The Power

One day, young women all around the world become physically stronger than men. This power eventually spreads to all women. The premise of the book ( I think ) is that women's oppression is founded in men's physical strength so what happens once that is reversed?

Bad things.

Somehow I thought women would be more noble and compassionate when they held all the power. Spoiler: they are not.

The book won the Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction (British award) and when reviewed by the Washington Post, it was called "our era's Handmaid's Tale." I wondered if the author's intention was not to show what women would do if they were more powerful but rather to ask us to view the actions of men through female characters.

I found myself very disgusted with various characters but when I took a step back, these women are just doing what men in power do every day. All that time. Since the beginning of time.

Worth the read.

Five Children and It

I picked up this book for Sonia at a small book store in Rotorua, New Zealand.  We needed something to read on our trip. The book was written over 100 years ago by a famous British author I had never heard of. The book was blurbed by Neil Gaiman and that sold it.

It's a story about a family of kids who meet a Sammy-add (sand fairy). The sand fairy will grant them one wish a day. Every time they make a wish, their lives go terribly awry. Every wish has negative and serious consequences. Each chapter is a new crazy adventure. I like kids' books that speak to their audience like they are capable thinkers.

Sonia thought it was an "adventurous book where you never knew what was going to happen next."