The Tower Treasure by Franklin Dixon

Title: The Tower Treasure - The Hardy Boys #1

Author: Leslie McFarlane (Canadian, 1902-1977)
Pen Name: Franklin W. Dixon
Originally published: 1927
Page count: 180


Dates read: 6/17/2020-6/21/2020
2020 book goal progress: 18 out of 20
Reading category: TBR Shelf



Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.


Description on back of book:
For action, mystery, and cliff-hanging suspense, read The Hardy Boys Mystery Series - featuring the thrilling adventures of America's favorite detective duo, Frank and Joe Hardy. Millions of young readers have teamed up with the Hardy Boys, helping them in their quest to bring criminals to justice.

First sentence:
"Frank and Joe Hardy clutched the grips of their motorcycles and stared in horror at the oncoming car."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 5.1 - ⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 4
Atmosphere   - 6
Writing Style - 5
Plot                - 6
Intrigue          - 5
Logic             - 5
Enjoyment     - 5
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

If I had read this as a child, I probably would have enjoyed it. Since I'm much older, it was super simplistic and bland. I kept having to remind myself that Frank and Joe are actually 17 and 18. I kept reading them as 10-year-old kids - probably because that's about where the reading level is - and then kept on being jarred when they hopped on their motorcycles and drove around.

The book hasn't aged well to me due to its sexism - including unnecessary fainting. The girls that the boys hang out with all seem clueless, flighty, and scared. They don't get involved in the mystery even though they're hanging out too and there's opportunity for them to be included.

One of the things I found most interesting was comparing pricing in the book to today. For example: an adult offers to show a high school student where his stolen car is for a fee of $25. Four teenage friends (seemingly without jobs) scrounge together the money, which today would amount to about $365. Overall, the book is alright. I would suggest it for children, but there are far better mystery books for adults to be reading.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Leslie McFarlane have the last words:

"Don't be disappointed. I can tell you that one bit of success makes up for a hundred false trials."

Babel-17 by Samuel Delany

Title: Babel-17

Author: Samuel R. Delany (African-American, 1942- )
Originally published: 1966
Page count: 169


Dates read: 6/8/2020-6/15/2020
2020 book goal progress: 17 out of 20
Month category:
June - LGBT Pride Month
Back to the Classics category: 
Genre Classic (Science-Fiction)


Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.

Description on back of book:
The new weapon of the Invaders was Babel-17, a menacing hum clogging up Alliance space communications. Rydra Wong, the cosmic poetess whose words reached across space and whose mind could perceive the meaning of all the world's tongues, had to decipher the communications power of Babel-17 before it could lead to intergalactic defeat. To do that, she would place herself into the heart of the vile interstellar war between the Alliance and the Invaders, and be the target of the next outer-space attack.

First sentence:
"It's a port city."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 8.3 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 9
Atmosphere   - 10
Writing Style - 7
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 9
Logic             - 8
Enjoyment     - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:

It is fitting to read this book by a gay African-American in the midst of Black Lives Matter during gay pride month. There is a common type of relationship in the world Delany built called being tripled. As you can guess, it's a relational commitment between three people. The relationships seemed equal between the three and not a 'husband-with-two-wives-and-the-wives-don't-have-a-sexual-relationship-with-each-other' type of scenario. (Actually, the two main triple relationships in the book both consist of one female and two males.) Since the book appears to contain only cis genders*, this means that a triple would either be gay (all 3 the same sex) or bi/straight (2 of the same gender and 1 of the other). There are also monogamous relationships, so there is still space for a fully straight relationship in this world, but being gay or bi is just as common. I'm not a supporter of polygamy, but it was an interesting and eye-opening way to bring about gay/bi relationships without it JUST being about being gay. The focus was much more on the polygamous interrelationship - and the sex of those in the relationship was secondary; It was subtle and normative instead of right in your face. Aaaand... topic change!

Just before starting this book, I finished up a college Phonetics class. Since this book had a lot to do with language and learning/understanding a new language, there were a good handful of terms in the book that I wouldn't have known without having taken that class. It was a lot of fun for me to be reading along and realize I already knew what was being said and didn't have to constantly look things up (which I tend to have to do with sci-fi).

The world was a lot of fun! For example: when people die, they end up as 'discorporates,' which are basically ghosts. Depending on how one died and for how long you had been dead, it's possible to be brought back to life again. Discorporates can control if they're visible to living people or not, though, even when they are, they never look fully solid. You also tend to not remember what they look like or what they said for more than a few seconds. There were many more aspects that made the book interesting, but I'm going to stop there.

I semi-predicted the ending and was a bit disappointed with the vague/abstract ending overall. I had hoped it would be a bit more finalized with more details given. I also would have loved to spend more time on the world itself and not as much time on the spaceship. It was still a great book, even if it pushed my views of sexuality a bit - and got a bit trippy in end. Definitely worth the read.

