American Gods

I believe this is my first Blogger book review. The title of the novel is in the title of the post: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It is by far the best novel I've read so far by Mr. Gaiman, the other two being Stardust and Coraline. He is a great writer, says I, and this would make a great film. It begins with Shadow Moon (funny name, eh?) being released from prison after a three-year sentence. On the day of his release, he learns that his wife, Laura, has been killed in a car crash. On the plane ride home, he meets a man man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday offers Shadow a job: to protect Wednesday and act as a bodyguard, and not to ask questions. A storm rocks the plane, but Wednesday says that a far bigger storm is coming. And one does, toward the end, both literally and metaphorically.

Actually, I won't tell the entire plot here for two reasons: I don't want to spoil it, and I don't remember every little detail. The only flaw I could think of was that it had a few coincidences for plot convenience, but no book is perfect. I will say that many gods from many cultures are featured in the book (but not Greek!), and that it is what I call an R-rated book: a lot of cursing, sex, violence, etc.

If you want to know how it ends, read it. But I'll say this: It had more elaboration than Coraline and more "plants and payoffs" than Stardust. All in all, a very good book. It took me a short while once I really began to read intensely, which gave me an idea: I should have a weekly "reading night" in which I try to finish or at least get really far into a book. For some reason, I automatically thought of Tuesday as a night for this.

I suppose I should grade the book. Final grade: B+/A-

Reading Assignment

So on Monday, I found out that my English class is doing this thing. Yes, a thing. We have to choose a book outside of school (or from our media center) that is over 150 pages long and read it in four or five weeks. There's probably some kind of report involved at the end, but I haven't actually heard about that. I thought about reading Cornelia Funke's newest novel Reckless, but it was 300-some-odd pages, and I thought I might challenge myself/show off a bit more. I thought about doing something by Peter Straub. War and Peace seemed a bit too long to read in that space of time. I eventually settled on a 588-pager by Neil Gaiman, known as American Gods. I've read a couple of his books (Stardust and Coraline), his story "Orange", and I own both of the aforementioned books as well as Year's Best SF 14, which contains "Orange". I also possess a collection known as Smoke and Mirrors. He's a great writer and storyteller, and this one is proving amazing so far. I can say this: There is more cursing (like a Stephen King novel), and it is quite dark. It involved one of the most explicit and directly stated sex scenes I have read, which ended up with the man being trapped inside the woman. There is a character who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. This should be a breeze and a delight to read, although I put down Dracula to read it (I had already put down The Stand to read Dracula for Halloween). I sometimes read a bit more slowly during times of schooling, but this should not be affected, seeing as it is, strictly speaking, for school. In class we are also reading Elie Wiesel's Night. I rather suspect this project might be due to the fact that (wipes tear) a lot of people don't read these days. A friend of mine showed me a minimally short book and opened it, showing me how big the print was. I suppose he thought he would somehow benefit from going easy on himself like that. He is a nice bloke, but not a reader. I'm just glad that I am.

Irrelevant notes: I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. ~ My job is over for this year, but I can pretty much assure you I'll be returning. ~ Did I mention that I am most likely a descendant of Percy Bysshe Shelley? ~ I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED about Deathly Hallows!!! ~ Irrelevant notes...good idea! I should make this a regular thing.