One Weird Neighborhood of Characters (Part Two)

BRIDA by Paulo Coelhio (THE WEIRD CHICK)

This is the story of Brida.  A young Irish girl who wants to become a witch.  She meets a Master trained in the Ways of The Sun.  He teaches her to overcome fear ... and introduces to her the concept of soulmates.  He then refers her to a Witch learned in the Ways of the Moon.  Brida enters the world Wicca and its customs.  Unconsciously, Brida starts of a journey of self discovery and personal destiny.

Paulo Coelhio weaves magical stories. Like "The Alchemist," this book follows the Coelhian philosophy of finding your destiny.  It is light reading, quite interesting, BUT for a book about witchcraft ... a little lacking in the magic department (I have learned more spells from Harry Potter. Unfortunately, they are useless in real life). It is rich on stuff about soulmates though.  Compared to "The Alchemist," this is lukewarm. But then it's still a readable book. Collection-wise, it's better that you just borrow one from your Coelhio-fan friend.


THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield (THE GEEK AND THE ADDAMS FAMILY)

Margaret Lea is a librarian who also happens to write biographies of dead people. Her family owns a bookstore, hence her vocation to literary pursuits.  Vida Winter, who happens to be the best-selling LIVING author of her time, contacts Margaret Lea into writing her biography.  Aware of Vida Winter's reputation of not telling the true story of her life (Numerous interviews were given. All stories were false of course.).  Curiosity piqued, Margaret Lea suspiciously accepted the job.  She unfolds the extraordinary life of the author, and unravels family secrets filled with suspense, incest, sadism, and the other daily twisted apothecary pills of weirdness.  

The first effort of Ms. Setterfield ... and a damn good one.  This is the kind of book that makes me say "I wish I wrote this."  If I did and were not aware of it, I would have 50% of my ideas in this book. The story is so twisted until the near end, I was smiling silly when I put the book down. Must-have in the book coffers.


THE BOOK OF NAMES by Jill Gregory & Karen Tintori (THE TEACHER AND THE DOOMSDAY CREW)

David Shepherd is a professor of politics haunted by visions of names stemming from a childhood accident.  The names took on a life on itself after 25 years of conscious suppression.  He meets a rabbi who explains to him the importance of those names in the balance of life events on earth. The list happened to be the Book of Names, originating from the ancient texts of the biblical Adam. And by Kabbalistic beliefs, it contains the names of the thirty-six righteous souls of each generation - the so-called Hidden Ones.  He is then pursued by a mysterious group, who seeks out the names in his visions. The so-called Gnoseos vows to eliminate the people who own these names to purge the earth and usher a new one. Aided by an Israeli texts expert, he gets into danger after danger, trying to decipher the names, save the world, and rescue his abducted step-daughter (who also happens to be a Hidden One).

Talk a about one really bad day.  When you just thought you were just going insane, the next thing you know you have to save earth from Armageddon. By summary, it sounds far-fetched and crazy at the least. It's pretty entertaining.  I can imagine some of the action films plus the Da Vinci Code while reading this.  For those who are into suspense, mystery, and puzzle-solving, you can add this to your collection.  I hope though they don't make this into a movie, I can feel a B-Movie coming ... as some of the stuff here can be done tastelessly.  Just retain the book of its charm please.