Song of the Lioness Quartet

The Song of the Lioness was originally published in 4 books (hence quartet), however, I believe it has been published as a single edition omnibus in both the US and UK.

The four books, in reading order are:-

1. Alanna, the first adventure

2. In the hands of the Goddess

3. Woman who rides like a man

4. Lioness Rampant

This series in a nutshell?

10-year-old tomboy Alanna doesn't want to waste her life by being a 'Lady', whilst her wimpy twin brother, Thom, really doesn't have the mettle to undergo 8 years of gruelling training to become a Knight. Solution? Alanna cuts her hair and assumes the identity 'Alan' (because girls can't become knights) and heads off to the Capital to start service and training as a page and Thom heads off to learn sorcery (no, he doesn't have to dress in drag to do this.)

Despite having enough trouble just completing the exhausting page timetable (a half day of classes behind desks, followed by a half day of physical training, and then pages are required to wait upon a senior noble and serve dinner) Alanna also has to keep her sex a secret - until she hit puberty all she had to do was not bathe or swim with the other pages, but once breasts start growing she has to come up with slightly more creative ways of hiding her real identity. And then if that isn't enough, Alanna and her colleagues also face a mystical illness that plagues the capital, evil spirits from before the time of man, and - what is quite possibly the hardest thing for young adolescents, an overgrown bully.

Along the way she picks up a few allies - her manservant Corum, Crown Prince Jonathon, fellow pages and squires Raoul, Gary and Alex, elderly scholar and knight Miles, and the King of Thieves, the Rogue aka George. 

The first installment of the quartet, Alanna is doing everything in her power to forget she is a girl and to be taken as a equal to a man. A few people are in on her secret, but for the most part she is happy she doesn't have to learn how to be an 'insipid girl'. 

However, after she has matured a few years in the second installment, she becomes intrigued by the interactions with her friends and the females around court. Being heterosexual herself, she cannot grasp at the way her friends are taken by such 'useless creatures' and decides she needs to learn what being a girl is really about. This idea is built upon in the third and fourth books of the series. 

In the third book, Alanna is taken in by a nomadic desert tribe whose customs place more restrictions upon women that her own culture. With her magical ability she becomes Shaman and forces the tribe to accept changes she instills when she selects two girls as apprentice Shaman. However, from these girls Alanna begins to see the value of 'female work' such as weaving. 

It is not until the fourth book that Alanna befriends females her own age - and when these new friends mock and laugh at Alanna's lack of skills with looking after a baby, Alanna begins to realise that females are in fact quite skilled human beings, and it is the men who are ignorant for not realising it. 

Of course, while Alanna is growing and learning all this, she is still having great adventures. The threat of treason and possible regicide looms over the kingdom - and Alanna believe she knows who the traitor is but no-one will hear her out. She also has a few other internal struggles - such as how to handle relationships with men including an unexpected marriage proposal, and whether or not she could have both a family and still maintain her Independence as a knight. 

As a protagonist, Alanna would certainly fit in well with (first/second?? wave) feminists who believed that to fit into a 'Man's World' you needed to act like a Man, whilst acting like a Woman made you weak and insignificant (yes, I am making a huge generalisation about the feminist movement here. I believe that as Pierce is writing more novels her ideologies are becoming more in line with neo-feminist or third wave feminist thinking.)

The dominant ideology within this series is that you do not have to accept the place you are given in society. Although Alanna had to resort to subterfuge in order to be in control of her own destiny, she ended up proving that she was able and worthy to continue down the path she, and not society, had chosen for her. 

I would highly recommend Song of the Lioness as an excellent starting point if you are new to Tamora Pierce's work. I still love to reread these novels every so often - and don't think that just because the marketing is not aimed at you that you will not enjoy them. Pierce has mentioned that she originally wrote Alanna's tale for an adult audience, but after a suggestion from a friend rewrote and edited it for a younger audience (which possibly helped it along it's way to getting published usually publishers are begging for books written for this age group)

Anyway, below are a few of the different covers of the Alanna books that have been issued around the world. 

