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Beautiful November weather greets us lucky Sun Lakers! Join us for our fall book sale on Nov. 4 in the Main Library from 9 am to 1 pm. Thank you to all our library volunteers for their service. We had a lovely luncheon in October to say thank you. We still need a few volunteers for days in Main Clubhouse and North Clubhouse libraries. 2017 is the centennial of the Russian Revolution. While other striking events preceded it, Nov. 7 is when Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government set up after Czar Nicholas II abdicated. When Duma (congress) member Alex Kerensky was in charge, the Czar's secret police was abolished and press censorship was lifted, which were popular with the Russian masses. However Kerensky's decision to keep Russia fighting in WWI was unpopular; his government was brought down. Peasants were responding to a long history of oppression and abuse. The "haves" and the "have-nots" were extreme in Russia. Serfs were sold like property. The Romanovs ruled absolutely, as Gods on Earth for three centuries but through this time, life for the average Russian was hard and bitter. The Czars and Nobles owned all the land and were wealthy whereas the huge majority of the population were poor with no means of improvement. There were frequent crop failures which led to massive famines. This important economic and cultural event (remember Bolsheviks did not believe in God) becomes the setting for plots of numerous novels. Nobles and peasantry are equally represented as protagonists in these various books, to equally good effect, showing us the characters' lives and troubles. Danielle Steele's Zoya placed a cousin of the ruling family in peril as the Revolutionary fervent gathers steam. She escapes Russia, lands in Paris and with great emotion, talks her way into dancing with the Ballet Russes. Zoya meets an American GI there and they later move to New York City. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Gulag-sentenced for his honest writing about the Red Party, completed a trilogy: starting with Czarist times, then the thoughts and desires that led to revolution in November 1916; lastly life under Bolshevik rule. Time after Time by Allen Appel is a time travel tale (of a series) that takes Alex Balfour back to revolutionary Russia. The historic landscape and characterizations are highly praised. And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov tells of the tribal Cossacks who live in the Don River valley. Being called up for WWI and the revolution, the Cossacks' highly regarded fighting skills cost them tremendously as they support Imperial rule and are decimated by the Red Army. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett interweaves five families before and during WWI. Grigori and Lev Peshkov, brothers and orphans who work in the locomotive factory, bear a grudge against the Russian royal family. Lev leaves for the US, Grigori stays behind to fight. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak was a blockbuster. The manuscript was smuggled out of Russia and published initially in Italy in 1957. Yuri Zhivago and Lara Guichard's love story across all of Russia and from their teens to adulthood and choices born of history earned Pasternak deserved accolades. Library Committee 24 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | NOVEMBER 2017 |