Book Review: 12 NEW CHRISTMAS STORIES: AN ANTHOLOGY

Title: 12 New Christmas Stories: An Anthology

Author: Lee Allen Hill, Diane Kenel-Truelove, Terry Broxson, Ann Mullen-Martin, Jay Squires

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Pages: 112

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

This was a sweet collection of tales, some nicer than the others.

‘Jesus and Donkey’ by Lee Allen Hill was a sweet tale. A little boy, Jesus, who has recently lost his father, lives with his mother and Donkey, his dog. He wants to get his mother a turkey for Christmas, but the money that he has saved is only sufficient to buy a chicken. And then Jesus loses the chicken.

There is a smattering of Spanish strewn through this story, which I enjoyed. The author has some interesting things to say on the subject of dogs. Dogs, born without pockets, have little interest in trade and commerce.

I also loved Mr Epstein’s thoughts about Christmas. Christians celebrate a Jew . . . The best of us should be celebrated ecumenically.

The stories by Lee Allen Hill were my favourites.

‘The Magic of Santa’s Christmas Box’ by Diane Kenel-Truelove was a sweet true story about a child’s belief in Santa Claus, and how the sense of wonder stays with her.

‘A Christmas Gift’ by Ann Mullen-Martin is a sweet story about an elderly childless widow who takes in a foster child she grows to love. When her application to adopt the child is approved, it is a Christmas gift for both of them.

‘Bring Back the Carolers’ by Jay Squires was describe as Non-fiction in the Contents, but appeared to be fictional as the narrator was addressed as Junie by her mother. This narrator mourns the disappearance of carolers over several decades and remembers a time when the carolers used ot come to their door.

‘The Christmas Tree’ by Terry Broxson: This story could have stood by itself. It didn’t need to be narrated by a cat. Some of the stories felt forced, and this was one of them.

‘The Million-dollar Christmas’ by Lee Allen Hill: The father of our seven-year-old narrator wins a lottery of million dollars. The banter between the family members was a hoot; the father especially had some of the best lines. I smiled as I read this one. This tale was a true expression of the Christmas spirit.

‘A Touch of Christmas Cash’ by Ann Mullen-Martin seemed like fiction. The protagonist was called Olevia. This charming story reminded us that if we have enough, we should think of others.

‘That Year Was Different’ by Ann Mullen-Martin was a continuation of the previous story, written a year after the Christmas of the previous year. This October, Olevia, now 13, has lost her mother.

‘Tis the Season’ by Diane Kenel-Truelove: The author is accused of shoplifting while she is shopping for Christmas gifts at her favourite department store.

‘Is Santa Claus real?’ by Terry Broxson wasn’t much of a tale; it was more like an anecdote.

‘Of Evergreens, and a Flash of Red' by Diane Kenel-Truelove was about a gift box that mysteriously disappears, then shows up again.  

‘JoJo’s Turkey’ by Lee Allen Hill takes us into the life of little John Joseph Jorgenson ‘JoJo’, newly turned nine, who now sees himself as the man of the family. His dad is in prison and his mom works hard as a firefighter. On Christmas Day, his mom is busy, saving lives, while his aunt is busy and drunk in front of the television. Little JoJo makes arrangements for a turkey dinner for his hero mother.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: WHEN KNOWING COMES

Title: When Knowing Comes

Author: Kelly Green

Publisher: Safe Passage Press

Pages: 392

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

 

The book begins in 1972 where we see an unnamed boy being abused by a paedophile. I felt a sense of anxiety in the pit of my stomach at the grooming the old man was subjecting the little boys to, far from the watchful eyes of their parents. 

Then we jump to 1998 to the 3^rd person PoV of Heather Elbridge whose son, Atticus ‘Ace’ has just been accepted into the school soccer club.

There Ace befriends Roberto ‘Robbie’ Rivelino Santos. Together the two boys became close friends, enjoying school and soccer alike, until a sexual predator enters the elite soccer club to which they belong. The horrible experience will blight the young lives.

Decades later, Ace is a promising lawyer, and Robbie wants to sue the sports organization that allowed a predator to destroy young lives. Is Ace up to the challenge? Will he be able to confront the demons that haunt his own past to challenge the sports organization and its powerful legal team?

