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

Feb 11, 2019  
AS
A Short History of Myth
Karen Armstrong | 2006
4
6.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
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.
  
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated The Titanic for Dummies in Books

Feb 15, 2019  
TT
The Titanic for Dummies
Stephen J. Spignesi | 2012
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
<b>4.5 stars</b>
Chock-full of facts that range from the building of the Titanic to the 1985 expedition when it was finally found to why the ship's legacy still lives on, THE TITANIC FOR DUMMIES is a nicely arranged, easy to read history for those who either have a passing interest or intermediate knowledge of the Titanic. Although aficionados on the infamous ocean liner most likely won't find anything new between the covers.

The author wrote this with the intent that each section could be read both straight-through or out of order, which can make it slightly repetitive if read front to back (as I did) or too quickly. I found that reading only a chapter or two at a time was a more enjoyable experience overall and kept me from getting overwhelmed by all the information. The writing is clear, easy to understand, and all encompassing to anything related to the Titanic. I enjoyed reading about some of the ludicrous myths, in which the author debunks most of them, the list of recommended documentaries to see, and well, most everything. I only noticed a few minuscule errors, most of which did not involve Titanic history and were mainly grammar, but nothing worth mentioning. The only negative I can find to the book is the lack of pictures, it only features three pages of color photographs, and a few more added diagrams of the ship. Throughout the book's text there also could have been more black and white photos included. The most glaring exclusion from the book is that there is no picture of the "Big Piece", a 15x25 foot, 20-ton piece of the hull that had been salvaged from the wreck site and was mentioned extensively throughout the book. I would have welcomed the addition instead of hopping online to see a <a href="http://www.vegasnews.com/56809/titanics-largest-recovered-artifact-the-big-piece-at-titanic-the-artifact-exhibition.html">picture</a>; of the famous piece. Also, at one time there was a table of Titanic's ten decks, with descriptions and what rooms were on those decks, that would have been better served with a diagram of the ship to help those of us who are more visually-inclined. Those are fairly minor complaints in comparison to the breadth of material this book covers however.

Highly informative, concise, and written for anyone of any age, I would recommend The Titanic for Dummies to anyone interested in learning more about the Titanic, it's a great primer that has left me more knowledgeable about a subject I've always been fascinated by.

Click <a href="http://titanicphotographs.com/">here</a>; for some great photographs taken by passenger, Father Francis Browne, who disembarked from the Titanic when it docked in Cobh (then Queenstown), Ireland.
  
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Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated Homunculus and the Cat in Books

Jun 24, 2019  
Homunculus and the Cat
Homunculus and the Cat
Nathan Croft | 2015
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. I've got tons of books from the site, ready to review. Can't wait!
So I've been reading this book for quite some time now, and honestly I nearly gave up on it a few times. But for the sake of the review, I managed to keep on at it until the end.
What I managed to gather from this book is that it takes place in a whole different universe, where myths and gods are real. Winged cats with nine lives, flying carpets, even homunculi. The main characters include the Ennedi Ankh' Si, a flying cat, Tyro, a simple human, and homunculi such as Mina and Herakles. A homunculus sanctuary, fighting for equal rights for their kind, is caught in a fire. In desperate need of help, the crew end up travelling all over the place - including to an underwater palace of a goddess, where they participate in a huge battle.
If I'm really honest, I can't tell you much more than that. There's some suspicious dude called Manga, and Tyro tries to rescue his friend Herakles - requiring a trip back to good ol' America. But other than that, I'm not quite sure what happened.
The writing itself is actually pretty good. The descriptions and metaphors are great, and there's a good deal of underlying humour in places. And the whole idea of this universe full of gods and demons and creatures both beautiful and terrible is wonderful. It's just a shame that I couldn't get into it. I felt like I was reading most of it through a daze, just trying to get it over with.
I will give this the benefit of the doubt - maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it, or I just wasn't paying enough attention. Others may enjoy this a lot more than I did. But I'm going to give it just two stars, which honestly feels like I'm pushing the bar a little already.
  
