The true story of the last king of Egypt
344360
A very interesting chapter in history well documented by a great writer who methodically researched the subject of his book.
190943
This is a wonderful story about Richard III. Anyone who has ever accepted the presentation of Richard as the despot created by Shakespeare must read Sharon Kay Penman's description of this most misunderstood king. Richard comes alive here as a moral, upstanding man who always wanted to do what was right. He faced numerous adversities in his life and met them with courage and determination. In the end, he learned, as do we, that standing up for what you believe doesn't always save you from betrayal. This is a must-read for anyone who simply enjoys historical novels, but especially for those who have excitedly watched the discovery of Richard's body, finally learning what he looked like and the truth of his life!
3011291
If you are open minded about such true tales, the details of Omm Sety, her life, her accomplishments, and her spirit life are fantastic and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to some glimpses into a possible interpretation of life in ancient Egypt.
2153340
This is a look a peep  at the history of Egypt, and the comparing of the old with the new.  This is a moderately-long book that can be read in about one sitting or two, and was first published in 1912, and reprinted in 1916.

I enjoyed the descriptions of geography, explanations of the importance of the Nile River and rainfall, traditions, and of religious history comparisons made between the Bible and discovered (as of the turn of the century) Egyptian artifacts.  It is important to note that this book was written and published before the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamens tomb.
1848220
Wow! Great biography about a very misunderstood historical figure. This was a great intro about the mysterious last pharaoh of Egypt. Cleopatra's relationships with Caesar and Mark Antony are chronicled in great detail. Much is known about her beauty, but many books do not detail her Machiavellian-like scheming and political maneuvering. This book does! Her incredibly storied and dramatic life has a suicide to match. I also like that this book mentions an alternate theory about her suicide; that was a nice addition. A must read for anyone wanting to know more about the woman whose face famously "launched a thousand ships."
4903074
Without a doubt, this is one of the best accounts of Egypt's pharoahs I have ever read (and I have been reading about Egyptian history since a child in the 1960s).  Easy-to-read and concise, "Chronicles"  provided me with new information about personal favorites (Akhenaton,  Hatshepsut,  Thutmose III) and reminded of the reigns of others I'd  forgotten (e.g.  Ahmose I, Amenhotep III).  I am not a historian and expect  this book might lack details that a historian would want.  However, as a  history lover, and one fascinated by Egyptian history in particular, this  is one of the books I would want with me if stranded on a desert island.  I  liked it so much that I also bought the "Chronicles Of The Roman  Emperors", with which I am equally as pleased.
730151
I would  recommend this book to any one who has an interest in this Pharaoh in particular,or ancient Egyptian history in general.
Joyce A.Tyldesley has written an interesting and easily understood book.
I look forward to reading more of this author's books in the future.
717097
This book was a very informative on the culture and ideas of the ancient Egyptians. The book is some what based on true events. Fine archeological discoveries are in the making according to the original source that inspired this book. I thought that the first half of the book was more entertaining than the second half. Lord Inter makes an outstanding sinister character. The plot was realistic since both good and the bad people can bite the dust. Taita the slave is full of virtue, though not without some silly ideas concerning freedom and human anatomy. The front cover features a representation of Tutankhamen and his Queen in case anyone is interested, since the book does not mention it.
3616839
This is a good story about the Egyptian valley of the queens and a team of archeologists who are set to discover something beyond the belief of anyone past or present.  With one member who has visions and another who feels an attraction this is a fast paced twist of time and fate. This story spans the current and pulls members of the team into the past to become unwilling participants in an ancient ritual. The characters are well developed and the story is a great journey through ancient Egypt and the past kings.  I love the pyramids and have always liked this type of story. I would recommend this one to anyone. It is a great journey through an ancient time and place.
1417819
This mythology of unknown Egyptian gods and the secrets of the child-Pharaoh Tutankhamon Nebkheperura, is a must-read, a classic. Mr. Costa's use of scientific and metaphysical interpretations would have won him an award in 1992 (had it not been pirated).  I enjoyed reading his opinions about Queen Ankhesenamon, the USA, and the Afterlife.  This novel was very interesting.  I recommend it for all Egyptologists, mythologists, or anyone interested in folklore. This book far surpasses the
"Mummy" films.
-Max
782323
The book opens when Tutankhamen was a very young and sickly child. The author explains that this youngest son attended school but was unable to participate in very physical games due to his fragility. While Tut walked to his school he admired the temples, appreciated the fine art work which glorified the numerous Egyptian Gods and his spirituality grew. In the beginning of the story, his father, Amenhotep III was Pharaoh. Upon the death of his father (which is not really dealt with or discussed enough),Tut's older brother, Amenhotep IV, took over the throne. Under his rule, he banned worship of all God's except for the Sun God. Temples and artwork were destroyed and Tut was upset about this, as it seems was most of Egypt. Soon he was assassinated and Tut took over at the age of 9 or 10. The focus of the story is that Tut then restored the right of the people to worship multiple Gods and work began to restore and rebuild temples to all of the Gods. Tut seems to have been appreciated for this and his gift to the people was this act. The story ends there, with Tut still alive, young, and ruling Egypt.
In the teacher's notes at the end of the book, it states that Tut was killed at the age of 19 or 20 from a severe head injury, which is speculated to be either from a hunting accident or an intentional assignation. So the story does not go as far as his death, but it is mentioned in the endnote.
Since most of what people know of King Tut was of the riches found in his tomb, this book gives a different perspective of the important thing that King Tut did for his people. I think children will enjoy reading of a child King, and they will like the storytelling being in the time frame of before his rule and during his rule.
The artwork is bold and bright. The swirls and bold lines remind me of stained glass windows. There is a lot to look at and the illustrations certainly held our interest.
My 6 year-old son enjoyed this story as an accompaniment to learning about Ancient Egypt. The story about a young boy that became King was a refreshing change from the usual spin and perspective found in most books, which can be dry or portraying Egyptians as just mummies and the idea that Egypt is just desert and pyramids.
4039983
Arielle Kozloff's AMENHOTEP III is an extraordinary read.  Her writing style flows effortlessly, enriched by a lifetime of observation and study of Egypt past and present--on the very ground, in collections and literature, and even from above via Google Earth.  The author's account of her Pharaoh's monumentally magnificent Heb-Sed festival, bringing together the myriad bits of scattered information into a jaw-dropping mind's eye spectacle is alone worth the price.

