TBR@57 Robertgreaves's challenge for 2014/5 part 1

It's my birthday today, so I'm starting a new thread. The story so far.

All books obtained up till today will now count as ROOTS. I have 47 books in the physical TBR pile and 38 ebooks waiting to be read.

I am currently reading:

Marcus Mettius: The Collected Stories by Alex Johnston
Akar Pule by Oka Rusmini.

Happy birthday and happy reading!

Thank you, MissWatson.

Happy birthday, Robert. I won't forget yours because it's mine, too. :-)

Happy birthday and here's to another great reading year!

Happy birthday to you as well Ameise. Thanks for dropping by to my new thread, Rabbit.

Happy Birthday and Happy New ROOT thread, Robert.

Happy belated birthday!

Thank you, Connie and Cheli, for dropping by.

Starting my No. 1, Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome by Anthony A. Barrett. This is the fifty-seventh ROOT for 2014.

My review of "Marcus Mettius: The Collected Stories" (no touchstone):

Amusing set of novellas about Marcus Mettius, salesman, wheeler-dealer, and occasional doer of favours for Julius Caesar.

Starting my No. 2, The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin. This is an ebook from the virtual TBR shelf and is my fifty-eighth ROOT for 2014.

Starting my No. 3, An Evil Eye, the next in Jason Goodwin's Yashim series.This is a new ebook and so is not a ROOT.

My review of The Bellini Card:

Rumours reach the new sultan of a portrait by Bellini of his illustrious ancestor, Mehmed the Conqueror, being offered for sale in Venice. He asks Yashim to go to discreetly find out more, but the vizier, Reshid, warns Yashim not to go. So Yashim sends Count Palewski instead, disguised as an American. But when Palewski arrives in Venice the body count starts mounting.

Another of these excellent mysteries -- a good dash of suspense and a beautiful Italian contessa with a secret or three. For a eunuch, Yashim seems to have an awful lot of sex with beautiful women.

My No. 4 is the next in the series, The Baklava Club. Again this is a new ebook and so is not a ROOT.

My review of An Evil Eye:

A dark figure from Yashim's past re-surfaces in a surprising piece of treachery. What is the connection between him, the body of a Russian spy found in a monastery well, and traces of black magic being used in the new Sultan's harem?

Lots of suspense as we come close to losing several beloved characters from the series. Even more cooking than in previous installments.

Starting my No. 5 The King's Gambit by John Maddox Roberts. This is an ebook but I've had it for a while so it counts as the fifty-ninth ROOT of 2014.

My review of The Baklava Club:

Many exiles from their home countries end up in Istanbul. The three young Italians (the eponymous Baklava Club) and one of them's Danish girlfriend seem harmless enough, but are they?

SPOILER ALERT

This is the fifth in the series and was meant to be the last with what reads like the death of Yashim and Palewski in the last chapter, though a sentence we hear spoken offstage in the epilogue indicates they survived. Even so, I suspect the author has probably done all he can with it. The political thriller aspects have definitely overtaken the detective story: we don't even get the murder till well over half way through the book.

Query: in the picnic scene we have 3 Italians, a Dane, a Russian, an Irishman and a Turk. What language are they speaking? French seems the most likely contender but it's not at all clear.

Starting my No. 6, the next in the SPQR series, The Catiline Conspiracy. This is a new ebook and so does not count as a ROOT or affect the TBR pile.

My review of The King's Gambit:

What is the link between the garotting of a thug for hire, the death at home of an importer with links to pirates, and a fire at the importer's warehouse, in 1st Century BC Rome? Decius Caecilius Metellus finds the case has high-reaching political ramifications.

I really liked Decius Caecilius Metellus's voice in this book. A great start to a new-to-me series.

Starting the 3rd in the SPQR series, The Sacrilege, my No. 7. As it's a new ebook it's not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of The Catiline Conspiracy:

On his way to his duties in the temple of Saturn, Decius Caecilius Metellus passes a murder scene. As the number of corpses mounts and there seem to be mysterious comings and goings in the temple, he decides to investigate.

