All Booked | The Magic of Mythology

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Hello, fellow bookworms!

This week, our incredible news reporter Callie Fausey brings us some retellings of classic Greek myths. If the world feels overwhelming at the moment, why not lose yourself in these timeless tales of gods and goddesses, monsters and heroes?

I’m definitely planning to add these books to my list, but in the meantime, it’s made me want to reread Rick Riordan’s classic Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I think a lot of us millennials grew up reading them, but I know people of all ages who enjoy them. There truly is something magical about the lasting power of these tales — while the history of Greek myths certainly is, the stories haven’t gotten old!

Happy reading!

—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com

This is Callie Fausey, Independent news reporter, clocking in for All Booked.

So this may out me as a weirdo who grew up with no friends, but I say it without shame: I love Greek mythology. The love, the rage, the jealousy, the fantasy, and the origin stories of everything from flowers to birds to words. It’s all so enthralling and I’m a capital-S sucker for it.

Put simply, your girl grew up on Percy Jackson and then never grew out of it.

That’s why, when I visited the famous bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris a couple of years ago, I left with three books: Mythos and Heroes, both by Stephen Fry, and Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara.

Fry provides a well-written, humorous retelling of the foundational myths that have inspired hundreds of novels, movies, and TV shows. McNamara shares one of the Greeks’ classic, intoxicating love stories. (It’s also basically the only Greek romance that actually works out in the end for both parties.)

If there’s any takeaway from these stories, it’s that humanity is flawed in all our pride, selfishness, naivete, envy, lust, and sometimes outright cruelty. But at the same time, we’re also beautiful, multifaceted beings who can love unconditionally, overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, fight for what we believe is right, and persevere even when we’re being tortured and confined by things and feelings and circumstances that are out of our control.

There’s a reason why our ancient ancestors personified different facets of life and emotion into all-powerful, vengeful beings, eh? Have you ever been in love? If you have, you can understand why Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was the most beautiful, enticing Olympian. All the same, you can likely understand why she was also an evil bitch.

The other important lesson from Greek myth is that many problems could be avoided if powerful men just kept it in their pants (I’m looking at you, Zeus).

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Starting with the beginning, Mythos takes the reader through the creation of the world, as told by the Greeks and then recounted — in a creative and hilarious fashion — by Fry. The cosmos is first birthed out of Chaos, and from that conception comes my favorite line in the book.

“It is enough to say that the Greeks thought it was Chaos who, with a massive heave, or a great shrug, or hiccup, vomit, or cough, began the long chain of creation that has ended with pelicans and penicillin and toadstools and toads, sea lions, seals, lions, human beings, and daffodils and murder and art and love and confusion and death and madness and biscuits,” Fry writes.

He then takes the reader through the formation of the gods — through incestuous couplings or other strange means, like cutting off the sky god’s genitals and throwing them into the ocean (this is how Aphrodite came to be) — and all the subsequent insanity that formed and fucked the world we know today.

It’s a historically accurate, informative read for all those curious about different theories of our creation.

Heroes by Stephen Fry

Following Mythos and the creation of the cosmos, Fry tells the tales of the Greek heroes, such as Heracles, Jason, and Oedipus. Out of the three books I list here, this one is my favorite. Fry does a fantastic job of bringing these myths to life, with funny dialogue and enlightening footnotes to boot.

If you think you know these heroes, you don’t. You may have even thought I misspelled “Hercules.” Well, Fry will clear that up for you: He was named Heracles in an attempt to appease Hera (goddess of marriage and wife of Zeus) after — you guessed it — the hero-to-be was born from an infamous Zeus affair. Hera, jealous as can be, hated any bastard born from Zeus’s insatiable lust. Heracles eventually wins her over, but you’ll just have to read about it.

The stories are incredibly addictive and the book is hard to put down once you start reading. Plus, if you have a love for history, it helps scratch that itch, just like Mythos.

