Anansi Boys

A man named Spider...?

I didn't get to read the entire novel but it started off normal and now I'm at a part were nothing is making sense to me. A pretty quick recap, there is a guy who had his father die, the guys name is "Fat Charlie", not his real name but thats his nickname. Turns out this "Fat Charlie" is some reincarnation of a spider god but doesn't have any powers because his brother has them. Well that must suck to be a god and have no powers, and not even that "good" of a god. I'm not sure what powers a spider god might have except powers that are similar to Spiderman. Which actually now that I think about it might be pretty awesome. 

Anyways Fat Charlie ends up whispering to a spider and ask for his brother to show up and then the next morning he does. This is were things started to get weird because they get super drunk and then Fat Charlies brother who's name is "Spider" ( shocking ) ends up finding out all these things like embezzlement at the company he works at and sleeps with his brothers fiance. Not all in the same night but over the course of what I was reading. And thats were I left off. 

I didn't know what to expect when I started this novel, and then it started off somewhat normal and my first impression was" oh well that sucks that this guys father died singing to some girl in a karaoke bar ". Then he's really depressed and BAM, you're a spider god. First off thats an odd choice of a god to be, as the author I don't know if I would've picked a "Spider God", maybe this lead to the creepiness because most people hate spiders. I found myself wondering how the Fat Charlie took that news the first time he heard it. I know I would've called someone crazy but still would've been tempted to try it out. It's not everyday you get the powers of a god, even if it is a spider; maybe I'm like Spiderman now which is awesome because spiders have amazing strength.

C.S Lewis

For this week I decided to re-read one of the novels from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe written by C.S Lewis. I read this book when I was in 8th grade so it has been a while, and re-reading it after I've seen the movie was a little different. The movie was no were near as good as the book was and I don't usually say that even though most people do. So now that I know the plot of the book, the characters, all setting and what to expect, I could look out for certain things that I might have no caught onto the first time, digging deeper into the book I guess you could say.

One thing I noticed was key traits by the main characters, and what I took away from the novel. Like how loyalty was a big part in this book, the main characters were brothers and sisters and they needed to bond. And what I mean by that is they couldn't abandon each other because they were all they had. So what happens, one of the brothers is tempted by the witch with a piece of turkish delight ( which is like a sweet treat ). Typical kid right? Oh hey little boy I have some candy, come with me, and then he falls for the trick. Pretty much thats what happened to sum that up.

But in all fairness he wasn't the oldest so he felt like he was in the shadow of his brother. And that always happens, no one wants to be under someone else, especially if it has to do with family. Thats usually the case with family betrayal, one feels lesser and they want the power or right or claim to what they think they deserve. We see this a lot with the brothers that are coming into the right of power as they become of age, not as much with the sisters in the family.

Overall this is a really good book and a really good series that I think everyone should go read.

Hobbits.....Not Little People

Obviously this story is more popular now since the movie just recently came out and was a massive hit. It's been a while since I've read the book but I did recently see the movie, though the movie only touched on part of the book because its being spilt into a trilogy. Can't wait to see the other two which I hope will be even more amazing than the first one.

Anyways, I love them both. This is probably my favorite type genres outside of horror because I feel "freedom" or like a sense of adventure that engulfs me. The quest they go on (I love to travel) so its not hard to get my imagination going when they begun the quest. Also from reading Lord of the Rings and seeing the movies, saw and read them both before I saw the Hobbit sadly. Kind of backwards since the Hobbit to place 80 yrs before the quest in the Lord of the Rings happened.

Bilbos journey with his companions captivated me from the get go, not hard to get stuck reading this when theres danger around every corner knowing that you have little friends and even more enemies. The fantasy landscape in another world, the magical civilizations (elfs) and the battles, everyone loves a good fight scene. But the main thing that keeps me reading is the ability to overcome struggle. You always have this sense of entrapment, like well they aren't going to escape from that. Or they can't win that battle, or they aren't going to find their way out of that with all those enemies. Yet time after time they do the impossible, even if I already know they are going to make it there is still the unexpected element of someone might die off. Which character could it be? How would the loss of that character affect the rest of the group and their journey? These are the things I ask myself while I'm reading.


It's just one epic story that I think everyone should go read before they go and watch it in theaters.

Maria

You Witch!....What'd you call me?!

At first I wasn't sure what to think about this novel, from the moment I saw the cover. It kind of caught me off guard because I'm thinking about witches, like the old school witches. And what I mean by that is the ugly ones with warts and nasty black cat. Then I see the cover and its like a kids illustration, which isn't wrong; just didn't expect to see that. There is the supernatural world of ghosts and witches. All the characters in this story are very "characterized" to say the least; and what I mean by that is their personalities. What makes them, them. I really think we all know someone like Aunt Maria, she has personality that probably resembles someone we know, out of all the characters in the story.

The story takes place in Megs journal but takes steps out of it every now and then because of the interruptions from the outside world like friends. It seemed as if there was like this build of suspense in the story but then it would go do a different road because you would get some information with the suspense, pretty much like a typical mystery story. Well not exactly like your run of the mill mystery story, I find myself more immersed in anything that has to do with ghost and spirits and pretty much anything of the supernatural. The element of "not-knowing" captures my attention, now we have a mystery novel mixed with the already mysterious subject matter of witches and ghost. 

Then the cat, theres always a cat when we talk about witches. It's like a staple in witch-folk-lor, there needs to be a black cat that helps the witch in some way. The cat serves as a identification marker for a witch, when you see a black cat with the character in the story you know thats the witch, or can assume that. Well same thing happens in this novel with her black cat that helps her find her book, the cat serves as the helper to Meg. I think if the cat wasn't in this novel then I might have not been as connected to the characters persona of being a witch, because black cats and witches go hand in hand. It makes it more believable for me as the reader.