Fat and Blood

This book really isn't worth really reviewing. Late 1800s medical book. Most of the stuff is out of date for today. I read it for a class to "understand" why Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote Herland. I rolled my eyes a lot while reading it.

Herland

This was a surprisingly good read. I wasn't really expecting it out of a book I had to read for school. I am too often disappointed by the required reading. But some of my classmates didn't appreciate this one as much as I did.

The narrator of this book is Van. He and two of his friends - Terry and Jeff - go on an expedition. During their original venture, they begin picking up stories about a community consisting only of women. So they plan to visit this hidden community for "research."

This becomes a very interesting story when they do discover these women, They become prisoners in a sense, but it quickly becomes apparent that these women are just as interested in the outside world as these three men were about their little group.

This story has some really humorous points, as well as this kind of weird message about meeting new groups of people. Although, the book was written to be a female Utopia. Women have all this power because they have not had men to help them for nearly 2000 years.

I highly recommend this book. It is way more than it seems.

Wanted

**Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4 * Book 5 * Book 6 * Book 7**

This book was kind of a fun adventure. Which is unusual with some of the other books in this series. But this one reveals a huge twist that I didn't really see coming.

Ali had a twin!

After Billy Ford is arrested and charged in the murders of both Ali and Jenna, the Dilaurentis family reveals that they have another child. A twin to Ali named Courtney. Naturally, Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily are thrown for a serious loop. Nobody expected this. I know I didn't.

But what's even weirder is when Courtney reveals that she's actually Ali. That crazy Courtney had been killed that night at the end of seventh grade. So all the girls have their best friend back. Right?

Their story gets wild as they try to rebuild their friendship with the girl they thought lost all those years ago. Only Aria seems suspicious that things are too good to be true. Maybe they are. Or maybe Aria needs to just relax and accept that her best friend is back from the dead.

I thought this book had a great conclusion, both to the book and to the series, so I'm a little confused about why this series continues after this book, but I guess I'll see what happens in the next book.

Charlotte Temple

Well, I'm back to reading books for a college class. And this is the first thing I had to read this term? Ugh. Sometimes the life of an English major isn't quite so glamorous.

I will say that while I didn't love this book (written in the late 1700s), I didn't hate it either. Once you get past the old writing style and accept that the author will direct certain passages directly to her reader, it has a pretty good story line. Of course, you also have to bear in mind that the story is built around the ideals of the 1700s where girls of certain classes were expected to have their parents' permission to marry and eloping leads to the ruin of girls.

Charlotte is a good girl. She's being educated by a well known and trustworthy lady. However, the French teacher, Mademoiselle La Rue, is not a good girl and really shouldn't be friends with Charlotte. La Rue encourages Charlotte to do things that are inappropriate for a girl of her station, which leads to Charlotte meeting a soldier by the name of Montraville. Between La Rue and Montraville, they convince Charlotte to elope with him to New York, where his company is ordered to be.

She hates betraying her family, and eventually, Montraville forgets about her for a girl of significant wealthy. Poor Charlotte is left pregnant and rather delusional. Her reputation is completely ruined and she quickly spirals.

It's kind of a sad story about a sweet girl who was lead astray by people who should have been protecting her. In the end, I felt bad for Charlotte, hated La Rue, and actually kind of pitied Montraville. While this story isn't very relevant for today's society, I can see how it was so popular in the time it was written.

But, I did get a little weary of the author talking to her reader about things other than Charlotte's story. I also thought certain points were a little preachy, but then I'm a 21st century girl reading a story about an 18th century girl. It can be expected that I'd find it preachy.