American Gods
Books are like food. Some kinds fill you up and stick with you for a while. Others are empty calories that leave you feeling like you didn’t really read anything at all. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, is all slow-burning protein. This book had me thinking the whole time. I had read Stardust. also by Gaiman. It’s light and fun — an adult, bedtime story. American Gods is riveting. The ideas, depth and detail are amazing. The story follows Shadow, a recently released convict who goes home to find his wife is not-quite dead or alive, and his best job offer is as a sidekick for an old world god named Wednesday. Shadow is thrown in the middle of a war between those old world gods and the new world gods (like Media and Digital) that we “worship today.” Did I mention that these gods walk amongst people like you and me? A major bonus is the way Gaiman throws in a lot of fascinating old world myths/fables/folklore to chew on. It’s entertaining and thought provoking and definitely not a book for “carb” lovers.
