Thrifty Geek's Library- Courageous Women

 Hey Reading Friends, 

 

So it's time for this year's first Library post. This month we'll be focused on books that feature courageous women. I always love a book that features strong female leads. January was full of books with such characters. 

 

Tiger Burning Brightly by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey- 

The city/state of Merina is fixing to be besieged by Emperor Balthasar who has been taking over the world worse he has powerful dark magic on his side. The ruling family the House of the Tiger composed of the former Queen, the Ruling Queen, and the Designated Daughter are forced to do a tactical retreat to spare the city till they come up with something else. So the three of them under disguises hid in plain site. Soon the city is under the choke hold of the dark wizards in human men. Can these women bring down this dark empire? Or will it be lost to the dark?

We already know I love stories with strong women, and this delivers. This world has a good Mythos and an interesting magic system. Men get magic early and if they remain virgins can stay powerful, but women's powers show up in menopause. Despite being written by three different women, dynamites in fantasy, the story was weaved together so well you couldn't tell three people had their hands in it. I was riveted and really interested in the story. I love a story were oppressed people try to take down a dark government. The ending was good, but a little condensed feeling. I'm going back and forth weather to keep this in my permanent library, but I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads.

 

Elvenblood by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey-

Shana, the prophesied Elvenbane, a half elf believed to be sent to take out the oppressive Elven Lords. Sadly her last battle ended with her and her friends escaping by the skins of their teeth. The group finds a place to build a new home outside of the Elven ruled lands, but there is some discord among the group, on top of all that Shana and a scouting party get captured by a group of people known as the Iron People who may hold the key to defeating the Elven Lords. In the Elven lands oppressed households are becoming more oppressed as the lords are now looking for any half elves in their midst to punish, feeling this strain is Lorryn an Treves who is a half elf disguised as the legitimate son of an Elven Lord. He has to stay one step ahead if he wants his secret to remain so.

This was an okay read. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, but not enough to probably encourage a reread. Norton and Lackey capture the horrors of a society where even family members are oppressed very well. I was concerned for especially Lorryn's sister, Sheyrena, that she was going to be trapped in a marriage, or else altered magically to be an obedient wife. I thought the party at the beginning had a beautiful setting as a magically created forest, sadly the company would have been off putting.

I felt some scene were dragged out, and others too quick. Book was defiantly middle ground with me and for that reason I gave this a three on Goodreads.

 

Afterlife by JK Ishaya and Kenneth Mader-

The first book in the Arcadia Chronicles, this follows the story of Elaine Ways, a martial artist, who loses her husband tragically. She soon begins having vivid dreams of being a hero in another world. At some point strange and seemingly mystical people kidnap her daughter. Elaine soon finds herself in an extraordinary dark world where she learns there maybe more to her dreams than meets the eye.

Now this book was recommended to me by my sister, who works with one of the authors, so I was intrigued to see it, but I didn't get to it a few months, because I had a major anxiety issue that involved death. But finally I felt ready to read it. This was a book with a good mythos. It gave an interesting look at the afterlife. The science in this was well written, I don't know if it had any basis in real science, but it sounded convincing. I also loved it was based in the city of Asheville. I was so nice to read a book and know the places their talking about, and the fact they added the fantastical to it. 

This book was a little of a slow start for me. Another thing that made it a hard read was that it was so dark, there was a little  humor, but I wished it'd been beefed up a little more to balance the dark, but this is my personal preference. Despite the issues I gave this a four on Goodreads.

My reading year so far has had a strong start, and I've managed to fill all prompts so far for the Year in Aledia so still going strong. I hope to start making post about my character and my journey so far. So be on the look out for that.

Well this page is finished. Hope you all I a good day, read lots, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek* and Vampire VV Kitty

Musical Moment: Taylor Swift- Midnights

 Hello Swifties,

It's that time of the month for another musical moment. Although it's been a few months... Anyway this month we are looking at Taylor Swift's latest release Midnights. I was excited about this release with all the things Swift did leading up to it. I love the idea, I've done things like mood boards and playlists centered around times of day and the like, so this totally fit my mood. I love the vibe of this album, I've even made a sim with this theme in mind.

Cover Art-

We have a square of a picture surrounded by white. We have Taylor staring at the flame of a lit lighter. The simple scripted words are shades of midnight blue.

Inside Back Cover- 

 

We have Taylor in front of a is that a keyboard or small piano, I'm not familiar enough with the instrument to be able to tell.

Back of Back Cover-

We have Taylor with some midnight twos and a one.

Booklet-

In my mind the photos here are snap shots of her Midnight ponderings and adventures. I like in the case of song titles having colors that the color matches.

CD Art-

The Cd is a record this a clock in it's center. I think it's very thematic.

