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The Romanov Sisters
- The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
A New York Times Bestseller for 12 weeks!
"Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses." —People magazine
"The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters' thoughtfulness and intelligence." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
They were the Princess Dianas of their day—perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses—Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov—were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle.
Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution, the nightmare that would sweep their world away, and them along with it.
The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.
Critic reviews
“Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia” —People
“The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters' thoughtfulness and intelligence. Readers will be swept up in the author's leisurely yet informative narrative as she sheds new light on the lives of the four daughters.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In their time, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were depicted in international accounts as a cute, indistinguishable quartet. But Rappaport brings out each one's character and does it neatly, with a fine touch. . . . While we know that the family's fate will be tragic, the girls don't, and Rappaport, with a light hand and admiring eyes, allows the four Grand Duchesses to grow on us as they grow up.” —Christian Science Monitor
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- The Life of Queen Victoria
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Her Little Majesty is a fresh and fascinating portrait of the diminutive monarch who ruled the vast British empire for over 60 years. Award-winning biographer and historian, Carolly Erickson, transports you behind the walls of Buckingham Palace to introduce you to the quirky, loveable Queen Victoria—revealed only to her closest associates. Emotionally deprived, inadequately educated, and socially isolated for much of her life, young Victoria felt ill-prepared to ascend the throne.
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Disappointing after Josephine.
- By Debra V on 08-24-21
By: Carolly Erickson
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The Glitter and the Gold
- The American Duchess - In Her Own Words
- By: Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home: Blenheim Palace. The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era.
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Facinating Story- Terrible reading
- By Ashley D on 03-27-14
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George and Marina
- Duke and Duchess of Kent
- By: Christopher Warwick
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
For eight brief years, before he was tragically killed in a mysterious air crash during the Second World War, Prince George, Duke of Kent, son of King George V and Queen Mary, and his beautiful wife, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, were the British monarchy's - indeed, high society's - most glamorous royal couple; and as golden royal icons, they are still remembered.
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Engaging
- By Jean on 06-02-17
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Queen Victoria's Children
- By: John Van der Kiste
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort, had nine children, who, despite their very different characters, remained a close-knit family. Inevitably, as they married into European royal families, their loyalties were divided and their lives dominated by political controversy. This is not only the story of their lives in terms of world impact but also of personal achievements in their own right, individual contributions to public life in Britain and overseas, and as the children of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort.
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Was the narrator just too bored?
- By James Bruce on 03-16-18
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the setting for Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Catherine Wendell.
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Not what was advertised
- By Jessica C Anderson on 09-10-19
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Victoria & Abdul (Movie Tie-in)
- The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant
- By: Shrabani Basu
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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History’s most unlikely friendship - this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearest companion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of her two great loves - Prince Albert and John Brown - Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart.
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Honestly, can’t finish yet.
- By Cassie on 12-30-17
By: Shrabani Basu
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Victoria: The Queen
- An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
- By: Julia Baird
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe. In a world where women were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand.
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Masterpiece!!
- By DKSTRYKER on 01-07-24
By: Julia Baird
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Effie
- The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais
- By: Suzanne Fagence Cooper
- Narrated by: Sophie Ward
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. She met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle.
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Fascinating Story--Victoriana
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
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The Churchills: In Love and War
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was a soldier of such genius that a lavish palace, Blenheim, was built to honor his triumphs. Succeeding generations of Churchills sometimes achieved distinction but also included profligates and womanizers, and were saddled with the ruinous upkeep of Blenheim. The Churchills were an extraordinary family: ambitious, impecunious, impulsive, brave, and arrogant. Winston - recently voted "The Greatest Briton" - dominates them all. His failures and triumphs are revealed in the context of a poignant and sometimes tragic private life.
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Grand! In it's own wonderful way.
- By Cookie on 12-05-11
By: Mary S. Lovell
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Marie Therese, Child of Terror
- The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
- By: Susan Nagel
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman, from her birth, to her upbringing by doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration, and, finally, her reincarnation as saint and matriarch.
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Essential reading for students of Bourbon history
- By Adeliese Baumann on 03-07-13
By: Susan Nagel
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The Sisters
- The Saga of the Mitford Family
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Annie Wauters
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana was the most hated woman in England; and Unity Valkyrie, born in Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
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Great story, terrible reader
- By Victoria on 02-27-14
By: Mary S. Lovell
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The Last Days of the Romanovs
- Tragedy at Ekaterinburg
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Helen Rappaport, an expert in the field of Russian history, brings you the riveting day-by-day account of the last 14 days of the Russian Imperial family, in this first of two books about the Romanovs. The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.
