Other The Books

Our co. had an epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome. People would take days off and our worker'c comp. claims increased. I, as a manager, didn't understand what cps was, how our workplace could cause it and which employee complaints had merit. The illustration and text on cps are so clear that I saw which work stations were a problem and learned what I could efficiently due to eliminate some of the risk and avoid loss of productivity

"When my doctor told me I had arthritis of the hands and knees, I panicked and thought the worst. My mother is wheelchair bound with arthritis. But I learned there are a lot of things I can do to help myself stay in good condition, keep muscle around the joints balanced; and that I can live a normal life with arthritis. I have never had this condition explained to me so plainly."

Ably written for the non-specialist general reader by Michael R. Wilson (a professional Orthopedic surgeon of 25 years experience), The Other Midlife Crisis: Arthritis And All Those Aches And Pains offers solid information spiced with a touch of humor concerning the health problem of arthritis and how to best deal with it. Excellent recommendations for exercise, improved diet, health concerns and personal care fill the pages of this superbly organized and presented instructional for coping with the problems of arthritis and reducing join pain.

"It seems that when I go to a doctor any more, I feel rushed and can't ask all my questions. The doctot seems distraught with HMOs, insurance, Medicare and so many other patients that I feel guilty taking his time to ask one more thing. When I sat down and read Dr. Wilson's book, it was just like sitting down with a doctor I could talk to, who related to my shoulder problems and tied it in with how it limited what I can do. I found his explanations for common problems forthright. My better understanding will help me prepare what to ask the next time I have to go to the doctor."

Dr. Michael R. Wilson has written a superb book here that will inform anyone who takes time to read this easy-to-follow, thorough look at our bones, joints, ligaments and tendons . . . plus all those pesky pains associated with them. The information will help you avoid having problems, reduce the amount of problems you will experience and minimize the pain and lost time you will have to suffer.

I was attracted to this book because many members of my family have arthritis or bone-related medical problems. A good friend is an orthopedic surgeon, so I had received from him good advice a long time ago: Avoid exercise that damages joints (like jogging). Beyond that, I knew very little.

As I began the book, I was a little concerned when chapter two contained many pages of medical terminology to be learned before reading the rest of the book. That chapter was the only hard and not very rewarding reading. The rest I enjoyed very much, and found easy to follow. I particularly liked the cartoons, drawings and x-rays of the various conditions and syndromes. I could often grasp with the image what a whole chapter would have had trouble conveying.

Although the book is aimed at those who are middle aged (currently, the baby boomers), there's also lots of information for younger people and the elderly. So you get the whole enchilada. That makes the book helpful in working with parents and children, as well as with one's spouse, siblings and oneself.

I particularly benefited from learning the differences between osteoarthritis (the joints wearing out) and rheumatoid arthritis (infected joints). I had questions about shoulder problems (including those I hear about on television for athletes), tennis elbow, bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, bifocal neck, sciatica, knee problems, heel pain, osteoporosis and gout. All of my questions were answered in more than adequate detail, and I learned important information that I didn't realize that I needed to learn.

Unexpectedly, I came away with a better understanding of how each of my joints works, how to react in an accident, and what to talk to my physicians about if I have a bone or joint problem. Although Dr. Wilson is an orthopedic surgeon, he is candid about the situations when surgery will probably make matters worse.

As I finished the book, I was thankful to the gym teacher who many years ago taught me how to fall so that I would not hurt myself.

One of the best books ever written about World War II. I had the 1st Edition of Brendan Phipps' book and "lent" it to my Grandson who has a great interest in the war. When I finished reading "Seven Days in January", a recent acquisition, I wanted to follow up and read "The Other Side of Time" again for the umpteenth time. Rather than ask for my copy back from him I gambled and found a copy on line which is in excellent (like new) condition and also a first edition.

"The Other Side of Time" really presents the gritty side of war and does so with emotion rarely exhibited. The rememberances are those of the author from notes kept by him. The story is told so well that it leaves a lasting impression.

Forget "Saving Private Ryan"--this is the real deal, the front lines story written by a combat surgeon without any of romantic claptrap. A bracing, funny, terrifying read--a classic of the genre. Granted, there are moments when the writing is a tad florid, but the reader quickly forgives these tangents--the core of the book holds your attention like few other books. If everyone read this book, there'd be far fewer wars.

