What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorCatherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
Robert K. Massie · 791 pages
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself
The Twelve Caesars
Suetonius · 352 pages
De vita Caesarum, known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies, each about one of the Roman emperors, including one on Julius Caesar. It was written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly referred to as Suetonius, in 121. Considered highly significant in antiquity, The Twelve Caesars has remained a major source of Roman history.
The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
Kara Cooney · 309 pages
Hatshepsut—the daughter of a general who usurped Egypt's throne and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty—was born into a privileged position in the royal household, and she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her improbable rule as a cross-dressing king.
The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives
Plutarch · 387 pages
Dramatic artist, natural scientist and philosopher, Plutarch is widely regarded as the most significant historian of his era, writing sharp and succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and statesman of the classical period. Taken from the Lives, a series of biographies spanning the Graeco-Roman age, this collection illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157-43 bc. Whether des
Caesar: Life of a Colossus
Adrian Goldsworthy · 608 pages
Catherine de Medici
Leonie Frieda · 464 pages
"Orphaned in infancy, imprisoned in childhood, heiress to an ancient name and vast fortune, Catherine was brought up in the Florentine court and married off, by her uncle the Pope, to Henry, Duke of Orleans, son of King Francis I of France. Aged only fourteen, she suffered cruelly as Henry loved only his beautiful mistress, Diane de Poitiers." "In 1559, when Henry, by then King of France, died hor
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
Anthony Everitt · 416 pages
He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome's first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus's accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself,
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin · 916 pages
Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the R
Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
Alison Weir · 499 pages
The Romanovs: 1613-1918
Simon Sebag Montefiore · 744 pages
From the Introduction... In some ways, this book is a study of character and the distorting effect of absolute power on personality. It is partly a family story of love, marriage, adultery and children, but it is not like other such stories—royal families are always extraordinary because power both sweetens and contaminates the traditional familial chemistry: the allure and corruption of power
Alexander the Great
Robin Lane Fox · 568 pages
Tough, resolute, fearless, Alexander was a born warrior and ruler of passionate ambition who understood the intense adventure of conquest and of the unknown. When he died in 323 BC aged thirty-two, his vast empire comprised more than two million square miles, spanning from Greece to India. His achievements were unparalleled - he had excelled as leader to his men, founded eighteen new cities and st
Caesars' Wives: The Women Who Shaped the History of Rome
Annelise Freisenbruch · 337 pages
Documents the stories of eight wives of Roman rulers, assessing their historical contributions and cultural influence and drawing parallels between modern first ladies and the lives of such ancient-world figures as Livia, Helena, and Julia.
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Reza Aslan · 336 pages
Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher walked across the Galilee gathering followers to establish the "Kingdom of God." He was tortured and executed as a state criminal. Within decades, his followers would call him God. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens
Elizabeth: Apprenticeship
David Starkey · 356 pages
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard · 606 pages
A prominent classicist explores ancient Rome and how its citizens adapted the notion of imperial rule, invented the concepts of citizenship and nation, and made laws about those traditionally overlooked in history, including women, slaves, and criminals.
Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
Tracy Borman · 464 pages
Reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power, Thomas Cromwell was also a loving husband, father and guardian, a witty and generous host, and a loyal and devoted servant. With new insights into Cromwell's character, his family life and his close relationships with both Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII, Tracy Borman, joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, ex
Winter King
Thomas Penn · 458 pages
It was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap - a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors
Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh
Joyce A. Tyldesley · 270 pages
Queen - or, as she would prefer to be remembered, King - Hatchepsut was a remarkable woman. Born the eldest daughter of King Tuthmosis I, married to her half-brother Tuthmosis II, and guardian of her young stepson-nephew Tuthmosis III, Hatchepsut, the Female Pharaoh, brilliantly defied tradition and established herself on the divine throne of the pharaohs to become the female embodiment of a man,
The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
Susan Wise Bauer · 868 pages
Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
Tom Holland · 523 pages
"The follow-up to Rubicon picks up with the murder of Julius Caesar and vividly depicts the intrigue, murder, ambition and treachery of Emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero"--NoveList.
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
Jung Chang · 464 pages
In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son’s regents and placed herself as the true source of power—governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials. Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehen
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Antonia Fraser · 544 pages
"Famously known as the eighteenth-century French queen whose excesses have become legend, Marie Antoinette was blamed for instigating the French Revolution. But the story of her journey, begun as a fourteen-year-old sent from Vienna to marry the future Louis XVI, to her courageous defense before she was sent to the guillotine, reveals a woman of greater complexity and character than we have previo