Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport

3 reviews

camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

Helen Rappaport never misses when she writes about the final days of Imperial Russia. 

Most of her books focus on the last Tsar and his family, so it was very interesting to learn more about what happened to the Romanov relatives and the aristocracy. 

Rappaport uses a casual writing style that makes it easier to remain engaged with the information. This book was a little less conversational than some of her other books, but is still an excellent narrative history. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Death, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Suicide, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

qwerty88's review

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

Very evocative to read this book of people fleeing Russia through Odessa in June/July 2022

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Suicide, and Antisemitism

Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, War, Death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Genocide

ravensandlace's review

challenging informative slow-paced

2.0

Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

tw: death, addiction, infidelity, murder, illness, false imprisonment, poverty, child abandonment, mentions of drug use, drugging, execution, suicide 

A special thank you goes out to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read this eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

When St. Martin’s Press sends me an eARC of a book, no matter what it is, I read it. That’s just the rules around here. Luckily, St. Martin’s Press seems to know my interest and sends me books that they think I would enjoy. While this book should have been something I enjoy, I found that I just couldn’t get into it, like I wanted to. And no one is more sad about this than I am. 

I have realized, from reading this book, that I am not as well versed with the Romanovs like I thought I was. Sometimes, I overestimate my knowledge about certain things and this was the time when I did just that. There were just so many different royals, a lot of them I didn’t know and I couldn’t keep track. There was even a very nice glossary in the beginning of the book, but since I read this on a Kindle and not a physical book, I couldn’t easily flip back to it like I wanted to. That would have helped out my confusion so much. So I spent much of the time just plain confused.

Even though I spent most of my time confused, I did manage to learn a lot. I often wondered what happened to the Russian royals who survived. It’s not like they could stay in Russia after everything that happened. Turned out, they went to France, which I didn’t expect. It was sad to see that, at first, the French welcomed the Russians. After a while, they came to really resent them and the resources they used. Reminds me of America, but we won’t get into that. Or we can later if you want. I don’t mind. 

Overall, this was a rare miss with St. Martin’s Press. But that’s okay. You can’t love them all. It was a good book, I just underestimated my Russian knowledge, like I mentioned above.. That just means I need to read more books about them and I am sure my favorite publishing company has some books to help me on my quest. So don’t be afraid to let me know, St. Martin’s Press!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Suicide, Violence, and War