Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

My worst subject in school was history.  I hated it.  I didn’t see the point.  I didn’t want to know.  Only now do I have an appreciation for history and a craving to know all those things I once found so pointless.  Needless to say my knowledge of Russian history pre-WWII was quite poor, practically non-existent.  After reading this book I feel pretty caught up with Russian and European history during the reign of Catherine the Great. 

While this truly is a portrait of Catherine, every person is molded by their era, surroundings and circumstances, all of which is detailed here.  This is a dense, detailed read.  And I don’t mean dense as a negative.  There is a lot of rich detail here which makes you want to read slowly so you don’t miss a thing. 

For all fans of history – there is something here to engage every reader.