Here are 49 books that Hope Against Hope fans have personally recommended if you like Hope Against Hope. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s

Lynne Viola Author Of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine

From my list on Stalin’s Great Terror.

Why am I passionate about this?

Lynne Viola is a University Professor of Russian history at the University of Toronto. Educated at Barnard and Princeton, she has carried out research in Russian and Ukrainian archives for over 30 years. Among her books, are two dealing with Stalinist repression: Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine and The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Both are based on work in previously classified archives, including the archives of the political police.

Lynne's book list on Stalin’s Great Terror

Lynne Viola Why Lynne loves this book

This is a collection of diaries written by a wide range of individuals during the Stalin era. The diaries address the terror in a variety of surprising ways, demonstrating the diversity of Soviet citizens in this time.

By Veronique Garros , Natalia Korenevskaya , Thomas Lahusen

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Intimacy and Terror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The private lives of a broad section of Russians who lived during Stalin's purge are revealed in this book. The nine diaries here capture the day-to-day thoughts of these people, and represent a vast selection of opinions, from those oblivious to the terror and those deeply affected by it.


If you love Hope Against Hope...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Book cover of The Great Fear: Stalin's Terror of the 1930s

Lynne Viola Author Of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine

From my list on Stalin’s Great Terror.

Why am I passionate about this?

Lynne Viola is a University Professor of Russian history at the University of Toronto. Educated at Barnard and Princeton, she has carried out research in Russian and Ukrainian archives for over 30 years. Among her books, are two dealing with Stalinist repression: Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine and The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Both are based on work in previously classified archives, including the archives of the political police.

Lynne's book list on Stalin’s Great Terror

Lynne Viola Why Lynne loves this book

Written by one of the UK’s best historians of the Soviet Union, this book explores how fears of conspiracy and foreign invasion influenced Stalin and the Great Terror. The introduction contains a valuable survey and critique of major historical interpretations of the terror.

By James Harris ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Great Fear as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Between the winter of 1936 and the autumn of 1938, approximately three quarters of a million Soviet citizens were subject to summary execution. More than a million others were sentenced to lengthy terms in labour camps. Commonly known as 'Stalin's Great Terror', it is also among the most misunderstood moments in the history of the twentieth century. The Terror gutted the ranks of factory directors and engineers after three years in which all major plan targets were
met. It raged through the armed forces on the eve of the Nazi invasion. The wholesale slaughter of party and state officials was…


Book cover of Policing Stalin's Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953

Lynne Viola Author Of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine

From my list on Stalin’s Great Terror.

Why am I passionate about this?

Lynne Viola is a University Professor of Russian history at the University of Toronto. Educated at Barnard and Princeton, she has carried out research in Russian and Ukrainian archives for over 30 years. Among her books, are two dealing with Stalinist repression: Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine and The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Both are based on work in previously classified archives, including the archives of the political police.

Lynne's book list on Stalin’s Great Terror

Lynne Viola Why Lynne loves this book

This monograph changed the way historians understand the Great Terror. Shearer focuses on state fears not of foreign invasion, but of domestic social disorder. Based on voluminous archival research, he explores the structural prerequisites to the “mass operations” of the Great Terror by looking at the social purging campaigns of the mid-1930s and the practices of civil and political policing.

By David R. Shearer ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Policing Stalin's Socialism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Policing Stalin's Socialism is one of the first books to emphasize the importance of social order repression by Stalin's Soviet regime in contrast to the traditional emphasis of historians on political repression. Based on extensive examination of new archival materials, David Shearer finds that most repression during the Stalinist dictatorship of the 1930s was against marginal social groups such as petty criminals, deviant youth, sectarians, and the unemployed and unproductive.

It was because Soviet leaders regarded social disorder as more of a danger to the state than political opposition that they instituted a new form of class war to…


If you love Nadezhda Mandelstam...

Book cover of The Last Whaler

The Last Whaler by Cynthia Reeves,

This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…

Book cover of The Gulag Archipelago

Lynne Viola Author Of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine

From my list on Stalin’s Great Terror.

Why am I passionate about this?

Lynne Viola is a University Professor of Russian history at the University of Toronto. Educated at Barnard and Princeton, she has carried out research in Russian and Ukrainian archives for over 30 years. Among her books, are two dealing with Stalinist repression: Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine and The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Both are based on work in previously classified archives, including the archives of the political police.

Lynne's book list on Stalin’s Great Terror

Lynne Viola Why Lynne loves this book

This is the classic account of the Great Terror and the Gulag. Solzhenitsyn roots Stalinist repression firmly in the Russian Revolution, blaming Marxist ideology for the camps. The literary value of this work is incontestable.

