two books finished...

The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women by Harriet Rubin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book was a disappointment to me. The idea behind it was good - it basically touts itself as a 'how to get ahead in life' for women, especially those with careers in the corporate world. It kind of goes over a general outline about how women can't get ahead by trying to be better than men, and that they should look to their own strengths instead. I liked this - it's what made me want to read the book. However, the information was poorly organized, and stated in a way that was obscure and left you wondering what the author's point was.

To give you a basic idea of what the entire book was about (so you don't have to spend 8 weeks plodding through it like I did - I haven't taken this long to read a book since Stephen King's IT, which I read when I was 12) I will paraphrase.

Basically, figure out the true motivations of your 'enemy', and then use that information to show them how they can get what they want by working with you, instead of against you. First you have to know yourself, and then you use a variety of ways to throw them off balance or use the truth to confuse them, get them to think and question and maybe change their outlook.
Also, it goes over the idea that if you act like you've already got what you want, you'll get it, and if you act like other people have no direct power over you (and they really don't, anyway)then they'll start to believe it too.
It suggests using your appearance and femininity as a weapon, instead of trying to look like a man so you can be 'taken seriously' in the business world.

There were two lines of the book that I actually quite liked though.

The first is to 'Enlarge the space in which you can be strong'. Unfortunately, the author tells you that 'command and control' doesn't work and actually makes this space smaller, but then she gets side tracked into talking about women and airplanes and how the flight industry got controlled by men and lost the thrill. She never actually tells you how to enlarge the space you're strong in. She hints at it being something to do with paying attention to details though.

The second thing was her definition of peace - she calls it 'a wild peace' and defines it as 'tranquility, fearlessness, and freedom, all three together' - which isn't something that comes when the battle is done, but rather something that happens in the midst of struggle.

All in all the book was ok, but I really felt it wasn't worth slogging through for 8 weeks to get a few gems of wisdom.



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Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book gave me pretty much what I've come to expect from Laurell K Hamilton. Like pretty much every book I've ever read by her I found it well written, interesting, and easy to read. It wasn't an absolutely-love-it-couldn't-put-it-down read, but it's definitely one I would read again for entertainment (also like all her other books).



I liked most of the stories in this anthology - especially the ones more towards the fantasy world than horror - the world Laurell K Hamilton writes about in her fantasy stories is far more interesting to me than her anita and merry gentry series world. But that's probably just me.



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