 

The author grabbed my attention with the first paragraph, detailing the first abuse to which the unnamed boy is subjected. This chapter is written so beautifully, describing the sordidness that the child is put through, without losing the sense of innocence that is his. We are left with a feeling of anger and impotent frustration as the man destroys the trust of the little boy and abuses him. We get a sense that he has done this before, several times, and that he will do it again.

But after a while, I began to lose interest. Once Heather entered the picture, there was just too much of the other stuff happening, getting in the way of the development of the actual plot.

I enjoy stories about legal trials, but this one didn’t touch me. I thought the trial needed to be fleshed out a bit more. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE MURDERESS

Title: The Murderess

Author: Laurie Notaro

Publisher: Little A

Pages: 367

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

When two stinking trunks make their way to Union station, the porters have no idea what they contain. Only that they are bleeding and that the stench is overpowering. Mrs Ruth Judd claims that the trunks contain books belonging to her husband, Dr Judd. But she doesn’t have the key to the trunks. When the trunks are opened, they are found to contain the bodies of Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig (Sammy) Samuelson. Now Ruth is on the run, declared a fugitive and wanted for the murders of the two women.

But who is Ruth? Married to a much older man, who she addresses as Doctor throughout their marriage, Ruth is swept into an affair with Jack Halloran, the neighbour of the Fords, in whose household she serves as a nanny. At the same time, she befriends Anne and Sammy, and the three women help each other through challenges.

But as the heat rises in Phoenix, Arizona, we see passions get inflamed, until the time comes when confrontation becomes inevitable, leaving the police to probe the question of how Ruth came to be responsible for the murders of two of her closest friends who she loved?

 

The greater part of the book is set around the late 1920s and 1930s. the past tense omniscient narrative is interspersed with newspaper stories and Ruth’s first person past tense account. Ruth’s account takes us back to 1923, when she is a young girl, slowly leading up to the present.

 

I was drawn to the book from the very first paragraph when the trunks are found. Soon we meet Ruth and know that she is responsible for this. The mystery lies in why she killed her two dearest friends. What follows is an intense story of passion and intrigue, as the police attempt to piece together the puzzle. This is the early 1930s, so a lot of the forensic technology and techniques available today are not in place.

The period comes with its own challenges, when tuberculosis could kill you. We learn about the challenges that Ruth faces, her tuberculosis, her husband’s opioid addiction, her loneliness, among other things. We learn also about the circumstances that people faced in that time, with the Depression looming large, the challenges faced by single women, the outlawing of homosexuality. In 1927, Ruth says, “people were still spending money like mad then,” reminding us that the Great Depression is still in the future.

The weather in Phoenix is as powerful as a character, influencing and driving Ruth on. The weather, combined with her loneliness, her struggle between choosing her own happiness with Jack and worrying about her lack of faithfulness to her husband (she is, after all, a pastor’s daughter), her dependence on substances to tackle the challenges she faces and her failing mental health (the illness runs in the family; her mother is eventually institutionalized too), all egg her on to make dubious choices.

 

 

The author pulls off the unimaginable, helping us to see the murderess as a flawed human. Despite the gory nature of the crime, the author treats it in a manner that is neither prurient nor base. I couldn’t help feeling an inexplicable feeling of compassion for Ruth as she slowly loses her mind. Ruth herself describes it as a ‘wire running through her.’

The crime may inspire revulsion, but Ruth’s story demands attention. Through flashbacks, we get to know how Ruth, Anne and Sammy become friends. We see the exact moment at which the situation changes for Ruth, hurtling her and the others to their inevitable fate.

Ultimately, the Murderess is one of us, like us. The book reminds us, as it did the staff at the matrons in the prison, how close we may be to having our own wires stretched too taut. It reminds us that there is a very thin line between mental health and mental illness. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EPIC MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Title: The Encyclopedia of Epic Myths and Legends

Author: Arie Kaplan

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group—Wellfleet Press

Pages: 256

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Myths and legends are everywhere, in our language, vocabulary and science. Our language is rife with examples. Thursday from Thor, the Norse god of thunder; January from Janus, the Roman god of time who was two-faced, with one face looking forward, the other backward. There are examples like narcissistic mirroring Narcissus who was obsessed with himself.

Unlike other books of its kind, this one doesn’t limit itself to myths of European origin, but covers those of Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, South America, Persia, Angola, Japan and India, among others.

India is represented by the Buddha, as mentioned in the Jataka Tales, and our very own Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site, among other references.

