After watching the HBO series His Dark Materials late last year I used some of my Hanukkah B&N gift card to buy the books and then I finally got around to reading them in in the past few weeks, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass . If I had read them first I don't think I would have liked the show as much but since I didn't I was able to enjoy it but oh I loved the story in the books. At the urging of one of my dearest friends I grabbed this book and the second which I will be starting as soon as I am done with this post.
La Belle Sauvage isn't really Lyra's story but rather the beginning of the story of how Lyra came to be at Jordan College. It is Malcom's story and oh I love Malcom. You will too, I truly believe that.
He is a just as amazing and smart and brave as Lyra and Will are. Pullman does a great job treating children as capable of being brave and intelligent, of defying the odds and just not accepting failure as an option. The adults aren't always the smarter group of people in this world. And sometimes they aren't very good. But there is a clear sense of good and bad, to us the reader, even while the characters are faced with shades of gray and doing the best they can with what they have/know.
While this really is Malcom's story, he is our POV and our hero, we also get some more of the story of Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, Fardar Coram, and learn some more about the Gyptians and the world that Lyra's story takes place in later.
Parts of the story had my heart pounding with fear. More of the connection between people and their dæmons is explained. And the connection between what kind of person someone is and the form their dæmon takes is one that I found interesting. Much like in the world we inhabit, what people look like isn't always what they would look like if their nature/their personality decided their looks. But in this world it is interesting that a dæmon can represent that, we can see their inner self reflected outwards in their dæmon. It was something I noticed with Mrs. Coulter and her monkey in the original trilogy. He was never named and was described as fearful and awful while she is described as extremely charming and beautiful. This becomes the case with a character in this book too.
I am hooked and hope the rest of this trilogy continues to charm and scare and entertain.
(Finished May 17, 2020)
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Shuri: A Black Panther Novel (Marvel) by Nic Stone
Nic Stone wrote one of my favorite books of 2018, Dear Martin. I have her book Odd One Out and I will be reading it in June, yes I am mad at myself for not getting to it sooner, if you saw my TBR cart you would understand how books get buried and I am telling you, the struggle is real. And I will be getting Jackpot and Dear Justyse soon because if Nic writes it I am going to read it.
This one though, ohhh I ordered it as soon as it was released...I had it one my calendar when the release date was announced. Black Panther is my favorite MCU movie and I love all the strong female characters in it. I mean come one, the warriors of Wakanda are WOMEN!!!! Baddass beautiful strong women!! And I try to read a few middle grade books a year so I can honestly give suggestions to people buying books for young people while at work as a bookseller.
Everything about this book is beautiful. The cover has a great picture of Shuri on it and she just looks like you want her to look, strong and fierce and her smirk!! And there is so much purple, which happens to be my favorite color, even the text is purple!!
Keep in mind this is a middle grade, young reader book, so you will find it in the children's section at a bookstore so there won't be sex or gore or too much violence and what fighting there is won't be graphic. But that being said, the story is AMAZING!!! There is a mystery to be solved about what is happening top the heart-shaped plant that gives whoever is the Black Panther is abilities, why the plant is dying. And Share can see there is a problem but no one wants to take a 13 year old girl seriously and she is frustrated. So using her brain and all the amazing gadgets she works on in her lab, where she is given at least some real responsibilities, like building/creating the Panther suit her brother wears, she and her "best friend" K'Marah, a Dora Milaje in training, are going to stop what ever this is. They seek out and get help from an unexpected ally, which made me cheer out loud.
I think this is more in line with comic cannon and rather than the movies. But that's ok. It is so much fine and a little bit scary. It celebrates girls being smart and capable which is what all kids needs to read, boys and girls. There is the typical young person anger at not being taken seriously but also the warning about not asking for help and the danger it can get you into, but it is not pushy and readers won't feel like they are being preached to about "listen to your elders."
There are some chuckle worthy things, they have a version on a smart phone and tv/movie watching and the names will make you smile.
I don't care how old you are, this is a fun and exciting read. It made me so happy.
(Finished May 13, 2020)
This one though, ohhh I ordered it as soon as it was released...I had it one my calendar when the release date was announced. Black Panther is my favorite MCU movie and I love all the strong female characters in it. I mean come one, the warriors of Wakanda are WOMEN!!!! Baddass beautiful strong women!! And I try to read a few middle grade books a year so I can honestly give suggestions to people buying books for young people while at work as a bookseller.
Everything about this book is beautiful. The cover has a great picture of Shuri on it and she just looks like you want her to look, strong and fierce and her smirk!! And there is so much purple, which happens to be my favorite color, even the text is purple!!
