Review: American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America by Linda S. Godfrey

I admit that I sometimes enjoy reading things of a weird or strange nature. So I came across this title while browsing books and figured I would take a chance on it. I wasn't entirely sure if this book would come across as being similar to the Weekly World News type of rag or be of actual substance.

One of the things I have to mention about this book that I found troubling and kind of boring was the break down of category of monsters. For instance, the author starts the book out by telling of flying monsters, and she tends to be a bit dry in this telling of this particular category. Although I was kind of put off by the mentions of this type of "big birds" but I did learn about a lot of legendary creatures I had never heard of before. And the section on flying creatures was quite long.

It's worth it to get past the flying creatures and sea monsters to get to the better American monsters. Did I mention that all of these creatures are supposed to be of American origin? Once she gets to land creatures is when the book really gets interesting. She discusses everything from dogmen to bigfoot and chupacabras. Even some other strange combos such as pigmen, goatmen, and a cat lady legend from the South.

But apparently, her specialty is the legend of the bigfoot. She does do at least two chapters on the legend of the bigfoot and even describes different types of bigfoot, which to be honest I wasn't aware that they could be classified in different ways. Or such things as batmen and mothmen. I could go on and on about the different legends she mentions. I do appreciate that she often mentions sources while talking about the different creatures, and has conducted personal interviews with people who have recently sighted some of these strange creatures.

This review is not a discussion as to whether these legendary creatures are real or have existed but is based on the content which has been read. I enjoyed reading this book and I am willing to check out another book by this author. I would recommend this to anyone who is into weird stuff, and those who believe that these strange creatures exist or those who are simply curious about the possible existence of strange undiscovered creatures. I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com and I hope that you will give this strange compilation of creatures a read. I have a link for those of you from the UK and Canada to pick this book up here. I also have a link to purchase any other books cheaper and with free worldwide shipping here.

Review: A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove (Audiobook)

I'm fortunate enough that I can listen to music or whatever at my job. I don't typically listen to audiobooks, but I have become bored with listening to music and I think I have listened to so many podcasts that I have exhausted the catalog. So being an avid reader I decided to give audio books another try.

Harry Turtledove is an author whose books are some that I wanted to check out. I love the idea that he writes alternative histories, and has based whole series on how world events could have happened differently. I won't go into the whole multiverse theory, which is also interesting. Where any number of events could have happened creating a completely different timeline of events.

I decided to listen to "A Different Flesh" by Harry Turtledove which was originally published in 1988. In this novel, the world is very much different from our own in that Homo Erectus did not die off and actually thrived in the New World. In the world of this novel, Homo Erectus crossed the land bridge instead of people from the tundras of Siberia. The sheer imagination of the author to create a world where Native Americans never happened spreads out into changes to everything such as first interactions with Colonials, and even the development of colonial government. But it's not just this species of cavemen that are unique to Turtledove's New World, but there are also other prehistoric creatures such as sabretooth tigers and wooly mammoths that wander the forests.

Turtledove proposes different scenarios as we the reader get to see this new world. He presents interactions between colonists and the native cavemen. These creatures are referred to as "sims" throughout the story. How each is radically different and yet curious and fearful of each other. Turtledove mentions the phrase "beetled brow" and their lack of chins in describing these peoples numerous times. The author doesn't linger too long into each period of America as it develops into the present day but gives us a short glimpse into key events of its development.

These short glances into this world were very interesting and I applaud the imagination of Turtledove to be able to create this world. But I don't think this was his only intention to just entertain the reader with a tale of cavemen interacting with humans in our modern world. I think the author's intention was to point out just how within history we as a society have mistreated those who are different from ourselves and even treated those whose cultures were different or technologically not as advanced as being sub-human.

I will point out that being an alternate history piece that there are some potential triggers for some individuals such as racist language, and graphic descriptions of some events which some may find disturbing. This book is not for everyone. I really enjoyed this and got something out of listening to it. I plan on checking out the rest of this author's works. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com. If you are a fan of historical fiction or science fiction you may too enjoy this book.

This Week in Review: 2/19/16

Short list this week, as I haven't had much time to read since school has started back up and I'm now working full-time on top of that.

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