I bought this as part of the bookring for the myth series started by ajsmom. I will read it and put it into the post sometime next week. These myth books are quite short (unlike The Iliad and The Odyssey)so it shouldn't take long. I love the idea of asking modern writers for their take on traditional myths.

I am just making a journal entry as this is a controlled release- hope I am doing this right!

I loved this book. It is a fantastic rendition of this particualr myth with Jeanette Winterson's wit and irreverence:
"Meanwhile, Heracles was not happy. The world was much heavier than he had guessed. His strength lay in action not in endurance. He liked a short sharp fight, a good dinner and sleep." (p.58)

The story is also bracketed by personal observations, why she chose the myth and the relevance it has for her given her upbringing. She also ends the myth in a way I especially like drawing the old and new together.

It is off to ajsmom as of today and will follow the myths ring she has started. Hope you all enjoy it!

Ajsmom and I have heard from readers who were not pleased to receive the two books together so they will separate further down this list. We have decided that the list, minus the two people who emailed ajsmom saying that they don't want to receive it, should be posted here. This means that a bit further down this list the books have to go their separate ways- apologies to those who then have two separate postings! This is all my fault because I was so new to bookcrossing at the time that I piggybacked onto ajsmom's ring thinking the people would like the opportunity to read both. They are both very short quick reads in case that helps people make up their minds about whether to have them both.

Here is the list:
Caligula03
librarymousie
LisaGriffith"
Erishkigal
legbamel
KarinAlyssa
Ibis3
Breeze144
colebear
dripitspal
tehuti
bookmaniac70
Back to Merimag!

The books separate after being read by Breeze144 as the next person on ajsmom's list has declined to read both.

I received and read this book today! (And ate the chocolate - thanks, merimag!!)

I really liked it and I love Jeanette Winterson's writing. I find it almost hypnotic, actually. I think this series is great - I haven't read Greek Myths since elementary school, so it's a nice refresher, and the personal takes on the themes makes the reading fun.

I have sent the book off to StoryChaser this morning. Cheers to merimag for starting the next book in the myth series.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to StoryChaser as part of the Myths bookring.

Received this morning from ajsmom. Just need to finish my current book and I will get right on to this one.

An enjoyable and well written book offering a new slant on an old myth. Thanks merimag for adding this to the Myth ring. Sending off to Monkecatcher in the morning. Enjoy:)

Received today in the post, and I'm getting right onto it!

Read the book this afternoon, and enjoyed it immensely, although it got a bit boring at times as it became a little preachy. The sections actually on the myth were excellent, though. Have PMed Wistroll for her address (as Raindrop is shifting) and will send on as soon as I receive a reply

Thanks for setting up the bookring, merimag - it was a brilliant book :)

RELEASE NOTES:

Released for a bookring - happy reading :D

Arrived safely today. Boy, do I have some reading to do! I knew at one point in time, the bookrings/rays would catch up with me. 3 now in last couple days have arrived! None of the books are very big so I shouldn`t have them too long.

Thanks for the postcard MonkeCatcher!

Am looking forward to reading more by this author. I enjoyed this myth book also, I`m going to have some research to do, I like to dig into different perspectives and these books are a start to learning more.
The chapter I enjoyed most was-Leaning on the limits of myself. Some very thought provoking statements mentioned. My favorite: "Having no one to carry me, I learned to carry myself".
I believe I have applied this as a motto in my own life.

I`m so glad I was included in this 'Myth' ring and look forward to reading more.

Thanks so much to ajsmom for starting the ring and to merimag for including this and sharing it with us 'ring' members!

Off with The Penelopiad to ldpaulson today.

This arrived with THE PENELOPIAD. There are, however, other books in line ahead of this one. I'll start reading as soon as possible.

I am sending this on unread. Too many other books arrived at the same time, and then I misplaced it for a good while.

Apologies to all.

This is en route to the next reader.

Unexpected book is here. I may or may not read it. I wish this had been offered as a DIFFERENT book ring.

I enjoyed this one more than The Penelopiad but it could have been tighter. The random musings of an undefined narrator (the author perhaps?) intrude on an otherwise interesting interpretation of the Atlas story.

I see that the order has been switched and I now have two people to mail these books to rather than one. Oh well. Good thing I noticed the change.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to librarymousie.

Arrived in today's mail. I am currently in the final throes of summer courses for school, so I hope to begin this shortly after the craziness has subsided a little bit. Thank you for sending this my way!

Overall, I really enjoyed this take on the story of Atlas. As caligula03 mentioned, though, the musings of the unnamed narrator are rather jarring as they enter without warning....but, as Wistroll comments, there are some excellent messages that come out of these musings. My favorite was: I try not to burn up my world with my rage. It is so hard.

Thank you for sharing this with me. I've already got LisaGriffith's address, so this will go in the post today!

Got it! Thanks librarymousie. Can't wait to read this.
Thank you.

These Myth books are really great! I enjoyed reading both Weight and The Penelopiad. Apologies for the delay. The books are both now in the mail to legbamel. Thanks for sharing merimag!

Again, I apologize for neglecting to journal these. I thought I had done so when they arrived. I quite liked the re-telling of the Atlas/Heracles myths. They were well done and the characters really rang true. But the personal interludes were quite jarring and I felt the book would have been much better without them. It was quite short - they put in a lot of blank pages to make the book about the same length as The Penelopiad, I thought. I'll PM KarinAlyssa for an address ASAP. Thanks! I will be looking for more in this series. I've been a fan of Greek and Roman mythology since I was a child (and especially since translating a bunch of basics in Latin class!) so these are quite interesting for me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Off to visit the Canadian wilds (well, Canada anyway) with Penelopiad.

received ! I have another ring that I am currently reading, so it might take the whole month to read both books!

Thanks Merimag for sharing and to Lebgamel for sending on!

UPDATE
I forgot to review this great book ! I always enjoyed mythology and I was pleased to read Jeannette Winson's take on Atlas's story. I love how she wrote it although I thought the ending was a little bit weird.

Thanks Merimag for sharing and sorry again for taking so long to get it to move.

KarinAlyssa met with me today and handed over both of the Myths books. I see she hasn't reviewed them, but she did tell me they were good. I have a couple of other bookrings ahead of these, but I'll get to them soon.

I had signed up for this ring but expected to like it less than Margaret Atwood''s Penelopiad--primarily because I like The Odyssey better than I like anything to do with Hercules (well the show with Kevin whatshisname wasn''t half-bad). I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this book. For the most part. I agree with previous reviewers about the dissociated commentary bits (would have been much happier if they''d been left out) and I didn''t really like the ending with Laika. It made me sad to think of the real Laika who was callously killed in that space flight. The parts with Atlas, Hercules, and Iole were really good though.

I''ll be sending this book out on Tuesday.

Note to Myth Series readers: I knew that ajsmom wanted to have a kind of spiral or package with all the MS books, so I bought Alexander McCall Smith''s contribution to the series, Dream Angus. With the help of ajsmom, I''ve made up a list of people who want to read all three books:

Breeze144
Lauraloo29
Erishkigal
bookmaniac70
ajsmom
merimag
Wistroll
librarymousie

If your name is not here, and you do want the book, just let me know and I''ll add you in.

Sent to Breeze144 today.

Arrived today! Thanks!

Finished this one last night. This was the quickest read out of the 3 myths traveling together. I liked it, it moved quicker than the others and was far more graphic!

Will send all 3 to colebear this week!

Arrived last week with 4 other books, only 2 of those were packaged with this one. I'll try to keep it moving as soon as I'm able.