>"I thought that he was tall"

by Roger Sutton
Jun 21, 2006 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>Nicholas the II, that is, but no, the late tsar was 5'7". Just in time for summer reading I've begun Greg King and Penny Wilson's The Fate of the Romanovs (Wiley) and am ineluctably reminded of my seventh-grade-summer infatuation with Robert Massie's crowd-pleasingly royalist Nicholas and Alexandra. It was one of those books I immediately reread after finishing, but I would hesitate to go back to it now--has anyone else? The Fate of the Romanovs is more of a grown-up book, and focuses on the execution of the family and subsequent attempts to ascertain just who died and when. While it sometimes reads like C.S.I. Ekaterinburg in its dense clinical forensic detail, I'm having a great time.

But while the book is satisfyingly big for a summer's read, it's too big to take along to ALA tomorrow. (As is Aidan Chambers' This Is All, my review of which is due, like, yesterday). I might pack my favorite New Orleans mystery, J. M. Redmann's The Intersection of Law and Desire, in order to scare myself to sleep, but I'm stuck for what to read on the plane. Any suggestions?
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Melinda

>I'm sorry, anon, but I'm afraid your comment made my hair stand on end, and that's a lot of hair.

Patchwork Planet wasn't her best shot, for sure, but wasn't she writing that about the time her husband died?

I like Grownups mainly because she piled about 36 characters into the book and yet was able to make them into these incredible individuals. Also I've been checking out the way she structures her books because I'd like to do that with my own books.

I do have Marriage -- I didn't like it as much (I suspect that I like Grownups better because it's a happier book, and Marriage isn't) but it's still good stuff.

To each her own, right!

Rindawriter, I'm going to check out your book, though. It sounds worthy.

Posted : Jul 05, 2006 02:50

rindawriter

>“Fourth Uncle On The Mountain: A Memoir of a Barefoot Doctor in Vietnam,” by Quang Van Nguyen. Nonfiction but what a read, what a READ! And that's saying a lot for hyperactive reader me. Packaged for adults but I'd offer it to an older YA to read did I know one personally right now.

Posted : Jun 29, 2006 04:09

Anonymous

>I love Anne Tyler, but Back When We Were Grownups sucked. Read The Amateur Marriage if you haven't--it's one of her best, at least as good as anything she wrote before she started going downhill with A Patchwork Planet.

Posted : Jun 26, 2006 02:37

Anonymous

>Greg King and Penny Wilson's "The Fate of the Romanov's" account of what happened in the Ipatiev basement affected me more strongly than anything else I have ever read or seen. It was an incredible combination of real horror AND the power of the writing used to recreate it.

Mr. King has a website: www.kingandwilson.com

Posted : Jun 25, 2006 01:50

little brother

>I'd suggest flying with one of Greg Herren's Chanse MacLeod mysteries: "murder in the rue st ann" or "jackson square jazz".

Posted : Jun 23, 2006 11:47

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