🏺 Ep. 2: April Book Club // The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
04/25/22 • 23 min
1 Listener
Happy book club Monday deerlings! Welcome to the second episode of the Scones & Tomes Book Club. I am so excited to be chatting about The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker with you today!
📝 Discussion Guide
1. What was your overall experience reading The Silence of the Girls and how did you rate it?
2. The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad, how did reading this book impact your understanding of the source material or vice versa?
3. Throughout The Iliad and Greek mythology as a whole, Achilles is always seen as a hero. How does this novel challenge that image throughout the book and what was your opinion of him by the end?
4. One of the biggest critiques of this book is that it was written in more of a modern style. Do you feel that it took away from your reading experience? Or did it make the ancient stories much more easy to enjoy?
5. From what we know of ancient Greek culture and customs, the gods play a much bigger role in the lives of mortals than we are witness to in the novel. What did you think of their omission from the story?
P O R T A L S
🏺 Order The Silence of the Girls // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 Order The Women of Troy, Book 2 in the series // Amazon | Bookshop
🏮 Our May Pick: The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur // Amazon | Bookshop
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
🏺 The Iliad // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 The Odyssey // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 For the Most Beautiful by Emily Hauser // Amazon |
🏺 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics
🏺 BookRoast's CAWPILE Explanation
--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librariananna/support
Happy book club Monday deerlings! Welcome to the second episode of the Scones & Tomes Book Club. I am so excited to be chatting about The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker with you today!
📝 Discussion Guide
1. What was your overall experience reading The Silence of the Girls and how did you rate it?
2. The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad, how did reading this book impact your understanding of the source material or vice versa?
3. Throughout The Iliad and Greek mythology as a whole, Achilles is always seen as a hero. How does this novel challenge that image throughout the book and what was your opinion of him by the end?
4. One of the biggest critiques of this book is that it was written in more of a modern style. Do you feel that it took away from your reading experience? Or did it make the ancient stories much more easy to enjoy?
5. From what we know of ancient Greek culture and customs, the gods play a much bigger role in the lives of mortals than we are witness to in the novel. What did you think of their omission from the story?
P O R T A L S
🏺 Order The Silence of the Girls // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 Order The Women of Troy, Book 2 in the series // Amazon | Bookshop
🏮 Our May Pick: The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur // Amazon | Bookshop
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
🏺 The Iliad // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 The Odyssey // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes // Amazon | Bookshop
🏺 For the Most Beautiful by Emily Hauser // Amazon |
🏺 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics
🏺 BookRoast's CAWPILE Explanation
--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librariananna/support
Previous Episode
Ep 1: March Book Club // Gilded by Marissa Meyer
Happy book club Monday deerlings! Welcome to the first ever episode of the Scones & Tomes Book Club. I am so excited to be chatting about Gilded by Marissa Meyer with you today!
📝 Discussion Guide
- What was your overall experience reading Gilded and how did you rate it?
- Gilded is a re-telling of Rumplestiltskin but also introduces a number of other German mythological creatures such as the Erlking and nachkrapps. Did you know anything about the German fairy tale creatures before reading this novel? What did you think of their inclusion and how they were portrayed?
- The novel begins saying "But there are two sides to every story. The hero and the villain. The dark and the light. The blessing and the curse.” - where do you see this dynamic playing out throughout the novel? Were there any moments where the dynamic played out differently than you expected?
- Gilded is a very unique book in its entirety, but also plays a lot on the ideas of fairy tales - some of which get called out by the listeners of Serilda’s stories. One of the tropes that it plays on specifically is the idea of an unreliable narrator - Serilda is known for telling stories and being untruthful, yet as of the end of Gilded - we see that her stories have an element of truth to them. What did you think of this approach and where do you hope it will go in the next book?
P O R T A L S
☘️ Order Gilded by Marissa Meyer
☘️ Pre-Order Cursed, Book 2 in the series
🐇 Our April Pick: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librariananna/supportNext Episode
🇰🇷 Ep 3: May Book Club .. The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
Welcome to the Scones & Tomes Book Club with your host, Librarian Anna. This is your monthly invitation to get comfy, grab your highlighters, and dive into a new book every month. This podcast is a part of the Librarian Anna Collective which is an online community dedicated to the liturgy of every day coziness. You can learn more about it over at thelibrariananna.wordpress.com. Grab your cup of cozy and let’s chat about The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur!
📖 Our May Book Pick: The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
📚 June Hur’s debut novel: The Silence of Bones
📚 Her Next Novel: The Red Palace
🎙 Bingu, Choom, and K-Pop Tunes
📚 The Mermaid From Jeju by Sumi Hahn.
📚 A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
📚 The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler.
📖 Our June Pick: From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librariananna/supportIf you like this episode you’ll love
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