Comparisons with Steven Saylor's version of Catiline are inevitable, and it has to be said Saylor's is a more nuanced and also more memorable character. By comparison John Maddox Roberts's Catiline is something of a cardboard cut-out villain. I do hope DCM is not going to fall victim to the wiles of a sexy, scheming, villainess in every installment.

Starting the 4th in the SPQR series, The Temple of the Muses, my No. 8. Again, a new book so not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of The Sacrilege:

At a banquet somebody tries to poison Decius Caecilius Metellus and his host, called out to welcome a mysterious visitor, is murdered. What is the connection with the desecration of the rites of Bona Dea by DCM's arch-enemy, Clodius?

A very enjoyable entry in this series. I found the suggestion of what else was going on at Caesar's house that night very ingenious, amusing to contemplate, and actually quite plausible.

Starting my No. 9, The Mammoth Book of Classical Whodunnits, edited by Mike Ashley. Again a new ebook so not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of The Temple of the Muses:

Thinking it advisable to absent himself from Rome for a while, Decius Caecilius Metellus accompanies Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, Rome's ambassador to Egypt, to Alexandria. When Iphicrates of Chios, a mathematician working in the famous Library, is murdered DCM decides to investigate.

The most enjoyable in the series so far. Very, very funny.

Starting my No. 10, A Short History of Christianity by Geoffrey Blainey. It is my sixtieth ROOT of 2014 since I bought it before my birthday, but is an ebook and so does not affect the TBR pile.

Starting my No. 11, Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd. This brings the TBR pile down to 46 and is my sixty-first ROOT for 2014.

My review of A Short History of Christianity:

Not really what it says on the tin, more a history of the Western church with occasional glimpses elsewhere.

Starting my No. 12 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. This is an ebook and so does not affect the TBR pile, but is my sixty-second ROOT for 2014.

Ohh, I loved that book, Robert! Happy reading.

Starting my No. 13, Ajax Penumbra 1969, the prequel to no. 12. A new ebook, so not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore:

Clay Jannon, an unemployed bagel designer one of whose flatmates works for Industrial Light and Magic and whose love interest works for Google, takes a job in the eponymous bookstore where the bulk of the volumes are only there to be borrowed by certain special customers. Despite being warned not to try to read these special books, our hero naturally does so and he and his friends get drawn into a secret society trying to crack a code hidden in the books.

Despite a certain amount of eye-rolling at the desperate hipness of it all at first by the end I was cheering Mr. Penumbra, Clay, and his friends on in their attempts to crack the code despite the opposition from Mr. Penumbra's boss.

Starting my No. 14, The Legate's Daughter by Wallace Breem. I've had this ebook for a long time so it counts as my sixty-third ROOT for 2014.

My review of Ajax Penumbra 1969:

How Mr. Penumbra came to the bookstore. Fun back story.

your pace amazes me!

I've been avoiding chunksters but there's quite a few sitting on my shelves :-)

I love reading chunksters. They give me a feeling of achievement when finished. And they clear up a lot of space on the shelves.

That's true. It's just that these days I have more to carry with me during the day so it's not so easy to carry them around with me, so they tend to get read very slowly.

That's true also. That's why I'm reading the chunksters at home or I combine them with the e-version of the same book. And take the reader with me when I leave the house.

Starting my No. 15, The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie. This ebook has been sitting on my virtual shelf for a while and so counts as my sixty-fourth ROOT for 2014.

My review of The Mammoth Book of Classical Whodunnits:

A variable collection of short detective stories set in the ancient world, roughly arranged by date of setting. I had always thought that apart from a couple of stories then genre of historical mysteries was really started by Ellis Peters but this volume has quite a few earlier ones.

The stories range in time from the Trojan War (a particularly ridiculous example with Aphrodite investigating a murder where the body had been left near her shrine) to the 7th century AD (Sister Fidelma from Ireland investigates a death by poisoned communion wine in Rome -- I shall definitely be looking out for more of her adventures).

Old reliables like Steven Saylor and John Maddox Roberts have some good stories. I might give Rosemary Rowe's Libertus another go after reading her story in this volume. I much enjoyed the story involving John the Eunuch, set in Justinian's Constantinople and will look out for the novels.

