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...
Ariadne: A Novel by Jennifer Saint
If you’re a fan of Greek mythology than 2021 is shaping up to be a great year. First there was A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes (which I loved) and now there’s Ariadne, the story of a Cretan princess whose half-brother is the fearsome Minotaur. The Minotaur’s life and death are a mainstay of Greek mythology, but author Jennifer Saint pushes the beast and Theseus, the prince ... Read More...
A Thousand Ships: A Novel
Happy Monday! I don’t often say that because, well…Monday, but today I’m back with a novel that kept me captivated. A Thousand Ships is Natalie Haynes’s retelling of the Trojan War or, more specifically, the immediate aftermath of the war. Not exactly new territory, as any number of writers have memorialized this greatest battle of Greek mythology, except Haynes chooses a ... Read More...
Winter 2021 Books I’m Ready to Read
New year, new books! As much as I’m ready for things to be different in 2021, there is a change I’m not looking forward to in the book world. A combination of COVID and the economy means publishers have been getting a lot stingier about sending advance copies of books to book bloggers. For the first time in a long time my 2021 winter preview includes books I haven’t received ... Read More...
July Reading Wrap-Up
Goodbye, July! My first full month of real summer in the Midwest. What I loved: fireflies, thunder and rain storms that last for hours. What is not so much: humidity that flattens me but makes my hair explode. And flies. So many flies! Why? The natural world aside, even with the increasing crazy that is America, July was an outstanding reading month. I finished 15 ... Read More...
Best Books of 2018
Once again, I’m one of the last of the bloggers to weigh in on the best books of the year. The great news is that, unlike last year, which was a bleak year for my reading, this year was much better. My ten best books are all from 2018—no backlist! They’re a varied lot, ranging from mythology to miracles to food to marriage. The only constant in the majority of them is humor. ... Read More...
