This Month in Reality: Mesoamerican History!

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Wow! I cannot believe that it is almost the end of October! Where has the time gone? I’ve had a ton of posts in draft that I just haven’t prettied up to get out there. Totally slacking at this blog thing. Over the past couple of months I’ve been listening to something I picked in a sale on Audible that isn’t a book but a lecture series: Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed. It is a lecture series about Mesoamerican history given by an archaeologist who works in Mayaland. I am a linguist that works in Mayaland (and, one of the things that has kept me from the blog this month has been a conference I attended on the indigenous languages of Latin America) but I have very little background in the history of the area; I work on a modern language and with modern speakers. Yes! there are still Mayans! There are a lot of them, actually, in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. There are a number of modern Mayan languages that are still spoken today. So, I was pretty excited to listen to this series and to learn more about the history of the area.

The lecture series starts in Pre-Maya Mesoamerica with the preclassic period and a couple of Olmec cities. There were a lot of different empires in Mesoamerica and the Pre-Columbian world. In the area that is now Mexico, Belize and Guatemala there were the Olmecs, the Toltecs, the Mayans, The Zapotec, the Mixtec, and the Tarascan. Within these empires there are other groups as well. The series discusses the archeology, what we know about the culture, the cosmology, the writing system and the calendar. Barnhart, the lecturer, also talks through some of his theories and the evidence he has supporting them. He also points out potential challenges.

The audio book also comes with a huge pdf that has materials for each of the lectures. The notes contain pictures of the sites or the pieces of art that are discussed. They also include questions to consider at the end of each lecture.

I learned a lot about historical Mesoamerica in this series. I thought it was a lot of fun! This is part of the Great Courses series on audible. So, I recommend checking this one and the whole series out if you want to get your nerd on!

Quick Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

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six of crowsIf you loved Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha series and you love crime capers then you are going to love Six of Crows.  Set after the events of her last series but this time in Kerch, a country not far from Ravka, six criminals are tasked with a suicide mission that has little to no chance of being accomplished but the pay out is good.  Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias and Wylan are all flawed and interesting characters with varying degrees of criminal presents or pasts.  Each bring their own set of skills that are vital to the mission.  Inej, aka the Wraith, is a trained trapeze artist who can scale walls and quietly gather information. Jesper is a sharpshooter with a gambling problem, Nina is a Heartrender, who can kill you without even touching you.  Matthias is a convict who is part of a religious society that hunts down Grisha.  Wylan is the son of a rich merchant who likes to blow things up and Kaz is their mysterious leader.  He worked his way up in the Barrel to rule but it’s all to get revenge on the man he blames for the death of his brother.

A new drug called Jurda Panem has been developed and it strenghtens Grisha powers to impossible powers.  This could change the whole balance of the world.  How can people defend against the Grisha if they have unchecked powers? Kaz is hired by the Merchant Councils to rescue the man who created it from a Fjerdian prison that is inescapable.  Kaz goes about to assemble his team who don’t exactly get along but must work together if they are going to succeed or just survive.  This story has so many plot twists and misdirections it’s like Oceans 11.  You have to question everything you read because what you think is happening is not all that is really happening. It’s not just all the action that makes this book a good read.  It’s the characters.  They are all compelling and interesting with full backstories.  All with the exception of Wylan who is the only one not to have a chapter written from his point of view.  Probably because out of all them he’s the outsider of the group.  He’s not a criminal and he’s not from the barrel.  Kaz says he’s only there as leverage against the council and he knows how to blow things up but I think it’s more than that.  I look forward to knowing more about him. 

Matthias is a warrior who’s goal is eradicate the Grisha as he feels they are unnatural.  It’s one thing to arrest and execute Grisha in one’s own country but it takes balls to go other countries, tracking down Grisha, capturing them and bringing them back to Fjerdia and then putting them on trial and executing them.  He captured Nina but thanks to a storm she rescued him.  In attempt to save his life again, she accuses him of slave trading but things go south when he is actually thrown in jail for it.  Nina befriends some people (for lack of better term) to help get him out as she feels responsible.  Inej was captured and sold to a pleasure house until Kaz came and made her apart of his gang.  Now she’s his spy, the Wraith, but all she wants to do is go home and find her family. Jesper, a former farm boy who came to Kerch as a student and found gambling instead.  He’s also hiding things, one being that he is also Grisha.  I’m pretty sure I know another one of his secrets too.  Let’s just say, I ship Jesper and Wylan, if you get my gist.  Kaz is the most intriguing.  Coming out of nowhere to being a major player in the Barrel.  He’s smart and ruthless and more of a mystery than everyone.  He’s hellbent on revenge against the man he believes is responsible to the death of his brother but he’s  also a 17 year old boy so well, he has those annoying feelings to deal with.