The pages are beautifully designed with coloured illustrations strewn throughout. Painters like Francis Bacon who painted myths are mentioned alongside Salvador Dali and Indian artist Sakti Burman who creates paintings and sculptures about classical art from Hindu mythology.

After a long introduction, we read about different Creation myths, why they exist and their significance. The author points out similarities and differences between various creation myths. The Creation myths covered here include the four versions of the Egyptian Creation myths, besides those of Benin, Greece, Nigeria and Japan. The Creation myth of the Nordic region explains the presence of the snow and frost. The section also includes the DC Comics Creation Myth and that of the Marvel universe.

The chapter on gods and deities includes gods of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Inca and Norse mythology. The chapter on heroic mythical characters include characters like Mwindo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, King Arthur and Merlin of England, Scheherazade of Persia, Heracles of Greece, Robin Hood of England, Rama and Sita of India, Ahura Mazda from ancient Persia, Mulan of China, Perseus of Greece, Kintaro of Japan and Li Chi of China.

The chapter on Tricksters, Villains and Misunderstood Miscreants includes Loki from Norse mythology, Legba from ancient Dahomey, Eshu from Yoruba mythology, Papa Legba from the Haitian/Voudou mythology, Anansi the spider from West Africa, Set, the Egyptian god of chaos, Thanatos from Greek mythology, the Minotaur from Greek mythology, Medusa from Greek mythology and Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend.

The chapter on Monsters includes Dragons from Chinese, Norse and Scandinavian mythology, vampires and bloodsuckers, and demons such as Ravana from Hindu mythology.

Blurbs on Mythic Masters cover those who have worked to preserve stories and folklore through art, film, music and literature. Filmmaker Taika Waititi, Terry Gilliam and George Lucas, authors Zora Neale Hurston and Neil Gaiman, singer Beyonce Knowles and comic book artist Jack Kirby.

Blurbs on Legendary Lore include the Tooth Fairy, Leprechaun, Santa Claus, Stonehenge, Unicorns, the Sphinx and Mermaids.

The author provides a list of references to books and articles for those interested in reading more on this subject. The book was not Eurocentric in nature, and I appreciated that. So many cannot see beyond European mythology. The style is engaging with a touch of humour.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: A MYSTERY AT LILI VILLA

Title: A Mystery at Lili Villa

Author: Arathi Menon

Publisher: Yali Books

Pages: 172

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Ten-year-old Tam from Bengaluru is spending her summer vacation with her cousins, 11-year-old Arj and 9-year-old Mira, in Elathoor, Kerala. Her aunt and uncle, Sheila Ammayi and Damodar Ammavan, are both doctors and away at their clinic throughout the day, giving the kids the opportunity to do their own thing.

One night, Tam sees mysterious footprints in the mud outside the window. The next morning, the family gets to know that Sheila’s Ammayi’s jewellery was stolen during the night. The police are called, and the size of the massive footprint measured. But the big clue is more hindrance than help. There are so many people with that shoe size. There’s the creepy driver Kodavis, the cook, Pitamma, Fan-fixer Faekku, Dumdum chechi, even Damodar Ammavan and sub-inspector, Thombu.

When it appears that the police investigation is going too slow, the kids decide to conduct their own investigation to find the culprit. They follow everyone on the suspect list to find out who might be the thief. As they get closer to the thief, they are faced with real danger, but they are unafraid. Will they successfully intercept the thief and recover the jewellery? Or will the thief get away?

 

As a child, I used to devour books by Enid Blyton. I loved the names and descriptions of the books, even though I couldn’t relate to any of them. There was no Internet then, no way to see what those interesting names meant. Here we have the family cook, Pitamma, treating the family, especially the kids, to the best of Kerala’s cuisine. It was nice to read a book where the food was familiar and comforting.

I liked the relationship between the cousins, the friendly banter and the raucous fun times they had. It reminded me of my own summer vacations.

The author has also thoughtfully provided an extensive glossary for the dishes mentioned in the book as also the Malayalam words and expressions strewn through.

The only error was that the kids fail to investigate one person, Veer Sagar. While Mira acknowledges the fact that they missed looking into that person’s alibi, it still feels like a mistake. Why not omit all references to that person, instead of saying, Oops, we forgot one suspect? Or else give him a sound alibi too.