Hope you enjoyed this review (without me giving away too much, like the ending) and you'll come back tomorrow when I review The Immortals

Did you know that 80% of childrens’ books published today feature male heros?*

*Fact from http://www.sheroescentral.com/

Way back when I was an angst-ridden pre-teen, I stumbled across a series of fantasy books where the main protagonist was a short, stocky, redheaded female who was disguising herself as a boy so she could complete training to become a knight. She yelled insults at bullies, got into fights, could perform magic and had an affair with the crown prince before she turned 18. I was completely captivated and devoured all the books in the series. 

For those of you not in the know, the author is Tamora Pierce... and to this day she is still one of my favourite authors.

One of the reasons her books resonate so well with me, is because she generally writes fantasy with a female hero or shero (as opposed to an heroine - a shero is a female of decision and action, rather than an heroine who is characterised by her indecision and inaction and is basically just an object for the real hero to save)

Anyway, I am mentioning this because I just finished reading Bloodhound- Pierce's latest novel. And I thought I would do a mini-series of blogging this week where I can introduce to Pierce's work, and hopefully you can share it with the adolescents in your life. (Particularly the girls, but I see no reason why boys wouldn't enjoy the adventures too)

I'd personally love to see Pierce offered a deal where she simplified some of her tales down to picture book level, and had a couple of action figure tie-ins in order to give younger children an alternative to Barbie and Bratz dolls 

(Imagine it - child one "my Aryan big-boobed dolly is in a wedding dress..." child two "well... my dolly is shorter than yours and has small boobies, but she comes with armour and a sword and has the temper of a redhead and can cut your silly plastic fake in half with a single stroke....)

Anyway - tomorrow I shall start with my review of that first series I read, Song of the Lioness. 

CCCX - Kniterature with the Harlot and sans Dolores...

Oops - sorry to leave you hanging after my last post. I seem to have lost track of a week or so. In fact, I lost track of the fact it was November and was planning to join up for daily blogging for the month to get back into the swing of things. Perhaps December shall be the month of daily blogging for me...

Anyway - what did I recieve in the mail to make life so sweet after a crummy day of commuting?? Only two of the worlds cutest books ever...

The Yarn Harlot's newest book - Free Range Knitter
...and...
Franklin's book of cartoons - It Itches!

First of all - I have to say that this...

Is the best book written by the Harlot since this...


These books are not the "knitter-beware" instruction manuals about how to get the most out of your knitting while still remembering the knitting goddess watches when you swatches (and gives you tangles and ill fitting garments when you don't) - which is what the Harlot has been force feeding us anually for the past couple of years...

(okay - I will probably get some hate mail here if I don't clarify this. The Harlot's recent books have been preaching to the choir - They are kinda like a really rich chocolate mudcake - one piece and you are perfectly content and statisfied. Eating the cake makes you feel ill and slightly queasy at the thought of mud cake for the next little while. Read all the Harlot books one after another, and you'll begin to get sick of them too...)

ahem...

These Harlot books - books of essays - are for all knitters (not just those Knitters with a capital "K".) If you know a social knitter in your life (as opposed to us die-hard Addict Knitters who live, eat, sleep and breathe yarn) they will enjoy this book of funny, sweet or just downright gorgeous annecdotes that relate to knitting without feeling like they need to start spending all of the play money on yarn (I hear some people have other entertainments to waste cash on... Like food...)

This is also the type of book you could give to a casual knitter who has no knowledge of the interwebs, thinks blogs are something unfortunate that comes out of your nose when you sneeze and a ravelry is a hootenanny good time spelt wrong. Those knitters out their that have never heard of Ms. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee or the Yarn Harlot would not miss out on single word of enjoyment typed in this book.

So far The Free Range Knitter has accompanied me each way on my daily commute. The book is about the same size as a paperback novel, but hardcover - so once you take the dustcover off it is perfect to keep in your bag. The annecdotes and essays are a good length too - my 15-25 minute commute meant that I could read 1 or 2 stories a trip - a great way to block out the rabble on public transport.