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GREAT
- By courtney on 08-31-17
By: Helen Rappaport
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Clementine
- The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
- By: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By Winston Churchill's own admission, victory in the Second World War would have been "impossible without her". Until now, however, the only existing biography of Churchill's wife, Clementine, was written by her daughter. Sonia Purnell finally gives Clementine her due with a deeply researched account that tells her life story, revealing how she was instrumental in softening FDR's initial dislike of her husband and paving the way for Britain's close relationship with America.
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Exasperating At Times But Very Good--
- By Gillian on 04-09-18
By: Sonia Purnell
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Don't waste money on this book.
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The Race to Save the Romanovs
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The murder of the Romanov family in July 1918 horrified the world, and its aftershocks still reverberate today. In Putin's autocratic Russia, the Revolution itself is considered a crime, and its anniversary was largely ignored. In stark contrast, the centenary of the massacre of the imperial family will be commemorated in 2018 by a huge ceremony to be attended by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. While the murder itself has received major attention, what has never been investigated in detail are the various plots behind the scenes to save the family.
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Very disappointing
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
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Peter Moore's Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the true story of what may be the most successful import in US history: the "American dream." Centered on the friendship between Benjamin Franklin and the British publisher William Strahan, and featuring figures including the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes, and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776.
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Review
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When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had.
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touching
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The Last Days of the Romanovs
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Helen Rappaport, an expert in the field of Russian history, brings you the riveting day-by-day account of the last 14 days of the Russian Imperial family, in this first of two books about the Romanovs. The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.
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GREAT
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Jefferson's Daughters
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Don't waste money on this book.
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Sacrifice
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A story of honor, heroism and courage
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The Race to Save the Romanovs
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The murder of the Romanov family in July 1918 horrified the world, and its aftershocks still reverberate today. In Putin's autocratic Russia, the Revolution itself is considered a crime, and its anniversary was largely ignored. In stark contrast, the centenary of the massacre of the imperial family will be commemorated in 2018 by a huge ceremony to be attended by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. While the murder itself has received major attention, what has never been investigated in detail are the various plots behind the scenes to save the family.
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Very disappointing
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Peter Moore's Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the true story of what may be the most successful import in US history: the "American dream." Centered on the friendship between Benjamin Franklin and the British publisher William Strahan, and featuring figures including the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes, and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776.
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It Ended Badly
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Spanning eras and cultures from ancient Rome to medieval England to 1950s Hollywood, Jennifer Wright's It Ended Badly guides you through the worst of the worst in historically bad breakups. In the throes of heartbreak, Emperor Nero had just about everyone he ever loved - from his old tutor to most of his friends - put to death. Oscar Wilde's lover, whom he went to jail for, abandoned him when faced with being cut off financially from his wealthy family.
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Shallow, poorly researched, forced humor
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The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
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Here is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs - at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming (Amelia Lost; The Lincolns) deftly maneuvers between the imperial family’s extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses, making this an utterly mesmerizing listen as well as a perfect resource for meeting Common Core standards.
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terrible narration
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By: Candace Fleming
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The Sinner and the Saint
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- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Sinner and the Saint is the deeply researched and immersive tale of how Dostoevsky came to write this great murder story - and why it changed the world. As a young man, Dostoevsky was a celebrated writer, but his involvement with the radical politics of his day condemned him to a long Siberian exile. There, he spent years studying the criminals that were his companions. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in the 1860s, he fought his way through gambling addiction, debilitating debt, epilepsy, the deaths of those closest to him, and literary banishment.
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Interesting topic (Dostoevsky, that is)
- By Jeffrey D on 06-24-22
By: Kevin Birmingham
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American Rule
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Performance
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Story
In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations.
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Truth
- By Laurie on 09-28-20
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The War Before the War
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Overall
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For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights.
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Great promise greater disappointment
- By Amazon Customer on 12-09-18
By: Andrew Delbanco
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What the Ermine Saw
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- By: Eden Collinsworth
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would not only capture Cecilia’s beguiling beauty but also reflect the grandeur of his title. But when the portrait was finished, Leonardo’s brush strokes had conveyed something deeper by revealing the essence of Cecilia’s soul.