 

The writing was sweet. Kids are sure to find it charming. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: POSSESSED

Title: Possessed

Author: Niki Valentine

Publisher: Sphere

Pages: 438

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Emma Russell, a scholarship student, is admitted to the Conservatoire, a prestigious music school, where she is befriended by the Benoit twins, outgoing and assertive Sophie and shy and gentle Matilde. While both sisters are her friends, it is clear that Matilde shares a closer bond with Emma, and is more affectionate towards her, something that Sophie is not happy about. 

Then a fellow student, Henry Bailey-Ray falls in love with Matilde, and Sophie has one more reason to be unhappy.

When a masterclass at which Matilde is playing ends in disaster, the twins go home to recover. That is how Emma learns that Matilde slit her wrists in the bath. Emma is devastated, but Sophie is calm and flourishing, claiming that she has run out of energy for crying.

Meanwhile, Emma’s own life is a mess. She is seeing Matilde’s ghost everywhere, and is losing track of large chunks of time. Is grief causing her to lose her mind, or is she losing herself?

 

The story is written in the 3^rd person limited PoV of Emma. The story revolves around the three young women. The other characters rarely get much space. Even Henry, who is a romantic interest, is pale and almost lifeless.

 

I liked the descriptions of life at the music school, the endless recitals and performances, the music, the choir etc. They all made the setting more real.

The writing was good but largely prosaic. Given the subject, I would have expected something more literary or luminous in character. Also, there’s not much in terms of an eerie atmosphere. When Emma felt a chill, I, as a reader, didn’t.

Also, the book could have been thinner by about a 100 pages, without losing any intensity. At 438 pages, it is too long drawn, and for much of the time, nothing much seems to be changing. It is only in the last 100 pages that the pace picked up.

The cover with the glass pane drawing a perfect vertically symmetrical line down the face emphasized that Sophie and Matilde were identical twins and yet somehow very different.

Book Review: GHOST QUEEN

Title: Ghost Queen

Author: Mahtab Narsimhan

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

Pages: 80

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

Malika and her boyfriend, Veer, have a popular vlogging channel called Ghost Queen where they travel to supposedly haunted places and reveal the truth about them to their fans. They haven’t encountered any ghostly presence yet. But maybe that’s about to change.

Now they are headed to Bhangarh, known as the most haunted place in India. Malika is certain that Bhangarh will catapult their vlogging channel to fame, bringing in subscribers and much needed ad revenue. Her family’s financial situation is precarious, and she hopes her gig will enable her to improve their financial situation.

Will Bhangarh change their fortunes? Or will it undo everything?

 

Ghost Queen takes the trope of the haunted site and gives it a modern spin with its reference to today’s culture of content creation. Both the main characters run a vlogging channel in the hope of creating content and making a living.

Incidentally, Bhangarh fort in India’s Rajasthan state does indeed have a reputation of being the most haunted place in the country.

The book is meant for kids who don’t enjoy reading, and so the writing is simple enough to hold their attention.

Kids will enjoy Malika and Veer. I found her slightly cliched, particularly with the father who had lost his job and the mother juggling two jobs to put food on the table. Malika didn’t mention why her father didn’t try to find another job. Or if she had any siblings etc. This sketchy information made it hard for me to invest in her.

She hopes to study abroad. But again, she doesn’t tell us why she can’t study here, or even how old she is.

The description of Malika, as seen in the reflection in the glass windowpane, is another imagery that has been done to death.

There were some grammatical errors that should be weeded out. But overall, the writing was easy and the descriptions were good. I hope kids enjoy this one.

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE DAY I DISAPPEARED

Title: The Day I Disappeared

Author: Brandi Reeds

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 319

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Holly Gebhardt was abducted at age four from the park, even as best friend Katherine (Kitten) Hershey watched, and their mothers chatted nearby. Three months later, she was found at the same park, with no memory of her ordeal.

On the statement of Kitten, local handyman Alan Kohlbrook was arrested and sentenced to jail, while Holly’s mother, Cecily, struggled to live down the allegation that she was somehow involved. The drinking habit, fast turning into an addiction, didn’t help matters.

Twenty years later, she’s trying to lead a normal life. On-off boyfriend Derrion Sterling won’t let her have any peace of mind, and Kitten is engaged to her boyfriend, Eliot.

