The Melencolia Manifesto
Book
Few artworks have been the subject of more extensive modern interpretation than Melencolia I by...
Making Amulets Christian: Artefacts, Scribes, and Contexts
Book
Making Amulets Christian: Artefacts, Scribes, and Contexts examines Greek amulets with Christian...
Antony and Cleopatra
Book
The epic story of one of the most famous love affairs in history, by the bestselling author of...
Beautiful Words: A Dictionary
Book
As English has evolved over the past 1,500 years, words that were once in common usage have slipped...
David McK (3422 KP) rated Hearts of Stone in Books
Feb 9, 2022
Until recently, I've tended to avoid his few works that are more contemporary in nature, only recently (towards the end of last year) reading Blackout as I felt they were 'too close' (if that makes sense) for comfort for me in that there are still people alive who lived through the setting.
I must admit, I did quite enjoy Blackout so thought I would also give this a go, due to the roughly the same (WW2) setting.
This novel flits back and forth between then and 'now' (of 2013), as the descendants of the main 1940s settings character start to discover more about their ancestors - in particular, as history teacher Anna uncovers the story of her maternal grandmother Eleni, who participated in the Greek resistance on the island of Lefkas during 1943.
The whole had-a-German-friend in 1939 thing almost seems incidental to the story (he's not), until roughly about the final third.
And yes, I did pick up on the arguments in favour of teaching history (a subject I did, mostly, enjoy in school) passages.
Christmas: A Biography
Book
Christmas has been all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a time of...
religion
Through Martha's Eyes: One Woman Witnesses the Greatest Event in History
Book
Judea. The early decades of the first century AD. As the power of the Roman Empire stretches across...
Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust: Language, Rhetoric and the Traditions of Hatred
Book
Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust surveys the history of the Holocaust whilst demonstrating the...
Captain of the Guild: Master Peter Falkner's Art of Knightly Defense
Book
In the late 14th century, the German swordsman Johannes Liechtenauer developed and codified a system...
As this starts, Macro and Cato are on their way back to Rome (after the events of [b:Britannia|25028364|Britannia (Eagle, #14)|Simon Scarrow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439580823s/25028364.jpg|44703249]: a novel in which, at the end, Cato received some unfortunate news. Distressibng news that, as the plot develops, becomes more and more only the tip of the iceberg (and that leads me to wonder if the author was letting his real-life experiences influence him when he was writing this? Or am I just reading too much into it? (as he has not been shy about sharing certain aspects on social media)), with this plot leading Cato and Macro to join a compny of the Praetorian Guard on an extended campaign, in which they have to defend a slave mine from a local uprising in Spain - an uprising that, to be fair, has a pretty valid reason behind it.
Once again, a thoroughly enjoyable read.