2017 Reading Challenge discussion

This folder is for a book of mythology from any culture.

Please share your suggestions, or any resources you've used to help find your book for this category in this thread.

The Return by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Either Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer or the second book in The Kane Chronicles trilogy by Rick Riordan.

As much as I love classical mythology I think I'll go for something slightly different this time, a quick look on my shelves reveals: Legends of Easter Island, Maori Myths & Legendary Tales, Mitos y Leyendas de Chile and at some point I seem to have picked up a copy of the Popol Vuh! So yes I should probably read one of those.

If I hadn't read it last year I'd be reading The Song of Achilles (which is fantastic)

Amanda wrote: "I usually don't read this genre but I have decided to read "The Mists of Avalon". Has anyone else read this?"

I read and enjoyed the entire series a few years ago.

Natália wrote: "Either Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer or the second book in The Kane Chronicles trilogy by Rick Riordan."

I am planning on doing The Sword of Summer, It is in my TBR pile, and I enjoyed his other series, so I thought this one might be good as well.

Dune
Any of the Dune books of course, though the ones by Frank Herbert are better than those by his sun. The mythology created in this one book is astonishing.

I asked a friend of mine who is a Mythology Prof for suggestions and she recommended:
Anything compiled/edited by:
Jack Zipes
Robert Graves

Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History but Never Learned
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Bhagavad Gita
Jason and the Argonauts

Also, she suggested to make sure I AVOID anything by Joseph Campbell

I have in my shelve the three books in the trilogy Tales of Alderley by Alan Garner which is inspired by celtic mythology - The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen, The Moon Of Gomrath and Boneland

The Gospel of Loki because Joanne Harris is one of my top 5 favourite authors. But American Gods is also making the shortlist. Only that I am not sure if this one fits the category so well

@ Sarika, if you are new to Joanne Harris I would recommend Chocolat

Five Quarters of the Orange

And Blackberry Wine

Would you all count Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff? A lot of the reviews discuss how it's really kind of a mythology of marriage, and the title is based on the Greek furies and fates myth. I just read it and there's lot of other mythology - Antigone, Oedipus, others.

Katie wrote: "I asked a friend of mine who is a Mythology Prof for suggestions and she recommended:
Anything compiled/edited by:
Jack Zipes
Robert Graves

[book:Don't Know Much Ab..."

Gilgamesh is a GREAT recommendation. It's a great read (which is surprising, since it is so old), and it reads quickly.

Teresa wrote: "The Gospel of Loki because Joanne Harris is one of my top 5 favourite authors. But American Gods is also making the shortlist. Only that I am not sure if this one fits t..."

I read American Gods last year. I think it qualifies--it actually brings up a lot of different mythologies, and discusses some of them in detail.

I'm planning on reading Native American Myths. I've heard the content is interesting, but given that it is an old book, I've also heard that it is very racist. Hmm. :/

Started reading American Gods a bunch of years ago, but stopped for some reason. I want to finish it this year.

I read Soundless for this one. I actually read it earlier this year, before I decided to do this challenge, and I'm glad for it or I wouldn't have known it was mythology. I probably would've known it was if I had any knowledge about Chinese myths other than dragons, because they actually mention pixiu throughout the book but I thought it was something they made up until I looked them up.

Teresa wrote: "@ Sarika, if you are new to Joanne Harris I would recommend Chocolat

Five Quarters of the Orange

And Blackberry Wine"

would you say Chocolat comes under the mythology catagory then?? I might go for that, I wouldnt have thought it did

The September selection for my book club is Fifteen Dogs. I saw that some people had it classified as mythology, and it starts with Hermes & Apollo in a Toronto bar:

" I wonder", said Hermes, "what it would be like if animals had human intelligence."
" I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals – any animal you like – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence."

This book won the 2015 Giller Prize, so I had high hopes for it, but for me it fell short. I found the writing poor and I didn't really get the intended message. Not one I would recommend.

With that being said, I am looking forward to my book club meeting, as I always learn so much from the group discussion, and come home with an additional perspective on the selection.

Sounds like you've already made up your mind to count it as modern myth, so it's all good in my book :)