Welcome to Litsy!

In her translation of Beowulf, Headley mentions this novel, based on Grendel‘s mother. It brings the story into the current day, focusing on Dana and her son Gren. It‘s weird in a way that fits the situation. I liked it. It‘s decidedly feminist and also a bit queer (really shouldn‘t all books be this way?).

Another book I absolutely adored. Granted I was predisposed to like it as it's based on Beowulf and set in the modern day. The mere wife is Gren's mother and this is her story. It is so beautifully written. And so so many nods to Beowulf, as one would expect.

I like Beowulf as much as any English teacher does and I was optimist for this adaptation. I was pretty meh the first 2/3rd and would have quit if it weren‘t a book club choice and short. The last 3rd, however, did get me going. So if you can make it that far…

Gren and Dylan were the highlight of this novel and the only non monsters in the novel.

#classicliterarureretelling #twofuckedupmoms #bookclub

9 books
2,452 pages

7 Ebooks
1 Audiobooks

0 Library books
8 ARCs
5 #mountTBR

Longest: Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron(384)
Shortest: Gudetama:Mindfulness for the Lazy by Wook-jin Clark(48)

Favs: The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley and Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

#FebruaryStats

5/5

This book has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. It's a modern vaguely fantasy retelling of Beowulf. It's a book that really asks the question what's the difference between heroes and monsters. It's truly an incredible book that I cannot recommend enough.

1. The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley and How to Take Smart Notes by Sankey Aaron's

2. Conversations by Ai Weiwei

3. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

@rachelsbrittain #weekendreads

#BookReport
Managed to finish two books this week and complete my challenge commitments for the month. Both were four star reads for me.
#WeeklyForecast
I hope to finally get through all the lit crit of Beowulf this week. I am finding that it's giving me insight not only into the original work but helps me see how brilliant The Mere Wife is in its reinterpretation. Next up is all questions because I have no idea what I actually am in the mood for.

All I knew going in was that this was a modern retelling of Beowulf and I didn't quite see how that would work when I started but man was this so good. It's definitely dark with the running theme of who are the real monsters. I also kind of got a Shirley Jackson vibe with that suburban society of horrors feel.
#CalibreRoulette
#BuriedAliveChallenge

This might be just the book to take me out of my reading slump!

Was going to save it for #ReadHarder2020 but I think I need it more today.

#readingonroam

an exquisitely told, brutal revisioning of Beowulf, set in modern, Stepford-like suburbia. It is a story of mothers and sons, the equal intensity and distance of that bond. Set against the backdrop of an unnamed war, this is a story about the distancing of domestic life from global crisis, and what happens when those two worlds intersect. It‘s a story of the wild and the tamed. Headley asks her reader big questions about the impact of othering.

🔪

Yes already can tell I‘m going to love this

A very loose interpretation of “a book of mythology” #readharder2019

My top 5 books of the decade (by genre) -- Literary/Contemporary

Beowulf retelling set in contemporary, exurban commuter town, after the Iraq war. Grendel's mother comes back from war pregnant and transformed. She retreats inside a mountain overlooking a gated village to protect her son, but he befriends the leading family's son. Violence and revelations ensue.

The suburban housewifes rather than the outsiders living in a cave in the mountain are the real monsters in this story described as “Beowolf in the burbs.” I found the friendship of Dylan and Gren so moving. The heartache of war, the love of a mother for a son, the petty need to “keep up with the Jones” mentality are all explored in this unusual book.

@leslieseidel The book is in the mail! You should receive it on Tuesday.
#LMPBC #round5 #groupY
@BridgetteM @grumpygirlbooks

@suvata

🌟🌟🌟🌟
#LMPBC #round5 #groupY
@leslieseidel @BridgetteM @grumpygirlbooks

@suvata

I am so excited to have started my latest #LMPBC book this weekend!
@leslieseidel @BridgetteM @grumpygirlbooks
#LMPBC #round5 #groupY

@suvata

I have never read anything like this. I'm old, and I've read a whole bunch of books, so that's sort of saying something. I'm no Beowulf expert—I've read it, maybe 25 years ago. I enjoyed it. But this book is a whole new level of epic. It really is like an ancient epic poem. It's intense and crazy. The writing is gorgeous. And there's a chapter told from the collective “we“ of police dogs. I mean, does one need more? So so so excellent.

I meant to post this a while ago; sorry for the delay! I received my #LMPBC #Round5 #GroupY book. I‘m going to start it soon. Can‘t wait! And thank you, @DarcysMom for the thoughtful card!

@leslieseidel @grumpygirlbooks

Oof this was reeeeeeeeeally close to a pan but the end is worth pushing through to get to. Mostly. It was a tough read! Great writing, though. Also this is in the mail !!! Can‘t wait to get the next one! Annotating is HARD.

Longer review coming....? Maybe.....? Lol I‘m still processing!

I bought myself a tablet on Black Friday, which has led to even more impulse purchases of on-sale ebooks #noregrets

The first time I picked this up, I couldn‘t get through it. The second time, not only did I read it straight through, I was shook. The language is beautiful and lyrical. The different women (especially the Greek Chorus grandmothers) were intriguing and frustrating.

@Elma @MirrorMask @monalyisha - Have you read any of these? Do any stand out to you? I‘ll tag the rest in the comments.

