The structure and topics are uneven, which makes the title a bit misleading. First the author lists different mythologies and folklore (the most interesting part), but then he somehow connects Gilles de Rais to the werewolf myth without ever explaining why he chose this particular historical figure. There's very little of the author's original thoughts or arguments among the recounts of folklore and criminal cases. As interesting (and disgusting) as these cases of cannibalism and corpse mutilators are, some of them are quite a stretch to be linked to the werewolf myth. However, as a reference book this is quite useful and a must read for everyone interested in werewolves.

Dragon, Tiger and Chrysanthemum: Introduction to East Asian Societies
Asian Studies

Wonderfully compiled reference book with an abundance of colour photos. Not just a list of discoveries, but works also as a coherent story of the development of archaeological conventions in digging up ancient objects.

Written in a very detached way, and confirmed my opinion that Sally Bowles is damn annoying, both in the book and the movie. The six different episodes have a similar tone, but still don't seem that solid as a whole. All the characters and every single thing that happens are just barely there, which I would somewhat approve if the writing was somehow remarkable, but it's not. Even some of the Nazi stuff is quite useless, since they feel like fillers to the story. Christopher mentions in the beginning that he's a camera lense, but I'd rather want him to be a human being.

Considering how little information we have from most of the queens, this is quite coherently compiled. An extended list that doesn't just throw queens one after another, but also offers a short and clear biography of each of those it's possible. Kind of sad really, that there might be an incredible amount of equally or even more intelligent consorts and harem wives than Cleopatra, but we just don't know that (yet?). We give more attention to the more famous kings and queens, because there's more information regarding their reigns, therefore it leads us to believe that they were the most important ones. Anyway, Tyldesley has also written an introduction to the book, so it's a bit easier to put the queens into context if you're not familiar with the women's history in Egypt yet.