A great gift for yourself (or if you're really feeling generous, someone else) so go and find yourself a copy. And if you haven't read The secret life of a knitter - find that one too.

Now my lunchbreak is up, so I need to get back to work. Kniterature on Franklin's first solo publication will have to wait until the next post. I'll try not to leave it so long... okay.... ?

(PS - for those wondering, the Man, Pupster and I have moved to the inner North Eastern 'burbs of Melbourne... and I now have interwebs at home, but my computer can't hack these hot pre-summer days too well, hence the blogging during the lunch hour)

Adolescent Angst...

so I am considering that I may be ready to start thinking about looking for some part time work. (Yes - I know that is a frustrating sentence. Perhaps I should have said the thought of regular employment no longer fills me with unrestrained panic.)

In order to take a few baby steps in this direction I have began to look at jobs on seek.

I have decided that my 'reasonable expectation' wish list would include the following:-

1. Definitely NOT anything hospitality or retail
2. Preferably permanent part time - 2 to 3 days a week
3. Something somewhat involved with the Textiles industry
4. Relevant to my experience - I worked a Navy 'office job' for two years, so an administration type job would suit perfectly.

The though of going through the interview process freaks me more than the responsibility of a job. So I emailed a few resumes. The plan was to apply for lots of jobs-even some I may not particularly want so I could get used to going through the motions. That way I would get some sort of dress-rehearsal before I pinned my hopes on securing employment. I've applied for any sort of administration/ customer service/ data entry/ assistant job vaguely associated with Textiles. I know that I will not be quite what they are looking for, and that the jobs are not quite what I am looking for - so I can expect, and even hope for, rejections without bruising my self-esteem.

I had one call returned from a recruiting firm, and was asked to come in for a discussion. I thought I was ready for this stage - but the night before I could not sleep. In order to distract myself from not being able to sleep, I took a book to bed and decided to read until the letters and words started to turn into ants and crawl across the page (my usual way of getting to sleep!)

However, it didn't happen. Lately I have been reading historical biographies but Wednesday night I read a lovely adolescent fantasy novel lent to me from my sister. Of course - adolescent fantasy sounds rather sophisticated. I have also heard this book call 'Vampire Smut' by one of my favourite Sydney bloggers. Either way - I finished the novel, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, in one night and was rather shocked when I heard my housemates banging round the kitchen and heading off to work or lectures.

I had read through my whole nights sleep.

Nevertheless I got up and went through the motions of getting ready to head into Melbourne to meet with the recruiting Agency. And I miss the train. I was looking for a park as the engine pulled out of the station. Luckily - no great loss and a phone call sorted everything out (okay -I'll admit I did suffer a bit of an anxiety attack. I quite foolishly tried to race the train to another station to try and catch it there. May have made it if I didn't get stuck behind a 'Driver under instruction' truck going at 20kmph.) I got to go home and try to catch up on a little sleep...

Of course - After devouring Twilightin one sitting I was keen for more. I did stop by a few places in town thinking to buy the others, but rational thought took over and my sister had the rest of the series for me to borrow. Over the weekend I finished New Moonand Eclipse, and am currently up to the third book of Breaking Dawn

Apparently I am a little obsessed, because I have watched all the movie trailers and started looking into the careers of the actors in the movie. After discovering that Kellan Lutz, who will be portraying Emmett, started in the first episode of 90210 (he was George Evans, the guy who started the fight at lacrosse practice and snogged Naomi) - which was conveniently shown on channel 10 last night I have come to the realisation that I am regressing to a teenager again. I am becoming quite nostalgic for my adolescent angst.

So the job searching is on hold for the moment - but I was beginning to feel a little 'numb' (which I'd blamed on the happy pills), and these books have taken re-connected me to a whole range of emotions I haven't experienced for quite a while, some not since I was a teenager (and had an on again/ off again goth boyfriend who wanted to be a vampire). I am filled with a little hope though - that if I am able to regress to being a teenager again, perhaps I can try 'growing' into my adult self and correct a few of the mistakes and flaws I have developed along the way. I am going to give it a try anyway - try and relieve a bit of the fun and amazement and potential I experienced on a daily basis. Perhaps I can once again be happy-go-lucky, rather than sinking-down-depression...

spoilt!