When police officer Jason Guidry wants to pick Holly’s brain about her abduction 20 years ago, she doesn’t want to be reminded about the past. But it seems that a child named Skylar Jane Kipniss has been abducted, and Holly’s memories might help the police to find her. Cecily is in a coma after meeting with an accident.

 

The book is written in the first person past tense PoVs of Holly and Cecily, the latter’s thoughts awhirl while in a coma. It is both a mystery and women’s fiction, with a very slight paranormal element. The mystery lies not just in the identity of Holly’s kidnapper. It also has to do with her mother’s secrets.

The book highlights the situation of those mothers to whom mothering doesn’t come easy. It doesn’t come naturally to all of us. We’re not all meant to spend our lives performing puppet shows and building with blocks and coloring in books and singing nonsensical songs to entertain our offspring. We see how judgemental society, and even the other mothers, can be when a woman doesn’t fit the accepted mould of a doting mother. Cecily was right to call them mommy-vultures.

Right off, you know which way the romance with Derrion will go.

I found both Holly and Cecily very likeable. I didn’t like Kitten. She was selfish and self-centred, always wanting to be the focus of everyone’s attention, and over-dramatising her own situation.

The men in this story, Matt Hershey, Kitten’s much older brother; Derrion and Eliot, are all much older than the women. And you’ll figure out why that is so.

I found this book very well written and engaging. 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE SILENT PATIENT

Title: The Silent Patient

Author: Alex Michaelides

Publisher: Celadon Books

Pages: 336

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐

Alicia Berenson, a famous painter, married to a famous fashion photographer, Gabriel, is living the good life. They have a beautiful home, a happy life together. And yet, one day, Alicia, seemingly without any provocation, shoots her husband at point-blank range, paints a picture, says the single word, Alcestis, and then refuses to speak a single word after that.

Alicia is sentenced to a secure facility called the Grove for treatment. Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber applies for a job at the Grove. He is anxious to heal Alicia, nay, obsessed; it would be the greatest achievement of his career. Berenson, the eponymous Silent Patient, hasn’t spoken a word six years after shooting her husband to death. Her only conscious act since being caught has been a naked self-portrait with the title, Alcestis.

Theo needs to get at the bottom of Alicia’s motivation, why she committed that dreadful act of violence against a husband she loved so much. Meanwhile, no one knows about Theo’s motivation for wanting to uncover her motive.

 

The book is written in the first person past tense PoV of Theo and the first person past tense events in Alicia’s life, as mentioned in her diary. Theo’s account of his investigation into Alicia’s state of mind and the events in his own life alternate with Alicia’s account. There are a lot of parallels between these two first-person accounts. Theo says he was saved by Katie, just as Alicia writes in her diary that she was saved by Gabriel.

Given the author’s Greek parentage, there are Greek references galore. A character is of Greek ancestry. Alicia names her self-portrait, Alcestis, after a Greek mythical heroine by the same name. Unfortunately, the connection between the painting and the play is not explored well. The book is too busy with Theo’s musings.

 

Reworking the premise of Euripides’ play, Alcestis, was a clever idea. The premise was clever, the execution not so much. There are huge plot holes littering the book. For a long time, we are deliberately misled with Theo investigating people who have some association with Alicia. There was no need to do this.

Alicia’s reasons for keeping silent make no sense at all. Why would she keep silent, then write a diary about what happened, and hide the diary, and succeed in smuggling it into the mental health facility, then succeed in keeping it hidden there for over six years?

How are we supposed to believe this? Alicia kept a diary hidden for six years. The six years she spent in a psychiatric treatment facility, and yet no one seemed to know anything about it. No one did anything about it. No one even read it.

It was amazing that no one checked her stuff in six years. Theo was a doctor and yet his stuff was checked regularly, but the patient’s possessions weren’t checked even once?

Theo came across as insufferable and know-it-all. The other characters in the Grove aren’t any better. All of them seem like stereotypes

It was odd that nobody could remember the name of Alicia’s doctor. Every time characters spoke of the doctor, they said they had forgotten the name. How convenient!

Also, Theo keeps following his wife’s lover, but never catches sight of his face. What is the likelihood of that? At some point, he should have seen the guy’s face, right?

When a certain character injects Alicia with a lethal dose of morphine, instead of seeking help, she sits down to write pages and pages about what actually happened.

Theo isn’t very quick on the uptake. The silent patient hands him her diary and for the greater part of the book he wonders what he should do with it. I wanted to tell you, you nutter, balance it on your head, so you can improve your posture.

