Introducing "Mystery Enthusiast": The World Literature Mystery Reader

Welcome to my new blog! I am Kendra and "Mystery Enthusiast" is supposed to be my book blog that focuses on mystery. But not just any old mystery book will be featured here, the books I review will have another requirement: they must be worldly. This is not just limited to books written by authors across the globe, but books that feature settings of places other than the United States.

I decided to create this blog not just because of this beautiful theme from Parajunkee (that was only free for 24 hours so I decided to jump right into it) but because I have always had a fascination with other countries. I even got my BA in Anthropology. While my job prospects have become more mundane than I had hoped when in college, I still maintain my thirst for adventure and knowledge. Hence my creation of "Mystery Enthusiast".

To introduce you to myself I will give you a world tour of my interests in countries from elementary school.



Elementary School: Egypt

In my school library there was this huge tome about Ancient Egypt that I was absolutely captivated with. I was the only one that ever checked it out. One time I had decided to draw some of the Egyptian gods and goddesses based on the pictures in the book. When I came back and visited the library after elementary school and I opened the book for old times sake, I found the pictures still within the pages of the book.

It made me sad to realize no one else wanted to learn about this fascinating country like I did. However, it also made me feel as if I had a secret that they were not privy to. This tome on Ancient Egypt was not the only book I read on Egypt. I had various histories and coffee table books on the subject.

If Egypt was somehow featured in the book, I more than likely begged my parents to let me read it. Some of my old favorites that immediately jump to mind were The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits and a giant book on mythology that had an interactive DVD that would give me virtual tours of mythological art. (That book was a favorite I kept until my house burned down, I can't find it anywhere now.)

My love for Egypt was not just limited to books though, movies and documentaries concerning Egypt were a big love of mine. I would stalk the history channel waiting for any new documentaries on Egypt. One of my favorite movies of all time is The Mummy (I even remember doing a book report on the novelization of the movie).

Middle School: Greece

When I got to Middle School, Egypt was still a fixture in my imagination. For a historical dress up day I went as Osiris. However, I moved on to other countries as we learned about other civilizations in class. Greek Mythology became a subject I knew a lot about. My friends would always come to me if they needed any information that they did not want to look up.

My love for Greek mythology followed me to college. There I learned how different the myths were in our child safe mythology book compared to what was actually known about the myths and stories.

Zeus is a dog. (Which the irony does not escape me that there is no myth that I can easily recall where he transformed into a dog, but that is what he is.)

High School: Japan and Russia

The greatest thing that could have happened to me in high school was that Japanese was offered as a language to learn. I was despondent about learning Spanish or French and really wanted something else more challenging. Luckily Japanese was offered and that revived a love for Japan that had laid dormant since my childhood filled with Pokemon and Sailor Moon. I took four years of Japanese and it fueled a love for the culture, language, and history.

I was lucky to actually have a teacher who had been around in the Soviet Union. It was very interesting to have their perspective on the history we were learning in High School. I ended up doing a sixteen page paper on the Soviet Union because of my new found interest in it.

University: Everywhere

The greatest thing about majoring in Anthropology was that I was encouraged to learn about all the cultures I could. And that is exactly what I did. I took courses on Latin America, China, India, Turkey, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Russia, Eastern Europe, Pacific Islands, and so much more. (Though I was incredibly disappointed when I signed up for a World Literature course and the only books that were taught in it were Greek and Roman.) I was in ecstasy learning about all these places. I really should have picked one area of the world and just focused on that, it would probably had helped me in the long run, but I could not pick.

But anyway, there you go.

 The world tour to my past interests. This blog is meant to be a guilty pleasure for me where you will see mysteries in world literature. I am a book blogger but do not be frightened if I bring up movies and television. Akira Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors of all time and you might see me gushing about his films. Also, with the Crystal Sailor Moon coming out I will probably post about that as well. I also watch The Mummy whenever it is on television so I will probably post about it's merits any day now.

I hope you find my blog interesting and that it takes you where you want to go.