Just finished reading this a few days ago. And I must say it was excellent. If you are a fan of history this one you may like.
It's about Pablius Varus and the events leading up to the Battle of Teutoburg Forest as well as the ill-fated battle itself.
In case you aren't familiar with Varus or the battle itself let me give you the Gunny's no-sh***er breakdown. This battle is probably one of the biggest clusterf***s in military history. It was one blunder after another. Everything that could go wrong did. Varus is probably known today as the worst military leader in the history of earth. He lost
THREE LEGIONS of Roman soldiers. And how did he do that? Simple. He got tricked by someone he thought he trusted, got suckered into what should have been an obvious ambush and then got everyone slaughtered in a dense, swampy, forest in a nasty storm by by vicious, barbaric, Germanic tribesmen despite outnumbering them by at least 2 to 1. It's hands-down one of, if not
THE biggest military blunder of all-time.
When it was all over Varus lost over 20,000 men (almost everyone was slaughtered) while the Germanic tribesmen only lost around 500.
The book gets it's name from when word finally got back to Emperor Augustus (who normally was very calm and not very emotional) that Varus had lost 3 legions (the 17th, 18th and 19th) he was so visibly shaken and enraged he screamed "Varus, give me back my legions!!!!!" It shook him hard and reports were that he mumbled that line several times afterwards, even saying it while banging his head against walls.
If that sort of thing interests you I highly recommend this book. I was always fascinated with this battle since I was a little kid. This particular book just came out a year or two ago.
I give it a 4 out of 5.