Journey Beyond 2012: A Novel ~ Review

It's Friday, so I'm recovering from Thursday night TV. The Vampire Diaries season finale - spoiler alert! - had Elena becoming a vampire. It happened in the book series, but the TV series doesn't follow the books very closely at all. So that was surprising, but it wasn't the most shocking thing. The big shocks were a) Alaric Salzman is dead, and b) Klaus is not truly dead, but somehow transported into Tyler's body.

I hope Tyler's not dead. I love TV-Tyler and TV-Caroline together. I'm already unhappy about losing Alaric. He never even got the chance to have a romance with Meredith!

Sticks with you through your werewolf transformation, even though your bite can kill her. Caroline is a ridadie chick. 

Speaking of Thursday-night fictional couples, Person of Interest revealed something most intriguing about the mysterious Mr. Harold Finch: Finch has a fiancee who believes him to be dead. This woman was played by Carrie Preston, the lovely lady who plays Sookie Stackhouse's fellow Merlot's waitress Arlene on True Blood. Only a few days ago, I learned Preston is married to Michael Emerson, the actor who plays Finch. (Apparently, his last gig was as a villain on Lost, I show I never watched, but which also featured current TVD actor Ian Somerhalder.) When Person of Interest and True Blood collide, I'm a happy lil' cupcake - even though the storyline was a rather sad one.

What would I do without TheDorkMistress' Tumblr?

At least the love of Finch's life is alive and happy. Reese's Jessica is still dead. (Sad face.)

Springing the POI from Carter's precinct required Reese to don a police officer's uniform, in which, it should be noted, Jim Caviezel looks so ridiculously man-pretty. He's always ridiculously man-pretty (in fact, I think Caviezel means man-pretty in Rhaetian), but in a uniform? I feel faint.

Reese, take off the cop uniform. Slowly. 

But enough about TV. Let's talk about a different Italian-American, one whose talent lies not in acting (that I know of), but in writing (and cooking).

In Italian Cuisine a la Piero Rivolta, I promised you a review of Rivolta's novel Journey Beyond 2012. I have now finished reading said novel. These are my thoughts - but first, the trailer.



I loved this book. When I first read the title, I thought it was going to be a harrowing action-adventure story of the catastrophe that awaits the world when the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. This is not that kind of book, though. It's thought-provoking and inspirational.

I don't want to give too much away, but in Rivolta's vision, the world doesn't literally end when the Mayan calendar ends. Instead, the human race is presented with an opportunity to evolve. This is sort of an allegory, with Ryan representing one way of looking at the work and Valeria representing the opposite.

The one thing that annoyed me about this book was Rivolta's habit of referring to the human race as "mankind." That sort of casually sexist language may have flown in 1965, but it's out of place in today's literature.

Interestingly enough, the Mayan calendar is in the news again today. It appears that archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered a version of the Mayan calendar that goes well beyond 2012. You can read the USA Today story here.

Whether or not you believe the world is going to go through some kind of turmoil on December 21st, read this book. It might just teach you a little something about yourself.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher at no cost. I received no other compensation for this review, which represents my own true opinion.