Catch-up Book Reviews

For Pride month I picked up the copy of Sappho that I'd found in a thrift store: The Love Songs of Sappho, translated by Paul Roche. Roche has both an introduction and translation notes in the back of the book, which were wordy and long and talked about the difficulties of translating poetry and how he tried to capture not just what she was saying but how she said it, the lightness and music of her songs. However, he chose to translate the famous "sweet mother I cannot weave" poem/fragment 102 as the speaker (Sappho herself?) longing for "a stripling lad". Ex-fucking-cuse me??? For that shameless bit of straightwashing he is dead to me, and I'm fistfighting him in hell. 3.5 stars, selling or giving away.  TW for suicide mention in the introduction

I bought The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser at The Book Loft in Columbus, OH. Such a wonderful bookshop; you could literally be lost in it for hours. You can read the book summary here. I read this book in the airport and on the plane, twice (I wasn't able to read much while visiting my sister; her boys are a handful). It was just the right kind of read for a vacation; it's interesting and fun and mostly lighthearted, and even a bit cozy at times. The book is told from Thea's point of view, and you see her fall in love with the small Scottish village she moves to and her Grumpy™ bookseller boss. I couldn't help but see him as David Tennant (who is also Scottish and great at playing grumpy), which meant I started seeing Olivia Coleman as Thea. This would be such a great chick flick. The tropes are there in this book (Edward is jealous of every man Thea talks to when they're just friends), but they're handled differently. There's also nuanced handling of Thea's and Edward's traumas as they start to build a relationship. They're both in their mid-forties, which helps ground the book. I enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who likes modern-day romance novels with a bit of depth. I only wish we saw more of the house remodeling! I love that sort of thing. 3.5 stars (affectionate), 3/5 chilies, tentatively keeping. Aesthetics moodboard  TW for infidelity, physical fighting, grief, some possessiveness, vomiting mention, man shuts woman in a room with him (he doesn't hurt her but yikes), blood mentions

 

Netflix finally made a Nimona movie! I loved it a lot, which is unsurprising considering I was a fan of the book and read it back when it was an online webcomic, ages ago. Naturally, I reread Nimona by N.D. Stevenson. I was pleasantly surprised to see what little details and scenes made it into the movie, such as the not-Monopoly scene. It's such a good graphic novel and I really recommend it. I recommend the movie as well. 4 stars, permanent collection. Aesthetics moodboard  TW for murder, torture, violence, limb (arm) loss, explosions, experimentation on sentient living being, electric shocks, othering

Book Review: The Lost Tomb by David Gibbons

The Lost Tomb is one of those archaeological/religious mysteries, a la The Da Vinci Code . It is about an archaeologist, Jack Howard, who makes all sorts of exciting discoveries in and around the Mediterranean Sea which lead him on a wild goose chase to London and Southern California etc. to find what might be the actual written words of Jesus Himself. Of course, a shadowy Roman Catholic organization will do anything to bring him down, including MURDER.

David Gibbons is a diver and has dived in the Mediterranean and made interesting finds, which lends ample credence to the parts of the book where Jack and Costos dive in the Mediterranean Sea and try to find stuff on the sea floor that belonged to Paul. It is also evident that he did his research. 

TLT is apparently the third book in the Jack Howard series. In the prior books Jack discovers Atlantis and the lost menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem, and the rest of the series seem to be about similar historical discoveries. Jack is the typical ruggedly handsome archaeologist who is also a dynamite deep sea diver and is very physically fit and fearless and knows about like every type of history, art and architecture. Very Gary Stu-ish. As a result he is not a very well-rounded character, although the book tries to make him interesting by giving him a like star-crossed former lover who maybe is killed because she tried warning him about the danger (signs point to her maybe surviving).

 The other characters in TLT are from his archaeological diving team and/or are contacts in the history/archeology etc. fields who help him out in his travails. I noticed that despite their being experts in their fields, at some point or another they have an oddly out of character blank in their knowledge, something even I know, which is clearly there so that Jack can swoop to the academic rescue and explain it for them and the reader. They also spend a lot of time explaining historical/archaeological facts to each other, which is clearly intended to inform the audience. This wasn't too annoying for me, because I like these topics, but it might annoy other readers. One character, Costas, got very grossed out when having to navigate around dead and rotting bodies (that had been dead for hundreds if not thousands of years), which would be accurate for a lot of people, but I felt like it was written in for comic relief and to showcase how stoic and brave Jack is. My favorite character was the Ethiopian nun who helped them get into the main cathedral in Jerusalem.

Despite the characterization flaws, The Lost Tomb is a very interesting story that pulls you in and makes you want to know what happens next. The flatness of the characters does not diminish the story; the discoveries and chases are the point. I liked the different settings in places I'd like to visit and the subject matter. Obviously, in a genre like this you have to compare the book, main character, and writing to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code books. I read the latter in high school, so it's been quite a while, but I think David Gibbons' series comes out on top, mostly because it isn't trying to be more than what it is and isn't smugly patting itself on the back at every clever turn. Brown's series also uses sex and murder to be shocking, while Gibbons relies on the twists and turns to keep you reading. I will say that if memory serves, Brown's writing is better than Gibbons', with more character growth. It also has more intrigue, if you're into that. Both books obviously rely on unproven things being true in order to build on them and have more untrue things being true (because A, then B, therefore C, even though A has never been proven and is probably made up). For The Lost Tomb, it was assumed that the shipwreck the Apostle Paul went through when being taken prisoner to Rome happened off a different island than was mentioned in the Bible. 

The Lost Tomb also has the same assumption as The Da Vinci Code that because the Bible has had so many transcribers and translators, the original meaning was lost, and rapacious Christian leaders co-opted Jesus' words to their own means for both profit and power. This is untrue, since great care was taken in both the transcribing and translation of the texts, and it bugs me to hear educated people still parroting that sort of view. The issues within the Church are the same as the issues with humanity in general: we are imperfect and proud and like to be right, and this creates problems when there are large groups of us. No one who began the Christian Church ever set out to profit; they wanted to spread the good news. Also, obviously the Roman Catholic church has done a lot of harm over the ages, and is not great today in terms of women's rights, covering up child abuse, and birth control, but I think we're all over making them the Big Bad. Like, it's so done. Find a new villain, you know? 

While he is not religious, Jack finds religion interesting and thinks certain things about are true, which contrasts him with the evil priest dude who wants to keep the truth about Jesus' gospel a secret in case it dismantles the Catholic church's power. This also did not really ring true to me. What devout Christian wouldn't want to hear what Jesus said? Wouldn't they want to read it even if it demolishes certain beliefs they've always held? I doubt any Christian, including high-up Catholic officials, would be like "screw what Jesus wrote! It will take away my power!" Also, murder is clearly outlined as Wrong in the 10 Commandments. There was also this whole subplot about Boudicca and how Christianity was brought to the British Isles that I thought was unnecessary (as much as I love Boudicca and Gothic architecture). Like, wasn't it just the Romans who brought it to them? I thought that was obvious. A lot of religious weirdness going on here. 

Ultimately I enjoyed this book, even though I had to suspend my disbelief a lot. I'll read the others if I come across them. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: mid January
From: free books rack at the library
Format: paperback
Status: put back on the free books rack at the library