Loved this. From the first page, it's clearly something special. Flawless, effortless worldbuilding with unique-yet-relatable characters in high-stakes adventures with a serious twist. In Fantasy!Historic Tibet, the second daughter of a village chief in the mountain is flunking magic lessons and totally failing to hatch dragon eggs. Good thing her best friend is a genius and can cover for her. Big sister also perfect, so when the empire's most accomplished explorer (who just happens to ALSO be a hot teen) shows up in town, of course it's sis that gets invited on his next, most important-yet mission. Then sis runs off with the explorer's chronicler and things get interesting. Our magicless flunkout is about to prove her serious climbing and mountaineering skills as she saves big sis AND the empire (because evil witches are out to get them, btw) and steals the lead explorer title for herself. Until demons start hounding the camp and the party members' secrets start undermining the mission. Exciting story, fresh setting, relatable, compelling and endlessly cool characters with appealing but understated romance and serious twists. Good for mid teens and up; no language, minimal sex references, PG for the under 14s, but it's pretty clean, especially for YA these days. Some great lines and timely ideas and themes explored. Cinematic; could see this being a great film/TV series too. Can't wait for the sequel!

 

 

Update - 30. Dec. 2017:

 

Markk is planning to join but with some deviations/additions to the list of books - deviations/addition that look great:

 

-  Eleanor Flexner: Century of Struggle - The Women's Rights Movement in the United States

- Ellen Carol DuBois: Feminism and Suffrage

-  Jad Adams: Women and the Vote: A World History.

 

I've created a Reading List for details of all the books I am considering* for this project, and I will update this post throughout the year with links to articles and books read for the project.

 

* Obviously, there are LOTS of books on the subject but my selection is limited to the books I am looking to read or consider for the project. 

 

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Project Overview:

 

2018 will mark the centenary of women gaining the right to vote in Germany and Britain. I have long been fascinated by the history of women's suffrage and thought it would be a great way to celebrate the anniversary by looking at the lead up, the campaigns, the people involved in the movement.

 

Of course, this is a topic that could easily consume a whole year of reading by itself - and quite rightly so - but chances are that I will want to read other books, too. So, I will try and direct my reading towards 4 main texts - each profiling the struggle for women's right to vote in Germany, Britain, the US, and one specifically on Scotland - because the movement here (Scotland) actually differed slightly to the more famous one in England (and because it was written by my old university prof.)

 

As one book always (always!!) leads to another, I expect that there will be a few other books (that I already own, thus chipping away at Mt. TBR) and links that will make an appearance during this reading project (which I will list below as I go along).

 

 

 

Illustration for Puck magazine by Harry Grant Dart (1908) - found here, which is also an excellent article (in The Appendix) about the illustration itself. 

 

Loved it!! & now the dreadful waiting period for next book commences...

One of my idols in the whole world is Farrah Fawcett. Along with Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, and John Lennon. So when I saw this book at goodwill for $3 I jumped at it. 

 

BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE. 

 

I will admit, I bought it and ignored it for months after. I would always tell myself to pick it up, but I never did. Mainly because Farrah died of cancer and my fear of cancer is so strong that I was scared it would depress me AND IT DID. Finally I picked it up and I'm putting it down unfinished.

 

I feel like I never finish books and I feel guilty for that, but this book I do not feel guilty about. So this book is told by Farrah's friend Alana Stewart. It is supposedly her diary published, but I suspect that she fabricated parts. 

 

I'm not gonna lie I hated this book so much, I'm not finishing it. Here is why. 

 

1. The book is written in diary form. I hate that and I know I should of known, but I didn't bother to look at the format before buying, because I saw Farrah and I freaked!

 

2. This book is like 25% Farrah, 75% Alana. I questioned myself many times on what story...or more like whose story is she actually telling. It seems like she used Farrah as a money maker to sell her shitty book. In the beginning it was about Farrah and how Alana felt, which I expected once I saw it was in diary form. Then the middle to near end it was strictly about Alana and her sex life and her kids and Farrah would pop up sometimes when they went to Germany for her treatment. So again was this really a story about Farrah and you or just you? 

 

3. Alana was the victim in all of this. Forget that your friend is dying of cancer, lets make the book about how your emotional going through shit and how no one understands what its like. I get it that its her personal diary and usually people write the most selfish shit, cause we all feel like the world revolves around us. But it just felt like she steered way off of what it was suppose to be about. This book was totally consumed by Alana trying to make people feel sorry for her, even though her friend is dying.

 

With this being said, I have a few things I liked about the book.

 

1. Never before seen pictures, I love Farrah and I love her look. So when I saw some of the pictures I freaked, she was so stunning.

 

2. She didn't make Farrah seem weak or anything the opposite of what she was known for. Farrah was strong and fought til the end and even though the book was basically about Alana, when Farrah was mentioned she was mentioned with respect.

 

3. If the book was about Alana I would of loved it. Cause she has a juicy life, but I did not buy it to read about her, I bought it to read about Farrah and her friendship with Alana.

 

All in all I give it a 2 out of 5. Not finishing it though.

Really 2 1/2 stars.
I love the TV show (thanks for the rec, Tess!)so i wanted to read the comic. i hoped it would be mainly about the minor characters but it's not. it still focused on the clones.


the art was good and the story was written by the tv show writers so it was excellent of course. if i hadn't seen the show i would have been lost.

they didn't do a good job of distinguishing past and present IMO, esp in the first 2 issues Sara & Helena.

although i did like the additional backstories, i didn't see any of that info in the show and i am up to season 3. maybe they mention some of it in season 4. it just makes me wonder if the backstories will tie into the show. i am especially wondering about Rachel's