Favorite Podcasts

1. History Chicks

A wonderful friend at my church suggested this podcast to me and I have been OBSESSED. I love it so much. It is a podcast done by two women who focus on women in history or women related to historical topics. Some of my favorites have been about Hellen Keller, Nelly Bly, and Jane Addams. They have also covered women I have never even heard of. If you are into history and are a feminist wishing to find a podcast with a focus on women in history told by women this is the podcast for you.

2 Art Curious

I have always been interested in classical art and analyzing it as well as art history. Jennifer Dasal does a wonderful job of telling the strange and fascinating stories from Art history. I loved her Van Gough podcast and her podcast about Artemesia probably ranks in of my all-time favorite episodes of all podcasts.

3. What Should I Read Next

I am sure for most book and podcast lover's Anne Bogel and the What Should I Read Next podcast are not new. I find this podcast interesting for finding book suggestions as well as exploring the diverse world of books and readers. Anne Bogel is great at providing a no-judgment atmosphere that makes you feel comfortable.

4. Reading Women

If you are a feminist reader and looking for more books by and about women this is a great podcast to listen too. I have found this podcast provides a great discussion of women in literature and how historically it has been a genre dominated by men but this podcast seeks to shine a light on women writers and stories about women.






Have you listened to any of these podcasts? What podcasts do you listen to?

Review: Eve The Awakening

I found Jenna Moreci's youtube channel and loved her videos so much that I bought her book Eve: the Awakening. I can say that it was my first science fiction book that I had read and I was not disappointed.

The book is quick moving and Eve is a relatable character as an outcast. I enjoyed the themes of discussing racism and segregation in a futuristic setting.

Now, normally I get annoyed with calling the strong female character a woman who is also super strong and "badass".  I am of the opinion that strong female characters are female characters who are written well and with depth. Eve as a female character covers both of these.

I also loved the diversity of characters, there were characters who were people of color and who were also LGBT. These characters just exist and are written as real people. I like a discussion of LGBT and race issues but sometimes it is just nice to have characters who exist in a book without being part of social commentary.

I really want Jenna Moreci to write a sequel to this book. I NEED it!

Review: The Night Circus

From my instagram

The writing of The Night Circus makes me feel reminiscent of my childhood. It is written in a way that reminds of other books in the Sonlight Curriculum. It is beautiful just beautiful.

I love the idea of the plot and the construction of the circus. I believe this falls into the genre of magical realism which isn't normally a genre that I read.

It can be a bit confusing at first to follow the plot as it jumps between two timelines. You have to pay close attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter.

I actually quite liked the characters as well. Celia was a fascinating character to me and her amazing talent. I wanted a little more the understand Marco. The romance between the two didn't feel real to me though. I wanted it to not feel quite so sudden. We were kind of told that the Circus was the love letter between the two but I never really felt like we were shown how it was. They rarely talked to each other and it just felt lacking to make the romance believable.

Overall I would read this book again and would recommend this book to others. Have you read The Night Circus? What did you think of the book?

Genre Preferences

From my Instagram a picture of a book haul

We all have those genres that we just cannot get enough of and others that we struggle to get into and some that we avoid for various reasons.

One of my favorite genres since childhood is historical fiction. I have a weak spot for England and the Tudor era. I probably have read it or will read it and I also can tell you which I think are better written and which are the most well researched. I enjoy other time periods.

My other top favorite genre is fantasy. This one I got more into as a teen. I think I started with Narnia and then moved on the Harry Potter and from there I have looked for several. The Tales of Goldstone Wood is one of my favorite fantasy series.

The most recent genre that I have gotten into and want to dive into deeper is Science Fiction. I have loved sci-fi television but for some reaso,n until colleg,e I never thought to read sci-fi books. I loved Reading Eve The Awakening and it has made me want to find more science fiction books to read.

Now the romance genre. Let me be clear I love romance in a story but I don't like it as the main plot. As a teenager, I read a few Christian romance novels to give it a try but was not impressed. I found the characters lacked depth and the plots felt contrived. For me, it feels unrealistic for romance to the main goal of a story. Romance in our lives often happens alongside other life events.