Keep in mind this is a middle grade, young reader book, so you will find it in the children's section at a bookstore so there won't be sex or gore or too much violence and what fighting there is won't be graphic. But that being said, the story is AMAZING!!! There is a mystery to be solved about what is happening top the heart-shaped plant that gives whoever is the Black Panther is abilities, why the plant is dying. And Share can see there is a problem but no one wants to take a 13 year old girl seriously and she is frustrated. So using her brain and all the amazing gadgets she works on in her lab, where she is given at least some real responsibilities, like building/creating the Panther suit her brother wears, she and her "best friend" K'Marah, a Dora Milaje in training, are going to stop what ever this is. They seek out and get help from an unexpected ally, which made me cheer out loud.
I think this is more in line with comic cannon and rather than the movies. But that's ok. It is so much fine and a little bit scary. It celebrates girls being smart and capable which is what all kids needs to read, boys and girls. There is the typical young person anger at not being taken seriously but also the warning about not asking for help and the danger it can get you into, but it is not pushy and readers won't feel like they are being preached to about "listen to your elders."
There are some chuckle worthy things, they have a version on a smart phone and tv/movie watching and the names will make you smile.
I don't care how old you are, this is a fun and exciting read. It made me so happy.
(Finished May 13, 2020)
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Red Skies Falling (Skybound #2) by Alex London
Not sure if you remember but I read the first in this story, Black Wings Beating, because my son really was drawn to the cover so he picked it out to give me as a gift. And it really was a gift. Such an unexpected and amazing one. So when book 2 was released I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Not only did I snag a copy, I was bale to get a signed book plate to put in it!
Bottom line, a great follow up that left me anxious for the conclusion. I think this is a trilogy and I apologize if I goofed and there turns out to be more later.
(Finished May 12, 2020)
I think I liked this piece of the story even more than the first. Except the damn cliffhanger ending!! I mean I didn't hate the ending just that it is a cliffhanger and now the wait for the next piece begins. Ok, yes I have very little patience LOL...
We rejoin the story of twins Kylee and Brysen after they were separated. Kylee is training at the Sky Castle and has Nyall with her. Brysen is still in the Six now with Jowyn.
There is deception, treachery, murder, mistakes, and romance. Pretty much everything a good story should have. There are choices made by our crew that are frustrating but they are supposed to be. We can see more of the big picture than they can see we are alternating between Kylee's POV and Brysen's. But even we don't get all the pieces, until the reveal at the end which sets up the battle with the big bad that is set up for book 3 of this trilogy. And it is set up perfectly.
A lot of these rise up and change the world stories are about the things people do to each other. One group finds a weakness in another, or sees something they don't like about them, or both and so take control. One group of people keeps control over an other until the oppressed group rises up in rebellion and overthrows the first group. But then often the new leaders forget what it was like, how they were so awfully treated and instead of doing better they start the cycle over. And it keeps going, group A in charge, group B rises up and rebels. Now group B is the power group and group A is controlled, until they rise up and rebel...rinse and repeat...
This throws that trope a huge twist....it is still a story about what power does, how it corrupts, who has it and what will be done to keep it...
I want to point out how beautiful Alex's use of pronouns is. Sometimes it is "he" or "she" and other times it is "they." It is beautiful how natural it is. But something else that I liked is that here is never an assumption made about the gender of a person...if the POV we are seeing from can't tell or doesn't know then it is "they."
Also beautiful is the love and respect for all loves. Some of the couples we meet are man/woman, some are woman/woman, and some are man/man. Some people have no interest in a romantic love story and it is all seen as a normal part of life. And it is, it all is. A lesson for the world we inhabit off page I think.
Bottom line, a great follow up that left me anxious for the conclusion. I think this is a trilogy and I apologize if I goofed and there turns out to be more later.
(Finished May 12, 2020)
Monday, May 11, 2020
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
This is a must read. This is especially important for every white person to read. Especially if you believe you have no biases, no hint of a racist bone in your body, and that we live in a post-racial society.
I want to quote the whole book at you. I really do. But instead I will say do yourself a favor and read it.
One of the take aways DiAngelo shares is that we really need to get away from the binary of racist=bad and not racist=good so if you are a goof person you can't possibly be racist. It won't be an easy thing for some to absorb but it is so important. It is a narrative that keeps people from being able to see or acknowledge their prejudices/biases and change their thought patters, interrupt the system of white supremacy, that this country is built on and has socialized people into from its beginning. The either or choice makes people who actually are good people from being able to take responsibility for actions/behavior patterns that are racist.
We need to rethink our definition of what racism is and isn't. If we want to, I know I want to, be antiracists then we need to welcome the feedback and the chance to learn and grow and not make it about us or our feelings. There is just so much meat on the bones of these 154 pages.
