It was good for overview on the Stoics and provided good accounts of key Stoics from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, however it was the 'familiarity' and of the writing that bothered me. Occasionally pretentiousness seeped in, which was irritating. Like "Learn. Apply. Learn. Apply. Learn. Apply. This is the Stoic way." (p. 76) Even more, it felt less purely informational and more sentimental, which wasn't for me – using phrases like "Then Zeno held his breath until he passed from this life" (p. 10) and "In 62 AD, Persius died tragically young..." (p. 210). This here is nitpicky but even the attached feeling of regret in how Persius died "tragically young" goes against the acceptance of death as a part of life that Holiday capitalises on through his memento mori merchandise. But again, this is me being nitpicky. Overall it was a fine read, but for what I thought was going to be a historical book, I felt the author's opinion seeped in too much for me to enjoy it.