CleopatraALife

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

pan

Most of the primary sources of information about Cleopatra are long destroyed. So the author talks about the men in her life, then the time, place, and culture. Anything she tells about Cleopatra seemed like inference and conjecture. It just didn‘t do the trick for me. OTOH, it was a good lead in for the ARC of Jodi Picoult‘s newest.

Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2020 #booked2020 #thinkpink #cleopatraalife #buddyread

Cinfhen, Riveted_Reader_Melissa, alisiakae

Velvetfur That first sentence you wrote - to me that's heartbreaking, the loss of information, the loss of history, especially about someone so famous at the time and so influential.... I can't take it! 😭 4y

Hooked_on_books That‘s so disappointing. I read her book about the Salem witch trials. The info in it was great, but I found it a bit dry. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @Velvetfur I know! I wonder what we DON‘T know ... and how it would change our perspective on her life. 4y

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BarbaraTheBibliophage @Hooked_on_books I have that one also. At least for that their are still primary sources available. But I thought Schiff was amazingly misogynistic for a female author. Not in the sense of hating women, but in sooo often painting Cleopatra in the light of men‘s condescending words. 4y

Velvetfur @BarbaraTheBibliophage Exactly! I'm preparing for bed now, maybe I'll dream of Cleopatra! If I do, I'll let you know asap what she tells me 😁 4y

Hooked_on_books Oh that‘s so disappointing. It‘s so frustrating when women do that. We need to support one another, not put each other down! Arg. 4y

JulAnna @Hooked_on_books I heard that about the Salem witch trial book. I was disappointed because I was interested in that one. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @Velvetfur That‘d be awesome! 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @Hooked_on_books So true! 4y

Cinfhen So disappointing/ Cleopatra sounds like such a fascinating subject matter 4y

92 likes10 comments

Texreader

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

so-so

I am so grateful for the group read because I never would have finished this book. I didn‘t like the author‘s style. She‘s pretentious and often assumes you already know so much already, when she throws sentences in with a wink and a nod like we‘re in on her personal remark. But that aside, I learned so much and I‘m glad for it. I generally liked Cleopatra—she wielded power and wealth considerably well under extremely trying times. #cleopatraalife

GingerAntics Love this assessment. 4y

Texreader @GingerAntics Ha! Thanks! I decided not to pan it outright simply because I did learn a lot. Now, I‘m trying to decide what to do with my copy. I think if my daughter doesn‘t want it, someone on Litsy might. It‘s definitely not a keeper. 4y

GingerAntics No, that‘s not really something I‘d want to keep around, either. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage I feel just about the same way. Would‘ve bailed without the group read. But the new Jodi Picoult actually has a lot of satisfying Egyptology in it. So I‘m getting that aspect now! 4y

67 likes4 comments

Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

Well, we have come full circle in many ways. When we met Cleopatra she was in exile trying to hold onto her throne and in serious danger of losing both it and her life, and at the end she finds herself back in that unenviable position. She may have ended in a similar position to the one she started with, but the story in between is one we will never forget...even if we will never know all the details. ⤵️

#CleopatraALife

Riveted_Reader_Melissa I blame Octavius for burning so much correspondence. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @TheBookHippie @Texreader @BarbaraTheBibliophage @mollyrotondo @mdm139 @Gezemice @erzascarletbookgasm @NeedsMoreBooks @JHgotham @Graywacke @GingerAntics 4y

Graywacke Which section had Herod‘s get of jail free card? Sorry, in my audiobook confusion i can‘t remember. It‘s my favorite line of the book. But overall I question Cleopatra‘s military skills and I think she needed better advisers. Her Antony didn‘t match up to Octavius‘s Agrippa. Seems they were outmaneuvered. 4y

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa I wish I could say that one Roman General played the game better than the other, and that that was the difference...but both ended up dead, one murder, one suicide...so although Egypt always needed the backing of Rome, it was NEVER a safe choice, no matter whom you picked. (edited) 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Graywacke I was left thinking Rome was a very fickle mistress. All of it‘s client states were subject to its whims and infighting, and client state rulers were basically damned if they did and damned if they didn‘t. Cleopatra‘s brother killed Caesar‘s enemy, but Caesar didn‘t reward him, he was mad he was killed by a non-Roman, so no matter whether you chose to side with the “ruler” of Rome, your part of the triumvirate, or the new upstart, ... (edited) 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ..you were going to be punished for not sending enough support, the wrong kind of support, to much support. Basically the client “kings” were a great punching bag to blame for any loss or anything else that went wrong. Egypt especially because of its wealth. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa And Herod seemed to get a second chance a few times.... 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Graywacke I don‘t remember specifically, but it was along the lines of...I told Anthony to get rid of that woman, but he wouldn‘t listen to me🤷‍♀️ 4y

