War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I am both surprised that it took me so long to read this and at the same time very happy that I did. I spent 100 days reading at an average of 12 pages per day--which sounds manageable but it is a pretty brisk pace when all is said and done. This is a densely packed book that is best when you savor it. It is an epic novel told about ordinary Russian people, ranging from the very rich to peasant poor and everything in between, with the War of 1812 laid over the top of the whole story. There are the ultra rich Bezukhov family, the Bolkonsky family with their multiple estates, the warm and fun loving Rostov family with their diminished circumstances, and the other 500 plus characters who give a textured look at Russia in the early 19th century. The history is accurate. It is a book full of Napoleon, Russian and French commanders, actual battles, and the downstream consequences of war with an overlay of culture, love, and politics. This translation is excellent, and contains French where the book was written in French, and English where is was written in Russian, to give a full sense of Russia in the time of Napoleon.