John opened the box from Amazon while I cleared the table after lunch. I wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing, and he suddenly said with conviction, “Lars is an excellent writer!”

We have been thrilled by his books before, so he was just underscoring something we already knew. John loves history, too, so he can compare Lars’ fresh words with the thousands of history books he has read through the years.

“Listen to this,” John said. “Unfortunately, in the bloodsport of Roman politics, money, ambition, and talent were necessary ingredients, and the elder Caesar lacked all three.”

This is one sentence from page two of The Caesars Vol. 1 by Lars Brownworth, published in 2021. When son John $pencer came in, John read aloud another sentence or so. $ put his name next on the invisible sign-up sheet to read the book. If anyone can bring dusty ancient history to life, it is Lars. I do not normally choose to read history, but my name is third on the list.