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

Motherhood is always an act of courage.

parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.

Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

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.

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.