovs in The Final
Chapter; and dazzles with the fairytale romance of the last emperor and his bride in Nicholas
and Alexandra.
Russia, A Concise History by Ronald Hingley (History) A readable, condensed history of Russia’s
multiple transformations by a well-known Russian scholar.
Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia by W. Bruce Lincoln (History) A
wonderfully written, informative portrait of the city, discussing its culture, architecture and
history. Lincoln focuses on the development of St. Petersburg in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russia by James H. Billington (History) “A rich and
readable introduction to the whole sweep of Russian cultural and intellectual history from
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Poland
God’s Playground: A History of Poland by Norman Davies (History) Critics regard this work as the
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version—Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland.
The Polish August by Neal Ascherson (History) An absorbing postwar history that culminates in
the rise of Solidarity.
The Struggle & the Triumph by Lech Walesa (Autobiography) Lech Walesa’s autobiography sheds
enormous light on the issues around Solidarity, as wells as reveals much about the life of this
courageous leader.
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