This book is no longer out of print. It has just been republished in paperback under the title OUR WAR FOR THE WORLD.

"The Other Side Of Time" by Brendan Phibbs; sub-titled: "A Combat Surgeon In World War II. Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1987.

The writing in this book is superb. The insight equals the writing. Dr. Brendan Phipps was training as a surgeon when the Second World War interfered with his life. Some forty years later, after the death of his wife and after his children "scattered", he sat down with a box, full of notebooks ("...one stained with long-oxidized blood) , reports, a German soldier's paybook and a "...few pages of military jargon", to write his memoirs. He did a great job.

His book covers the end of the war in Europe, when American forces were advancing into Germany and it was becoming clear that the war was over. His comments hit the highpoints of many other books: "...they (the Germans) have dumber generals than we have". (Page 91). "An elderly Irishman ... (stated) ... that Germans learned slower than pigs at their Latin." (Page 90). American Sherman tanks burn: "Bitter commentary on American engineering. American slavish addition to high-octane gasoline; diesel-fueled , heavily armored German tanks keep right on coming." (Page 152). But, throughout it all, he is able to put a human face on the horror and terror that they experienced. Because of his ability in French and German, Dr. Phibbs also brings some of the other side into his book, as when he describes how the collaborators were dealt with in the so-called Colmar Pocket in France.

This book is, perhaps, one of the best-written memoirs of World War II. His last sentence in the Preface:
"Please, young people, listen to us before we leave."

The Other Side of Time, is, along with Paul Fussell's Wartime, one of the best books ever written about World War II. Brendan Phibbs was a combat surgeon drafted into the Army in 1942 who saw service in Europe later in the war. The book is written from the diaries he kept at the time and re-read years later. Some of the passages in this book are incredibly beautiful, the first
story, about the burial of an ordinary soldier named Wally is
fantastic. The book pulls no punches, Phibbs talks about the anti-semitism of his fellow doctors, the incompetence of many US military officers, the evil of the Germans and the stupidity of our Department of State in repatriating Russian POWs and displaced persons back to Stalinist Russia after the war. These stories make it hard to read, you want to weep when you read about the indifference of American medical authorities to the suffering of death camp inmates and gnash your teeth at the incompetence of our officers who sent inferior American tanks into head to head battles with the superior German panzers, only to see them destroyed. But despite these stories the heroism of the soldiers that Phibbs served with shines through. I really wish that they would reprint this book, or that HBO would do a series based on it as they did on Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers.

The Power of Creative Prayer has helped me in a number of different facets of my life. This book has aided me personally and professionally, and many dreams that I never deemed possible became reality.
The Power of Creative Prayer is way past due in its' ideology,
and is a relevant and fun way to seek answers through prayer.
From a writer's perspective, it has given me a newfound freedom in the creative process, and there are very few days that go by that I don't implement much of the author's exercises into my daily life.

This author writes from a unique level of spirit that few others can match.I have been on a path to manifesting my dreams for 10 years, but, have not been able to get to the issues that have kept me from real abundance.I immediately had real results upon discovering this book while looking for the blocks to my abundance & manifesting power. I was stuck while following many steps in the "laws of attraction, etc" that did not fully work & were producing the opposite results for me. Upon reading a few passages from this book, I began connecting dots to my failures in a way I could deeply understand. Mary Anne is a rare teacher that truly knows & shares the secret to many of our deepest blocks & dissapointents. I know the "Secret" is getting more publicity, but, they leave out all the "secrets" that Mary Anne teaches & shares to manifesting & living our greater possibilities & dreams! I highly recommend this book & tool. There is no other who offers these solutions & phenomenol guidance. I am still utilizing & benefiting by her method & wisdom!

The Power of Creative Prayer is an interesting story of a person finding happiness and success in spite of heartbreaking life experiences; but it is much more. Mary Ann Thomas has found a way for anyone to improve their life. Creative prayer gets answers, and the process you learn is actually fun. If everyone adopted this method of bringing dreams and desires into reality, our world would be an ideal place.

