The Best Book I Read This Month: Agrippina by Emma Southon

I waffled about my choice for the best book I read this month. I couldn’t decide between the science fiction that made me cry (The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal) or the history that ruffled my book club’s feathers (Agrippina by Emma Southon). Ultimately, I chose the latter.

The full title of Southon’s book is Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World. Agrippina was the granddaughter of Rome’s first emperor (Augustus), the sister of an emperor (Caligula), the niece—and wife—of an emperor (Claudius), and the mother of an emperor (Nero). Every member of her immediate family predeceased her. For a time, she ruled the Roman Empire behind the scenes. All of this in a time and place in which women were expected to be invisible—not seen and definitely not heard. The label extraordinary fits.

Southon begins her biography with a historiographical note that won me over very quickly. Southon’s writing has personality. Like other historians of ancient Rome, she addressed the issues of the sources from the time (namely, their unreliability), but she did it with humor. Case in point: she described Suetonius’s writings as an “off-brand badly-cited wiki page.” History with humor? I’m in!

The humor continued through the biography. Southon’s tone had an irreverence to it and an earthiness. My book club was bothered by that. More than one member was bothered by Southon’s use of colorful language and discussion of sex in Rome, calling it vulgar and unnecessary. Clearly, they preferred a more serious approach.

My book club also took issue with the frequency of assumptions and inferences in Southon’s account. I’m not sure they realized or accepted that Southon had to read and work between the lines because of the dearth of sources from the time period. Women were just not written about, unless and until they did something scandalous. That did not bother me, and I appreciated Southon being honest and upfront about when she was assuming or inferring something, as well explaining why she drew the conclusions she did.

As a reader and a history nerd, I found the book enjoyable and satisfying.

The Best Book I Read This Month: How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley

The best book I read this month is the second book that I think is essential for understanding what is happening in the United States right now. (Wild Faith by Talia Lavin is the first.) Jason Stanley’s How Fascism Works explains, in plain language, the ten components of fascism. He cites historical examples and explains how each component manipulates the public to ensure support for, or at least a lack of resistance to, the fascist agenda.

Originally written early in Trump’s first administration, the edition I read was updated to include the COVID pandemic. And it’s all there: everything Trump tried to do the first time around and everything that he and his fellow kleptocrats are doing now to destroy American democracy. Stanley provides clear explanations for the methods and purposes of these actions, as well as their precedents in history. It’s chilling.

It’s no coincidence that Stanley and Timothy Snyder, two American experts in fascism, have left the country. (Both have accepted positions at the University of Toronto.) Their work threatens Trump’s power by exposing his goals and methods—and criticizing them in defense of democracy. Push comes to shove, I may delete this review too at some point. The emperor does not like being told he’s not wearing any clothes.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Micro Activism by Omkari L. Williams

The best book I read this month was short and powerful: Micro Activism by Omkari L. Williams.

Monday’s presidential inauguration left me feeling helpless. The subsequent executive orders overwhelmed me. I wanted to do something. I needed to do something. But what? I have limited time, finite resources, and no connections. How would I even begin?

Enter Omkari Williams’s Micro Activism. I’ve had it in my TBR pile for a while, and thank goodness I did. I pulled it out and read it in one night. It was just what I needed.

Micro Activism is an accessible, practical handbook for figuring out what each of us can do to improve our community, our country, our world. The idea is that we don’t have to do big things. We can make a difference by doing focused small things, as long as we do them consistently.

I found Williams’s advice very down-to-earth and her exercises very helpful in making my own plan. I discovered that things I’ve been doing for other reasons, like volunteering with a local animal rescue, are in fact activism. I found that discovery rather comforting. Equally comforting was Williams’s advice to take care of ourselves and to focus our efforts on one or two causes so we don’t burn out. There is a lot of work to do, and it’s going to take a long time to do it. We need to sustain ourselves so we can make it through the long haul.

I highly recommend this book. It’s helpful in finding a path to activism, and it’s validating for those who are already in the fight.

The Best Book I Read This Month: Shutter by Ramona Emerson

The best book I read this month was a mystery by Navajo (Diné) author Ramona Emerson. Shutter follows photographer Rita Todacheene as she gets caught up in and tries to solve a series of murders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rita is literally haunted by her work. She sees dead people, and these ghosts both help and hinder her pursuit of justice.

It took me a little while to get into this story, but once I found the rhythm, I couldn’t put it down. The mystery was well-crafted, and I love the way Emerson wove in not only Rita’s personal history but also her Navajo culture.

Rita both accepts and rejects her culture. The tension she feels between living and working in white society and being true to her roots informs much of the story. Should she listen to her grandmother’s warnings about the ghosts she sees? Should she give up her job with the Albuquerque police in favor of a job that doesn’t bring her in contact with death all of the time? Rita wrestles with these questions as she tries to solve the gruesome murder of a young mother and of a judge and his family. Ultimately, it is this pursuit of answers that endangers Rita’s life.

I don’t know if this is the first in a series, but I hope it is. I like Rita. I adore Rita’s grandmother. I want to spend more time with both of them.

The Best Book I Read This Month: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The best book I read this month was a gripping tale inspired by real events. In The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon tells the story of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in Maine in the late 1700s. The story focuses on Ballard’s efforts to win justice for a rape victim, a preacher’s wife who named two of the town leaders as her attackers.

The story opens with a death—a murder, to be precise—and the story unfolds from there. Lawhon paints a striking picture of life in the early years of the United States, especially the lives of women. Ballard is an exception in that regard because of her profession. Being a midwife bestows privileges on her that other women are denied, such as the right to speak in court. Ballard only has that right because as a midwife, she is considered a medical professional. Throughout the story, she uses that privilege to push for justice for the preacher’s wife.

Martha Ballard was a real person, and she did testify against a town leader in a rape trial. We know this because of the diary that Ballard left behind. That diary became the nonfiction book A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and Ulrich’s book led to Lawhon’s. I was so intrigued by Ballard that I ordered Ulrich’s book before I finished Lawhon’s.

It’s tempting to say that Ballard was an extraordinary woman, but she wasn’t. She was an ordinary woman who made the most of what was given to her. And that makes her a very compelling main character in a very compelling story.