January New Author: Natsuo Kirino

2. 
Title: [The Goddess Chronicle]
Author: Natsuo Kirino
Genre: Myth and fantasy
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: January 15, 2014
Rating: *****
January Resolution Book.

The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino tells a tale of fate, expectations, and the dangers of being a woman in love.  Namima is just five when her six-year-old sister Kamikuu begins training to be the next Oracle of their poor island, and her life is changed forever as she is first identified as "the defiled one."  It is not until she is sixteen that Namima understands what the villagers believe her fate to be - as the yin to Kamikuu's yang, Namima is expected to become the priestess of the dark, and live isolated in the island's graveyard, tending to the dead, and quietly killing herself when her sister dies.  Namima has other ideas, and her choices lead to the telling of myth, a sharp criticism of fate and unchanging cultures, and the roles women play in the creation of life.

Kirino's writing is breathtaking and simple, weaving an epic story from just a few moments.  Parallel narratives are deftly drawn together, confirming the yin and yang of life and story, and finally revealing Kirino's grand plan.  As a partial narrator and protagonist, Namima is compelling and sympathetic, and the reader rages against her fate and feels her heartbreak, even when she loses her own sense of pity.  This is a story about myths and story as much as the characters themselves.  Highly recommended.

One of my resolutions was to read a "new" author each month; as I intend to further broaden my reading horizons, I am defining "new" as beyond the traditional English canon, and outside of my most frequently read genres.  Kirino has set me off to a very strong start.  

62.
Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Title: The Palace of Illusions
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 360 pages
Genre: Fiction, mythology
Acquisition: Recommended by richardderus of LibraryThing
Date Completed: August 6, 2010
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

In a time of rich spices, jeweled saris, and everyday magic - a time of curses, vengeance, and the power of the heart - a girl stumbles out of the flames that have already produced her twin brother, carrying with her the thread and promise of change. In Divakaruni's masterful hands the myth of Panchaali takes shape, and the reader leaves behind the contemporary world for a society that carries far too many parallels to our own.

On its own, the narrative is majestic, but it is Divakaruni's character development that truly brings The Palace of Illusions to life. Panchaali herself is capable of invoking a sea of emotional responses, and the power to invoke sympathy, hatred, admiration and condemnation within the space of 360 pages speaks volumes of her author's narrative capabilities. The inhabitants of The Palace of Illusions are far from two-dimensional characters moving through a storyline: they breathe through the pages and welcome the reader into their mysterious world. In short, the novel is simply magical.

61.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Title: Odd and the Frost Giants
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 117 pages
Genre: Young adult, mythology, bedtime stories
Acquisition: Purchased for Brooks
Date Completed: August 1, 2010
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The little Norse boy named Odd does everything with a smile on his face. Odd smiles when he's scolded, and doesn't lose the smile when he hears of his father's death. Odd smiles when he cripples his right leg and foot, and he smiles when he meets a trio of talking animals claiming to be gods. Odd even smiles when he comes face to face with a Frost Giant, and the giant threatens to crush him.

Odd and the Frost Giants is a delightful mock-epic in which Gaiman writes a crippled young boy into the world of the Norse gods. With little more than his (not so) simple understanding of human/god nature Odd conquers feats that leave the more-powerful themselves crippled, and with quiet perseverance he pursues a life more welcoming than the one in which he lives.

Despite Gaiman's never-ending love affair with comma splices, his young adult novel is quite charming. I would recommend it to young readers and parents alike.

22.
Author: Marie Phillips
Title: Gods Behaving Badly
Publication: Kindle Edition.
Pages: 304 pages
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition: Purchased March 14, 2010, recommended by calm
Date Completed: March 17, 2010
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Gods Behaving Badly is a delightful and lighthearted mock-epic that places the once-powerful Greek gods in a crumbling house in London. While the treatment of the gods isn't original (think Pratchett's take on gods and belief systems), Phillips did surprise me with a development or two, and I was entertained from beginning to end. A perfectly fun light read for a lazy day.