Augustus

A great read, I'm biased due to my love of Stoner but this stands on its own as a completely different sort of novel. Having said that you don't have to squint much to see themes connecting the two.

Never realised how important Augustus was. I'm an idiot! He was the most important one! More than Julius Caesar! My entire view of history has been irrevocably altered!

Love when a book does that.

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A warning for anyone considering this book, for the love of all the Roman Gods, don't listen to this on the Audible audiobook. A great example of the wrong reader almost ruining a great book. Epistolary format is hard at the best times via audiobook, but this was especially bad. The reader managed to take this format - specifically designed to capture a broad range of voices and perspectives - and reduce it down to one voice that didn't suit any of them.

I switched very quickly to physically reading the book and then things were mostly great, the voice still lingered occasionally whispering the words as I read them and ruining them, but it was manageable.