Recently finished two books.

The Writing of the Gods by Edward Dolnick is a narrarive telling of the race to crack hieroglyphs. Its main protagonists are Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion. It's a good story, though Dolnick is prone to meander at times, and sometimes repeats his key points - the book lacks flow somewhat. However, it has spurred me to sort out a ticket to the hieroglyphs exhibition currently on at the British Museum...

Have also read Princes of the Renaissance by Mary Hollingsworth. This is a lavishly illustrated telling of the warring Italian city-states during the later 15th and 16th centuries, told through the lens of the key families and dynasties. It's not quite the book I was hoping to read - I was hoping for more of an intellectual history of the Renaissance, but it was more about the power struggles. I found the sheer size of the cast to be a bit overwhelming and confusing, and got a bit lost in parts. I was also surprised that there wasn't a significant chapter on Florence and the Medicis.