Over the last few months I have done a considerable amount of reading. These novels were great reads, but the historian in me was aching for a good work of non-fiction. Enter “***Nicholas and Alexandra:|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345438310/qid=1081047035/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-3544245-8267202*** The love that ended an empire” by Robert K. Massie.

I purchased this book at ***Bunch of Grapes|http://www.bunchofgrapes.com/*** bookstore, in Vineyard Haven, with a gift card just after my college graduation. It has stayed on the shelf the last few years due to its intimidating size (613 pages). As luck would have it, upon closer examination I discovered that the last 80 or so pages were all footnotes. Silly me.

Having decided to put in the time to read I settled in for what would be a very rewarding three weeks. I have always been interested in Russian History, and especially the story of the the last Romanov Emperor, Nicholas. Massie seemlessly intertwines his biography of the Romanov family with Russian political and social history at the turn of the 20th Century.

The book is full of names you may recognize; Lenin, Trotsky, Nicholas II, Alexandra, Kaiser William; Anastasia and Rasputin. Their stories are set with the backdrops of World War I, the March Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution. Not only did I learn the dates and facts of many historical events, but I was privy to the thoughts and personal journals of many main players.

Although the book was a “dense” read (meaning that there was alot of information packed into small spaces) I never felt as if I was reading a text book. If you like politics, conspiracies, history and a bit of mystic healing, you might want to check it out.