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So Many Names
- By Sue Solomon on 12-13-22
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After the Romanovs
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- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
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Paris has always been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland.
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Well written and researched- A Romanov PostScript
- By Pita on 07-24-22
By: Helen Rappaport
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Tecumseh and the Prophet
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- By: Peter Cozzens
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than 20 years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States. Tecumseh and the Prophet presents the untold story of the Shawnee brothers - the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America.
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Excellent. Good companion to other Tecumseh bios
- By Chris on 11-05-20
By: Peter Cozzens
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Founding Martyr
- The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
- By: Christian Di Spigna
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution. Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade.
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really mixed
- By Amazon Customer on 07-16-22
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Into the Deep
- A Memoir from the Man Who Found Titanic
- By: Robert D. Ballard, Christopher Drew
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The legendary explorer of the Titanic shares inside stories of danger, suspense, and discovery - plus previously untold stories about his own dyslexia and how it has shaped his life.
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A Study of the Ego
- By Thomas on 06-08-21
By: Robert D. Ballard, and others
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An Illuminated Life
- Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
- By: Heidi Ardizzone
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What would you give up to achieve your dream? When J. P. Morgan hired Belle da Costa Greene in 1905 to organize his rare book and manuscript collection, she had only her personality and a few years of experience to recommend her. Ten years later, she had shaped the famous Pierpont Morgan Library collection and was a proto-celebrity in New York and the art world, renowned for her self-made expertise, her acerbic wit, and her flirtatious relationships. Born to a family of free people of color, Greene changed her name and invented a Portuguese grandmother to enter White society.
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A Remarkable Woman
- By HistoryNerd on 01-25-22
By: Heidi Ardizzone
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A Magnificent Obsession
- Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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After the untimely death of Prince Albert, the Queen and her nation were plunged into a state of grief so profound that this one event would dramatically alter the shape of the British monarchy. For Britain had not just lost a prince: during his 20-year marriage to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert had increasingly performed the function of King in all but name. The outpouring of grief after Albert's death was so extreme that its like would not be seen again until the death of Princess Diana 136 years later.
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All consuming grief
- By Flatbroke on 06-15-13
By: Helen Rappaport
What listeners say about The Romanov Sisters
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-25-15
fascinating
well read. poignant .could not put this down.reread some parts and cried. history is cruel.
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- courtney
- 07-19-17
AMAZING!
I really enjoyed this book! I will defiantly try to find more by this author and narrator regarding this subject.
I think the narration is what really made the book come to life. As interesting as the story is, it is filled with heartache and the narrator does a wonderful job at expressing that.
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- Danielle
- 04-17-17
Lovely Tale of History
What did you love best about The Romanov Sisters?
I loved how I was able to get an insider view on daily life and events of the family. I felt like I was right there. Also, I enjoyed that details such as the crushes the sisters had on their guy friends and possible suitors was added and not made to seem petty or childish. It really made it that much more personable to the listener because afterall they were children and were still able to retain many of the aspects of childhood.
What other book might you compare The Romanov Sisters to and why?
I'm not sure as this is the first book I've read about the Romanov family.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I really felt sad for the family knowing what their future was and their diminishing hope at the end. I wish they had been able to escape and live out their lives elsewhere. They were just as human as any other family.
Any additional comments?
Highly recommended.
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- Mary Hirsch
- 08-09-18
Deeply personal and moving portrait
Although there is even more to know about the internal lives and thoughts of the Romanov sisters, whatever records and memories would tell us that inner reality did not survive the awful history of those times. This book dives as deeply as it is possible to go in the wake of their murders.
I was riveted by the haunting details of the sisters' practical upbringing inside a beautiful, gilded world. A world that vanished around them so abruptly, leaving them to survive as best they could in the wake of the mess their parents made of their own lives and influence in spite of their noble intentions. The book portrays parents Nicholas and Alexandra as loving, well-intentioned and good-hearted, but terribly equipped, emotionally and educationally, to cope with the changes that overwhelmed them. Their intransigent beliefs trapped their grown and almost-grown children, as well as themselves, in an impossible situation that was not of the children's making.
Clearly, at some point the daughters seem to have realized that they had no future to call their own. That they were living out the last days of their parents' lives and, thereby, their own lives as well. During their captivity their writings show that they seem to have given up the idea of their prospects as some of the most marriageable royalty in Europe to the knowledge that their lives would be short, and with nothing ever to truly call their own. The stoicism and courage of these four young and spirited women, to endure these days with grace and dignity, is a monument to the resiliency of the human spirit.
