My Greek Books
Welcome back! It’s June and I have three fantastic books to share with you. Read on!
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Frieze Frame: How Poets, Painters, and Their Friends Framed the Debate Around Elgin and the Marbles of the Parthenon by A.E. Stallings
Paul Dry Books (April 8, 2025)
About the author
Award-winning American poet, translator, and essayist A.E. Stallings studied classics at the University of Georgia and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. She moved to Athens, Greece in 1999, and is the Poetry Program Director of the Athens Centre. A.E. serves as an editor with the Atlanta Review. She is the University of Oxford’s 47th Professor of Poetry, and also teaches regularly at the Sewanee Summer Writers’ Workshop and the West Chester University Poetry Conference.
Her poetry books include This Afterlife (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2022), Like (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2018), Olives (TriQuarterly 2012), Hapax (TriQuarterly, 2006), and Archaic Smile (University of Evansville Press, 1999). Her poetry has been appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books. She’s also published an epic poem, The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice: A Tiny Homeric Epic (Paul Dry Books, 2019).
Her translations include Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) and Hesiod’s Works and Days, both with Penguin Classics; and a translation of Batrachomyomachia (The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice).
A.E. is the recipient of countless awards and accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and a National Book Critics Award.
About the book
During the strict pandemic lockdowns in Greece, A.E. Stallings thought she’d “write a blog post about Byron and Keats, Cavafy and the marbles”. But the more she learned, the longer it grew. She pored through poetry, personal letters, paintings, the dubiously translated 1801 firman, newspaper clippings, parliamentary proceedings, a Greek political campaign, and other lore to create a “deliciously detailed and gossipy history” of the Parthenon Marbles. She reflects on the removal of the Marbles. Her narrative encompasses the removal of the Marbles from the Acropolis, their various misadventures before and after installation in the British Museum, from shipwreck to boxing matches, and the debate over their future and possible reunion in Greece.
A.E. explores the Marbles’ effects on creators—poets, writers, painters, actors, architects—and vice versa; and discusses how these creators have framed the Marbles’ place in art and culture. Key for the author is the creative world of the Marbles, the ways that they appear in both 19th and 20th century writing and art, race theory, and beyond, and the influence they have exerted in our society.
My Greek Books review
I have long been fascinated by the Parthenon Marbles and am a staunch advocate of their return to their rightful home. And I have long heard about Elgin’s supposed permission to remove the Marbles. But this book turns the narrative on its head: there’s much more to the story. I had no idea the removal of the Marbles had such an effect on writers, poets, and artists; and the countless references in literature and the arts. Frieze Frame is a captivating book, well researched, and thoughtfully presented. A.E. Stallings’ fresh take presents the history with little-known artistic references, that will make you see the Marbles and the entire debate in a whole new way. It’s made me even more passionate about the subject. Don’t miss it!
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Under the Lemon Tree by Emma Cowell
Avon (May 8, 2025)
About the author
A former actress and BBC presenter, by day Emma works in fundraising. She loves Greece, and visits often. She has made many friends there, who have been teaching her to cook Greek food. And she’s learning to speak Greek! She loves Greece so much, she has set all of her books there. Emma lives in Cornwall, England.
Her other novels include The Island Love Song (Avon, 2024), The House in the Olive Grove (Avon, 2023), and One Last Letter from Greece (Avon, 2022).
About the book
When Kat loses her twin, Nik, in a tragic accident, she gets lost in her grief. Her family—including her soon-to-ex-husband—tries to comfort her, but their support sometimes feels stifling. Everything changes when she learns that she has inherited a house on Agistri, from an uncle she’s never met and never knew existed. Excited by the possibilities, her boss at the design magazine charges her with writing about renovation and grief, but Kat is afraid to tap into the pain.
She heads to Agistri, and in the island paradise, she feels her heart beginning to heal. Inspired by the island and the restoration, she begins to write and finds her writer’s voice. She’s intrigued by her uncle’s story (he’s a novelist), but with the revelations of multiple family secrets, she finds herself second-guessing everything. Including the handsome next-door neighbor, whose got some secrets of his own, some tied to her family. Kat must face her fears and summon her inner strength to grieve her loss and confront the past so she can close this chapter and embrace a new one. Will she prevail? You’ll have to read it to find out!
My Greek Books review
Emma Cowell has done it again! Not only does she transport us to beautiful Greece, but she has crafted a compelling story with many twists and turns. I couldn’t put it down. I had to find out what happened next. Under the Lemon Tree is a story of family secrets, loss, love, and forgiveness. Greece has Emma under her spell, and the magic manifests itself in this novel. Add it to your list!
Aegina Collectible Memorabilia: Personal reflection of life on an island of Greece by Sevasti Boutos
Independently published (March 24, 2021)
About the author
Born and raised in Melissia, eight miles north of Athens, Sevasti (Sevi) studied veterinary medicine and practiced for 15 years in a clinic in Melissia before moving to the US in 1988. Her early says in the States were challenging, and she had to start over. She attended Hunter College of CUNY, graduating with honors. Then for 10 years, she worked as a coordinator in educational technologies at Barnard College.
Her passion for poetry grew and flourished during her early college years in Greece, her counteraction to the military dictatorship. An otherworldly voice encouraged her to express her anger and frustration with words. She began writing on the textbooks’ pages about the suspicion of being arrested by the dictators and their college followers. Ever wary, for years, she only shared her poetry only with those she deemed trustworthy.
Sevi’s first poetry collection, My Two Homelands, written in Greek, was published in May 2005. It appeared in several magazines in Greece. One of the poems, “Olympic armistice” was recognized by UNESCO, with a Special Award for Culture and Peace for poetry.
Her other collections include LOVE POETRY: EROS: a powerful, attractive source for humankind (Independently published, April 2022) and The Benevolent Silence: Shterna Friedman: A Spirited Ode to Life itself (Independently published, April 2022).
About the book
Sevi spent many summers with her grandparents in Aegina, on the top of a plateau facing the Saronic Gulf. There she climbed trees, caught cicadas. The scent of fresh herbs heightened her senses. The profound experiences there shaped her in many ways, from her decision to become a veterinarian, as well as her outlook on life. She has said that over time, the memories “converted to lyrics and rhythmic words”. This collection takes us to those summers in Aegina.
My Greek Books review
Sevasti Boutos transports us to Aegina in this soulful collection. Aegina Collective Memorabilia takes us right there, to the sights, smells, the people, the memories, painting them in vivid detail. The book is at once an ode to the island, but also a tribute to her grandparents and their profound influence on her life. Check it out!
My Greek Books—June 2025
That’s it for this month. Add these books to you to-be-read list! I’ve already dived into some awesome reads. Check back next month for more My Greek Books. Til then, Happy Reading!
Read more:
My Greek Books—June 2024 Reads
My Greek Books—June 2023 Reads
