Do you enjoy retellings of the epics? Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) is a retelling of Homer's The Illiad. Jen and Ashley share our thoughts about this book club pick, and we share our pairings including Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). Looking for more Unabridged content? Join us on Patreon, where we release an additional episode each month.
Bookish Check-in
Ashley - Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Dreaming (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Our Book Club Pick
Madeline’s Miller’s The Song of Achilles (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Our Pairings
Ashley - Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Other Mentions
Fredrik Backman’s Britt-Marie Was Here (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) Emiko Jean's Tokyo Ever After (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Check out Ashley's review of the Tokyo Ever After series
Give Me One - Series Worth Rewatching
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Bookish Check-in
Ashley is reading...
Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
"Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
"But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one."
Jen is reading...
Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Dreaming (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"When Japanese-American Izumi Tanaka learned her father was the Crown Prince of Japan, she became a princess overnight. Now, she’s overcome conniving cousins, salacious press, and an imperial scandal to finally find a place she belongs. She has a perfect bodyguard turned boyfriend. Her stinky dog, Tamagotchi, is living with her in Tokyo. Her parents have even rekindled their college romance and are engaged. A royal wedding is on the horizon! Izumi’s life is a Tokyo dream come true. Only. . .
"Her parents’ engagement hits a brick wall. The Imperial Household Council refuses to approve the marriage citing concerns about Izumi and her mother’s lack of pedigree. And on top of it all, her bodyguard turned boyfriend makes a shocking decision about their relationship. At the threat of everything falling apart, Izumi vows to do whatever it takes to help win over the council. Which means upping her newly acquired princess game.
"But at what cost? Izumi will do anything to help her parents achieve their happily ever after, but what if playing the perfect princess means sacrificing her own? Will she find a way to forge her own path and follow her heart?"
Book Club and Pairings
Our main discussion covers...
Madeline’s Miller’s The Song of Achilles (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes."
Our pairings include...
Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.
"When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?
"Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world."
Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
"Here is the story of the Iliad as we’ve never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles. Given only a few words in Homer’s epic and largely erased by history, she is nonetheless a pivotal figure in the Trojan War. In these pages she comes fully to life: wry, watchful, forging connections among her fellow female prisoners even as she is caught between Greece’s two most powerful warriors. Her story pulls back the veil on the thousands of women who lived behind the scenes of the Greek army camp—concubines, nurses, prostitutes, the women who lay out the dead—as gods and mortals spar, and as a legendary war hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion. Brilliantly written, filled with moments of terror and beauty, The Silence of the Girls gives voice to an extraordinary woman—and makes an ancient story new again."
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