Books & Banter

A forgotten goddess tells her side of the story. Let's see if Odysseus comes out looking like the hero this time.

Even the gods feared her power.

A story of one of the most misunderstood woman in Olympus. Exiled to a remote island by a father who fears her power, Circe doesn't wither in solitude. She sharpens. From the anger and violence directed at her by the gods, monsters, and mortals. Who underestimate her. Over centuries, she forges herself into something no deity saw coming . . .

A witch who answers to no one.

But there is danger for any woman who refuses to kneel. Drawing the kind of fury that makes oceans boil and skies crack open, Circe finds herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.

Now, Circe must make a choice that will define her existence. Does she belong with the gods, or with the mortals she has come to love?

393 pgs
fiction/mythology

For October, I cut straight to the part where you guys pick a gothic/haunted themed tale. This book won several interesting sounding awards (WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award & Shortlisted for Goldsboro Glass Bell Award - 2018).
Reading with the lights on? Smart. Lights off? Brave.

A house full of secrets. A widow with questions. And wooden figures that definitely don't belong in your bedroom.

Pregnant and widowed, Elise returns to her late husband’s estate. With her servants resentful and the locals actively hostile, there is only her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks.

For inside her new home lies a locked room. And beyond that door lies a very old diary, and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure. A silent companion. One that bears striking resemblance to Elsie herself.

Elise begins to find strange wooden figures scattered throughout the Estate. Silent companions meant to commemorate the first wife.

But these mannequins aren’t just sinister looking decorations that look a lot like her, they’re watching. Waiting. And something about them is shifting. Changing. Growing teeth . . .

305 pgs
Gothic/Historical Fiction/Horror

For November, we're heading to 1789 Maine, where the river and the truth both run cold.

What would you burn to protect your own?

This story is based on a real woman and her real diary. A midwife who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when females were considered best seen and not heard.

As a midwife and healer, Martha Ballard is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in her small town. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and catastrophe that unfolds in the close-knit community.

So when the frozen Kennebec River thaws, releasing a man trapped in the ice, Martha is summoned to examine the body and determine the cause of death. Months earlier, she had documented the details of an alleged rape committed by one of the town’s most respected gentlemen. A man who has now been found dead in the ice . . .

And when a male physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident and not murder, Martha's meticulous diary (which implicates those she loves) becomes the thread that could unravel everything. Or get her killed.

It's a story about family in all its complicated glory. A marriage built on love and respect that will be tested. Grown children pulling in opposite directions. Household bonds stretched thin by loyalty and accusations.

Bring your hot takes on Martha's choices, your loyalty rankings, and your 'could I survive 1789?' opinions.

398 pages
historical fiction