Circe is a dream of a book. It’s the perfect example of the Greek myth retold genre that’s been exploding in the last few years – what with The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood among others – but the reason I loved Circe goes deeper.

If I had known how beautiful the descriptions of nature would be, I’d have read Circe (and Madeline Miller’s other novel, The Song of Achilles) much sooner.

After unleashing magic that she never believed she could be capable of, Circe, the daughter of Helios, is banished to the island of Aiaia.

Rather than acting as her prison, Aiaia provides her sanctuary. Her days become focused on honing the art of pharmaka – the magic of herbs – as she forages, picks, blends, brews, and experiments with what she finds.

With the unlimited time available to her as an immortal, her spells and tinctures grow more refined and potent. She transforms men into swine, creates powerful protective chants, and treats her ailments and those of others. Her island makes for the perfect retreat for us as reader, too.

Here are some of the best books to read next if you liked Circe, featuring their own unique blend of magic, nature, myth, and strong women.

Books to read if you loved Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

1. Galatea by Madeline Miller

If you haven’t yet, I’d wholeheartedly recommend reading Madeline Miller’s short story Galatea, which has recently been published as a beautiful (and tiny) hardcover for the first time.

Like Circe, Galatea is a story focused on transformation, or as Miller explains in the afterword, on “finding freedom for yourself in a word that denies it to you.”

Here, Madeline Miller reimagines the myth of Galatea (“she who is milk-white”); the most beautiful woman her town has ever seen, carved from stone by Pygmalion, a skilled marble sculptor, and blessed with the gift of life by a goddess. Here’s my review of Galatea.

2. Uprooted by Naomi Novik

If you loved the nature and magic of Circe, Uprooted is a fantastic choice to read next. We meet Agnieszka, who loves her quiet home, her village, and the nearby forests and glimmering river.

But it’s a fantasy novel after all, and the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power casting a shadow over her life.

To keep safe, Agnieszka and her people have to make a sacrifice to the evil wizard, the Dragon, every ten years. That sacrifice is a young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, and the next choosing is fast approaching.

3. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

Published in 2021, A Thousand Ships is one of the most popular books to read if you loved Circe. This gripping novel by Natalie Haynes puts women, girls, and goddesses at the centre of one of the greatest tales ever told: the fall of Troy.

Madeline Miller shared, “With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War.”

4. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

If there’s a Nordic equivalent to Circe, it’s The Mercies. Set in the winter of 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a vicious storm.

A young woman, Maren Magnusdatter, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant.

The island is now a place of strong women, and The Mercies is a tale of what follows in the beautiful, brutal environment.

5. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Less about myth but very much about the beauty of nature, The Signature of All Things is a stunning book about one woman’s life, love, and self-discovery as a botanist.

The novel follows Alma Whittaker, the daughter of a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade. Alma inherits his money and his mind, and as she becomes a botanist of considerable gifts, her story soars across the globe.

For another book by Elizabeth Gilbert with plenty of self-sufficiency, foraging, and living off the land, read The Last American Man.

It’s non-fiction that reads as myth, offering an intriguing portrayal of a man who left his family’s comfortable suburban home to live close to nature in the Appalachian Mountains.

6. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

In The Silence of the Girls, one of the most immersive books like Circe, the ancient city of Troy has been under siege by the powerful Greek army for a decade, waging bloody war over a stolen woman: Helen.

In the Greek camp, another woman – Briseis, former queen of one of Troy’s neighbouring kingdoms, now Achilles’ concubine – watches and waits for the war’s outcome.

This wonderfully nuanced portrait of previously hidden figures is magnificent, brought to life by Pat Barker’s decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives.

Now in 2022, Pat Baker has just published her newest retelling of one of the greatest myths, The Women of Troy.

7. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

A magical book to read after Circe is The Snow Child. It’s Alaska in 1920 – ruthless for most people, but especially for new arrivals Jack and Mabel.

Childless and drifting apart, the season’s first snowfall brings them together for a moment to build a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child is gone – but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

The girl seems to be a child of the woods, who hunts with a red fox at her side and somehow survives alone in the wilderness. Jack and Mabel come to love her as their own daughter, but in this beautiful, brutal place nothing is quite as it seems.

8. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

“I am not the feminine voice you may have expected.” Lavinia is a book entirely written from the perspective of a character that never utters a word: Lavinia in Virgil’s epic, The Aeneid. 

Delicately crafted by the queen of fantasy sci-fi, this is a richly imagined and beautiful novel of passion and war, reimagining a silenced voice just like Madeline Miller achieved with Circe.

9. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing has been recommended everywhere in the last few years, but if you haven’t read it, it’s got similar strong-woman-in-nature vibes to Circe.

We meet Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl, who’s survived for years alone in the marshland that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and building an encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural world. But when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the local North Carolina coastal community immediately suspects her and her quiet life in the wild is shattered.

If you enjoyed this, here are more books like Where the Crawdads Sing to read next.

10. Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Do you wish you knew more about Greek mythology? If so, Pandora’s Jar is a great choice to read next.

Here, Natalie Haynes, broadcaster, passionate classicist, and bestselling author for fans of Madeline Miller, retells the great mythic sagas with women at their centre.

Putting the female characters on equal footing with their menfolk, the result is a vivid and powerful account of the deeds – and misdeeds – of goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, Athene, and Circe.

It’s not just the goddesses that Natalie Haynes reimagines: away from Mount Olympus, it’s Helen, Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Antigone, and Medea who sing from these pages, not Paris, Agamemnon, Orestes, or Jason.

11. The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

The first book in the Wolf Den trilogy (Book 3 is scheduled to be published in 2023), The Wolf Den is the gripping tale of Amara, the beloved daughter of a doctor in Greece until her father’s sudden death plunged her mother into destitution.

Now, Amara is a slave and prostitute in Pompeii’s notorious Wolf Den brothel. But intelligent and resourceful, and buoyed by the sisterhood she forges with the brothel’s other women, Amara’s spirit isn’t broken.

Amara finds solace in the laughter and hopes they all share… and realises that the city is alive with opportunity, even for the lowest-born slave. But everything in Pompeii has a price. How much will Amara’s freedom cost her?

12. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

If you imagine a Russian spin on Spirited Away, The Bear and the Nightingale would come close. At the edge of the wilderness in this fairytale-like book, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses.

Vasilisa doesn’t mind the cold – she spends the Russian winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales.

The family honours the spirits in these stories, knowing them to protect their homes from evil, but when Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father brings home a new wife who forbids this.

More hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows, and as danger circles, Vasilisa must call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed to protect her family.

For even more books like Circe, retreat into these books about wild nature. You can also read more about Madeline Miller’s novel-in-progress, Persephone, and the upcoming HBO adaptation of Circe.

The post 12 magical books like Circe set in nature and rich in mythology appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Book Review | Synopsis | Summary | Similar Books | Critics | Excerpt | Buy It

Galatea

Although it’s quick enough to read in the bath before the water gets cold, Galatea is perfectly contained, defiantly powerful, and a short story you’ll want to immediately discuss with fellow booklovers.

URL: https://amzn.to/3OgvaAW

Author: Madeline Miller

Editor's Rating:
5

Book review of Galatea

As soon as I finished Galatea, which took less than an hour (even though I wanted to savour it), I walked to my husband’s side of the bed and placed it at the top of the stack of books on his bedside table. This happens often, and is just one of many non-verbal cues that you should really read this next.

In the last few years, I loved reading Circe and The Song of Achilles. Reading Galatea has felt like a Madeline Miller top-up: a welcome reminder of just how much I adore her stunning writing and how I really should re-read her novels.

Like Circe, Galatea is a story focused on transformation, or as Miller explains in the afterword, on “finding freedom for yourself in a word that denies it to you”. Also echoing Circe, and showing one of Miller’s greatest skills, it’s a story that reimagines a classic myth and gives a new, powerful, and defiantly feminist voice to a previously misunderstood character.

Here with Galatea, Miller exchanges the character’s traditional role as an obedient and subversive girl for a woman who’s trapped, controlled, abused, and desperate for freedom.

Despite the growing number of authors trying to replicate her success at reimagining Greek mythology, I find Miller’s gloriously powerful retellings of classic myths to be totally unique.

As is her trademark, Madeline Miller’s writing here is as sun-kissed and brutally striking as the Greek islands she writes about. I adore her themes of beautiful yet destructive nature and women with brooding hidden power.

