Three Book Suggestions

From fragments of the poem Geryoneis by the 6th-century BC lyric poet Stesichorus, relating to the 10^th labor of Hercules, classicist Anne Carson spins a novel in verse about a sensitive, bullied, and abused boy who with maturation finds love in photography and a young man named Heracles. Told with humor, pathos, and beauty, it's a story with wings if ever that cliché deserved to be used, taking the reader to unexpected places without ever letting go. Carson’s use of language is downright thrilling.

In this slim volume, 176 pages in total, Jeanette Winterson uses the brashness of current language to re-make the encounter between Atlas and Hercules into a contemporary consideration of choice and freedom. But there's more: autobiographical material and the Soviet space dog Laikka also insert themselves into the story. Not everyone is going to appreciate the mashup, but there's something exhilarating, and often funny, about the result's irreverence.

Dame Agatha Christie may have become restless after perfectly mastering the British mystery novel. For her 65^th-or-so work, she challenged her famous fictional detective Hercules Poirot to choosing cases that conformed to the Twelve Labours of Hercules. Well, of course, she did—he’s HERCULES Poirot. Some of the cases correspond more closely than others, but the resultant short-story collection, like all of Christie's books, is simply fun.