There are some criminal court cases where the defense attorney cannot argue their client’s innocence because guilt is so clear. Other ways of mitigating the evidence must be found. Author Eilish Quin successfully adopts the same strategy in her debut novel, Medea, about one of Greek mythology’s most despised women. A woman who killed her brother and later in revenge for being ... Read More...
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
How much Greek mythology is too much? Apparently, there is no limit so far. I loved Jennifer Saint’s last novel, Elektra, so knew I wanted to read her latest, Atalanta. Especially because this is a character about whom I know nothing, except she’s a Greek princess who is the only woman to sail with Jason as an Argonaut on his quest for the golden fleece. Atalanta’s father has ... Read More...
Clytemnestra: A Novel
I may be struggling with my new release reading recently, but Greek mythology retellings continue to make me all kinds of happy. Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati is my latest favorite, a bold portrayal of a woman known only as the vengeful wife of Agamemnon, the King who won the war with Troy. The other ‘facts’ of Clytemnestra are these: Helen of Troy was her sister, she had an ... Read More...
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
How wonderful to start the week with a book I loved so much I’m ready to read it again. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes is her latest foray into the retelling of famous Greek myths from a female perspective. In this case it is the fearsome Medusa, known as one of the most terrifying monsters in the ancient Greek world. One look from her turned any living object into stone. In the ... Read More...
Elektra: A Novel of the House of Atreus
A Greek queen, her daughter, and a princess of Troy are thrown into each other’s lives thanks to the Trojan War. In her new novel, Elektra, Jennifer Saint paints a complex portrait of these women as they shift between being pawns in a patriarchal game of domination and agents of their own lives determined to exact some measure of control over their fates. Deliciously satisfying ... Read More...
The Women of Troy: A Novel
Helen has always been the most well-known woman from the legend of Troy, but author Pat Barker brings to life another woman who, through no will of her own, played a role even more critical to the Trojan War mythology. Briseis. The queen of a city sacked by Achilles when the war first began, she was given to him as a war prize to be his concubine. Barker’s last novel, The ... Read More...
