Ramses: The Son of Light by Christian Jacq
This is a great kick start to the life of Ramses the Great. We are introduced to his throne hungry brother Shaanar, his father Seti, mother Tuya, obnoxious sister Dolora, and his two wives Iset the Fair and Nefartari. Moses is also introduced, which is slightly irksome because the book is written off the old school of thought that Moses was during the time of Ramses the Great due to the mention of the city of Ramses in the scriptures. I believe its highly likely that the name of the city mentioned in the bible was updated by an eager scribe and that the proper date of Moses’ lifespan would place him during the 15th century/18th dynasty about 200 years before Ramses. Generally, I enjoyed the book although I feel much is lost in the translation from the French (Jacq’s writing seems too simplistic and listy), but I am still excited about reading the four remaining books in the series to see how it all plays out from Jacq’s perspective.
A fabulous article on Moses and his placement in history: http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/02/27/Moses-and-Hatshepsut.aspx
Anna Karenina
I’m reading Anna Karenina right now, its clever and interesting. There’s a much different feel and mood than Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (which I just finished recently).
I don’t have a formal review as of yet, I am just now starting Part II, but I did find this fantastic article and wanted to point it out:
http://chaosandoldnight.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/tolstoy-happiness-and-objective-meaning/
“What’s Up?” The Twitter Version
My husband wanted a parody of “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blonds, so I gave it to him.
Twenty – five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of tweets
For a good status report
And I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of tweets
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m chilling online
Just to get it all out
What’s in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I get online
And I take a deep breath and I post my life
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What’s going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what’s going on?
Ooh, ooh ooh
And I try, oh my god do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
And so I cry sometimes
When I’m sitting online
Just to get it all out
What’s in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I sign on quick
And I take a deep breath and get
ready to read posts and I type real fast
What’s going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what’s going on?
Twenty – five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big deal called the net
for more wasted time
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Ruiz revisits the world of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books first introduced in Shadow of the Wind and presents us with a strangely philosophical mystery of life, death, love, and literature. Uniquely captivating from start to finish, the story unravels in such a way that in the end, like the narrator, I was still wondering who exactly had died and who had survived. I highly recommend The Angel’s Game (and The Shadow of the Wind) to any book lover.
Anakalian Whims 