Red Land, Black Land
BBarbara Mertz
Reviewed by S. M. Ballard
RED LAND, BLACK LAND — Daily Life in Ancient Egypt — is a stunner of a book and Barbara Mertz is one heck of an author and Egyptologist. If the name isn’t familiar, you may know Ms. Mertz better as best-selling mystery author Elizabeth Peters. Mysteries or histories, Ms. Mertz/Peters sure knows her stuff as well she might. She received a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.
Being a devotee of all things Egyptian and an amateur historian of sorts, I delved eagerly into this book, which is a reprint of a 1966 edition, a beautiful tome containing numerous glossy photographs and detailed line drawings. Not knowing what to expect, many history books are leaden reading at worst and barely understandable to the lay person at best, I discovered a delightfully entertaining style melded seamlessly with well researched facts and witty observations. I found myself enmeshed in the daily lives of people who lived thousands of years ago, people not so much different than modern man – funny, sad, flawed, courageous and just plain human.
It’s not often a book of history elicits in me the desire to drop everything and just keep on reading, but so it was with RED LAND, BLACK LAND. Constantly entertaining, lively and educational, this book is in a class by itself. I was sorry to see it end.
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About the Reviewer:
S.M. Ballard resides in Pearce, Arizona with her husband, Brian. She is a member of the Society of Southwestern Authors, the Western Writers of America and Women Writing the West. Her work, both fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Chronicle of the Old West, Out West, Voice in the Desert, Wild West and War Journal. She is a regular contributor to The Tombstone Times.
Ms. Ballard is the author of BORROWED TIME and HOLLIDAY IN TOMBSTONE, the first two books in her John Henry “Doc” Holliday trilogy. Book three, ROUGH RIDER, is due out in 2009. Visit her online at www.SMBallard.com
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