Beard is an academician, but she writes in a fashion that a layperson can easily understand. For people who like answers about the period she's probably not your girl. But if you want to read about a historian's conjectures about what the various finds mean, you'll enjoy it.
She writes with a heavy dose of skepticism about everything a tour guide will tell you is a fact, but she supports all of her conjecture with ample evidence.
The book is separated into sections dealing with work, play, bathing, etc., and all are nice peeks into life in a very old city at the time of its destruction. Given its depth and the scholarship involved it's a strangely light read. I attribute that not to the content but to Beard's style. She has a plain, direct manner that makes it seem like an excellent college-level lecture by a fascinating professor.
