Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straitjacket.

And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.

My next book is on the Salem witch trials. As a small-town Massachusetts girl, this makes me very happy. So does the reunion with documents!

When a woman teams up with a snake a moral storm threatens somewhere.

A rich, multi-dimensional tour of Naples, most brilliant, battered, and bewildering of cities, here fixed to the page with wit and élan. Splendid.