Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 9 years old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she’s been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same…

I just finished “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, a story about Shadow, an ex-con recently released from prison and a brewing battle between the “old gods” that came to America with immigrants (like Odin, Loki, or other mythology we’re familiar with) and the new “gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon.”

It’s also a road trip novel, with all sorts of Americana in it, like The House on the Rock and Ruby Falls. I love road trips and quirky roadside attractions so I really enjoyed those parts of the book. We’ll be going on a west coast road trip this summer, so keep an eye out for those posts! 😉  America … “They said it was a good place for men, but a bad place for gods.”

Note: this will be last my last regular WIJFR post. I just don’t always have the time or the inclination to write up and review every book after I finish it. This started out as a way to just keep track of what books I’ve read and when, but now (7 years and 84 posts later!) I use GoodReads so duplicating that effort here seems like a waste. If I do have something to say about a book in the future, though, and feel inspired to do so, I’m sure I’ll write something up.