If you want to know more about Pompeii, or if you want to see how other historians have been wrong about it, then check out Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town. It was released in the UK yesterday, and will be released in the US later in the fall.
I haven't read it yet, but I'm mentioning it here because I saw Mary Beard's 10 things you need to know about Pompeii, which is myth-busting and interesting.
She's also a very smart, interesting, nice person, so her book deserves a mention here. She's achieved more than most people, including publishing many books, getting published and interviewed for top publications and other media, being an editor for the Times Literary Supplement, and teaching at Cambridge. I'd say that's the cream of the crop in the intellectual world.
Considering everything she's accomplished, she is not snobby at all, appreciates online writing by non-media folks and academic types, and is friendly--she sent me an email complimenting my blog, and told me about hers (which has thousands of readers). She even met with me when she came to Chicago to lecture at a university.
Believe me, I've met some folks who haven't accomplished as much as her, but because they perceived me as a peon, they barely wanted to talk to me. So when she took the time out of her busy schedule to hang out with me, it meant a lot.
She's also a good writer, so I'm sure her book is good.
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