#LMPBC #GroupF

This novel retelling of Beowulf set in modern times from the perspective of women was a lovely read and challenges the way we determine who and what are monsters and heroes. #catsoflitsy

The Mere Wife is a riveting and toothsome retelling of Beowulf. There is much acute reality (perhaps that even being the true horror) in the midst of what is murky & unknown. Maria Dahvana Headley crafts evocative settings and complex histories with short, sharp sentences. The story is both dreamy & apoplectic, shying away from nothing, and revealing a fresh, raw layer of monstrous womanhood.

“Willa wonders if her mother has plans for everyone she‘s ever met, graphing their futures on some invisible chart. Her mother and women like her are the reason men can live at all, running corporations, announcing wars. Every man has a woman at home, and every woman plots the course of the universe, putting it into his breast pocket, like a note attached to a kindergartner, sending him out into his day.”

Not bad stats for a #Readathon day!

I am LOVING The Mere Wife. @Moray_Reads has good taste, just so everyone knows.

#24in48

Great story and audiobook performance.

Gorgeous, stunning, heartbreaking retelling of Beowulf from the perspective of the mothers of Beowulf and Grendel, recast as a bored suburban housewife and a war veteran, respectively. It sticks or the very broad strokes of the original while also touching on gentrification, the cost of war, PTSD and how we view ourselves and others. Really, really great.

1. This is the horribly printed 1508 pamphlet that I spent all day trying to transcribe. I feel like I've gone mad or blind. Maybe a bit of both.
2. No holiday here!
3. Planning Christmas decorations!
4. Gloves, which I regretted not taking to work
5. Contemporary, suburban, feminist retelling of Beowulf. Big 👍
#humpdaypost @MinDea

Beowulf relocated to a gated community in contemporary suburbia. Yes, really. And it really works. Headley creates a truly unsettling take that constantly shifts, mirrors, reverses and deconstructs her characters and her narrative. And while the story is about two very different boys (one is Grendel) it's really about two mothers. Both are damaged and neither are innocent and in their struggles Headley really sticks it to the patriarchy ⬇️

A beautiful and compelling book I read in one sitting. I loved how it played with my perception of exactly Gren was physically, but he was just so human. I‘d never read the story of Beowulf before.

Beowulf in modern America. Dana Mills‘ & son Gren are hiding in the mountains just up from an affluent community under the unofficial rule of queen bee Willa Herot. Gren reaches out to Willa‘s son, hell breaks loose, officer Ben Woolf arrives to deal with the “monsters”. But who are the real monsters? https://cannonballread.com/2018/11/when-white-women-cry-people-die/?fbclid=IwAR2...

Interesting conversations around all things Beowulf with Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley. Interesting aside - the ratio along her right arm spells an old English word that translates as ‘ badass‘ - love it!

#Recommendsday

I loved this smart re-mix of Beowulf!

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/remix/

“The flipside of hero is monster.”
Dualisms abound in this contemporary retelling of Beowulf with women as the focus of the tale. You‘ve got returned soldiers with PTSD and rich people in gated communities that displace the rural locals. What makes someone “other?” Told partly in first-person plural, which I love. #Audiobook performed by Susan Bennett, expertly switching MPV: steely matrons to PTSD flashback to dogs.
(Internet author photo)

What do you do with the cleaning supplies of the world? Use them to wash the blood away, and grind the bones into bread.

Did you know you can kill someone with a stiletto heel? Our daggers travel with us, underfoot.

(Photo is from the Guo Pei exhibit at Vancouver Art Gallery.)

“Coffee?” Willa asks, the silver tray already in her hands. This is a council of war, even though it‘s Christmas Day. War is always one cup, black, no sugar. And, sure enough, the mothers take their portion. No one eats breakfast. If Willa offered, it would be a national scandal. The mothers count calories like kills.

I call death onto those who don‘t know a child when they see a child. Men who think they made the world out of clay and turned it into their safe place. Men who think a woman wouldn‘t flip the universe over and flatten them all beneath it.

Just booked to see Maria Dahvana Headley in conversation will Neil Gaiman.....sounds like a treat! Admittedly, part of me is going in order to see her hair ! I might need to make an appointment at the salon - it‘s amazing 😮!

There are tickets left if fancy joining me! #uklittens

https://www.foyles.co.uk/mere-wife

This book is superb! I can‘t remember the last time I used this word but I‘m sticking with it. If you‘re into modern retellings or just looking for something different that will knock your socks off and leave your toes freezing... up this is it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don‘t remember Beowulf at all. I read it in HS. But this retelling is so good so far!

I didn‘t know what this was about until I started reading and realized it‘s a modern fairytale retelling of Beowulf. Grendel is a 7 year old boy named Gren. His mother is a soldier with PTSD who is also clearly insane. I know how Beowulf ends...no thanks. It‘s well written but I‘m not in the mood for something sad.

Brilliant! Headley's ability to craft an amazingly evocative contemporary story while wrapping in the retelling of Beowulf AND the conventions of the medieval tale is just awe inspiring. As in her fabulous YA novel Magonia, her world building is first rate; her characterization is empathetic, flawed, and compelling; and her plotting is relentless.

Tonight @RavenRenegade and I got to hear Maria Dahvana Headley in conversation with Nicola Griffith. It was a spectacular, amazing evening, and my heart is so, so full. The Mere Wife is one of my favorite books of 2018, and to get to talk to her about it was absolutely incredible. 😍😍😍

A contemporary retelling of Beowulf and Grendel. Very interesting so far and the cover is amazing!