The Achaean Club discussion
book of the month (BoTM)
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Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer - June 2020
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I’m very curious about this one. I just put it on hold at my library.
I was very unsure about starting this. Not very important but just to paint the picture, I started to read this as stores in the neighbourhood I live in are being looted, helicopters are flying above me every ten minutes and I’ve been hearing sirens all day. I needed a break from it all. Just read a bit and disappear for awhile from this mess of a world. Seeing the trigger warnings, I got a bit uncomfortable, hoping I’d be able to relax reading this and that it wouldn’t make me even more tense than I already am.The poems were powerful and about hard subjects but it was so good, I ended enjoying it and relaxing.
I loved that many of them are inspired by Greek myth, which is very cool, and by the author’s personal struggles, growth and healing.
There’s artwork that is also poetry, and I really loved that. They’re the type of art I’d be happy to have framed and up on the wall in my home.
There’s something of Rupi Kaur’s style of poems, which I really love.
I was really pleasantly surprised by this book.
Some of my favourite:
[...] Regardless of whether you desire it, love is what sits at the core of the world. It is stronger than greed and hate and jealousy and pain. What brings us together will always be more powerful than what keeps us apart.
Love knows no face. Love knows no gender. Love knows no sexuality. Love knows only love. We waste so much time trying to explain ourselves.
In Troy they fought over Helen like children but Achilles mourned Patroclus the way a soul mourns a body.
I got the ebook, but I now am going to buy the physical copy to add to my bookshelves, that’s how much I loved it.
Starting this right now! I've never read it but I kept eyeing it at the bookstore, so I'm excited to finally be reading it, even if poetry isn't my usual go to.
I need a physical copy so I can mark it up because I am LOVING THIS. I'm reading some of the poems about love right now and they're just all standing out to me so much. "Love knows no face.
Love knows no gender.
Love knows no sexuality.
Love knows only love."
Hell yes.
It didn't take me long to read the whole thing and I'm in love. So. Good.
In this empowering retelling, she uses the mythology of the goddess to weave a common thread through the past and present. By the end of this book, Aphrodite makes you believe in the possibility of your own healing.
PLEASE consult the trigger warnings listed at the beginning of this poetry anthology.
All formats of the book are welcomed; hardback, paperback, ebook, audio, etc ... When discussing, please remember to head any spoiler-y comment with SPOILERS AHEAD as different readers read at different pace, or may choose to start the book later in the month.