The Mesopotamian Riddle by Joshua Hammer

 

Title:  The Mesopotamian Riddle

Author:  Joshua Hammer

Narrated by:  Matthew Lloyd Davies

Publisher: Simon Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 32 minutes

Source: Thank-you to #HistoryBuffsBookClub @History_In_Five for a review copy of the hardcover book.  The audiobook was purchased on audible.

Do you listen to audiobooks on family trips?  We like to listen to nonfiction books on history on family trips.

The Mesopotamian Kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia used a system of writing call cuneiform.  Its meaning was lost over time, but in London in 1857, three different people worked to crack the code.  They were archeologist Austen Henry Layard, soldier Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, and clergyman Edward Hincks.  How did they figure it out?

My thoughts on this nonfiction book:

·       We listened to this audiobook on a summer family trip.  The kids were not interested so only my husband and I ended up listening to it.  The narrator was a tad dry.

·       There was a lot of history of Mesopotamia in the text, which was very interesting.

·       It seemed incredible to my husband and I on how these linguists were able to figure out the meanings of the dead language.

·       The book described the history of the ancient civilizations as well as the Victorian time period.

·       The book was also critical of the British removing ancient artifacts ad taking them back to the British Museum.

·       In 1857, the Royal Asiatic Society hosted a challenge to four people to decipher writings and that set the stage for this book. When all of the translations matched, it verified that they had cracked the code.

·       The book jumped around in time a lot.

Overall, The Mesopotamian Riddle by Joshua Hammer was an interesting look into ancient civilizations and the Victorian scholars who worked to crack the ancient writings from these great civilizations. 

Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie

 

What has been your favorite memoir?

Come, Tell Me How You Live is a lighthearted memoir about Agatha Christie’s adventures in Syria while her husband, Max, was on an archaeological dig in the1930s.  She gathered together her notes and vignettes afterwards to put together this interesting memoir.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie in July as part of #ReadChristie2025.  The overall theme this year is to explore Christie’s works through the canon of characters and their careers.  The career for July was archeologists.

·       Christie’s second husband Max Mallowan was a renowned archaeologist.  He was thirteen years younger than her, and they traveled the world together.  I love this for Agatha Christie after her disastrous first marriage.

·       There was not much in the memoir on actual archaeology, but more on the people, places, and trying to make a home in a new and foreign place.

·       My favorite vignette was unforgettable and disturbing.  Christie woke up one night to find her and her husband covered with mice.  He could sleep fine, but she could not so their beds were moved outside.  A cat was hired the next day who efficiently and methodically killed the mice.  Christie called it a “professional cat.”  I would have loved to see this cat.

·       Christie chronicled a lot of hatred between different groups of different religions against each other.  Some were told with humor such as driver that tried to run over people of a particular religious group whenever he saw them, but I didn’t think it was funny.  Sadly, this conflict hasn’t changed with time in the Middle East.

·       Christie did write this memoir with a lot of wit and humor throughout.  It was nice to read a different genre from Christie rather than a mystery.

·       I wanted to travel with Christie as she seemed like a very fun and charming person.  The site conditions didn’t sound so fun, however.

·       It was sad thinking about all these archaeological treasures being found and carted away from their homeland.

Overall, Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie was a great memoir filled with wit and humor.  This book gives one the experience of what it would have been like to live through an archaeological dig in the 1930s.

Book Source:  The Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!