Treasure of Norse Mythology

Goodreads review

This was a halfway decent mythology book. I think, however, it was aimed at children and she almost talked down to those readers! In fact, it was a children's book and I somehow missed that when I picked it up. I guess I needed the talking down to, huh?

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar

Goodreads review:

I thought that this was a pretty good primer course on philosophy, considerably better than the dry stuff I read in PHI 101! I really enjoyed the chapters on epistemology and philosophy of language (go figure that theses were my favorite courses in college). The correspondence theory of truth joke actually brought an audible chuckle out of me. Overall I'd recommend this to anyone who would like to learn a bit of philosophy without being bogged down with deep, heavy reading or to someone with a bit of philosophical knowledge for a bit of laughter at some quality Dad jokes.

Early Kings of Norway

Goodreads review:

As far as historical accounts go tis one seems to tick all the boxes: it's informative. Uh, yeah. After that, it's a pretty dry history of some juicy historical stuff. Maybe I'm overawed by History Channel's Vikings. That's a distinct possibility. But somehow this reads more like Leviticus/Numbers rather than the Orkneyinga/Volsungs Saga.

The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzmán

Goodreads Review:

I'm saddened to be finished with this trilogy. Not as sad as when I read the second book, but sad nonetheless. This book was another raucous story of stories that tied everything together and was truly enjoyable to read. I loved the logical absurdity of it all. It was like the Deus ex machina was not only the resolution of the book, but its very essence and reason for being. I look forward to reading more like this!

Quick idea FMAG & Leibniz

In reading some old notes on Leibniz I think that I would like to make the alien that picks up the protagonist in the story a Leibniz-like figure. Or at least use some of Leibniz's metaphysical principles to power his space ship.

Señor Vivo and The Coca Lord

From my Goodreads review.

This book was just a smidge less enjoyable as the first book in the Latin American Trilogy by de Berniéres. It had all of the same pizazz and dark irony, all the same inventive creativity and the same pulling many disparate parts together into one culmination. I wrote elsewhere that if I wrote a book I'd like to emulate some parts of the style of The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. I don't think I could emulate this one. It was a bit too sad. You could see the sadness coming; yet, it was still too shocking not to tear some of my heart up.

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts

(Originally written March 28, 2018)

My Goodreads review of The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Berniéres

I found this book to be a very good read; but, somewhat difficult to classify in my rather haphazard and arbitrary bookshelf labels. I put it on the English-Lit shelf because de Berniéres is English. I also placed it on my Latin-American bookshelf because it reads a lot like other Latin American stories and is set in a fictitious Latin American country. It's a funny book that is definitely a bastard son of Candide, treating nothing as sacred in the wake of its dark humor. It doesn't have quite the pace of Voltaire (what does?); but, other than maybe trying to use obtuse words, the seeming rabbit holes that de Berniéres leads us down tie together nicely in the end. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to diving into number two of his Latin American trilogy.

If I ever write a book, this magical realism is a style I'd like to emulate.