One of the most shocking revelations to me personally was the number of opportunities to escape that were discarded by Nicholas and Alexandra, even for just their children if not for themselves. Their inflexible commitment to remaining Russian royalty doomed the entire family (a principal they clung to in spite of Nicholas' abdication).
The book portrays a good and decent family that lived out high ideals inside a decadent, crumbling world of titles and privilege. But their ideals alone were not enough to bring them through the collapse of the only world order they knew or would accept.
I gave the "Story" rating a 4 rather than a 5 for two reasons:
The first is that the story assumes that the reader knows the historical events and contexts. The book only occasionally offers the briefest notes as to what was going on outside the palace walls. Even the death of Rasputin and its immediate aftermath are only lightly sketched. The reasons the royal family were 'arrested' (taken hostage) would not be understood if this book were the only source of information. Possibly this was because explaining such a complex situation might have threatened to double the length of the book, not to mention derail and change the royalist character of the story.
The second reason was the author's subtle assumptions the royals were inherently in the right, and dissenters in the wrong. It might be hard to present this story without a basically royalist viewpoint, but there were a number of spots that were rather dismissive and even disparaging of egalitarian sentiments.
I didn't score either way on a significant missing detail, and that is the insistence of many historians that the daughters may have, even probably had unpleasant sexual encounters with their soldier guards during the family's captivity. The book does not mention the possibility. It does portray their lives in captivity as being more like house arrest, with the family living all together, separately from their captors. The author does say that the guards were an intrusive presence, but mostly as a crude and noisy background to their family life.
A more well-rounded presentation of these background events as they unfolded might have cast more light on the awkward position of the royal family. But at the same time there is almost no information available telling us what the daughters specifically knew and thought of the revolution and the social unrest that sealed their doom. Their writings were careful as they understood that unfriendly censors were reading. One thing clear from the book is that, before the family's arrest at least, the daughters led a very sheltered life, and even as the two oldest moved into adulthood, older adults controlled what information they received about the outside world.
We are left to wonder how much at least the oldest two girls, Olga 22 and Tatiana 21, did know about the external events of the revolution. They certainly seemed to understand the precarious position of their own family, though. Maria was 19 and Anastasia 17, so they were not children at the time of the family's imprisonment and execution.
Haunting book. I will never forget this immersion into the lives of these four girls, born to a family who were caught in the maw of a bloody revolution.
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- Kristie
- 07-15-15
Great Read
provided so much history about these four girls, their family, and the tragic end of their young lives.
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- NPGer
- 04-04-22
Captivating but abrupt ending
Except for the abrupt ending a very well written account of the Romanova sisters life's.
Everything is very detailed until the very end - I guess the author wanted to spare the reader unfortunately.
The speaker was fantastic I really enjoyed Xe Sands performance.
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- Patricia
- 01-27-15
Enthralling, I couldn't stop listening.
The Russian Revolution was a part of world history I was not overly knowledgeable about, and found fascinating from the viewpoint of the Imperial Family. Meticulously researched and wonderfully written, and performed with such empathy never crossing over to melodrama. One of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.
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- Gaynell
- 02-14-15
The lives they lived.
So enjoy the Romanov Family and the lives they lived, so close and loving, I have been to where they died and have been interested in their lives and was not disappointed by the book. It is a window into the life and people of Russia.
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- Mel
- 06-16-16
Good story about the Romanov's a little redundant
Interesting story. I'll start off with what I didn't like which is not a fatal flaw. I listen to Audible in my car while driving long distances from time to time. We had a 9 hour journey so my husband and I downloaded this book The narrators' tone ebbed and flowed and dropped off to a whisper as she closed her sentences . My husband complained that it was like we were being read a bedtime story. It was annoying because we couldn't hear and had to jump back to listen again, turning the volume way up to catch what she said. The story went on and on about the same thing but just said in different ways seemingly for hours. Perhaps it paints a good picture of how mundane the lives of the Romanov family was . It was interesting to find out just how sheltered and disconnected this family was from the world and the issues of Russia while they lived in their bubble. It was clear how loving the family was and devoted the Czar and Alexandra were to their children. It's a good read if you are into learning about the war in Russia in the early 1900's from the perspective of the royalty and elite.
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- Kandice San Miguel
- 12-09-22
Excellent Account!
Well researched account of the Romanov family. Very accurate and well written. Would absolutely recommend.
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