The results are in! The winner of our poll — and the book we will discuss on September 3, 2025 — is Circe, by Madeline Miller. We used STAR Voting this month, and twenty-four members voted in the poll. Of our four book choices, The House in the Cerulean Sea and Circe received the most stars in the scoring round and advanced to the runoff round. In the runoff round, two people ranked the finalists equally, The House in the Cerulean Sea received seven votes, and Circe received fifteen votes. Circe was the runaway winner for September '25. Thank you to everyone who voted!
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 2018 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR FANTASY • WINNER OF THE 2019 INDIE CHOICE AWARD • SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION • NAMED ONE OF THE “BEST BOOKS OF 2018” BY NPR, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, AMAZON, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, NEWSWEEK, AND MANY OTHERS
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
— description from the publisher Little, Brown and Company
"Circe [is] a bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story that manages to be both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right."
— Alexandra Alter, New York Times
"so vivid, so layered, you could get lost in it... Whether or not you think you like Greek Mythology, this is just great storytelling. It feels cinematic."
— NPR's Here & Now
"One of the most amazing qualities of this novel [is]: We know how everything here turns out - we've known it for thousands of years - and yet in Miller's lush reimagining, the story feels harrowing and unexpected. The feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn't noticed before."
— Ron Charles, Washington Post
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