The hair may be #medusa -ish but I am making a return from a long break! I have missed this bookish community!
Day 2 of #2025bestreads was my first book of the year. What was unusual about this one, is I don't recall when my first read of the yr was an audio book (my audio tends to happen on work commutes; at the beginning of the yr I'm on holiday) but I was so riveted by both the story & Haynes narration that I simply couldn't stop listening. This added a lot more to the Medusa story, which I already felt familiar with & genuinely surprised me.
pickAn excellent retelling - I thought it was well written in a sympathetic way with modern overtones along with some humour. It‘s a sad story and I did feel for Medusa. She didn‘t deserve it. The gods themselves are brought to life wonderfully and they were easy to picture in my mind. By the end of the book I can quite safely say that Medusa isn‘t the monster in this story. My money is on Perseus! A thoroughly enjoyable and engaging read.
pickGreat book if you are into Greek mythology- I loved it - very funny in parts too .
pickThe writing style made it difficult to feel close to any characters, making this a low pick for me. I did like the twisting of the old myth to approach Medusa from her side of the story a bit more. There are a lot of characters (as is appropriate for a mythology retelling) and I didn‘t particularly care for any of them.
Just noticed all three of the physical books I am currently reading are published by Harper. Not necessarily something I‘d generally pay attention to, but I have them stacked together and happened to see the labels. All three are good so far!
pickThis is a retelling of Medusa‘s myth. I picked up this one because it was giving Madeline Miller vibes. I did like it—it was humorous, it did interesting interpretations with the Greek characters and gods, and a lot of the chapters were short which made it easy to get through. The plot did feel a little more sparse and didn‘t always have a clear center, so it wasn‘t the level of Miller for me, but I did still like it!
so-soRead bc I promised a friend. Slow, beautiful, anti-climactic. I understand why it‘s a DNF for most. I‘m not sad I finished it though and I did enjoy reading it while watching KAOS.
pickThat's the thing about the Olympic pantheon, about the figures in Greek myth, generally. Not a whole of character development. Sure the worst consequences come to some individuals but it's even odds if those consequences are the result of being punished for wrong action according to the rules of ancient society or because the gods just felt like it. Which is a reflection of how ancient Greek people thought things worked and explained via such 1/?