Songs-

Lavender Haze- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Zoe Kravitz, Mark Anothony Spears, Jahann AKil Sweet and Sam Dew. The album's first song starts with telling you "Meet me at midnight..." his beautiful song sounds like your in a haze. I can just picture being in a hazy little club with lavender lighting. And after I wrote  that Taylor provides a video with a lavender hazed party scene.

Maroon- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We continue the color theme, which reminds me of her song Red from the album of the same name, a lot color coming into play. She speaks of an old love in memories of red. 

Anti-Hero- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This one of my favorite songs on the album. A song about how she feels she's the problem. I read somewhere I think on her Twitter the music video was her dealing with intrusive thoughts, which is currently something I'm dealing with , so probably why I like it so much.

Snow on the Beach- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Lana Del Rey. Is a song of impossible love coming to be.The sound of song I could just imagine snow falling down, it'd been the perfect back drop to a snow scene. She's joined on this song by Lana Del Rey.

You're On Your Own Kid- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This to me speaks of the passing of youth a unrequited love and shouldering the wages of life on ones own. I really don't have strong options on this one. It does have a strong guitar riff.

Midnight Rain- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We have a mellow tune of thinking on those loves where to people were just two different to last, but you still think on it late at night.

Question...?- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of questions after apparently a couple either has broken up or had a short fling, and wondering if she's still thought of while their in new relationships. The sound is one I think is common on this album with the music sound muffled, like is playing through a haze, lavender haze maybe?

Vigilante Shit- Written by Taylor Swift. I feel like this bad a** song is about a woman learning her man is a married man, and pretty much outs him to the missus, then they just ruin his life, or maybe their all different men, either way stay out of the way. 

Bejeweled- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is a woman reclaiming herself after a lackluster man at home. This song has a real 80's vibe. I love the Cinderella retelling the video does.

Labyrinth- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is one of two things, a girl who's broken up with someone, and despite odds falling in love again, or she's having a hard time letting go of her ex cause she keeps falling in love. There's a nice keyboard in this song through out it.

Karma- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Mark Anothony Spears, Keanu Torrees, and Jahann AKil Sweet. This nice bouncing jam is the warning that Karma is going to get the offender and it's on her side.

Sweet Nothing- Written by Taylor Swift and William Bowery. This gentle, sweet song is about after being out in this crazy world coming how to the simplicity of sweet nothings. Another strong keyboards and some gentle brass.

Mastemind- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of how she planned their getting together. This is another song with 80's undertones. I feel like this hearkens back to the 1989 album.

That another Musical Moment wrapped. What did you think of Midnights? Leave a comment below to let me know. 

I hope you have a good week, listen to some awesome tunes, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

New Reading Plans: Welcome to Aeldia!

 Hello my Bookish Friends,

It's a new year my friends. Okay so in the last post I mentioned I wanted to reread through my collection of Mercedes Lackey Velgarth this year, but there's been a slight change of plans. See it all started when I put my cart together. For Christmas Fangirl gifted me this lovely rolling cart:

I been wanting one since I saw booktubers use them for TBR carts. I wanted to use the bottom shelf for my TBR, middle shelf for my reference material for my books, and the top for just a place to lay things cause I like a place to store stuff beside me at my desk. 

So Monday I put the shelf together while watching the Rose Parade, and now I have this lovely peacock shelf to brighten up my room:

Excuse my messy bed in the middle of a room rearranging.

After it was built, I proceeded to move my TBR stacks from the corner near my bookshelves to this cart. I quickly learned I had more in my TBR than I thought, many of which are Mercedes Lackey novels out side her Velgarth. So I thought, maybe I should work on them instead this year.

Luckily about that time Book Roast provided the perfect avenue to use to work through it the Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia. Twice a year and with some events in between. Book Roast hosts the Orilium Magical Readathon in August and April. The concept is you create a character who attends the magical school of Orilium. You join a guild and and choose conduit for your magic and your calling. All these will guide your course of study each semester. To pass each semester you read the books required. This give you points in your guild ranks to build on your ranking with in it. I thought it was an awesome idea and was going to participate from the start, but my crappy attention span didn't allow for it. Well this year she has a year long event that requires a book a month except for readathon months. So I decided to give it a shot. So I started by looking through the worksheets she's made, and made a character. I thought it'd be fun if here I chronicled the journey with this adventure. I found the Novice's Path worksheets that people did at the start of the readathon, and while I don't need to read these books, I want to do it for fun, I'll read these along with by monthly book prompts and hopefully I'll have it done by  the April semester of Orilium, and I'm gonna try to do both semesters of that this year. So soon I'll introduce you guys to my character, and then we'll begin her year long story. I'll include what books I read for each prompt, the review you'll of course see in my Library posts later. Sound like a plan?

Yup it's going to be a whole year of bookish delight, and hopefully I'm not too in over my head. If this sounds like something you'd like to get into click the links above to get started, and hopefully we can make this journey together. 

I hope you guys have a good rest of the week, read lots, and God bless!

*Thrifty Geek*