Reading Galatea has made me even more excited to find out more about Persephone (here’s what we know about Madeline Miller’s next book).

Is Galatea worth reading?

If you’re looking for a beautifully-written retelling of a compelling Greek myth, I’d wholeheartedly recommend Galatea. If you’ve enjoyed Madeline Miller’s previous novels, Circe and The Song of Achilles, you should also absolutely read this story next. But it’s also the perfect book to read first by Madeline Miller.

Galatea is one of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time. Although it’s fast to read, it’s perfectly contained, breathtakingly powerful, and a piece of writing you’ll want to immediately discuss with fellow bookworms.

The gorgeous little hardcover of Galatea is also one of my favourite recommended stocking stuffers and small gifts for book lovers this year. It’s a tiny gem of a book that’s a beautiful addition to any bookshelf.

Synopsis of Galatea (no spoilers)

“Everyone looked at me, because I was the most beautiful woman in the town. I don’t say this to boast, because there is nothing in it to boast of. It was nothing I did myself.”

Madeline Miller, Galatea

First published in 2013, Galatea isn’t actually a new book by Madeline Miller. However, it’s just been published in November 2022 (and earlier this year outside the US) as a beautiful little hardcover that’s just 49 pages long plus a wonderful six-page afterword.

In this short story, Madeline Miller boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion. As Miller explains in the story’s afterword, it’s a response, “almost solely”, to Ovid’s version of the Pygmalion myth in the Metamorphoses.

Galatea (“she who is milk-white”) is the most beautiful woman her town has ever seen, carved from stone by Pygmalion, a skilled marble sculptor, and blessed with the gift of life by a goddess.

In Ovid’s myth, Galatea does not speak at all and isn’t even given a name – she is only called the woman. She is an object of desire and nothing more. But here in Miller’s short story, she is a real woman with startling courage and a clear and confident voice. Fittingly, Pygmalion isn’t named and is referred to as her husband.

“The term ‘incel’ wasn’t in wide circulation when I wrote this, but Pygmalion is certainly a prototype”, writes Miller in the afterword of Galatea. He demands his wife’s meekness, devotion, beauty, and perfection, even as his own hair thins and belly fattens. He deems all other women to be sluts, expressing horror and disgust for their independence and shamelessness.

It’s a story that is sadly still all too relatable for many women, but, as Miller explains in the afterword, “that is the mark of a good source myth; it is water so wide it can reach across centuries.”

This is a man who desires women but hates them, finding that the only way he can live out his fantasies of purity and control are by carving a woman from stone – which, too, backfires in this story.

Pygmalion expects Galatea to please him with her youthful beauty and humble obedience, but in Madeline Miller’s retelling, Galatea has desires of her own. She yearns for independence – and knows she must break free to rescue her daughter, whatever the cost.

An in-depth summary of Galatea (spoilers!)

What the critics say

Books like Galatea

For more books like Galatea, you can’t go wrong with Madeline Miller’s two bestselling novels, Circe and The Song of Achilles.

You might also like my list of the best books like Circe about nature and mythology.

Book excerpt of Galatea

Read the first pages of Galatea, or see the book on Amazon.

The post Summary and review: Galatea by Madeline Miller appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Since then, we’ve been slowly working our way through the rest of the Ghibli catalogue and adding more favourites to our list.

Studio Ghibli movies share much of what I love in my favourite wholesome books – a gentleness that helps me to breathe deeper and slow down, respect and admiration for wild nature, and that feeling of being caught up in a moment and fully experiencing its beauty.

To accompany movies like Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and my own current Ghibli favourite by Isao Takahata, Only Yesterday, here are some of the best books I’ve read with a Studio Ghibli vibe.

Books to remind you of Studio Ghibli

1. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The cover of this New York Times bestseller for 2022 is stunning – and so is the story. Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is an enthralling feminist retelling of the classic Korean folktale “The Tale of Shim Cheong,” in which a young girl is swept away to the Spirit Realm to try and bring an end to the storms that have been ravaging her homeland for generations. But a human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking.

It’s the perfect enchanting next read for you if you’re a fan of Uprooted by Naomi Novik and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

2. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

If anyone is adult Studio Ghibli in book form, it’d be Haruki Murakami. Kafka on the Shore is probably my overall favourite Murakami novel, although I feel like Norwegian Wood has more of a Ghibli feel to it.

