I took a Shakespeare course. All English majors take a Shakespeare course. It's the law. The professor was very ambitious. We would read ALL the tragedies, ALL the comedies, the most important history plays, Titus Andronicus, and a few sonnets. The semester would conclude with The Tempest. The syllabus reminded me of the itineraries of those European tours where you visit 20 countries in 14 days. At the end you say "If this is Tuesday morning, I must be in Paris." I won't s

Just one peek, you say. Suddenly, there you are rubbernecking like the worst person in the world (or reading another book about the end of the Romanov dynasty). I read a British review of The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport and pre-ordered the book. I'm glad I did. I might still be rubbernecking, but I learned some new things and came away with a better understanding of the daughters and the world they lived in af