Beka Cooper Trilogy (Terrier, Mastiff, Bloodhound). Tamora Pierce.

Pierce, Tamora. Terrier. Random House, 2006.
Pierce, Tamora. Mastiff. Random House, 2009.
Pierce, Tamora. Bloodhound. Random House, 2011.


I loved the first two books and liked most of the third one. I'll get the negatives out of the way first: I felt that the final book wrapped up way too fast, neatly tucking in all bits and bobs...except also glossing over one or two things that I wouldn't have expected to be glossed over. Also--though I'm not going to get into spoilers--I found the final "trick" that saved the day to be oddly...juvenile, or maybe just too silly, I guess? I didn't have a problem with it on its own, really, but I felt it didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the trilogy. (I admit that I feel guilty saying this, and I can't help wondering if it's me somehow; I haven't found this to be an issue in any of her other books, and I've read quite a few. It's still bugging me, though, so here it is.)

Now that that's out of the way...

Modern Man in Search of a Soul. C.G. Jung. (Part II)

5. The Stages of Life

Problems exist because of the growth of consciousness in man; consciousness means turning away from instinct/nature, and that messes with us.

I actually already typed up all my thoughts about this chapter, and I must have done something wrong because Blogger ate them. So I'm going to throw a few interesting points out there and move on...hopefully also moving on from my irritation.

Modern Man in Search of a Soul. C.G. Jung. (Part I)

Jung, C.G. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Trans. W.S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes. Harcourt Brace, 1933. 

Note: I'm breaking this review/reaction/whatever-you-want-to-call-it into two parts because I get irritable when the page goes on too long. 

I've been hearing about Jung here and there--in various texts about psychology, character creation, and other subjects--for years, and I realized recently that I've barely read any actual Jung. I found this book on my shelves (no idea where it came from; I have a book-collecting itch), and it seemed like a good place to start. I mean, hey, it bills itself as "the basic introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung, who, with Freud and Adler, was one of the chief founders of psychoanalysis." The back-of-the-book blurb is always accurate, right? Right?!