Monthly Recommendations | Empowering Female Leads

This months topic for Monthly Recommendations is empowering female leads and immediately I think of like five or six characters like Hermione or Annabeth but as always I'm not going to recommend the most obvious books.

First book I want to recommend is actually a historic series called Wars of the Roses by Conn Iggulden. The series tells the story of the English royal houses Lancaster and York that were fighting for the crown for decades. One of the main characters is Queen Margaret of Anjou, a French nobel girl who is married to king Henry VI in the first book of the series. Henry VI is sickly and weak so Margaret must be strong for both of them and the royal house and she is very good at managing the kingdom while her husband is not able to.

Another series with strong female leads is the Wolves of Mercy Falls, also know as the Shivers trilogy, by Maggie Stiefvater. She is probably more known for the Raven cycle these days but I love this series and how its female leads Grace and Isabel are so different but still fight for the same things.

I don't know if the main character in the next book is strictly speaking empowering but I find her strong in her own way, though she is more Donald Duck-y, of out of the frying pan, into the fire type of character. I'm talking about Stephanie Plum of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, an amateur bounty hunter. I laugh out laud when reading her adventures trying to earn her living but even if times get tough she never quits.

Finally I think at this point almost everyone has heard of Game of Thrones but only a few people have actually read A Song of Ice and Fire series by G.R.R. Martin which is a shame. The series is well-written and the world is enchanting with all the detail. Martin has made many good female characters and is indeed praised for it. I feel like everyone can find a character they identify with since there are so many. My favorites are Arya, Sansa and Catelyn, but other people might like Cersei or Daenerys better. Anyway all of these characters are strong and get even stronger the further they go.

Game of Thrones season 6 review

My initial excitement about GoT has long faded, mostly because my favorite characters have had less screen time or died and characters I don't care for so much get bigger and bigger storylines. Despite that I can't deny that Game of Thrones is an excellent tv show and HBO has really made a good job with it.

My problem is that from the start I have sensed that Tyrion, Daenerys and Jon are Martin's favorites and they will not die but have this great destiny. In otherwise so unpredictable series this has deflated my enjoyment. At the same time my absolute favorite Arya gets less and less scenes and her story is completely pushed to the side and overall Starks, who I root for, suffer a loss after another.

What is interesting to me is all the politics and plotting and that was very much present this season also. King's Landing is one big hornets' nest where everybody is trying to get the upper hand. Even the High Sparrow got involved but he didn't know who he was up against.

The last two episodes were epic but the best moment of the season for me was the reunion of Sansa and Jon. The looks, the setting, it was all perfect and it summed up what the Starks have been through. This was a season where they finally start to get back what they have lost. Another heartfelt reunion was when Jaime and Brienne met at Riverrun. Their relationship is one of the most interesting, complicated but somehow still deep. It's hard to say how they are going to end up, especially because Jaime at least until the last episode has proclaimed his love for Cersei but that may have changed now due to Cersei's actions and the last of their children dying. Man, I'm sad for Tommen, he should have never become a king, he was too sweet for the job.

Before the season was halfway through I made a guess that by the end of the season or at the beginning of the next Daenerys and Arya would return to Westeros and look what happened. I think Daenerys is getting Dorne to her side and she will wipe out the Lannisters and take the Iron Throne. Starks may help her but they might be more concerned with the White Walkers. In the very end of the series Daenerys will go north and defeat the White Walkers with her dragons, since fire is deadly to them.

I don't know if I like Jon being the King in the North. It was a powerful moment, sure, and Lyanna Mormont is certainly a badass. As said I knew that Jon had a great destiny on his shoulders and now L+R=J theory was also confirmed so nothing can stop him. I wonder how fast Bran will get back to his siblings and if Arya will also return to Winterfell. Her killing Walder Frey felt good, a little payback for Robb and Catelyn. If the three living Stark children and Jon team up, nothing can stop them.