sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
Back in the days after I'd started keeping a list of all the books I read each year but BEFORE I started posting reviews of them, I kept desultory personal notes (ranging from a single word to quite a few paragraphs) on some of the books. And I always vaguely forget I have, and forget where exactly to find them, and I'd like to just have them on my dw so they're FINDABLE again for me. And also some of you might find these interesting/amusing? (N.B. some of these contain what I would now classify as INCORRECT OPINIONS.)

SO HERE'S THREE YEARS' WORTH OF BOOKS IN ONE POST, OKAY GO.

expand this cut to see nested cuts listing all the books )
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
(Consisting of: Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess,
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Lioness Rampant)

Hmmm not quite sure what to say about these books! It's been quite a while since I've reread them since this was never the Tamora Pierce series that I was most captivated by.

They're obviously her first books, and have a variety of flaws (some plot points/character choices that don't quite make sense, the well-meaning racism that's racism nonetheless, the uncomfortable dynamics in how some of Alanna's romantic relationships are portrayed, and so forth) but the books are nonetheless a charming quick read, if you can look past those factors.

Also its brand of feminism is...of its era (Alanna is Not Like Other Girls! And so forth.) but it's well-meaning and was hugely important for its time.

And I still have huge quantities of childhood nostalgia for these books. I care about these characters so much!
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
Idk, I've read this book before and decided to reread it to remind myself of what happens before maybe attempting to continue in this series and...this book is not nearly as good as I had remembered it being.

It's just very much a dude book, in a way it's hard for me to put a finger on because it's not actively terrible about female characters which is one of my usual main dude-book indicators. But the whole thing exuded DUDE at me very strongly. And I mostly just found it kinda boring. It got a bit exciting right at the very end once things actually start HAPPENING instead of just people talking about things that are happening/need to be happening. But that still doesn't really make up for the rest of the book being boring. Does the series improve from here? I've heard good things about the series in general!

Most Popular Tags

Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 03:47 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios