Things 13 to 15

Here is another book review for this week. I just finished reading the excellent book The Golem and The Jinni, by Helene Wecker. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15819028-the-golem-and-the-jinni
This is Ms. Wecker's first novel, and it's a brilliant debut. I was entranced by the rich background of late 19th century New York's Little Syria and Jewish neighbourhoods, as well as the vivid characters that were brought to life on the page. Chava and Ahmad, the main characters of this story, are poignantly estranged from the world around them. One is a golem, built to be a bride but widowed and adrift before she was even a few hours old. The other is a Jinni, a creature of fire from the arid desert who finds himself flung a thousand years forward into a world he doesn't know full of puzzling humans. Together they timidly enter this new world. This is a truly unusual story, not a passionate romance but a patient taming of the smallest embers, but what a bonfire it lights for the reader! The book left me with that fabulous feeling you get from those marvelous tales such as Scheherazade might tell. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a good while, continuing to assimilate the fantastical myths that the author has brought to life for me.

Things 11 and 12

For Things 11 and 12, I thought I would use a subject that has recently piqued my interest, the steampunk culture. I've always had an interest in science-fiction and fantasy, but I find myself gravitating more and more towards the romanticism of the steampunk movement. Something about the brass and copper pipes,gears, and the beautiful Victorian inspired language inspires me.

I found that locating a Creative Commons image was a bit harder than I thought. A lot of the images I found were either of the Public Domain, or other copyright types and had multiple exceptions. I'm sure there are many places to find more specific CC images, but Wikimedia Commons does have a lot to offer, for one who's willing to put the time in.
The image I chose is a photograph posted by the author, which is of Steampunk cosplayers taking a look at the steampunk exhibition at Utopiales 2011 (Nantes, France). This seems to be a convention, which I would love to attend if I ever had the chance.





By Ceridwen (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


As for Thing 12, Wordle was OK to use, but it is time consuming to type or paste the words into the categories. I used the advanced function so I could put the 'weight' to the words I wanted emphasised. The site is a bit too randomised for my taste, as if you switch between two settings and then back again you won't get the same result twice. There are probably other word cloud sites which have more customisable settings than this one, but it's OK for a beginner. After much head scratching, I finally figured things out, so here is my word cloud: