Beard, Imlay and Toft, Balzac, Agapit, Morency

I read today Mary Beard's Fires of Vesuvius, which was, at least, not stuffy. I thought the idea of contrasting what can be said about Pompeii and what the popular myths are very interesting. My high school Latin class failed to mention that there were Hebrew documents found in Pompeii. Made me want to visit next time I'm in Italy. An easy read. I consulted Imlay and Toft's Fog of Peace for professional reasons -- it's about military planning, but it was all historical with the latest case study being in the 1950's, so I didn't read much of it. I have read at least forty of Balzac's novels, but I got as a gift Le Lys de la vallee, which I found lacking in action and slightly maudlin. Perhaps I ought to have read this novel at the same time as all the rest, about two summers ago. I also delighted in three trashy tabloids, Hello Canada, The Globe and The Examiner. I also read the two other books I got as presents. Marc Agapit's L'Heritage du diable was an excellent 'insolite' novel, about the natural son of a gangster who will inherit a trunk full of money and jewels and gold if he'll steal a single hazelnut, but refuses. it was quite interesting, I don't read the Twilight Zone -type novels often. I also read an experimental novel, Ossature by Robert Morency. It managed to get its point across despite the unusual structure. It was, however, flat.