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Author Topic: Recommended Reading Thread...  (Read 95152 times)

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Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #50 on: July 05, 2009, 10:19:58 pm »
I picked up the book Cleopatra and Antony: power, love and politics in the ancient world by Diana Preston 

It's pretty good so far, but nothing earth shattering.  A good read, fast paced and makes good use of ancient references with a balanced view of those sources.  I recommend it although I wish it dealt more with Antony's earlier life.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #51 on: July 16, 2009, 06:32:31 pm »
Started Adrian Goldsworthy's "The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman superpower"

I can't put it down.  Excellent book.

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #52 on: July 16, 2009, 09:08:04 pm »
Desmond Seward's Jerusalem's Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea is a wonderful historical narrative aimed at a popular audience. Seward is quite the storyteller and he does not skimp on the details. Highly recommended to anyone interested in this crucial subject.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #53 on: July 16, 2009, 10:12:46 pm »
Thank you David.  I will check that one out!  Along the same lines is "Rome & Jerusalem" which I recommended on the first page.

Offline commodus

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #54 on: August 18, 2009, 08:37:47 pm »
Presently I am reading Marcus Aurelius: A Life by Frank McLynn. An excellent book and one I highly recommend. Published this year by DaCapo Press.

Other books I have read in the past two or three months that I likewise recommend are Barry Strauss's The Sparticus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009); Diana Preston's Cleopatra and Antony (Walker & Co., 2009); Adrian Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell (Yale University Press, 2009); and Anthony A. Barrett's Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome (Yale, 2002).


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Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #55 on: August 19, 2009, 05:55:45 pm »
Neil Faulkner's 'Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt agains Rome, AD 66-73' is another good one on the First Revolt.

I recently read 'The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancoent Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts' by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. The picture it gives of Israelite history isn't particularly new, it's basically a middle of the road liberal position, treating Deuteronomy, for instance, as originally a product of the Josianic Reform. The case is well made, though, and is well buttressed by archaeological evidence. There's some particularly interesting stuff on the House of Omri.
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Offline Jochen

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #56 on: August 19, 2009, 06:12:24 pm »
Hi Robert!

The book of Finkelstein and Silberman is edited in German too. I have read it and have to recommend it too. As a specialist in religious science I think you know too 'Who wrote the Bible' from Richard Elliott Friedman. What do you think about it?

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Offline Tiberiusjulius

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #57 on: August 19, 2009, 09:38:51 pm »
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It's a fantasy novelization of a BBC series about a underground world in England. A man who loses his identity in the above world after helping a underworlder escape death. He must help her on her mission to find who killed her family so that he can learn how to return to the above world. A really great, addicting book in my opinion and also the best novelization ever!!
All the best
Josh

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #58 on: August 20, 2009, 05:14:41 am »
Hi Robert!

The book of Finkelstein and Silberman is edited in German too. I have read it and have to recommend it too. As a specialist in religious science I think you know too 'Who wrote the Bible' from Richard Elliott Friedman. What do you think about it?

Best regards

The title, and the appearance of the cover on Amazon, are familiar, but I can't see it on my shelves. I may or may not have it somewhere, I'm sure I've read it. It was too long ago to comment though. I read so many books I can't always trust my memory.

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Offline Jochen

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #59 on: August 20, 2009, 05:23:30 am »
Hi Robert!

Do you recommend another book about the critical-historical development of the Bible?

Hi Josh!

A sketch from Neil Gaiman.

Best regards

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #60 on: August 20, 2009, 10:32:01 am »
I'd suggest 'In Search of 'Ancient Israel'', Philip R Davies, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995, 'History and Ideology in Ancient Israel, Giovanni Garbini, SCM, 1988, and 'Ancient Israel', Nils Peter Lemche, JSOT, 1988. Lemche has also produced 'Early Israel', which is more in-depth, but I don't have it. These are all 'minimalists', who take the view that the Old Testament was essentially written after the exile, and isn't particularly historical. I'm more willing than they to accept the Josianic Reform as historical, and the source of a significant amout of OT material. The reason is simply that the reform and the Deuteronomic History seem to fit the needs of a king who was trying to unite Judah and Israel rather too neatly to be dismissed easily. But I think the minimalists make some excellent points. I've had some contact with Lemche, and have the highest respect for him.
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Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #61 on: August 20, 2009, 11:05:04 am »
Robert,

Did you get a chance to read any of Bart Ehrman's books? Jesus Interrupted is his most recent.

