Things I learned from this book:
1. Pompeii was a hell of a lot more colorful than we think.
2. They were obsessed with ... phallic images. Everywhere.
3. Graffiti was super common and similar in messaging to what we might see today.
4. Fish sauce ("garum") was a big thing in Pompeii. Something they were best known for back in the day.
5. Pompeii was hit badly by an earthquake in the years preceding the Vesuvius eruption and may have still been in the process of rebuilding.

I loved this. So fascinating and truly gripping from start to finish. I'm obsessed with history told from the perspective of ordinary people, sans politics: what they ate, how they dressed, where they lived, what they did for leisure, etcetc. And Beard knocks it out of the park with this one. I particularly loved the chapter on what they ate, and would have even liked to hear more about it.

Beard also does a really good job of portraying just how hard it is to know anything for certain, and just how divided archaeologists still are on a huge range of things, without taking anything away from what you're actually learning in the book.

Really loved this one.