found at Camp Bondsteel

Amazon review:
American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not.

I liked this book, but not quite enough to give it a 10. SOme parts of it kept me reading for awhile and other parts I had to read over and over. It is a long book, but Shadow's journey is worth the read! I have always been interested in mythology and liked all the different gods, goddesses in the book and how Gaiman describes them as they would be living among us.

Putting out in a bookring-pm to join!

Order so far.....
JeepACV (MD)
oldreader (CA)
andersor (CA)
Lpree(NE)
Xeyra (Portugal)
Simietta (Italy)
roryG (Finland)
billhookbabe (UK)
pelikanol (Denmark)
ZlatkoGR (Greece)-wants to be skipped!!!
jubby (Australia)

back to xallroyx

RELEASE NOTES:

sent out to first person in bookring-ENJOY!!

Bookring arrived today. After painting my new digs this weekend, I'll curl up with this one and have it on its way soon.

Thanks for sharing!

A unique read. I am not familiar with Gaiman's other work and not really a fan of graphic novels so I didn't realize he wrote many graphic novels with similar themes. So it was all new to me.

This novel brought the paranormal to the surface in an every-day, bizarre sort of way. It has an interesting premise and interesting characters. I thought more could be developed in terms of Laura and Lakeside (not necessarily together).

Ah well, overall a good selection used to broaden my reading horizons. Thank you for sharing this novel. I already have oldreader's address and plan on dropping this in the mailbox tomorrow.

RELEASE NOTES:

mailed via media mail on Saturday

arrived today.will start as soon as I finish artwmis fol,thanks

New author.so far have read 2.each very different from the other and very enjoyable.will be looking for more.thanks so much for sharing.I lived near Madison and Spring Green.House on the Rock was familiar and Culvers frozen treats,butterburger.This was great.always interesting to see what the author gets correct about an area and what is wayyy off.We al have different perspectives too.Will get inthe mail to next reader by friday.

RELEASE NOTES:

mailed to andersor

This arrived in today's mail. I'm looking forward to reading it and passing it to the next person soon.

A good read... Wanting to know how it all ended up kept me reading through the tough parts. I found the premise fascinating; and the twist toward the end really caught me off guard. This was my first Gaiman, I will have to put more of his books on my wish list.
Thanks again for sharing. I will mail it to Lpree today.

This arrived a couple of days ago. Sorry I didn't get a chance to log it in until now! I've read other books by Neil Gaiman so I'm really looking forward to reading this one I've heard mentioned so often. I do have a few other rings ahead of this but will read it is as soon as I can!

Oh, I'm so sorry I've held this for so long! I finished the book a few days ago. The style seems typical for Neil Gaiman, at least based on the few books of his I've read. I thought it was a very interesting idea of the new gods vs. the old gods. My husband would enjoy this even more, I think, so I'm going to buy a copy of this for him for Christmas.

Thanks very much for sharing this book - I'd heard a lot about it and am really glad to have had the chance to read it. I'll try to get this moving again in the next few days.

It has arrived! I am looking forward to reading this one because I have liked everything of Gaiman's I have read so far. I will start this one as soon as I finish one of my other reads, which hopefully won't take too long. Thank you for organizing this bookring, xall, and thanks to Lpree for sending it to me.

I am yet to read anything of Neil Gaimain's that I don't like. This was only my second novel of this author I've read; the previous one was Good Omens, co-written with Terry Pratchett, which was the one that lead me to start familiarising myself a bit more with the authors, at which point I found Sandman and other comic books written by Gaiman. So I didn't hesitate when I saw this book in a bookring, joined, and now that I've read it I'm wondering if Neil Gaiman can actually write something that sucks. I seriously doubt it. He has a really great grasp of his story, of where he wants it to go, of how to grab the reader and not let go, weaving a novel filled with dark humor, a bit of irony, excellent characters, mysticism, a bit of magic, a touch of action and a pinch of spirituality.

