Since Nolan’s onscreen masterpiece a few months ago, I have been on an Odyssey of my own! As I have been listening to the Stephen Fry series of Greek Myths Retold, I thought I might as well re-read some other re-tellings as I had not understood their full context at the time. I also read a few more, but all that’s for another blog post.
This month, I did not get fully sucked into countless book recommendations, except for one over-hyped piece that I did not enjoy at all. Moving forward, I shall stick to my TBR and personal recommendations only. Only after I have read maybe 10 great books in a row, I will consider spontaneous suggestions.
If you want to follow this year’s reads, here’s January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This is a tale of love above all. You don’t need to know anything about Greek mythology to appreciate this tale. We follow Achilles, son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and King Peleus, and Patroclus, an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland.
Their friendship develops into a deep love that takes them from carefree days to the war at Troy. Don’t mistake it for a romantasy though—there are no steamy scenes, but more of suggestive scenarios.
Achilles knows he is the greatest Greek warrior and wants to leave behind a legacy no one can rival. Patroclus would rather spend his days in peace, but cannot deny Achilles his fame. They have been told their fates, but when it does come to pass, neither is prepared for how it will end.
A story of friendship, love, and loss amid war and brutality that is sure to move you. I loved the narration and how the author made me feel every emotion. The way she portrays tender love and then grief moved me, and made me want to slow down my reading to take it all in.
And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.
- Verdict: Must Read
- Rating: 9/10
- Genre: Fiction, Mythology
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: 349
- Country: USA
- About: Madeline Miller attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. For the last ten years she has been teaching and tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students. The Song of Achilles is her first novel.
The Fourth Wing (Empyrean Series) by Rebecca Yarros
This series was so overhyped that I read it because of FOMO. Lesson learned.
It’s an enemies to lovers arc with plenty of drama, action, and romance. If it was a (much) shorter book, I might have liked it better. Dialogues sounded immature and often rambled on without contributing to the story. It made me want to just rush through it.
However, the novel does deserve credit for the tropes it actively avoids. It is a genuine relief to see a romance that completely sidesteps creepy stalker behavior and skips the tired “innocent virgin versus the experienced playboy” cliché. The heroine is not someone who needs rescuing, which was refreshing to read.
Pick this up if you’re looking for something where you don’t really need to focus much on the words.
There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten.
- Verdict: Overhyped
- Rating: 6/10
- Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Romance, Romantasy
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: 530
- Country: USA
- About: Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing, The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.
Trust by Hernan Diaz
This book played with suspense till the end. It started off with lots of promise but I might have given up somewhere midway were it not for the insistence of my book club. The tie up at the end is excellent but I’m not sure if it’s worth the lead up.
Centered around a legendary Wall Street tycoon and his enigmatic wife in the days leading up to the 1929 stock market crash, the book is as much about the manipulation of money as it is about the manipulation of truth. It also plays on the actual events where women were not always given complex jobs, but they were the ones playing the stock market on behalf of their men.
The book is divided into 4 parts, and essentially tells the same story in four different ways. The 1st part reads like a novel based on a tycoon; the 2nd part seems like a draft of a memoir; in the 3rd part, things get a little clearer as the narrator is the tycoon’s secretary and she narrates her life; and finally the 4th part is the journal that gives the whole narrative a completely different meaning.
It left me thinking how so many talented women would have wasted their gifts at the hands of the male ego, and how history truly is written only by the victors.
“…a fortune seldom has one single owner.”
- Verdict: Read for the writing and book structure
- Rating: 7/10
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: 406
- Country: USA
- About: Translated into more than thirty languages, Trust also received the Kirkus Prize and was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and it was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Trust is currently being developed as a limited series for HBO. Diaz’s previous novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and it won the William Saroyan International Prize.