Other stories were less impressive. Socrates investigates as if he was in one of Plato's dialogues. Many classical characters talk in the sort of pseudo Jacobean English favoured by over-literal translations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. History is re-written to show us what really happened -- Brutus starts planning the Ides of March after Julius Caesar murders a prostitute!

Sister Fidelma is on my radar as well, so if you read her before I do I will be interested to hear what you think.

I've wishlisted the first book in the series, but my wishlist is so long it may be a while before I get to her.

Currently reading my No. 16, Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie. This is a new ebook and so is not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of The Seven Dials Mystery:

The house guests at Chimneys prank one of the party who can't seem to wake up in the mornings by sneaking 8 alarm clocks into his bedroom. Unfortunately the sleepyhead never does wake up because he's been poisoned. Lady Eileen Brent (aka Bundle) and her friends investigate.

Totally bizarre as what appear to be the inhabitants of Blandings Castle and the Drones Club investigate a secret society run by a criminal mastermind who is not what he seems. Dame Agatha, what happened?

>33 Robertgreaves: Maybe she overdosed on Wodehouse?

I think she must have done.

Starting my No. 17 Miss Marple 3-Book Collection 1 by Agatha Christie. This is a new ebook and so not a ROOT.

My review of Partners in Crime:

Fun short stories loosely strung together as a novel about Tommy and Tuppence's adventures running a private detective agency as cover for Tommy's secret service work. Each story is a parody of the style and characters in other detective fiction ranging from Sherlock Holmes to a newcomer, Poirot. Most of them have perhaps been forgotten now apart from Father Brown.

>36 Robertgreaves: I think I've read Partners in Crime ages ago, but I didn't know or realise that these stories are parodies of other authors' detectives. I'm curious. Time for a re-read.

I think I'm going to have to give up on Sarum. I enjoyed it when I read it when it first came out but now I'm finding it a real struggle. That mix of broad sweep history and illustrative stories just doesn't appeal any more.

This makes my current read Miss Marple 3-Book Collection 1 my No. 16.

Starting my No. 17 Ruso and the Root of All Evils by Ruth Downie. This is not from the TBR pile but is a re-read of a book I've had for a long time, so it counts as my sixty-fifth ROOT for 2014.

My review of Miss Marple 3-Book Collection 1:

The Murder at the Vicarage
The Vicar returns home after a hoax call to a dying man's bedside only to find the dead body of an unpopular parishioner in his study.The dead man's wife and the man she would like to run away with both make obviously false confessions to protect each other but Miss Marple is on the case in her first book-length outing.

Great fun with an intriguing mystery and the Rev. Leonard Clement is a very likeable narrator.

The Body in the Library
Mrs. Bantry is woken by her maid who tells her that there is a body in the library. Neither Mrs. Bantry nor her husband the Colonel know who the corpse is. They call the police and Mrs. Bantry's friend, Miss Marple, steps in to help to make sure the killer is caught and the Bantrys are not subject to unjustified suspicion.

Interesting how the story starts off quite sympathetic to the victim but shifts as time goes by to disdain for her as a gold-digger.

The Moving Finger
Jerry Burton moves to the small town of Lymstock with his sister, Joanne, so that he can convalesce after an air crash. Soon after they arrive he receives a poison pen letter, one of many troubling the neighbourhood. When one of the recipients appears to have been driven to suicide and the letters show no sign of stopping, the Vicar's wife asks Miss Marple for help.

Agatha Christie on the top of her game. Unputdownable.

Starting my No. 18, the next in the Ruso series Ruso and the River of Darkness. Again, it is a re-read of a book I've had for a while and so counts as my sixty-sixth ROOT for 2014, but doesn't help with the TBR pile.

My revised review of Ruso and the Root of All Evils:

Ruso is summoned back to the family home only to find a lawsuit which could ruin the family is about to be launched by a creditor. The creditor is then poisoned while visiting Ruso's family. Ruso is of course the main suspect.

The first time I read this I found it dragged in places, but this time round it was quite suspenseful, and in places very funny as Ruso flails about trying to cope with his exasperating family.

My No. 19 is the next in the Ruso series, Semper Fidelis. This is a new ebook and so is not a ROOT and doesn't help the TBR pile.