*'Cosmetisurgery,' body alterations that most often give humans animalistic-type features like claws or wings, is a highly common, accessible, and relatively simple practice/art almost on the level of getting a tattoo or piercing. It wouldn't be too difficult to stretch this to sex alterations as well, though this was never actually mentioned in the book.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Samuel R. Delany have the last words:

"Most textbooks say language is a mechanism for expressing thought. But language is thought. Thought is information given form. The form is language. When you learn another tongue, you learn the way another people see the world, the universe."

The Supergirls by Mike Madrid

Title: The Supergirls (Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines)

Author: Mike Madrid (American, 1950s(?)- )
Originally published: 2009
Page count: 315


Dates read: 5/22/2020-6/5/2020
2020 book goal progress: 16 out of 20
Reading category: TBR Shelf


Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.


Description on back of book:
Comic book superheroines bend steel, travel through time and space, and wield the mighty forces of nature. These powerful females do everything that male heroes do. BUT they have to work their wonders in skirts and high heels. The Supergirls, a cultural history of comic book heroines, asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman's search for identity, Batwomen and Power Girl's battle for equality, and Manhunter's juggling of crime-fighting and motherhood also an alternative saga of modern American women?

First sentence:
"When America was in the throes of the Great Depression, people looking for an escape from tough times found refuge in the newspaper comic section, which became a passport to other worlds."

Favorite quote:
"Sex appeal was the 'spoonful of sugar' that helped the 'medicine' of feminism go down. A liberated heroine who still looked sexy would be less threatening to the male readers of comic books."

"When asked by her teammate Sub-Mariner whether her reputation as a man-hater is deserved, Valkyrie responds, 'I do not hate men, Sub-Mariner. I merely know I'm as good as they are.'"

Review:

This was an interesting and thorough history of women in comics up to about 2010. I was disappointed because I have always viewed comics as pretty sexist and I was hoping this book would prove me wrong BUT it didn't. Wonder Woman is one of the only heroines (at least of the 20th century) that was truly initially created to be a symbol of feminism BUT when her original creator passed away, even she went downhill a bit. In comics it seems women can have special powers BUT... there always seems to be a stipulation.

"Wonder Woman may have espoused messages of liberation and freedom in her own comic books, BUT, among her peers, she fell victim to oppression. With her great strength, intelligence, bulletproof bracelets, and magic lasso, Wonder Woman outclassed most of the men of the Justice Society. Yet she was only allowed to serve as the group's secretary."

Heroines have powers BUT they're still less powerful than the male heroes. Heroines want to save the day and make the world a better place BUT finding a husband is more important. Heroines get into skirmishes with villains BUT it's more important that they look attractive to male readers than protect their bodies with practical uniforms. Heroines get to represent the sexual revolution BUT they aren't allowed to act on any of their desires. A Heroine can be strong and independent BUT then she's viewed as a bitch. A heroine can be just as powerful as a hero BUT she eventually loses control of her power and becomes a villain.

And it keeps going and going. That was the whole book. It was filled with BUTs and when it wasn't, it was filled with butts... because the industry must continue to draw in (and for) its straight white male audience. At the turn of the century, things did seem to turn around for heroines and I would be interested in the author's commentary on all the superhero movies that have come out in the past decade since the book has been published.

Despite my disappointment with the lack of feminism represented in comics, there still were some heroines that stood out to me (besides Wonder Woman) that I would be interested in reading: Power Girl and Ma Hunkel/Red Tornado of Justice Society; Storm of X-Men; Oracle/Batgirl, Black Canary, and the other heroines of Birds of Prey; Manhunter; She-Hulk and the Lady Liberators; and Ms. Marvel's transition to Captain Marvel. (I also am interested in Spider Gwen, but she wasn't created until after the book was published and, obviously, was never mentioned.)

Now I'm off to read another book... BUT since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Mike Madrid have the last words:

"One of the problems facing the liberated superheroine was that she often wound up being written as the Superbitch. While some superheroines toyed with feminism in the '70s, Power Girl was the real deal. She was strong, confident, outspoken, and unapologetic. When she began her career as a member of the Justice Society of America, she demanded that the male heroes treat her as an equal, and defied any man to try and put her down. Romance was never the motivation for any of Power Girl's actions since she didn't expect a man, including Superman, to complete her life. Power Girl was a young, independent woman of her time who stood up for herself. As a result, her character often came off as a bitch, as was often the case with strident feminists."

"Power Girl acts as a mentor for a new generation of heroines, teaching them not to take any crap. She states her philosophy about sexism and staying true to one's self in this way, 'I've got a rep for being stubborn, headstrong, and brash. I'm called a lot of things behind my back by other heroes. The main one rhymes with witch. I'll be honest. It's not an act. Not completely. I do have confidence. I am smarter than a lot of the other costumed cops out there. Maybe I could learn a thing or two about mutual respect. BUT you have to understand something, girls. If I was Power-Man. If I was stubborn and headstrong and brash. If I didn't take to authority well. No one would think anything of it.'"