John Keahey

Dec 12, 2023 | kirkusreviews.com | John Keahey |David Grann |Elie Wiesel |Marion Wiesel

The ancient routes of Rome come alive in this appealing new history. Traveling with the Caesars, Cicero, and Horace along Roman byways. At the apex of its power, the Roman Empire had 50,000 miles of paved roads. Constructed chiefly for military purposes, some 372 roads connected the empire’s 113 provinces, from Britain to Mesopotamia and from the Danube River to Spain and North Africa. Nearly 30 roads left Rome itself.

Dec 8, 2023 | newyorkfolk.com | James White |A. S. Byatt |John Keahey

When the end of the year comes around, I know that I can count on taking multiple long, cross-country plane rides broken up by days’ worth of loafing on my parents’ or my in-laws’ couches. “Dead week,” as Helena Fitzgerald memorably calls the time from Christmas to New Year’s Day, is the perfect moment for aimless reading. “It is a time against ambition and against striving,” Fitzgerald writes. Lounge about, flip through a book, and let a story wrap itself around your shoulders.