As a lover of all things Egyptian I wasnt let down by this audible. I hope to find more just like this.

<i>24 Hours in Ancient Egypt: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There</i> follows a different person in Thebes 1414 B.C. for each hour of the 24-hour day. I really liked that despite following someone from a different profession for each hour, there were a few threads that weaved the hours together, such as the dead man whose body must be found, prepared for burial, remembered by those who knew him, etc. This book is a great look into ancient Egypt for those who don’t know much about it. The information about the ancient Egypt is peppered throughout a fictional narrative that makes it easy to read and absorb new information. The author is an Egyptologist, so he has the knowledge necessary to make this an accurate portrayal of the time. Jonathan Beville did an excellent job narrating the audiobook. I recommend it to those who want to know more about life in ancient Egypt!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

While not breaking any new ground in the field of historical scholarship, this audiobook immerses you in the sounds of life in Ancient Egypt. I highly recommend noise cancelling headphones for the best experience.

24 Hours in Ancient Egypt: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There provides an engaging look into twenty-four different roles and professions prominent in ancient Egypt, including potters and homemakers, guardsmen and exotic dancers, kings and queens, farmers and prisoners, embalmers and graverobbers. The chapters are divided by the hour of the day, and Donald P. Ryan goes above the standard of most histories by creating fictional backstories for the characters, many of which intertwine with one another. 24 Hours in Ancient Egypt can drag at times, and how interesting one finds each chapter will vary based on the readers' interests. Nevertheless, I learned a great deal of new information from this one audiobook, and it left me interested in studying the ancient Egyptians further.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

24 Hours in Ancient Egypt was the perfect listen for anyone interested in the history of a truly fascinating country! I found myself immersed through the writing and narration. Highly recommend!

Like stepping out of a time machine to stroll through ancient Egypt and following a new local every hour. You get to hear the story of Pharaoh Amenhotep as he receives tribute, a grave robber who is regretting his choice, jewelry makers trying to make a new set for the Queen, a physician and how they treat an animal bite wound, and so many more. With a writing style as fresh as the water of the Nile and a structure that reads like an anthology of loosely connected stories of the New Kingdom during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1426–1400 B.C.E.). The author chose to focus on the average person versus a ‘big man of history’ approach. Great for someone who wants a relaxing nonfiction read that walks you all over ancient Eygpt with a professional Egyptologist pointing out interesting facts and stories with added historical context.

This is a great audiobook! It is divided into 24 chapters, each representing one hour of the day in ancient Egypt. I had little to no previous knowledge of what life was like during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, and I found this book fascinating.

As someone without a prior interest in Egyptology, I'm not sure I would have put in the effort to read this book, but as audio, it was wonderful! The content, writing style, and reader kept me constantly engaged and the benefit of it being 24 separate chapters that don't (usually) connect is that if you get distracted and miss something, you get to restart with the next chapter!

I see that there are a lot of "24 hours in Ancient ______" books. If more are available as audiobooks, I think I will be checking them out!

24 Hours in Ancient Egypt: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There
by Donald P. Ryan
It was fortunate that the author of the book had the experience of digging in Egypt. It allowed the reader to really see the life and times of Early dynasty of Egypt. From funeral practices, to daily life, this book explores the highs and lows of society. He shows how the people live, using first hand resources to show the difficulties, and the work that creates the archeological evidence of the culture. The book has a great amount of detail, and description of daily practice and religion. The audio book is lacking the pictures that would have enhanced the understanding of the culture, and times.

This book was so interesting I listen to some chapters more than once. From the king trying to sleep through a misbehaving monkeys chase through the castle to the undertakers hope that no one chases him from his autopsy and everything in between it is all in this book and what an interesting book it is. I truly enjoyed the narrator in the story he told. I knew I would like this book I just wasn’t prepared for how much. It goes from hour to hour in a 24 hour period in every new time on the clock brings a new profession of someone new from ancient Egypt that is so interesting to know. I received this book from netGally and the author and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

This was a fun book to listen too.
Without going into extreme detail but enough to get a great feel in what daily ancient Egyptian life would have been like. The author describes the various jobs from the lowest of classes to the highest. We start to understand attitudes in the workplace towards co-workers, superiors or employees. The length of a typical workday and often dangers associated with the job. You also get to see a glimpse of the interaction between husband and wife. I you like some lightweight historical reading but still like to feel you learned something new this might just be the book for you.

