Today I have a Shiny New Books review to share and another #20BooksOfSummer book completed – progress on all sides although I still have some reviews to get submitted. My review of Michael J Benton’s “The Dinosaurs Rediscovered” is out now on Shiny New Books (here) and it’s perhaps more serious and scientific than my more emotional reaction to the book that I shared here previously. Anyway, a really enjoyable book and one I highly recommend for the dinosaur-lover in your life.

Now to remove one from the TBR picture shown here …

Neil Gaiman – “Norse Mythology”

(22 May 2018)

A retelling of the Norse myths by the great purveyor of fantasy and general all-round National Treasure – and it’s well-done and serious, paying close attention to the sources and taking pains to explain in the notes what he used for which sections. I also liked the introduction, where he describes finding the myths, first through comics, then through Roger Lancelyn Green (he mentions Green and Kevin Crossley-Holland as master storytellers who he had to look away from when compiling this book; I read Crossley-Holland’s version of the myths a while ago), and his telling is more straightforward and less inventive than, for example, Joanne Harris‘ although the ending does have some interesting and different details. I also like that he states he wishes he could tell stories of the goddesses but that only a fraction of the mythology remains, and their stories have been lost.

In Gaiman’s unmistakable voice, I’m sure this will become a worthy classic. It hits all the right marks and tells all the right stories.

This was Book 5 in my #20 Books of Summer (I’d better get a move on, right?)

I’ve just finished Iris Murdoch’s “The Philosopher’s Pupil”: what an almost perfect book, so wonderful. No idea how I’m going to review it. Then it’ll be either another review copy or another 20 Book of Summer …