The Elfstones of Shannara

I am moving right along through Terry Brooks' series into the second book The Elfstones of Shannara. That's right second, even though the cover now says book 1. It hurts my book related OCD! Anyway that rant aside I really enjoyed this one, yep more than the first. I think the Ellcrys tree is maybe the coolest thing about this series! I love the idea of that level of protective magic and I think Brooks has created one of the most harmonious & peaceful depictions of "the ultimate sacrifice". 

It did take me an embarrassingly long time to make some of the generational connections between this book & the last one. But once I got there I really enjoyed that aspect to this series. I read somewhere that The Count of Monte Cristo (by Alexander Dumas) was an influence over his approach to this series & I feel like you can tell. In a very good way. Most (not all) series only show us the one generation in which the story takes place, but this multi-generational approach really shows you the effects, both good & bad, that the events of previous books had on the world. 
I of course was was excited to see Allanon again, and was please that Brooks made evident the toll that his magic takes on him. It eliminates the idea that magic has no consequences & I really like that. I was intrigued by the introduction of the wing riders. I'm really hoping to see that again & hopefully in more detail. Will was very likable, maybe even a little more than Shae. Not sure, the jury is still out one but I enjoyed reading sections told from Will's perspective. His personal discovery & struggle with the Elfstones was well written to, I think most people can relate to the feeling of having one of our characteristics hold us back from where we need to be, even if we don't want it to. This book left me satisfied in terms of the adventure it took me on but also left me wanting more of this world. I am really excited to see where Brooks takes this in the coming books! 

The Sword of Shannara

I will be totally honest I started reading this series because I saw the first episode of the MTV adaptation of this series. It seemed kinda good and I thought, "well if I don't read it now I probably never will." So off I went to the book store to find Book 1, only it took me like 3 trips & some internet research to find the correct book to start with. Terry Brooks not only wrote a prequel to the first trilogy but he also had them put "book 1" on the second book after the show premiered because the show starts with book 2. Talk about confusing! 

After I finally started reading The Sword of Shannara turned out to be every bit the high fantasy series I wanted it to be! The writing style reminded me a bit of Tolkien, only with less poems. Particularly when there was long stretches of traveling and description of the country side. I really enjoyed that it felt big, right from the beginning. The history is long & rich, and there are enough characters/races to fill it. I think Allanon was my favorite character because he is equal parts caring & mysterious. There is so much about him that we don't know and It has to be interesting! Also it becomes clear that he is one of the few characters that will be constant for a while in this story. For the majority of the characters the final chapter was our goodbye to them. 

The Sword it self was fascinating to me. I found how it worked very interesting and wondered what  kind of reaction I would have to the power of the Sword and having to face the truth about myself. It was also interesting that so many magical objects appear to be tied to this one family. I found myself wondering (having watched the first episode) how that power will be preserved as the elvish blood diminishes. Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was all the parallels to our current world & the conflicts we are facing today. Brooks makes it very believable that this world was created out of the collapse of the current world we live in. Yet he never comes out and says it directly so that is still left up to the imagination of the reader. 

As with most first books in any series there were parts that dragged a little but it was very clear that the description in these portions were pure world building and they were super interesting despite their slow moving nature. I would definitely recommend The Sword of Shannara to a fellow fantasy reader! Maybe even to someone that hasn't read a lot of fantasy & would like a good series to try.

The Great Harry Potter Reread - Part 2

Several months ago my book met to discuss Sorcerer's Stone (SS) & Chamber of Secrets (CoS). This very exciting gathering we talked about The Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA)!! Now this was my favorite book of the series all the way up to the point where it was almost (but not) knocked to second favorite by Deathly Hallows. It remains to this day my favorite so know that any of my own opinions will certainly be biased. 

We got together & chatted over food, and covered a great many of topics! As before I will highlight some of the major discussion points and some of the more interesting comments that were made. 

