As I mentioned in my last
post, February was a rough month health-wise for me. I had the flu and had
trouble sleeping. Luckily, I’m recovered now both physically and mentally. We
just crossed a big milestone for us; it’s been a whole month and no one in the
family has been sick! This hasn’t happened since before Thanksgiving. We’re
hoping that our streak continues.
While I was getting better, I
escaped to an epic fantasy world recommended by my brother-in-law, Jon and read
a little about the mystery of gravity.
Hope that you all are well
physically, mentally, and spiritually. As always, let me know if you have any
recommendations or thoughts about these books if you’ve read them as well.
Tonya
Theft of Swords: The Riyria Revelations #1-2 by Michael J. Sullivan
Rating: 3 of
5 stars
Recommendation: Yes,
mainly so you can read the others
Review: The Riyria Revelations is an epic fantasy, world-building series.
Any novel with a map at the beginning of the book pretty much falls into this
category. The genre generally includes a magic system, is set in the pre-industrial
revolution ages, and comprises various races of characters including elves,
dwarves, goblins, and humans. The first two books in Sullivan’s Revelations series introduce us to his
world through the experiences of a host of colorful characters including our
two thieving protagonists, an ancient wizard, a princess trying to save her kingdom,
and a scholarly monk. To be honest, I found the first one the worst in the series,
but I’m glad that I read it because the series has to be read in order, and the
rest of the books are much better. The second one was better but contained a
little too much horror and gruesome deaths for a four-star review.
Rise of Empire: The Riyria Revelations #3-4 by Michael J. Sullivan
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes, if you like epic fantasy world-building
Review: Books
three and four of the Riyria Revelations
were definitely better written than the first two. I especially liked the
character development in these of the female roles, particularly Princess Arista,
whom I found to be fairly winey and just a damsel-in-distress in the first two.
She and some of the other characters really come into their own in these two
volumes. However, this is one of those series where you don’t want to get too
attached to any of the secondary characters because Sullivan has a tendency to
kill off all the ones you like. The fourth book ended just like the middle book
of a series: with a major letdown that set up the last two books.
Heir of Novron: The Riyria Revelations #5-6 by Michael J. Sullivan
Rating: 4.5
of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes!
Review: The
final two volumes of the Riyria
Revelations series is worth reading the previous 600 pages to get to. These
books are action packed and had some truly surprising twists and turns that I was
genuinely not expecting. I loved watching all of the different plot threads get
tied up in the last 150 pages or so of the final book, and Sullivan leaves you
feeling like this 1000 page or so journey with him is worth the read, as in
true to the epic fantasy genre, the good guys face off with an apocalyptic
problem against overwhelming odds.
The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our
Feet by Richard Panek
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Recommendation:
yes, a very good read
Review: Spoiler alert, but
turns out that no one knows what gravity is, and I’m not just talking about your
regular person who doesn’t have an advance degree in physics, I’m talking about
the people with advance degrees in physics. Gravity is a mystery still to this
day. We can clearly see and understand its effects on our universe, but no one
understands what causes gravity despite literally millennia of trying. Planek
writes an understandable and engrossing tale of our efforts to understand what
makes stuff down here stay down here and what makes stuff in the sky stay in
the sky, mostly. He starts with creation myths across the world, proceeds to
Aristotle and Plato, then on to Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. The book
is both a scientific history and explanation as we journey along with these
great minds as they puzzle the mystery that also intrigues my 11 month-old. She
loves testing gravity. Every time she’s in her high chair to eat she proceeds
to drop the carefully prepared food that she’s supposed to be consuming right
on the floor. Over and over and over. She’s basically a scientist.
Mommy Corner
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| Technically these suctiony toy cups were supposed to be a gift for Maya's birthday later this month from my mom, but we had fun playing with them early. |
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| Chloe learned about flossing and dental hygiene in school. She's the most enthusiastic flosser I've ever met. |
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| Fun times with friends. |
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| Maya enjoys trying new foods. This month she sampled spinach but discovered that it's rather hard to eat without molars. Not that she didn't enjoy trying though. |
