Any book suggestion to read before seeing St. Petersburg?

[alwayslost]

I've done this twice, meaning read a book relevant to the area before the cruise. (I don't mean a travel/guide book.) By reading a book, it adds a dimension while visiting the place.

 

For example, before we went for our British Isles cruise - I read "Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society." This was a fun "fiction" book that made me see Guernsey in a different light. "Bells of Nagasaki" for our Japan cruise.

 

So anybody has any suggestion for any fun or good book somehow related to St. Petersburg? Can be history, fiction, etc.

 

But if anybody has a good suggestion for a "light" history book to read, would appreciate that as well.

 

Thanks

[Pluto_fan]

There was a great thread on this topic a few years ago...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1561110

Good suggestions for St. Petersburg as well as other typical stops on a Baltic itinerary.

 

Happy reading, and enjoy your cruise!

[4774Papa]

If you are interested in history, there is an excellent book on Russian History.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Chronicles-Thousand-Years-Changed/dp/1858333970/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391780021&sr=1-1&keywords=russian+chronicles

 

If you want to focus on STP, this is a great book.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Great-His-Life-World/dp/0345298063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391780079&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+the+great+by+robert+massie

[Scriv]

Thanks for asking this question, always lost and thanks to both people of you who replied. I was wondering that too.

[L. Ron Halfelven]

I don't know if it really qualifies as "light", but Sunlight at Midnight by W. Bruce Lincoln is a good history of the city. (Though some of the Amazon reviewers complain, with some justice, of the heavy emphasis on early history and the great palaces and public buildings, this probably makes the book more useful to a tourist than a more balanced account might be.)

[4774Papa]

Here is an excellent guidebook

http://www.amazon.com/DK-Eyewitness-Travel-Guide-Petersburg/dp/0756695007

[gato4]

Peter Massie's "Catherine the Great" is on my per-cruise reading list. I read "The Bronze Horseman" a few years ago--good story, very steamy in parts!

 

 

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[Alaskanb]

Highly recommend you look at the very extensive original list.

[blinked]

I've done this twice, meaning read a book relevant to the area before the cruise. (I don't mean a travel/guide book.) By reading a book, it adds a dimension while visiting the place.

 

For example, before we went for our British Isles cruise - I read "Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society." This was a fun "fiction" book that made me see Guernsey in a different light. "Bells of Nagasaki" for our Japan cruise.

 

So anybody has any suggestion for any fun or good book somehow related to St. Petersburg? Can be history, fiction, etc.

 

But if anybody has a good suggestion for a "light" history book to read, would appreciate that as well.

 

Thanks

 

A good light history book is St Petersburg, the story of an Imperial City/The Romanovs by John Lawrence. This covers the history that you need to know in a very concise fashion and is very easy to read. I think that it is still available.

[CoralReef]

Robert Massie's "Peter the Great".

 

We read his Peter book, his Catherine book, and his Nicholas & Alexandra book. All are great, but the Peter book will give you the most background for the sites you'll see.

 

It also helped us win a bottle of vodka in the SPB trivia contest.

[alwayslost]

Thank you everyone!!! It seems I'll be reading and enjoying a lot of books. I really appreciate the replies!

[4774Papa]

More good Russia reading

 

http://www.amazon.com/Land-Firebird-Beauty-Old-Russia/dp/096441841X/ref=sr_1_46?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392131359&sr=1-46

 

If you are interested in spy history

http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Shield-Mitrokhin-Archive-History/dp/0465003125/ref=sr_1_175?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392131849&sr=1-175

[MissMilliment]

If you have a Kindle, the Robert Massie books are available for around £1/$1 on Amazon at the moment - I've just downloaded them for a bit of pre-cruise reading.

[Mickie]

If you have a Kindle, the Robert Massie books are available for around £1/$1 on Amazon at the moment - I've just downloaded them for a bit of pre-cruise reading.

 

Absolutely read the fiction book, the Madonnas of Leningrad. That book made the Hermitage a must see.

[mom0f3]

Not a book, but my husband and I purchased a really interesting course on "Russian History: from Peter the Great to Gorbachev." There are 36 half hour lectures on DVD and they provide a fascinating overview of not only historical events, but the culture, everyday life, etc. it's really going to make our time in St Petersburg much more meaningful--not to mention making us much more able to understand the context behind current events in Russia. The course is sold by The Great Courses and we ordered it online. We took a Buddhism course last year before a trip to southwest Asia, which we also enjoyed.

[lori450]

If you have a Kindle, the Robert Massie books are available for around £1/$1 on Amazon at the moment - I've just downloaded them for a bit of pre-cruise reading.

 

I wish it was so, I just checked... nope $10 and up. But thanks for trying!~

 

Great thread. Thanks for all the great suggestions. Gotta go read now. ;)

Edited April 24, 2014 by lori450

[Alaskanb]

Absolutely read the fiction book, the Madonnas of Leningrad. That book made the Hermitage a must see.

Totally agree --it really enhanced my experience at the Hermitage -- a very powerful story about a pre-WW2 guide to the Hermitage, her experiences during the siege of Stalingrad, emigration to the US, and aging.