So for fans of the Grisha series and Oceans 11 type movies this is the book for you. It’s fun, lots of action, lots of double dealings, backstabbing, mystery and potential romance.

Series You Should Check Out: The Goddess Wars by Kendare Blake

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Ungodly is the final book in the Goddess War Trilogy.  The Greek Gods may not be worshiped like they did in Ancient Greece but being Immortal, they are still around and living mostly normal lives.  That is until they mysteriously start getting sick.  Gods are not supposed to get sick but Athena is coughing up feathers, Hermes is wasting away, Aphrodite has gone mad. Artemis is perpetually being hunted, just name a few.  Athena and Hermes set out to try to figure out what is going on.   This leads them to find the mortal heroes from the Trojan wars, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, Cassandra and Andromache.  The thing is that they are now teenage kids who have no idea who they really are/were or are just waking up to it.  Only thing they know is that they are in a world of trouble.

I like this series because it was fun to read but also an interesting take on Greek Myths.  These Gods and Goddess are not Greek Gods of Rick Riordan.  They are not all gathered in one place on Mount Olympus at the Empire State Building keeping tabs on the world below.  They are scattered about the world with litter to no contact with each other.  They have gone on living their own lives and well still holding the same grudges for thousands of years.  Also the threat of dying has really humanize them in ways they never could be before.  They learn what it feels to live with the uncertainty that they will live to see tomorrow.  As for their human heroes, the Gods, particularly Athena and Hermes, find they are more sympathetic to them.  They are not just weapons to be used when needed but actually people with actual lives.

Cassie is really Cassandra who was a oracle during the Trojan War that Apollo cursed that no one will believe her.  Now in modern day she’s just Cassie who is in love with Aiden, oblivious to what’s going on until she meets Athena and Hermes.  She finds out that not only she a character from the Ilaid but so is her brother Henry (Hector) and her best friend Andie (Andromache). Oh and Aiden is actually Apollo, who feels really bad about that whole curse thing.  Considering the past run in the Gods didn’t go so well, you can probably bet that they aren’t going to get along all that well in the present either.  I definitely love how all of them at one point or another stand up the the various Gods.  They don’t just fall in line and do whatever they are told do.  It takes some major gumption to stand up to Athena. They each are in various states of conscience of who they were and they each have to figure out who they are now.  Do they just except that it is their fate to relieve the same drama all over again or do they choose their own path?  Isn’t that what we all struggle with?

There is a lot of action throughout the series.  Gods taking on each other.  Of course, Hera is a villain, when isn’t she?  You almost have to feel sorry for Hera.  She is constantly playing the villain.  To be fair, she did do some pretty terrible things but to be also fair she also endures some pretty terrible things too.  Anyway, total side note.  There are a lot of twists and turns and not afraid of killing off characters for the sake of the story.  It’s fun read for all those who love Greek Mythology, kick ass heroes and heroines and action.

Quick Review: The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

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cooper gauntletI often forget about how dark children’s literature can be.  Take for instance, Matilda or any Roald Dahl. Harry Potter, The Series of Unfortunate Events and Alice in Wonderland to name a few. Black’s and Clare’s Magisterium series is no exception.  It started with the ending of the first book where *Spoiler Alert* one of heroes turns out to be the bad guy and just continues from there.  Call, Aaron and Tamara are thrown into situations that are really well beyond their ages but do it anyway.  They all young and just coming into their own, discovering who they are and learning to control their powers.  They are trying to learn who they can trust because even the adults are a bit sketchy.  After the big reveal at the end of the last book I had big expectations for this one and for the most part it lived up to it.  I still felt that it started off slow, much like the first one did but once it got to the mission it was a fast read.  If only the whole book was like that.  I like the debate of nature vs. nurture that is being played out with both Callum and Aaron’s characters. I have a feeling that we are about to see a little role reversal with those too.  It’s a solid second book and I look forward to see what happens next.