Book Review: MYTHOS: THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION

Title: Mythos: The Illustrated Edition

Author: Stephen Fry

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Pages: 512

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my first time reading a book by Stephen Fry, but it won’t be the last. The style of this book was unlike anything I’ve ever read. The author successfully introduced me to Greek mythology while connecting disparate elements together with a distinct voice that was friendly and humorous.

The book began with a detailed family tree, which became clear as I read on. The narrative was divided into The Beginning Part 1 and 2, which detailed the Greek Creation Myth, the birth of the gods, their passions, egos and mischief. The Toys of Zeus, Part 1 and 2, featured mortals, because the gods obviously treat human beings as their playthings.

This book was a delight from start to finish. The myths were written in delightful prose, a tongue-in-cheek style, successfully surprising, educating and entertaining us in the same breath. I was able to see instances of Greek myths and their place in the English language, besides subjects like Science, History, Mythology, Metaphor, music, semantics, etymology, cinema, art and computer hardware.

The illustrations were beautiful, and the writing incorporated just the right sprinkling of psychological insights. The footnotes were a joy.

Along the way, we are treated to the origin myths for how honey, medicine, alcohol and spiders came to be, how human beings got fire, and how the seasons came about. There are so many ideas and concepts from literature, fiction and pop culture that this book helped me understand in the context of their origin story. The author even points out specific instances of the origin of sex, incest and murder.

Overall, the Greek gods were an unruly lot, always getting into trouble and behaving in ways that they shouldn’t have. There’s a lot of feasting and cavorting.

There were specific instances of the English language being enriched by Greek mythology. For instance, the word, hermetically sealed, owes itself to Hermes.

The characters I recognized from literature and other readings included Aphrodite, Zeus, Prometheus, Hera, Hermes, Apollo, Midas, Sisyphus, Persephone, Pandora, Hades, Cupid, Narcissus, Hero and Leander, Pygmalion and Poseidon. The list is a long one, and reminded me of the stories I’d enjoyed without considering the mythic culture they belonged to.

The author even links the myths to children’s animation classics like Tom and Jerry. With all that knowledge, he doesn’t come across as a know-it-all. And that was the selling point of this book.

It was a special delight to read about my own namesake under Artemis, one of whose names is Cynthia. I was aware that my name meant the Greek goddess of the moon, but this detailed picture was welcome.

While the book was remarkably detailed and inventive, I understood that there were many myths that the book had not covered. Icarus was one Greek myth that I recall that did not feature here.

The author recommends a reading of theoi.com for a further reading of 1500 pages of text and for a glimpse of 1200 images.

 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.) 

Book Review: THE WORLDS OF GEORGE RR MARTIN

Title: The Worlds of George RR Martin

Author: Tom Huddleston

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Pages: 208

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I must confess that I haven’t ever read anything by George RR Martin, nor have I seen the series that it inspired. My excuse is that I don’t like fantasy.

But after reading this book about his inspiration, I’m now inspired by Martin’s prolific ability and more equipped in my own journey as a writer.

In this book, the author introduces us to the breath of Martin’s inspiration, stemming from his voracious reading of history, comic-book characters, the works of great science and fantasy authors, cartography and the study of atlases, among other things. The author describes Martin as a voracious gatherer of knowledge, of experience, or story.

The book is supplemented with an eclectic collection of photos of Martin’s childhood home, various paintings of subjects that inspired him etc. Among others, there are photos of him at the signing table at the 2014 world science Fiction Convention, as also the cast of Game of Thrones on HBO and covers of the first editions of his books. There are photos of paintings depicting the history on which his oeuvre is based.

 

The book details his life, education, publishing successes and failures and his tryst with writing for TV, besides the influences on his life and writing and the episodes of The Twilight Zone that he scripted.

It’s fantastic to read about how Martin’s books grew and the powerful storytelling that drove that growth. The book explores Martin’s journey to writing the book and the Game of Thrones series, their production, impact and relationship with the source novels. the Epilogue talks about the astonishing success of the book and its adaptation to the silver screen (did you know that the first episode scored 2.2 million viewers on the first night itself?).

The book was divided into chapters, named after locations in the book, such as the Wall, Winterfell and the Iron Islands. There is no fixed format to the layout of the pages. Quotes accompanying photos take up whole pages, sometimes even double spreads.

