A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles.
The novel has subsequently been adapted for the screen, premiering March 29, I believe, on Paramount+/Showtime, and Canal Plus for those of us living in France.
I will finish the book before watching Mr. Ewan McGregor in the lead role. The story follows the life of a Russian aristocrat sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in a Moscow luxury hotel shortly after the Bolshevik revolution.
Please share what you’re currently reading, and if you’d recommend the book or not.
- BGT
I recently read Anna Karenina and I quite enjoyed it. I will definitely recommend it. One of the things I quite liked was Tolstoy’s ability to write believable characters. Whilst reading, it seems that you were almost “in” the character’s mind. It’s a rather extrodinary text.
I’m currently on a re-read and I’m always surprised by how current and frankly sexy it is.
I read A Gentleman in Moscow in quarantine, a good time to read a book about house arrest. I enjoyed Rostov’s character immensely and he gave me a lot to think about.
I’m currently reading a friend’s novella manuscript which I hope to recommend on publication. Also reading The Rubber Band by Rex Stout. It’s a murder mystery written and taking place in 1930s New York. I recommend the series in general, but especially to your readers because the main characters express a lot of the OM ideas you write about and constantly interact with Old Money society near its peak.
Thank you, IF. I’ll have a manuscript for an Italian Renaissance trilogy finished later this year. You may have just been volunteered. Wink, nod. – BGT
A Gentleman in Moscow is on my list of Winter reads. We decamp to Far North Queensland for several months so I use that time of no regular commitments to read ‘deep and meaningful’
I’ve just picked up a copy of ‘A glove shop in Vienna’ – Eva Ibbotson – witty short stories to keep me amused for a few days. Going to be a hot one in Melbourne tomorrow so that, a cold drink and a shady spot will go well together.
My husband read this book and said it was fantastic. Now I have to read it! 🙂 Thank you for the motivation. I did read Former People because of your recommendation and I found it enlightening.
These days, I’m all about bios by Walter Isaacson. The two I’ve read most recently are The Code Breaker (Jennifer Doudna and her work with RNA and gene editing), and Elon Musk. I can recommend both without reservation! Several years ago, I read Mr. Isaacson’s books about Steve Jobs and Ben Franklin. Also recommended!
Music theory. Agreed on Isaacson’s books. I wish he would do an update on his Steve Jobs book. I suspect his next book will be on Jensen Huang or Sam Altman – both of whom have been instrumental in kicking off the next industrial revolution.
Last month’s book club read Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here, which seems all too apropos to our current situation in the USA. I’m currently reading Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor and it serves as a good follow-up – while there are many things on which Cheney and I disagree, I am getting a lot out of reading her book.
Just finished “Protocol” by Capricia Penavic Marshall, who is a former U.S. Chief of Protocol.
Useful advice combined with colorful stories from the diplomatic/political world. Recommended.
Wow, that sounds very interesting! Thanks for the recommendation, Andrew. I’ve added it to my List, and I see that the library has it. I’ll be reading it in the weeks ahead.
Dearest Byron….. I loved this book. One of my favorite lines was “…… He had said that our lives are steered by uncertainties, many of which are disruptive or even daunting; but that if we persevere and remain generous of heart, we may be granted a moment of supreme lucidity – a moment in which all that has happened to us suddenly comes into focus as a necessary course of events, even as we find ourselves on the threshold of a bold new life that we had been meant to lead all along.” Words to which I personally relate. With love, Lark
Thank you, Lark. I haven’t read that far in the book, but such eloquent truth in such an elegant novel. I must read more tonight… – BGT
Im reading “The House Of Rothschild” by Niall Ferguson
I read this book last year I believe. I enjoyed it, I won’t give anything away, but ultimately it was really well done.
I tend to read more than one book at a time, committing to reading a chapter from each per day. Currently I’m on Anna Karenina which I read every two years or so; Encyclopedia of the Exquisite by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins, another re-read; Wicked by Gregory Maguire, yet another re-read that I usually read every year and has been a favorite of mine for 20 years; Celtic Fairy Tales; Villette by Charlotte Brontë; Love and Freindship (sic) by Jane Austen, What If? By Randall Munroe. I think as of now that’s it.
This is the book I am currently reading as well. I absolutely love it!
It is very well written with historical information that fascinates me as my family comes from the ex-Soviet Union world. Many of the terms and foods he mentions are familiar so it’s even more humorous reading Amor’s descriptions of the dishes, situations, and mannerisms. I grew up listening to many stories from my grandparents of how life was like and “Gentelman in Moscow” is like the prequel to all these stories. Just fascinating.
Thanks, Anna. That must be quite an experience. Let’s discuss more when we’ve both finished it. Also, there are the nonfiction titles Former People, and After The Romanovs. Same vein, different approaches. – BGT
I have just finished reading “Pineapple Street” by Jenny Jackson about an old money family living in Brooklyn Heights. The children of the family have varying perspectives on what to do with their trust funds! Not high brow but a good holiday read. I also recently read “Lessons in Chemistry” which I loved.
We’re traveling to Poland this summer and I just finished Drive Your Plow Over The Bones by Olga Tokarczuk. She’s a Polish writer who won the Nobel Prize in 2018. And it was worth every delicious moment. Now I’m on to the Book of Jacob by the same writer…and I wouldn’t have it any other way!