I mentioned a few days ago that I was struggling with the phase of culture shock where everything unfamiliar feels like a personal attack. Nowhere did I feel this more strongly than in my search for books written in English. I love to read, books are my happy place, when I see them my face goes all wistful, etc etc. But everywhere I went, the titles were maddeningly indecipherable.
Duh, Tricia, you may be thinking. You’re in Greece.
But you’ve forgotten – I’m incredibly privileged, and I expect everything to be available in my mother language!
Which is, you know, selfish. But also true. And anyway, it just felt like a slap to my face every time I saw a book and knew that it’s pages – MY PAGES, MY LOVE – were stories and words and phrases that I would never understand. Street-side book sellers hosted tables full of familiar covers and unfamiliar titles. The center where I volunteer had a bookcase full of Greek books; I pulled out the most basic books for children and wilted with my inability to translate more than one sentence. In a desperate attempt to find normalcy, I returned to Omonia where I had once walked through a bookstore to get to a bathroom. It was made of several rooms, but I found only two bookshelves with English books. There was nothing worth reading, and I left really dejected.
I complained about this to Argyris on Sunday, and an hour later he exclaimed, “Oh! There is a big building at Syntagma, next to the McDonald’s! Public, it’s orange. There are many books there. I’m sure they have some in English.”
“You mean there’s been a bookstore right next to my metro stop, and I’ve ignored it for two weeks??” Continue reading
Part of me feels like I ought to be ashamed of the fact that 80% of my Greek mythology knowledge comes from one American man, but Rick Riordan makes it so entertaining! I don’t know how he manages to convey humor while simultaneously making it clear that the gods habits of murdering and raping is abominable…but he does. It’s very impressive.
Percy Jackson breathes new life into familiar Greek myths and introduces several less-popular men and women. You’ve got Hercules and Theseus, of course, but also Phaethon, Orpheus, and Bellerophon. Most importantly (to my interests), Riordan tells the stories of four heroines! The ancient Greeks weren’t huge on female inspiration, and I appreciate Riordan’s intentionality in choosing to include Psyche, Otrera, Atalanta, and Cyrene.
ll the retellings (of which I am, admittedly, just starting to read)! I LOVED reading Penelope’s side of the story, seeing Odysseus’s cleverness from her perspective, gently allowing her unreliable narration. Was she faithful? Was she not? She sure wants us to think she was, just like Odysseus wants us to think he’s a tragic hero. They’re a perfect match for each other….which is only half the story!
What a great finale for a wonderful series! I liked the books quite a lot when I first read them as they were released, and I liked them even more reading the series straight through. It became more obvious how the characters developed, how the team found strength in each other, and how the stakes were raised higher than ever in the battle between Greek and Roman demigods.
Okay, THIS is my favorite book in the Heroes of Olympus series. It’s divided into two plots lines, one that follows Percy and Annabeth’s dangerous adventures in Tartarus, and another that follows our remaining seven demigods (plus Nico!) in the Mediterranean. While I like following Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and Leo, it is undoubtedly the Tartarus story that makes this my favorite.
I’ve loved rereading the Heroes of Olympus series all at once. Back when I was waiting for a new book year-to-year, I don’t think I was very impressed by Son of Neptune. It took me a long time to adjust to Hazel and Frank, because I’m always skeptical of new characters introduced in a world I already love. But after reading the series to completion, I really enjoyed going back and meeting them again, this time with fondness.
What better way to kick off another year of book reviews than with Rhimes’ empowering, encouraging semi-memoir Year of Yes? Reading it definitely inspired me to jump more fully into life (aka the things that scare me).
I have no idea how this book wound up in my library queue; it’s unlike everything I read, but I thought it was so much fun! It’s supposed to be a diamond heist mystery, and that definitely happens, but that is the least important part of the story.
It Is Trish 