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Instruments of Battle: The Fighting Drummers and Buglers of the British Army from the Late 17th Century to the Present Day
Book
Instruments of Battle examines in detail the development and role of the British Army's fighting...
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Nova Aetas Renaissance
Tabletop Game
Nova Aetas Renaissance is a cooperative tactical boardgame set in a fantastic and dark Italian...
![Mornings On Horseback](/uploads/profile_image/78d/5a4d981e-c2c3-437b-9d21-1681c559b78d.jpg?m=1608295312)
Mornings On Horseback
Book
The National Book Award-winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt...
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PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America
Book
PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America is a five-year plan to make Black America a...
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You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN NPR CONCIERGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "In her...
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Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind
Games
App
Life between myths. Clans, cows, choices. The spiritual successor to King of Dragon Pass, Six...
BoardGames BoardGameApp StoryGames
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The Dogon Initiative (The Deniables #1)
Book
A group of foreign mercenaries hired as deniable assets by a newly-formed humanitarian division of...
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/0e3/630e4ff5-bfdf-4760-9e37-29f3ad9090e3.jpg?m=1522362006)
ClareR (5608 KP) rated Medusa: The Girl Behind The Myth in Books
Sep 28, 2021
One day, a boy lands his boat on the island - it’s Perseus.
We see the side of Medusa that the original myth writers would never have imagined: a young girl who is taken advantage of, vulnerable, used by men for their own pleasure, and then blamed for something that she has no control over.
In the original stories, she gets her just desserts. Medusa is ugly and not to be trusted. It gives an insight into how men regarded women at this time. Be subservient. Be a virgin. Don’t get raped, and if you do, it’s your own fault - you brought it on yourself (I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about this). Women don’t come out of myth and legend terribly well.
I absolutely loved this. Medusa isn’t a meek, mild victim, but neither is she evil. She knows, or has some idea anyway, her glance can cause a lot of damage - so she hides herself away.
And in this story, not a single head is lost.
The illustrations are gorgeous as well.
I wonder if Jessie Burton will write more Greek myths in this way? Because I’m all in!
Many thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books for my copy of this gorgeous book through NetGalley.
Elektra by Jennifer Saint is told from three female perspectives: Clytemnestra, the sister of Helen, the wife of Agamemnon; Cassandra, a Princess of Troy; and Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s youngest daughter.
The things these women had to put up with! Clytemnestra’s husband Agamemnon, acts like a madman (but it’s ok, it’s all for the Gods!) and she’s supposed to accept it all. Except she doesn’t.
Cassandra is treated like a madwoman after she’s cursed by Apollo. She can tell the future, but no-one believes her. So they only have themselves to blame when Troy is destroyed.
And then there’s Elektra. She seems to have fully bought into the whole “men/ daddy knows best, and anyway, he’s a hero” story. She’s a young woman who adores her father and believes he can do no wrong. She can’t understand her mothers reaction to the sacrifice of her eldest daughter and Elektra’s sister. Can we blame Elektra though? Probably. She certainly knows how to play the long game.
The narrators were well chosen, and really helped to add life and vigour to the characters of the three women. Listening to these Greek myths haas added something extra special to the stories - after all, I’ve read these stories so many times over the years in different forms. And I still can’t see a time where they’ll get old. In every retelling there’s a different angle, and I don’t think I can express enough how much I enjoy the story told from the women’s points of view.
Elektra is just fabulous - a timeless story about strong women.
![Under the Emerald Sky (The Irish Fortune #1)](/uploads/profile_image/b26/868fadaf-f800-4def-ab27-664f5e57ab26.jpg?m=1637564615)
Under the Emerald Sky (The Irish Fortune #1)
Book
Escape to 19th century Ireland in the first book in the Irish Fortune Series, a historical fiction...
Historical Fiction Ireland Irish History Great Famine