Me - well and truly! 

Thanks to everyone who sent comments, emails, messages or texts wishing me a Happy Birthday on Friday - I had a fantastic day weekend!

On Friday arvo the Man, Pierre and I departed for Daylesford. The Man had booked a pet-friendly B&B - hence P came along. We arrived just before sunset - so after finding our accommodation we took the pupster for a wander down the main drag.

When we strolled passed Frangos & Frangos it became apparent we were rather peckish -and they were rather dog-friendly, so we stopped for dinner. Well... The Man and I had dinner - poor Pierre didn't get any of our cuisine...

Due to the fact it was early in the evening, the staff weren't too busy, so I nabbed the waiter to take a pic of us when he brought out our mains - 
(The Man had lamb, black lentil jus and mash while I had canestroni with roast pumpkin, ricotta and mustard fruits - see, it wasn't mere food, but cuisine)

And there wasn't a birthday cake, but we shared this - 

Blood Plum and Rum Trifle topped with gold leaf - so good we had to taste it before we got the camera out...
Oh - and P loved being out to dinner with us!

After dinner we went back to the Double Nut Chalet (appropriate seeing as it was gingernut and Mr gingernut!) where there was champagne sparkly, choccies and a spa bath awaiting for us.

The view from the front door of our 'Chalet'
See those high ceilings? The only thing that went wrong during the whole weekend was that at about 2am the smoke alarm battery decided it was going flat... and was giving out persistent chirps every few minutes and the smoke alarm was riiiight up the top of the wall! The Man had to climb on the table to reach it to shut the thing up!
Funky cosy living (even port supplied for that nightcap)
And cosy heating (and aircon if you need), a good supply of movies, and electric blankets if its your thang (we prefer to snuggle under an extra woollen blanket thou)

MMM... Spa!

After our lingering breakfast on Saturday, we found Purls Palace (more on this in another post!), the Convent Gallery and had lunch (well, I had Devonshire tea coffee) at Rhubarb Cafe and stopped at the bookstore before heading back to Geelong to catch up with The Man's family for dinner. (All dog-friendly... except the 'Bad Habits cafe' at the Convent Gallery, as it doesn't have al fresco dining)

At the Queenscliff Market on Sunday I tracked down  the "Tea with Alice Cupcakes" stall and bought this goigious lime-iced vanilla as a birthday cake treat for myself.

(Well - to keep with the theme, Sunday was actually an UNbirthday for me, but I am sure the Dormouse and Mad Hatter would have approved!)

geek-cool

I'm in photography class and this image came up - it was taken by Muybridge to settle a bet in the 19th Century.

I recently read about it in a book, and mentioned this in class. I actually admitted to finding out about it in "The Science of Discworld"... cue the nerd alarm!!!

However, I didn't feel too much of a nerd - the instructor is wearing a Dalek t-shirt!

Where's my cow??? Bugrit!

'That's not my cow - that's foul ol' Ron!'

If you are a discworld fan, and have read THUD! you would be rather familiar with these lines... one of the better habits I have adopted from the Man is a rather keen ambition to consume discworld novels at a crazy pace. When I discovered that Pratchett had written a discworld picture book, I went a-hunting it down.



Unfortunately - the local bookshop didn't have it,but could order it in... and it would take about a month...and would be rather expensive.... so I went a-hunting on the internet, and managed to surprise the Man with a random gift (he didn't know about the book at all!)



The Man is rather delighted with the book - particularly with the illustrations of Commander Vimes (One of the man's fav discowrld characters - the other is Lord Vetinari)

This is a delightful picture book, great for kids and a must have for any discworld fan. I recommend you chase it up!

And on other note - just to prove Pierre did survive the three weeks without me, a cute dog photo: