100 books like Hessian Tapestry

An undoubted classic and one of the first books - if not the first - to treat the subject of Nicholas and Alexandra and their son Alexei’s hemophilia with a little sympathy.

Massie had a hemophiliac son but his regard for Rasputin as Alexei’s healer still leaves something to be desired.

This was the first Royal history book I ever read and it hooked me into the world of Queen Victoria and her descendants.

It is a classic, standard biography of Victoria - an excellent overview of her life as a woman in a man’s world, her marriage and her widowhood. Many biographies since have dissected various aspects of Victoria’s life without giving a good general telling of her story. But this is what Elizabeth Longford does - with a writing style that flows and is so so easy to read.

It is “warts and all” -  Victoria was not the easiest of characters, had steaming rows with Albert, was dictatorial as a mother, and a professional widow. I came away feeling as though I knew Victoria.

More importantly, this book made me want to find out more about her family, and royal history in general. It influenced me so much… show more.

Victoria had 9 children and 42 grandchildren and was nicknamed “Grandmama of Europe” before Mr. Aronson used it to title his book.

Of them, one was an Emperor, one a King, and 5 were consorts of rulers; whilst most of the others married into European royal families. This overview weaves their stories together like a novel, taking us to the First World War, the fall of Empires at the end of the war, and then on into the last century where, of the 7 European monarchies still on thrones, 5 are descended from Victoria - the other 2 related to Victoria.

Don’t worry, you won’t get lost, Mr. Aronson uses family nicknames to differentiate which Victoria or William is which.

Royal history centres around marriages, but one thing that rarely happened in the 19th century was intermarriage between Protestant and Catholic houses. 

In an effort to find out about the families that  Victoria’s descendants didn’t marry into, I read this book and came across the Habsburg dynasty and a European icon - Empress Elizabeth. Known as Sisi, Elizabeth was a stunning beauty who captivated the Emperor of Austria. He was supposed to be marrying her sister. The poor sister was dropped, Sisi and the Emperor married and lived not very happily ever after. She hated being an Empress and became an eccentric recluse.

There are lots of books about Sisi, many painting her a tragic heroine, and some as a selfish egomaniac. Haslip doesn’t judge, she just states the facts in a very readable way, allowing you to form your own opinion.

Do read this before watching the Romy Schneider… show more.

While the city sleeps a small boy accompanies his dad on his night shift as a school custodian, playing ball in the gym while his dad sweeps, sharing a meal they brought with them, listening to a game on the radio as they go from classroom to classroom, reading aloud on a couch until he dozes off while his dad polishes the library. I love this story for its tender sense of togetherness and for sharing the adult world of work. The night time makes it special too.

Steppenwolf is part funhouse reverie and part rumination on class division and loneliness, and it’s steeped in Hesse’s fascination with the sublime.

It’s not necessarily a fun read—at times, it’s downright frustrating—but it has the cajones to be frustrating, and that’s fine by me. Hesse employs a version of Jungian analysis in this book, and I enjoy the multiple "selves" that the protagonist Harry Haller (a substitute for Herman Hesse himself?) inhabits.

Siddhartha is a profound exploration of spirituality, self-discovery, and the pursuit of meaning in life.

It encourages readers to seek their own paths, embrace the present moment, and develop a deep sense of interconnectedness with the world around them. The books protagonist Siddhartha encounters various forms of suffering throughout his journey, and he comes to recognize the necessity and inevitability of pain and hardship in life.

The novel teaches that true wisdom and growth can arise from embracing and accepting suffering rather than trying to escape or avoid it.

I can not express how moved I was by this book. I have read extensively on Henry VIII but this book truly brought him to life. We see him not as the obese king with a fondness for the axeman, but as a smart, emotional, however somewhat egotistical, young king. We watch Henry age, fall in and out of love, and become an old man with many health problems. The characters in this book are so very real and George did a tremendous job bringing the court of Henry VIII alive for her readers.

This book focuses on another woman from Russian history. Grand Duchess Elisavyeta was the sister of Tsarina Alexandra, the wife of Tsar Nicholas II. A woman of privilege and power, the grand duchess enjoyed all of the luxuries Russia had to offer until the murder of the Tsar Nicholas and his family. But this story also centers on Pavel, the son of serfs, who seeks a new life in St. Petersburg. The lives of Pavel and Elisavyeta intertwine as revolution changes them and their country. Both of these characters, one coming from privilege and the other from poverty, are well-defined and represent the chaos of their times.

The captivating ending to this book is tragic, where violence begets more violence, yet Alexander captures the humanity of both characters.

This is the personal account of the family of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra as told by their children’s French-language tutor. Gilliard, who spent the years 1905-1918 in the bosom of the imperial family, came to know the family well, and hence had nearly unprecedented access to them. Gilliard succeeds in fleshing out the personalities of the ill-fated family who were devoted to each other, to God, and to Russia. He also highlights in vivid detail the impact of the Tsarevich Alexis’s hemophilia on him, his family, and most especially his distraught mother. Thanks to Gilliard, we come to understand the impact Rasputin had on the Tsarina and her hemophiliac son, whose illness was a closely guarded secret.

The Swiss-born Gilliard notes in his book that he was so “appalled” by the countless “absurdities and falsehoods” written about Nicholas II and his family that he was compelled to “rehabilitate… show more.