Mini-Reviews: Nonfiction - Fringe Anthropology

Lost Tribes & Sunken Continents by Robert Wauchope (1962)
I expected this to be a rather impartial review of anthropological fringe theories regarding pre-Columbian culture contacts in the New World. Instead, I got Wauchope blasting some of the crazier theorists, most dating back to the 19th century (that bastion of fascinating, but often off-the-wall, pseudoscientific theories and hoaxes). Interesting? Yes. But the author didn't really go into detail on the theories, just ranted about their proponents.

America B.C. by Barry Fell (1976)
Fascinating? Yes. Convincing? Maybe... The purported presence of Celtic Ogam inscriptions in the U.S. is certainly an enigma, but it would have been nice to have more research besides Fell's own to back up his claims. Also, some of his ideas (like the influence on the American Indian mound builders) seemed to be going a bit too far. The answer, I think, really comes down to whether or not Fell is correctly interpreting his material. Issues with the writing itself: slightly disorganized at some points.

Long Before Columbus by Hans Holzer (1992)
Holzer's book is based around the site of Mystery Hill, NH, which is also mentioned much by Fell. Where Fell is arguing for a Celtic origination, however, Holzer aims for supporting the presence of the Aegean/Mediterranean Sea Peoples. This he does rather ineffectively, since the evidence he presents is hodgepodge, poorly organized, and vague. Much of it is also based on parapsychology, which I'm not sure how to take.

YA Sci-Fi: Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Series: Across the Universe #3
Publisher: Razorbill
Date: January 15 2013
Format: ARC
Source: GoodReads First Look
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 370
Reading time: two days

From GoodReads: Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience. But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight. Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

My review: *Sob,* the series is over! I was a bit skeptical about Beth Revis being able to pull off three consecutive amazing installments, but she has certainly succeeded in not only making each book epic and intriguing, but also unique from the storylines and character of the others. Thus it's not a series of which one tires, thank God, because there's already enough of those out there.

Shades of Earth continues with the complexity that characterizes the series. The setting and situation are quite different - Amy, Elder, et al. have finally made it onto the new planet, are dealing with new characters, and have largely left behind the issues of Godspeed for the challenges and intrigues of the new world - yet there's still a good deal of mystery. The way all the elements of the unknown eventually come together is amazing. One might be able to foresee a bit of what the colonists discover, but it's impossible to truly see how all the details and events will resolve. Previous issues come back in completely new and unexpected ways to impact the colony's survival, and the conclusion is both realistic and astounding. It's an exciting, breathtaking, heart-pounding finale for the series.

Folklore: The Epic of Qayaq by Lela Kiana Oman

Subtitle: The Longest Story Ever Told By My People
Publisher: Carleton Univ. Press
Date: 1995
Format: paperback
Source: purchased used
Read: to further my knowledge of the world's epics
Pages: 120
Reading time: one day

From GoodReads: The hero is Qayaq, and the cycle traces his wanderings by kayak and on foot along four rivers - the Selawik, the Kobuk, the Noatak and the Yukon - up along the Arctic Ocean to Barrow, over to Herschel Island in Canada, and south to a Tlingit Indian village. Along the way he battles with jealous fathers-in-law and other powerful adversaries; discovers cultural implements (the copper-headed spear and the birchbark canoe); transforms himself into animals, birds and fish, and meets animals who appear to be human.

My review: The Epic of Qayaq is a cycle of stories told by the Inupiat American Indians of northern Alaska. Oman's version is extremely well-told, especially given that the last couple of epics I read were either mind-numbingly long and boring (Homer's) or not great translations (two West African ones, not reviewed on the blog). This epic, by contrast, was very readable. Qayaq's adventures - and the culture underlying the tales - were quite interesting. Though the details were unique, it was also fascinating to draw parallels between this epic and other hero stories from around the world. The tale never dragged, nor did it feel undetailed as do many folktales; the story was fleshed-out and flowed well. This edition did a fantastic job of bringing another culture's epic to unfamiliar readers, not falling into the flaw of certain similar works by failing to convey the unique concepts and history of the group as reflected in the tale.

Holiday Book Haul

Happy (somewhat belated) holidays, everyone!

For review:
Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perisic (First Look)
The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran (publisher)

From Random Buzzers:
Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier

Christmas gifts:
The Packhorseman by Charles M. Hudson
Conversations with the High Priest of Coosa by Charles M. Hudson
Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik
The Year 3000 by Paolo Mantegazza
Three Women by Isabelle de Charriere

Purchased on a book-buying excursion to two of my favorite stores:
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru by Nigel Davies
Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra Behn
The Man of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie
Lady Audley's Secret by M.E. Braddon
Corinne, or Italy by Madame de Stael
Egil's Saga by anonymous
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell
Supernatural Horror in Literature by H.P. Lovecraft
The Scholars by Wu Ching-Tzu
The Search for the Tassili Frescoes by Henri Lhote
Work and Worship Among the Shakers by Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews
Long Before Columbus by Hans Holzer
Early Irish Society by Myles Dillon

Fiction: Honey for the Bears by Anthony Burgess

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date: 1963
Format: paperback
Source: purchased used
Read: for the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge
Pages: 225
Reading time: two days

Paul Hussey, British antiques dealer, and his American wife are off to Russia. As a favor for the widow of a deceased friend, they are to smuggle dozens of drilon dresses into the USSR to sell to the state's material goods-hungry citizens. But when Mrs. Hussey is admitted to a St. Petersburg hospital to receive treatment for a painful rash and Mr. Hussey is investigated by Russian agents, the couple realizes they are in over their heads in this satire of the Cold War and Anglo-Soviet relations.

