She listens, she hears

A trip to the park

I really love how these pictures of the kids came out. I need to do a little editing but for the most part they look fantastic the way they are! 

Required reading

I have this bad habit of meeting people and then requiring them to read books. I can’t seem to help myself. I pick books I think they’ll enjoy and I’m usually correct. I have made some of my closest, longest friendships by giving them required reading. 

Lately I’ve found myself defending authors and books when people try to judge them by their television or theater counterparts. I find this especially true when it comes to a series. A character shouldn’t be strong/brave/heroic at the beginning of the series. If the book you’re reading has given you the good guys and bad guys straight out of the gate then there is not going to be any real character development. The journey to becoming a stronger and more independent person is the best part of the story. Sure, we love strong personalities in our entertainment but sometimes I feel that the backstory is overlooked. A superhero/supervillain becomes that not because they just woke up one morning and decided they’d fight/cause crime. There is a reason, a point. 

The most recent complaint that violated this idea was about the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I logged into twitter one night to find a woman claiming that the female characters were boring and stereotyped. My immediate thought was confirmed, she had not read the books. When I expressed that the characters grew the same person still said they had no interest in reading the series. They claimed that, although the series takes place in a medieval setting, the women could be anything the author wanted. I feel this is a narrow viewpoint. A quick look at history shows that although many women may have been strong minded during the medieval times, they weren’t treated with respect. The women in those books are far more bold than many in history and most are only beginning to learn the potential they have. I’m honestly at a loss as to why people expect the characters to be emotionally, mentally and physically mature at the beginning of a series. This is when they are none of those things, the story is how and why they become so. Expectation of less seems, honestly, lazy.

I’d love some comments and discussion on this so please let me know what you think.

In the meantime, here is my basic required reading list*: 

• A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
• The inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy by Douglas Adams
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman**
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

This is a basic list without people’s preferences mixed in. I do change it up for people who have other favorites.

Recommended but not required:

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
• The Pack by Jason Starr
• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Passage by Justin Cronin
• The Wicked Lovely Series by Melissa Marr
• The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
• The Tiffany Aching Series by Terry Pratchett
• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

There are so many more books I’d love to share but the rest of my life beckons. I know I put up Amazon links but, if you can, please buy any and all of these books from an Indie bookseller. They deserve your business! If you don’t have a local one please take a look at Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, GA. They are wonderful and have an excellent selection of used and new books (many signed by the authors). 

*Don’t Panic

**Really any book by Neil Gaiman is wonderful (including Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) so feel free to grab any of them. He’s my favorite author.