Hi friends,
August was a busy month for our family. We went to Utah at the beginning of the month for a family reunion with my family, the girls started school, and we ended the month going to The Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs for a night. We tried to go see the Labor Day Lift Off Saturday morning, but the winds were too high, and the hot air balloons did not lift off. Still, we had plenty of fun at the water park and other activities.
In between all the travelling and time with family, I decided to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I also finished two nonfiction books and a high fantasy series. As always, let me know what you think of these great reads and if you have suggestions for further reading.
Tonya
The Original by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recommendation: sure
Review: This short novella was originally an audiobook-only collaboration between Sanderson and Kowal which was recently released as an ebook. Since I don’t listen to audio books, but I do read anything by Sanderson, I picked it up after it came out as an ebook. I’m wondering if something was missing with the text-only medium because I wasn’t horribly impressed. Sanderson and Kowal create an interesting scifi world where people live in their own “themes,” programming that’s layered into their brains and dictates everything about how they perceive the world around them. Some people choose to “opt out” of the themes though, and our story is about one woman discovering more about the world beyond her theme. The whole thing felt a little too fast, and I didn’t feel a strong connection to the main character. It was an interesting premise, but I think it would have benefited from a novel length word count.
Ship of Destiny (Liveship Traders #3) by Robin Hobb
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes
Review: This was the conclusion of the Liveship Traders, the second series of books set in Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings. After finishing the trilogy, I can confidently say that I like this trilogy better than The Farseer Trilogy, which I read a few years ago and never continued because I felt like the ending fell flat. That was thankfully not the case with this book! Hobb smashed it out of the park. In fact, I was surprised at how much resolution we did get with the ending. Considering Hobb’s reputation for putting her characters through hell, I thought it would be less satisfying than it was. The characters were, of course, the best part and pirate Captain Kennit stole the show along with the liveship Paragon. Kennit is perhaps the best written villain I have ever read. Throughout the first two books and most of this one the reader has the benefit of reading from Kennit’s point of view, and so we know how manipulative, selfish, and insecure he really is, but I wanted to hard for him to have a redemption arc and instead of doing the right things for completely the wrong reasons, to start doing the right things for the right reasons. Learning Kennit’s back story makes him incredibly sympathetic and made me excuse or explain away most of his awful behavior and attitudes towards those loyal to him, but in this book he clearly crosses a line, and it becomes obvious that his character arc is heading nowhere near redemption. Gah! It was so well written and so emotionally fraught! OK. Moving on. Malta was the other stand out character in this book, and I loved seeing her come of age and have to deal with someone who was just as self-obsessed and bratty as she was in the first book. She really goes through the wringer and comes out stronger for it. She takes complete control of a dire situation and is able to turn it around and end up on top using only her wits, attitude, and skill as a trader. It was so good. There was only one part of the book that I didn’t like and was why I ended up giving it four instead of five stars. That part dealt with the resolution and fallout of a sexual assault. When it happened, I didn’t see how Hobb could thoughtfully and carefully deal with the fall out of what happened in the pages that were left. She finds a way to wrangle a mostly satisfying ending from the situation, but it still left me wanting something different for the characters involved. Having now finished the trilogy, I do recommend it to all fantasy fans out there.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes
Review: This book was OK. After thinking about it for a few weeks, I think I’m downgrading my rating from 4 to 3 stars because I’m having trouble remembering much about it. It tells the story of two best friends that grow up in Iran before the Islamic revolution. One friend is from the upper class but has fallen on hard times. The other friend is lower class but has the academic skills to claw her way to a university education. Then stuff goes down and both friends lives take very different trajectories. It’s a good story of female friendship, and one of the things I like best about historical fiction is getting to learn about a period of history through a story instead of through a historical recounting. All in all, it was good but not great.
Saints Volume 2 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes, for members of the Church
Review: This was the second time that I’ve read the Saints books, which are narrative histories of the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This one picks up after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom and covers the gathering to Utah and the rise and fall of polygamy. It was a fascinating read, and I enjoyed reading about how the restoration of the gospel continued to unfold throughout the early decades of the Church. The polygamy story is particularly interesting and too nuanced to give a thorough discussion here. I will say that the interplay of external pressure from the US government and the Saints resistance for religious freedom to practice plural marriage provides great context for how the Church interacts with governments around the world today. I recommend for all members of the Church.
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes
Review: I read The Hobbit over and over when I was a kid. I had a special illustrated copy that was signed by the illustrator, Michael Hague. However, I think I only read The Lord of the Rings once in college, so I decided it was time to revisit the foundational story that is fantasy, and yeah. It is that good. I was particularly impressed by Tolkien’s prose and dialogue. People don’t talk like Tolkien writes. At least no one I know talks like that, but I wish they did. Also, I didn’t realize how many songs there are in these books. So. Many. Songs. I think it works in the books, but it would definitely be kind of hokey on screen, and I can imagine why Peter Jackson cut the whole Tom Bombadil plot from the movies. Can you imagine a character in yellow boots just dancing around singing the whole time while he saves the hobbits from a man-eating tree and the barrow ghouls? It reads well in the book, but it would look ridiculous on screen. Anyway, the council of Elrond was definitely my favorite part of the book. So much gravitas. I’m super excited to keep reading the rest of the trilogy.
The Good Mother Myth by Nancy Reddy
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommendation: yes
Review: Being a mom is a lot. Anyone will agree to that. In this part memoir, part societal analysis, Reddy intertwines her pregnancy and post-partum experiences with critiques of the founders of attachment theory. She has a lot to say about their hypocrisy and methodological shortcomings that throw doubt on the entire theory. I often feel the need to justify my personal decision to work while also being a mom to young children, but I’m not going to write a whole book justifying my choices to the world. But that’s what Reddy does, and I get it. No matter how you choose to be a mom people are going to judge you. It’s literally the most high stakes endeavor most people will ever undertake. I found this book really relatable, and like everyone else, I judged Reddy’s mistakes and thought about how I would never do the same thing, when I can distinctly remember doing very similar things in actuality. That being said, Reddy can definitely write. The book is structured well and engaging.