August 2019 Wrap Up

I'm doing really well so far in remembering to write things down and get them posted! Now to continue this theme! (Hopefully I remember to put up my biweekly currently reading post as well....) 

In August I read 4 books~

#1: Eona by Alison Goodman

Once she was Eon, a girl disguised as a boy, risking her life for the chance to become a Dragoneye apprentice. Now she is Eona, the Mirror Dragoneye, her country's savior - but she has an even more dangerous secret. She cannot control her power. Each time she tries, it twists into a killing force. And more destruction is on her trail - High Lord Sethon's army. She and her companions must find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power if he is to wrest back his throne. But to help him, she must drive a dark bargain with an old enemy, which could obliterate them all. Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama, unforgettable fight scenes, sizzling tension - and many surprises - brings to a close an epic story. 

I gave this one a 3/5 because it was decent, but not really what I was expecting from a book that was supposed to be fantasy. Did I miss something in the end of the last novel? I don't remember half of the supposed plot taking place. I may have also just taken too much time between Eon and Eona for my brain to actually remember all of the details. You could tell who the two love interests were right away when she described them in her head. It was so obvious it almost hurt. Eona kept doing things to get herself or her companions hurt/killed/captured. It also seemed like a cop out at the end with Kygo. The Mirror should not have really known who any of them were. I don't know if I'm going to read any more of Alison Goodman's fantasy novels (if she even wrote any more...).

#2: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.

I liked it in the end, but not in the beginning. It started slow with just descriptions of the girls in their various training. I am not one for political stories, and being a fight for the crown and right to rule Fennbirn, that's what this book is. A political novel with a bit of murder thrown in. The further I got into the story and more I learned about each queen, the more I liked it. I have a feeling that all is not as it seems here and that there are not three queens, but four, and their mother (Camille?) couldn't bear to destroy her offspring, even though that's an edict from the temple. She secreted the fourth daughter away somewhere to grow up not knowing of her royal heritage. I am interested in picking up the next volume to see where this goes. To see what gift the one queen actually possesses, I'm  guessing war, because she is a gifted strategist when it comes to fighting. There will certainly be no White Handed Queen this Ascension Year.


#3: Animal Farm by George Orwell

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

I have heard that this book is allegory for the Soviet Union. I can see it more as just capitalism. The animals, under Major's “instruction”, rebel against the humans that ran the farm, eventually driving them off. Slowly the animals worked up their farm to an almost prosperous nature. However, slowly, as they realized that they could not sustain it alone, they actually started doing exactly what the humans had been doing beforehand. I don't understand how the other animals on the farm, not even old Benjamin himself, noticed what was happening. They had shirked the yoke of the humans and slowly but surely put themselves under a new one. The yoke of the pigs. By the end of the book, the humans and the pigs were indistinguishable from one another. The animals had worse working conditions, more/longer hours and less food, than the animals on any of the outlying farms. Yet they seemed to think that they were better off than they had been under the thumb of a human farm-owner. It hurt my soul in the end when Napoleon renamed the farm to it's old name. He is simple now just Napoleon Jones. He has taken over the role of the previous farm master and uses it to his advantage. I can only hope that in the event of Napoleon dying, a human once again takes the reigns of Manor Farm. Perhaps sense and order can be put back into it.

#4: QUEER by Kathy Belge and Marke Bieschke

Teen life is hard enough, but for teens who are LGBTQ, it can be even harder. When do you decide to come out? Will your friends accept you? And how do you meet people to date? Queer is a humorous, engaging, and honest guide that helps LGBTQ teens come out to friends and family, navigate their social life, figure out if a crush is also queer, and challenge bigotry and homophobia. Personal stories from the authors and sidebars on queer history provide relatable context. This completely revised and updated edition is a must-read for any teen who thinks they might be queer or knows someone who is.

This book is definitely an interesting one. Though, I am not the audience they intended. I'll grant that. I did like this book and I think that this should be available widely to teenagers. I rated it a 4/5 stars because it was good, but it wasn't perfect. There were a few times that I definitely didn't agree with what they were saying. The first one that stuck out to me was their definition of transgender. I have many transgender friends. None of them also identify as bigender/genderfluid/nonbinary. Transgenderism is going from one gender to another. Then bigender is feeling like you are both genders at the same time. You are not male or female. You are male and female. Genderfluid is shifting back and forth between multiple genders on what you happen to feel that day. Genderfluid people could feel male/masculine on Tuesday, and female/feminine on Wednesday. Nonbinary people do not feel like they are any gender (they are also the gender set most commonly using the they/them and ze/zer pronouns and other gender-neutral ones that I have forgotten at the moment.). Other than that, the book itself was pretty good. There will be a full review here.