WHAT have you recently finished reading?
Yesterday I finished Damned Un-English, a novel about a fellow who joined the submarine service in the early 1910s and…er, just spends the novel talking to people about the big European war that’s looming. Interesting technical details, but the plot and characters were marginal.
WHAT are you reading now?
Fires of Vesuvius, Mary Beard. An examination (archaeological, historical, geological) of the Vesuvius eruption that destroyed Pompeii and other areas. I had no idea Pompeii had been hit by an earthquake a decade or so before, with much of its damage still lingering when the volcano began raining pumice.
WHAT are you reading next?
Oh, lord, who can say? I meant to kickstart Blast from the Past II, but keep dithering. Here’s the ol’ Kindle bookshelf at the moment:
Most probably, I’ll finally tackle-finish that volcanos book (Mountains of Fire) I’ve been pecking at for a few months.
Reading Freely 
Looks like you’ve got plenty of interesting reads ahead based on that well-stocked Kindle bookshelf!
There’s a reason my Kindle app is far and away the largest on my phone!
If you are interested in a fictional account of Pompeii leading up to and during the eruption (which from memory does mention the earthquakes prior), I would recommend Days of Fire
Ooh, thanks! I’ve read Robert Harris’ “Pompeii” but would be eager to have something else to compare it with. 😀
Is that: ‘A Day of Fire’ (2014) by Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn and Vicky Alvear Shecter.
Looks interesting……
Especially Kane!
Yes, that’s the one. Some chapters are stronger or more interesting than others but I loved how they were all parts of one story even if initially it didn’t seem obvious. Some were heartbreaking too
It’s quite different in that each chapter is a separate but connected story, written by a different author. But because of their connectedness, this is a book rather than a set of short stories. At the back there is info on what each author based their part on.
That Vesuvius book sounds cool, Mary Beard seems to have written a few books that look like I might like!