Book Talk Free for All

[Julia]

I just realized that it's hard to comment and discuss each other's books from the bookshelf. How frustrating! Let's see how this works!

[Julia]

I read "Crossing to Safety" many years ago as part of a book group and really liked it. I felt you really got a sense of people going through life over time- the time is palpable. That, I think is what makes it feel slow. It's a sensitive, thoughtful pace.

[Julia]

I'm reading "Circe" right now. I love Greek mythology, Homer, the great playwrights, etc. I'm crazy about Greece and the ancient Mediterranean world. But I'm kind of struggling to get into this one.
does anyone else have any insight into this book ? I

[Janet]

You are right Julia; it is a bit of work to even see if others have posted a review, so looking forward to this.
I have been on the waiting list for Circe for a while so read her "Song of Achilles" in the meantime and found the same issues you did; it was pretty slow going, but on the whole I enjoyed it. I do remember Kathy from the summer reading group posting a comment that she loved Circe. I am still on the waiting list. Let me know if it gets any better.

[Janet]

Just finished "On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwan and I think I missed something here. I loved many of his books (among them Saturday, Atonement, Sweet Tooth), but this left me cold. No real plot (about a newly married couple and their first time sex problems is as much as I could describe) and the characters are not well developed at all. Only good thing; it is really short. I read it as I saw it was made into a movie; but have no desire to see the movie after reading this.
Any other opinions?

[Julia]

Janet wrote: "You are right Julia; it is a bit of work to even see if others have posted a review, so looking forward to this.
I have been on the waiting list for Circe for a while so read her "Song of Achilles"..."

I did end up liking it more. It's kind of like "The Lightning Thief" for grownup women- a female bildungsroman with Greek mythology. You have all the familiar myths and characters- Titans and Olympians, Apollo and Athena, Jason and Medea, Ariadne and the Minotaur, Dedalus and Icarus, and of course Odysseus and Telemachus. Yet it's a strangely modern story of female empowerment- doing the hard work and coming to terms with mortality and the tragic condition of life etc. The author has a good background in classics, and it was well done.

[Janet]

I will keep it on my list Julia, thanks.