"Don't Know Much About Mythology" by Kenneth C. Davis

ISBN: 9780060194604

This was an absolutely fascinating book that goes into a lot of detail about the world's various mythologies. What I found most interesting was that it didn't deal simply with the Greeks and Romans myths but also included the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Celts & Norse, India, China & Japan, African, and finally the America's & Pacific Islands.

What most people either purposefully ignore, or fail to realize is that these myths were historically  the religions of these various civilizations, just as other myths are the basis of today's religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others. Most people are only taught the about the Greeks and Romans in school, and if they are very lucky might hear something about the Norse. But the rest are rarely if every taught in any grade school. When I had the opportunity to teach a class on Norse mythology, the students were quite fascinated, as it was something they'd never heard before.

Why don't they teach this? Who knows! My guess would be that it is because these mythologies are never taught in a University's Education faculty (or at least I never encountered them), or possibly because a given teacher believes they are simply stories, or don't want to offend someone. Mind you I can't totally blame teacher training, as I was never introduced to much of this even when taking anthropology courses either.

In any case this book is highly recommended, and should be in all school libraries.

"Our Kind of Traitor" by John Le Carré

Publisher:Toronto : Viking Canada, 2010.
ISBN: 9780670064786
General fiction L PBK
Characteristics: 305 pages ;,24 cm

A very interesting book, that gives a different twist to the spy novel. In this story a Russian mafioso who wishes to defect, and move his family to England. It explores the intrigue involved when the various spy agencies, and some well-meaning bystanders/helpless pawns are brought into the game.

The story follows a vacationing English couple in Antigua, who meet a Russian businessmen Dima  who initially seems only to want to play tennis. When the couple return to England after being entertained by Dima, meeting his family, etc. they are subjected to interrogation by the British Secret Service, who need their help.

For those readers who are familiar with Le Carré's works featuring George Smiley, this novel is comparable to how his other stories approach the whole spy business and the games the various agencies play for and against each other, which makes it seem very realistic.

I was somewhat disappointed in the very ending, as I would have liked to have read what happened to some of the other characters, but overall it was a very well written and enjoyable book to read.

"Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold" by Stephen Fry

Publisher:[London] : Michael Joseph, 2017.
ISBN: 9780718188740
Characteristics: ix, 416 pages :,colour illustrations, maps

This book is an excellent retelling of the Greek myths, that mainly focuses on the ones that you typically don't hear too often. In his introduction Mr. Fry says:

"Mythos begins at the beginning, but does no end at the end. Had I included heroes like Oedipus, Perseus, Theseus, Jason and Herakles and the details of the Trojan War this book would have been too heavy for a Titan to pick up."

With numerous footnotes this book gives a fantastic overview of Greek mythology, and points out the numerous links to our current myths, and legends. In addition Mr. Fry's famous sense of humour comes shining through in his prose, and this makes this book a delight to read.

I sincerely hope that he will consider expanding this book into a second volume that includes some, if not all of the above mentioned tales that he purposely omitted. This is a book well worth reading, that would make a great addition to any collection that focuses on history, anthropology, and numerous other social sciences.

"The Darwin Awards" by Wendy Northcutt

Publisher:Roseland, N.J. : Listen & Live Audio, [2001]
Copyright Date:℗2001
ISBN: 9781885408723

It has been a many years since I first read this book, but decided to reread it recently and once again was astounded by how idiotic humans can be. I believe this is likely because most people typically tend to give the other person the benefit of the doubt when they do things that seem odd, or dangerous. But when a person deliberately goes out to defy the laws that govern this world it tends to make me curious how humans as a supposedly evolved animal can be so stupid.

For those of who who don't know a Darwin Award is given to people who manage through their acts to remove themselves from the gene pool. Or, if this is too vague: they die, or make themselves unable to reproduce because they have done something extremely stupid.

Ms. Northcutt delves into things such as Misadventures with Animals, Family Interactions, Stupid Criminals, Fire & Explosions, Fatal Falls, Uninformed Men, Macho Men, Unsafe Sex, Watery Demises, Penis Envy, End of the Line.

You can likely make some guesses at some of the things that happened to allow these people to win their award, but I'm pretty certain you won't guess them all. Some are definitely quite spectacular.