parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.

No one sits on the stoop when she's a kid and thinks, 'I want to be a biographer when I grow up,'

Here you have an incredibly ambitious, accomplished woman who comes up against some of the same problems that women in power come up against today. Cleopatra plays an oddly pivotal role in world history as well; in her lifetime, Alexandria is the center of the universe, Rome is still a backwater.

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!

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.