This is my third year taking the What’s in a Name challenge, hosted by Carolina Book Nook
Book titles must contain or reference…
A punctuation mark
One of the Seven Deadly Sins
“You” or “Me”
A Chess Piece
A Celebration
Begin with Q, X, or Z
My choices for these categories:
Punctuation
Umberto Eco
Seven Deadly Sins
Lee Child
“You” or “Me”
Kazuo Ishiguro
Chess Piece
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Mark Twain
Celebration
Carson McCullers
Q, X or Z
Max Beerbohm
I’ve been intrigued by this novel but also dubious. Intrigued because I think Gaiman is an artist with words, dubious because it’s a bit out of my comfort zone.
Intrigue won out in the end.
This fantasy is about American gods – the little “g” gods that immigrants brought to America, both fairly recent since the discovery of the New World and ancient, the first peoples whose origins are mostly lost in prehistory. These gods, the creations of myriad cultures, are mostly forgotten, forsaken, and feeble.
Yet they endure in mostly human form and often as pathetic or bitter shadows of their former glory.
Speaking of shadows, the main character is Shadow Moon – not a god – released from prison a few days early due to the tragic death of his wife. Shadow is a strange dude. He is shaken by nothing: not the death of his wife, nor meeting gods, leprechauns, or imps; not by talking animals, nor TV shows that speak to him. These and other chimeras appear in Shadow’s world, and he treats them as casually as finding a penny on the sidewalk.
Like when he meets the ghost or zombie of his dead wife…
Her cold hand sought his, and
he squeezed it gently. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. He was
scared, and what scared him was the normality of the moment.
That was the first thing I didn’t like. I’m certain that Gaiman intended to make Shadow hardened and aloof, but he was unbelievable.
The story is captivating, at times almost maddeningly so. I couldn’t figure out where it was all leading and couldn’t stop until I knew.
It is leading to an epic battle between the old gods and the new gods of modern America: technology, capitalism, and mass marketing, which also have embodied agents. Shadow is stuck somewhere in the middle.
Despite the intriguing need to know what was next, I was mostly disappointed. At first, it had a feel distinctly like Stephen King’s The Stand, but as it progressed, it felt more like Gaiman’s own Sandman. Besides Shadow’s un-believability, the ending was anti-climactic. The characters were the best parts. Odin aka Wednesday, who was the other main character, Shadow's new employer, leader of the old gods and the one calling for the war.
They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn’t that fair? ~ Wednesday
Pain hurts, just as greed intoxicates and lust burns. We may not die easy and we sure as hell don’t die well, but we can die. ~ Wednesday
There was Shadow’s cellmate Low Key, who turned out to be Loki. Most of the gods went by monikers that were subtle clues to their mythical identities. I caught a few, but many were lost on me. Gaiman did his research, and he can certainly write.
My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars
I’ll read more by Gaiman. I enjoyed Coraline and Stardust, but Sandman not so much. But one of the best things I’ve read by Gaiman is his foreword to the 60th-anniversary edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
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Yet somehow, The Tale of Genji,
written in the eleventh century, is considered the world’s first novel.
I don’t get it either. So, I’ll move on to my review.
To be more precise, it is a Greek romance novel. Some have suggested that “romance novel” may be why it isn’t considered a novel, but if that’s the reason…Well OH MY GOODNESS, we need to rule out Genji as well then! He only falls in love about 57 times.
But I’m rambling off-point. It is boy meets girl in ancient Greece's poly-theistic and mythological culture. It is set on the island of Lesbos – probably the author’s home.
Daphnis and Chloe are foundlings of unusual circumstances. The goatherd Lamon discovers Daphnis in the fields being suckled by a goat and with tokens suggesting noble birth. Later the shepherd Dryas finds Chloe being suckled by a sheep also with distinctive tokens. Each child is adopted by their finders, though neither step-parents nor the children know the mysterious origin of the other.
The children assume their step-father’s vocation, naturally encounter each other, and fall in love. But In their youth and innocence, they don’t understand their feelings nor the cure that can satisfy their longing.
When they met, they rejoiced; when they parted, they were sad. They pined with grief. They wished for a something, but they knew not what.
Various events threaten their happiness. But Pan and his nymphs intercede and seem determined to give Daphnis and Chloe the chance they seem fated to.
It is predictable in general but unexpected in specifics. It’s a bit different from a Victorian romance. It’s rather short and easy to read. I didn’t love it. It didn’t stun me, but I’m glad to have read it as a sample of a setting and form I’m unaccustomed to.
My rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars
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Lord, teach me to parent the children I have, not the kids I thought I would have.
God, I relinquish my children to your loving care and tender mercies.
Jim Burns’ purpose is to help parents navigate their changing and challenging role when their children become adults. He writes from a Christian worldview and addresses specific situations where the old parental authority approach is likely no longer appropriate or effective.
As difficult as it can be, sometimes it’s best to hold back on the parent-to-child dynamic and try to have more of an adult-to-adult experience.
He addresses situations such as failure to launch, financial irresponsibility, lifestyle choices inconsistent with the parents’ values, or the child forsaking the faith the parents thought they faithfully instilled.