Book vs. Movie

This time around we spent way more time comparing the books to the movies. I suppose this it makes a little sense. PoA was bigger than the first two books by at least 100 pages but the movies were roughly the same length. I won't lie this is my least favorite movie due to some casting disagreements but also largely due to the fact that so much of what grabbed my attention in this book had to do with our four favorite mischief makers. We all agreed that you don't really get the gravity of what meeting friends of his parents really meant to Harry. You also don't get from the movie just how deep the betrayal of Pettigrew went and how much it hurt everyone that knew the Potters. Obviously there are other differences but those were the big ones that kept coming up as we talked. 

The Marauders!

We love them!! All were in agreement. It was obviously nice to learn about them because it helps fill in some of Harry's personal back story & as the main character it's important we feel like he is 3 dimensional but lets face it the Marauders are just fun. They are quirky, quick witted & always up for adventure. There are so many adventures a reader can imagine they had but never get told in the books! Ahhh to have a book on the Marauders. Specifically we compared James & Sirius' conflict with Severus to Harry's conflict with Draco. It was agreed that while James & Sirius were arrogant ass hats as teenagers, they probably didn't spend a lot of time thinking about how to be mean to Severus. They created a magical, interactive map of the entire castle & grounds AND learned how to become animagus in 4 years. They were too busy to be seeking out conflicts with someone they saw as no consequence to them. Before everyone gets all mad at me, I'm not excusing how they treated him, but it is likely they were ass holes of opportunity more than malevolent bullies. Which is far different from how Draco thinks of Harry, he does a lot more active plotting against Harry. 
Another thing we talked about with regards to the Marauders is how Lupin is probably the only one that actually grew up. James & Lily died relatively young. We don't get an exact age but one can imagine it's their early 20's since wizards are done with school at 17 and most people don't settle into their adult personalities until their mid to late 20's. Peter spent most of his adult life as a rat hiding from his past not moving on with his life. That leave Sirius who never really grew up because he spent most of his adult being emotionally traumatized in Azkaban. We see great evidence that this is true later in the series. Where as Lupin grew up, had to process through the grief of losing 3 friends, and started a profession. We all felt like Lupin would be the best teacher ever & were really sad that he had to leave. We felt that one with Harry. We questioned what James & Sirius might have been like as adults had the been allowed to actually become them. 

And Their Map

For all their good and bad points we can all love the Marauders a little bit because they gave us one of the most fascinating magical objects introduced in the series. The Marauder's Map! Now I know I'm a little odd, but I also know I'm not alone, I love maps! LOVE THEM! I love world maps, city maps, fantasy maps (usually found in the front of the book), all the maps! Side note: I also love castles & exploring them. So when JKR gave us a map that is comprehensive of the castle, it's grounds, and all the secret passageways I about lost my shit. Then to top it all off you could see everyone who was in the area covered by the map. So now I could not only imagine myself exploring the castle to its entirity guided by a wonderfully detailed map, I could imagine myself being a wizard spy! There was a legitimate 5 min or more spent gushing about how cool the map is and how appropriate it was that the twins found it. Mischief Managed!

Patronus or Animagus

Just as we talked about what our wands & houses would be with the first two books we definitely spent some time on talking about what our Animagus forms & Patronus would be. As we went back & forth on this topic someone brought up a wonderful point, what is the difference between what form your patronus takes versus what your animagus form is. Here is what as decided:

An Animagus is you only as an animal. Everything in the story suggests that this form does not change, this is why the ministry is able to track Animagus based on their markings, which resemble the physical form of the person as a human (McGonagall's glasses). Given that this form is fixed it should being representative of who you are as a person. 

A Patronus is a protective spell that is drawn from important happy memories, the stronger & more important the memories the more effective the Patronus. What is important to us, and the emotional attachment we place on memories changes and grows as we change & experience more. We experience this in a first person perspective with Harry as he has to process through changing what memories he uses at times to produce his Patronus & in a third person perspective when we find out that Tonk's Patronus has changed form. We felt that Patronuses were more a reflection of your inner emotional state.

For those of you that are curious I decided my Patronus would probably be an owl & my Animagus form would likely be some kind of larger cat, maybe a hawk, but probably a cat
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Darker & More Serious

This heading was for a laugh because we joked about how the Trio actors said this about every single movie in interviews! Seriously though JKR's writing did evolve as the series progressed with each book. We discussed how PoA is the first big step in that direction, there wasn't much difference in the writing level & style between SS and CoS. For the first time you get the grander scale of the world & character development took the forefront.Harry starts to get more concrete pieces of his past and as he starts adding to the puzzle we as readers get to see his point of view change. It's not just him versus Voldemort once a year at Hogwarts & anymore, his picture of the Wizarding World becomes more complex. As a first time reader I remember just being excited that I was being given more, but as I am rereading (for the millionth time lets be honest) I can see how the change in writing style & the character development she began in this book really started to lay the ground work that made major events later seem more realistic & plausible.

The Great Harry Potter Reread Part 1

I would say most people have that story that they just keep coming back to over & over. Something about it gets associated with comfort or happiness. Like that first book one of your parents or teachers read to you as a child. Maybe it's the movie you watch when you're sick. It could even be the first story where you found yourself in a character or the first time you were exposed to a world view that is not your own. It really doesn't matter what the reason is we all have that story. Mine is the Harry Potter series. It was half accident & half good timing but those are the books that sparked my love of reading and by doing so opened my life up to so many adventures. 

Over last year I had been talking to my friends about how long it's been since we've read them all consecutively. I mean the last movie  was released 5 years ago already!! I have gotten wrapped up in other stories & adventures since the Deathly Hallows book was released which has been wonderful but it was time to go back. So I pitched the idea of a book club to my friends in which we would spend the year rereading Harry Potter. The loved it and thus The Great Harry Potter Reread was born!

We recently had our first book club meeting, and I feel like I should say I've never been a part of a book club before so this is all new for me. I was pleased that our first gathering went so well, and can't wait till we have our next! We covered The Sorcerer's Stone & The Chamber of Secrets at this meeting planning to cover only one book at each following meeting. I thought I'd share with you briefly some highlights of the things we talked about. 

Sorting & Wands

Of course we talked about what our houses would be & what our wands would be! Have  you met a die hard fan that doesn't?? It was interesting to see what people said of them the tally is thus: Me & C. are as Gryffindors, R. & M. as Hufflepuffs, J. & S. as Slytherines, and A. believes she would be a Ravenclaw. So we are pretty spread out. But we talked a lot more about how just one thing can push you from one house into another. For example I teeter the fence between Gryffindor & Ravenclaw but what tips me over to the Gryffindor is my insatiable urge to explore & adventure just for the sake of doing so. The wand discussion was a little less thought out because not as many people think about it really. My favorite quote was from S. "I think my wand would be something just super powerful." Always thinking of getting stuff done ;) 

What did Dumbledore see?

Fun topic to discuss because we will never really know but we spent some time on what we thought Dumbledore would have seen in the Mirror of Erised. Several of us thought it likely he saw his sister, and one actually suggested that he may have really seen socks but I thought the most interesting point here was when someone asked if what you can see changes as you change. I think it's very likely I used Ron as an example because he sees himself all alone in the first book and I doubt very much if he had looked in that mirror in the last book he would have seen himself alone. 

Bully Behavior & Abuse

We discussed the parallels between Harry & Snape because both were bullied pretty badly. Also since many of us work or have worked in mental health we discussed bully behavior & how remarkable it is Harry chose multiple times not to bully others or seek revenge. Where as Snape continued the circle of bullying by bullying a child as an adult. 

On a related note that led us into a discussion of how abusive the Dursleys actually are to Harry. How did they not get the British CPS called on them? I mean there were some pretty serious signs of abuse & neglect going on even for the 80's. What stands out is Harry's resilience to both the abuse from his aunt & uncle and the bullying he faces at school. 

Harry Could Have Been Slytherin

We are told later in the series that the reason the Sorting Hat wanted to put Harry in Slytherin is because of the scar/horcrux leaving residual Voldemort behind. In Chamber of Secrets Dumbledore tells us that really we get to choose our house. I am not disputing either of those factors. Nor would anyone else I think, but we did agree that Harry could have easily been a Slytherin all on his own merrit. He left the Dursley's house determined to prove himself as a wizard. He also proves over & over again that he will not leave things alone until he has proven his case or completed his task. One could also argue that his inability to back down from a challenge is always ambitious and only sometimes brave. We also touched on the fact that if Harry had grown up in the wizarding world he almost assuredly would have been sorted differently. He would have been far more arrogant & likely had a different perspective on life all together. I think Harry was sorted where he should have been but I also agree with the Hat he would have done well in Slytherin.

New Appreciation of Book 2

This one is pretty self explainatory. If you have finished the series (books or movies) you realize when reading through Chamber of Secrets just how many people, items, plot threads, and social dynamics are introduced for the first time in this book. I don't need to list them all here but be ready for us to reference back to CoS when we get to the development of those ideas later. I myself can't wait for the group members that haven't read them before to see just how much they are more developed in the books. 

Random Character Thoughts

Dobby - It was almost unanimous that we hated Dobby in CoS (but that he grows on you later). It felt like just non-stop over the top ridiculousness with him. And as C. brought up how do you get from "I want to save his life" to "the best way to do that is send a bludger after him." 

Dumbledore - We didn't spend a lot of time on Dumbledore because most of the conversation about him has already been posted on the internet. What stood out though was our consensus on the fact that Dumbledore utilized his portrait network way more than you think about when you are reading the books the first time. We did discuss his unique knack for knowing where Harry is under the Invisibility Cloak even though it is never clearly stated if he can actually see him or not. We know he is very perceptive, so it is possible he could over hear small movements & Harry hushing Ron etc, but we did consider that it may have something to do with the fact that as the owner of the Elder Wand he may be able to see him or know where he is because both objects are Deathly Hallows. 

Neville - To be fair we mostly used Neville as a comparison for house traits. What makes Neville great as a character is he reminds us that the traits prized by Gryffindor (and other houses) can be found in all types for people not just the stereotype. He did come up when we discussed how Harry's personality might have been different if he were to have lived in the wizarding world his whole life. We questioned whether Harry was able to break the chain of bullying because he experienced life with the Dursley's or whether that was just his character. We decided on character. Again Neville becomes the comparison because he was bullied at Hogwarts as well but it was decided that if he had to grow up with the Dursleys they most likely would have broken him. Thankfully he didn't because Neville is irreplaceable!

The Divine Comedy

This is a book I have "had on my list" for a long time. I have always felt like The Divine Comedy by Dante was very influential in our society specifically with Western concepts of the Christian after life. I never read it in high school, which is odd because I went to Catholic school, so it went on my list of classics to tackle as an adult.

I really enjoy epic poems so I was pleased that The Divine Comedy was written in that format. I found the language beautiful and amazingly descriptive. So descriptive in fact that I had a conversation with a friend of mine about how to best adapt this story to some kind of visual format. That leads me to what is in my opinion the biggest & maybe only flaw in this story. There is no plot & it parts of it are excruciatingly boring to read! The story is essentially a written tour through the levels of each after life domain. So while the imagery in Inferno is very interesting to read and see how each level of Hell is described with it's various demons & punishments each book gets less interesting. Some of the concepts of how he describes Purgatorio are interesting, I very much liked the visual of the stairs but I got to the point of having to reward myself for finishing it. The same happened with Paridosio.

Perhaps others do not have this issue but I really like to follow some sort of journey, whether it's a classic hero's journey or just any old journey. I enjoy being concerned about the characters & watching the growth happen. I found very little of that in this book which is why I struggled with it so much. I feel like the best quality of The Divine Comedy is how visually descriptive it is. I had no trouble what so every coming up with an image for what the author was describing but as I discussed with my friend it would make a terrible movie. People do not pay to see movies with no plots. We decided that Dante's classic should really be adapted to a manga or graphic novel format (unless it already has been), that way you get the splendor of the stunning images he created and are more engaged throughout the story.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

You know when you carry around a book and wonder what people are thinking when they see you with it? Well with this one I didn't have to wonder. I was frequently stopped by people saying, "Oh that book is SO good!" or "My friend read that and told me to read it because it's amazing." Those that weren't familiar with it stopped me with questions on what it was about. The cover itself is enough to make one curious.

The problem with people asking me what it's about is, that's a very hard question to answer. I have found that most quality fantasy books are difficult to explain briefly and most people well versed in fantasy will understand what you mean when you say just that.