Ideas are cheap … it’s the execution that is all-important.

We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices.

The world is one great web, and a man dare not touch a single strand lest all the others tremble.

Every man who walks the earth casts a shadow on the world.

I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time … they have the whole things designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed ... They know if they planted a fantasy seed or a mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.

Never having read the books or watched the series, and being largely unfamiliar with European history, which we didn’t study at school, I wasn’t always able to figure out what was happening. There was a lot I couldn’t relate to, but the author’s style was engaging.

I got a sense of the depth of reading and research that informed Martin’s work, in terms of history, the mythology of Norse, Saxon and other cultures, the architecture and geography of the regions in which the books are set, and Martin’s own vast reading of historical fiction, fantasy and horror.

I want to point out just one error in the book. The author points out that the name given to a particular “city’s distinctive elephant-drawn carts, hathay, echoes the Hindu word for elephant, hathi.” The right word here is Hindi. Hindi is a language. Hinduism is a religion followed by Hindu people.

 

Towards the end, the author tells us about how far the books are inspired by the real world. The threat of "Winter is coming" in the book is synonymous with the real danger of climate change in the real world.

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.) 

Book Review: THE MURDERER'S APE (Sally Jones #2)

 

Title: The Murderer's Ape

Author: Jakob Wegelius

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 605

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Henry Koskela, Chief to Sally Jones, the gorilla he rescued, is arrested for the murder of Aphonse Morro. He has motive. It was Morro that had sent him on a misadventure that caused him to lose his beloved boat, the Hudson Queen, and their hard-earned savings. But Koskela has no way to prove his innocence.

Only Sally Jones knows that her Chief has done nothing wrong. That he did not seek to kill Morro. That Morro fell by accident. But what can an ape do? Particularly when powerful people are determined to keep him imprisoned forever.

Now Sally Jones is on the run from the powerful men who want to bring anarchy to Portugal. Luckily, she meets Ana Molina, a young woman with an angelic voice who works in a shoe factory. Soon Ana’s friends become the friends of Sally Jones, but danger is never far away from Sally Jones.

 

The story is told in the first person past tense PoV of Sally Jones, not Sally. Always Sally Jones. It is, in fact, being typed out by her on a typewriter, long after the incidents described in the book are over.

This book started well. I didn’t realise who the narrator was until the last line on the first page when she said that her fur is itchy with coal dust. As a character, Sally Jones had great potential. She is literate, she can type, repair stuff, play chess and she serves as first engineer on a ship.

 

As a rule, I don’t read fantasy, but this one was targeted at children and promised to be warm and fuzzy. So I made an exception. The characters were all sweet, but not really unforgettable. Sally Jones herself didn’t live up to her potential. The adversaries weren’t really evil, in keeping with the target audience. This is children’s fiction after all.

The writing was sweet, especially the scenes where Sally Jones meets the Chief after their prolonged separation.

The writer does a good job with the time period. Set in the early 20^th century, there are accordions, motor boats, steamers, typewriters etc. Illustrations of these would have helped young readers to get an understanding of older technologies.

But there was tremendous room for improvement. For the greater part of the book, the Chief was in jail, serving a sentence of 25 years in prison. Considering that the Chief and Sally Jones were the main characters, they both should have a greater role to play in the book. As it is, the story picks up the thread of the plot only with about 100 pages to spare.

With the Chief stuck in jail, Sally Jones is sent off on a grand adventure, heading off to Egypt and spending a long spell in India, beating a king at chess and being his confidante, but not really advancing the plot of the story. Given that the title of the book is The Murderer’s Ape, I thought that Sally Jones should have been shown to be doing more to get the Chief released.

It’s a fantasy after all. If the author could make her literate, able to understand English, why not get her to grunt some words? If she is good at “fixing broken things”, why not make her use that skill to enable the Chief’s release rather than spending time fixing broken accordions with nothing to break the monotony for the Chief. The poor guy spends years in prison.

Also, at 605 pages, it is much too long and the pace far too slow. Young ones are bound to lose interest in such a heavy tome. I do think the author could have done more to bring out the themes of love and friendship, loyalty and innocence. As it is, with Sally Jones travelling around the world, those themes get diluted a fair bit.

The illustrations, the grainy pencil sketches were charming, quaint and inviting. 

(I read this book on Edelweiss. Thank you to the author, the publisher and Edelweiss.)