Thanks to Netgalley for a preview of this audiobook. 24 chapters, each spotlighting one hour in the life of a different person in Egypt. I did not find any big insights here, but there were several interesting details. Grave robbing as a hobby, marriages arranged or not, siblings named the same thing as their previously deceased siblings. All good fun. The building techniques and cruelty of the masters are also here on vulgar display. I liked the description of the Nile as well.

This work is an examination of what 24 hours in ancient Egypt might look like for its inhabitants. The author chose to tell 24 different stories, one set in each hour of a typical day. The stories ranged from a sleepless night of the pharaoh to the hot workday of a mud-brick maker. Each chapter included fictionalized accounts interwoven with detailed historical accounts and information.

I greatly enjoyed the inclusion of historical texts relevant to Egypt between chapters and throughout the chapters themselves. There was so much good information included and told in a relatable and interesting way. I also appreciated how the author chose to convey this information through fictionalized accounts of different characters from all different walks of life in Egypt. The characters were diverse in background and personalities, and there were many chapters that I wished were longer as I greatly enjoyed those characters.

The author chose to set up this work by telling one story for each hour of the day. One of the earliest hours was a midwife delivering a baby, while one of the latest hours was of a dancing girl trying to entertain wedding guests. Again, the diversity of the characters and their professions/motivations was extremely varied and insightful.

This work was rife with fascinating details. These ranged from details about setting up and carving an obelisk, to being a midwife or a potter, to a mother’s day at home, to the danger of hippos. Information concerning cultural details like the words Egyptians used for certain things, typical food for different classes of people, typical drinks, and their writing methods and schools were also woven throughout the stories in an interesting way. The chapters often started with a fictionalized character and a bit about them, then went into historically collected data and information that was used to inform details about this character.

I disliked that there were no footnotes or references included, though I did listen to the audiobook so it’s possible these are included in the print version. I feel that it’s very important that works like this include references detailing where the author acquired their information. There were also many unintentional tense changes, which should be edited.

I highly recommend this work to anyone who has an interest in ancient Egypt. This work could be fantastic for homeschool curriculums or to supplement any world history classes.

I received a complimentary copy of this work through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book is a great first step into Ancient Egypt. The author takes trends from the time and sets them into place with fictional characters to demonstrate how life would have looked in Ancient Egypt.

I would recommend this book for anyone looking into getting into non-fiction texts about Ancient Egypt.
I would not recommend this book for anyone who already knows a lot about Ancient Egypt. The information will seem repetitive and basic, although mildly entertaining.

This book is a really unique and wonderful historical text. I think this would be a great read for people who like historical fiction or nonfiction books and are in need of a unique writing style for the genre.

The narrator is really great for the text. They're easy to understand, pleasant to listen to, and I could play at an increased speed and it still sounds great.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this wonderful audio book.

If you want an inside look at the life of an Egyptian over a 24 hour period, this book will give it to you. The author craftily goes behind the scenes and offers 24 vignettes of the lives of 24 Egyptians, including Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep II, his wife Tiaa, and close aids. The Egyptian daily cycle was broken into 24-hours, 12 at night and 12 during the day. For our convenience, the author starts at midnight.

Egyptian life definitely was not what is portrayed in Hollywood. It is not the film Cleopatra staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, all glamour and intrigue. In fact, the author points out there were very few women rulers of Egypt (Cleopatra did not come on the scene until 51 B.C., well after the reign of Amenhotep II (1427 to 1401 BC)).

You get a real sense of the harshness of Egyptian life, the subjugation of its neighbors and other countries in the known world, the tributes paid to the pharaoh, their religious beliefs and even the gritty and gory details of mummification.

While only a snapshot, I have a better understanding and respect of what life was like during the ancient times of Egypt.

We’ve all read about pharaohs, how they built pyramids that have survived for centuries, but what about normal people? How did housewives rear their children? What exactly did physicians do, in a time when life expectancy was 35? What about the farmers, the embalmers, the fishermen, all the normal people whose names are lost to history but whose stories still matter? This is what the fascinating read is about. Even the chapters that focus on “important” people show them in an intimate manner. Did the pharaoh sleep well? The author bases his stories in historical facts and speculates from there. Some of the content can be found in real writings or stelae. Other details can only come from his imagination, but based on the archeological evidence. Each chapter represents an hour, and these small stories tell the History of Ancient Egypt in an easy to follow, relatable manner. Jonathan Beville’s narration also helps. Beville makes every tale sound like someone we could know. For history buffs and readers interested in the Egyptian life.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Tantor Audio!