A World of Women

First off, when I requested this book from NetGalley, I didn’t realize it was originally published in 1913.

I found the (newly added?) introduction to the book to be terrible. That should have a been a clue! Regardless, I skimmed and skipped over the intro and started reading.

This novel has a great premise – a plague that seems to affect only/mostly men, and is always deadly. It seems as though it could be highly relevant today, and an interesting read.

No! The dialogue is horrible. Also, the characters are horrible too. I didn’t connect with any character, and quite honestly, didn’t care what happened to them.

I enjoyed a brief section where the well-off daughters go on a binge trying on fancy clothes they have no use for, but that was about it.

There are some interesting concepts buried in here, but none fully developed. What happens when there is only 1 man for every 100 women? What becomes of marriage? Monogamy? Industry? Touched on, but there is such potential in developing this story along any of those plot lines.

Now, since it was written in over 100 years ago, maybe this is to be expected, but this novel presents a very sexist view point. The women that are most like men, or have “masculine” inclinations are implied to be best suited to the new world.

Also, SPOILERS ahead:

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Maisie’s Peak

I haven’t been hiking much lately, and I wanted to try out my hiking boots before going to Canada next month. We’ll be doing some hiking at Banff National Park and I need to decide whether to pack them or not.

I decided to hike up to Maisie’s Peak. In the past, I have hiked at Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, but I have never been to this part. AllTrails suggested starting from Stevens Creek County Park, and crossing over into Fremont Older, so that’s what I did. The hike is listed as a moderate intensity hike of 2.5 miles, taking approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete.

The way up. Most of the trails on the Stevens Creek County Park side of my hike looked similar to this. Narrow, shady, in some places rocky, and there were a lot of steep areas, with some switch backs.

I was a little skeptical of the suggested parking, with AllTrails giving me coordinates on the map, rather than an address or a marked place. It did indeed turn out to be a real parking area, unfortunately it was closed.

Thankfully, there’s a lot of trailheads in the area, and I had just passed an open parking location. I figured even if I had to pick a new route or destination for my hike, at least I could still hike from there. Luckily, the trail I ended up at led easily to my original intended route, and only added about a half mile to the total hike.

This is where I crossed into Fremont Older Open Space Preserve. Over here, the trails are wide, with fewer switch backs, and shade is rare.

In the end, the hike was approximately 3 miles, and it took me 50 minutes up and 30 minutes down, so the timing of 1 hour and 20 minutes was spot on, despite the slight detour.

There’s a lovely view at the top, and a nice wide lookout area. Too bad there’s no place to sit and no shade.

View from Maisie’s Peak

All in all, the hiking boots worked out pretty well. I may change the insoles, as right now I have in some custom insoles with arch support. They are a bit different from the ones I normally use, and hurt my feet a bit towards the end of this hike.

Also, I felt very out of shape on the uphill parts of this hike. I really need to get out and get active again! Anyone local wanna go for a hike with me?