Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt is a really nice “history” of ancient Egypt, with more emphasis on the lives of the common people than you sometimes get in books like this. It’s by Barbara Mertz, who is perhaps better known (outside of her academic field) as Elizabeth Peters, the author of the Amelia Peabody, Jacqueline Kirby, and Vicky Bliss mystery series. But Mertz was, of course, also an Egyptian scholar, with a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago, which is pretty much one of the top schools in that discipline. Red Land has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.