First thing of note, this is a YA book which I did not know until I went to look for it in the bookstore. The main character is Jacob, a 15yr old boy that through a series of sad & confusing events discovers he is "peculiar" and what that means. He finds a time look where Miss Peregrine is guarding a number of other peculiar children and the plot thickens! While reading what stood out to me the most was how cleverly the author wove the pictures into the plot. Some of these pictures area actually quite famous but have little explanation. The world Ransom Riggs has established is both fantastical yet believable. As the reader you want to believe that these time loops exist within our own world. For me the only draw back to this book was that I did not feel invested in the characters. I found how he took the people from the picture & made them characters interesting but I did not really care what happened to them. At times that made it hard for me to finish, and I am not sure that I will read the other books in the series but I am really grateful that I read this one. I would also probably recommend it to someone that enjoys YA books but is apprehensive about reading fantasy. I feel like the realistic connection to the real world makes it more relate-able for those that have difficulty following when an author builds a world from scratch.

3 Quick Book Reviews

I am pretty far behind on my book reviews so you're going to get several brief reviews of the last few months of books that I have read.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night by Shakespeare is one of those books that's been on my list for a long time. I really enjoy seeing & reading Shakespeare, and this is one of my favorites but sadly this is the first time I've actually read it. I was pleased that I enjoyed reading it just as much as I have enjoyed seeing it performed & adaptations of it. Twelfth Night is of course the comedy where Viola is confused for her twin brother Sebastian & he for her. I actually found some of the awkward comedy in this play to be funnier in written form because it doesn't rely on an actors ability and your own imagination can fill in the gaps. Conversely having seen it prior to reading it I was anticipating the identity reveals of Viola & Sebastian which made me wish that I had read this one first. I found that on the page those reveals lacked some of the "umf" given to them by the actors & directors working on the show. For me at least, knowing ahead of time threw off the pacing. Scenes dragged leading up to it and then the reveal itself wasn't as satisfying. I am confident I would not have felt that way if I did not already know what was coming.

Sword of Summer

The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan follows a similar formula to his other books where in teenage children find out that they are parented by various deities. This is book one of a new series that deals with the Norse Gods, and when I was younger the Norse Gods were always high on my list of favorites. Yes I was that weird kid that read mythology books, so Riordan has made the child inside me quite happy!
Reading his books as an adult I find it is very important to remember that the target audience is approximately 10 years old. That being said they are entertaining adventure books. Very easy to get lost in. This one lived up to my expectations & excitement about the Norse. All the usual suspects are there including fan favorites Thore & Loki ;). Magnus is a good hero, very likable & easy to root for. I found his imagery of Valhalla to be unexpected and very fun. There is also an unexpected connection to his Olympians books which I thought was fun and hope is foreshadowing of future stories. The plot was fairly predictable but as I said earlier I am not the target audience here. When I finished I was definitely looking forward to reading the next one.

How the Irish Saved Civilization

Anyone that follows my Goodreads account and not just my reviews here will know that I read about 1 nonfiction book a year. This was the one I started in January! Woot for finishing! It's dry, but it's designed to be informational like a text book rather than sensational like a novel. Regardless I found parts of it so funny that I laughed out loud.
I have been interested in Irish history for some time and the title of this book was the thing that caught my attention. The premise is that Ireland did not suffer the "Dark Ages" like the rest of Europe and was there for able to preserve writing, art & other cultural practices that were lost. I found his take on religion in Ireland as well as notable Irish figures (St. Patrick for one) to be very interested and broader than what one normally hears in a history/religion lecture. A very interesting read for those that are interested in the topic.

"The Fall of Arthur"

The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien & published after his death. The poem is not completed but as Christopher mentions in his commentary Tolkien wrote this in a similar style to various other epic poems. He also draws on other Arthurian literature to formulate his version of the tale.

I really enjoy his style of poetry! I loved it in the Silmarilion and was pleased that I enjoyed it in this book too. What exists of The Fall of Arthur was every bit as rich & enthralling as Tolkien's other works. I really wished that Tolkien had the opportunity to finish his account of King Arthur and found myself sad that it ended soon. I have been searching for a version of the Arthur legend to get excited about for a while now but every version I read is disappointing. Had he finished it this might have been what I was looking for!

