wanderings penelopiad homecoming adventures

books:

Odysseus in the Serpent Maze (Young Heroes)

11 reviews
Jane Yolen, Robert J. Harris

HarperTrophy, 2002

High Spirited Adventure!
Such a wonderful introduction to Odysseus for young readers...this is a lively, fast paced, slightly outlandish accounting of the young Odysseus (and his cautious friend Mentor, the young and extremely spoiled Helen, and the practical and quite heroic on her own Penelope). I wasn't sure what to expect going into this, but I was glad to discover that it's not some campy over the top rendition of ...

The Ancient Greece of Odysseus (The Ancient World)

4 reviews
Peter Connolly

Oxford University Press, USA, 1999

Myth Mastered
This book combines Peter Connolly's expansive knowledge of the literature of Homer with his enormous knowledge of the archaeology of the ancient world. He manages to give full value in both areas for any interested reader, whether new to either subject or not. That seems to be true of the target age group or even those of us of much hoarier vintage. Something an interested child should treasure ...

Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca

8 reviews
Robert Bittlestone

Cambridge University Press, 2005

Exciting historical detective work
Any admirer of Homer's Odysseus will love this work. It is important in reminding us also never to underestimate the work of amateur historians and archeologists. Through convincing geographical example and a thorough knowledge of ancient classics, the author takes us on the investigation to find the home of the ancient Odysseus. The result is a very convincing tale and perhaps the best hope ...

The Adventures of Odysseus

2 reviews
Hugh Lupton, Daniel Morden

Barefoot Books, 2006

Delightful!
My 6-year-old son loved having this read to him, and I loved reading it. Hugh Lupton has beautifully condensed the adventures of Odysseus into a fun and entertaining narrative, without making the story feel dumbed-down. The illustrations were lovely and suited the text very well. My son will enjoy reading this for years. Highly recommended.

Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again
Roger H. Martin

University of California Press, 2008

The idea of reliving youth is a common fantasy, but who among us is actually courageous enough to try it? After surviving a deadly cancer against tremendous odds, college president Roger H. Martin did just that--he enrolled at St. John's College, the Great Books school in Annapolis, Maryland, as a sixty-one-year-old freshman. This engaging, often humorous memoir of his semester at St. John's tells of his journey of discovery as he falls in love ...

The World of Odysseus (New York Review Books Classics Series)

12 reviews
M.I. Finley

NYRB Classics, 2002

Unanswerable
Well, here's Finley's conclusion: Homer's stories about the Trojan War are fiction, and Schliemann's "discoveries" of Troy do not support his wild claims (despite Schliemann's other services to archaeology). Finley quotes the sceptical judgment of Charles Newton, the British Museum curator, who in 1878 wrote that we don't know the size of that kernel of truth in Homer's epics. Finley went ...

The Wanderings of Odysseus

19 reviews
Rosemary Sutcliff

Laurel Leaf, 2005

Fabulous Classical Literature
My 4th grade son read this and loved it. He was fascinated by it and looked forward to our reading every day (he would read aloud to me). Having read the adult version, I was impressed by this childrens' copy because it stays true to the grain of the story. There is nothing Disneyfied about it. I highly recommend this book to any parent who is trying to introduce classic works to their children, ...

Odysseus (Heroes)

1 review

Cricket Books, 2004

This is a fantastic book for your shelf
Odysseus: A Retelling of the Odyssey Cricket books 2005 148 pp 8.50$ Geraldine McCaughrean ISBN 0-8126-2721-0 As one wave arrived, another was always drawing back again out to sea, out to the open sea that is always traveling, always traveling. Page 148 The Odyssey is the second part to Homer's classical Iliad and Odyssey. Ithaca's honorable king, Odysseus ...

Waiting for Odysseus

29 reviews
Clemence McLaren

Simon Pulse, 2004

Prelude to "The Odyssey"
My daughter was assigned "The Odyssey" as a summer reading assignment for her high school freshman IB English class. The instructor recommended reading "Waiting for Odysseus" first to get a better understanding of the characters (especially the female characters) in "The Odyssey". My daughter really enjoyed McLaren's book and she refers back to it frequently as she makes her way through "The ...

Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

9 reviews
Jonathan Shay

Scribner, 2003

Support our troops . . .
Shay's decades of work with Vietnam veterans, as described and explained in this book, helped formalize the syndrome of behavior that came to be known as post traumatic stress disorder. It afflicts soldiers living in mortal danger for long periods of time, leaving them afterwards in a near-permanent state of hyper-vigilance. They have suffered what Shay characterizes as a moral injury, which like ...

The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy

27 reviews
Padraic Colum

Aladdin, 2004

Challenging but wonderful
Although the language in this book is rather challenging, we still found it accessible and enjoyable. These classic stories can get too "watered-down" in the easier versions, which takes away the richness and depth that has made them classics in the first place. My 12 year old homeschooled son looked at these and Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy and Wanderings of Odysseus and ...

Odysseus's Ithaca: The Discovery
Berislav Brckovic

BookSurge Publishing, 2007

Ithaca has always been, if all the facts pertaining to it from the "Odyssey" are correctly interpreted. understood, connected and verified, a commune on an island, not an island itself.

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Myths, The)

17 reviews
Margaret Atwood

Canongate U.S., 2006

Light, satirical and racy
Definitely different than any Atwood I've read. Told from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus's long suffering, devoted wife, about what really went on during his travels ... and most of it is not flattering of Odysseus or, frankly, of Penelope. This story is light and satirical, if a bit racy at times. An amusing and extremely quick read that broke up the heavy subject matter I have been ...

The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity
Irad Malkin

University of California Press, 1998

This remarkably rich and multifaceted study of early Greek exploration makes an original contribution to current discussions of the encounters between Greeks and non-Greeks. Focusing in particular on myths about Odysseus and other heroes who visited foreign lands on their mythical voyages homeward after the Trojan War, Irad Malkin shows how these stories functioned to mediate encounters and conceptualize ethnicity and identity during the Archaic ...

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Myths)

46 reviews
Margaret Atwood

Canongate U.S., 2005

Very Intriguing Adptation
I've seen this book described as witty, sly, smart, and wry...and how very true that description is. My faith in Atwood is somewhat restored...after my last experience with her writing (which I found particularly loathsome), I must admit I really, really enjoyed The Penelopiad a great deal! This really is a "sly" retelling of the Odysseus from the perspective of his wife, left ...

We Followed Odysseus

9 reviews
Hal Roth

Seaworthy Publications Inc., 1999

An inspiration to set sail for adventure!
We Followed Odysseus is the engaging story of sailing a small boat along the sea path of Odysseus' famous voyage. Crossing oceans and seas Hal Roth, with the help of his wife Margaret, re-traced the voyages of Odysseus along the Turkish coast and the isles of Greece. Roth sailed to a desert island in Tunisia, visited Sicily and Corsica, and traveled to Italy and Malta before returning to ...

Odysseus: A Life

5 reviews
Charles Rowan Beye

Hyperion, 2005

Odysseus Redux
As someone who knows the ODYSSEY as well as a non-classicist can, before I bought this book, I asked myself: what is there to say, to add to what we have learned over the centuries about this great hero, and who would dare to try? Knowing other books by Beye, and having had the pleasure of hearing him talk in public forums, I should have known better than to ask. But why a new "life" of the ...

Travels with Odysseus: Uncommon Wisdom from Homer's Odyssey

5 reviews
Michael J. Goldberg

Circe's Island Press, 2006

Inspired insights in the tradition of Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell believed that one of the basic functions of myth is to help each individual through the journey of life, providing a travel guide to reach fulfillment--a map to discover "bliss." In our daily travels, one of the biggest obstacles to experiencing a more "blissful" journey are aggravating and difficult people--people who willfully or unconsciously stop us dead in our ...

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