The next Genre Reading Group meeting is on Tuesday, July 27th
at 6:30pm and we’ll be back in person! We’ll
be in the large Community Meeting Room where there’s plenty of space to spread
out.
A Zoom option is available, simply select it when you
register for the program here: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/4597971
July’s topic is the author, Elizabeth Berg. Read any of her work and come tell us about
it. There is a display up at the 2nd
floor service desk if you’d like to browse. You can also peruse the catalog and reserve books from home by clicking here.
Tonight we talked about the wonders of Ancient Egypt!
From baboons to bulls, crocodiles to cows, a vast menagerie
of animal mummies lie buried in Egyptian catacombs. Hi-tech imaging is now
revealing what's inside the bundles and the strange role that animals played in
ancient Egyptian beliefs.
Egyptomania:
Our 3,000 Year Obsession with the Land of the Pharaohs by Bob Brief
For forty years, Bob Brier, one of the world's foremost
Egyptologists, has been amassing one of the largest collections of Egyptian
memorabilia and seeking to understand the pull of Ancient Egypt on our
world today. In this original and groundbreaking book, with twenty-four pages
of color photos from the author's collection, he explores our
three-thousand-year-old fixation with recovering Egyptian culture and its
meaning. He traces our enthrallment with the mummies that seem to have cheated
death and the pyramids that as if they will last forever. Drawing on his
personal collection--from Napoleon's twenty volume Egypt encyclopedia to
Howard Carter's letters written from the Valley of the Kings as he was
excavating--this is an inventive and mesmerizing tour of how an ancient
civilization endures in ours today.
Pyramids
of Ancient Egypt: The History of Antiquities Most Famous Monuments by
Phaistos Publishers
The Great Pyramid is only one of many pyramids at Giza, and
people still associate Egypt with pyramids due to these massive monuments, but
many are unaware of the long tradition of pyramid building within Egypt. There
are many more pyramids in Egypt than just those at Giza - Lepsius’ expedition
listed 67 “pyramids” throughout Egypt, all listed in his Denkmäler aus Aegypten
und Aethiopien. Some of these monuments have since been relabeled as mastabas
or other monuments, but many represented initial attempts at building pyramids
by some of Egypt’s earliest kings, offering testament to the fact that the
Egyptians spent several centuries trying to master the process of building such
majestic monuments.
Ancient
Egypt by Edward Macuski
Whether you want to learn more about Tutankhamun, whose tomb
was discovered in the year 1922 and filled with gold and riches, or Cleopatra
the VII, the famed last queen of Egypt, you will have the opportunity in this
book to learn all about some of the most prominent rulers of Ancient Egypt. As
well as the history of the pyramids, temples, and religion, how the Nile was an
integral part to survival, the Egyptian army, and battle practices, how
transportation and trade affected life, the daily life of ancient Egyptians, as
well as their mythology, time periods, and dynasties.
A
Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark
Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman
working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities,
she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of
the universe last summer.
So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most
famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz
transformed the world forty years ago when he opened up the veil between the
magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer
claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social
oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of
Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.
Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent
Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the
city―or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…
Crocodile
on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (Book 1 of the Amelia Peabody series)
Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian
age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable
self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy
umbrella. On her way to Cairo, Amelia rescues young Evelyn Barton-Forbes, who
has been abandoned by her scoundrel lover. Together the two women sail up the
Nile to an archeological site run by the Emerson brothers-the irascible but
dashing Radcliffe and the amiable Walter. Soon their little party is increased
by one-one mummy that is, and a singularly lively example of the species.
The
Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Lesley and
Roy Adkins
Chronicles the twenty-year attempt of French linguist
Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics despite poverty,
ill health, competition by English physician Thomas Young, and political
enemies.
