There Is Nothing for You Here, The Last Grand Duchess, and Good Talk

There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century, by Fiona Hill 

If you're like me, you hadn't heard of Fiona Hill until you saw her at the impeachment hearing. This book was outstanding, chronicling her life back to growing up in Bishop Durham, a mining village in northern England. 

She talks about how difficult it was for her to access resources in Thatcher's England, and how unlikely it was for her to be able to climb out of poverty and the working class to earn a Ph.D. 

As a Russia expert, Hill draws stunning similarities among the UK, the U.S., and Russia. It's one of the best sociological treatises I've read, written in a highly engaging and fascinating way. Definitely will be one of my top books this year.

Note: Russia seems to be all over my life now...I read this book before Putin invaded the Ukraine, my husband is learning Russian on Duolingo and writing a book about Russia, and we are immersed in "The Americans" (a show about Russian sleeper spies in the 1980s). Russia seems to be everywhere at the moment.

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob

I listened to Good Talk instead of reading it, not realizing until I had started that it was a graphic novel. Oops! But I actually enjoyed listening instead of reading because Jacob narrates it with a cast of others. 

Good Talk is Jacob's memoir about being an American, and it was inspired by her son's questions about what it means to be Black and brown and immigrant in America. 

She shares the deep conversations she has with her family, including her white Jewish husband, and the challenges of being a first-generation American. 

When Jacob was growing up in India, her family discounted her because of her dark skin...so she also shares the travails of being a daughter of India. Excellent book! 

The Last Grand Duchess, by Bryn Turnbull 

I heard the author speak on a webinar, and the topic--about Olga Romanov and the Russian revolution--intrigued me. First I tried the author's first book (The Woman Before Wallis) on audio, and I just could not get into it. At first I thought it might have just been the fact I find it hard to do audio fiction...but I don't think that was it.

My mother-in-law's family fled Russia around the time of the Russian revolution. Her name is Olga. I had a great-aunt Olga (my family incidentally is from Bukovenia, which is now the Ukraine). So I wanted to like this book. I love historical fiction. But I found it lacking, sadly, and it's hard to pinpoint why.

Part of the problem is that each chapter flips back and forth between the years. There's far too much jerking around. 

I also got tired of all the excess, frankly (similar feelings as Turnbull's previous book), and couldn't help but think about the oligarchy and autocracy in Russia right now. Also, although Turnbull qualifies the rule of the czar in her notes at the end, I couldn't get away from the horrible things the czar did during his reign.

There was just something about the writing style that didn't pull me in.

I know some people are drawn to stories of wealth, glamour, and royalty, but I suppose at this stage in my life I can't help but see through it all.