My review of Ruso and the River of Darkness, slightly revised from the last time I read it:

The tax collector from Verulamium and his brother are missing -- and so are the taxes. The Procurator asks Ruso to investigate.

Good story exposing the murky side of small town politics in Roman Britain. Although Ruso and Tilla are now married their relationship is just as difficult as ever.

RIP PD James

Starting the next in the series, my No. 20, Tabula Rasa. Again this is a new ebook and so is not a ROOT and does not affect the TBR pile.

My review of Semper Fidelis:

Posted to Eboracum, Ruso and Tilla meet a deserting recruit, witness the suicide of another recruit and hear of the deaths by drowning and beating of two more recruits. What is going on?

For most of this book I found it much darker than the others in the series with a depressing atmosphere of hopelessness in the face of official reactions ranging from indifference to active malevolence.

Starting my No. 21, The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta. This brings the TBR pile down to 45. It is my sixty-seventh ROOT for 2014.

My review of Tabula Rasa:

Ruso, the Roman medicus, and Tilla, his British wife who is a midwife, are practising at the giant building site which will be Hadrian's Wall. Ruso's medical clerk has been missing for three days and the native British dispossessed of their land where the Wall is being built are restless.

From a heart-stopping beginning with a quarry accident the excitement never lets up as the chapters fly by. The best so far in this series.

The series by Downie sounds lovely, especially for a history buff. I have just put the series on my wish list.

It's well worth it but be careful with the titles. They are different in the UK and the US, which can get confusing.

Starting two ebooks, my nos 22 and 23. One is Roman Games by Bruce Macbain, which is for my online book club, and the other is The Time Travel Megapack, an anthology of short stories for dipping into at odd moments when I'm between books. Neither is a ROOT.

My review of The Joys of Motherhood:

After her childless first marriage breaks down, Nnu Ego is sent to Lagos by her family to marry the feckless Nnaife, just before the start of the Second World War. She has nine children by him, seven of whom survive. Although cultural ideals see motherhood, especially motherhood of sons, as the peak of a woman's achievement and the key to her happiness, Nnu Ego finds motherhood a continual struggle to make ends meet and without the position of honour and respect in the family her upbringing led her to believe she would have.

I approached this book with some trepidation, not at all sure it was really going to be my cup of tea (it was a present from somebody who doesn't know me very well) but found it quite gripping and moving.

Starting my No. 24, Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant. This is my sixty-eighth ROOT of 2014 and brings the TBR pile down to 44.

My review of Roman Games:

In the last days of the reign of Domitian, one of his informers, Verpa, is found murdered in bed. Can Pliny find the murderer before all of the dead man's slaves are executed on suspicion for the crime?

Quite a gripping climax but otherwise not terribly interesting. If I hadn't been reading it for my online book club I probably wouldn't have persisted.

>48 Robertgreaves: I look forward to your review of Bel Ami, which I also read fairly recently. I quite enjoyed it. More recently I read Sentimental Education, which is similar in many ways.

Starting my No. 25, Sociology: A Very Short Introduction by Steve Bruce. This is my sixty-ninth ROOT for 2014, and comes from the TBR pile, but it remains unchanged at 44, because I recently bought The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.

My review of Bel-Ami:

Georges Duroy, an ex-soldier down on his luck meets a former comrade, who offers him a job as a journalist. Georges starts to make his way up 1880s French society by manipulating and seducing a series of women.

Even allowing for the differences between views of women then and now, Georges is a nasty piece of work as he uses and discards the women he seduces. I kept waiting for him to get his comeuppance but of course nothing stops his irresistible rise. Despite my dislike of him, I felt unable to look away, which is I suppose a tribute to de Maupassant's writing.

Starting my No. 26, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. This is an ebook which I've had for some time and so counts as my seventieth ROOT for 2014.

My review of Sociology: A Very Short Introduction:

The author argues for sociology as a professional study of industrialised societies, as distinct from advocacy for social problems, and upholds the idea that it is possible without falling into a meaningless relativism.

Starting my No. 27, Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon. This brings the TBR pile down to 43 and is my seventy-first ROOT for 2014.

