David > Recent Status Updates

I borrowed this from the Houston Public Library's electronic lending facility. alas, I hadn't finished it by the expiration of the 3rd and final renewal, so that prospect is on the sidelines for the moment.

I think this book will be a boon for fans of epic historical fiction - but I have to say that his methods of exposition are fairly primitive: a protagonist, a newcomer to Boston, engages a 10-year-old street urchin in the history of the Orange Republic, the Peace of Westphalia and the English Civil War. Stephenson could have a future writing scripts for Cold Case!

I think this book will be a boon for fans of epic historical fiction - but I have to say that his methods of exposition are fairly primitive: a protagonist, a newcomer to Boston, engages a 10-year-old street urchin in the history of the Orange Republic, the Peace of Westphalia and the English Civil War. Stephenson could have a future writing scripts for Cold Case!

I'm increasingly impressed by the epic scope of this book. Far more than just a tragic love story, it is a panorama of the intellectual turbulence in Tsarist Russia during the age of reform in the mid-19th century.

Alexei Karenina confronts Anna about the social buzz regarding her supposed liaison with Vronsky.

Chilling description of Stalinist purges during the 1948-1953 period, culminating in "the Doctors' Plot."

Reading about the coming of the Marshall Plan and its effects on European recovery.

I really began this in March, but I can't figure out how to modify the beginning date in Goodreads.