Welcome to Litsy!

#dynamicds
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#dilemma

The following LitHub article was from last month, but it is a fantastic look at the iconic villains of literature:
https://lithub.com/the-best-villains-in-literature-bracket/

#atozultimatechallenge #e #epic #over600pages #n #charactername @AudiobookingWithLeah

#52bookclub25 #breaksthefourthwall

#aty25 #authoryouenjoyedbuthaventgotaroundtoreadingagainforsometime (because she hasn't released a book for some years!) @BarbaraBB

Vol 8 starts at the end of the war. Yudhishthira finds out, to his horror that Karna was his elder brother & resents his mother for the lie. The Stree parva focuses on the sorrow, desperation & mourning of the widows of both armies & is absolutely heartbreaking.

A distraught Yudhishthira is crowned as king & then goes to consult Bhishma on all matters Kingship. This sets the stage for conversations about Raja Dharma, Apad Dharma & Moksha Dharma.

#aprilpoetrychallenge
#NationalPoetryMonth
#waiting
@wanderinglynn

#theodyssey #penelope 🧡💛🧡

Book mail

This fabulous edition of John Milton's epic poem came in the mail a few days ago.

The illustrations by Gustave Dore are spot on.

When I purchased this huge tome, I didn't realize the actual size of the book. A pocket book it's not... 🙄😆

But I'm glad I got it, all the same.

I probably won't start this baby for a few weeks until I finish up some of the multitude of books I've started.

#bookmail #poetry #epicpoems

A fair amount of reading was done in March. While many books are in the 3-star range, I did really enjoy The Odyssey (read over two months). I finished ny #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, read a couple of books for #192025, read two books set in big cities for #FictionalTraveler, a couple of #1001Books, and I even got a Bingo.

Well, this was stirring stuff! It makes some of Uhtred of Bebbanburg's escapades look like a church fête!
There's no getting away from its being a matter of masculine heroics in the extreme; part of me wanted to find it all a bit ridiculous on that account. However, I was audio-drawing and more than once I realised my pen had been hovering motionless over the paper for some minutes. Audio is *definitely* the way to go with this.

Reread with IRL club and it was a raucous good time, lots of fodder for laughter and discussion.

Once again struck by the highly relatable themes. Humanity hasn‘t fundamentally changed.

Emily Wilson's translation gets a HUGE standing O from me, and Audra McDonald's audiobook narration is unbelievably moving and deeply emotional. It's a long listen (took me 4 weeks to get through), but it's worth the commitment. And the quote here from Wilson's introduction could not be more true. The loss throughout the story is staggering in scale, brutal and overwhelming- yet the grief described is so human and so cathartic. Bravo all around.