My review of Three Bags Full:

George's sheep love him so when they find their shepherd dead one morning with a spade dug into his corpse, the flock decides, with some encouragement from Miss Maple, the cleverest sheep in Glennkill, if not the world, to find out who killed him.

The premise sounds impossibly twee, but this is actually quite an intriguing book which keeps you turning the pages to find out more about the sheep's eye view of humans and their doings and the solution to the mystery.

Starting my No. 28, Psychology: A Very Short Introduction by Gillian Butler and Freda McManus. This brings the TBR pile down to 42 and is my seventy-second ROOT for 2014.

My review of Thinking Straight:

When Taylor Adams (Tye) comes out to his conservative parents, he is sent to a Christian camp for troubled youth where not all is as it seems. Can he survive six weeks of this with his principles and faith intact?

The author did an excellent job in the first part of the book building up an atmosphere of how disastrous any mis-steps on Tye's part would be as he learns to navigate his new environment. My heart was in my mouth as I cheered him on. Unfortunately, the big reveal and how Tye dealt with it in the climax to the book just didn't ring true in the same way. Very disappointing after such a good beginning and middle.

Starting my No. 29, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. This is an ebook I've had for a while and so counts as my seventy-third ROOT for 2014.

My review of Psychology: A Very Short Introduction:

Overview of some different fields and approaches to psychology and what psychologists do. Reads more like a hook to get teenagers to decide on psychology at university.

I found your thread, Robert. I have been wanting to reread Agatha Christie myself and have been collecting some of her books. Sorry about Sarum as it is also on my tbr pile. I have had it for many years and was hoping for a good review to encourage me. I don't think I have read any Rutherford before.

Thanks for dropping by, BJ.

On a long haul flight I read two books, my nos. 30 and 31: Sorry Now? by Mark Richard Zubro and Tea-Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith. These are ebooks which count as my seventy-fourth and seventy-fifth ROOTs for 2014.

Also on the flight I started Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, which I've had long enough as an ebook to count as a ROOT but doubt I'll bother finishing after having read the first 3 chapters. I got annoyed by the author's tic of referring to everything by the brand name rather than a common noun. Still, it's off the virtual shelf.

So, currently reading my seventy-seventh ROOT, "Death in Roman Britain" (no touchstone) a virtual box set of 3 novels by Jane Finnis.

My review of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet:
Jacob de Zoet arrives in 1799 Nagasaki as a clerk for the Dutch East India Company unprepared for the corruption and intrigue that follows or for the effect a Japanese midwife, Aibagawa Orito, has on him.

I had a hard job matching names and characters at first, but once I got into it, this book was a joy to read.

My review of Sorry Now?:

The daughter of an anti-gay preacher and politician is murdered before his eyes. Has a gay group dedicated to outing publically anti-gay but secretly gay politicians gone too far?

At first I found this book to be very so-so but after a while the main character and his relationships with his sons, neighbours, and colleagues grew on me even if the actual mystery he was solving (and the solution was more due to the murderer's decision to confess than to the detective's efforts) was not terribly interesting. I might read more in the series to see if the author improves, but my inner series junky is not really kicking in for this one.

My review of Teatime for the Traditionally Built:

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is asked to investigate possible match-fixing in the local football league.

More of the same, but that's not a criticism for this series :-).

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Robert.

Thank you. And the same to you, Connie.

Starting my No. 33, Danger in the Wind, the fourth in the Aurelia Marcella series by Jane Finnis. This is a new ebook and so does not count as a ROOT.

My review of Death in Roman Britain:

Shadows in the Night:
Aurelia Marcella finds a badly-beaten unconscious man outside the mansio she runs on the outskirts of Brigantine territory in northern Britannia. Then news comes of many headless corpses being found on the roads. Is this the beginning of a full-scale native rebellion?

The author gives us a wonderful description of everyday life in ordinary and not so ordinary circumstances. I guessed the villain early on even if my attention was distracted briefly to other suspects.

A Bitter Chill
Lucius appears at the mansio to warn his sisters that he is going undercover in apparent disgrace and that a spy may come to seek evidence against him. After he leaves the Governor's very unpleasant aunt and uncle come to stay at the mansio while searching for their runaway son. A slave is killed in what appears to be an attempt to murder the Governor's uncle and Albia is found standing over the body holding a knife. Since the runaway son is her fiance and his parents do not approve of the match, she makes a very good suspect.

