# Recommend a Book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508 "2007-01-03T03:40:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/1 "2007-01-03T03:40:56Z")
I enjoy books that cover ancient history. I find most ancient civilizations quite interesting. Additionally, I want to find a book that isn’t “dry”. I’m looking for something that will hold my interest and not require me to slog through it. I can do that (slogging, I mean), but right now I’m in the mood for something that doesn’t take all that much effort. I am a fan of Roman history and find individuals such as Julius Caesar, Agustus, Pompey, and the first Augustus fascinating. Caesar really interests me. I also enjoy any historical novels that cover the beginning of man up to about the 18th century. So, what are your recommendations? I have a Border’s gift card ready to be used. I’ve already used my other gift card to purchase _The Rebels of Ireland_, having read and enjoyed the first book in the series. I eagerly await your recommendations, as I know many of you are avid readers. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/2 "2007-01-03T06:04:54Z")
You’ll love Colleen McCullogh’s _Masters of Rome_ series. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/3 "2007-01-03T06:08:04Z")
I am fond of \*Creation \*by Gore Vidal. It follows the interesting travels of the fictional grandson of Zoroaster through Greece, the Persian court, and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/4 "2007-01-03T14:41:54Z")
I really enjoyed _The Scourge of God_ by **William Deitrich**. It’s set in 449 - 551 AD and is mainly about Attila and the Hun invasion on the Roman Empire. Fascinating stuff and it really brought the era and events to life for me… I’m now pondering getting his _Napoleon’s Pyramids_ when it comes out soon in hardback… ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/5 "2007-01-03T14:46:52Z")
Try \*Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic \* by Tom Holland. This is history rather than historical fiction, but is by no means “dry”. I’d heartily recommend it, and with a username like mine, you know I take books seriously! ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/6 "2007-01-03T15:32:34Z")
Thanks all for the suggestions. **Lissa,** I’ve read the _Masters of Rome_ series. They were a good read. I will most definitely check out the other suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/7 "2007-01-03T15:35:33Z")
I love the [Marcus Didius Falco](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-9849446-5576641?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lindsey+davis) by Linsey Davis. I don’t think anything has ever given me a better feel for Rome as a working city. ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/8 "2007-01-03T16:02:16Z")
Until my (failing) memory allows me to name more, four historical novels I’ve particularly liked: _The Kingdom of the Wicked_, by Anthony Burgess. The birth of Christianism in Ancient Rome. Vintage Burgess. _The Egyptian_, by Mika Waltari. Fascinating book where the narrator is a physician living during the reign of Akhenaten, probably the first monotheistic ruler ever. Ancient Egypt viewed by a Finn? Why not? _Sarum_, by Edward Rutherfurd. Southern England from 10,000 BCE to WWII. Sweeping. _Memoirs of Hadrian_, by Marguerite Yourcenar. The Roman emperor’s (2nd century CE) real memoirs have been lost, and Yourcenar imagines what they might have said. A great philosophical reflexion. ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/9 "2007-01-03T17:50:46Z")
_Sarum_ was a great book. I enjoyed it immensely. I think I read it three times. I’ve read other books by Edward Rutheford too. Yet more good books to check out. Keep them coming folks. I really appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Daylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Daylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylon)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/10 "2007-01-05T14:06:17Z")
It’s very recent, but try “The Historian” by Kostava. Basically it’s a modern re-telling of Dracula. It’s a thick book (600+ pages) but suprisingly it isn’t boring. And despite it’s length, it’s a quick read… D. ---
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/11 "2007-01-06T04:19:40Z")
I might add _Neropolis_, by Hubert Monteilhet. Rome under Nero. Pretty disquieting novel. Also, for an interesting view of how a late-XIXth-century writer saw this same period, _Quo Vadis?_, by Henryk Sienkiewicz. A love story between a Roman patrician and a Christian young woman in a time of turmoil. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/12 "2007-01-06T05:55:58Z")
“I, Claudius” by Robert Graves is great. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/13 "2007-01-06T05:58:18Z")
And “The Clan of the Cave Bear” series by Jean Auel is a fun read, since you say the beginning of man, although that’s technically pre-history. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/14 "2007-01-06T07:48:53Z")
You might enjoy The Ptolemies, by Duncan Sprott; it’s a fictionalized account of, IIRC, Ptolemy I at the very least as narrated by Thoth, Egyptian God of Wisdom. It held my interest, although it entirely lacked dialogue and was a bit odd stylistically. Plenty of murder, incest, war, cowardice, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/15 "2007-01-14T05:10:30Z")
One I’m reading now is “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,” by Mark Twain. Definitely NOT the humorous sort of story you would expect from him. Twain – Samuel Clemens – although not Catholic, was a great admirer of Joan. A labor of love, he researched sources in both France and England for 12 years before ven begining to write. The narrator is ostensibly a childhood friend of hers leaving behind his personal remembrances for his "great-great-grand nephews and nieces’ in his old age. Twain was so concerned the public would be disappointed in the book not being another “Tom Sawyer” or “Huckleberry Finn” sort of tale that it first appeared serialized as the work of an anonymous translator in “Harper’s Magazine” beginning in April 1895. No one realized it was Twain. Sure enough, when it ws published in book form, and the public knew the real author, they were disappointed, and it rather flopped. But only because it was indeed unlike his other works. It’s quite good so far. You get a good sense of early 15th-century France. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/16 "2007-01-14T05:40:43Z")
Speaking of Gore Vidal, his novel \*Julian \* is about the last pagan roman emperor. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/17 "2007-01-14T11:12:47Z")
_Latro in the Mist_ by Gene Wolfe (an omnibus of two novels) describes the rather eccentric travels of an amnesiac in the ancient greek world. It’s strange and somewhat confusing, but a thoughtful and entertaining work nontheless. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/18 "2007-01-14T11:18:41Z")
_Pompeii_ by Robert Harris. It’s a conspiracy set in Pompeii just before the eruption. An aqueduct engineer realises that something is wrong but he isn’t the only one. In fact, if you like historical fiction, you’ll like all of Harris’s novels: Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel and Imperium. Enigma was made into a film and Archangel was serialised by the BBC. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/19 "2007-01-14T11:43:20Z")
I’m going to have to check some of these titles out myself. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508/20 "2007-01-14T15:14:02Z")
Not ancient history (except in the US), but **Mayflower** is very good. I’m about halfway through it, and finding it very engaging. The real story about the Pilgrims is nothing like the myth. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book/386508.md?page=2)