The Mutilation of the Herms: Unpacking an Ancient Mystery

The Mutilation of the Herms: Unpacking an Ancient Mystery
Debra Hamel
5/5 stars

In this short work, Hamel writes succinctly and humorously about the an unsettling event for the citizens of ancient Athens--the night that most of the herms (priapic statues of the Greek god Hermes)were vandalized. Hamel explains why this incident was important and gives an interesting account of the both the response of Athens and the possible reasons for the vandalism. This is a quick, well written and fascinating read, which is happily accessible to the layperson.

Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

Baking Cakes in Kigali
Gaile Parkin
5/5 stars

(I was given the ARC by Amazon Vine in return for an honest review.)

Angel Tungaraza moved to Kigali, Rwanda from her native Tanzania when her husband took a job at the local university. An accomplished cake maker, Angel adds extra income to her large family and gives herself much joy by making custom-ordered cakes for friends, neighbors, and strangers who have heard the good word about her fabulous creations. In addition to being a "professional someone" (as she would call herself), Angel is Mama to her five orphaned grandchildren, confidant of friends and strangers, and a true example of a good woman.

Each chapter centers around one of Angel's cakes, giving the reader shorter stories inside the larger story. It is a story of family, of community, of all manners of love and reconciliation, and of course, of beautiful cakes. I wish I could explain the plot better, to show how desirable a read this is, but I simply can't. Suffice it to say that it is a surprisingly complex plot, despite this books benign face, with Angel facing several interesting ethical issues as well as the range of various good, bad and amusing situations.

Ms. Parkin uses the fact that Angel is an outsider to Rwanda to easily explain the current situation and the bloody past of this country. It never feels contrived; the explanations happen very naturally--as does most everything in this book. . . It all feels very natural. Customs are clarified, situations set up, the reader gently led here and there and yet, it just feels "real" and lifelike, always smooth and believable. Even the conversations, held in a manner so different from Western conversations, become so real that when a Westerner does appear, using typical Western speech, it seems brash and out of context.

This is truly a masterpiece, a first novel of the highest quality. It is a lovely, heartwarming book that sparkles with gentle wit, at times tugs the heartstrings, but is above all, a joyful experience. I can not recommend this novel highly enough. What a pleasure, what a delight. I expect to see much more of Ms. Parkin in the future

(originally read/reviewed in 2009)

Duty Free by Moni Mohsin

Duty Free
Moni Mohsin
1/5 stars

I was given this book by the Amazon Vine program in return for an honest review.

The heroine of Mohsin's novel is an unnamed Pakistani, whose spoiled and ridiculous voice distracts from what might otherwise be an interesting book. The story is told in the first person, using an affected "pigeon English" type of Pakistani, which is amusing for the first few pages but quickly becomes tedious before becoming so frustrating that the book is nearly unreadable. The novel is touted as "Jane Austen's Emma transported to 21st century Pakistan", but the similarities are few and superficial. Overall, the plot is a good idea poorly executed and is nearly impossible to read to the end.

Note: This is my opinion; 45% of the reviews on Amazon are 4 stars.

Trying Neaira by Debra Hamel

Trying Neaira
Debra Hamel 
2003
5/5 stars

Trying Neaira is just what one would NOT expect an historical nonfiction book to be: witty and easy to read, with little bizarre bits that one just MUST read out loud! Furthermore, her writing style is light and makes a normal dry subject (the ancient Athenian judicial system) interesting and comprehensible.

Neaira was a prostitute in the 4th century, who grew up in Corinth and eventually found herself in a stable relationship as the long-time mistress of an influential Athenian, Stephanos. Unfortunately, Stephanos had an equally influential enemy (or at least rival) Apollodoros. They battled back and forth in the courts, and eventually Apollodoros hit on a different way to attack Stephanos--through Neaira.

Athenian laws were quite strict about foreigners and allowed no intermarriage. Apollodoros set out to prove that Neaira was living with Stephanos as his wife, instead of as his mistress, and that their children were being given the rights of Athenian citizens--which, as Neaira's children, they never could be.