Please read this book!! PLEASE!!! I will share this little bit with you but please get a copy and read it!!
I want to quote the whole book at you. I really do. But instead I will say do yourself a favor and read it.
One of the take aways DiAngelo shares is that we really need to get away from the binary of racist=bad and not racist=good so if you are a goof person you can't possibly be racist. It won't be an easy thing for some to absorb but it is so important. It is a narrative that keeps people from being able to see or acknowledge their prejudices/biases and change their thought patters, interrupt the system of white supremacy, that this country is built on and has socialized people into from its beginning. The either or choice makes people who actually are good people from being able to take responsibility for actions/behavior patterns that are racist.
We need to rethink our definition of what racism is and isn't. If we want to, I know I want to, be antiracists then we need to welcome the feedback and the chance to learn and grow and not make it about us or our feelings. There is just so much meat on the bones of these 154 pages.
Please read this book!! PLEASE!!! I will share this little bit with you but please get a copy and read it!!
(Finished May 11, 2020)
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed
I love Samira Ahmed's writing. LOVE!! First was Love, Hate & Other Filters, the was one of the most important, timely and timeless, and relevant books I ever read Internment. And not this beautiful and amazing adventure into the past and a look at the present and the need for women and girls to have their voices, their stories heard, and not just be the backdrop for a man's tale, #WriteHerStory.
A young woman on her annual trip to Paris with her parents to visit her father's home country, Khayyam meets the descendant of famous Musketeer author Alexandre Dumas, also named Alexandre.
Khayyam feels like her world is in limbo, she bombed an essay contest and possibly her chance at her dream college, she doesn't know where things stand with her maybe boyfriend, and she feels like she has lost her voice, or like she never had one...
When she just so happens to meet Alexandre she finds a chance to redeem her failed essay research and possibly find some lost art and the subject of her essay. But then things change and her desire shifts. She wants to help Leila, the subject of her research, not be a prop in someone else's tale but have her voice, her story, shine. The emotions and should she or shouldn't she weigh heavy on Khayyam. And of course there is a little bit of romance but it isn't over blown and isn't the main focus of the story. Which I like. I mean hey, I don't mind a good romance novel, but in a story about agency and having your voice heard in a man's world, it would have felt like a punch to the story and not an addition. It walks the line and never detracts from Khayyam's mission, give Leila her voice back and find her own voice at the same time.
I loved this story!!! I loved the humanity that the characters have, no one is perfect, people mess up, and then have to try to make amends. And the history is fascinating!!
(Finished May 5, 2020)
A young woman on her annual trip to Paris with her parents to visit her father's home country, Khayyam meets the descendant of famous Musketeer author Alexandre Dumas, also named Alexandre.
Khayyam feels like her world is in limbo, she bombed an essay contest and possibly her chance at her dream college, she doesn't know where things stand with her maybe boyfriend, and she feels like she has lost her voice, or like she never had one...
When she just so happens to meet Alexandre she finds a chance to redeem her failed essay research and possibly find some lost art and the subject of her essay. But then things change and her desire shifts. She wants to help Leila, the subject of her research, not be a prop in someone else's tale but have her voice, her story, shine. The emotions and should she or shouldn't she weigh heavy on Khayyam. And of course there is a little bit of romance but it isn't over blown and isn't the main focus of the story. Which I like. I mean hey, I don't mind a good romance novel, but in a story about agency and having your voice heard in a man's world, it would have felt like a punch to the story and not an addition. It walks the line and never detracts from Khayyam's mission, give Leila her voice back and find her own voice at the same time.
I loved this story!!! I loved the humanity that the characters have, no one is perfect, people mess up, and then have to try to make amends. And the history is fascinating!!
(Finished May 5, 2020)
Friday, May 1, 2020
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) by Philip Pullman
This is the conclusion to the His Dark Materials trilogy which started with The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife.
This one jumped to 522 pages and some of the time I had to put it down and catch my breath because I was so worried for Lyra and Will and at other times because I felt the end coming and was worried how it would end and didn't know if I wanted it to.
I have also been listening to a podcast, Extraneous His Dark Materials, that does a deep dive on the books and also the first season of the HBO series. It is from my friend Melissa over at Mischief Media and there are a bunch of great podcasts there, including the newly added deep dive into the Disney+ collection by my dear friend Josh and his husband Clancy and if you want to laugh until you pee these are your guys!! Plus it is super interesting.
Anyway, about this book...It was an interesting ending. I am a bit torn because it is kind of a sad but happy ending and I don't know yet how I feel about it. I think I need to sit with it a bit.