  As noted by other reviewers, there are positions taken which are arguably unsupported by the evidence or by current discoveries.  Kozloff's proposed scenario of Egypt's catastrophic decline beginning near the end of Amenhotep's reign, and deepening considerably under the four pharaohs who followed, does not appear to this reviewer to be in accord with the numerous building programs of Akhenaten and Tutankhamen, the unsurpassed stone carving during Ay's very short reign, and the amount of gold he used to bury Tutankhamen.  We know both Ay and his successor Horemheb had large and elaborately painted royal tombs with finely carved hard-stone sarcophagi which do not augur for austerity.

  A few of the black-and-white photos are indistinct, but all-in-all this is a book of uncommon insight and original perceptions, a scholarly work which makes the wonder of Ancient Egypt come alive.  What the ancient world authentically was like, however, still remains a mystery.
3848143
and the Gods of Egypt interacted with mortals in the eternal battle between Chaos and Order. This book gives readers a glimpse of life in ancient Egypt. Life there was measured and dignified. Based on the yearly flooding of the Nile, life proceeded at the same pace each year with every action suited to its preordained time, a place for each person and each person knowing that place.
It was a culture of death. The land of the dead was more important than the land of the living because it lasted for eternity. The land of the living was only an opportunity to secure one's place in the land of the dead, whether as slave, farmer, craftsman, priest, Pharoah or cat. It really didn't matter what the place was, only that the place was secured by living a life of balance and order.
 If a person failed to live a good life and lost that preordained place in the afterlife, not only did that soul wander in chaos for all eternity, but the afterlife itself was affected. Too many unoccupied places in the land of the dead impaired the greatness and glory of the afterlife. Because the afterlife and life were seen as mirrors of each other, any missing person (unoccupied place) in the afterlife directly affected life in the land of the living as well.
Entities judged wanting and expelled from the afterlife, manifested in life as disorders such as crime and war; individual sickness and plagues; disasters both natural, like storms and earthquakes, and civil, like fires and collapsing buildings. Life and death were intertwined and so were events in the land of the living and the land of the dead.
So take this journey into the very different mindset of the ancient Egyptians. Start slowly and ease your way into the strange names, the myriad of deities, the occurrences of rituals and sacrifices. As you gain knowledge, and the pace quickens, you will appreciate more surely the interweaving of natural and supernatural that allowed those people to believe that cats were messengers of the gods and cobras were instruments of divine justice. You will be able to experience ancient Egypt itself, where everyone only lived to die.
2955564
I have always admired and tried to expand my knowledge of Egypt and the Pharoahs.  Curlovich did a wonderful job in his description of modern day Egypt.  I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in the Ancient World and is curious about what gay life would have been like 3000 years ago!  Bravo enjoyed this book tremendously.
4333402
Pharaoh's Daughter is a revised version of the Moses saga of Jewish and Christian history. The author puts in the perspective of a young Habiru, or Hebrew, Almah, who is coming of age and her brother Mosis. Their family and entire people work and live under the control of the Egyptian pharaoh who is considered a god.
 The novel begins with Mosis and his sister Almah, with Batya his adoptive mother. Batya invites Almah to a secret meeting, and find that Mosis has murdered another Egyptian. While the murder of a slave would have been acceptable, the murder of a fellow Egyptian was unethical.