Horror and Thriller genre. I can only say I just have not had a desire to ever be interested in that genre. I don't typically watch horror or thriller movies so the idea of reading them didn't interest me. Mysteries I have read and sometimes will pick up one every now and again but I have not been in the mood for a mystery lately.

I know there are a great many more genres and sub-genres and I have only just scratched the surface. What are some of your favorite and least favorite genres to read?

Review: Six of Crows Duology

From my Instagram 

Six of Crows kept popping up in my reading suggestions and I eventually got around to reading it. It was fantastic. I loved the diverse cast of characters and the darker plot I enjoyed as well. I was also very excited about the basis of the country Ravka on Russia.

I think I found Kaz a bit hard to relate to. I enjoy darker stories but I struggle to relate to characters who do not care about other people and only seek to look out for themselves. I cannot relate to them at all and find them incredibly difficult to tolerate. I adore Inej though.

I most related to Nina and her love of food and how she has had to be strong through a lot of difficulties and even how she grows and her own opinions about the world change. She is also bisexual representation. Mathias is a character who grows the most in the second book and I think his character growth is the most interesting and poignant for the times we live in.

Jesper was a fun character and is great for more bisexual and characters of color representation. Wylan is also a great representation of a gay character.

This is a great read for diverse characters and I would put it on a feminist YA must-read list.

Summer Beaches

Last year my best friend and I went on a road trip to see the Olympic National Forest and some of the Pacific coast. It was a wonderful time and we both at one point spent an entire morning and afternoon on the beach reading our separate books.

My friend and I didn't pack very well for actually being on the beach and had to stop at a store to pick up some beach towels to sit on on the beach. I plan to put the beach towel to good use in the future for more beach time reading sessions.

As an extremely pasty white person, the sun is not always my best friend. I am more likely to turn red as a tomato from sunburn and still be pasty white when it fades than to every tan but I try to get some sunshine and then spend a good amount of time in the shade. For the beach though there was no shade so I had to apply sunscreen regularly.

I generally love living in Washington state. I can have the best of every world. I have beaches, forest, mountains, and an overall mild climate. I am biased but it is the most beautiful state in my opinion.

What are your favorite outdoor places to read?

Longbourn by Jo Baker

I came across this book by accident browsing the library shelves. I will admit that I am particular I typically look through library shelves for books I have heard of that I want or I put books I want on hold from the library. But I saw Longbourn and immediately knew it was something to do with Pride and Prejudice and I read the description. It sounded fascinating.

I originally thought it was a retelling of the story from the servants perspective but that is not actually the case. Jane Austen's original story is more of a backdrop to this one. It is happening and if you are at all familiar with the original you know what is happening, but this is entirely its own story.

The servants take center stage and it focuses on what it's like to be a servant in Regency England. I think overall I enjoyed the book and it was beautifully written. There were themes around PTSD and class. There was one thing that bothered me though. There was only one very minor character that was a man of color and I was excited for a conversation about race and racism in Jane Austen's England. But sadly that didn't happen at all. It felt like the author wanted to go there but never quite got there to that conversations. Then it felt like he was to be seen as a bad guy in the story and it deeply disturbed me that the only character of color was the bad guy. It still does not sit well with me.

Overall if you are interested in Jane Austen retellings then this one I would recommend because it is written well and the overall story is quite good.

The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross

I listened to this book on Audible recently and it was fantastic. I was intrigued by the description and picked it up for a free credit.

"Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron. Growing up in Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions - art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge - Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana - the rival kingdom of Valenia - and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the throne.

With war brewing, Brienna must choose which side she will remain loyal to: passion or blood."

I would say that the Irish/Scottish influence of Maevana drew me in as well as the idea of a "Queens Relm" instead of a kingdom. I will say that the story was very slow moving in the beginning and it took about halfway through for it to actually get interesting and to the point of the plot. It doesn't particularly bother me when a book is slow moving as long as I am in the correct mood. If it is slow moving and I am more wanting something fast then it is not what I want. I did enjoy the set up of the plot and the world building involved.

Overall this book was fantastic and I would highly recommend. If you are looking for a subtle feminist read this book would fall under that description. I don't feel that it needed a sequel but there is one and I am going to read it as well.