books and cleverness
I read books of all sorts, but mostly kids' lit and young adult literature and speculative fiction for all ages—usually from a feminist perspective.
I've adopted a personalized version of the CHOICE reviews approach to recommendations/star ratings:
***** = Essential, a.k.a. truly love, absolute must-read, buy it now
**** = Highly Recommended, a.k.a. this is a really good book; I would buy it as a gift
*** = Recommended, a.k.a. pretty good; worth reading
** = Optional, a.k.a. meh
* = Not Recommended; a.k.a. this is not a good book
Wolf-Speaker (Immortals Series)
My least favorite Tamora Pierce book so far. Some clunkerish plot devices and Daine is starting to feel like Snow White, in terms of, "let me just ask my woodland animal friends to do _____ for me!"—and they do. Which Pierce explains by having the animals be "curious" or "intrigued" by what Daine is doing. But it still feels a little too convenient.
