nomadreader

I love living in Des Moines, but one of the things I miss most about Atlanta is the literary community. I absolutely adore the bookternet and the connections with readers and writers I've made through this blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy, but I do miss that in-person bookish community. Authors don't come to Des Moines on book tours (some go to Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, but that's two hours away.) We do have an excellent public library, and they sponsor an annual series of events called AViD: Authors Visiting in Des Moines . There's usually one or two authors I'm interested in seeing, and it's wonderful. This week, the 2019 line-up was announced, and it's a great one. It's also the first year of the DSM Book Festival , which is really exciting. Without leaving Des Moines, these are the authors I plan to see this spring (in chronological order): Nnedi Okorafor and Susan Orlean , Saturday March 30  I r eviewed The Library ...

The backstory: The Song of Achilles , Madeline Miller's first novel, is on the 2012 Orange Prize longlist. The basics: The Song of Achilles  is a retelling of the life of Achilles through his best friend Patrocles. My thoughts: I read The Iliad  in high school, but it's safe to say I remember few of the details. I am by no means an expert in ancient Greece, so I was pleasantly surprised Madeline Miller made this novel both entertaining and easy to read while offering the reader insight into ancient Greece. The story begins when Patrocles is a boy, and I enjoyed seeing him grow as the novel went on. In many ways, this novel is a tender coming of age and love story; it's also set against the Trojan War. While I remembered some things about the Trojan War, I was mostly not familiar with the life of Achilles, and particularly the last half of the novel kept me in suspense. Madeline Miller has a gift for metaphor: "Her face was like quicksilver, always racing to some...