The Roman Search for Wisdom by Michael K. Kellogg (nonfiction 2014)

This lovely book was just about as wonderful as literary analysis can be.  It involved lots of storytelling, and I learned all kinds of new things about Roman society.  Not every writer the author chose to feature was a Latin speaker, but they all lived under the Empire.

The Advocate by Randy Singer (historical fiction 2014)

This book from a legal thriller writer takes us to the time of the early empire.  I always love it when a writer describes the city of Rome - here trials in the Basilica Julia are particularly evocative.  The advocate in question is a student of Seneca, and Caligula is in the classroom with him.  While the protagonist meets Jesus and becomes a Christian, the author isn't biased and criticizes the Jews, Christians and Romans.  I enjoyed the mix of gladiator action, courtroom thriller, and love story.

The Wayfaring Stranger by James Lee Burke (fiction 2014)

Burke is always good, exciting, funny, sad and crazy - with a few draggy spots where he can sometimes blab on for no reason.  This story is about a Texan who goes to fight the Germans and comes back to start an oil business.  I loved the first half so much that I forced myself to set down the book and start another one so that I could prolong the joy.

The True Herod by Geza Vermes (nonfiction 2014)

This book is spare and concise, convincing those of us who don't know Herod from anything but the Bible that he wasn't a babykiller.  Herod the Great definitely had his psychotic moments, but it turns out he was an amazing builder, a great politician.  The book does well in giving a useful context to what we're studying, such as a short account of how the king and his heirs dealt with each emperor.

Spartans at the Gates by Noble Smith (historical fiction 2014)

This second book in Noble's The Warrior Trilogy about the lead up to the Peloponnesian Wars follows Sons of Zeus, reviewed at the link.  With amazing descriptions of Athens and Plataea, non-stop ultraviolent action, and an awesome 9-year old murdering Skythian sidekick, I liked it even more than the first.  There was a short section when it seemed tired for a minute, but the climax is great.

With My Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst (fiction originally published in 1986)

I had never heard of this Brazilian avant-garde author but recognized the "dog eyes" reference to Clytemnestra, so I tried this short book.  It's about a mathematics professor who goes crazy, and it is very very good, funny sad and weird.  The translator and author of the introduction, Adam Morris, missed her clear (to me) debt to Nabokov.

Richard III England's Black Legend by Desmond Seward (nonfiction 2014)

Seward finally writes about something he is very excited about, and sort of bowls himself over.  I wasn't able to get into another recent book of his, but was intrigued by his vehement stance against apologists and defenders of a gray or white legend.

The story is one I know, and though Seward tells it well, I realized that two things were happening.  First, he absolutely slams any whiff of a suggestion that Richard may not have been the hunchback psycho of Shakespeare, and he does it in the strongest of terms.  According to Seward, any nuance is a stretch, ludicrous, or ridiculous.  In my opinion, that very vehemence ends up weakening his argument because it is not so difficult for the average history lover to imagine a different version of the story, and it's not as if we know much for sure about what we now call the Wars of the Roses.

Second, the errors and crimes that Seward accuses Richard of are common among other kings/nobility/soldiers of the time, and Seward himself brings up several instances that do not support the Black Legend hypothesis.  Yes, infanticide is horrible, but so is killing an old lady, which Henry VIII would do 40 years later - in the open.  Seward says Richard was worse than Henry in ruthlessness. 

Seward calls Richard Machiavellian, but yet calls out several "mistakes" Richard made that Machiavelli would have helped him out with - if The Prince would have been written more than 20 years earlier.

Long story short - I got impatient with the strange attitude against anyone who might disagree with the author, though the book was very good.