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

While Fry shares more of an informative account of the myths, McNamara provides a fascinating, funny, and sexy retelling of the best Greek love story: that of Psyche, a beautiful, mortal girl turned goddess of soul, and Eros (or Cupid), who strikes himself with his own arrow and falls hopelessly in love with her.

Remember when I called Aphrodite an evil bitch? This story exemplifies that perfectly. For her own selfish reasons, Aphrodite attempts to punish Psyche by first attempting to make her fall in love with a pig, and later having her complete impossible tasks.

Spoiler: Psyche succeeds, against all odds. But the lead-up to that is characterized by the god of love getting a taste of his own horrible, intoxicating medicine and the pair’s seductive descent into true love.

It’s definitely a romance novel, so just keep that in mind. Still, it is full of substance and is faithfully rooted in the myths that have persisted through time.

(Some honorable mentions that are worth a read: Circe and Song of Achilles, both by Madeline Miller, an expert in her craft of rewriting Greek romance.)

—Callie Fausey

FROM OUR PAGES

We’ve had some great author visits and interviews recently, so don’t miss out. Here is some of our book-related coverage from the last two weeks! Read all this and more at Independent.com.

Richard Powers and Pico Iyer Discuss the Writing Process at UC Santa Barbara by Tiana Molony

UPCOMING BOOK EVENTS

Below, you will find a few bookish events coming up in Santa Barbara. If you are hosting a bookish event in Santa Barbara, be sure to submit the event to our online events calendar.

Romance Book Club
Wednesday, March 12, 5:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library

The 20th Frank K. Kelly Lecture: Annie Jacobsen
Wednesday, March 12, 6 p.m. | Music Academy of the West

Book Talk and Signing: Joseph Coohill
Thursday, March 13, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Carp Book Club: This Is Happiness by Niall Williams
Tuesday, March 17, 4 p.m. | Carpinteria Community Library

Book Talk: Abortion Rights Backlash by Alison Brysk
Wednesday, March 19, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Lunch with an Author: Edward Beverly
Thursday, March 20, 12:30-3 p.m. | The Santa Barbara Club

Grace Fisher Foundation Book Club
Thursday, March 20, 1 p.m. | GFF Inclusive Arts Clubhouse

Big Book Sale
Saturday, March 22, 10 a.m. | Goleta Valley Library

Book Signing: Jane Howatt
Saturday, March 22, 1-3 p.m. | Barnes & Noble, Ventura

Big Book Sale
Sunday, March 23, 1 p.m. | Goleta Valley Library

S.B. SPOTLIGHT

We at the Independent get many books sent to us by area authors, sometimes too many! It’s practically impossible for us to read and review them all, but just because we are busy bees does not mean that they aren’t worth the attention. In an attempt to not completely drop the ball, we have compiled a list of books here that are either written by a Santa Barbara author, feature someone in our community, or have another tie to Santa Barbara. I urge you to look through this list. Perhaps you will find your new favorite read!

The following are the most recent titles that have been sent to us.

The Moon Shall Not Give Her Light by David Starkey

Escaping Nazi Germany: A Jewish Family’s Story by RB Dickinson

You Can Make It in Music: Think Your Way to 140+ Music Careers by David Grossman

Gwendolyn & Eddie by Michael Seabaugh

Parents on a Mission: How Parents Can Win the Competition for the Heart, Mind, and Loyalty of Their Children by Richard R. Ramos

If you are a local author and would like us to feature your book in this section, please email allbooked@independent.com with the subject line “S.B. Spotlight.”

Book Reviews Courtesy of CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF BOOKS*

Thanks to the generous contributions of David Starkey, Brian Tanguay and their team of reviewers at California Review of Books, we are able to provide a steady stream of book reviews via our content partnership. Recent reviews at Independent.com include:

Time of the Child by Niall Williams; review by Brian Tanguay

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak; review by Brian Tanguay

*At the present time, all of the Independent’s book reviews are provided in collaboration with California Review of Books (calirb.com).