Mary Anne Thomas is a very insightful author. Her information, as usual, is well researched and explained. The dictionary words provided in the back of her book have made it convenient and easy to use the recommened dictionary game. This book is a must read and her personal coaching and correspondence has certainly helped in receiving answered prayers. Her new web-school is a good source of immediate information as well.
I look forward to any new books in the future written by Mary Anne. - D. Coley

As I expected, another enjoyable book written by Mary Anne Thomas! I'm always looking for a new ways to enlighten my life and to see things from a different perspective and this book helped me do that. The simple act of sitting down with your dictionary can transform your outlook and open your mind as you pray. Despite your level of religous beliefs or practice, I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes in the power of prayer and is looking for a creative way to approach it!

This is a GREAT book for parents to help their children grow up with the right tools to help them in their lives. I recommend this book to ANY parents, stepparent, or anyone who is around children on a regular basis.

Page after page all made it clear that Dr. Medus really did her homework in putting together this great book on raising a confident and intrinsically successful child. Being a new father I find it a little daunting in being responsible (at least partially) for the behavioral molding of a human being. This book was a real eye opener is so many ways, from methods of dealing with conflict, to getting your child to accept his/her bedtime. In many instances I would finish reading a certain hypothetical scenario Dr. Medus had invented and think "wow that's exactly how I felt growing up!" Since my daughter is still only 6 months old I plan to reread this book many more times while she is growing up. I'd even recommend those without children to read it as it really hits home on how much our society is "externally directed" rather than internally.

This is a wonderful guide for parents and educators who are searching for techniques to help children avoid the pitfalls of "following the crowd." The author provides many practical strategies and "real life" examples of how to interact with children to prevent inadvertent development of an external locus of control. The suggestions are powerful and helpful to all adults who want to help children become independent thinkers in a world filled with challenges. Following the author's advice will enhance student development and improve parenting skills simultaneously.

The problmes that seem pervasive among youth today, from mindless consumerism and premature sex to school shootings and drug abuse, have raised an uproar on all sides, and the blame for these ills gets bounced around like a ping-pong ball!--TV, video games, lack of religion, rap music, and on and on. But Dr. Medhus, after hundreds of interviews with children from all kids of backgrounds, reaches the conclusion that the problems really all spring from a common source: personalities that react to outside forces rather than their own beliefs and morals. Laying out the difference between "externally directed" people who act according to impulses, peer pressure, and the fear of punishment, and "self-directed" people, who have been taught to think for themselves and follow their own consciences, she goes on to share parenting methods intended to encourage the introspection, empathy, and high self-esteem that gives self-directed children their ability to resist negative influences. The author discusses specific techniques for handling many kinds of situations, with rules and disciplinary measures that help kids understand why bad behavior is wrong, instead of shaming or scaring them into blind submission. Indispensible advice for parents seeking to inspire their kids to self-confidence, adventurousness, independence, competence, and the ability to make positive contributions to the world.--MZ

Dr. Medhus has successfully communicated her great knowledge of raising strong, independent children. This experience is based on real life - with her family - as well as the more traditional doctor's observations.

I reccomend it to every parent who is trying to raise stong and successful children in these difficult times.

This is a great little book. After receiving it as a gift, I went out and bought a ton to give to all of my friends with kids, (including the mailman cause we always talk about our kids to each other). Makes a great gift for someone who loves kids. Nice cheap Christmas gift.

Some of these remarks are so pithy they have made it into our everyday speech. "Sometimes your best move is blocked by your own checkers," is one. "If you don't like the birthday girl, don't go to the party" is another. This book makes a nice small gift, too.

This is a great little book to give new moms, teachers, social workers, and anyone who loves children. It will bring smile after smile!

I gave this book to my entire business unit. I think most books on business, how to make a company better, etc. make things too complicated. If you really read each point in this book, it just applies to everything we do in both our personal and business lives. It's how I want my co-workers to behave and treat others. Take for example, the first one- "Jump right in or you might change your mind about swimming." In other words- Sometimes don't anaylze too much, just do it. Or "Ask why until you understand"- In other words, if you don't understand, keep talking until everyone does.....etc.. A GREAT BOOK!

So CUTE!! I felt like I was sitting in a school yard listening in on children talking!! Made me fell young again... lol.

This book is easy to read and has very helpful information that you can use. It contains things that you may not think about. I think if just about covers all items you would use in starting a business or just doing for yourself or helping friends with their home.

