Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book about or set in an ancient civilization. (Connection to 23: Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times).


I'm loosely defining "ancient civilization" to be between 3000 BC and 200 CE. But I am not a historian, so please speak up if this time period should be adjusted!!

This can be fiction or non-fiction, and it can be fantasy so long as the setting is solidly based on a real ancient civilization. (Example: Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist and Miller's The Song of Achilles.)

To my surprise I could not find a Listopia of NOVELS (again, this category can be fiction or nonfiction, but the Listopias I was finding were pure non-fiction, and I wanted the Listopia to contain both, not just nonfiction), so I created one for us. The novels I've added are very euro-centric, because I could not find many novels set anywhere else! I found a bunch of historical fiction/romance set in China in the Tang Dynasty, but by my "ancient civ" definition, we would need Han Dynasty and earlier. I'm hoping all of you expert readers can find some more books set in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and maybe Oceania

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
My book club read this one a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it. It's six interconnected short stories happening before and during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Jen wrote: "A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
My book club read this one a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it. It's six interconnected short stories happening before and during the eruption..."



Oooh and I'd say there are flames on that cover, too! You've got a two-fer!!

It looks like Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1 takes place in ancient civilization. At least it appears to be. I could be very very wrong, however.

Fiction stories based on Biblical people would work.
I've read (and I'm not particularly religious, so preachy is not my style):
Iscariot
The Shadow Women
and much more famous, The Red Tent

Hmm... otherwise, this is proving trickier than I expected... I will ponder and search.

Would 70CE count? That's when The Dovekeepers takes place. I started it years ago for a book club, and really want to finish it.

M wrote: "It looks like Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1 takes place in ancient civilization. At least it appears to be. I could be very very wrong, however."

I watched a couple of episodes. A god goes down to the mortal world in them. it’s Chinese. So are the other to by the same author.

To the sky kingdom takes place partly in mortal china too.

Nadine in NY wrote: "A book about or set in an ancient civilization. (Connection to 23: Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times).


I'm loosely defining "ancient civilization" to be between 3000 BC and 200 CE. But I am not ..."

Aty has them for the three centuries. You could steal them.

Mandy wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "A book about or set in an ancient civilization. (Connection to 23: Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times).


I'm loosely defining "ancient civilization" to be between 3000 BC and ..."


I forgot about that. They've got Listopias for BC, and for the first 18 centuries, so it's a bit of a mix.

Here's the BC list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I was watching a documentary on King Tut, and duh, I have some ancient Egyptian books on my TBR.

The Murder of King Tut
Nefertiti which I started way back when I was nursing my daughter, but never finished. I musta been busy or something... :)

Yes! Cleopatra: A Life! Been meaning to read this for a couple of years now!

I wasn't sure I'd do this one because ancient civilizations just aren't my thing but I was looking through my personal library and found these two which I haven't read yet:

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

I am reading Every Knee Shall Bow by Bryan M. Litfin that I won from GR and will finish in 2023.

I am going with The Winter Siege, which is set in 1141.

Bea wrote: "I am going with The Winter Siege, which is set in 1141."



I LOVED Mistress of the Art of Death, it felt so DIFFERENT. And then I was so sad when the author died that I have never read another one of her books. It's like, I like having those books still to read someday in the future.

Nadine in NY wrote: "I LOVED Mistress of the Art of Death, it felt so DIFFERENT. And then I was so sad when the author died that I have never read another one of her books. It's like, I like having those books still to read someday in the future."

Nadine, I agree. I was excited to find The Winter Siege, but I did not plan it for your challenge. Sorry! It is for the ATY Seasonal Challenge.

For this one, I will read Circe, which was languishing on my TBR.

I read Desperate Undertaking by Lindsey Davis, one of her Flavia Albia mysteries. It's set in Rome during the reign of Domitian (81-96 AD/CE), and the assassination of Julius Caesar gets a mention.

It's an interesting story, mainly about theatre in Rome, but much grimmer than the author's usual style

I would recommend her early books on Marcus Falco, which are lighter with a lot of history explained as well as being good mysteries.

Other recs for this period are Robert Harris's books about Cicero.

This would fit:

PopSugar: -A book with two languages - lots of Latin names and a few words; a book with a map.

ATY: Three centuries prompt; book that is dark; book involving a murder; author of more than 7 books; book with unusually large animal.

LeahS wrote: "I read Desperate Undertaking by Lindsey Davis, one of her Flavia Albia mysteries. It's set in Rome during the reign of Domitian (81-96 AD/CE), and the assassination o..."



I've got The Silver Pigs pencilled in for this category - you may have been the one to recommend it, because I'm not familiar with this author!

I hope you enjoy it, Nadine!

It didn't connect that Steven Pressfield would count here. He wrote three military historical fiction set in Greece. Two of them are my favorites, and I need to try the third again. All three are told in the same sort of framing device - someone who survived is telling the story to others, so you have the tale of the battle interwoven with the tale of the storyteller.

Gates of Fire is the Battle of Thermopylae told by a Spartan slave who somehow survived the battle. I read this while traveling in Greece (long before the movie 300 came out) and it made visiting the battle site at Thermopylae all the more meaningful. It's among my all-time favorite books.

Last of the Amazons is about the Amazon queen marrying Theseus, king of Athens, and the clash between the Amazon and Greek cultures. It takes some investment to get there, as the beginning of the book is terrible, but it pays off.

Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War. This one I haven't been able to read. I was in chapter one, didn't understand anything and never came back to it. I need to, since I just said Last of the Amazons starts poorly but gets worth it.

This one goes through the Indigenous history dating all the way back to civilizations before the Americas became the Americas.

It's a book thats' been on my tbr for a long while and I think it would work here.

Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

I read The Dovekeepers