Really looking forward to reading this book which was so generously sent to me by Canongate in Edinburgh. When I've read it, I'll make a journal entry then send it on it's merry way to someone else.

Thanks again Canongate!

This is not the sort of book I normally read but this illustrates one of the many reasons I love BookCrossing - the opportunity to try something different from time to time! And this was different! Although I enjoyed the story, particularly the last third where things seem to move quickly, I found I didn't really like some of the characters, Sonya in particular. What a horrid woman, no wonder Tolstoy ran away!

Thanks to Canongate books for the opportunity to read this book - I'll be popping it in the post tomorrow to my US friend, KimKerry, a champion releaser of books!

Good luck on your journey little book!

PS And do you know what I found when I was looking for another book to RABCK to someone? A sweet little paperback by Alexei Tolstoy called Nikita's Childhood, with little sketch drawings throughout it which I didn't even know I had! Must've been one of my charity shop finds. It was published by Raduga Publishers in the (then) USSR. In the inside cover there's an inscription:

To Alexander
from Granny
Moscow June 1983

Looking forward to seeing what this one has in store!

This little book had quite the mysterious and long travel before it arrived in my mailbox this afternoon! (But it arrived!)

Thank you so much, house-elfdobby! As soon as I finish Atonement I'll "attack" this novel.

Hurrah! And if that was airmail, I dread to think how long snail mail would have taken! I could've walked there quicker!

Overall, this was a fascinating, very different read – and I mean that in a positive way.

However, I wish I’d read some Tolstoy before tackling the book. Several times, I found myself putting the book down and going online to find information about Tolstoy – his life, his essays, his philosophical and religious beliefs. I will definitely read some of his work now. Anna Karenina sounds as though it might be good into to Tolstoy’s work. I definitely want to purchase Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy.

At first I struggled with the Russian names and therefore the flip-flopping narrations, but I more or less went with the flow after a while. With the exception of Tolstoy, I found the characters to be extreme, almost cartoonish – like the characters in some of the action films that are popular now. Sofya/Sonya, who seemed to have this chilly ‘dead zone’ in her emotional psyche, was one sorry female. To me she was of a mix of:
black-and-white thinking/shove the dirt under the carpet/paranoid Hillary Clinton,
“I have only your best interests at heart but excuse me while I run over you with my tank” Rosie O’Donnell (sans any glimmer of humor), and
that Borg-woman from Star Trek, Seven-of-Nine.

I was in Russia less than two years ago. I was struck by what seemed to be a dark brooding, a depression in many of the people. (With their history and recent economic turmoil, who can blame them, but…) This, too, came through in the book, though the time period is long ago. (Some things don't change.)

Parini’s writing style is easy, descriptive, captivating.

Thank you, house-elfdobby, for sharing this book with me!

Book was sent off Wednesday, Jan. 30 to jessibud.

Enjoy!

Hmmm, after reading the previous journal notes, I am beginning to wonder if this book's errant ways, taking the *scenic route* (as my dad used to call it) on its travels, is destined to become part of its lore! Three weeks from Arizona to Toronto!!! (on another weird note, I sent a book to England a few weeks ago and it arrived in 2 DAYS!! Go figure! And I sent it surface mail)

Thanks, Kim, I will try to get to it in a timely fashion but I have a few books ahead of it in the queue and it is report-card writing time again...;-p

Well, it was not meant to be. I, too, haven't read Tolstoy (though I did the the film version of Anna Karenina). I can see by the amount of time this one has languished on my shelf that it is not likely to make it to the top of Mt. TBR any time soon, so I will bring it to the next meetup and hope someone else will grab it.

'Caught at a pub meetup last Friday. I see an 8 star rating, so will give it a shot, but there are a few books to go .... if time really drags on... 'will take it to OBCZ/Starbucks, Yonge & Bloor. The shelves probably need "plumping" since last visit.