When you really want specifics on a topic, you just need a book by this author and you'll find yourself immersed in the kind of details and guidance you were hoping to get. Not one to mince words, Jennings lays it all out with precision, yet keeping the information interesting and practical and sometimes a little humorous. She's got plenty of forms, plenty of decorating training (dealing with the professional ways to arrange a client's furniture), and even more guidance on how to move a client's possessions, plus all the set up, promotional and business side of things. An excellent read.

If you're looking to do interior redesign AND home staging simultaneously, I highly recommend both books by this author as they are easy to read, provide outstanding guidance, give you information on additional helpful tools and are flat out the best you'll find on the subject. I am a teacher and always on the hunt for tidbits and gems I can pass on to my own students. I got far more than I bargained for which pleases me greatly. The information is really to the point, very detailed, very precise. Both manuals are large and packed to the brim -- no fluff like some others. Get both by this author. This is a no-brainer.

Jennings has a number of excellent books for the interior redesign and home staging business that fit together and build upon each other into a cohesive whole so that anyone can start and build a business from the ground floor up. This is her basic manual, which is filled to the brim with great advice and guidance, and she also has an advanced book called "Advanced Redesign", along with a couple more books geared for the home staging market. This book, however, shows you how to start up and set up your business, how to get clients, how to do consultations and price your services, how to market and promote it properly, and a good deal of excellent training on the design end of the business - the kind of stuff you won't get from others. For instance, at the end of the book she literally shows you the most common furniture arrangements used by professional designers. In most situations, one of these should be suitable for a typical room a person would work in. She makes the process easy to understand and gives readers the tools and examples to understand what to do, but also why they work so well.

The other books she has written show you how to add related products and services to your business to get the most out of your business that you can get. Since most people want to make profits from their business venture, the book gives you an excellent picture of how to go about doing just that, all in a clear, concise step-by-step analysis. All the books by this author are excellent and well worth the investment.

The furniture arrangement configurations in the back of the book are powerful examples of how to arrange furniture no matter what the shape or size of the room. This is worth the price of the book alone. In a nutshell, I can see the most common ways furniture should be arranged. All I have to do is select one and I should have a winning combination for any room I have to tackle. This is reassuring because I don't want to get to a client's home and not have an answer for their problems. And that's one huge gem at the end of the book, which I haven't found in any book out there.

From start to finish I found this book to be very practical, very thorough and very useful. It focuses on the single topic of starting a redesign business and doesn't get sidetracked. It also doesn't try to cover the subject with broad generalities and filler, like other books I've read. So it delivers exactly what it promises with the kind of details and thoroughness you would expect to get.

All the standard stuff about setting up a business is there, but it relates all that to a redesign business specifically. The author goes indepth on how to interview a client, how to start a project, questions you'll need to ask and the whole step by step process, including taking before and after pictures, collecting the fee and so forth. There are a generous supply of photos showing how it really is to be a redesigner (not studio pictures that are not the norm). So it accurately depicts the life of a redesigner and what we all face no matter where we live and work.

The author's style is easy to follow and conversational, which helped me stay interested throughout, even in the marketing sections that typically are less fun than the design parts. I mean, I'm a creative person, and it's harder for me to concentrate on the business side, but I know that's where I need to improve my knowledge and skill.

I enjoyed this book immensely and appreciate the tools and visual aids the author recommends. It's an excellent read.

This book and CD are a wealth of knowledge. As a person of African descent, hearing how these persons were treated in a county supposedly for freedom and equality, not only was a horrified but very angry.
I will NEVER forgive this coutry for the ill treatment and hardship that racism and bigotry ahs and still is causing.

I am currently a high school student that read part of this for a Civil War class and let me say this is one powerful book. With people who were the slaves themselves tell you their stories, you learn alot about the antebellum period. I would recommend this book for any mature person due to the fact that some of these stories show the true horror of slavery.

This is a must have, must read, must hear book. With the sixty-nine minute recording of the actual slave interviews from the 1930s, we have the only known recording of the actual voices of actual slaves telling their story. Hearing their voices is like being tele-ported back in time. The book itself also examines those same interviews, primarily through "Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves."

Teachers and speakers will want their students and audiences to hear these voices. They give voice to the voiceless and bring alive these heroic survivors.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.

