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370 reviews for:
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
M.T. Anderson
4.39 AVERAGE
370 reviews for:
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
M.T. Anderson
4.39 AVERAGE
Anderson has written a book that personalizes history. I have known of the hardships of St. Petersburg during WWII and the atrocities of the Germans. However, I never fully grasped the magnitude of that siege, nor did I know the role that Shostakovitch played in bringing that city back to life and infusing it with pride and energy. This is a wonderful and awful story. I am stunned that it is categorized as juvenile, but heartened by the reviews of some who say their own children have devoured this story. It is difficult, in my opinion, to write a story that can be read and appreciated by such a broad audience. Kudos to Anderson for his research - impeccable!
I highly recommend listening through the symphony in the background a few times as you read the book. (Occasionally it lined up for me in particularly joyous or sad occasions purely by chance).
I usually don’t listen to anything while I read as it feels like too much stimulus at once, but his writing was engaging enough to keep me focused.
This book was foray into Russia like I haven’t experienced before. The writing is well- balanced, and holds a good level of skepticism and belief in good intentions when dealing with sources of dubious credibility (He describes it well in his author’s note along the lines of: ‘how do we sift through reports of a time when falsehoods and subtlety would save your life?’).
I was never bored, never skimmed and stayed up late more than once just to read “one more” chapter.
I usually don’t listen to anything while I read as it feels like too much stimulus at once, but his writing was engaging enough to keep me focused.
This book was foray into Russia like I haven’t experienced before. The writing is well- balanced, and holds a good level of skepticism and belief in good intentions when dealing with sources of dubious credibility (He describes it well in his author’s note along the lines of: ‘how do we sift through reports of a time when falsehoods and subtlety would save your life?’).
I was never bored, never skimmed and stayed up late more than once just to read “one more” chapter.
This is a very good book, though not as amazing as I had hoped. There were times when I felt as if Anderson was telling not showing. Some of the asides and commentary pulled me out of the story. It's well-researched and interesting. I need to go back and listen to Shostakovich's music. That said, I'm afraid this one is going to be a bit of a hard sell to teens. History buffs and those interested in music will likely want to read it.
Not just for YA. A great history and biography both interesting and difficult ( horror of the time) to read.
I downloaded the music in order to listen as I read which made for even better understanding.
Not all youth will find this interesting. I would have to read aloud to many of mine if I wanted to share it with them. Hoping to do just that.
I downloaded the music in order to listen as I read which made for even better understanding.
Not all youth will find this interesting. I would have to read aloud to many of mine if I wanted to share it with them. Hoping to do just that.
Probably the best-narrated audiobook I've ever read listened to.
Narrated by the author - who has a surprisingly good voice - with bits of music sprinkled in. Which is absolutely fantastic for a biography of a composer. And can we talk about Anderson's pronunciations of foreign language words? Oy. Those German ch's. Actually produced in the throat. I love it.
I got this book for free through the Audiobook Sync program (though I'm seriously considering purchasing it through Audible because I rilly rilly liked it). I was super stoked to see M. T. Anderson up for a download - I read Thirst and Burger Wuss in high school and loved them - and figured that this was going to be another young adult book. Symphony for the City of the Dead? Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad? Sounds like some Russian zombie book. Cool. I'm down.
Omg I know nothing about history.
Leningrad was under siege? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
I am ashamed of myself.
But hey! I read this book! So now I'm that much more informed.
And there's a BUNCH of info in this book so I feel pretty informed. But also curious to go out and soak up more history - which is exactly how a really good historical book should make you feel.
I absolutely loved this. Because this is written from a highly personal perspective, it reads almost like fiction; it's incredibly accessible. And an EXTREMELY good selection by Audiobook Sync. "Suckering" teens into reading a compelling history book? Yes, please. (Let's be honest, if I had read more about this than the title and the author's name, I might not have picked it up. Maybe. It'd've at least been further down my TBR, that's for certain. But I do try to cast my reading nets pretty far outside of my book box and, well, I am trying to learn Russian atm and history comes with the territory. Anywho...)
I'm not a teen btw.... I may read like one sometimes. But. Yeah. No, I'm 28. Just sayin'. In case you were wondering..... >_>
ANYWAY! Excellent book. You should go read. Is very good. Yes.
Narrated by the author - who has a surprisingly good voice - with bits of music sprinkled in. Which is absolutely fantastic for a biography of a composer. And can we talk about Anderson's pronunciations of foreign language words? Oy. Those German ch's. Actually produced in the throat. I love it.
I got this book for free through the Audiobook Sync program (though I'm seriously considering purchasing it through Audible because I rilly rilly liked it). I was super stoked to see M. T. Anderson up for a download - I read Thirst and Burger Wuss in high school and loved them - and figured that this was going to be another young adult book. Symphony for the City of the Dead? Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad? Sounds like some Russian zombie book. Cool. I'm down.
Omg I know nothing about history.
Leningrad was under siege? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
I am ashamed of myself.
But hey! I read this book! So now I'm that much more informed.
And there's a BUNCH of info in this book so I feel pretty informed. But also curious to go out and soak up more history - which is exactly how a really good historical book should make you feel.
I absolutely loved this. Because this is written from a highly personal perspective, it reads almost like fiction; it's incredibly accessible. And an EXTREMELY good selection by Audiobook Sync. "Suckering" teens into reading a compelling history book? Yes, please. (Let's be honest, if I had read more about this than the title and the author's name, I might not have picked it up. Maybe. It'd've at least been further down my TBR, that's for certain. But I do try to cast my reading nets pretty far outside of my book box and, well, I am trying to learn Russian atm and history comes with the territory. Anywho...)
I'm not a teen btw.... I may read like one sometimes. But. Yeah. No, I'm 28. Just sayin'. In case you were wondering..... >_>
ANYWAY! Excellent book. You should go read. Is very good. Yes.
Another astonishing feat on Anderson's part. I can't help but wonder in what completely different direction he'll venture off to next.
This was a longer read than I had anticipated, but very worthwhile. The print version has several pictures and illustrations, while the audio version has snippets of Shostakovich's music throughout. I don't know whether the e-book version has embedded music files (or links to streaming music), but that would be the ultimate multimodal reading experience. It's the best sort of biography: rich in historical context with a deep dive into a moment of great significance for the subject and his times. No snark intended, but what Adele's "Hello" does for a bickering family in an SNL sketch, Shostakovich's 7th Symphony does for a city under siege and an entire nation in this telling of the circumstances surrounding the birth of the Leningrad Symphony. Having recently visited St. Petersburg, I found Anderson's depiction of the city vividly engaging, and the book provides a necessary corrective to the historical record about Stalin, whose impact on Russia is eclipsed in the modern imagination by the horrors of Nazism. It shouldn't be. I resisted the urge to purchase Stalin-themed trinkets in Russia because it felt wrong to reduce such human suffering to an object of kitsch. Now I have much clearer knowledge of just how wrong that would be. Few works of non-fiction have captured the extremes of beauty and horror as well as Anderson's novelist's flair.
informative
medium-paced
I highly suggest listening to this masterpiece so that readers can also hear snippets of Shostakovich's music throughout the story. MT Anderson narrates this heartbreaking and hopeful narrative telling the story of the USSR during the rise of Hitler and the horrors afflicted on the Russian people especially in Shostakovich's native city of Leningrad. I never fully realized how hard times had been until reading this text. It was also fascinating to get an inside look at the composer and his music.