For Book Clubs reading Achilles’s Wife

Judith welcomes requests for visits to book clubs. She is available via Zoom or, if you live in the greater Sacramento area, she might even make it in person. Use this website’s contact page to inquire about available dates.

On this page you’ll find lively questions for your discussion, a 10-photo slide show from the author’s research trip to Skyros that inspired settings in the novel, and appetizer recipes to turn your book club meeting into a Greek island retreat.

Book Club Questions for Achilles’s Wife

1. What was your favorite scene or moment in the novel? What made it work for you?
2. How did Mia’s friendship with Pyrrha influence and change her? Did it matter in that process that Pyrrha understood the world as a young man not as the woman her body appeared to be?
3. What do you think of Lycomedes as a father? Was he fair to Mia?
4. How was Lycomedes as a king? How did Mia’s leadership differ from his—or did it?
5. Mia, Mia’s mother, and Thetis all make secret choices as mothers. What, if anything, do those choices have in common? Were they justified in hiding information from their children?
6. Achilles is the novel’s most famous mythological character. Were you surprised at the way Achilles behaves in this story? Did you like him or were you frustrated by his behavior? Was he a good husband?
7. Mia faced a hard decision as a mother in the last part of the novel. Did you agree with what she did? Should she have acted differently early on? What should parents do for children with character qualities that seem dangerous or problematic to others?
8. Skyros is a distinctive setting for this book. How did the setting details add to or detract from the reading experience?
9. Could this mythic retelling have been set in modern times—like seeing a Shakespeare play in modern costumes and contexts? What would be gained or lost?
10. What advice would you like to give a character in this novel and at what point in the action would you want to give it?
11. Is Mia a good model for contemporary women as leaders or does she accommodate too much to the limitations of her ancient society’s view of women? What has changed or not in those limitations?

Skyros Slide Show

The captions for these photos starting with 1. the mountain where I placed the palace and citadel, now home to a monastery and medieval ruins 2. “main street” of Skyros’s capital (footpath thru village) 3. taverna at night in the village 4. view of the sea and shoreline fr upper village/palace level 5. current entrance to where I’ve placed the palace on the mountain with the citadel level visible above 6. monastery courtyard where I placed the palace, inspiration for Mia’s garden 7. view from palace level across modern village to hills and valley Mia & Pyrrha escaped to 8. haunted city, view of horseshoe fortification wall in ruins 9. haunted city looking toward the beach 10. the view of the island from the plane

Appetizers for a Delicious Skyros Greek Island Experience

Hummus Dip

Serve with pita and/or cut up raw vegetables

Ingredients:

1 can drained and rinsed garbanzo beans, 1/8 cup lemon juice, 2 medium garlic cloves, ½+ cup tahini, a couple grinds of pepper, ¾ tsp salt, pinch of cumin & cardamom, drizzle of olive oil, enough water to get a pleasant dipping consistency

In a food processor, chop fine the 2 garlic cloves, scrape them into a small pile in the bowl and pour the lemon juice on top. Let sit for 10 minutes. The lemon will make the garlic less sharp tasting. Then dump in beans, spices, a drizzle of oil, and tahini and grind until smooth. Add water about a tablespoon at a time and mix in until you like the consistency. Put in a serving bowl with a sprinkle of paprika and a drizzle of oil on top. Serve with pita bread and/or an assortment of cut up carrots, celery, endive leaves, blanched brocolli, red peppers, and any other vegetable you like.

Tzatziki Cucumber dip

Ingredients:

1 cucumber, about 6″, 8 oz of Greek yogurt, 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, 1 TB olive oil, 3 TB thinly sliced mint leaves

Grate the cucumber and squeeze it in a clean dishtowel or put in a colander and press out most of the liquid. Mix the cucumber and yogurt, crush or microplane grate in the garlic, add the oil and mint, keeping one TB of mint to sprinkle on the top. Serve with pita or any vegetables you like.

Feta cheese and Olives

Cut a block or two of feta cheese into bite-sized pieces. Place in a small serving dish. Drizzle with some olive oil and crush some dried oregano over the top. Serve toothpicks and a bowl of olives. Kalamata olives are the most commonly thought of as Greek, but olives of all sorts are common in Greece, so choose whatever kind you prefer.

Alternatively, you can build a “Shepherd Salad” which is what a Greek salad is often called on the islands. Put the feta and olives in a bowl with cherry tomatoes (or cut up tomatoes) and chunks of cucumber. Dress with olive oil, a splash of vinegar, oregano (fresh or dried), and salt and pepper. You can add fresh peppers cut up or any fresh herbs you have around. When off the beaten tourist track, a shepherd salad usually includes whatever the cook has growing in her garden.

Dolmas Stuffed Grape Leaves

This is a labor intensive recipe and maybe is most fun if made with friends–book club or otherwise!

Ingredients:

A jar of brined grape leaves, well rinsed, stems removed. Or if you have fresh grape leaves, blanch for 2 minutes and remove stems.

Stuffing: 1 cup long grain rice like Basmati, 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 finely chopped onions, 4 Tb pine nuts, 2 cups water, juice of 2 lemons, 2 Tb (or up to 1/4 cup) chopped dill, 1/2 cup chopped parsley, optional 2 TB chopped mint, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Prepare the filling. Rinse the starch off the rice by placing the rice in a bowl of water, running your fingers through it until the water is white, and drain over a fine sieve. Repeat until the water is mostly clear. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add 1/3 cup of the olive oil and the chopped onions. Sauté the onions and pine nuts, until onions are translucent, nuts browned. Add the rice and sauté for 1 more minute. Pour in 2 cups of warm water and half  lemon juice and simmer for about 7 minutes, until the rice absorbs all the water and is parboiled. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the herbs, remove from the stove and set aside to cool down for a while. This will be the filling for the dolmades.
2. Layer the bottom of a large pot with some vine leaves (use the ones that are little bit torn) and start rolling the dolmades. Place one vine leaf (shiny side down) on a flat surface and add 1 tsp of the filling at the bottom end (stem). Be careful not to overfill the dolmades, as the rice will expand during cooking. Fold the lower section of the leaf over the filling towards the center; bring the two sides in towards the center and roll them up tightly. Place the stuffed vine leaves (fold side down) on the bottom of the pot so they are snug and add a layer of vine leaves with more dolmas as a top layer. Be careful not to leave any gaps between the dolmades to prevent them from cracking open when cooking.
3. Drizzle the stuffed vine leaves with 2/3 cup of olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Place an inverted plate on top to hold them down when cooking and pour in enough water just to cover them. Place the lid on and simmer the dolmades for about 30-40 minutes, until the water has been absorbed and the dolmades remain only with the oil.
4. Remove the pot from the heat, remove the lid and plate and let the dolmades cool for at least 30 minutes. Serve cold or at room temperature with a squeeze of a lemon.

If you enjoy Mediterranean recipes, you might like to sign up for my author newsletter because one of the gifts you’ll receive via email is a link to my cookbook, Cooking from My Fiction. The cookbook has recipes from ancient Greek and Hittite cuisine, adapted for the modern kitchen. The recipes are a mix of authentic (from written records on cuneiform tablets) and reconstructed dishes based on available, known ingredients of those ancient worlds. When you sign up for the author newsletter, you will first receive the ebook, The Scent of Slaughter and Love, a Bolthar the Griffin novella.