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Lucy Coats's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Lucy Coats recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Lucy Coats's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1

The Children's Homer

The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy

Padraic Colum | 3.89

Recommended by Lucy Coats, and 1 others.

Lucy CoatsPadraic Colum was a poet and the way he uses language is wonderful. The illustrations too. They’re black-and-white, very art deco, very spare. (Source)

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2

Tales from Ovid

24 Passages from the Metamorphoses

Ovid | 3.82

A powerful version of the Latin classic by England's late Poet Laureate, now in paperback.When it was published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best rendering of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four of its stories with great power and directness. The result is the liveliest twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the...
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Recommended by Lucy Coats, and 1 others.

Lucy CoatsOvid took some of the key Greek myths and made them into these wonderful stories. I love Hughes’s poetic voice, and the way he uses language. (Source)

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3

Ithaka

Adèle Geras | 3.97

Many years have passed since the end of the Trojan War, and Penelope is still waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return home. The city of Ithaka is overrun with uncouth suitors from the surrounding islands who are vying to win Penelope's hand in marriage, thereby gaining control of the land. When a naked, half-drowned man washes up on the beach, everything changes. . . .

Told through the eyes of Klymene, a young girl who is like a daughter to Penelope--and who longs for more than friendship from the young prince Telemachus--Ithaka captures the quiet strength and patience... more
Recommended by Lucy Coats, and 1 others.

Lucy CoatsAdele is one of my favourite writers for children and teenagers. Ithaka is part of a loose trilogy based on the Odyssey, the Iliad and the Aeneid. (Source)

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4

The Greek Myths

Robert Graves | 4.30

Combines in a single volume the complete text of the definitive two-volume classic, citing all the ancient myths. For a full appreciation of literature or visual art, knowledge of the Greek myths is crucial. In this much-loved collection, poet and scholar Robert Graves retells the immortal stories of the Greek myths. Demeter mourning her daughter Persephone, Icarus flying too close to the sun, Theseus and the Minotaur … all are captured here with the author’s characteristic erudition and flair.

The Greek Myths is the culmination of years of research and careful observation, however... more
Recommended by Lucy Coats, and 1 others.

Lucy CoatsAs far as I know, every single myth and every single variation, every single little nugget of Greek myth that isn’t necessarily even complete, is in there. (Source)

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5

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller | 4.42

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the... more
Recommended by Daniel Mendelsohn, Lucy Coats, and 2 others.

Daniel MendelsohnI don’t want to know what Achilles did in bed, frankly. If you want to play with the big boys, fine, but don’t turn The Iliad into a Twilight novel. (Source)

Lucy CoatsI loved the richness of the language, the descriptions. She really made me feel I was in ancient Greece — the smells, the whole environment. (Source)

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