Top Five Books of 2018

CarltonC: A dense book (written in 1971) for all its brevity, outlining a description of the transition from the Roman Empire of classical thought (Greek and Latin philosophy), which bulks large as the first Mediterranean Empire, through its decline and fragmentation, to create: 1 The West, which descended into local principalities (this is not explored in depth, as the author considers that it has already been written about extensively); and 2 The Eastern Byzantine Empire, which managed to maintain its connection to classical thought, although attacked by the Persian Empire and the first wave of Islamic expansion.

CarltonC: I enjoyed this well written, interesting and informative story of Kapka Kassabova's return visits to Bulgaria and exploration of its borderlands with Turkey and Greece. She evokes a more general history of the region (which I do not know at all) from her personal experiences.