Murakami is the master of blending slice-of-life everyday events like cleaning, cooking, and laundry with the supernatural – think cats, deep wells, and otherworldly meetings with people who aren’t quite who they seem. Norwegian Wood is a great entry point.

3. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

What can be more Ghibli than the book version of Howl’s Moving Castle? Published in 1986, over a decade before the animated film was released, this is Diana Wynne Jones’s imagining of one woman’s stumbling upon an ever-moving castle in the hills, belonging to a mysterious wizard with plenty of demons.

4. Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

I mean, look at how fantastic this book cover is. Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter is another book adapted into a Studio Ghibli movie, originally imagined by Astrid Lingren, author of Pippi Longstocking.

As the only child of Matt, the chief of a clan of robbers living in a castle in the woodlands of early-Medieval Scandinavia, Ronia is expected to become the leader of the clan someday. But alone in the forest is where Ronia feels truly at home. And one day, Ronia meets Birk, the son of Matt’s arch-enemy.

5. Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art by Susan Napier

Okay, this book has a different type of Ghibli vibe. It’s a recent biography of the co-founder of the studio, Hayao Miyazaki – one of the greatest living animators, with an impressive oeuvre that only someone with otherworldly focus and a substantial amount of workaholism could really cultivate.

This is Napier’s story of the themes crisscrossing Miyazaki’s work at Studio Ghibli, from empowered women to environmental disasters to dreamy utopian meadows – and the life story that influenced them.

6. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

If you imagine a Russian spin on Spirited Away, The Bear and the Nightingale would come close. At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind – she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales.

The family honours the spirits of house, garden, and forest that protect their homes from evil, but when Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father brings home a new wife who forbids her family from honouring the spirits. More hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows, and as danger circles, Vasilisa must call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed to protect her family.

7. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

In this magical and wholesome book, Tree-ear is an orphan who lives under a bridge in Ch’ulp’o, a potters’ village known for its delicate celadon ware. The local craft fascinates him, and he wants nothing more than to watch the master potter Min at work – and perhaps make a pot of his own one day. When Min takes Tree-ear on as his helper, Tree-ear is elated. That is, until he sees the obstacles in his path that he must encounter to prove himself.

8. Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

Sweet Bean Paste is a delightful slice-of-life book that speaks volumes about the power of connection and friendship.

Sentaro’s life hasn’t gone to plan. His dream of becoming a writer has long been forgotten, and now he has a criminal record, drinks too much, and spends day after day in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. But when Tokue, an elderly woman with a troubled past, comes into his life, everything changes for both of them.

9. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

A warm-hearted and life-affirming celebration of how the smallest things can provide the greatest joy, The Travelling Cat Chronicles works its way into your heart like the best of Studio Ghibli.

Author Hiro Arikawa gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru’s longtime friends. However, the plan turns out to be different than Nana was led to expect. As they witness the changing scenery and seasons of Japan on their travels, they will learn the true meaning of courage, gratitude, loyalty, and love.

10. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

Can a robot survive in the wilderness? In this bestselling illustrated middle-grade novel that’s also a wholesome treat for grown-up readers, Wall-E meets Hatchet when robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time and discovers that she is all alone on a remote and wild island.

Roz has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is – but she knows she needs to survive. And that depends on adapting to her surroundings and befriending the island’s unwelcoming inhabitants.

11. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

With the whimsical fantasy that readers love about Neil Gailman’s books, they’re a great choice if you’re looking for a Studio Ghibli vibe. In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman transports us to Sussex – my own home county in England – where a middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral.

The house he lived in is long gone, but he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, which reminds him of a past too strange, frightening, and dangerous to have really happened. Delicate and menacing, Gaiman summons the haunting and beautiful nostalgia of childhood like no one else really can.

12. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

I love this review from Cory Doctorow of this childhood classic: “A book that every young person should read, a book that provides a road map for seeking knowledge and compassion even at the worst of times, a book to make the world a better place.” If you loved the sibling adventure theme of My Neighbour Totoro, this is another great pick.

If you want more tender and gentle books like Studio Ghibli, you might also like my post of recommended wholesome reads that feel like a warm hug, as well as my list of books with a cottagecore vibe.

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