Just started my reread of The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders after about 20 years. I remember enjoying it the first time. It’s a look at three separate attempts to restore the greatness of Rome (Theodoric in c475, Justinian c572 and Charlemagne c800)

Just finished:

• Lázár: a fascinating novel about an aristocratic Hungarian family from ~1880s through the 1950s. Man, they were awful people
• The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy and the Shaping of the American West: I wanted this to be better than it was. A look at the eras of The West through men who epitomized the era… starting in the mid 1700s with George Washington and Daniel Boone, then moving forward to Sitting Bull and Wild Bill Hickok. Unfortunately the book falls prey to the “let me just give you a series of events with varying levels of detail” form of history instead of successfully weaving a coherent narrative across 180 years of history
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye: short listed for the 2026 international Booker prize after not much critical acclaim during the original printing in 1996. It was fine. An interesting story and a unique one at that, but didn’t say much. The translation from French to English was good, I think it could have been fleshed out more and been a better read