ephemeral entries

I don't read a lot of fiction that glorifies monarchies these days, but I'm mildly interested in the history and personalities of the Claudians and Ptolemies in the ancient world.

• Long ago, I watched the I, Claudius BBC production (on Masterpiece Theater). My sister and I listened together to most of the I, Podius podcast which discussed each episode and sometimes interviewed some of the actors, and I finally finished it off a couple of weekends ago.
• I love Jo Graham's books set in the Ancient World, including Hand of Isis (Charmian, servant of Cleopatra; poly-friendly, takes religious devotion seriously)
• I've listened to The History of Rome podcast from a little before those times through to the end (I did listen to alllll of Mike Duncan's *Revolutions* podcast, down with tyranny!).

Wednesday night in procrastination, I finally pulled Michelle Moran's Cleopatra's Daughter from my TBR bookshelves, and got pulled in so much that I finished it that night. Cleopatra's daughter Selene really was sent to live in Rome with Octavia, Emperor Augustus' sister, and later became the queen consort of Mauritania. This story imagines what her growing up in that family as their power grew was like. I liked it a lot for the most part -- a different but plausible view on some of the children with whom she grows up and the adults she has to cope with, and a perspective on how slavery corrupts the enslavers. I would have liked it better without the following issues: There was one historical error that didn't greatly affect the plot, although jarring to me (Alexander the Great was not a huge hulking warrior), and a dramatic subplot invented out of whole cloth that seemed implausible to me. Overall, I'd recommend it, if that sounds like things you could deal with as a reader.

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Charming seal pup rescue story from this week (with cute pix!)