For several years I've been reading powerful thought-provoking slave narratives. This is probably the most moving due to accompanying tapes of slaves discussing their thoughts and conditions when they were slaves. This book and tapes should be used in every high school American and World history classes. I recommend this book to everyone above the age of twelve. If you want to begin educating your children earlier about American history, specifically slavery have them read K.J. McWilliams books; The Journal of Darien Duff, an Emancipated Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Leroy Jones, a Fugitive Slave. They are based on slave narratives such as this one and include many interesting photos as well as additional information.

this is a Must for all to have.The Books&tapes show the RawNess and Emotions of Americas Worst NightMare that still Haunts Her.the Voices run Deep down your skin.until SLavery is Properly Discussed and Dealt with America will continue to be a Land of The Unknown.a Must Have Book.

The book explains a simple method to analyze and rewrite a sentence. The first fifty pages felt redundant, but slowly changed my view of writing. I now don't look at copy the way I used to. I'm using the method to write this review. The typical author can cut down copy by more than 50% to clearly convey a point, while respecting the reader's attention. I found the book in the bibliography of the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, another outstanding book.

I have the 2nd Edition with the $8.00 price tag still stuck on it. 20 years ago, this was a required text for Technical Writing. Now I'm writing my first technical book, and picked it up the other day. What a shock! It's still relevant, quick, funny, and very inspiring. How many college texts hold up that well?

Here's the thing. Revising Prose practices what it preaches. It shows how to mercilessly cut filler, sharpen your opinion, and ultimately to say what you really want to say. That it does this in much, much less than the usual 300 pages shows that it works pretty darn well.

Let's face it. You pay much more for a small diamond than a big piece of cubic zirconium. This is a true diamond of a book.

I'm working toward my MFA in creative writing, and ran across this book during editing classes for my BA years ago. It was a required text, and I wish I'd had it much earlier.

While ostensibly for business, academic or technical writing, I've found it very useful for fiction and creative non-fiction. If nothing else, it illustrates clearly how combinations of particular words create certain effects for the reader (examples of how to best confuse, bore, or torment a reader are always useful!) I've bought it as a gift for other writers, recommended it to collegues at work, and use the ideas in the Paramedic Method to "get the lard out" of all my writing. This book is useful to anyone who wants to write clearly. Like most of the better books on writing, it's also short, precise, and occasionally funny.

I teach college rhetoric and composition, and I ultimately decided not to order this book for my classes. The information and explanations are as good as any I've seen in a writing handbook, but I cannot justify asking students to pay this much for a book that is essentially a supplement to another textbook. The book is short and small, and I can only imagine the students' reactions when picking up the slim little volume in the student stores and seeing the price tag. They'd be too mad to read the darn thing. I give it five stars for content, but 1 star for price. Where is the price coming from? There are few copyrighted items reprinted and no color illustrations. It's just original prose in black and white in a tiny paperback. It's absurd to charge that much! I'll be placing it on reserve.

I have the 4th edition of this book, which is about 50 pages less than the 5th edition. The first two chapters and the appendix are excellent. The rest of the book is very repetitive, although periodically interesting. The author offers unique advice. I now wish I had ordered the 5th edition to see if the other 50 pages contains new information.

I have received but not started his "Analyzing Prose" book, which is very substantial and appears to contain similar material.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Shippey walks the reader through Tolkien's lifelong fascination with and love and study of language, which is the golden thread of Tolkien's depiction of humankind through the mists of our earliest time on the planet.

This book is quite simply superb in every conceiveable respect. It is written by a scholar who understands and respects Tolkien's own scholarly passion for philology, the science and stories of the evolution of words and language. This is very different from the humanistic field of literary criticism, and Shippey explains at some length what a philologist can and cannot do. The close reader will end Shippey's book with a wistful feeling that some very wrong turns have been made in academia over the past one hundred years, and one of the reasons for Tolkien's greatness in his time was quite simply his refusal to accept or acknowledge that these wrong turns had been made. At bottom, a scholar of literature is, or at least ought to be, someone who loves words. We will always have a few of these people among us, and Tolkien's and Shippey's works remind us that no overgrown pathway is ever truly lost.