Murder
in the Place of Anubis by Lynda Robinson
The body of a much-hated scribe has been found in the sacred
place of embalming, and the resulting outrage could threaten the reign of
Tutankhamun. So the boy king tasks his investigator, Lord Meren, to look into
the crime. The quest will take Meren into the worlds of nobles, slaves, and
schemers in the royal court—all while he fights to keep the teenaged pharaoh
safe from those who would take advantage of this crisis . . .
Lady
of the Reeds by Pauline Gedge
In ancient Egypt, an intelligent, ambitious woman named Thu,
leaves her native village aboard the boat of a prophet and eventually becomes a
powerful concubine of Ramses III.
The
Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae,
Autobiographies, and Poetry edited by William Kelly Simpson
This anthology of ancient Egyptian literature includes
annotated classics such as the story of Sinuhe, religious texts -- including
Penitential Hymns -- historical texts, and writings from the late literature of
the Demotic period at the end of classical Egyptian history, including the
Romance of Setna Khaemuas and the Mummies.
Searching
for the Lost Tombs of Egypt by Chris Nauton
Tombs, mummies, and funerary items make up a significant
portion of the archeological remains that survive ancient Egypt and have come
to define the popular perception of Egyptology. Despite the many sensational
discoveries in the last century, such as the tomb of Tutankhamun, the tombs of
some of the most famous individuals in the ancient world―Imhotep, Nefertiti,
Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra―have not yet been found.
Archeologist Chris Naunton examines the famous pharaohs,
their achievements, the bling they might have been buried with, the
circumstances in which they were buried, and why those circumstances may have
prevented archeologists from finding these tombs.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Cleopatra:
A Life by Stacy Schiff
Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone
down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in
her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name.
Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her
circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources,
Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic
queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope,
Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.
The
Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson and
Martin Dugard
James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through stacks of
evidence-X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues, and stories told through the
ages-to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is
an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal that casts
fresh light on the oldest mystery of all.
Christ
the Lord Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has
devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most ambitious and
courageous book, a novel about the early years of CHRIST THE LORD, based on the
Gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship.
Out
of the Black Land by Kerry Greenwood
Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt is peaceful and prosperous under
the dual rule of the Pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV, until the younger Pharaoh
begins to dream new and terrifying dreams.
Ptah-hotep, a young peasant boy studying to be a scribe, wants
to live a simple life. But Amenhotep IV appoints him Great Royal Scribe, and he
is soon surrounded by bitterly envious rivals and enemies.
The child-princess Mutnodjme sees her beautiful sister
Nefertiti married off to the impotent young Amenhotep. But Nefertiti must bear
royal children.
The Pharaoh's shrinking army under the daring teenage
General Horemheb guards the Land of the Nile from enemies on every border. But
a far greater menace impends.
The newly renamed Akhnaten plans to suppress the worship of
all other gods in the Black Land. His horrified court soon realize that the
Pharaoh is not merely deformed, but irretrievably mad; and that the greatest
danger to the Empire is in the royal palace itself.
Ancient
Top 10: Secrets of Egypt
The discoveries of Egypt have been among the highest profile
archaeological finds in history. Find out which Top 10 secret has had the
biggest impact on our view of Ancient Egypt in Season 1, Episode 7,
"Secrets of Egypt". For more from Ancient Top 10 and other great
HISTORY shows: http://histv.co/SubscribeHistoryYT
Secrets
of the Great Pyramid by Bob Brier and Jean-Pierre Houdin
The Secret of the Great Pyramid is a thrilling
intellectual adventure story about the most exciting discovery in Egyptology in
decades. Bob Brier, along with French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin,
tells the remarkable true story of Houdin’s obsession with Egypt’s Great
Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the World: how, in an ancient agrarian
society not long removed from the Stone Age, such a remarkable structure could
have been envisioned and constructed. At once the story of Houdin’s
determined search for answers to the puzzle that have eluded scientist and Egyptologists
for centuries and a fascinating history of the planning and building of
the magnificent edifice, The Secret of the Great Pyramid is an
extraordinary work that puts the mystery to rest, once and for all.
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