(I read this book as part of 1book140. Keep up with the latest over at The Atlantic!) Being a god used to be easy. People worshipped you — and if they didn’t, they were easy to punish. Life was good in ancient Greece. But this isn’t ancient Greece — it’s modern-day London, and living face-to-elbow…
Tag: history
Review: The Epic of Gilgamesh
If you’re into old stories, you can’t get much older than The Epic of Gilgamesh. It was written almost 1,000 years before The Bible, and is preserved on and translated from a series of 11 clay tablets. Although called an “epic,” its original writers had no word corresponding to “epic” or “myth,” so it was…
Review: Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott
It’s been a banner year around here for books about prostitutes. First Best Friend’s mother sends me Pistol Packin’ Madams, and then my own mother gives me Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul. There are several conclusions I could draw from this, but it’s probably best to…
Review: Pistol Packin’ Madams
Fully titled Pistol Packin’ Madams: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West, this book is 87 pages of awesome. Best Friend’s mother sent it to me from Wyoming (I think?), where she and Best friend’s father are about halfway through a cross-country trip where they’re riding the Pony Express on horseback. As they…
Review: Day for Night, by Frederick Reiken
A Polish refugee whose boyfriend is dying. An FBI investigator chasing the subject of his 20-year obsession. A young man who has been comatose for over a year. The owner of a nature reserve in Israel. A seemingly random collection of people — yet they are all bound together by the threads of history, life,…