TheBookHippie I think the watch who you surround yourself with and listen to is everything in this story. It‘s like the a tale as old as time ... also it felt like there was no way out.. catch 22 at every turn. I still admire her greatly and was wondering if I would after reading this. I can‘t imagine being female in this time. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage I‘m glad to have read this in our group! I found Schiff‘s writing boring for a good percentage of the book. Had I not had this #buddyread I probably would have bailed. But since the second half grabbed me more than the first, I would have missed some good stuff. I have a few quotes to post that relate to our own times. Thanks for gathering us @Riveted_Reader_Melissa ! 4y

mollyrotondo This really made me understand how conniving Octavius was because while reading the play I wasn‘t sure of his motives (watching the play made it clearer as well.) He was jealous of Cleopatra and really did not want her to get any credit whatsoever of being a powerful female leader. Most of the conflict was because of petty men (as usual). I thought her suicide was a good “f” you to Octavius. 4y

Jgotham I agree with the other posters that I had a hard time keeping focused as the writing was very stiff for me. I‘m glad we had a buddy read and I would love to continue with history buddy reads:) 4y

36 likes12 comments

BarbaraTheBibliophage

Book Report: Publishing Strategies, Writing Tips, and 101 Literary Ideas for Aspiring Authors and Poets | Mark Shaw

Well, it was a good week for reading! I also got 4 short Audible Originals knocked off my TBR. (None of them stellar.)

It‘s been fun to #buddyread a book I would‘ve never finished without the group ... #cleopatraalife
Also catching up on #NetGalley ARCs ... started two more this week. And the Picoult is partly set in Egypt!

H is for Hawk is a reread since my IRL book group chose it. I loved it the first time.

Locking Up Our Own is a #BLM read

Cinfhen

Cinfhen Looking good, Barb 😍 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen Thank you! 😘 4y

86 likes2 comments

Texreader

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

As I read the last chapter and anticipate how I will review this book, I recall Mom‘s note about it. #momreviews It lacks “sizzle.” I‘ll weigh in tonight or tomorrow when I finish it but I don‘t think Mom‘s too far off the mark here. @Doll8455 #cleopatraalife

GingerAntics Totally agree with Mom. 4y

marleed I love your mom‘s notes! 4y

Reggie I‘ve missed her reviews! 4y

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Texreader @Reggie I‘ll have to let her know. She sent back a bunch of books she‘d read without her post its! She needs to know her fans miss her! 😉 4y

Texreader @marleed Aww thanks!! 4y

Texreader @GingerAntics Yea she was dead on accurate on this one 4y

GingerAntics She really was. 4y

68 likes7 comments

Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Trouble in July | Erskine Caldwell

#JulyWrapUp and #JulyStats Onto August...

10 Completed/4 In Progress
8 Women/2Men
4 Nonfiction/6 Fiction

Completed:
#CleopatraALife
#PratchettPosse
#OokBookClub
#StarWarsBuddyRead
#AuthorAMonth
#NetGalley

Ongoing:
#FellowshipOfTolkien
#ShakespeareReadAlong
#TruthToPowerBuddyRead
#NonfictionNerds

43 likes

Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

pick

This book got mixed reviews from my reading group, but I quite enjoyed traveling through what is known about her lifetime & then trying to tease out the rest from conflicting accounts, blank yrs, & copious amounts of propaganda written after her passing. I was left with the overwhelming feeling that humanity‘s view of powerful women is just as conflicted as it ever was & that, as much as her victor wrote her story, he also made her unforgettable.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa #CleopatraALife 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa #Booked2020 #ArmchairTravel 4y

