“Don’t try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough.” – Arthur Freed
I’ve got two fantastic historical fiction novel recommendations for you this month. First up, Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati.
I absolutely love these retellings of Greek myths. And since I’m a big fan of Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles, Circe, and Galatea, I took a chance on Casati’s Clytemnestra.
Casati does a great job of immersing you into Spartan culture and Clytemnestra’s family. For starters, her sister is the famous Helen of Troy and her husband, Agamemnon. So, I can easily see why Casati wanted to tell Clytemnestra’s story since she’s connected to so many historical figures in Greek mythology. Highly recommend to fans of Greek myths and historical fiction.
Next, I choose Lady Tan’s Circle of Friends because it’s by Lisa See. I read her The Island of Sea Women and absolutely loved how much I learned about Korea’s Jeju Island and the deep sea diving women.
This time, See takes us to 15th century China through the perspective of real life Tan Yunxian, a female doctor (which was pretty much unheard of) who learned the art of Chinese medicine from her grandparents.
It’s not for the fainthearted since See immerses you into the Confucian culture of subservient women, the painful tradition of foot binding, and childbirth. The amount of research that See poured into this is something most people will never attempt in their entire lifetime; in other words, it’s remarkable.
Currently, I’m reading Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, but I just started it. And honestly, I’m trying to give it a chance. I don’t know if I can pivot from rich historical fiction to a light fantasy about a young woman looking for fairies.
I always hate it when you have to follow up such good books. Sometimes you get on a winning streak, other times, you’re dropping books like their hot. We’ll see how it goes…
// Life’s pretty good. I’m just hella busy, “the job I do for money” (aka teaching) is a hybrid situation, so I don’t have a nice delineation between home + work. But I’m making decent money, so boohoo, right?
// Which means, I don’t have time for Substack, really. But kind folks with bigger audiences than me are recommending my writing, and so I’m getting more eyeballs on my content. And that’s what I wanted. Lovelyyy.
// I’m also well over my head in home improvement and nesting. It feels like I’m stimulating the local economy on my purchases alone, but we’ve been in Siem Reap for about 5 months and we just replaced the bedsheets that came with the townhouse, so it’s not like I’m going too crazy.
// Went to Thailand to see my mom and family for a quick visit. It was wonderful to see her and everyone else. I can’t believe we’ve all been rendezvousing in Lamphun since 2007. We’re all growing older together.
How was your February? Any good reads?
Life, the Universe, and Lani 
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