This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.
They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.
They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.
Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
When I decided I wanted to do this series, I always knew what the first post would be.
Once a upon a time, when I was a little girl, I found reading boring. It was hard work and not fun at all.
Until…
I picked up Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce on one of the regular school visits to a library.
I was eleven years old and after reading that book, I’ve been a reader and later it lead me down the writing path.
Alanna was great, both the character and the book. It is a young adult book, at least that is where I would put it, especially with the later books seeing Alanna go from 10-11 years old to 18+. (The series is called Song of the Lioness.)
I loved the book because it fulfilled my biggest fantasies at that age: being a knight in training (aka a page), a girl, and having great magic.
I don’t want to spoil the books even though they are decades old. Let’s just say as the series goes on, it fulfilled more fantasies and went in direction I didn’t expect.
This isn’t Tamora Pierce’s best book (or series) in my opinion, but it was the book that made me a reader, so how could I not love it?
I’ve reread it many times. I read a lot of Tamora Pierce’s work and I’ll feature more of them in this series in the future.
If you like to read fantasy, like empowered girls/women, and like knights, castles, some fighting, magic, and adventure, this is a book for you.
Also, the rest of the series is also great; the fourth book is my favorite, but it is best when read after reading the first three.