I just finished the Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris and was awed by the imaginative and fully realized rendering of ancient Rome during the fall of the republic, as well as Harris’s brilliant writing style.

The series is ostensibly written by Tiro, a slave who served as Cicero’s secretary, actually did write a biography of Cicero, and invented the first system of shorthand. This would normally be a turnoff right from the get-go, as I prefer as a reader to get right in the head of the main protagonist instead of viewing them through a filter, but Harris’s use of Tiro is very effective. You feel like you know Cicero, but you’re focused on what Cicero says and does.

Before I get into the books, I should point out who Cicero was and why he’s important. Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of the greatest and cleverest statesmen, orators, lawyers, and philosophers the Roman republic produced. He was a “new man,” rising to power as a senator, aedile, and ultimately consul purely through his popularity and persuasion, rather than old money and a venerable name. His influenced the Latin language, introduced Greek philosophy to the Romans, and fought political duels against Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Octavian, who would become Augustus Caesar. These battles marked the last years of his life, as he fought to save the Roman republic first from mob rule and then from the tyranny of dictatorship.

The three books in the bestselling trilogy are IMPERIUM, LUSTRUM, and DICTATOR. In IMPERIUM, we are thrown into the violent, wheeling-and-dealing, and backstabbing world of Roman politics, in which Cicero uses his wits and skills as an orator and lawyer against the entrenched patrician class to reach for the consulship. LUSTRUM deals with the dangers, seductions, and horrors of power, and the slide toward brutal mob rule. DICTATOR follows Cicero into exile and a dramatic comeback, where he strives to save the Roman republic against a series of would-be tyrants.

The books are amazingly detailed and realized, with every peculiarity of Roman life and political system explored, and with so many similarities to our own society and political system. Cicero is a thoroughly engaging character, a self-made man who is heavily flawed and is often forced to compromise, a politician who fights with his wit and clever scheming. The depictions of well-known Roman figures such as Caesar, Marc Antony, and Octavian are similarly very well depicted.

Overall, this series gets a high A from me. If you’re into Roman history or any historical fiction, this is a must read.

Elmore Leonard’s debut novel, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, is a classic western tale about a Civil War veteran and retired Army scout brought back into the service for a final dangerous mission: escort a green lieutenant into Mexico to bring back a renegade Apache chief. I hadn’t known Leonard got his start with Westerns (subsequently discovering the films 3:10 TO YUMA and other Western films are based on his stories) and found it a real treat.

The story centers on Dave Flynn, a classic Western hero: doesn’t say much, means what he says, takes no crap from anybody, knows how to survive in the wilderness. He suspects his mission into Mexico is a fool’s errand as it was arranged by Major Deneen, with whom he shares a dark secret from the Civil War. He and the lieutenant cross paths with Apaches, undisciplined and unruly Mexican police, and a ruthless gang of bounty hunters–American desperadoes who kill Apaches and get paid by the Mexican government for each scalp. When the bounty hunters turn up with a bag of scalps that may not be Apache but instead Mexican farmers, Flynn gets embroiled between these three sides and plays them off against each other to save some local people he cares about, including a fiery and strong Mexican beauty. It’s up to Flynn to do what’s right, deliver Western justice, and save the girl.

The novel was published in the 1950s, and I was happy to see how well it holds up. In my view, it flirted with but didn’t rely on racial and gender stereotypes, and our hero survives more on his wits, experience, and demeanor than he does on any seemingly superhuman capability. His sense of justice is more focused on protecting people he cares about than a stark code of justice that is never challenged by situations involving moral shades of gray. The result is a realistically delivered, solid yarn with likeable characters and Leonard’s trademark quality dialogue that holds the story together even as it occasionally plods or comes together loosely.

In THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES, forester Peter Wohlleben reveals that trees are fascinating life forms able to communicate, function as communities, form symbiotic relationships, and adapt to various environmental conditions. Trees, it turns out, are highly complex and perform many actions analogous to human experience. By revealing their hidden life, Wohlleben provides one of those rare books for the layperson that takes the familiar and provides a completely different understanding of it.

In each chapter, he examines an aspect of tree behavior, whether it’s their ability to ward off predators and communicate alarm signals, how trees often sustain each other, how they work with fungi to support a virtual neural network throughout a forest, how they compete and nurture their young, how they sustain themselves and move such high volumes of water, and how climate change is impacting forests and migrations. The result is a real appreciation for one of the oldest life forms on the planet, a thoughtful and enjoyable reading experience.