 Most of the book recounts the basic story of Mosis as told in the Torah and the Bible. The story is somewhat different. In this telling, the baby is watched over by Almah, not Miriam, and is sought after instead of being stumbled upon by Pharaoh's daughter. There are also many similarities, particularly Mosis' father, Abba, is a leader in the novel and in the biblical story is a Levite, a member of the priestly tribe. The story continues traditionally with Mosis growing up in Pharaoh's house, murdering, and fleeing. One other big difference is that Almah grows up in Pharaoh's house with Mosis.
 In the epilogue Mosis has left Egypt, but Almah has stayed and has become a priestess. She talks with Pharaoh and admits that she helped him escape. Pharaoh agrees that it was good he escaped even though he was not going to have him killed. In the end, both Almah and Pharaoh are praising God in their own way. "How do you say it in Habiru, Hallelu Ya.?"
 "History is the study of the human past." Therefore "good history" would be a story that truthfully recounts the human past. Pharaoh's Daughter was deeply researched by the author, who herself was becoming a Jew. The author included many points that made the story "good history" including Moses' lisp, "But usually his tongue was as heavy as a stone for the pyramids." The author is sure to cite her sources at the end of the book. I believe that this novel was a new way for someone who knows the bible to see the story in a different perspective, and would highly recommend it.
298925
I enjoyed how the author submersed the reader into ancient Egypt & it's religion, cultural traditions and fashion. This was not only a novel I found difficult to put down....but one which incorporated historical facts into the plot line almost seamlessly.

This book is a great literary representation of a time period in which so much is still to be learned.  If you have an interest in ancient Egypt....and are looking for a book to pull you into the plot line.....this one is a must read.
352442
If you've are lucky enough to walk up the stairs and into the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, you may have been able to see one of Hatshepsut's sphinxes.  Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who ruled in ancient Egypt.  There were many pharaohs and perhaps the most famous or memorable was King Tutankhamen, but Hatshepsut was undoubtedly the most unusual.  Hatshepsut was a woman and that just wasn't supposed to happen in Egypt, but it did.  There were "many monuments and pieces of art [that] were created in her honor."  As with most pharaohs there were many different kinds of memorial objects that were created to be placed in their tombs or in front of their temples.

Hatshepsut had artisans carve several stone sphinxes to stand "guard in front of her temple."  She supervised her architect, Senenmut, who created her temple.  Plans were drawn up to make statues, "including a set of six sphinxes."  The granite was mined at an quarry in Aswan and with great difficulty this "HUGE block of granite" made its way down the Nile on a boat.  Pharoah Hatshepsut's dream began to take shape and her magnificent temple was soon guarded by the six sphinxes.  Later, after she died, her stepson, Thutmose III, had "all of the beautiful artwork, including the sphinxes," destroyed and buried in a pit.  Who found these pieces?  How were they put back together again and just how did that sphinx get to the Met?

This is a fascinating glimpse at an unusual Egyptian pharaoh and how one of her sphinxes made it to the Met.  Most people have never heard of Hatshepsut, but she is just starting to become known to the younger set and this is one of the more interesting portraits of her.  The story is progressive and by the time we get to the end we know exactly how that sphinx made its way to 1000 Fifth Avenue so all of us can visit with him.  For example, once we meet the archaeologist, "he uncovers the pit with the broken pieces of dozens of statues, including the sphinx that was ... dumped there by the stepson, marveled at by the Egyptian priests, chiseled by the sculptor and order by the pharaoh."  At the end we are greeting by the docent and work our way back to the pharaoh.  The artwork is marvelously quaint and very appealing.  In the back of the book are additional facts and figures, more history, and we learn more about where the other sphinxes went.