July Wrap Up

  

Life

• I've read almost as many books this year as I read in the past two years combined. 
• Back to uni! The new semester is going pretty well, and I'm loving my new timetable.
• I watched some more TV. I watched Harlots with the family and binged Black Sails, which were both extremely cool period dramas set in the 1700s.
• It's been really cold for the past week and my hands are permanently freezing.

Posts

The good, the bad, and the ugly: Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield
Micro Reviews: July

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Covers go to Goodreads.

     
     

Around the blogosphere

MJ at Howdy YAL! discussed the worst books they've ever blogged about.

Kai at Quartzfeather wondered if reviewing gets in the way of reading.
Cait at Paper Fury suggested 10 improvements for Goodreads.

How was your July? Are you keeping warm? How many books have you read this year in comparison to previous years? Did you read any classics this month?

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Micro Reviews: July

In which I review the books I've finished reading this month in one sentence.
Covers link to Goodreads.

 

 

Daughters of Time edited by Mary Hoffman

A short but shallow anthology about cool historical British women. 

Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield

I reviewed this interesting but exhausting novel about the war between the Amazons and the Athenians.


 

The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan by Stephanie Thornton

An extremely interesting and well-written historical novel, although I wasn't expecting such a reinforcement of gender roles.

The Scarlet Pimpernel (The Scarlet Pimpernel #1) by Emmuska Orczy
Set during the French Revolution, this classic novel is exciting but also surprisingly cute.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

I read this because it's referenced in Black Sails (no regrets! I feel wiser now) and I liked some of the messages but I struggled with the extremely old-fashioned language (thou hath doth, etc).


 

Nights of Silk and Sapphire by Amber Jacobs

This uberfic and f/f erotica is deliciously readable, but I do wish there were more plot and less porn. 

Have you read any of these? What did you read this month? What are you excited to read next?

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The good, the bad, and the ugly: Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield

Homer's style has gone out of fashion.

The good

• The title - who wouldn't want to read Last of the Amazons?
• It's about the Attic War, a lesser known Greek myth that's very similar to the Trojan War.
• We know that the Amazons can't win against the Athenians, but it's still exciting and you want them to win.
• The world building is pretty neat and I could picture the physical and cultural settings.
• The Amazons seem to be polyamorous bisexual women who all live in triads, a cool and interesting concept, and mate with men once a year. I'm not marking this as LGBTQ characters though, because it's a very minor and brushed over part of the book.*

The bad

• The characters should and do seem to believe in gods, plural, but but often speak about God, singular, which is confusing because are they pantheists or monotheists? Pantheists who focus on one god (Zeus?)? I'm still confused about this.
• The songs and chants are kinda cool but definitely unnecessary.
• Excessive repetition, especially of tribe names and character epithets and name meanings.
• "Warrioresses". It sounds clumsy. What's wrong with calling them by their name: Amazons?

The ugly

• The writing style mimics ancient epics, so it's very formal and old-fashioned and awkward all round. The sentence structure and word choice is strange and very difficult to understand. The endless (and pointless!) lists are very Homeric but very exhausting to read.
• The structure is also very confusing as it's not linear and though it's written in the first person POV, it changes POVs (I often didn't know which character was talking) but I didn't realise these two things for ages.
• The characters aren't fully developed so I had a hard time knowing who to like or not like.
• Possible racism? At one point the Amazons paint themselves black and it's not really explained? Huh?
• *Strangely, some Amazons slut shame and use homophobic language towards their enemies. Hypocrisy much?

The conclusion

The structure and writing style prevented me from enjoying this book and I just wanted to finish it so I could move on. I'm rounding up my rating from 2.5 stars because the concept and the title are so cool. However, I wouldn't recommend Last of the Amazons unless you're a huge fan of Homer's writing style.

The summary

In or around 1250 BC, so Plutarch tells us, Theseus, king of Athens and slayer of the Minotaur, set sail on a journey that brought him to the land of 'tal Kyrte', the 'Free People', a nation of fiercely proud and passionate warrior women whom the Greeks called 'Amazons'. Bound to each other as lovers as well as fighters and owing allegiance to no man, the Amazons distrusted the Greeks with their boastful talk of cities and civilization. And when their illustrious war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled to Athens with the king and his followers, so denying her people, the Amazon tribes were outraged. Seeking revenge, they raised a vast army and marched on Athens. History tells us they could not win, but for a brief and glorious moment the Amazons held the Attic world in thrall before vanishing into the immortal realms of myth and legend.

Add it on Goodreads

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June Wrap Up

  

Life

• I hate winter. Bleugh. Winter is definitely the worst season. I don't like being cold, and I don't like it being dark at 5pm.
• I didn't blog much - I had exams and wasn't inspired to write anything - but I read some great posts from lots of other bloggers, so that was something.
• Exams... happened. Which means I'm halfway through my degree! I'm also on break now, which is great.
• I watched a lot of TV. New seasons of Orange Is the New Black, Orphan Black, and Wynonna Earp came out and I'm all caught up now with those. I also watched Marco Polo, which was incredible. I'm sad that Netflix cancelled it after 2 seasons - the story wasn't finished!
• I went to the movies a couple of times, to see Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and My Cousin Rachel. They were good.
• I was naughty and read some books that weren't on my TBR and added to my TBR. But I then did a TBR purge so I've ended up with a smaller list than before. My TBR is now a reasonable and manageable 40 books.

Posts

Micro Reviews: June
Top 10 Historical Books I've Read So Far in 2017

Read

Covers go to Goodreads.

     
        
     

Around the blogosphere

Anna at Powered by Girl answered what is queer fiction? (This was posted last year but I read it this month so it counts.)

Cait at Paper Fury gave us 10 reasons why books succeed better at life than we do.
Bec at Readers in Wonderland listed 5 bookish pet peeves.
Nemo at The Moonlight Library discussed misassigned retellings.
Greg at Book Haven gave us the dos and don'ts of attending fan conventions.
Tasya at The Literary Huntress talked about ARCs and materialism.

How was your June? Do you hate winter as much as I do? How much do you enjoy wrapping yourself in a blanket and reading a good book?

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Top 10 Historical Books I've Read So Far in 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is Best Books You've Read In 2017 So Far. You can break it down into a specific category, so I chose historical books because I've read so many this year (and in general tbh). In my list I'm including fiction, non-fiction, books set in the present/alternate present that deal with history, and a contemporary set in the past 25 years. *sighs* I love history so much.

Covers link to Goodreads.

1.

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor

 

2.

 

Goddess by Kelly Gardiner
My review

3.

Gladiatrix series by Russell Whitfield
My review of book 1

 

4.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
My review

5.

Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

 

6.

Shaken to the Core by Jae

7.

Cranky Ladies of History by various authors

8.

The Conqueror's Wife: A Novel of Alexander the Great by Stephanie Thornton

9.

The Great Library series by Rachel Caine 

10.

  and 

Tied for 10th place is Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's #1) by Jodi Taylor and New Pompeii (New Pompeii #1) by Daniel Godfrey. I couldn't decide between the two as they both deal with time-travelling and history and I enjoyed them about the same amount.
My review of New Pompeii

Have you read any of these? Who are your favourite authors of historical books? And what historical books do you always recommend?

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