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Takeaway.com - Eten bestellen

Food & Drink and Lifestyle

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App

Order food online with your iPhone or iPad using the Takeaway.com-app. Super easy! Time for some...

The Art Newspaper

Art & Design, Lifestyle and Magazines & Newspapers

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

App

The Art Newspaper, founded in 1990, is the leading reporter of art news worldwide. Unique in its...

Mythic Battles: Pantheon

8.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Tabletop Game

Hera, tired of Zeus' infidelity, decides to take her revenge and releases the Titans on Mount...

Murder at Sea

Various Authors

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Book

Fear naut, the next Destinations Murder collection is here: Murder at Sea. Third in this...

Rachel King (13 KP) rated A Short History of Myth in Books

Feb 11, 2019

For such a short book, I developed quite a strong opinion about the text while reading it. I have been curious about Armstrong's writings for a long time, but this is the first attempt I have made at actually reading anything by her. I have always been a fan of ancient mythology, such as Greek and Egyptian, so this seemed like an easy choice.
In seven chapters, Armstrong takes a simplified stroll through history, focusing on the concept of myth and its impact on civilization. All throughout the book, she attempts to support her claim that a person can believe in myths without believing that the myths are actually true, and that the failure of modern society is by not following her specific edict. While this notion strikes me as absurd, I keep reading because, hey, it's a short book.
While I know only bits and pieces about many of the world's religions, I do know both the history and the holy book of my religion, Christianity. It becomes apparent to me early in the text that she is masking her opinions and interpretations of this religion as actual fact, so I can only imagine how she misconstrues other religions.
Her citations were lacking to me, with many claims going unsupported, others only partially supported, such as citation #84 and #30, and some citations simply not even applying to the specified text, such as citation #87. In citation #55, she claims that the Bible contains a Creation myth in which God brings the world into being by killing a sea monster, but one of the four verses she cites make no reference to anything of the sort (Job 3:12), and the other three (Isaiah 27:1, Job 26:13, Psalm 74:14) that do mention a leviathan cannot be interpreted that way when read in context. Isaiah is describing the end of days, while Job merely says that God created the serpent, and the verse in Psalm is within the context of a song about God rescuing the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery -- no relevancy to Creation. She makes the claim that Paul "was not much interested in Jesus's teachings, which he rarely quotes, or in the events of his earthly life." This claim is easily disproved by examining how Paul's words line up with Jesus's in John 5:21 vs. 1 Corinthians 15:22, Matthew 6:25 vs. Philippians 4:6, and many other passages.
While going through the citations, I got the feeling that the author depended on secondary sources for her information without actually studying the original source of her information. The book struck me as highly opinionated, vague, and too general for the topic being addressed. I have no doubt that there are better and more thorough books available on the topic of myth. I do not believe that I will be reading any more of Armstrong's works in the future.

Kudos

Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Spelled (The Storymakers, #1) in Books

Jan 23, 2020

Spelled (The Storymakers, #1)

Betsy Schow | 2015 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)

8.3

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Pun intended in that post title.

As the crown princess of Emerald who may be cursed to set the world on fire, Dorthea has been locked in the Emerald Palace since she was born and kept away from anything that could potentially catch fire. When she gets a wishing star, she decides to use it, only to have it completely backfire on her.

Spelled is filled with bits of humor throughout, particularly from the side characters who have quickly become my favorite characters. The main character, on the other hand...
<blockquote>But I really, really don't want to.</blockquote>
Dorthea pretty much annoyed me for a good part of the book. She's snotty, stuck-up, spoiled – gosh, I'm turning that into a tongue twister with so many s-words. She's also whiny – Dorthea spends her time whining and complaining for quite literally a quarter of the book before someone snarks at her and tells her to shut up, grow up, and act like a proper princess (she even had the nerve to say no one else had manners – manners? *flips hair* Ha! Nope!) She's funny at some points, but the majority of her sarcasm seemed more like an attempt at sounding funny rather than actually being as funny as Rexi's use of sarcasm and snark.
<blockquote>Bob: No, Priestess. When all his nails are broken, he will die.
Rexi: You can't get a haircut, and he can't get a manicure. Death by salon visit.</blockquote>
I even started wondering if Spelled, as pretty as the cover the book and premise is, would even last. The book isn't strictly a retelling of The Wizard of Oz – there are other fairy tale characters as well. Throwing in other fairy tale characters aren't exactly bothersome in my case, but Schow throws in King Midas and chimeras – both of whom are from Greek mythology, NOT from a fairy tale. Someone please tell me I'm wrong and those two actually appear in a fairy tale, because if they do appear in one, I obviously haven't read enough of the non-gruesome original fairy tales. Or do they actually appear in the gruesome ones? I would love to know.

Spelled could be considered a fun read, if you put aside all of the problems – there's humor, a good premise, and an amazing cast of side characters. But if you don't have the patience to handle a spoiled and stuck-up princess who whines a lot for approximately a quarter of the book, Spelled might not be a book on your radar.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/arc-review-spelled-by-betsy-schow/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>