The OWU English Department Blog
The figure who inspired Babylonia was unknown to me before reading this novel, but I did recognize two other aspects of the book–the author, Costanza Casati, and my fondness for books with blades on the cover. A little different from the previous books in this series, there is at least confirmation of its titular figure being a real person. …
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel follows the titular character, Kaikeyi, a figure from the Hindu epic the Ramayana, which I’m admittedly much less familiar with than Greek mythology. Unlike Circe, I was drawn to this book (and impulse bought it at a Goodwill bookstore) less out of familiarity with the original story and more out of my interest in stories of mythology.…
My fascination with the stories of women in myth and history began with Circe. My first exposure to the mythological figure of Circe was in The Sea of Monsters, book 2 of the Percy Jackson series. Embarrassingly, it wasn’t until I read the Odyssey for the first time my freshman year of high school that I realized the “real” Circe does not, in fact, turn men into guinea pigs, but into regular pigs.…
Happy Halloween! Here are a couple more recommendations from editor Serena Sweeney:
1) I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
A film you should try to watch this fall if you have not already is I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), a psychological thriller directed by Charlie Kaufman, and is based on a book by Ian Reid.…
“Organic Evil.” These are two words that Alfred Hitchcock uses to describe the tone of the stories that make up the collection titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories NOT for the Nervous. Hitchcock and author Robert Arthur worked together to gather many thriller short stories that they thought were amazing and put them all together in this collection.…
Like most young children, I went through various periods of media obsession, including a Disney princess phase and later a Percy Jackson and the Olympians phase. My love of tales like Beauty and the Beast and interest in the aspects of Greek mythology explored in Rick Riordan’s beloved mid-2000s series grew into a long-standing fascination with stories that get retold and reimagined.…
I went to Barnes and Noble with my friend in December, and as we walked around we couldn’t help but notice that there was an unusual amount of books that had sprayed edges. Sprayed edges are a design feature in which a book’s edges are embellished with colors, patterns, and/or images.…
Looking through my books one day, searching for something to read, I couldn’t help but notice a theme. Scanning my shelves, I saw titles like: A Study in Drowning, The Half-Drowned King, He Who Drowned the World, We the Drowned. I laughed to myself, thinking I’d clearly hyperfixated.…
If you are reading this, then you probably love the Java Chip Frappuccino as much as I do. It was one of Starbucks’ signature coffee beverages officially until March 2025. The Java Chip Frappuccino was my drink of choice once my young taste buds grew to develop a liking for the flavor of coffee.…
Hundreds of unidentified coal mines burrow beneath the surface of Perry County, Ohio, and its surrounding communities, forming a skeleton of the region’s once-thriving economy. These towns, known as The Little Cities of Black Diamonds, once thrived; reliant on coal, miners, and the economic flow this industry supplied. However, since coal’s peak in Ohio during the 19th century, industrialization, technological advances, and shifting energy priorities have pushed the industry into decline, weakening the demand for coal. …