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #62 on: August 20, 2009, 03:49:53 pm »
Not yet. I'll get round to them eventually.
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Offline commodus

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #63 on: September 05, 2009, 12:57:59 am »
Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome by Anthony Everitt. Excellent new biography of the Emperor Hadrian (even if he is clearly not an ancient numismatist since he refers to a sestertius as a "sesterce") by the author of the notable bios of Cicero and Augustus.
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Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #64 on: February 18, 2010, 12:59:04 pm »
Quote from: commodus on September 05, 2009, 12:57:59 am
Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome by Anthony Everitt. Excellent new biography of the Emperor Hadrian (even if he is clearly not an ancient numismatist since he refers to a sestertius as a "sesterce") by the author of the notable bios of Cicero and Augustus.

Bought this today, can't wait to start it.  I loved Cicero and Augustus so I'm sure this one will be just as good.  I like Anthony Everitt's style of writing.

Offline Randygeki(h2)

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #65 on: February 18, 2010, 01:12:55 pm »
I keep jumping between selected works of cicero and  meditation  ???

Offline Aarmale

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #66 on: February 18, 2010, 08:39:14 pm »
Anything by Josephus Flavius, if you like Jewish history.

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Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #67 on: February 18, 2010, 08:52:14 pm »
I agree 100%...however have a good biography of Josephus on hand, Thackeray's Josephus: The Man and the Historian offers a sober take on Josephus and his works. Also, Rajak's Josephus is up to date and very informative.

Offline Vitruvius

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #68 on: February 18, 2010, 09:12:15 pm »
For me it's Herodotus and Thucydides, which I can't get enough of.  Part pleasure and part school, as my exams are approaching quickly!

Offline David Atherton

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #69 on: March 24, 2010, 04:26:28 pm »
I agree, the Albert Bell book is a good read, but then again I'm biased to the time period it takes place in.

Lindsey Davis also has written a series of "Roman detective" books that take place in the Flavian era. Her very modern style used to bother me, (the characters saying things that only a modern Brit would) but as the series has developed the prose has smoothed. Plus her research is much better the later you go into the series. I cautiously recommend them.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #70 on: May 24, 2010, 10:55:04 pm »
Just bought "Marcus Aurelius a Life" by Frank McLynn, haven't started reading it yet though

I'm half way through "A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome" by Alberto Angela, it's along the same lines as Ancient Rome on 3 Denarii a day.

I just finished  "Six Wives: the Queens of Henry the VIII" by David StarkeyVery good read!

and I just started "The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World"  by Adrian Murdoch.  I'm really liking this one!

On a totally different line of reading I will recommend "I Met the Walrus" by Jerry Levitan.  It's a true story of a 14 year old kid who sneeks into the King Edward Hotel in Toronto and gets an exclusive interview with John Lennon.  It's an emotional read that I very much identify with.  I can't say enough good things about it.  You could read it in a single night (I did), it's that interesting.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #71 on: July 04, 2010, 04:37:01 pm »
"Marcus Aurelius a Life" by Frank McLynn is a terrible read.  I'm sorry but I thought I was reading a book on Marcus Aurelius' life not all the philosopher's who influenced him.  I find it painfull to read and actually skipped a few chapters with no end to the philosophy in sight!  There was one good chapter on Lucius Verus and his "campaign" in the east but that was it.  I'm sorry, not recommending this one.  I tried...really....I tried.  I'm half way through it and will probably not finish it.  Some people may like that sort of stuff, but I don't.  Very dry.

Offline Philoromaos

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #72 on: July 05, 2010, 05:06:02 am »
There's quite a few good books I've read. Here are a few that I would recommend....

Hadrian: Empire and conflict by Thorsten Opper is a fantastic if a little expensive British Museum book released to accompany the exibition on Hadrian in 2008.

Rome's greatest defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg forest by Adrian Murdoch

The coinage of Roman Britain by Richard Reece

The cities of Pamphylia by John D Grainger

The Roman Republic by Michael Crawford

The fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy

In the name of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy

Sulla: The last Republican by Arthur Keaveney

There are a few more but I will need to dig them out so I will add them as I find them.

Adrian

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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #73 on: July 05, 2010, 03:12:04 pm »
A great book on the Roman Republic is Ancient Rome: The Republic by H. L. Havell. The book was originaly published in 1914 and has been re-published by Geddes & Grosset.

In the fictional genre I quite like The Ides of March by Valerio Massimo Manfredi.


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Re: Recommended Reading Thread...
« Reply #74 on: July 06, 2010, 12:32:08 am »
Can anyone recommend a good biography of Mark Antony?  Seems to be very little modern references on him...

Jay, I was wondering if you have found any good books on Marc Antony. The portrayal of him on HBO's Rome got me really interested in him, but like you I've had no luck on finding any books about.

 

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