Review: Galatea

Galatea by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice re-imagining of the Pygmalion story from Ovid, discussing his creation in a way Ovid never considered. A great short yet poignant read you can get through in one session.

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Review: Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes by Philip Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is frankly too much to believe I'll remember the names and actions of even half of these myths. However, for the most part they were still entertaining, especially the Welsh myths. 

But so many problems could have been averted if the kings, warriors and rulers (all men) didn't have their misplaced machismo and didn't constantly want to prove how tough/manly they were. Then again, I guess this is true for myths of all cultures. 

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Review: Popol Vuh

Popol Vuh by Anonymous
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently read Mythos, by Stephen Fry, and Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman. Well, actually I listened to them, both narrated by the respective authors. So I couldn't help wishing one of them would narrate Popol Vuh, and bring these characters to life.

Regardless, this was a great find. Another book I picked up in the Free book bin at 2nd and Charles. It reads like a collection of stories. The names were a tad difficult to keep up with, but it was doable with some work. And the footnotes also helped quite a bit.



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Review: Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold

Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After having read "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman, I couldn't help but compare these two, although Stephen Fry brings his usual self to this, adding his asides and general comments related to how the god and place names are still used to this day (i.e. Bosphorus and Oxford have the same meaning). His appendices at the end also add some light to how he compiled and retold the myths.

I enjoyed this book so much I started reading Euripides' plays (Alcestis, Medea and others) right after (actually, before even finishing) and, despite the plays involving other characters, they seemed more alive having just learned that much more about the context, etc.

I get the impression that most of the low ratings I see here seem to be by people wanting to show off that they knew about Greek myths prior to reading the book, while not finding any real fault with this book per se.

If you wish to learn more about Greek myths, or even if you don't, this will be a very entertaining and informative book.

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Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Major spoilers here.

Wow. Really not sure what to make of this. I love the premise, and the general idea throughout the book, although I kept feeling more could have been done with it. For the number of Norse gods throughout, and even the appearance of ancient Egyptian gods, it seemed odd to have barely anything from Ancient Greece or Rome, or even old Chinese and Hindu gods.

The prose is very Neil Gaiman, which I always like. And the story seems full to the brim with symbolism, clear up to the protagonist, the son of God, being hung up, pierced in his side, and resurrected thanks to Easter.

I did not see the twist with Hinzelmann in the end.

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Review: Chinese Myths & Legends

Chinese Myths & Legends by Chen Lianshan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Surprisingly interesting. A compendium of China's main myths and legends. Oddly enough it is very hard to find something like this, since mainland China tried to eradicate all "superstitions" during communism and only relatively recently are the old myths and customs resurfacing. I knew some of these from Taiwan, but much of it seems to be quite regional to other places. It's too bad that the English version doesn't seem to have been taken very seriously. It is worth re-editing and republishing.

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Review: Norse Mythology

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really didn't expect to enjoy this all that much when I first started it, despite being curious about Norse Gods (it was the only compendium of Norse mythology I could find at the moment), but I'm very glad I stuck with this book. In many ways, Neil Gaiman is the perfect person to retell these stories. His style is quite simple and very fairy-tale like, which is how these stories end up feeling.

It's also good to see how familiar names, like Odin, Thor and the Valkyries, all tie into each other.

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Review: Fifteen Dogs

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An extremely original and promising premise, which, for the most part, made for a very entertaining and insightful story. Toward the end it seemed to stretch on a bit too much for me, but I'm glad I picked this book up.

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Review: Circe

Circe by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This must have been great fun to write. It basically ties together many (all?) of the myths involving Circe, and ends up spanning many (most?) of the greatest Greek myths.

I confess, occasionally it seemed like a bit of a stretch. Not that she veered away from the myths all that much (from what I could tell at least), but it seemed like she was just trying to connect the dots, which seemed to make the storyline a bit awkward. Also, much of the action seems to happen offstage.

But otherwise it's a great introduction to the story of an often overlooked character from Greek mythology.

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