my true love

I think it's obvious that I love fashion (especially shoes...if you feel like trawling through my archives (ie you are way less lazy than me, I dunno where the picture is of it) you can see what my collection looked like a few years ago, before I had a lot of the ones I have now.  (And don't think that means I don't have some of the ones I used to...I do, it's bad).  However, there's something I love much, much, much more than either of these things: books.  I've been a reader for a long time, madly in love with fantastic worlds where badass ladies saved the asses of everyone in the world/their country/that they know.  I haven't had much time for reading in a long time, between classes and the time-suck of tumblr (which I'm still contemplating in confusion... I don't want to really be on tumblr anymore, even though I love all the things I see on it, even though I love a lot of the people I follow, and it's a very weird feeling, because I'm also just plain not interested in the way it eats my time).  It's also not easy managing a blog plus all these things - though it was certainly much easier when I wasn't trying to update five days a week and was okay with making lame excuses about it.  Apparently my work ethic's improved with age, which means I have like six years before I turn into my workaholic mom.  ...maybe five.  Hopefully I'll do a bit better of a balance by actually having a personal life, but in the meantime, yes, the blog eats a lot of time.  Surprisingly, despite currently working a 8-hour (7.5 hours officially, somehow, I guess half of lunch and our break don't count? I'd make sense of it but I'm not interested in doing math right now) job, I have a lot more free time than I did during the year.  Maybe because my job ends when I leave work, but being a student doesn't end when you leave class.  It's been a lot easier this summer, and it's meant I've finally had time to read again, and today I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite authors (seriously, authors, because I can't pick just one series, though I am a bit partial to Tortall over Emelan).

from wiki

Tamora Pierce is about six months younger than my mom, and writes some of my favorite series EVER.  I first discovered her during fifth grade, when my teacher used to let me read during math class rather than try to force me to pay attention (a futile exercise).  At that age, I was a self-proclaimed tomboy hiding my love of dresses, skirts, and excessively skimpy shorts from everyone, including myself, behind a preference for the color black, and short and extremely tangled mouse-colored hair that I refused to brush or use shampoo on.  I started with Alanna: The First Adventure, which is the introduction to a world that now spans about eighteen books (more coming soon, yay!).  She has another world, which spans ten books (and another one out SOON I'm excited and dreading it because it will actually be The Full Sads but I do know the gist of what happens because it doubles back to explain some things in the most recent two books), but that is the Emelan world and the Tortall world is the one I love most.  Not that being a stitch witch like Sandrilene fa Toren would be bad at all...it'd definitely be pretty badass.

Basically, Tamora Pierce is a badass lady who writes books about other badass ladies (with dudes around, yes, but she understands that most books don't show the girl grabbing a sword and slaying the monsters and being ready to give up her life because it's her DUTY, not out of some selfless magic courage or whatever, but because she's sworn an oath to protect her country and intends to fulfill it...and by the way, if it's not obvious already, Pottermore told me I'm a Gryffindor, so go ahead and ignore any rambling about how badass all these characters are...)

Pierce has three quartets, one duet, and one trilogy out for her Tortall series. The Song of the Lioness quartet is first, about Alanna of Trebond, a girl whose goal is to be the first knight in a century.  The second quartet, The Immortals, is a while after that, and features Veralidaine Sarrasri, from the country of Galla, one of Tortall's neighbors, whose mother and grandfather just died, who is hiding some pretty amazing magic.  And then we get to my favorite quartet, which I'm re-reading right now, actually: Protector of the Small.  This is something like maybe elevenish years after the first quartet?  It's the first girl in a few centuries to OPENLY go for her knighthood.  IE no disguises like Alanna, she's a girl and she wears dresses to dinner, because the boys surly about a girl fighting alongside them just have to deal with it.  Keladry of Mindelan is absolutely spectacular, and I also really love that while the books build towards the final book, the real thread of the plot (and you know, that whole "main villain" stuff) isn't introduced until the very end of the third book.  It's such wonderful reading, and I'd love to be Kel, bratty griffin and angry men with their panties in a bunch because omg girls with weapons regardless.  The one after that is the duet, alternately called Trickster's Duet or The Daughter of the Lioness (considering it's about Aly stepping out from her mom's shadow...I prefer the former).  Her mom is Alanna, yes, and well, she kind of winds up in slavery and befriending a god and things only get more interesting from there.  She's very different from the other women Pierce has written, being much more behind-the-scenes of things, and it's a very interesting read.  The final set, thus far, the trilogy called Provost's Dog, takes place a cool three-hundred years pre-Alanna, when women were still normally fighting and stuff.  It's about a policewoman (a Dog, as they're called at the time) and her adventures in service to the Crown.  It's a change - first-person journal writing, the books are separate plots from one another, and well, there's also an old friend or three from Alanna's series that are there (you'll see, should you read them).

And now I will shut up, but if you're looking for some fantasy to read...I totally suggest these.  Because I'm 100% biased to love them, yes, shut up, but also because they're fantastically written with wonderfully human heroines and amazingly interesting characters, who are fully human no matter how small they are.  Seriously.

(Also if people are interested I might just do some rambling over the next few weeks showcasing all my favorite authors...spoil myself as I'm going nuts over being free to read again, yanno!)