Cathythoughts Sounds good. Might be good on audio 🤔 4y

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BarbaraTheBibliophage Good review. I agree on your assessment—about to post my own review! Also going to tag my challenge co-hosts for the prompt you completed. @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft 🤓 4y

alisiakae This is the same author who wrote Witches, isn‘t it? I have that one on my shelf, but now I want to read this one, too. Great review! (edited) 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Oh, should I have tagged you 3 on the other prompts as I fill them? 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @4thhouseontheleft Yes, it is the same author. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @Riveted_Reader_Melissa We always like to pop in and congratulate! But we don‘t count each post for drawing entries—just the summary posts at the end of each season. 😎 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BarbaraTheBibliophage Gotcha! Thanks! 4y

Cinfhen Good review!! Sorry it wasn‘t a hit. I‘ve always been fascinated by the lure of Cleopatra 4y

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

What a mess...trapped in marshland in a standoff, and a disastrous sea battle/escape plan. But I‘ll admit the highlight for me here was the deviousness and propaganda employed by both sides, Octavius to brutal effect, all in villinizing a mistress because it was convient (not really because they cared about the relationship. Unfortunately reminded me of the hypocrisy we still see in political maneuvering to this day. 😕

#CleopatraALife

Riveted_Reader_Melissa . @TheBookHippie @Texreader @BarbaraTheBibliophage @mollyrotondo @mdm139 @Gezemice @erzascarletbookgasm @NeedsMoreBooks @JHgotham @Graywacke @GingerAntics 4y

TheBookHippie Is it me or is reading this comforting 🤣🤷🏽‍♀️. It seems like modern day I agree. I do find myself looking up relevant historical things related to where we are reading quite often. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @TheBookHippie I‘m with you, but not necessarily comforting, but humans really have always been stupid 😂, so I guess comforting in the way that this is nothing new to our times....I kept thinking about how Hillary became the boogeyman/she devil to millions, and Trump this religious paragon....all through rumors and messaging. It made me think about her book What Happened... and that at rallies they are still selling Hillary for Prison stuff ⤵️ 4y

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...(even though she‘s not running) and yet after all of Pizzagate craziness, it‘s Trump who has connections to Epstein and wishes Maxwell well, but that isn‘t the same kind of scandal. So I guess I‘m saying, it definitely resonated for me this week, but more in the way that we haven‘t advanced much at all. And maybe we were doomed by basing our country on Roman ideals...maybe we should have went with Egyptian. 😂 4y

GingerAntics Ah yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. There are most definitely parallels between what went on in this chapter and what continues to go on today. 4y

GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘ve actually read two books on this recently. We‘re not a republic or empirical/dictatorship (yet), so there is no real connection with Rome. That‘s a white washing of the facts. Democracy came from the Iraqois Indians. Rome never had a democracy, and even then it was only a republic for a small minority (rich men). I think there are MANY in power right now, including Trump, who very much want a system like Rome, though. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics but we got the rich men who were entitled in a Senate & took sides with whichever way the wind blowed in their favor..so we aren‘t that different. Plus we put in the whole Electoral College to keep the real decision power with the powerful....so I think we copied Roman (in all the bad ways), because we aren‘t really a Democracy, every person gets a vote and they all count equally, and we never really have been, no matter how we like (edited) 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...to teach kids and tell ourselves. The voter disenfranchisement and suppression, and gerrymandering has always meant some votes counted for more that others. 4y

GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa that‘s true, but we need to stop telling the lie that democracy came from Rome, too. The core idea, that if actually followed would give equal power to everyone didn‘t come from Europe at all. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘m reading a book about how we vote / electoral college / our not so representative democracy right now and learning a lot of history. I either never learned it or have since forgotten. From the beginning we had fights about whether to be a republic or a democracy. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage One of the things I really got from this chapter was how effective propaganda can be. Octavian really had plenty of material with Antony and Cleopatra, and then he also knew which pieces to turn to his advantage. 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage Plus, if we think about how similar it is to today, we can also see that civilization has survived a lot of stupid sh*t. Maybe we will survive our stupid politicians too. 4y

GingerAntics @BarbaraTheBibliophage that‘s true. Let‘s just hope it doesn‘t get as bloody as past occurrences. 🤣😂🤣 (edited) 4y