It mainly instructs parents on finding their place in the “messy middle.”
The messy middle is where we find ourselves when we hold on to a solid moral base that we believe in while loving our kids and others who have chosen a different way.
In navigating the messy middle, the author asserts that we can and should…
Convey love without giving approval.
And
show love as your children suffer the natural outcome of their actions.
He cites his mother as an example of one the next generation trusted, respected, and listened to. He says she treated the younger generation with a sense of AWE: affection, warmth, and encouragement.
A few of the Biblical passages cited:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: James 1:19
Where there is no vision, the people perish…Proverbs 29:18
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
This book can be beneficial to parents entering this stage of parenting. It is easy to read, well thought out, and logically organized.
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"The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” is a SherlockHolmes short story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes’ 26th case chronologically.
According to Dr. Watson, it is one of only two cases that Watson brought to Holmes’ attention. Watson also notes in the opening paragraphs that it gave Holmes…
Fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results.
Since beginning this blog, I have been dissatisfied with my rating system. I attempted to rate each novel in a general and subjective sense on a scale of 1–5.
This was imprecise and subject to whims of emotion. Notice I didn’t say opinionated. My reviews are intentionally opinionated.
But to gain consistency and standardization, I developed the ASPECT rating system. I admit to feeling smug with “ASPECT” Each letter has meaning, but the acronym as a whole has meaning relevant to a book review. ASPECT: a way a thing may be viewed, regarded, or interpreted.
See what I did there?
I rate each work in six different categories:
ADAGE – What is the author’s message? Is it worthy? Is it logically and fairly represented, even if I disagree.
SKILL – How well does the author write? (my very inexpert opinion)
PLOT – Is there a coherent, unified story?
ENVIRONMENT – What are the setting, time, and place? Is it vividly described and interesting?
CHARACTERS – Are the main characters well developed, vividly described, interesting, believable, relatable, and compelling for their role?
THRILL – How exciting was it? Was it a chore or a pleasure to read?
I rate each of these categories on a scale of 1 – 10:
10 = Perfect
8 – 9 = Outstanding
7 = Excellent
6 = Very good
5 = Average
3 – 4 = Below average
1 – 2 = Poor
Then based on total ASPECT sore:
55 – 60 = 5 stars
49 – 54 = 4 ½ stars
43 – 48 = 4 stars
37 – 42 = 3 ½ stars
31 – 36 = 3 stars
25 – 30 = 2 ½ stars
19 – 24 = 2 stars
13 – 18 = 1 ½ stars
7 – 12 = 1 stars
1 – 6 = ½ stars
I expect this to become the book-reviewing standard.
I understand that using ½ stars means I am rating on a scale of 1-10. But 1-5 is in wide use and is more aesthetically pleasing than 1-10. (I wish Goodreads would add ½ stars.)
And because I am fussy, I rescored every novel I’d previously reviewed. There were 20 or so that I had to adjust a half star, and only three changed by a full star. So, my old system worked pretty well, but I believe the ASPECT system will help me be more consistent in the future.
And for no particular reason, I only use this when reviewing novels.
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Contrary to the title, Dombey and Son is about Florence Dombey, the oldest child of Paul Dombey, a wealthy London shipping magnate. Florence, or Floy, is a typical Dickens heroine: an ideal of virtue and beauty. Though, when the story opens, she is only six.
It opens at the birth of Florence’s younger brother Paul, heir to the Dombey Empire. Mr. Dombey is barely affected when his wife dies. He is too busy planning and placing all his hopes and dreams on his son. Florence is nearly invisible to her proud and aloof father. He is never cruel to her. She is raised in comfort and privilege, and yet…
Florence is far poorer than the most miserable of Dickens’ orphans or paupers.
And the reader’s heart slowly breaks.
But then there is hope. Mr. Dombey remarries, and, for a brief moment, Florence is genuinely loved by her beautiful stepmother. No, really, genuinely loved. And poor Mr. Dombey, who is not loved by his new wife, becomes jealous of his daughter’s ability to win her stepmother’s affection.
Who? Who was it who could win his wife as she had won his boy? Who was it who had shown him that new victory, as he sat in the dark corner? Who was it whose least word did what his utmost means could not? Who was it who, unaided by his love, regard or notice, thrived and grew beautiful when those so aided died? Who could it be, but the same child at whom he had often glanced uneasily in her motherless infancy, with a kind of dread, lest he might come to hate her; and of whom his foreboding was fulfilled, for he DID hate her in his heart?
And the reader's heart breaks again.
You can count on the author to do that, but this is far from typical Dicken’s fare.
It is a warning and exposé on the frightful sin of pride. It is a hopeful message about the power of love and forgiveness. Some might call it a fantasy in that regard, but I have seen such love and forgiveness.
There are still some of Dickens’ hallmarks. There are intricate coincidences and connections between the main and lesser characters. There are comic caricatures, subtle foreshadows, and an ironic twist or two. There is a toothy, smiling, unctuous villain whose villainy brings about the satisfying ending…but not the perfect ending that Dickens is often criticized for. Much is lost; much is gained.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
And with this novel, I’ve completed The Classics Club Round III.
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