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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.
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.
Sophia (Bookwyrming Thoughts) (530 KP) rated Spelled (The Storymakers, #1) in Books
Jan 23, 2020
<b><i>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.</i></b>
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.
<i>Spelled</i> 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, <i>really</i> 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><b>Bob:</b> No, Priestess. When all his nails are broken, he will die.
<b>Rexi:</b> You can't get a haircut, and he can't get a manicure. Death by salon visit.</blockquote>
I even started wondering if <i>Spelled,</i> as pretty as the cover the book and premise is, would even last. The book isn't strictly a retelling of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> – 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 <i>Greek mythology</i>, 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.
<i>Spelled</i> 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, <i>Spelled</i> 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>
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.
<i>Spelled</i> 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, <i>really</i> 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><b>Bob:</b> No, Priestess. When all his nails are broken, he will die.
<b>Rexi:</b> You can't get a haircut, and he can't get a manicure. Death by salon visit.</blockquote>
I even started wondering if <i>Spelled,</i> as pretty as the cover the book and premise is, would even last. The book isn't strictly a retelling of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> – 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 <i>Greek mythology</i>, 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.
<i>Spelled</i> 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, <i>Spelled</i> 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>
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated Oppression (Children of the Gods, #1) in Books
Jun 7, 2018
(This review can be found on my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.com">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>).
(I hate writing reviews that are under 3 stars, but I told the author I'd write a review, so here goes).
Okay, so I wanted to really like this book, I really did. It was about Greek gods and goddesses which is a subject I like. However hard I tried to get into it, I just couldn't. It actually felt like a chore, and I hated having to read it. I took a little break from it, but when I came back to it, I still couldn't get into it.
Please keep in mind this review is only going to be about the first 9 chapters as I stopped reading when I got to chapter 10.
The title is a fantastic choice for this book. When I stopped reading, it had gotten obvious why the author chose this title.
I'm not really sold on the cover. It's just too boring for my liking. Again, this book has taken the easy way out by just putting a photo on the cover. Whatever happened to imagination!?!
The world building didn't really seem that thought out. I found myself being nagged by so many questions about Elyse's aging process that I couldn't answer. The whole aging thing just did not make much sense. Based on the bit I read of this book, I just didn't see the world building getting any better.
The pacing in this book was so slow!! I found myself becoming easily bored and not caring about anything that happened. As I said previously, I even took a book thinking maybe it was just me, but when I came back to it, I found the pacing to be even slower if that's possible.
The dialogue between the characters was well thought out. It never seemed forced and seemed to flow with the story. Based on what I read of this book, there was no swearing.
The character of Elyse didn't seem very well-developed. She does not act 89 at all but acts like a teenager. Surely she'd act her age regardless of what age she looked like physically!?! That is what mainly put me off the whole book. I liked William based on the little bit I read about him. He seems like a fun character. I would've liked to find out a bit more about Kara but I just really couldn't force myself to read this book anymore.
Like I said, I really wanted to enjoy this book. Even the synopsis sounded promising. I think the idea of the book is a good one, but it wasn't executed very well. I think if the author had maybe worked on the book a bit longer, it could've been really good.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you aren't very fussy with details or unless you're really bored. If you want to take a chance with it (and you may like it), I'd say it's a book for those aged 13+ from what I've read.
(I hate writing reviews that are under 3 stars, but I told the author I'd write a review, so here goes).
Okay, so I wanted to really like this book, I really did. It was about Greek gods and goddesses which is a subject I like. However hard I tried to get into it, I just couldn't. It actually felt like a chore, and I hated having to read it. I took a little break from it, but when I came back to it, I still couldn't get into it.
Please keep in mind this review is only going to be about the first 9 chapters as I stopped reading when I got to chapter 10.
The title is a fantastic choice for this book. When I stopped reading, it had gotten obvious why the author chose this title.
I'm not really sold on the cover. It's just too boring for my liking. Again, this book has taken the easy way out by just putting a photo on the cover. Whatever happened to imagination!?!
The world building didn't really seem that thought out. I found myself being nagged by so many questions about Elyse's aging process that I couldn't answer. The whole aging thing just did not make much sense. Based on the bit I read of this book, I just didn't see the world building getting any better.
The pacing in this book was so slow!! I found myself becoming easily bored and not caring about anything that happened. As I said previously, I even took a book thinking maybe it was just me, but when I came back to it, I found the pacing to be even slower if that's possible.
The dialogue between the characters was well thought out. It never seemed forced and seemed to flow with the story. Based on what I read of this book, there was no swearing.
The character of Elyse didn't seem very well-developed. She does not act 89 at all but acts like a teenager. Surely she'd act her age regardless of what age she looked like physically!?! That is what mainly put me off the whole book. I liked William based on the little bit I read about him. He seems like a fun character. I would've liked to find out a bit more about Kara but I just really couldn't force myself to read this book anymore.
Like I said, I really wanted to enjoy this book. Even the synopsis sounded promising. I think the idea of the book is a good one, but it wasn't executed very well. I think if the author had maybe worked on the book a bit longer, it could've been really good.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you aren't very fussy with details or unless you're really bored. If you want to take a chance with it (and you may like it), I'd say it's a book for those aged 13+ from what I've read.