Review: Sphinx's Princess by Esther Friesner

I have always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt and wanted to know everything there is. Anytime there is a new mummy or tomb discovery on the news, I eat that up like candy. Samantha is also very obsessed with Ancient Egypt and I know that if she reads this, she will love it just as much as I liked it.

We follow Nefertiti as a young child. The book starts out with her having constant nightmares about lions chasing her and eating her in the Red Lands. She tells her father Ay, who is one of the Pharaohs advisers and the sister to Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife.

Nefertiti shows every adult around her that she is not going to be forced to marry and have babies. She wants more out from her life and she learns to read and write in secret. Eventually, the Queen demands the the family come to the palace and "forces" a betrothal of Nefertiti and the Queen's son/ Nefertiti's cousin Thutmos. He is the crown prince and he is a little asshole who cares about nothing except his cat and allying himself with the high priests once he is Pharaoh.

I started reading this book on International Women's Day and there were a lot of inequality of the sexes. Obviously, that was how it was back then. The men whole heartedley believed that women were only good for having sons and taking care of the house. Also, Nefertiti was a bad ass. She didn't take shit from any of the men. She held her ground and did a lot of damn back talk to the Queen.

I give this a 3 stars because I was kind of bored in the beginning. Once she got to Thebes and the palace, then it starts getting interesting and it became mysterious and thrilling. I did research Nefertiti while I was reading to see if any of it was historically accurate and it was. The crown Prince was named Thutmos. He did have a cat. I enjoyed it enough to go ahead and request the second book from the library.

Review: Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

My nonfiction pick for March. This was a collection of interviews from everyone that experienced the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl first hand. The author is Ukrainian born and she interviews former soldiers, government officials, mothers, fathers, elderly, nurses, children.

We learn that at first they didn't know what radiation was and they kept on with their routines and eating the food growing in their gardens. Playing in the road and kicking up dust. When the villages were beginning to be evacuated, they thought it was another war.

That was one of the confusing things while reading this. There wasn't a natural flow to how the interviews were placed. There were interviews about having kids and sex. The next would be how the government was blaming the west for causing a panic and that it wasn't that bad. The next would be all of the deaths due to the radiation poisoning. They also talked about the war, which one is not mentioned. It could have been WW2 because of the multiple mentions of Auschwitz and camps, or it could have been the cold war and the mentions of Leningrad, and Stalin.

I don't know what I was exactly expecting from this book. Maybe a more in depth look into what actually happened, but the eye witness accounts and how people didn't want to leave and how much vodka they drank because they really believed that the vodka would cure the radiation.

Review: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Finally giving this book a proper read now that I am an adult and have a little more sense and knowledge about the world. Back in 6th or 7th grade, I don't really remember, this book was on a list of summer reading that I had to do. This was the first book on the list and I chose it because I didn't care. I didn't finish the book, I only got 40 pages in before putting it down and I never did the assignment.

I was turned off by the writing style and how the character talked and now that I am aware of how it is supposed to be, I was not as bothered by it and it made for a quick read. Also, the multiple uses of the "R" word really bothered me as a kid and even now.

We follow Charlie Gordon who is mentally handicapped. He gets put through a testing process and is deemed good enough to have this operation to boost his IQ level from 70 to 160+. The doctors have already performed this operation on a mouse named Algernon and he becomes Charlie's friend and common friend.

We see Charlie become intelligent and become a genius and learn more about himself and the people and the world around him. He starts losing friends when he starts questioning every thing and then things take a turn for the worst.

This book had me all in my feelings. This was written in the 60's when it was socially acceptable to lock or hide away all of the mentally handicapped people in state run homes, hospitals and institutions. Growing up in the 90's and 00's, kids were so freaking mean to the special kids and in my high school years, that attitude flipped a complete 180 and they became the popular group in school and everyone loved them and they were included and not hidden away in a classroom.

I was infuriated with Charlie's mother. She was such a bitch and didn't care about her child. She just cared about how people saw her. When her daughter was born, she didn't want Charlie around. Well Karma got her back. The last page of the book made me cry and I felt so destroyed. it felt like I was watching the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button all over again.

March TBR

I don't have a lot on my TBR this month for two reasons. Last month's was completely unrealistic and I on read half of what I put on my TBR and the second reason is I am going to be taking part in the 3 round of the Buzzword Readathon again this month and I have a TBR set aside for that because Lala has included multiple buzzwords this time. These are the ones I am going to try to get to before the Buzzword read a thon starts.

February 2019 Wrap Up

I got so many books read this month, but not as many as last month and I gave myself an unrealistic TBR for February and I read about half of the books on that pile. The rest were read during the school days. 

1. Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot de Villenueve

2. Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith

3. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

4. Thisby Thestoop and The Black Mountain by Zac Gorman

5. RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

6. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

7. Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

8. The Polar Bear Explorer's Club by Alex Bell

Review: Batman: Nightwalker

Finally read this and I enjoyed it. When I finished Wonder Woman and was ready to read this one, I had the expectations of wonder Woman being included or mentioned. I wanted the stories to connect. They didn't and I was not disappointed by it.

Bruce Wayne has just turned 18 and been granted access to his trust funds. he is on his way to a birthday event and he has a so not great encounter with an old friend who ruins the night and Bruce drives away from his party. He comes across a heavy police presence and the Nightwalker gang. he gets involved and makes a citizen's arrest which in turn gets him put on probation.He community service is to become a janitor and the notorious Arkham Asylum.

The action definitely made me think of James Bond with the technical aspects in the car which was an Aston Martin. I read these characters imagining the voices of Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman and it brought so much more enjoyment to the story.

I also loved the acknowledgements from Marie Lu and I got a good laugh when she gave thanks to her Husband and she said that "it's like we love each other or something". Cayce and I have definitely said that to each other.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5. It lost a star for being to short.

Review: Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

I remember back in 8th grade, that I was given extra credit if I read this or watched the movie and summarized it. I didn't do it because I was in that phase where I didn't care about my assignments and plus this was after my first heart break and my grandpa's passing.

I have been wanting to read this book for the past 5 or 6 years after I watched the movie for the first and only time when I had directv and it was on TNT. It was a date night with Cayce and we had chinese food and I remember watching it and getting sick after because of the movie.

It was depressing and I did a lot more research after watching the movie to see if it was fictionalized or if it was true and how much of it was true.

When I put this onto my February TBR, I figured that I would fly through it because I am interested in WW2 books. I read this so sluggishly and it's not because it was boring, but all of the German words and names was confusing. I wish that this had a glossary and phonetic descriptions. Some of the SS ranks I could pronounce because I watch The Man In The High Castle.

The ending was sweet and a little crazy. He had this up and down life and he didn't give a shit about his wife but she was still a saint. He went bankrupt twice and had to have the Schindler Jews help take care of him so many times. I got the feeling that some of them might have been experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. Yes, Schindler saved them and kept them safe but I would not have raised money for him every time he went bankrupt or needed contacts.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5.