In the inaugural episode of Casually Obsessed, Allison Arcos and I talk about Tamora Pierce and our nearly two decades of love for Pierce’s Tortall universe.
Tamora Pierce is the best-selling author of over 20 books set in the Tortall universe, as well as more than a dozen other books and comics. You can find her very thorough biography on her website.
A note on the links throughout this page: Casually Obsessed is an affiliate with Bookshop.org, an awesome online bookstore that supports local bookstores (instead of Jeff Bezos). If you use one of my affiliate links and buy a book from Bookshop, I’ll make a small commission (at no extra cost to you).
A few things we discuss in the episode:
- Judge books by their covers, judge people by their bookshelves
- Why Tamora Pierce’s work continues to stick with us
- Shame around reading young adult as an adult
- Not marrying the first dude you have sex with
- Content that hits differently as an adult
- Age differences in relationships are weird and kind of problematic?
- The time I met Tamora Pierce and unexpectedly burst into tears
- How to pronounce ‘Tamora’ (rhymes with camera)
Show Notes
It was Allison’s idea that we record this episode and I’m so glad she suggested it. We recorded together in mid-January and just had a ton of fun.
For Fans of Tamora Pierce
Chelsee recommends:
The Chanters of Tremaris by Kate Constable (This series is out of print now, but the audiobooks are still available! You might also be able to find used print copies)
The Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak
Unnatural Magic by C.M Waggoner (I don’t mention this book in the episode because I read it after we recorded, but I highly recommend it to adult fans of Tamora Pierce)
Allison recommends:
To easily find (most of) the books mentioned in this episode, you can visit the Bookshop collection right here. It’s a special roundup of our recommended reads and other books mentioned in the episode.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Allison is very embarrassed to have mistakenly credited this book to ‘Philip’ Chabon — she was reading a lot of Philip Roth at the time)
A Song to Take the World Apart by Zan Romanoff
A possible Tortall TV show
Things on the internet that might interest you:
Tamora Pierce’s The Numair Chronicles Has Been 15 Years in the Making