Authors: Vitruvius and Guests

The idea that our homes can communicate professional as well as personal identities may seem as new as the work-from-home revolution. But it was second nature to the ancient Romans, for whom the home was in many ways the center of public and private life.

Roman authors saw infinite practical and symbolic value in houses, and they have much to say about them. “How to Make a Home” presents some of the best Roman writings on houses—from buying and selling to designing and decorating.

Edited and elegantly translated by Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols, “How to Make a Home” gathers selections by Cicero, Vitruvius, Seneca, and others, with the original Latin or Greek on facing pages.

These writings reveal the pleasures and pitfalls of the Roman practice of making one’s home a cornerstone of self-expression. While the ideal home enshrined Roman virtues and could make a career.

Sy Montgomery’s “Of Time and Turtles” tells of  her curiosity to the wonder and wisdom of our long-lived cohabitants, turtles‚  and through their stories of hope and rescue.

Elegantly blending science, memoir, philosophy, and drawing on cultures from across the globe, this compassionate portrait of injured turtles and their determined rescuers invites us all to slow down and slip into turtle time.