Tag Archives: tamora pierce

June 2, 2019 · 2:35 pm

Review: Terrier by Tamora Pierce


Terrier (Beka Cooper, #1)

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Review: Terrier by Tamora Pierce

This book follows Beka Cooper, a sixteen-year-old woman (most would say girl but if you read the book, she deserves the term woman), who is training to be a Dog. Now, in this world that is the same as the State police from what I can gather from the explanation of its structure. She started out living in the streets after her parents could no longer support her and her siblings. So the Lord in charge of the district ended up taking her in.

This Lord is also the head of the Provost’s Guard which contains the Dogs. This gives Beka an advantage most don’t have. She has both the knowledge of the lower city and the basic training that any one needs to survive on the street. But those aren’t the only resources Beka has. Armed with a magical cat and some unconventional informants, Beka solved some pretty horrendous cases.

This book was fast paced for the most part with some lag in the middle where the case took a back burner. The first-person narrative really draws you into the story and the cases. You feel what Beka feels. You learn things as Beka learns things. It keeps you guessing until Beka finally puts all of the pieces together at the end.

I mentioned in my previous post that something about it seemed safe and comforting and I think that’s the fact that and I think that’s the fact that it’s like I have a friend. The journal style of writing makes you feel like you are reading the journal of a friend or a letter from a friend.

Beka is also someone with severe social anxiety and the whole journey of her training to be a Dog was sort of also her trying to overcome that.

I think having a character who doesn’t really interact with people very well who has a feline companion to help her get through life is a really good idea in this current climate. It brings awareness to something that people don’t really know how to address still. It discusses having a mental illness without it having a name while still validating it and not letting it hold the character back.

I feel like it’s especially useful for the age demographic the book is “intended” for. This book came out when I was in middle school and is geared towards the YA age group. They are the ones who usually have the beginnings of mental illness symptoms and don’t know how to discuss them or are uncomfortable with doing so.

This book isn’t just good because of its background social commentary it has other elements that make it a really good book. For me those elements are: Interesting characters, minimal focus on love interests (this is good for the type of book that it is), and a fast paced and interesting plot. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, to anyone not just YA. (A fight for another time)

-Review written on April 1st.



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April 8, 2019 · 11:58 am

Personal: Sleepless Nights


I’m not sure how many of you guys live in places that still participate in the Daylight Savings Time change. But I do live in an area where DST is still observed and we have been under its influence for just about two weeks. For most people, the time change disturbs their sleep for one or two days and usually I’m the same way. But this time change seems to have taken a larger toll on my sleep schedule than usual.

I’m not quite sure how to explain exactly how badly it has been affecting me. It has most drastically affected my anxiety levels and my late-night paranoia. I’ve gotten anywhere from 4 hours of sleep to 30 minutes of sleep each night. There have been a few exceptions where I’ve gotten 10-12 hours of sleep. It’s a very strange schedule and I’m not quite sure how to knock myself out of it.

I’ve been debating multiple medical fixes including Z-Quil, doctor’s visits, psychiatrists, or essential oils. But I haven’t quite decided which to go with or try first. So far the only routine based remedies have been reading for roughly an hour in bed, watching BBC’s Planet Earth (and accompanying offshoots), and listening to Josh Groban before bed.

They still aren’t as effective as I need them to be for sleeping. They have however, greatly improved the status of my To Read list and my To Watch list. My current book of choice is Terrier by Tamora Pierce. I’m not quite sure what drew me back to Terrier. It’s been sitting on a stack of books next to my bed for over two years now. But for some reason it was the only book I wanted to read to get my brain to sleep.

There’s just something about Tamora Pierce books that is comforting and easy to escape into. They’re like their only little fictional sanctuary universe. I would definitely recommend them.

-Written 3/25/19

Update (4/7/19): It has been two weeks since I wrote the bulk of this post. Since then I have finished Terrier and moved on to Bloodhound. The next post will be a review. I’ve almost run out of Planet Earth (and company) episodes to watch.

But I have begun sleeping better. There are still a few days where getting to sleep is hard but for the most part I’m back on a somewhat normal schedule. I still can’t describe quite how bad it was. And I definitely couldn’t tell you why it was happening to begin with. I’m not even sure what made it stop. It just went away. I’m really glad it stopped but I’m also concerned it could come back. And I don’t want that.

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January 16, 2019 · 8:37 pm

Review: Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce


Tempests and Slaughter (The Numair Chronicles #1, Tortall #8)
The feather is so pretty!

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was well worth the wait and I cannot wait for the rest of the series. I am going to try to write this review without giving anything away from all of her other books as well as this one. Tamora Pierce’s books are pretty easy to read as separate series without being lost on what is going on. So I started by reading The Immortals Quartet and then went back to read the other series. The Immortals Quartet is where I was first introduced to a majority of the characters in this book. So I know much more about them than someone who was reading this book first. Arram is the reason I fell in love with these books in the first place, and he is the reason I was so desperate to get my hands on this book.

This book follows Arram from age 11 and continues on until he is 15. It follows him as he meets new friends, tries to find out who he is, and tries to figure out who would make him their enemy. Now, if you know the rest of the story you know how exciting even the smallest detail about Arram’s Carthak life can be, but for new readers this probably sounds quite boring. But this book was anything but that.

Arram Draper is the son of a cloth maker who lives in a country called Tyra. They aren’t in the wealthiest of classes, but they are still merchants. They have a good plot of land, and enough money to send their extremely gifted son to a very good school. Now, this is no ordinary school and Arram is no ordinary student. Don’t get me wrong, this school is no Hogwarts, there are no fancy robes required to attend classes. The subjects aren’t outrageous, but they aren’t uninteresting either. Arram’s power is one to be reckoned with, and when you throw in a few meddling Gods, a cute little bind, and a plot for an Empire you get an interesting kick-off to what hopes to be a brilliant new series.

Here comes the part where reading the rest of the books makes this more interesting: Ever wonder what Ozorne was like as a child? Or how he and Varice became so entangled? How about their favorite teacher Lindhall? And wait? Is that The Sarge? And how cute are these besties? These answers and more are in this book, making it well worth the wait in my opinion.



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January 20, 2012 · 12:51 pm

Midterms/Finals


So this week and next week is pretty much all tests and midterms for me, and I must say,  so far they’ve been pretty boring and easy. With the exception of the Pre-calc midterm that I did without a calculator. But there is still the AP Chem test that I have to take so that should be interesting.

Other than that all I have is a contest for Figment which ends on the 25th. They are fun contests, you need an account to be able to participate and a few friends to read through your stuff and heart it for you. I find them fun and entertaining, if you go on the contests page you can go vote for some of them once you get an account.

Well back to studying for stuff that I don’t have to study for… Hm… I should probably go write my letter of meta-cognition… But first I’m going to self-lessly promote my roleplaying site that I’m on… go to the side column and click on the little picture with the WM on it… it should say War Mage when you click on it. It’s fun and Tamora Pierce-y

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December 14, 2011 · 12:38 am

Tortallan Roleplay


CALLING ALL PEOPLE WHO:

A.) Like to roleplay

B.) Like Tamora Pierce

C.) Like the Tortall Books

My friend and I are starting a Tortallan Roleplay, we are still in the construction phase but I thought I’d point it out before it was finished. In the sidebar of this blog there is a section that says Role Plays, and in that section we will have a new button soon (I hope) that will provide a link to the roleplay. Until then I’m going to leave this post with a link and you can get it from there. There isn’t much in the way of information yet but it’s coming probably by the end of this week.

So anyway here’s the link: http://z13.invisionfree.com/War_Mage/index.php?act=idx

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