Reading in small portions takes a while.

The past three or four weeks have been really busy.  I have, however, found time to finish two really good books.  I thought I would share with you what I've just finished.

The first is one of my all-time favorites:  The Course of Honor, by Lindsey Davis.  I discovered Lindsey Davis and her world of ancient Rome in a college class.  This book, about the life and love of Vespasian (my favorite emperor) and Caenis (a slave-turned-freedwoman who shared his life with him) was required reading.   I love the descriptive and picturesque narrative, the lively dialogue and the "true to what is known" plot.  This book turned me on to Lindsey Davis and her Flavian Rome - which continues in the "spin off" book series about Marcus Didius Falco, Imperial Investigator.

I think that requiring historical fiction as reading is a really great technique to get people interested in historical topics.   It is a great way to envision what life was like in these time periods, but also exciting and thrilling and interesting.

  I have also just finished The Devil Wears Prada, by Lauren Weisberger.  This is the novel that the movie, with the same name, is based on.  It is about someone who takes a job that "a million girls would die for" as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine.  The book chronicles her journey to the brink of losing herself and back.  I have seen the movie and read this book before and, while many of the same things happen, the picture in my mind is always very different.  It was a great Library Book Sale purchase!