American Gods: A Reading List

/ May 19, 2017

Some books to for you to read before, during or after watching American Gods

More From Neil Gaiman

      • Gaiman, Neil Anansi boys : a novel Summary:Charles Fat Charlie Nancy leads a normal, boring existence in London. However, when he calls the U.S. to invite his estranged father to his wedding, he learns that the man just died. After jetting off to Florida for the funeral, Charlie not only discovers a brother he didn’t know he had, but also learns that his father was the West African trickster god, Anansi. Charlie’s brother, who possesses his own magical powers, later visits him at home and spins Charlie’s life out of control, getting him fired, sleeping with his fiancee, and even getting him arrested for a white collar crime. Charlie fights back with assistance from other gods, and that’s when the real trouble begins. They lead the brothers into adventures that are at times scary or downright hysterical. At first Charlie is overwhelmed by this new world, but he is Anansi’s son and shows just as much flair for trickery as his brother. With its quirky, inventive fantasy, this is a real treat for Gaiman’s fans. Here, he writes with a fuller sense of character. Focusing on a smaller cast gives him the room to breathe life into these figures. Anansi is also a story about fathers, sons, and brothers and how difficult it can be to get along even when they are so similar. Darkly funny and heartwarming to the end, this book is an addictive read not easily forgotten.


      • Gaiman, Neil Fragile things : short fictions and wonders Summary:In this dazzling collection of more than twenty-five pieces of short fiction, including a novella featuring the hero of his masterpiece American Gods, internationally bestselling author Neil Gaiman charts the terrain between life and death, perception and reality, darkness and light. From an alternate-universe Victorian England to months of the year sitting around chatting, this volume is a gift of wonder guaranteed to dazzle the senses.


      • Gaiman, Neil Good omens Summary:The world is preparing to come to an end according to the Divine Plan recorded in the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded 1655). Meanwhile, a fussy angel and a fast-living demon have grown fond of living among the earth’s mortals for many millennia and are not looking forward to the apocalypse. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they must find and kill the Antichrist.


      • Gaiman, Neil Neverwhere : author’s preferred text Summary:Under the streets of London there’s a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.
        Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.


      • Gaiman, Neil The ocean at the end of the lane Summary:It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed – within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.


      • Gaiman, Neil The view from the cheap seats : selected nonfiction Summary:More than sixty pieces exploring a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author’s experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.

    More Mythish Fiction

      • Powers, Tim Last call Summary:Set in Las Vegas, Last Call concerns the fate of Scott Crane, former professional gambler, recent widower, blind in one eye–and also the lost natural son of the man who is determined to kill him. In this novel, Crane is forced to resume the high-stakes game of a lifetime–and wager it all.

      • Krinard, Susan Mist Summary:“Mist lives a normal life. She has a normal job, a normal boyfriend, and a normal apartment in San Francisco. She never thinks about her past if she can help it. She survived. That’s the end of it. But then a snowy winter descends upon San Francisco. In June. And in quick succession, Mist is attacked by a frost giant in a public park and runs into an elf disguised as a homeless person on the streets…and then the man Mist believed was her mortal boyfriend reveals himself to be the trickster god, Loki, alive and well after all these years. Mist’s normal world is falling apart. But thankfully, Mist isn’t quite so normal herself. She’s a Valkyrie, and she’s going to need all her skill to thwart Loki’s schemes and save modern Earth from the ravages of a battle of the gods”–

      • Oyeyemi, Helen Mr. Fox Summary:Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don’t get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can’t stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It’s not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.

      • Coel, Margaret Night of the white buffalo Summary:“In the latest Wind River novel, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley confront a ruthless killer in the wake of a miraculous event. A mysterious penitent confesses to murder, and then flees the confessional before Father John can identify him. Two months later, Vicky discovers rancher Dennis Carey shot dead in his truck along Blue Sky Highway. With the tragic news comes the exposure of an astonishing secret: the most sacred creature in Native American mythology, a white buffalo calf, was recently born on Carey’s ranch. Making national headlines, the miraculous animal draws a flood of pilgrims to the reservation, frustrating an already difficult investigation. As visitors throw the reservation into turmoil, Vicky and Father John try to unravel the strange events surrounding both Carey’s murder and the recent disappearances of three cowboys from his ranch. It could be coincidence, given the nomadic life of the cowboy trade, but when one of them fails to appear in court to testify on an assault charge, Vicky wonders if Arnie Walkfast and his Arapaho buddies are guilty of more than just assault. And at the back of Father John’s mind is the voice from the man in the confessional: I killed a man . . . ” —

      • Freeman, Philip Oh my gods : a modern retelling of Greek and Roman myths Summary:The author, a professor of classics and visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity school presents modern interpretations of traditional Greek and Roman myths that render classic themes accessible to a new generation of readers. Here he retells some of the most popular myths and tales of errant gods, fantastic creatures, and human heroes, including powerful Zeus, his wife Hera, Apollo, beautiful Aphrodite, fierce Athena, the dauntless heroes Theseus and Hercules, the doomed lovers Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as the tales of the Argonauts, and the narrative of the Battle of Troy. These Greek and Roman myths are as relevant today as ever in their sharp observations about human nature; they still inspire awe, give us courage, and break our hearts. They have inspired plays, operas, and paintings, and live on today in movies and video games. — From back cover.

      • Alice, A Siegfried. The Valykrie Volume 2, Summary: In this second volume of the three-part story inspired by Wagner’s classic opera The Ring of the Nibelung, Siegfried sets off from his safe, forest home to find the world of men. With Mime as his reluctant guide, Siegfried plunges headlong into the dangers of the swamp of the sorcerer Volva, where he learns of his destiny to confront the dragon Fafnir! Written and illustrated by Alex Alice (Le Troisieme Testament), this lush hardcover masterpiece brings the epic saga to life in feature-quality illustration.

      • Renault, Mary The king must die. Summary: In myth, Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real life is another question, brilliantly explored in The King Must Die. Drawing on modern scholarship and archaeological findings at Knossos, Mary Renault’s Theseus is an utterly lifelike figure—a king of immense charisma, whose boundless strivings flow from strength and weakness—but also one steered by implacable prophecy. The story follows Theseus’s adventures from Troizen to Eleusis, where the death in the book’s title is to take place, and from Athens to Crete, where he learns to jump bulls and is named king of the victims. Richly imbued with the spirit of its time, this is a page-turner as well as a daring act of imagination.

      • Hawkins, Scott The Library at Mount Char Summary:After she and a dozen other children found them being raised by “Father,” a cruel man with mysterious powers, Carolyn and her “siblings” begin to think he might be God; so when he dies, they square off against each other to determine who will inherit his library, which they believe holds the power to all Creation.

      • Adams, Douglas The long dark tea-time of the soul Summary:A passenger check-in desk at London’s Heathrow Airport goes up in a ball of flame and Dirk Gently becomes very inquisitive.

      • Farmer, Nancy The Sea of Trolls Summary:After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a vital quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.

      • Hahn, Rebecca The shadow behind the stars Summary:Chloe, Serena, and Xinot, the Fates, live on a secluded island spinning, measuring, and cutting the threads of human life but when Aglaia, a mortal, finds them Chloe must try to keep her sisters from getting attached to the girl and involved in her dark fate that could unravel the world.

      • Gillen, Kieron The wicked + the divine Summary:Every ninety years, twelve gods return as young people. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are all dead. It’s happening now. It’s happening again.

    Myth, Folklore, Magic and More

      • Davis, Kenneth C Don’t know much about mythology : everything you need to know about the greatest stories in human history but never learned Summary:Where do we come from? Why do stars shine and the seasons change? What is evil? Since the beginning of time, people have answered such questions by crafting imaginative stories that have served as religion, science, philosophy, and popular literature. In his irreverent a question-and-answer style, Davis introduces and explains the great myths of the world, as well as the works of literature that have made them famous. He tackles Mesopotamia’s Gilgamesh, the first hero in world mythology; Achilles and the Trojan War; Stonehenge and the Druids; Thor, the Nordic god of thunder; Chinese oracle bones; the use of peyote in ancient Native American rites; and the dramatic life and times of the man who would be Buddha. Ever familiar and instructive, Davis shows why the ancient tales of gods and heroes–from Mount Olympus to Machu Picchu, from ancient Rome to the icy land of the Norse–continue to speak to us today, in our movies, art, language, and music.–From publisher description.


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