Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

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

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

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

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

As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.

Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For scientists, or Supreme Court justices, or chief executives, or the woman who wants to learn to fly F-l8s off an aircraft carrier, it works differently.