Will and Lyra are so amazing it is too easy to forget they are barely teenagers. In this book we learn more about the nature of a person's relationship with their dæmons and the strength of the bond. The religion is laid on thicker here than in the first two books but it isn't, at least in how I read it, a pro-religion book but more anti. And by that I mean it feel like what Pullman was doing was preaching against the dogmatic, authoritarian nature of Christianity and religions in general.
Some of the questions (and not all of the questions raised get answered) tackled are what happens when we die, how is what we will be formed by our actions and how much is fate or destiny and if it is a preordained destiny then do we really have free will?
Will addressed this wonderfully when he decides he doesn't want to know the answer to something because then if he chooses to do it he will be resentful at having had no choice or feel guilty for choosing not to and the consequences of that. Instead he decides to just go on doing what he thinks is right and if it turns out he did what he was destined to do he won't know it so it will have been his choice.
Lyra and Will grow up so much in this book. They feel it and to some others it is visible and it is kind of lovely really, but also a little "much" given their ages. But when you travel the worlds as they have and do what they have age as a number might become slightly irrelevant.
I don't want to put any spoilers in this post though I wonder how many people are like me in that they are coming to this series from the 1990s for the first time...but just incase no spoilers...I will just say I totally love Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala, and Iorek Byrnison. As to Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, I don't know..I am truly torn as to how much I actually despise them...and I can't say why or more about it. Though I will say I wonder what happened to Mrs. Coulter in her life before we meet her in The Golden Compass to make her like she is or if she is just a nasty piece of work. I don't believe that all "bad" characters have to have been turned, I believe that characters sometimes can and should be just awful, much like real people are. I mean no doubt sometimes something that happens to a person can change them, but not always, sometimes people just are who they are...
As a wrap up, I am truly glad I read this and probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the HBO series. I liked the books better but still enjoyed the series and will watch the next season when ever that comes...Also at some point I think I will grab the prequel books to this, The Book of Dust and The Secret Commonwealth.
(Finished April 30, 2020)
This one jumped to 522 pages and some of the time I had to put it down and catch my breath because I was so worried for Lyra and Will and at other times because I felt the end coming and was worried how it would end and didn't know if I wanted it to.
I have also been listening to a podcast, Extraneous His Dark Materials, that does a deep dive on the books and also the first season of the HBO series. It is from my friend Melissa over at Mischief Media and there are a bunch of great podcasts there, including the newly added deep dive into the Disney+ collection by my dear friend Josh and his husband Clancy and if you want to laugh until you pee these are your guys!! Plus it is super interesting.
Anyway, about this book...It was an interesting ending. I am a bit torn because it is kind of a sad but happy ending and I don't know yet how I feel about it. I think I need to sit with it a bit.
Will and Lyra are so amazing it is too easy to forget they are barely teenagers. In this book we learn more about the nature of a person's relationship with their dæmons and the strength of the bond. The religion is laid on thicker here than in the first two books but it isn't, at least in how I read it, a pro-religion book but more anti. And by that I mean it feel like what Pullman was doing was preaching against the dogmatic, authoritarian nature of Christianity and religions in general.
Some of the questions (and not all of the questions raised get answered) tackled are what happens when we die, how is what we will be formed by our actions and how much is fate or destiny and if it is a preordained destiny then do we really have free will?
Will addressed this wonderfully when he decides he doesn't want to know the answer to something because then if he chooses to do it he will be resentful at having had no choice or feel guilty for choosing not to and the consequences of that. Instead he decides to just go on doing what he thinks is right and if it turns out he did what he was destined to do he won't know it so it will have been his choice.
Lyra and Will grow up so much in this book. They feel it and to some others it is visible and it is kind of lovely really, but also a little "much" given their ages. But when you travel the worlds as they have and do what they have age as a number might become slightly irrelevant.
I don't want to put any spoilers in this post though I wonder how many people are like me in that they are coming to this series from the 1990s for the first time...but just incase no spoilers...I will just say I totally love Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala, and Iorek Byrnison. As to Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, I don't know..I am truly torn as to how much I actually despise them...and I can't say why or more about it. Though I will say I wonder what happened to Mrs. Coulter in her life before we meet her in The Golden Compass to make her like she is or if she is just a nasty piece of work. I don't believe that all "bad" characters have to have been turned, I believe that characters sometimes can and should be just awful, much like real people are. I mean no doubt sometimes something that happens to a person can change them, but not always, sometimes people just are who they are...
As a wrap up, I am truly glad I read this and probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the HBO series. I liked the books better but still enjoyed the series and will watch the next season when ever that comes...Also at some point I think I will grab the prequel books to this, The Book of Dust and The Secret Commonwealth.
(Finished April 30, 2020)