Using Apollodoros speech to the jury, Hamel recreates Neaira's life, while using other sources to fill out the story with interesting details about prostitution, jury duty, social customs and Athenian law.*

Hamel approaches Neaira's life (via the speech) as a detective would, piecing together bits, shifting out obvious falsehoods, and in the end presenting a surprising full picture of one woman's life.

This is an excellent book for anyone who is, or who is NOT, interested in ancient Athenian law. I, myself, had not the least curiosity in said subject and yet found myself fascinated, all the while being constantly entertained by her sly wit and bizarre trivia. I learned enough from this book to become quite interested in Athenian history and I feel it will have the same effect on any other casual historian.

*to qoute from the Preface:
Apollodoros'speech, inevitably hostile to Neaira, must be the principal source for her biography, though we will need very often to question and reject the information he provides. Where what he tells us is not inherently unlikely, however, or contradicted by other sources, and when lying about the issue under discussion would not have furthered the prosecution's case, we can feel reasonably confident about accepting Apollodoros'testimony. Fleshing out Neaira's story, too, will require frequent dips into other source material.

Chasing Chiles

Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail
authors: Kurt Michael Friese, Kraig Kraft, Gary Paul Nabhan
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (March 16, 2011)
ARC read courtesy of Amazon Vine program
1/5 stars

In Chasing Chiles, a chef, an agroecologist and an ethnobotanist take a year long trip to search out the rarest and best peppers.  The book is a nonfiction account of their trip, with each chapter focusing on a particular chile pepper and interspersed with their interpretation of global warming's effect on that pepper.

The book vacillates between an unnamed first person narrator (which one of the three?!?) and a third person point of view.  The anecdotes described are not interesting. The heavily didactic climate change message is weakened by the lack of true research and credibility of the authors.  The overall writing style is a mess, and would have benefited from some honest editing.

Over all, this is not the unique and interesting adventure it was advertised to be, but rather a nearly unreadable attempt at scientific discussion.

Note: This is my opinion; on Amazon, 38% of the reviews were 5 stars.

Dune Group Read, Round 2

I finished reading the second "book" in Dune last night, so it's time for the Dune Group Read, Round 2 (hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings).  Little Red Reviewer was responsible for this set of questions.


Was Liet's identity a surprise?  Who do you think he really works for?
Completely!  I was shocked and pleased, as Kynes was a favorite character from the first book.  I was tremendously disappointed when he died, as I had hoped to know him better.  Of course, his death scene revealed a lot about him, for which I was glad, but I still felt a little cheated.  I think he worked for himself and his obsession of changing Arrakis.  

What do you think of the Fremen culture?  Is this a culture you think you'd enjoy spending some time with?
I think Herbert has done a fantastic job creating the Fremen culture.  It's one of the better parts of the book.  There appear to be so many layers to their mythology and customs; I'm hoping more layers will be peeled back as we go on.  I admire them greatly, but I'm too soft, too full of water if you will, to imagine myself actually a part (even a visitor) of the Fremen society.

What do you think of Count Fenring's unusual verbal mannerisms?  
I thought he used his humming sounds to look like the rabbit that  Feyd-Rautha took him to be.  That he was able to also use it as code to his wife was amusing.  It made for tough reading at times, though.


This is a far future empire with very little in the way of computerization. Information is often passed down orally, and schools (such as the Mentats and the Bene Gesserit) have formed to train young people in memorization and information processing.  What are you thoughts on a scifi story that is very "low-tech"?  Does that sound like a feasible future? a ridiculous one?
There are still vast high tech elements, enough so that the book still qualifies as sci fi.  As for the low tech, it's not unusual in sci fi or fantasy to mix the high tech with the low tech, and it's generally so as to create a culture of bards or druids, like the Bene Gesserit and Mentats.  So, I found it typical of what I've read before and not problematic at all.  Of course, I'm a steampunk as well, so it's a feature I particularly enjoy, this blending of tech levels. 


