Book No. 33 of 2025
My Natalie Haynes fandom continues; I adore all her Greek myth retellings and her podcast is an absolute scream, and The Ancient Guide to Modern Life is peak Haynes: nerdy, delightfully pedantic, culturally aware, and extremely funny.
The book is like a grown-up Wishbone episode in that Haynes tells stories from antiquity (with the occasional foray into myth/literature) and relates them to issues of the modern day—the type of thing that is just catnip for me. There is something very soothing about being smacked in the face repeatedly with the realization that almost nothing in the modern era is actually new. If nothing else, reading this book gives you the ability to look very impressive when people discuss current events and you quote Cicero at them to prove your point.
Similar Vibes
Highly recommend the aforementioned podcast, Natalie Haynes Stands Up For the Classics, if this book is your jam.
I would absolutely pair this book with a bunch of Mark Forsyth reads: The Elements of Eloquence (specifically for how we still use rhetorical devices that Cicero perfected) and A History of Drunkenness (for history that relates back to the present) in particular.
(There are other books I know this reminded me of, only I can’t think of them now and hopefully I will update this post when I think of them.)