I’ve been reading a lot of books outside my comfort zone lately, and was starting to yearn for some sci fi with a strong female lead (bonus if she’s over the age of 40 and menopausal), political intrigue, a bit of action (extra bonus if physical prowess and swords are involved, with some creaking joints and chronic pain), and great writing. Something I could immerse myself in and look forward to reading each night.

Enter ✨ The Last Contract of Isako ✨

I really enjoyed both Isako’s and Martim’s characters, and the friendship between Isako and Kob. It was refreshing to be immersed in some complex and very human relationships between people of different ages and stages of life.

The world of ruthless corporate rule in place of government was eerie to read in the current (2026) real-world climate of corporate tech bro oligarchies and rising fascism. Scarily prescient, and I sadly doubt we’ll be waiting for hundreds of years and space travel for it to happen as it does in this book.

A great read. That is all.

🎧Audiobook

Despite the book title and blurb, a warning that this is not a reexamination of women’s lives across the world during the Middle Ages through a feminist lens that you may be expecting. Instead, it’s a collection of stories about some of the powerful and influential Christian women in Europe during the Middle Ages by re-examining historical evidence - not quite the same thing. (Surprise, another historian with an imperialist mindset who didn’t bother to mention they’d only focus on their own region in the title like, say, “A New History of the Middle Ages in Christian Europe…”).

The author also doesn’t directly address anything sufficiently that the book’s blurb touts - that is:

The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings; a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a little deeper into the truth, we can see that the “Dark” Ages were anything but. Oxford and BBC historian Janina Ramirez has uncovered countless influential women’s names struck out of historical records, with the word FEMINA annotated beside them. As gatekeepers of the past ordered books to be burned, artworks to be destroyed, and new versions of myths, legends and historical documents to be produced, our view of history has been manipulated.

Just one example: The great reformation from paganism towards Christianity during the 7th century is covered early in the book and does give some great investigation and narratives to the lives of some influential women during this era. However, the author doesn’t do much questioning of religious patriarchal motivations, expectations and force done to women in the name of Christianity during this time. (There also seemed to be a lot of warmth given towards Christianity throughout the book, which honestly gave me the ick.)

After reading Femina, I’m struggling to buy Ramirez’s central argument that the Middle Ages were actually more equal for women and men than we think.

Yes, there clearly are some individual women through hundreds of years who were powerful and influential that were erased from history due to their gender, and should rightfully be recognised and this important history is very deserving of our attention. And certainly there could have been specific towns or regions that were more equal for women in some ways, such as Mercia and their ruling families.

However, Ramirez touts this book as an argument that women had more equality in the Middle Ages than we think. But the societal evidence she presents is limited in scope and doesn’t address key issues that enforce a misogynistic society, particularly under religious rule. Her historical figures also only include royalty and religious figures (apart from a short chapter at the end that surprisingly touched on slavery, multiculturalism and transgender people). And in fact, rather weirdly, many parts of the stories she tells of these people directly go against the argument of equality. Ramirez often even reinforces the fact that the women she talks about were aberrations to the rule of repression and how unusual these individuals were. Huh?

I find this kind of “reexamination of history” by female historians really frustrating. Jamira Ramirez reminds me of Bettany Hughes. While I enjoy the enthusiastic tale, and the fact that women are the historians, I’m frustrated by their blatant repackaging of male history to be told by a female who then mentions a few females in history. And so apparently, there we go, history has been righted for equality. To me, this is not looking at history properly to understand women’s place in it. It’s just getting some more information about some women out of a misogynistic history.

Focusing on the minimal extra evidence of women does not equate to the extravagant excess of evidence for men.

Because of all of this, I found it hard to trust what Ramirez was telling me. I just could not believe that what I was reading was correct.

2/5 for narration by Jamira Ramirez. Narrated by the author, whose breathless upbeat tone and overly dramatic emphasis on every second word actually felt like she trivialised what she was talking about. I’ve noticed this is a popular way of sing-song speaking by TV historians which I don’t enjoy, let alone listening to it for 12 hours. There were points in the book where I almost gave up because of the narration.

As an animal lover and appreciator of our natural world, this little tome was just the thing for lifting my spirits.

As we all know, animals are weirdos, and each comic in this book gives you a heart-lifting boost of animal weirdo serotonin with some interesting nature factoids. If you’ve ever watched birds being birds in their bird world and loved it, you’ll know what I mean. And it’s not just birds here - there are lots of other animals and plants that pop their snouts/stems/antennae in. There are also important messages delivered really well around species decline, invasive species, and climate change.

Mosco’s comics convey a childlike wonder with a quiet smile, provoke an amused groan or a chuckle, warm a swelling heart, and make you wish you could just give that crazy bird/salamander/moth/squid/dinosaur/rodent/shrub/microbe a cuddle - and then make plans to act on your renewed resolve to help protect them.

As an Australian, it’s helpful for me - and hopefully others - to know that the author is American, so many species and locations in the book are in reference to North America as well as northern hemisphere seasons and traditions. But there is plenty here to satisfy readers from anywhere.

Mosco clearly knows her biology, and her appreciation for all creatures’ and ecologies’ important places in the natural world underpins her art. We’re living in their world, and we just happen to be lucky enough to observe them going about their business.

This would be a great gift for anyone who appreciates art, animals and nature. It does contain some innocent animal mating innuendo, but I’d say it’s totally appropriate for kids as well as adults.

I loved this game, 10/10.

Side note: I’m glad to see that the balloon in this game gets zero points. Balloons are terrible. ZERO points for balloons!

Thank you Rosemary Mosco, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and NetGalley for the digital advance review copy. All opinions are my own.