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Book Review
The Penelopiad (Canongate Myths)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood is a retelling of the life of Penelope, and the fate of the 12 maids from the Odyssey. In this contemporary tale, Atwood delves into the question of why were the twelve maids hanged and what led up to their...
Book Review
Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome
With this one, the entire premise of the book is in the title, it is all about sex and sexuality in ancient Rome. Trafford begins by outlining the language used in ancient Rome that has anything to do with sex or sexuality, she introduces...
Book Review
The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women
Kelly was provided this ARC for a review from St. Martin’s Press. The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown is, at its core, working to dispel the myth that Viking women stayed at home whilst the...
Book Review
Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire
Venus & Aphrodite: History of a Goddess by Bettany Hughes is a light, easy read which follows the history of the goddess best known as Venus or Aphrodite, from her beginnings to the modern reception of the goddess. Using archaeological evidence...
Book Review
How the Greeks Built Cities
How the Greeks Built Cities by R. E. Wycherley is a concise text examining the relationship between an ancient city’s structure and its residents. Wycherley composes a recipe for an ancient Greek town, and each chapter covers a different...
Book Review
The Wolf Den
The Wolf Den is a novel by Elodie Harper which is set in Pompeii in the 1st century CE in Pompeii’s lupanar which is the brothel of the ancient city. The term lupanar could mean both brothel or wolf den, and the term lupa could be used for...
Book Review
Ariadne: A Novel
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint follows the myth of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, and Theseus' subsequent desertion of Ariadne on Naxos, from the point of view of Ariadne and her younger sister Phaedra. The first thing that struck me when reading...
Book Review
Lore
Every seven years, nine of the 12 Olympians are turned mortal and sent to earth for one week, in an event called the Agon. During the Agon, the mortal bloodlines of famous Greek heroes such as Perseus, Odysseus, and Achilles hunt the gods...
Book Review
The Porpoise (Vintage Contemporaries)
The Porpoise is a novel that seamlessly intertwines a modern tale with an ancient story. After Philipe’s wife is killed in a plane crash and their daughter Angelica survives, the wealthy father raises his daughter in near isolation. Although...
Book Review
The Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi was born in either the Harima Province of Japan or the village of Miyamoto in Mimasaka in 1584. Little is known about the life of Musashi, but what has been pieced together from a small number of reliable sources has highlighted...