Being a satire, Honey for the Bears is billed as being "comic," but the humor just didn't quite catch with me. Mostly because it was dry. Soooo dry. It doesn't help that Burgess is a very 'literary' author who uses lots of highfalutin' words, and my little teenage brain is used to more puerile high school and college humor. Also, I'm not British and living through the Cold War in the early 1960s, so the book has lost much of the context it would have had for more contemporary readers. But this was still an enjoyable read, almost surreal at points. It was quite interesting to see what in the world could happen next to Paul Hussey and how (if?) he was going to make it out of the USSR. Some of Burgess's themes (i.e., homosexuality) were a bit unexpected, and others (freedom, Communism vs. capitalism) left me wondering how Burgess intended them to be interpreted.

2013 Reading Challenges

I don't usually participate in reading challenges, but two caught my eye for this upcoming year:

The 2013 TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Evie at Bookish. Why? I have a ghastly number of books I own but haven't read. Yet. For the purposes of this challenge, I will count any book I've owned for 6+ months that is not a 2013 release. I'm aiming for 50 books, but really, I'll probably be happy with 25. Or maybe less. I'm really bad at sticking to these plans for decreasing my TBR mountain.



1. Honey for the Bears by Anthony Burgess
2. America B.C. by Barry Fell
3. The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
4. In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke
5. The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees
6. The Kingdom of Matthias by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz
7. Mountain Jack Tales by Gail E. Haley
8. City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
9. Abandon by Meg Cabot
10. Illuminated by Erica Orloff
11. Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell
12. The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum
13. Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie
14. Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik
15. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
16. The Lais of Marie de France
17. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

The 2013 Translation Challenge, hosted by Ellie at Curiosity Killed the Bookworm. Because I'm great with finding translated lit and then never getting around to reading it. The details of the challenge call for a book a month, so 12 for the year. Here's the beginnings of my (tentative) list:





1. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
2. The Island of Last Truth by Flavia Company
3. Erebos by Ursula Poznanski
4. The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach
5. Our Man in Iraq by Robert Perisic
6. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
8. The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse
9. Dreaming of Cockaigne by Herbert Pleij
10. Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik
11. Wigalois by Wirnt von Grafenberg
12. Without a Net by Ana Maria Shua
13. The Lais of Marie de France

So...my partial reading plans for the year. This page will be periodically updated with links to books reviewed as part of these challenges.

Looking Ahead at 2013

The List of Books To Look Forward To:

Interesting, how a woman's face features on every one of these covers.

Historical fiction:
Temple of a Thousand Faces by John Shors (NAL Trade, 2/5)
Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson (Random House, 3/12) - also a retelling
The Caged Graves by Dianne Salerni (Clarion, 5/14)
Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross (Delacorte, 6/11) - also a retelling
Godiva by Nicole Galland (William Morrow, 7/2)

Retellings, etc:
The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepard (Balzer + Bray, 1/29)
Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt, 4/2)
Rump by Liesl Shurtliff (Alfred A. Knopf, 4/9)
Thorn Abbey by Nancy Ohlin (Simon Pulse, 5/7)
Beauty by Nancy Ohlin (Simon Pulse, 5/7)
Sold for Endless Rue by Madeleine E. Robbins (Forge, 5/14)
The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkein (HarperCollins, 5/23)
Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay (Delacorte, 7/23)

Sci-fi:
Doomed by Tracy Deebs (Walker, 1/8) - also a retelling
The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian (Viking, 2/1)
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord (Del Rey, 2/5)
When We Wake by Karen Healey (Little, Brown, 3/5)

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith (Putnam, 3/7)

Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells (Strange Chemistry, 4/2)

Contemporary:
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Viking, 3/12)
Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley (Tinder Press, 3/28; Little, Brown, 4/16)

Unclear genre:
The Wall by William Sutcliffe (Walker, 6/4)
Bubble World by Carol Snow (Henry Holt, 7/30)
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block (Henry Holt, 8/27)
Gated by Amy Christine Parker (Random House, 8/27)

The sequels:
Lunar Chronicles #2: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel and Friends, 2/5)
Iron Codex #3: The Mirrored Shard by Caitlin Kittredge (Delacorte, 2/12)
After the Snow #2: One Crow Alone by S.D. Crockett (Macmillan, 2/14)
Jenna Fox Chronicles #3: Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt, 3/19)

May the review copy gods be good to us all this year...