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EmersonRose (320 KP) rated The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5) in Books

Nov 20, 2019  
The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)
The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)
Rick Riordan | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)
7
8.9 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Alert! Before I begin this review, I need to let it be known that in the case of this particular book I may be a little biased, well maybe really biased! This is the tenth book I have read by this author and the last in the second series I have read. It is safe to say I love these books or else I would not have read this many.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, let me begin. This book is called Blood of Olympus, it is the fifth and final book in the Heroes of Olympus series (if you should ever desire to read these book, I would recommend starting with the Percy Jackson, and the Olympians series as this series is a sequel series. The author of this book is a writer by the name of Rick Riordan. This book is a young adult fantasy novel. It is the final chapter of the adventure of a group of seven young adults who happen to be demigods, modern day children of the ancient gods of Greece and Rome. This adventure, like many great adventures, is a race to save the world.

For me, the initial draw of the book was that it is a fantasy novel, which is one of my favorite genres, and its focus is on Greek Mythology, something of an obsession of mine. The mythology in these books may not always satisfy all mythology nerds because they do take liberties in how the myths are presented in order to showcase how they might have changed to fit in the modern day world. The way Riordan chooses to represent mythology is often fairly close to original stories, showing that he spends the time researching the myths, and they are clever, funny, and entertaining.

As I read the books, I found myself drawn to the relationships between the characters, not surprising as characters are a key draw for me in literature. By this point in the series, the relationships became especially interesting because you have known some of the characters for ten books now while others are just in their second or third book appearances. The central characters have grown into a substantial group that each have their own unique backgrounds, personalities, and even mythologies that create intriguing tension and bonds. Their bonds grow stronger as they work through new struggles and adventures with the added drama of them being a group of teenagers, which obviously means that there is a fair bit of romance involved as well.

For me personally to get into a story the most important aspect is to be very invested in61w3pqVMCZL._US230_ the characters. This does not mean I have to like them, but I do need to be completely invested in what happens to them. If the storyteller can do this, then I will most likely binge the entire thing whether book, movie, tv show, comic…. regardless whether or not the story is good or my normal cup of tea. This was definitely an initial draw in me reading this second series because I was already very invested in both Percy and Annabeth’s characters, who are among the main characters in this series and the main characters in the previous series. The majority of the characters in this book did capture my emotional investment, which kept me reading all five books, but there were a few I found lacking. Maybe I am the only one who felt this, but I thought that Riordan didn’t spend enough time on some of the new characters to pull me into their plots. Unfortunately, this is common in stories that feature such a large cast of main characters, had the time on each character been even plot points might not have been as successful and honestly, I might have been annoyed to not spend as much time on my favorites.

I would be lying if I were to say this was my favorite book in this series but I still greatly enjoyed it. Besides my problem with not feeling emotionally invested enough in some of the characters, I really do not have any other complaints about the book. It was successful in finishing this series story arc while having plenty of plot of its own. And it ended wrapping just about everything up so that I was satisfied, but open enough to still want more. If this were a regular series, the leftover cliffhangers would be dreadful! But Riordan writes series that capture over-arching plots but that connect to his other book series in this same world, so an ending like this simply promising more books about these characters in another series.

Overall I liked this book, if young adult fantasy is your genre, then I would definitely suggest looking at these books. They do what I require of my urban fantasy stories, mix magic into our real world enough that a part of me can almost believe it could be possible. Characters, world, and plot flowing together into an engaging story that obviously captured my interest enough to read ten and counting of these novels.

*This was a review I found while cleaning that I write a few years ago. I have since read two more Riordan novels and counting! I love the way Riordan writes and appreciate how he seems to continually grow as a writer, always tackling new issues and allowing his characters to have growth. Annabeth and Percy especially, they are two of my all-time favorite characters. I highly recommend reading his books!