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Read to Roam Book for May: Elektra by Jennifer Saint
If you've checked out my Siren page lately, you know that I was Sojourning in Greece for much of April with a group of adventure-loving readers. And frankly, my dears, I am still swooning over the experience of seeing the castle ruins, the ancient cities and the mountain vales where the stories of Greek gods and goddesses were first created.
A guide explained that Greece's myths aren't fairy tales and they aren't history but they are something in between.
On one of the first days of our travels together, we hiked an ancient footpath that wound high above the archaeological site of Mycenae, a hilltop citadel that was occupied as early as the 7th century BC. and is now a UNESCO site. Today you can see the shrines where the people worshiped, the houses where the wealthy lived and traces of the beautiful frescoes that ornamented the walls. A giant doorway topped by a sculpture of two lions that still stands, once admitted all visitors to the city.
I stood gazing at those remarkable ruins and imagined what daily life was like in the 12th century BC, when the community was at it's most vibrant, and then that evening, I opened Jennifer Saint's novel, "Elektra," and read a vivid description of Clytemnestra's arrival to the city as she becomes queen to King Agamemnon, the ruler of Mycenae. Saint told Paste Magazine that Greek myths are "layered and complex, reflecting back at us from thousands of years ago a lot that we can recognize in ourselves today."
Chicks-Only Cuba!
The itinerary for my April, 2024 Chicks-only expedition to Cuba will be up by June 30th and the response has been delightfully enthusiastic.
If you would like to hold a spot in what will be a small & merry band of travelers, feel free to send a deposit of $500 to SirenSojourns, PO Box 1302, Hudson, WI 54016.
Wait til you see the reading list!
Castaway on the Prairie
We're partial to prairies in this neck of the woods. And I'm a Canada-phile. The next time you're in Saskatchewan, check out what one despairing Finlander- turned-Minnesotan did in the name of love.
Kerri's Adventurous Book Club
Subtext Books sent Diana Abu-Jaber's "Fencing with the King" to members in April and all club members are receiving free tickets to the Spring Talking Volumes event with William Kent Krueger on May 18th in Duluth.
The club supports indie bookstores in the Midwest and includes tickets to literary events and gatherings for passionate readers.
To join: https://www.sirensojourns.com/book-club
Can You Guess Who This Literary Character Is?
This character–alluring, clever and conniving– comes to us in a series in which we watch corruption take hold over the course of several novels as he becomes ever more grasping and amoral.
But most of the people this character interacts with, including his wife, don’t see his deceit and dishonor. They are blinded by his charm and beauty and likeability.
He is driven by greed and grievance and a conviction that he is due more than the world has given to him and that sense of entitlement motivates him beyond theft and on to murder. We are told that–quote–”He was himself and yet not himself. He felt blameless and free, despite the fact that he consciously controlled every move he made.”
In the novels, this character moves through glittering cities among the languorously wealthy–people who inherited their money or earned it in genteel ways. They were worlds made up of manor houses and chateaux, perfumed casinos and exclusive art galleries.
In fact, this character even impersonates a painter at one point to pull off a sophisticated scam. In the end, he has to resort to violence when he’s about to be unmasked.
The author who created this character said she strongly identified with him–understood what motivated his crimes– and a journalist who wrote a profile of her wrote that “...no matter where (she) found herself, she felt she didn’t belong and often fantasized about disappearing.”
Fortunately for readers, the work that she poured much of her discontent and loneliness into, has endured.
Can you name that character and one of the novels in which he appears? When you have the answer, email me at SirenSojourns@gmail.com.