Overly complicated set-up, especially as the presence of the spy looking for evidence against Lucius is forgotten about for most of the book. There are hints that the Shadow of Death (the chief villain from "Shadows in the Night") may be manipulating events from afar, and I do dislike supervillains who keep popping up.

Buried Too Deep
A British farmer wounded fighting off sea-raiders is brought to consult Dr. Timaeus. A Roman settler also comes to call to buy some horses from Aurelia. Romans and British in the coastal district are each blaming the other for being behind the trouble with the sea-raiders. As Albia and her husband are now farming in the neighbourhood, Aurelia helps Lucius and Quintus investigate what is really going on.

Excellent exploration of Roman and British tensions amidst a convincing portrayal of everyday life.

A happy Christmas to all those celebrating the birth of Jesus and a kewl Yule to those who aren't.

Starting my No. 34, A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans. This is an ebook I've had for quite a while and counts as my seventy-eighth ROOT for 2014.

My review of Danger in the Wind:

A soldier staying at Aurelia's mansio on his way back to base at Isurium is murdered, possibly by his slave and possibly as part of a planned assassination of an Imperial tax auditor by the Brigantes around Isurium. Aurelia also receives a message from her cousin Jovina, whose husband is stationed in Isurium, ostensibly inviting Aurelia to her birthday party but actually asking for her help. Lucius forbids Aurelia to go as it is too dangerous.

A good story set against a believable backdrop of Roman settlers amongst resentful native British. I hope there are more to come in this series.

Starting my no. 35, The Bone Thief by V. M. Whitworth. This is another ebook which counts as my seventy-ninth ROOT for 2014.

My review of A Year of Biblical Womanhood:

Rachel Held Evans spends a year examining what the Bible says about women's roles and does her best to put it into practice.

Amusing narrative of the author's experiences with interesting reflections on how we read and interpret the Bible.

Also currently reading my No. 36, Tau Zero by Poul Anderson.This is my eightieth ROOT for 2014.

Happy New Year, Robert.

May all your wishes come true.

Happy New Year, BJ and Ameise, and all my LT friends.

Starting Nos. 37 and 38. No. 37 is another odd moments anthology of short stories, The Steampunk Megapack and No. 38 is The Ghost on the Throne by James Romm.

Starting my No. 39, The Traitors' Pit by V. M. Whitworth.

My review of Tau Zero:
On a five-year voyage to colonise a planet orbiting Beta Virginis, the Leonora Christine meets with an accident in space and is unable to decelerate.

This was one of my favourite SF novels in my teens and twenties, but re-visiting it I found the writing rather clunky. Still a great story, though.

My review of The Bone Thief:
Athelfled, the Lady of Mercia and daughter of Alfred the Great, entrusts Wulfgar, a childhood friend and now a cleric, with the task of retrieving the bones of St. Oswald from Bardney, now part of the Danelaw.

I found this rather difficult to get into at first but it turned into quite an exciting adventure story as we watch Wulfgar mature from a naive victim of childhood bullying with a tendency to zone out from what is happening round him into a resourceful adult able to form good relationships with those around him.

My review of The Traitors' Pit:

Wulfgar's older half-brother Wystan has been accused of treason against Edward, king of Wessex, but the Lady of Mercia needs him to negotiate an alliance with Knut, the King of York. How can he reconcile these two obligations?

Enjoyable second adventure for Wulfgar and friends.

Starting Household Gods by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr, my No. 40.

My review of Household Gods:

Nicole, a divorced mother of two toddlers, is unfairly deprived of promotion to a partnership in her LA law firm on the same day as her childminder leaves to look after her sick mother. She wishes she lived in a simpler time and wakes up the next day in the body of Umma, a tavern keeper living in 2nd Century AD Carnuntum in Pannonia Superior.

Umma's day-to-day life as experienced by Nicole is described superbly well. But I had a hard time believing that anyone could be as ignorant as Nicole. I can believe that she's never heard of Marcus Aurelius (the book was written pre-Gladiator after all), but her ideas about life in the past are laughably rose-tinted.

Part 2 is here.