Book Review: Voices of the Winds by M. Edmonds et al.

Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends by Margot Edmonds and Ella Elizabeth Clark

This book is a compilation of folk tales from Native American tribes in the United States and Canada. The sets are divided into regions like Northwest, Southwest, Central Plains, etc. Each story is identified by the tribe it came from, often with a brief historical description of the tribe. The tales range from creation myths and tribal origins to anthropomorphized animals and tribal legends. Many a chief has a beautiful daughter whom most of the young men want to marry; many a rabbit or coyote pulls a trick on a larger, tougher, but dumber animal (including human animals). There's a lot of charm and some repetition on display here but overall it's an entertaining lot. Most stories are a page or two with occasional illustrations of various Native American artifacts, from weapons to pipes to baskets. I enjoyed the book but there's nothing ground shaking here.

Mildly recommended--if you like folk tales, this provides a ton.

TV Review: Wonder Man (2026)

Wonder Man (2026) created for television by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest based on the Marvel Comics 

Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a hard-working actor who works too hard on his performances. He tries to dig into his characters' back stories, even on set when the rest of the production is ready to go, not to renegotiate the narrative. He gets fired from his current job. Desperate, he hears a childhood movie hero, Wonder Man, is being rebooted by a German auteur director, so he moves heaven and earth to get an audition. He happens to run into Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) who is also down and out. Williams idolizes Slattery, who helps him out and is also trying out for Wonder Man, though in another role. Slattery has ulterior motives. The Department of Damage Control has taken him into custody and blackmails him into befriending Williams so he can get the dirt on Williams. Damage Control suspects Williams is dangerous, which viewers see at one point when Williams stresses out and causes a bit of destruction in his apartment through some sort of superpower. 

The show has more than a bit of Hollywood narcissism--a story about actors and their tough lives, with lots of name dropping and famous locales. I found that aspect disappointing though I am sure others would enjoy it. On the other hand, I liked the growth of Simon's character, away from a self-defeating perfectionism and self-centeredness. A lot of it is due to his friendship with Trevor, which is all a front at the beginning. Trevor learns to like Simon and hate that he is betraying him. They have good chemistry together and their misadventures are entertaining if not always sensible. The ending is especially satisfying.

Recommended, especially for Marvel fans.

As I write (September 2026), this is only available on Disney+.