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An excellent book made even more excellent as it was inspired by actual event. The author took a time and event where the San Diego Zoo was obtaining their first pair of Giraffes in 1938 and being transported across the US and filled in a little bit of history, that otherwise is now unknown, with characters of her own making. Fitting their story in a small pocket of history with some of the most monuments events in US and World history filling in as the backdrop.

It's a story about change and loss and about a word constantly moving on. Even in the first chapter when we first meet the main character and primary narrator, Woodrow Wilson Nickel, he's already passed and it's a VA liaison going through his belonging who finds and reads his narrative. From there and for the most of the rest of the book it's about his adventures and his life, with the story coming back to the recent present occasionally with him in a nursing home writing the memoir and interacting with the staff.

The only downside I would say is that the ending feels a little less than satisfying at points, but that primarily because the author is constrained by actual history. Instead of embellishing or having an alternate history, this story fits neatly into our own universe in a part of history that would otherwise be a vacuum. But as the story draws to a close we get an ending that isn't typical for most novels but is one that probably far more realistic.

Anthony Bourdain speaks his mind about numerous people an practices in the Restaurant industry. However it also provides better context, changes of (or more developed) opinions from his prior work Kitchen Confidential<\i> and talks at length his opinions about the state of food in the US (or at least as of 2010).

Giving this book a 5 star review as who am I to say anything negative against stories well over 2 thousand years old and a translation that is approximately 100 years old now, that is considered seminal. And the book does provide an amazing insight into the Greeks life and philosophy.

Both The Theogony and Work and Days are very academic, the first being a long list of the Greek Gods and their origin and relation of one to another and the later being best practices for farming which would obviously be important for the ancient society and a great interest to scholars but not the most interesting to read. The Shield of Heracles is by far the closest to an actually story and is written in a very entertaining and engaging way, however it is also the shortest story at around 10 pages.

However my recommendation would be if you want to learn about ancient Greeks, then get a more modern translation which will probably do a far better job keep the attention of a modern audience and have better footnotes. And maybe something that's not so academically focused.

If however you want to read this translation for it's historical nature then this book from digireads if probably just fine but as the original translation is an out of copyright work you could probably find a free version online somewhere much easier (and cheaper).

Disclaimer: I got this book free from going out of business sale and I effectively didn't have to pay anything for the hardcopy. Otherwise I tend to avoid reprints like this and will get them from site like Project Gutenberg.