Jennifer Martin

Almost a Perfect Book

Revisado: 04-10-25

While the Rwandan Genocide and previous pogroms hover in the background of this book, it shows the loving and traditional relationships that held Tutsi communities together under great duress through the life of the author’s mother and the women around her. We get to know the author’s family as complete human beings.

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A perfect introduction with great narration

Revisado: 03-30-25

I thoroughly appreciate how often this audiobook includes the spellings of Nahuatl names and places.

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This was very sweet

Revisado: 07-09-24

This was a perfect cozy listen and I can’t wait to listen to the next one! Both narrators were great.

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Dorsey Armstrong is the best

Revisado: 06-18-24

I’ve listened to several Great Courses from Dorsey Armstrong and she’s always an engaging, accessible lecturer.

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Best Entry Point for American Beginners…

Revisado: 06-11-24

Like many people in 2024, I’ve been trying to get my arms around the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The history feels impenetrable and it’s very hard to find fair, honest, and reliable sources. This book clearly has a point of view and the author is transparent about believing in Israel as a Jewish state. But he’s also honest about the treatment of the Palestinian people and the actions of the Israeli government. By offering his perspective as an American, his narrative traced through enough familiar events that I felt scaffolded into the larger issues and background.

I think it’s really sad that the best entry point I’ve found for this conflict has ended up being a 12 year old book, but there you have it. I don’t think it’s necessary to agree with the author’s view points or conclusions, it’s enough that I feel like he’s trying to treat the competing interests fairly rather than cherry picking events to root for one side or another.

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Highly detailed for such a compact book…

Revisado: 12-25-23

I’m a huge fan of The Medieval Podcast and I love how Danièle Cybulskie brought her unique voice to this book. She delves into the details and habits of medieval life that get overlooked in larger surveys.

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I’m hooked now….

Revisado: 10-20-23

I’ll be honest… I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this series. I started it through Kindle Unlimited and figured it would be a good time waster while I was waiting for some other books to be released.

The first book wasn’t perfect and I’m still not a huge fan of the present tense narration, but now that I’m settled in, I can’t wait to continue the series.

I love Loki’s characterization and the author’s take on Norse mythology— you can tell they’ve spent a lot of time immersed in it and the textured retellings sprinkled throughout are probably my favorite thing about this series (Grandma Beatrice and Fenris notwithstanding). It would normally be a bit risky to have so many call outs to popular culture representations of Loki, but you can tell it’s done with affection for those properties so it works here.

I do wonder what they did to Barrie Kreinik’s narration, though. I really loved her voice in “Ariadne” but she sounds a little AI here. It’s not a bar to enjoying the series, but I wouldn’t want anyone to think this is her normal quality because she’s a lovely narrator.

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Get a Rosalie Gilbert book instead

Revisado: 07-11-23

The first thing I’ll say is that the narrator was very good— she’s probably the only reason I was able to grit my teeth til the end.

There’s a lot wrong with this book, but the main thing is that the author is pushing an outdated view of medieval attitudes toward sex by focusing only on what church patriarchs had to say— which is only one of the ways she has a hard time using sources appropriately.

She goes into great detail about the Malleus Maleficarum (1486) for example— even acknowledging that she’s now talking about the early modern period— and tries to justify it by saying that it was an outgrowth of medieval thought. But that’s it. No discussion of how or why, just… Trust Me, Sis.

The chapter on women’s occupations was genuinely good, despite its asinine introduction

The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women by Rosalie Gilbert is a much, much better book— you can tell the author had a lot of fun with it, used varied sources, and didn’t twist herself into knots trying to back up sweeping conclusions.

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A slow burn with substance

Revisado: 06-25-23

I suppose I can see how some people might find the first part of this book boring, but the romance lover in me really loved how much time was spent on just the two leads talking and getting to know each other.

I hope the rest of this series gets released!

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Read the Books in Order!

Revisado: 06-22-23

I have a feeling a lot of the recent middling reviews are because this book was on sale a few weeks ago and people bought it thinking it was the beginning of a series. It’s not! And if you try to start here, which is basically the middle of the series, you will be lost.

Go back. Start with Daggerspell. Or, even better, get the four book omnibus that’s currently available. Then read the Westlands quartet. *Then* you can start this one.

I really love this series— but it has a complicated structure and a ton of characters from different timelines to keep track of. This is essentially the ninth book in the series. Trust me, this is not the place to start.

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