Four Sisters by Helen Rappaport

I have had an abiding interest in the family of the last Tsar of Russia, his wife, children and extended family since I read Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K Massie when I was 15 years old which is now quite along while ago, to me they are almost family.

I had always hoped that a book would be written about Nicholas' four daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia and now it has.

Helen Rappaport has written a number of books on the Romanovs, each a very good read but this book stands out for the sensitive and caring manner in which Rappaport has unravelled the lives of these four young women who have largely been overshadowed by their haemophiliac brother Alexis and the shadow cast over their lives by Rasputin, on whom their Mother, Alexandra developed a most unhealthy reliance.

Each of the four is given her own distinctive voice, we follow them from birth to death and watch as each develops and flowers, until history chops them down in what really was a callous and brutal destruction of lives tainted only by the happenence of their births.

Although over protected and cocooned by their mother, by the time the girls died in 1918 at 22, 20, 19 and 17 respectively they had in their own way lived full lives, much of the latter part devoted to serving others and although a coat of immaturity and a lack of social awareness surrounded them, they had grown into kind, caring and loving young women.

This book is wonderfully researched, offering even to myself who has read everything written about them new information and tidbits.

Very well written, the book moves at an even pace, it is fair and balanced and offers a well rounded portrait that sheds new light on the often over looked Romantic Aspect of the girls lives, letters and diary entries complement the text and the book is very well illustrated, it was especially nice to see photographs that were new to my practised eye.

All in all, a fabulous read especially for those who have a special interest in Russian History and the lives of the Romanovs.

As an aside, it also got me thinking that with the line of hemophilia coming down through the maternal line, had these girls lived and married into Royalty, would we today see this now well controlled disease in our own Royals......

Available in trade paperback and through the Library System.

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen...reviewed by Suzie Gurr.

I read, adored and reviewed this book earlier in the year. I passed it on to Suzie and she loved it so much that I think it is well worth posting a second review of this wonderful book, it took me quite while to pass my copy on and I still haven`t managed to let go of my copy of Caroline Leavitt`s Pictures of You, so book lovers will understand Suzie`s feelings!
The Bird Sisters is one of the few books I have read that, having reached the last word, made me want to turn straight back to page one so I could savour it all over again. As I handed it to the next reader in my sharing group I wanted to snatch it back and hug it tightly to me. I had to force my hands to let it go. It is that good that it must be shared!!
It is a sensitive portrait of two elderly sisters, Milly and Twiss, who live together in Spring Green, Wisconsin. and to whom locals bring injured birds for medical attention. One day, a mother and her children bring the sisters a bird they accidentally ran over. The bird is beyond help but the sisters try everything they know anyway. They understand that once a bird has lost his ability to fly, it`s like losing a leg. The freedom of movement and of spirit, it granted you are things that we cannot live without.
In the course of conversation with the family, Milly lets slip that Santa isn`t real, upsetting both the mother and her daughter. Milly is told, "Only a person without children would say something like that". This cruel, thoughtless remark transports Milly back to the summer of 1947, when the girls were young.
That was the summer of The Accident, and also the summer that cousin Bett came to visit, the summer that everything changed. The rest of the book alternates between flashbacks and glimpses of the sisters` lives in the present day. The result is a beautiful, heartbreakingly tender, poignant story of sacrifice, sisterly love, the disintegration of a family, the strengthening of self and incredibly difficult selfless decisions.
Anyone not emotionally affected by the sisters, their story and the beauty of Rebecca Rasmussen`s writing would have to be dead! I will read it again and probably again. Next time I will have a notebook handy so I can write down some of the memorable quotable phrases.

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen

At the primary school that I work at we teach the children to paint pictures with words which is exactly what Rebecca Rasmussen has done in her rather marvellous novel The Bird Sisters.
At is axis is the deeply entwined and linked lives of Milly and Twiss, two sisters whose lives are a testimony to the givingness of love and its ability to take you to those places that could easily be replaced by loves rival: bitterness.
Surrounded by dysfunction and well aware of how their community perceives them; wiry, strong, steadfast, canny, cunning, caustic and humorous to a fault these sisters will leave you with a dusting of magic and an awareness that life's often rocky path can be a testimony to the ability of the human spirit to forgive, to love, to find goodness, to be empathetic and in touch with what really matters without losing hope and with an ability to look at life with a wonderment that belies age and life experiences.
It speaks to Rasmussen's ability that as you read each page you can smell the smells, feel the grass, see the lightning, walk the greens, visualise Daddy's barn workings, understand Mummy's obsession with A Day In the Life of... identify with the remoteness, the isolation, futile dreams, betrayal, the ashes of failure and yet at no time is this book depressing. It is lush and vivid, lifting the spirit and hooking one into a bonding with Milly and Twiss and an understanding of those that surround them with a richness and compassion that leaves you thinking... how amazing!
And did I mention the humour, its there in all its glory.