Welcome to Litsy!

📖 (as tagged)
✒️ Ondaatje, Michael
🎥 Ocean's 8
🎤 Of Monsters and Men
🎶 On my Own (Les Miserables)
#manicmonday
#lettero
@joscho

This is my #doublespin for May and I loved this riveting read.
This was historical fiction that kept me trying to figure out how it was going to end and how this tale (inspired by the true life Children's Case during Stalin's reign) really happened in real life.
This book may also get me to dip my toe and read some Pushkin.😁
#bookspin
@TheAromaofBooks

Up until the final two sections I was entranced. I used to be fascinated by the Russian culture and politics around this time.
However, it seemed to trail off and wrap up oddly towards the end... but, the end itself, o did appreciate.
I'd like to read his other novel.

Cor, this is page turner!!
Stopping me from household chores!

I've never heard of this author and so have no expectations...
Up to page 50 and it's definitely keeping me reading!
The story starts in 1945 but then gives back story and seems to keep updating.

I have read a couple of books recently (completely by coincidence) about the treatment of people under the Stalin regime - pretty horrifying stuff. Well done historical fiction.

I really liked this book. A book of school children in 1945 Russia get into trouble. How it changes them and the lives of those around them is interesting and pulled me in. A look at Russia under Stalin from a fiction perspective with some real history thrown in.

I've admired Simon Sebag Montefiore's historical work on Russia for many years but while this is rich with detail and the sense of terror, paranoia and suspicion is well done this novel didn't work for me. The characters didn't really come to life desire all the drama and the structure was unnecessarily fragmented. The final two sections could quite easily have been covered in a couple of chapters for a tighter, more coherent story.

I had read Montefiore before and wasn't impressed but this i would recommend. Set in 1940's Russia and concerns a group of innocent teenagers who, as a result of a murder/suicide, are investigated by Stalins secret police. Its an excellent portrayal of the paranoia and distrust that was rife at the time, and i was moved on a few occasions by the plight of the students and their families grief. Stalin really is a nasty character.

The human costs of life under Stalin are clearly shown in this book, which never ceases to be human, thoughtful, and beautiful. The story is full of suspense, and left me wondering where the story ends and where truth begins.

4.5 - 5 / 5 ⭐️

This is a photo of the Lubianka prison in Moscow.

This book.

SO good so far.

#DreamingOfAColderClimate
#ReadJanuary

I don't know about you, but I have a thing about reading books in their appropriate seasons. What does THAT mean, you say? Well, I discovered this malady one July when I tried to read Wuthering Heights. Blizzardy England on a sunny day? Nyope.

So now I try to read books in their corresponding season. 😜

@RealLifeReading