If you found the beginning of the book tough to get into, do you find that you're having an easier time with the middle portion, now that all the "set-up" is complete?
I loved the beginning, raced through it eagerly.  I admit to finding this middle section less compelling.  I've still enjoyed it tremendously, but it hasn't stayed continuously on my mind like the first section did.  Of all the elements in the book, I'm having a harder time swallowing Paul's sudden prescience than anything, and he's my least favorite character.  Terrible, I know, but there you have it.  So, since this entire section is mostly focused on him, I'm a little less enthralled.

The center portion of the book is still pretty dialog heavy, but what I've noticed is the subtlety of the dialog. Things left unsaid are often more important than things that are said.  What do you think of that as a stylistic choice? does it make the dialog more interesting? less interesting?
I honestly hadn't noticed the things left unsaid; I must not be reading it carefully enough.  I don't have a problem with the dialog--didn't notice it being dialog-heavy until I read someone's  (Little Red Reviewer's perhaps?) comments for the first round--so I must not be as sensitive to dialogue as most folks.  I did feel like Liet's death scene was a trifle strained with dialogue, but I was glad to get the info at the same time, so didn't mind it overmuch.

Dune was written in the 60's. Does it feel dated to you? How does it compare, writing style-wise, to more contemporary science fiction you've read?
No, it doesn't feel dated to me at all, but then I read a lot of Victorian lit, so I'd say a book would have to some pretty antiquated language for me to notice.  Not having a lot of tech gadgets described helps that timeless feel to it, as well.

 If you've never read this book before, where do you think the storyline is headed? 
Some sort of conflict between Paul and Feyd-Rautha, maybe, and something tragic to happen to Chani perhaps.  Complete inability of Paul and Jessica to see eye to eye, could happen.  But on the whole, I have no real feelings, I'm just enjoying the ride.

Sunday Salon: Epic Fantasy and Children's Books

Musing for this week's Sunday Salon.

This summer, blogging (and most other things, like dish-washing) has fallen by the way side due to taking two intense courses.  The one that was intense because it was crammed into one month is over (I finished it with a 97%; "Hermionie Granger", anyone?) and the one that is intense because of the amount of reading is still on-going.  It's a lovely course, though, about what makes good children's literature.  I am LOVING this class.  Many of the books assigned, I had read at least once before, and I've also discovered some fantastic books that were new to me. 

Each Little Bird that Sings, for example, was incredible.  Once we're done studying it, I'll post a review.  Another one that has knocked my socks off is Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind.  I'm writing my literary analysis on this one, and once I'm finished with it, will write a review.  I've been introduced to some wonderful picture books and easy readers (Mo Willems has become a favorite with my private therapy student and I) and over all the class has been a joy.  How wonderful it is to be able to discuss books with someone else that loves them as passionately as I do (aside from my husband, mother, Sarah and Deb, that is).  Of course, the class is peopled with students who don't care and even a few who strongly dislike having a Hermione Granger in their class.  I'm trying to grow a thicker skin.  You'd think, being nearly 40, I could manage to care less about the people around me than I did as I as undergrad all those years ago.  I blame it on the Asperger's, that need to be liked.  But I digress, and it is still a fantastic class regardless of the people in it.  (And I'm the only one with a 100% average after six papers and a midterm. . . Overachieve much?)

YA and juvie books are regular reads for me, but I needed a little break from them, since I'm getting so many in my class.  I picked up Dune, as I mentioned here, and boy am I glad I did!  What a gripping epic thus far!  I know it's sci fi, but it reads like an epic fantasy to me and I'm enthralled.  I'm still behind in the reading group, but I don't feel any pressure.  It's fun to know I'll have interesting questions to address when I get there.

On the way home tonight, I heard an interesting interview with George R. R. Martin.  I became totally entranced in the idea of his series.  I've got a Game of Thrones on Kindle now, and it's going  to be my  next book to read, after Dune.  Guess I'm in an epic fantasy kinda mood.