Summer Reading Picks by The Hydra Book Club
Josh Hickey, founder of the Hydra Book Club, curates your next reads
The Hydra Book Club is an enchanting place on an even more spellbinding island. If you’ve ever visited Hydra, you know the feeling. But if you haven't, indulge in its splendor from one of its locals — Josh Hickey — through his curated list of summer reads exclusively for Kalo Mina.
Hickey helms the Hydra Book Club, a pop-up book store he founded in 2021 that engages the legacy of nearly 100 years of an uninterrupted literary scene on the island. Since the 1930s, Hydra has been home to a colony of writers, publishers, and readers who have lived, worked, and created on the island.
Located on the first floor of the Hydra Archive Museum, the Hydra Book Club features new and used Greek and foreign books. Each year Hickey and his team select an annual theme that relates to their experiences living on the island and informs their book selection. The theme also frames the Journal of the Hydra Book Club, a series of self-published works including fiction, poetry, essays, and images. This year’s theme is: Sublime.
Hickey dives further into this topic with this curated book list— one that reflects the beauty of the island he calls home and the astonishment that comes from encountering the Sublime.
Pictured above: Songs and Tales of Bohemia, all by James Burke for LIFE Magazine, featuring Leonard Cohen, George Johnston, Charmian Clift, and friends, October 1960
The Journal of the Hydra Book Club vol.3 Sublime
The third edition of the annual Journal of fiction, poetry, essay, and image will be published this June 19. With over 200 pages of “Sublime” content, it is the perfect companion to any summer reading list. Highlights include a newly translated piece by Athenian writer Amanda Michalopoulou, a new memoir piece by another Athenian Andrea Applebee, poetry by Eleni Sikelianos and Nikos Erinakis, and a captivating conversation between model and bibliophile Liya Kebede and writer Sulaiman Addonia. This is just a hint— there’s a lot more in there.
Book of Exercises II, George Seferis, translated by Jennifer R. Kellogg, World Poetry Books, 2024
Hickey shares that this is an exciting new and first translation of Nobel Laureate George Seferis’ political, satiric, and erotic poetry. Some “unseen” material from his diary, and infinitely charming “calligraphies,” which include the poet’s original handwritten poem-drawings, are also included. The book is a rare gift featuring the work of such a prominent writer long deceased.
Fires, Marguerite Yourcenar, translated by Dori Katz and Marguerite Yourcenar, FSG, 1981
Hickey explains that this is an extraordinary book of nine monologues from classical Greek stories punctuated by the author’s own deeply personal and reflective musings. Time is twisted, and classical characters like Achilles, Sappho, Clytemnestra, Phaedra, and Patroclus bleed from past to present making their passionate monologues sound eerily contemporary. Through these stories, a very special profundity of one woman’s experience is revealed.
The Pursuit of Greece, anthology selected by Philip Sherrard, Denise Harvey, 1987
Originally published in 1964, this anthology of works, ranging from the classical era until the 20th century, is an absolute must for any lover of Greece. It is captivating and emulates Greece’s engulfing power to become a psychological space that sparks an inner quest for meaning in life. Hickey adds that if you are traveling light, just take this, a bikini, and some SPF!
On the Calculation of Volume, Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland, Faber, 2024
This book does not have anything to do with Greece, but it is just a great read. The first two volumes of a seven volume epic work by the Danish author is nothing short of extraordinary. Slow, strange, and beguiling, Hickey read them out of order, as he often does, and it did not suffer – it only made reading the first volume that much more bizarre. If you read these, please write to Hickey and let him know your reaction!
You can purchase the books here.