About nine months ago, I decided I was going to read all the fiction I could that was set in or based upon ancient Greece. This does not mean I would or could read everything that was out there. In fact, my local library had some new books in the genre that I picked up, glanced through, and decided weren’t worth my time. It’s a very popular genre, and it has given rise to some incredible classics and some incredible stinkers.
Here’s what I did read:
| Date read | Title & author | My reaction |
| January 2026 | Circe, Madeline Miller | heartbreaking in the best way |
| February 2026 | Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis | (a re-read) in my opinion, far & away his best novel |
| Feb – March 2026 | The King Must Die, Mary Renault | (a re-read) insanely good research, poetic literary writing |
| March – May 2026 | Christianity and the Hellenistic World, Ronald H. Nash | nonfiction; explores whether Christian ideas were borrowed from Greek culture |
| May 2026 | No Friend to This House, Natalie Haynes | perhaps the best you could do with a Jason and Medea re-telling, which isn’t saying much, as they are both royal stinkers who deserve each other |
| June 2026 | The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan | a Percy Jackson book: fun, woke-ish, O.K. |
| July 2026 | The Siren Song, Anne Ursu | a better Rick Riordan |
| in process | The Letters to the Corinthians: Revised ed., William Barclay | What better time to read a commentary on Paul’s letters to the new church in Corinth? |
| yet to read | The Bull from the Sea, Mary Renault | sure to be demanding but good |
| yet to read | The Curse of King Midas, Colleen M. Story | I started this, but it just was not the time for it. |
