Collie's Bestiary

Originally written in the late '90s regarding the reading list of a truly fascinating anthropology class. The papers are extremely light — basically just some quick review and discussion questions. I include them here mostly because the books were excellent and well worth reading for thoughtful perspectives on women's roles in a variety of religions. [...]

Amazon Ink I loved the basic premise of this story, which was that the Amazons of myth and legend still exist, hidden within our modern-day culture. Unfortunately, past that initial premise I found myself asking a ton of anthropologically based questions which were never answered — I think it was a case of me knowing [...]

Norse Code The back of the book suggests the story is about the newly created Valkyrie named Mist, but this is not actually the case — it is more about the Norse deity Hermod, and Mist is mostly along for the ride. Further, I cannot say I enjoyed the author's (extremely unsubtle) re-hashing of the [...]

Touch of Evil This book was, interestingly enough, a free digital book from Tor which my friend had downloaded in mid-2008, and suggested I might enjoy if I wanted another urban fantasy. Checking on amazon, I find that the book was first published in 2006, and is the first of a series of three books. [...]

Some friends of mine loaned me some books to read recently, since they both know I'm a fan of urban fantasy. I rather enjoyed the books, overall, and I'm pleased one of the books turned me on to a series which I think will be worth following. The books were Patricia Briggs' Moon Called (Mercy [...]

Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit Another critic I found on the web saw double standards in Wills' book — a desire within Wills to dispense with ritual even as he promoted it. However, the critic's examples of this which I read demonstrated a double standard only if the "Church" is equated to the current ritual-bound, [...]

Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit Why compelling? So why is the book so riveting? There are several reasons I found it so. Firstly, it's always fascinating to read the thoughts of the religiously devout — who can also see the terrible attrition of belief due to the lure of secular power.

A fascinating, eye-opening review of biblical & ancient textual exegesis concerning current papal "hot button" issues.

Why is the Journey that denotes active individualism and physical maturity always coded male? Why is the one that connotes life's wisdom cooperatively rooted within relational community invariably gendered as female? Why can't we bring ourselves to say what they really are: steps in the progress of an ultimately human life? If the first steps [...]

I have a few other issues with this so-called Hero's Journey, at least as laid out by Campbell. First of all, it stipulates a very rigidly segmented, gender-based world. Within the actual stories, there exists only the central character in the story, the useful but ultimately disposable sidekicks, and the monsters. Sadly, most people narrowly [...]