Storyteller, by Edward Myers.
This is a book that was pleasurable to visit. I love stories, folktales, and fables - this book is rife with stories within the main thread. It follows the adventures of a farm boy named Jack. This young fellow has a gift for telling tales that rapidly bloom inside the garden of his imagination. Many odd events are found to coincide with his stories, and they intersect upon Jack's journey in plot twists that the protagonist could not have dreamed. Characters such as Garth Golden-eye, a brigand who is notorious for having a gold coin placed over his left eye socket. Garth's appearance accounts for his feared reputation as a highway robber. There is also the Woman of the Woods, Celestina, who claims a heritage of royal descent. As she was exiled from her royal realm, she now rules over forest creatures from the queenly comfort of her cottage. Jack seeks his fortune by going to the capital city of Callitti, where he is hired by the King to be the royal storyteller. Unfortunately, Jack soon finds himself in a tangle of politics for which he never accounted. Jack is a simple and good natured person. He only wants to tell his stories to a willing audience, the perks of being royal storyteller were never his goal. The smaller tales are as enjoyable as the larger thread. The end is satisfying in a slightly familiar way, but its conclusion encourages its readers to create tales of our own with our lives.
The Bedwetter (Stories of courage, redemption, and pee), by Sarah Silverman.
The truth of this selection is that I knew little of Ms. Silverman before I read her tale. The title, subtitle, and stoic band member photo of the comedian convinced me that it was a book worth the time to read. I admit, I read it partially for the rights to saying I read such a curiously titled book.
What I learned by reading said autobiography... That Sarah seems to enjoy the awkward details of her late bloomer childhood. She learned to use foul language at toddler age, and became addicted to the shock value it generated. Thus, at 39, Sarah still pursues the high of her childhood profanity by becoming a wickedly taboo comedian. She had a bladder problem until she reached sixteen years of age, thus the title. Though she reveals her childhood to be less than ideal, she now seems to look back on it with the glee of having survived. In fact, she bares her depressed, bedwetting, divorced childhood in a way that scandalizes everybody within hearing distance. She delights in the theoretically grotesque and sickening aspects of humanity. She attempts to defy convention, to cause her audience to feel sympathy for her, then cynically reels them deeper into her psyche. This gives her the satisfaction of knowing that her dirty mind can contaminate others.
I don't recommend this book, but having read it, I understand such people a little better. But given the choice between oral surgery and reading it again, I'll take another extraction.
Oh yes, If this is not enough to make up for lost time checking if I posted anything.
A haiku series that I wrote before falling asleep one night.
Fearful prayers take wing
Darkness overshadows all
A storm is brewing
There exists hidden
Inside the legends of old
Whispers of a hero
Light and Shade shall meet
A battle of epic scale
Silent souls awake
Evil stands no rival
Right will not tolerate wrong
No truce can occur
The wisdom of fools
Permeates the strongly weak
Balance is disturbed
Only daylight breeds hope
Dusk slithers and snuffs out light
A solar eclipse
Great powers are at stake
Will there arise a victor?
Listen to the souls
Dead hold their peace
The living are conflicted
Time alone will tell.