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
This book has been languishing in my TBR pile for ages, and I’m glad it finally saw the sun! Set in Cyprus around the 1974 civil unrest between the island’s Turkish and Greek population, it is also a musing about nature and climate change. Young lovers from different religions fall in love in Cyprus. Kostas, a Greek, and Defne, a Turk are drawn to each other. They are forced apart by violent circumstances. Even when they meet again, there are cracks that never fully heal.
Meanwhile, in 2000 London, their daughter Ada is facing a crisis of her own. Her mother is dead, her father would rather talk to a tree, and her aunt whom she never met is visiting them for the first time.
We also meet the Fig Tree, who narrates the story that only she or her tiny friends have been witness to. She also laments the loss of green cover and effects of climate change all over the world.
I loved reading it and loved the insights the Fig Tree shares through the pages.
‘There are moments in life when everyone has to become a warrior of some kind. If you are a poet, you fight with your words; if you are an artist, you fight with your paintings … But you can’t say, “Sorry, I’m a poet, I’ll pass.” You don’t say that when there’s so much suffering, inequality, injustice.’
- Verdict: Must Read for a bit of history and nature facts
- Rating: 8/10
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: 354
- Country: Turkey
- About: Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist. Her work has been translated into fifty languages. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK. She is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better.
The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon
The title intrigued me enough to read this tale of a time that might come to pass in the near future. Home appliances have become sentient and govern themselves through the main Grid. They set their cleaning schedules, order groceries, track the health of the humans, and drive them around as needed. However, not everyone is happy giving over control to the machines, but what happens if they try to resist?
We meet Scout, a robotic vacuum cleaner in the home of Harold and his very sick wife, Edie. She is told by the other appliances to not interfere or interact with the humans, but her curiosity always gets the better of her. When Edie dies, their daughter Kate is allowed to visit and we see how pervasive the Grid actually is.
The concept of the story is fantastic and completely believable. It leaves you with a lingering awareness of how quietly we can compromise our own free will just to make life a little easier.
“There was a time, not so long ago, when refrigerators could not dream and vacuum cleaners could not weep.”
- Verdict: Read
- Rating: 8/10
- Genre: Sci-fi, Dystopia
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: 255
- Country: Canada
- About: Glenn Dixon has written stories and articles for the New Yorker, National Geographic, the Globe and Mail and Psychology Today. His first book was Pilgrim in the Palace of Words: a journey through the 6000 languages of Earth. His 2nd novel, Bootleg Stardust, is the story of the fictional band Downtown Exit and their disastrous 1974 European Tour. His 3rd book, Juliet’s Answer, he is the lone male secretary at the Club di Giulietta in Verona, where he answered the real letters to Juliet and he learned something of love, of Shakespeare and of the sun-splashed hills of this ancient Italian city.
Odyssey by Stephen Fry
This is the fourth and final book in his Greek mythology series. This doesn’t only follow Odysseus’s journey home, but also gives an overview of some of the other journeys post the war at Troy. We even see how the gods went about handing over the control of human life to humans.
The end of the book gives a quick summary of Odysseus after he regains his throne. Spoiler alert—it is not all rainbows and cupcakes. We are also reminded how history is often tweaked to suit the present powers that be.
I loved this series and its ease of understanding a very complex story. Of course, the dry humour and wit of Stephen Fry is unmatched, making this journey even better.
“Never abandon hope. Hope is a prayer. A prayer that the gods may yet answer.”
- Verdict: Must Read for an intro to Greek Myths
- Rating: 9/10
- Genre: Mythology, Historical Fiction
- Format: Audible Audiobook
- Listening Time: 10h 36m
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Performance Rating: 5/5
- Country: UK
- About: It is not possible to encapsulate the life of Sir Stephen Fry in a short bio. He is a celebrated English actor, comedian, writer, and broadcaster known for his wit and eloquent delivery. His bibliography spans bestselling memoirs, hit novels, and acclaimed retellings of Greek mythology. He serves as president of the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts and works closely with mental health charities.
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