The chances are excellent that I'll think highly of a review copy if it comes from one of two publishers, Bolchazy-Carducci and Blackwell. Bolchazy-Carducci books tend to be for school-aged people and the self-taught (autodidacts), while the Blackwell books tend to be for college students and enthusiasts. The Bolchazy books are usually short, densely packed with accurate, thorough, easy-to-process information, and, where appropriate, funny. Another point in their favor is that they're usually well-made -- probably to withstand a lot of dropping on the floor by students overburdened with piles of books.
William J. Dominik's Words and Ideas
Bolchazy-Carducci
In Words and Ideas, editor William J. Dominik has created an introductory classical culture curriculum within the context of a vocabulary builder and beginning etymology textbook. Not only is Words and Ideas multipurpose in scope, but it is also suitable for a variety of learning situations, from autodidacts -- yes, you can sit down on your own with Words and Ideas -- to homeschooling parents to regular high school or college teachers.
Rose Williams' Once Upon the Tiber
PriceGrabber
Rose Williams wrote Once Upon a Tiber with a specific audience in mind: students learning Latin who need a background in Roman history. To my mind, it is just as appropriate for students learning about Roman history, especially as a supplement to a series of context-limited readings-in-translation or textbooks. Instead of telling only such history as can be vouched for as historically accurate, Rose Williams reveals what the Romans wrote about themselves.
Rose Williams' Cicero the Patriot
Bolchazy-Carducci
An amusing anecdotal look at the life of one of Rome's most versatile late Republican figures, Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Rose Williams' The Labors of Aeneas - What A Pain It Was To Found The Roman Race
Bolchazy-Carducci
Knowing how to translate Latin is not enough to get you through the twelve book epic poem, The Aeneid, by Vergil (or Virgil) -- at least with any real understanding. Vergil was a master of the poetic medium in which he wrote. Obligated to glorify the current administration in dactylic hexameters almost guaranteed that two millennia later readers would have trouble understanding all the undercurrents. Modern readers need a well-informed teacher, familiarity with the relevant mythology and iconography -- if not the history of ancient Rome, or Rose William's The Labors of Aeneas.
Margaret A. Brucia and Gregory N. Daugherty's To Be a Roman Text and Workbook
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
To Be a Roman, by Margaret A. Brucia and Gregory N. Daugherty, is designed for young students, especially those beginning Latin, so that they will have the background for what they will soon be translating. It's better than that, though, since it provides a thorough overview of those aspects of Roman daily life that anyone would be interested in.
Marianthe Colakis and Mary Joan Masello's Classical Mythology and More A Reader
Bolchazy-Carducci
As its title suggests, Classical Mythology and More - A Reader Workbook is both a workbook and reader of the myths of ancient Greece and Rome. The workbook requires outside research and reasoning, and also supplies bits of lore and, occasionally, simple recipes. The reader is suitable for middle school students, but with some oversight, since it doesn't gloss over awkward or sexual topics.
Columbus' First Voyage - Latin Text From Peter Martyr of Angleria's De Orbe Novo
Bolchazy-Carducci
Peter Martyr of Angleria was a northern Italian who lived from1457-1526. An expert in geography, he moved to Spain to serve as diplomat at the Castilian court. He regularly sent his patron, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, reports on the exploration of the New World. Columbus' First Voyage, by Constance P. Iacona, Edward V. George, is based on these reports, which were written in the style of Latin favored by Cicero and Caesar.
Michael Rutenberg's Translation of Seneca's Oedipus
Bolchazy-Carducci
The Oedipus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, freely translated by Michael Rutenberg, makes Nero's advisor, the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and his drama about the unlucky king who killed his father and married his mother, accessible to modern audiences.
Roman Verse Satire: Lucilius to Juvenal
Bolchazy-Carducci
Roman Verse Satire is an excellent, short introduction to satire and the Roman satirists. For in-translation students, it provides a taste of the heady meat on satire's platter.
Benita Kane Jaro's The Lock
Bolchazy-Carducci
Cicero was very active in the foreground of the period between the Bona Dea incident and the death of Clodius, but his role was usually peripheral, until The Lock, a work of historical fiction, by Benita Kane Jaro.