The reader goes through the story feeling the main character's confusion at the events and the strange people that cross his path and lead him into a merry little adventure that'll drive you nuts because it just feels like one big rollercoster until it all ends in a big showdown and all yours questions are answered (and you realize that Gods can be seriously screwed up characters!). It helps to the understanding of the novel to recognise certain pantheons of European, Asian and Egyptian yore, but it's not fundamental and it didn't detract much from the novel not to recognise some of the Gods, although it brought a smile to my face when I did find some familiar names. The plot is unendingly inventive, which is a characteristic I admire in this author: the way he can weave a story with prodigious imagination.

Although the main story revolved around Shadow, there were little interludes, interspersed through the novel, that showed little bits of the particular history and mythos of this America, as well as insights into the coming war, which were a nice touch. They didn't detract from the main story; in fact, they allow one to take a deep breath before plunging again into a dizzying trek across the American country with Shadow and Wednesday and all sorts of amazing and gritty characters, each even stranger -- and crazier! -- than the previous ones.

Okay, I'll shut up now. I'll just summarize and say that I thouroughly enjoyed this inventive and dazzling voyage into America and I plan on reading more of Gaiman's novels. Thank you so much for starting this bookring, xallroyx.

I have contacted the next person on the list and I'm waiting for an address to send this book on its way.

Edit: Simietta cannot receive the book right now so I've PMed the next person.

This book is now on its way to RoryG in Finland. I hope it gets there quickly and she enjoys it.

The book has reached Finland. I have few rings before this, but I hope to get to this soon. But please bear with me if I don't.

First of all, I'm sorry that I have kept this so long. But finally it will continue it's journey.

I found this book very hard to get into. While reading the first part I thought of stopping altogether. But I'm glad I stuck to the end because from the second part it got better and I actually ended up enjoying the book. I probably wouldn't read it again, though.

Well, I send this forward as soon as I get the next person's address.

Edit 30.3.2006: I finally got the book to the post office yesterday. I'm sorry it took so long, but I've been working overtime a lot lately and I haven't had a chance to get to the post office.

Received today in the post. Been looking forward to this one for a while.

This is only the second Gaiman book I have read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the premise and the weird and wonderful characters. I identified with some of the mystic stuff and fold tales. There were points where it went on a bit, but generally the story flowed for me. One thing that did irritate was Shadow's lack of wonder, surprise, interest or inquisitivness about what was going on.
I will be sending this on to pelikanol tomorrow.

Releasing for the 2006 Keep them Moving Challenge run by guinaveve

I like this book. The plot is very original, the characters are very special in their own way. Mr. Wednesday reminds me an awful lot of Jack Nicholson *lol* The book is weird and it´s weird the way everything should be when dealing with gods.

The story is very calm. You never get overwhelmed with the action in the book, which is both good and bad, I guess. I would have liked to hear more about the new gods. That would´ve been very interesting. It seems to me that the story in this book could have been bigger, longer and more things could be happening. In the end I´d have to say that I still really love this book.

Sent to jubby on May 3.

Wow! Look what I found in the post today!

I am very excited about this book, and the perfect timing of its arrival (actually, I have another bookring ahead of it), because Neil Gaimon is currently in town and is speaking at the Sydney Writers' Festival (www.swf.org.au).

I've not read anything of his before, and hearing all the hype, I am pleased that soon I'll be able to put an end to that.

Thank you for sharing this book with me.

Well, I finished it, and I guess I have the children at school to thank. As a school teacher I seem to catch every virus and illness going around. I've just had the last two days off, and read the book then.

Where, and how you read a book I suspect affects your overall opinion, and as I read this rather quickly in bed, it made it all the more enjoyable.

It's is hardly 'good literature' (what ever that is), but definately entertaining and amusing. I enjoyed the plot with the old wife, and the other about Lake Town. Parts were predictable (doesn't everyone know where the names of the week come from?), but enjoyable none the less.

Gaimon writes a rollicking good read, which I would recommend for airports, travelling, etc.

Thank you very much for sharing this book with me.

And as for the Sydney Writers' Festival, I won't be seeing Neil Gaimon, as I have theatre tickets for that night :(

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted back to the USA today.

my first bookring made it home! woo hoo! Thanks to everyone and I hope you enjoyed it!!

book is on the move again-going to Antheras for virtual book box!

This is an amazingly well travelled book! I will make sure it continues on its journeys once I finish with it. Thanks for offering this in the VBB.