This is the second book I finished this weekend.

I found the book fascinating. I just looked at it on the shelf for a number of years, and then decided to read it in installments, finishing today. Ancient history is normally not my bag, but I finished two this year, the other being Thucydides Peloponnesian Wars, as one of my sons reminded me.

The book is a slog but then so is any book when you're not familiar with the underlying material, in this case Mayan history. My familiarity, such as it is, comes from a Scarsdale Adult School course I took either during fall 1972 or 1973, and from tours of the Chichen Itza and Uxmal pyramids during October 1989 and March 1990, from Club Med Cancun. ( )

Very good primer to learning about the Maya ( )

Maps, pictures of temples, artifacts, calendars. Findings of similarities of Maya to Aztec and Asian culture. Mayan everyday life, religion, and culture described. Interesting to read about how calendar linked to astronomical events. Detailed insight of language with pictures. ( )

What ages would I recommend it too? – Twelve and up.

Length? – Several days day’s read.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters.

Setting? – Real World, Ancient Maya.

Written approximately? – 1999.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Yes - What was daily life like for the Maya?

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? No.

Short storyline: A lot of discussion around the Maya.

Notes for the reader: The first 50 pages are useful. There are a lot of pictures, though few maps to figure out the places and times they are talking about about. After the first 50 pages, when they get to an interesting point, they mention it will be covered in chapter nine. I'm not so sure it was. Chapter ten totally confused me. I think the layout could be improved with a few headings that clarify what they are discussing in many places. It's confusing. As if they lumped it all together, and leave it up to the reader to figure out when one time period, or place ends and another begins. The pictures keep it from being a 2. ( )

Extremely dense - think of this as a textbook - but apparently the most comprehensive collection of information about the Maya. I was influenced by Jared Diamond, who in the "Further Reading" section of his excellent "Collapse" says so in no uncertain terms.

Fun trivia: you know that 2012 bs? It's this guy's fault. In an earlier edition of this book, he idly pointed out that the Mayan calendar is cyclical and a cycle ends in 2012; conspiracy theorists took it from there. In this edition he comments on it, with a combination of shame and amusement. ( )