Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkhola Estes

Admittedly I thought this was going to be a book about women who were raised in the wild (or raised by wolves, that sort of folklore) as that is what the title and subtitle seemed to indicate. I was wrong. This is more of a psychoanalysis book and self-help than a book on myths.

Estes has taken a collection of myths and stories from folklore and dissected them one by one into telling the story of the female subconscious. The motives and actions, the restrictions society has placed on the "wild woman" and the way that women can rediscover their wildness. She gives little lessons and advice for those who have been brought down by society and describes the process of suppressing a woman's instincts. The myths themselves are told regularly and then she adds her interpretation to the mix, showing how it relates to female psychology.

This book is all about women. Men are mentioned but only in relation to women. And more often than not they are the oppressors. Although there are a few mentions of men who encourage the wildness in women. The books total theme was one of oppression though, and I was a bit surprised that even when she was encouraging wildness and restoring women back to themselves, she kept referring to arts, and childbirth, and barely a mention of science. It almost seemed like her vision of taking the female self back was still pretty traditional. She wanted a stronger woman, but one that could paint or write and take back her creativity. This might not be very empowering for those women who rather than have strong skills in the arts, are good in the sciences or math. It just didn't seem to be all encompassing.

I liked the myths in the book but did not enjoy how she dissected one story over and over and over. Once would have been sufficient as I found myself growing bored with the tedium of her repetitiveness. I think at some points it was just an effort to make the book longer. And all of the writing was at that level of descriptiveness. So many words to say the same thing over and over. It made the book a bit of a slog. But, returning back to the myths I think she chose some interesting ones, and there were some that I had never heard before, such as the tale of Baba Yaga and the armless girl. She had a nice variety.

I think this book would have been immensely better if it had been edited down. It had interesting concepts but they were lost in the sheer amount of words and the explanations were repetitive. I just can't recommend it based on that.

Women Who Run With the Wolves
Copyright 1992
520 pages

Cerulean Dreams by Dan O'Brien

**This book was received as a free advanced readers copy**

O'Brien has a very distinctive writing style. I hesitate to call it masculine, but I do feel that it may attract more of a masculine crowd. I'm not saying those who like a feminine tone won't like this book, just merely stating the ideas that flitted through my head as I read it. I thought the premise was interesting myself, but I just couldn't connect to the characters.

In a place called Orion, human beings are connected directly into the system. A company called Cerulean Dreams has everybody on the grid, and they are seemingly content that way. And everybody stays in Orion because the desert outside wouldn't allow anyone to live, or so they've been told. So when Alexander, in his pursuit of finding a murderer who's been preying on young girls, comes across one of these girls and they have to flee the city for reasons that are somewhat unknown to them, he learns just how hard Cerulean Dreams wants to keep everybody in the dark. And if they make it out of the city, they have no idea what may lie in store for them.

Alexander was interesting to say the least. He was a strong character, and very convinced of his convictions. He was actually admirable in that way. But he has some strange tendencies too, which are in part brought on by his world and the events that happen to him. Dana, the girl, is kind of a strange character too. She starts off all knowing and quickly falls to the role of a damsel in distress. I think I would have preferred her to be one or the other consistently through the book. And the main bad guy was somewhat odd in his motivations too, although he made a very compelling threat.

The plot started out as sci-fi, drifted into philosophical and then returned to sci-fi. The problem was the ideas didn't mesh in a way that was cohesive and supportive of each other. I think that maybe letting it all be sci-fi and removing such elements as the creature "the Mimic" and other philosophical things would have made a smoother read. They were actually all really good ideas, but perhaps better suited to two different books. And the ending was a bit rushed and kind of threw a curve ball in with no real answers. I would have liked to have seen several different plot elements elaborated on more to support the ending. But I did like the writing, the dialogue was nicely done and the descriptions were crisp in tone.

Not a bad book. I think there are ideas that could be expanded on but any sci-fi person will probably like it.

Cerulean Dreams
Copyright 2011
345 pages

The Journey by Dan O'Brien

***This book was received as a free advanced readers copy***

Ok, I freely admit that I really just did not get this book. But I enjoyed the language in it for the most part, and thought it was interesting. It just made me feel a little dumb.

A being called The Lonely sets out on a journey. There a shape shifter called the Crossroads points him in the four directions of the compass, to meet a different kind of being at each end. To the North, a being of logic, the South, one of passion, the West something a little more wild, and to the East, something peaceful. Each of them has a lesson to impart and only after speaking with them can he continue on his journey, to try to figure out who or what he is and why is on this journey in the first place. And ultimately the journey is about knowledge.

The Lonely was kind of pretentious. I'm not going to lie. For a guy who claims to now know what's going on or where he is, he sure does like to argue with these all powerful type beings and try to show them up. But hey, at least he has spunk. The beings themselves are all very different from one another, and that's in both appearance and the messages that they have to impart. I actually think I liked the South the best out of all of them, just because she was a little wild and warm. She'd probably be a good friend. The last figure kind of confused me as I wasn't sure the lesson he was trying to drive home.

So aside from the book making me feel like an idiot with some of its ideas, I did like the imagery. I could actually picture the different places that the Lonely visited and enjoyed the concept of finding a different person in each direction. It was just the conversation (and this book is mainly conversation) that left me at a loss sometimes. I don't consider myself a genius or anything, but some of it was pretty high level and I don't think it could be enjoyed by a wide group of people, I certainly had some trouble in parts anyway. This book is probably for a chose few who like philosophy and figuring out life's lessons and deeper meanings. Its definitely one of those books you have to think about.

I'm still pretty confused and may have to go back and read it again just to see if I can figure a little more out. But considering I read for pleasure I'm more likely to be distracted by something a little more brain friendly.

The Journey
Copyright 2011
176 pages