The Secret Lives of Tsarsby Michael Farquhar. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Gene Weingarten once said, "Michael Farquhar doesn’t write about history the way, say, Doris Kearns Goodwin does. He writes about history the way Doris Kearns Goodwin’s smart-ass, reprobate kid brother might. I, for one, prefer it." I do, too! I love Michael's irreverence, and the Romanovs give him great material to work with. Did you know, for example, that Peter the Great loved dwarves and often had them jump naked out of cakes (for amusement)? Lots of interesting, fun facts against the colorful backdrop of Russian history. Really worth it, as are previous works by the author:
Behind the Palace Door: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain;
A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing;
A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors;
A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans: Pirates, Skinflints, Patriots, and Other Colorful Characters Stuck in the Footnotes of History; and
A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds.
