Vesuvius by Pliny the Younger may seem a rather random reading choice for me, but that's because it is. The translator, Kenneth Martin, was my wife's secondary school Latin teacher, of whom she'd told many stories I treasure in my heart.

The front matter is rather scatter brained and squirrely, but Martin eventually explains that these letters retell a young Pliny's experience of the famous Pompeii eruption. I liked the sections detailing why Latin is difficult to translate, and how past translators' choices reflect literary modes popular in their time. Somber watercolor illustrations accompany the text. The delicate blurring of color and line give an elegiac feel, as appropriate for a mass tragedy. 

The letters and their translation are nothing unexpected. Even a millennia later, I said a prayer for those lost in this disaster.