#I love this list so much! flowers and fables are such a perfect match for me^^

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Flora in Fabula (OCtober list by the wonderful @fdevitart) 

1. Hero - Cichorium Intybus

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Book Read: Circe by Madeline Miller 

Beer Paired: Brasserie Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortel 

What We Love About The Book 

Confession: I am not the biggest fan of Greek Mythology. I’ve read very little, and as far as myths and fables go, I have always aired on the side of fairytales or other mythologies. Growing up, Greek mythology especially, felt so distant and untouchable; it is just not relatable. However, Madeline Miller’s newest novel Circe, changed all that.

This book started popping up all over social media a few months ago. It was on every Instagram account, every other book blog, and on top of every bestseller list. I’ll admit, the simple metallic cover, stylized like ancient Greek art, caught me, but so did the rave reviews it was getting. Not to mention a trip last year to many of the Greek islands peaked my interest more than I expected.

Fast-forward to me reading it so quickly, I instantly had to read it again, to better soak in the details and to completely appreciate its genius. This book is everything. It has everything. It is the Odyssey for a new world, a new generation. Miller takes a story everyone knows, a character we have only heard about as a catalyst for others, and turns it upside down. She creates a lifetime, millennia long, for this famous witch and gives her layers of complicated history. Shunned and lonely, powerful and naïve, we fall in love with a goddess that understands all the complexities of humanity and cannot grasp the fate of the gods. She is deep and relatable, real and so heartbreakingly understandable.

Ron Charles, in his review of Circe for The Washington Post accurately jokes that, “the archaeological evidence is sketchy, but the first pussy hat was probably knitted by Circe.” But, it’s not a joke. She empowers the idea that women can’t be silenced.Circe throws up her hair in braids, works to find her power, and when threatened by men, turns them into pigs. Miller has taken the misogynistic Odyssey passed, down through the ages, and rewritten it, as an intricate, sophisticated story that goes beyond its’ original bounds.

Miller’s ability and style only give power to this. Her absolute mastery language and poetry give life to these characters, and credit to her retelling. Chapter after chapter, line after line, I was dazzled with her beautiful prose. But beyond her words, her comprehension of the human spirit is harrowing. Her awareness and descriptions of loneliness, the need to fit in, love, the unbreakable spirit, and the sheer power of being oneself, are remarkable.

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as the stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”

“I looked at her, as vivid in my doorway as the moon in autumn sky. Her eyes held mine, gray and steady. It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

These are just a few of the endless passages that stayed with me.   Miller’s brilliant novel is beyond anything I have ever read. It is a comment on the human condition. A tale for our time, set in an ancient one. Everyone will be able to see themselves in Circe, in Daedalus, in Telegonus, in Odysseus, in Penelope, and in each character, with all their imperfections. Let it be a call to us all, we are not alone. To have flaws is to be human. To have understanding and compassion, anger and loneliness, are all side effects of this human condition that resides within each of us. Let us learn from Circe’s evaluation of humanity, and her willingness to understand and grow in that face of it.

“…It will be all right. It is not the saying of an oracle or a prophet. They are the words you might speak to a child… He does not mean it does not hurt. He does not mean we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive.”

What We Love About the Beer 

Confession: I love Greek Mythology. Ever since my 6th grade learning unit on Greek Mythology, I have been hooked. Unlike Alexandra, the contents of this book drew me in, and I knew that we had to find a perfect match. For the book Circe, by Madeline Miller, we chose Peche Mortel from Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! Peche Mortel translates to “mortal sin”, and in the book Circe dreams of being mortal. She understands the delicate and often misunderstood differences between gods and mortals, and although she doesn’t experience it, seems to deeply understand mortality and all the good and bad it holds. Brasserie Dieu du Ciel translates to “brewery of the god of the sky”. I mean, are you kidding me? This beer truly couldn’t be anymore fitting for this book, and we picked it without translating either the name or the brewery! Let’s call that divine intervention. It’s a dark imperial stout brewed with espresso coffee, and if you know anything about Alexandra and I, you know we love coffee, especially of the espresso variety.

This beer gets better with age, much like Circe in the book, who truly comes into her own. As the book goes on, as she becomes a robust and complex character, and manifests both the rich and bitter colors that infuse this beer. Circe and Peche Mortel are both intense and dark. They are full of persistent flavors and long, lingering excitement. Seriously, both are so good. We got this beer from our local beer store, Astoria Bier & Cheese, which is located in, you guessed it, Astoria. Astoria is a heavily Greek influenced neighborhood of Queens. So, while we read this book and drank this beer, we were also able to tap into the endless Greek culture that surrounds us – a small dose of those faraway, mythic Greek islands. And, boy, did that feel right!

We hope you’ll check out this amazing book. It is truly a re-envisioning of the classic Greek epic, for today’s world. A dose of reality hidden in the mythical, that not only understands humanity and its faults, but allows us, through Circe, to work through them. So, grab a Peche Mortel and see for you self!

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                                                  CHEERS, ALEXANDRA & CHRIS