By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Gulag Archipelago as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The official, one-volume edition, authorized by Solzhenitsyn

“BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY” —Time

The Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece of world literature, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorized by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

“It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late twentieth century.” —David Remnick, The New Yorker

Drawing on his own experiences before, during and after his eleven years of incarceration and exile, on evidence provided by more than 200…


Book cover of Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Catherine Ann Jones Author Of Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life

From my list on memoirs by those who made a difference.

Why am I passionate about this?

After decades of teaching in graduate school as well as a career in acting, and writing 11 produced plays in NYC, then writing films & television in Hollywood, and later becoming the author of 8 published books—both fiction and non-fiction,  and marriage and motherhood—I began to reflect on a long and adventurous life, which led to writing a memoir.

Catherine's book list on memoirs by those who made a difference

Catherine Ann Jones Why Catherine loves this book

As an undergraduate, I loved this memoir of C. G. Jung, which led me years later to obtain a graduate degree in Jungian Psychology.

The most accessible of Jung’s writings are recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, who was trained by Jung. This unique memoir reveals not only the origin of Jung’s psychological discoveries but the man behind the genius. With humor and heart, Jung, in his 80's, looks back on a remarkable life and work.

Ahead of his time, Jung leaves a valuable and timeless legacy for today.

By C.G. Jung , Aniela Jaffe (editor) , Clara Winston (translator) , Richard Winston (translator)

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Memories, Dreams, Reflections as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings. It is these that make up the singularity of my life, and with these my autobiography deals' Carl Jung

An eye-opening biography of one of the most influential psychiatrists of the modern age, drawing from his lectures, conversations, and own writings.

In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, Carl Gustav Jung undertook the telling of his life story. Memories, Dreams, Reflections is that book, composed of conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffe, as well as chapters written in his own hand,…


Book cover of The Measure of My Days: One Woman's Vivid, Enduring Celebration of Life and Aging

Catherine Ann Jones Author Of Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life

From my list on memoirs by those who made a difference.

Why am I passionate about this?

After decades of teaching in graduate school as well as a career in acting, and writing 11 produced plays in NYC, then writing films & television in Hollywood, and later becoming the author of 8 published books—both fiction and non-fiction,  and marriage and motherhood—I began to reflect on a long and adventurous life, which led to writing a memoir.

Catherine's book list on memoirs by those who made a difference

Catherine Ann Jones Why Catherine loves this book

Maxwell, an American actress who later studied with C. G. Jung and became a Jungian psychologist, reflects on her life from America to marriage and a life in Scotland, and her perspective on life and the world.

I return to this unsentimental wisdom of an intelligent and remarkable woman facing the later years of a life well lived.

By Florida Scott-Maxwell ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Measure of My Days as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Playwright and Jungian analyst Florida Scott-Maxwell explores the unique predicament of one's later years: when one feels both cut off from the past and out of step with the present; when the body rebels at activity but the mind becomes more passionate than ever. Written when Maxwell was in her eighties, The Measure of My Days offers a panoramic vision of the issues that haunt us throughout our lives: the struggle to achieve goodness; how to maintain individuality in a mass society; and how to emerge--out of suffering, loss, and limitation--with something approaching wisdom. Maxwell's incredible wisdom, humanity, and dignity…


If you love Hope Against Hope...

Book cover of White Picket Fences

White Picket Fences by Kyle Ann Robertson,

Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.

Raised…

Book cover of Turn: The Journal of an Artist

Catherine Ann Jones Author Of Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life

From my list on memoirs by those who made a difference.

Why am I passionate about this?

After decades of teaching in graduate school as well as a career in acting, and writing 11 produced plays in NYC, then writing films & television in Hollywood, and later becoming the author of 8 published books—both fiction and non-fiction,  and marriage and motherhood—I began to reflect on a long and adventurous life, which led to writing a memoir.

Catherine's book list on memoirs by those who made a difference

Catherine Ann Jones Why Catherine loves this book

I first met Anne Truitt when we were both guest artists at the Yaddo Colony in upstate NY. Later, we became good friends.

I admired not only her sculptures and paintings but also the three elegant and poignant published journals of an artist’s life. My favorite is the third published Journal, Turn.

Known as a superb artist and sculptor, Turn is Truitt’s third journal revealing the woman and journey of a true artist and unique individual. A husband’s suicide leaving the author and artist to raise three children and pursue her art, creates a unique memoir timeless in the chronicles of the resilience of single women artists.


By Anne Truitt ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Turn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The second journal of an artist by "an extraordinary woman: sensitive, intelligent, perceptive"--Doris Grumbach.


