Sara Machado

I absolutely loved it and immediately became one of my favourite reads of the year. This is a story about a couple that despite believing they were meant to be forever, lost themselves in grief.

This is mostly a story about real life, family, healing, forgiveness (of others and ourselves) and second chances. About getting support to move forward, fighting for what we want and finding our new selves again.

It was very raw and it felt real. An emotional read that I can't recommend enough.

T.W - Death of family members (off page), still birth.

How can I even attempt to describe or review this book? I have no words! Golden Son is an exhilarating blend of political intrigue, intense action, violence and emotional depth, wrapped in twists and surprises from the beginning until the end. Even when I know something

And the pace? I haven't read anything like this! Each chapter is masterfully crafted to make you want to keep going, I could hardly breathe. So here I am, trying to write something after not having slept a minute because I couldn't stand not knowing what was going to happen to the characters.

I bloodydamn love this books and I bloodydamn love your writing Pierce Brown!

Also, a huge appreciation for all the fantastic female characters you've written. Reading these books made me understand how much of a disservice fantasy and sci-fi writers have been to women because I keep expecting certain things to happen and they never do.

There are no mentions of breasts, their bodies are described as much as any male body, they are not sexual magic entities, they are not one-dimensional, they are smart, confident and not socially awkward, they can be smart and not evil, and we can even find call outs for sexist behavior 😮

Whether they are female or male, antagonist or protagonist, Pierce writes characters based on their virtues and role in the story, not their identity. I'm half in love!

This is a must read sci-fi series but please, do not start this book without having Morning Star ready, you'll need it. (less)

The book follows the story of Less, an unsuccessful writer who is about to turn 50.
An invitation to the wedding of his ex-boyfriend of the last decade (which Less doesn't want to go to) causes him to accept invitations to events around the world.

Pros: I really enjoyed Andrew Sean Greer's writing and the way the different episodes of Less's life are told, interspersing the past and present to support the character's development.
I immediately sympathized with Less, empathized with many of his fears, and devoured the book to find out how the story would end.

Cons: Less is a privileged and shallow character. I didn't feel there was any real growth for Less throughout its journey, ending up becoming a series of interesting episodes to tell friends, without much of a personality transformation or development.

“You are the most absurd person I've ever met. You've bumbled through every moment and been a fool, you've misunderstood and misspoken and tripped over absolutely everything and everyone in your path, and you've won. And you don't even realize it”

“Arthur Less, you have the best life of anyone I know”. This is nonsense to Less

I believe this was the author's purpose since you can support it with several quotes but part of my enjoyment of the book was lost because I felt Less had no agency in his happy ending.

Overall it is a good story about love, relationships and accepting yourself and I realy enjoyed it.
I can't ignore the feeling that if this book had been written by a woman or followed the story of a female character, it would be classified as chick-lit and not be a pulitzer.

Literary value: 4 stars
Entertainment value: 5 stars

I can't remember the last time it took me this long to read a book, but this was not a bad thing. Robin's writing just demands time, attention, appreciation and I loved every bit of it.

Royal Assassin takes over immediately after the first book, but with an even better plot: more intrigue, more secrets, more magic, more lies, more bonds, more love, more surprises, more tension, more everything. It played with my emotions close to an unbearable level. I wanted to scream at the characters and throw my kindle to the floor. And although I was 100% sure I was going to pause the Farseer trilogy, to read something else in between, I'm not sure I'm able to do it, I need to know the rest of the story.

This was truly great! More thoughts to come (maybe)

“I matter. I matter equally. Not ‘if only'. Not ‘as long as'. I matter equally. Full stop.”

This book is a very small book (65 pages) with very important messages. I wanted to highligh everything.
Please read it!

The text that follows is a personal sharing and not a comment on the book. Is is about my journey and why I am commited to educating myself about privile and feminism. Consider yourself warned, be gentle and proceed with caution.

I grew up with 5 brothers and all my life I did the same things they did: I loved stories, I played with legos, I had dolls but also cars and Dinosaurs (barbies use to ride a T-Rex), I had a bike and rollerblades and loved them. I did not like football, but not all of them did anyway, and it was mostly because of my clumsiness. I run in parks, climbed trees and got dirty. I did this almost always wearing a dress or leggins because of the freedom of movement. I was always able to choose my own clothes, except when we had lunch with my grandparents.

I grew loving books, music and board games. I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings as well as Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Alladin (We all still know these movies by heart).

I was always absolutely convinced I would study STEM subjects. My father advised me to choose any engineering course (because I loved math and physics) but I chose biochemistry. I hated it so much that I wanted to get as far away from the subject as possible and went on to study management, specializing in finance.

I did not know how privileged I was when I was growing up. In fact, I am still learning about privilege in general.

I knew I was privileged in many areas of my life: I grew up with a family, I was able to study and have nothing significant lacking in my life. I am aware that this is a huge amount of privilege obviously, what I didn't understand was how lucky I was to grow in a family that teach me I could be whatever I wanted.

When I started going to interviews I was asked if I had a boyfriend, when was I planning to have kids and if I felt comfortable travelling since it would affect the family.

When I started working in corporate finance we were 8 women in approximately 40 employees and only one was a Director.

When I started going to client board meetings I was almost always the only woman in the room.

In 10 years of consultancy I only spoke with 3 women with decision making power and only one of them was CEO.

When we decided to have kids I really wanted a girl because of the extra challenge of preparing her for a world that it is still not equal for women. I wanted to raise a girl to be whatever she wants but aware of her privilege, as well as the dificulties she might face.
Little did I know about the immensity of a challenge it is.

I know what I want to teach her and is absolutely in line with everything written in this book. The problem is educating society.
Society begins to invent gender roles even before they are born! I keep explaining to my husband's family the kind of toys and clothes I want and go on receiving kitchen appliances and pink babies.
At this point, I am not even sure if she really likes pink and purple or if it was manipulated by the tons of pink objects available in the world (I try to choose everything in happy colours to counterbalance but it is a challenge).

I keep seeing friends and family raising their kids with gender biases and its tricky to interfere as nobody likes to be told what to do.
Gender injustice is real, but I always have to prove its existence and its exhausting. Even the friends that acknowledge gender injustice have difficulty in understanding that a lot of their actions and language are gender biased.

I feel very lucky with my life and what I have accomplished. I want to see more females in positions of power. I want it not to feel like luck and to be available to all women.

I will keep educating myself and force my friends do the same and eventually we will #BreakTheBias.