BarbaraTheBibliophage @GingerAntics Good point ... 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Exactly, we white wash a lot of history, and delude ourselves about many things. Both Rome and Greek weren‘t exactly democratic....not the way we think it should be anyway. @BarbaraTheBibliophage Probably why we settled on a Democratic Republic, and just split the difference, and why fights today are still between Republicans and Democrats, still fighting it out for the upper hand. 😐🙈. As far as bloody or not, after the way... 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...the last 3 years have gone, I can‘t say we are particularly bloodless. 4y

Texreader @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @TheBookHippie @gingerantics @BarbaraTheBibliophage It was “humorous” watching the two men go at it, both of them idiots in their own ways and it sealed my high opinion of Cleopatra. It seemed she was denigrated for not leaving the fight scene sooner but it was her war in which she had invested her own money, and Antony didn‘t seem to be making sound decisions. I would have stuck around, too. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Texreader Agreed... not only was she denigrated for staying and commanding/encouraging her own troops (who probably wouldn‘t have stayed and fought if she had went home), but then she was pilloried by history when she left, and blamed for Anthony‘s alleged desertion, although the possibility that it was a maneuver that went wrong and they were severed from the land troops in error was interesting. I could see how that could happen at sea, cut .. 4y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ..off with no recourse, and then Octavian reframing it as fleeing and desertion. He seemed to excel at reframing things to his advantage, and most of our history comes from his side and those trying to keep favor with him. 4y

TheBookHippie @Riveted_Reader_Melissa YES!!! All of that!!! 4y

TheBookHippie @BarbaraTheBibliophage Yes my point! Maybe we will survive! Good point on the propaganda. 4y

TheBookHippie @Texreader Agreed! I would have stuck around as well. 4y

TheBookHippie @Riveted_Reader_Melissa oye no we can‘t say bloodless. 4y

TheBookHippie @GingerAntics 😬😬😬 4y

mollyrotondo Love people‘s thoughts on the so called democracy. I mean that‘s what Julius Caesar was essentially assassinated for. He was slowly trying to become an emperor and people were not having it. But then Octavian comes along and pretty much does the same thing but in a subtler way so he ends up living a full life ruling Rome as anything but a “for the people” government. Our country pretty works the same way with the wealthy staying in power. 4y

mollyrotondo I also loved the two facts that Shakespeare uses in the play. We learn that Octavian really did fall back on his promise to give Antony more military backing (which Shakespeare uses in Julius Caesar) and we find out that Antony and Cleopatra escapes the battle on the sea together. She did not just leave him like Antony feared in the play. I always wondered if she really deserted him in the play. But in that battle they escaped together. 4y

mollyrotondo And these two quotes are what is wrong with all generations of people from everywhere: “...allow no woman to make herself equal to a man.” And “What does our history mean if it leads to the rule of a woman.” Nothing has changed. (edited) 4y

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Texreader

Cleopatra: A Life | Stacy Schiff, Schiff

While I may not be a big fan of the book, and having practically no knowledge about Cleopatra until reading this book, I really like her. I love how she recognized and used her vast education, as here, where her immense knowledge of languages proved invaluable. I can imagine why the Egyptians loved her so regardless of (lack of) beauty. #cleopatraalife

GingerAntics I completely agree with this. I like Cleopatra. I think a good book about her for young girls would be cool. Cleo is one hell of a female roll model. I just don‘t like this book. I feel it didn‘t do her justice. 4y

Texreader @GingerAntics Keep an eye out for my next post, when I finally finish this chapter (I procrastinate badly with this book‘s assignments). It‘ll give you a laugh. 4y

GingerAntics Oh boy. I‘m ready when you get done. Can‘t wait. 🤣😂🤣 4y

58 likes3 comments

Texreader

Victim 2117: A Department Q Novel | Jussi Adler-Olsen

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView Thanks for the tag!

1. Yes, challenge-wise. I‘ve done #Litsyatoz the year after it started on Litsy. For 2020 I‘ve added #readingeurope2020, #authoramonth, & group read for #cleopatraalife. Now I‘m also wanting to join the group read #nordicnoir for the tagged book

2. I‘d be thrilled if I meet my challenges, so I‘ll continue on—even though Europe may be pushing the boundaries!

I‘d love to read everyone‘s challenges!

robinb, GingerAntics, freeatlast1137

TheSpineView You're welcome! It is interesting to see what everyone is doing. Thanks for playing! 😍 4y

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