Book cover of Zen in the Art of Writing

Catherine Ann Jones Author Of Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life

From my list on memoirs by those who made a difference.

Why am I passionate about this?

After decades of teaching in graduate school as well as a career in acting, and writing 11 produced plays in NYC, then writing films & television in Hollywood, and later becoming the author of 8 published books—both fiction and non-fiction,  and marriage and motherhood—I began to reflect on a long and adventurous life, which led to writing a memoir.

Catherine's book list on memoirs by those who made a difference

Catherine Ann Jones Why Catherine loves this book

Some years ago in Hollywood, Bradbury introduced my first film premiere as a Hollywood screenwriter, The Christmas Wife. Ten years later, I met again with Ray Bradbury at a Film Festival and was amazed that this elder author remembered both me and my first film.

One of America’s best authors of science fiction leaves this memoir of his life and work. It is not only an entertaining read, but a tool for writers in any genre desiring to fulfill their potential.  


By Ray Bradbury ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Zen in the Art of Writing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of In Memory of Memory

Ciara Chambers Author Of Outsider Cinema

From my list on explaining why history, memory and archives are essential for humanity.

Why am I passionate about this?

Having worked in archives, I know that they are utterly magical places full of hidden treasures, precious memories, and poignant, tiny moments that tell us so much about our humanity. I’ve spent a lifetime living in the past, hunting through unusual objects, reels of film, letters, and documents that may have once been discarded, but form an essential part of microhistories that might otherwise be forgotten. That’s why I’ve written about the marginalised filmmakers of Northern Ireland – amateur and independent creatives who were shooting alternative images of a place whose conflict was seen all across the world, but whose daily life was not recorded in any meaningful way by broadcast cameras. 

Ciara's book list on explaining why history, memory and archives are essential for humanity

Ciara Chambers Why Ciara loves this book

A book about how the microhistories found in personal archives are essential to our understanding of how people respond to the world around them, how they form and document their own identities, and how, sometimes, a true understanding of a life may come only through sifting through the ephemera of a person after their death.

But do we have the right to look? The author asks us to think of how we view the dead and whether the rights they held during life should still be attributed to them when they no longer inhabit this world.

A book full of the ideas of other writers and cultural theorists that moves deftly between memoir, history, and poetry.

By Maria Stepanova , Sasha Dugdale (translator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Memory of Memory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With the death of her aunt, the narrator is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how a seemingly ordinary Jewish family somehow managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century.

In dialogue with writers like Roland Barthes, W. G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, and Osip Mandelstam, In Memory of Memory is imbued with rare intellectual curiosity and a wonderfully soft-spoken, poetic voice. Dipping…


If you love Nadezhda Mandelstam...

Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of Yezhov: The Rise of Stalin's Iron Fist

Roger R. Reese Author Of The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917

From my list on Stalinism from every angle.

Why am I passionate about this?

Roger Reese has studied, researched, and or taught Soviet history since 1984. He has been on the faculty of Texas A&M University since 1990. He has published five books and numerous articles and book chapters on the military history of Russia and the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. book prize for his most recent book, The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917.

Roger's book list on Stalinism from every angle

Roger R. Reese Why Roger loves this book

This is a great book because it is probably the only truly even-handed treatment of one of the most reviled people in Soviet history, Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD during the great terror. The authors by no means treat him as a sympathetic character, but they convincingly dismiss the many myths about him that have gotten in the way of understanding his relations with Stalin and his true motivations and behavior during the purge. They show that he played a truly significant role in convincing Stalin to let him purge the party and then the whole Soviet population because he believed there was a vast conspiracy to undermine Stalin’s version of Soviet power. Rather than a psychophant who groveled at Stalin’s feet, it is clear that he exercised agency to accomplish a task he believed in. You almost get to know Yezhov as a real human being, which is…

By J. Arch Getty , Oleg V. Naumov ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Yezhov as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The definitive study of Nikolai Yezhov's rise to become the chief of Stalin's secret police-and the dictator's "iron fist"-during the Great Terror

Head of the secret police from 1937 to 1938, N. I. Yezhov was a foremost Soviet leader during these years, second in power only to Stalin himself. Under Yezhov's orders, millions of arrests, imprisonments, deportations, and executions were carried out. This book, based upon unprecedented access to Communist Party archives and Yezhov's personal archives, looks into the life and career of the enigmatic man who administered Stalin's Great Terror.

J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov seek to…


Book cover of Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s
Book cover of The Great Fear: Stalin's Terror of the 1930s
Book cover of Policing Stalin's Socialism: Repression and Social Order in the Soviet Union, 1924-1953

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Interested in Joseph Stalin, the Great Purge, and French travel?

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