FIR: "Southbound" and "Graceling"

It's getting down to the wire here. Katrina's Fall Into Reading challenge will be wrapping up next Friday. So, I wanted to throw out two more reviews...

"Southbound" was a travel journal of two sisters who hike the Appalachian Trail top to bottom over several months. Normally, I am a fan of travelogues especially those geared to more non-commercial locations. But, I've decided I'm just getting too old. LOL So old I couldn't finish the 480+ pages. By halfway through, I was tired and bored with their post-collegiate self doubt, woe-is-me, where do I go from here, who/what do I want to be when I grow up angst.

If I was 20 years younger, I'd probably add to its multiple 5-star reviews on Amazon but not as a 40-some mother of two.

"Graceling" came as a freebie through a Kindle discount site and looked like it would tickle my sci-fi, fantasy fancy. And, oh, did it! Loved Kristin Cashore's characters, plot, conflict, and development of her fantasy world. It felt a lot like Ursula LeGuin "Earthsea"books but with a female land-bound lead instead of Ged/Sparrowhawk.

It hits all the central fantasy themes: characters with unique gifts, political battling, a journey, a crisis of conscience, evil bad guys, you know the drill. What a delight for the main character to be a female and, in a sense, the antithesis of all stereotypical female traits: brutal, focused, independent, physical, non-emotional, killer instinct.

I would highly recommend it.