Music for the Apocalypse

Symphony for the City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2015.
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.    

I really loved this book.  If I were writing history for high school students, it's the kind of book I would be really proud of.  Symphony for the City of the Dead sheds light on a major event in history - the 900 day Siege of Leningrad - and does it through a unique lens - that of a world famous composer - Dmitri Shostakovich - who was intimately involved in the event.  M. T. Anderson also is able to handily place the event in the broader historical context of the Russian Revolution, Stalin's Great Terror and the horrors of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII.

There is so much to like about this book.  The reader experiences the heady artistic days of the early Soviet Union, the chilling and murderous days of the Stalinist purges, the horrors of a modern city under siege, and the triumph of art and inspiration amid such loss and violence.

This is a book I will definitely offer to any student looking for good WWII history or nonfiction about classical music, or history of Russia.  I hope it finds an audience. With nice black and white photos, and a clear and passionate style of writing - it should not be too much of a challenge for students, but I fear it might scare some kids off with it's 400 plus pages and their unfamiliarity with the Siege of Leningrad.

I should also mention that for any interested reader, it pairs nicely with David Benioff's wonderful novel, City of Thieves, which is set in Leningrad during the siege.

The book deserves praise and recommendation, and I see that it is on the long list for the National Book Award.

Wealth Gap Becomes Abyss

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
New York : Schwartz & Wade Books, [2014]
292 p. : ill., geneal. table, map ; 25 cm.

With the current trend of the rapidly widening gaps between the very rich and everyone else in the US and globally, the sad tale of the Romanov family ought to serve as a cautionary tale.  But how to convey the complexity of the last Russian Tsar - a timid man who desperately did not want to be the ruler of Russia, but also a dictator who gleefully launched waves of repression against dissidents and Jews which killed thousands?  And how to do it for a high school audience?  In The Family Romanov, Candace Fleming has done a remarkable job on meeting the challenge.

Her book is an extremely well researched book, but reads a lot like a novel.  She also balances the "Dowton Abbey" gawking at the obscene opulence of the Russian elite with alternating sections that powerfully describe the horrible poverty and oppression of the Russian peasantry and workers.  

from the LOC (also on the books cover)

I love reading about Russian history and about this period just before and during WWI, and this book is a great addition to that list.  Fleming does a wonderful job of including enough illustrations and of explaining the basics of the Russian Revolution (no easy task).  She also manages to flesh out each of the members of the Tsarist family and conveying the both the historical and human sides of the story of their downfall and eventual murders.

This would be a great book to recommend to any student who is curious about the Russian Revolution, but doesn't want a dry history of the events.  It answers a lot of the basic questions, but also stokes the curiosity of any historically minded person who will definitely want to read more.