Tom Shippey has an intimate knowledge of the mind and creative processes of the late Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, perhaps nearly as intimate a knowledge as Christopher Tolkien himself. The degree of the schism between language and literature professors of his day was most startling, and how that affected the early critics' appraisals of his masterpiece was also not what I had expected. Tom Shippey's knowledge of JRR Tolkien's mind is most revealing and is encyclopedic, and his ability to explain how deeply the master philologist would see legends and myths in the most ordinary of names and words left me thunderstruck. I have read all five of the main Middle Earth volumes several times and have read some of the Lost Tales, but I had not gained any insight from previous volumes saying how Pr. Tolkien created his world. The authors of those books seemed to lack legitimacy. Tom Shippey does not have that problem, and his book demonstrates that he is Pr. Tolkien's bona fide pupil and linguistic heir. Fans of Middle Earth should be thankful for Tom Shippey's insight, an insight that could only be bettered by Christopher Tolkien, or Pr. Tolkien himself.

Tom Shippey is a profound student of Tolkien with a deep love of middle-earth and a deep understanding of it and its origins.

Unlike so many academics, he is a fine writer. He has style, insight and erudition. Professor Shippey succeeded to Tolkien's chair at Oxford and he has the feeling of Tolkien's world in his bones. He knows Tolkien not only as a fantasist but also as a philologist and understands - and can explain in simple and lucid language - how Tolkien's studies of words influenced his creative work. He has also written interesting critiques of science-fiction.

This is a most valuable book that will contribute proufoundly to any reader's understanding and appreciation of Tolkien's greatness without - and this is very important! - destroying the magic.

I know Tolkien's work well and cannot fault this book.

Shippey's "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" places Tolkien in the context of his time. "The Road to Middle-earth" has the more scholastically challenging job of placing Tolkien in the context of his tradition. As that tradition is primarily philological and philosophical, these are his subjects. He tells us what Tolkien meant the words and names in his stories to mean; he tells us how Tolkien used modern language to convey modern and ancient styles and philosophies in contrast; he tells us how the Ring mediates two mutually exclusive concepts of evil; he explains Tolkien's complex narrative strategies; he dresses down critics who misunderstand Tolkien and blame him for not fitting into their concepts of literature; and he does all this with such a blistering display of erudition and general intelligence that the reader sits back amazed.

The book is discursive, and the opening theoretical chapters may seem heavy going, but have patience: they provide necessary context. Shippey has Tolkien's measure in full throughout. He explains what was important to Tolkien, what Tolkien thought he was doing, and - no less vitally - why it is necessary to understand this if one is not to bash Tolkien in annoyance for not accomplishing something totally different.

If you read Shippey, will you necessarily understand Tolkien? No. But if you don't read Shippey, and if you also don't have his insight and knowledge, you will not fully understand Tolkien.

Zeepvat didn't write anything short of an amazing book on the 19th century Romanovs. She really got into the intimate details of family life as well as writing of their political role. A must read book for all Romanov fans!

A delightful collection of stories starting with the first Nicholas and Alexandra in 1817, winding it's way to a story about the Tsesarevich Alexei. Many lesser known members of the Imperial Family are here, many who are quite interesting in and of themselves!

Very well written series of 'short stories' of different members of the Russian royal family at the turn of the 19th century, some obscure and not normally written about, which I found very refreshing. I am an avid collector of historical biographies, Russian royal family especially, but I have never seen such a comprehensive exploration of the Romanovs. Quite a few pictures I had not seen before also. All in all a great investment, and a very good read.

This book goes way beyond the normal stories of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna. Charlotte Zeepvat leads us through the personalities in the Romanov family, and what part they played in imperial Russia and its downfall. Through these biographies the reader can understand the slide from a united family to the rival factions that partly brought about the Revolution and its aftermath. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered about the imperial house of Russia , and the fate that awaited them.

This is a well written book that covers the last century of the Russian Romanov dynasty.

The author has chosen a wide focus rather than a narrow one on Nicholas II and Alexandra. For once we get to meet the other family memebers, learn about their personalities and what events shaped their lives and the fate of the dynasty.

We also get to read in detail about the various palaces and estates the family used. These are often referred to in other books without any real background information on their history or importance to the family being described. This book fills that vacume.

If you know nothing about the Romanovs this is a fantastic place to start as all these people's live stories weave in and out of each other to create an amazing and true story.