Circe
In high school and college I was exposed to plenty of Greek mythology, from reading Edith Hamilton's classic and also The Odyssey, to translating chunks of the Aeneid from the Latin. And while I retained some useful crossword puzzle/trivia knowledge, I never felt like they were much more than dry old stories - until I picked up Circe. Madeline Miller's account of this goddess' life as an out-of-favor daughter of the sun god Helios, banished to an eternity of isolation on a small island where she hones her witchcraft that she will ultimately have to use when pitted against one of the strongest of the Olympians, turned that all around by giving me an adventure story, a love story, a palace intrigue story, and so much more. And then I realized: Greek mythology is basically a soap opera, when you look at all of the love triangles and affairs and foibles coming from Olympus, so it most certainly makes for a juicy novel in that way. Once I got into it (which can take a little bit given all of the characters - refer to the chart in the back to keep them straight!), I couldn't put it down. The characters felt so real, and the telling of the story so vivid and even suspenseful at times, even when I already knew how some of the scenes were going to come out. Another thing I loved about this telling was how modern it felt, even when talking about ancient Greek characters, really engaging with thoughts of women's roles and strength and power (or lack of) in what is really a man's world. A feminist re-casting of Circe's myth - and I'm all about it. 5/5 stars
Lovely War
On the eve of WWII, we meet a bunch of Greek gods - come to earth to a Manhattan hotel in the form of socialites, a bell hops, and such - in an argument about what real love is, and about whether war can win out over it. Aphrodite (goddess of love), with the help of Ares (her lover, god of war), her brother Apollo (god of art/music), and Hades (god of the underworld) goes on to tell the story of four young people, their experience in WWI, and their love stories that might have been ordinary, but become epic in the midst of war and tragedy: Hazel, an aspiring pianist from London who volunteers at a camp in France; her beau James, who is enlisted to fight with the British army in the trenches of France; her Belgian friend Colette, whose entire family was killed by Germans; and Aubrey, an African American soldier who is navigating not just the war but also the racism and segregation of the time. It's kind of a YA + historical fiction + romance situation with some added magical realism of some Greek gods meddling in the world, plus some lessons on racism/African American troop participation in WWI. The description of this novel makes you think hmmm, there's an awful lot going on here - but for the most part it works! The love stories/historical fiction would have been been a bit basic on their own (and parts of them did drag on a bit long/slowly), but with this mock trial of gods and goddesses, and their interjections into the story, along with some crackling repartee and jostling among them, it feels inventive and intriguing as a premise. That spark in particular reminded me of the excellent Everyone Brave Is Forgiven (even though that one is WWII), and the various storylines that eventually intersect with love stories reminded me of All the Light We Cannot See; this is a good YA counterpart if you liked books like those, or if you like historical fiction like Kate Quinn's, especially about women's involvement in war efforts (e.g. The Alice Network). 4/5 stars
Children of Blood and Bone
Teenager Zélie vaguely remembers when the land of Orïsha was filled with magic, though for years now it's been outlawed by the ruthless and oppressive king, who persecutes any remaining maji. But then she discovers the magic in her, and along with her brother and a rogue princess, she begins a quest to bring back magic - and also to figure out how to control her untrained powers. It's kind of a classic "chosen one" epic in terms of the storyline, but in this West African-inspired fantasy setting - the author describes it herself as "Black Panther with magic" - along with a bit of YA romance. Fantasy is not usually my category (I'm much more interested in plot than world building...), but there are some notable exceptions, so I definitely wanted to check out this one after hearing high praise. I thought it was well done and would probably make a great movie with the epic story and magical world - it definitely reminded me a lot of Black Panther in terms of themes and such, and I can imagine the costumes and scenery being similarly amazing - but for me personally it was a bit too much into the fantasy category (I prefer mine with beginning in the real world to them, like Harry Potter), and a bit high of a dead body count in the end! What I found most interesting was actually the subtext, considering how the author wrote this in part as her response to police violence against black people, and in part as a response to the weird societal backlash of putting black actors in the Hunger Games movies (this podcast episode delves into it a bit). 3.5/5 stars
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
I put this on my 19 in 2019 list to read with Hendrik, because I thought it would be a classic that I'd really enjoy revisiting through his eyes. He certainly got quite wrapped up in the epic story of the four siblings who travel to Narnia through a wardrobe portal, intrigued by the imaginative aspects of a place where it's always winter and never Christmas and we meet many very interesting creatures like dwarfs and fauns and centaurs. I think it's a good read-aloud for a 5-6 year old if they're not too sensitive to some moderately suspenseful/scary elements - definitely lots of places for discussion in terms of the war/sacrifice scenes and the allegorical nature of the story, in order to walk him through those scarier parts. 4/5 stars
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
So it turns out that L. Frank Baum had a beach house in my small town, and he did a bunch of writing while summering here on the coast of Lake Michigan - which I learned when the city started putting together an outdoor exhibit within blocks of my house with sculptures dedicated to his most famous work. Which inspired me to finally read the book, as a read-aloud with Hendrik. Some of the language is a little over the heads of a 5 or 6 year old in the way that language of books written 100+ years ago, but as a general story, he found it quite engaging. And I found it fascinating to note the differences between this and the movie, which admittedly most of us would have as our only exposure to this classic, one that definitely has myth/legend status for these characters by now. A fun read with kids, and we liked having a version with reproductions of the original illustrations - H gives it 3.5/5 stars
All in all, some great options here even for those who don't much venture in to this type of genre. And I think Circe is going to end up on my top 10 for the year, so I think you should definitely read that - and I'm going to have to read Madeline Miller's other retelling, The Song of Achilles.
Sharing on Show Us Your Books.
No comments : Post a Comment
Post a Comment