Reader recommendation: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

I'm reading The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt: The History of a Civilization from 3000 BC to Cleopatra by Toby Wilkinson. I'm an armchair Egyptologist and this is the best book I've ever read on ancient Egypt, which, in Wilkinson's view, is the world's first nation-state. This book reveals the political intriques, propaganda, and the human essence behind the pyramids, burial artifacts, and tombs. Through civil wars, famines, feasts, the world's first recorded strike, tomb robberies, and invasions, this 3,000-year-old civilization comes to life. This book is a must-read for those who love ancient history and those who are interested in human nature.