The commentary by Christopher was surprisingly enjoyable. Sometimes I find it difficult to read analysis of a work I have just read, or maybe don't know as well. What I enjoyed was Christopher uses examples of the early drafts & Tolkien's source material to explain himself. I also particularily enjoyed the comparisons to Silmarilion as well as Nuemenor & Valinor that were outlined.

I would definitely recommend this book to readers that have an above average are interested in Tolkien and/or Arthurian Legend. Otherwise The Fall of Arthur might not hold your attention. Parts of it are a bit dry.

"The Glass Castle"

Every person that works in the social work or psychology field should read this book. It's a beautifully written account of how perspective matters. In "The Glass Castle", Jeannette Walls recounts her early life and what it was like growing up with her family. Walls tells tales about herself that would make most readers cringe.

Her father was an alcoholic, her mother was barely qualified to take care of herself let alone others, and both parents likely had one or more diagnosable mental disorders. The resulting chaos & instability that occurred in this household was at the very least neglectful if not abusive. I mentioned perspective because the story is told by Walls herself and this gives the reader a more intimate view of each instance she describes. It is easier to understand that neither of her parents wanted any harm to come to any of their children, in fact they loved them very much. I do not say this to excuse their behavior but to illustrate a fact that people in the psych & social work fields see all the time: family dynamics are always more complicated than they seem from the outside.

What I love most about this book was the way Walls perfectly portrays the gradual change in how a child sees their parents. There isn't one moment where a person sees their parent as a human being with flaws, there are many. These moments happen slowly over time as people become more in touch with the rest of the world. Walls shows us those moments in her own life, beginning with herself as a young child thinking her parents are larger than life, super heros almost. By the end of the book she realizes that her parents are not intentionally creating these situations they are just unable to care for their family and do not have the motivation to make changes.

The Glass Castle draws from the reader so many different reactions laughter, sadness, concern. The life of Jeanette Walls is an absolute inspiration and a true testament to the resilience of human beings. This is definitely a must read!

"The Bards of Bone Plain"

Patricia McKillip is one of my favorite fantasy authors. With all the hype lately over young adult fantasy & Song of Ice & Fire people have forgotten that there are many other wonderful fantasy authors. McKillip has made my list of favorites because she lyrical style that is uncommon to the fantasy genre. Her writing is so lyrical can never tell if I feel more like I am reading an epic poem or being sung a ballad. I suppose it's a good thing because music & bards are a common themes in her books. It is the main theme of The Bards of Bone Plain.

Centering around an ancient mystery that gets caught up in a modern competition for the position of Royal Bard. There are two plot lines that run parallel for the majority of the book but intersect beautifully as the story draws to a close.

The characters are rich & interesting.  I felt connected to them & was completely invested in how their story lines resolved. Sometimes with stand alone books I long for more character development but not so with this one.

McKillip's use of imagery is wonderful too. The world she describes in The Bards of Bone Plain was unique among the fantasy worlds I have read before. To me it felt like some strange combination of modern, steampunk, & standard fantasy world with medieval castles & city structures. Not to mention her imagery surrounding the standing stones! They were captivating & as a reader I was so excited that the plot centered around the stones because I wanted to know all about them.

In the Bards of Bone Plain McKillip uses, in my opinion, the perfect amount of mystery to keep her plot moving forward. I never felt frustrated that I wasn't getting enough pieces to the puzzle. Nor was the plot so convoluted that I got a headache from trying to follow it. There were just enough puzzles & plot twists to keep me engaged intellectually until the end! This is easily one of my favorite books by McKillip and I would definitely recommend it to any fantasy reader that enjoys different styles of writing.

For All Of Us That Couldn't Get A Letter

Today is September 1st, a day that comes with a lot of bitter sweet feelings. Summer is creeping to a close. The last of the cook outs will be happening. Pools are getting shut down and boats are being pulled off the water. School is starting which means an end to sleeping in & lazy hours. Life is about to get busy & cold again. On the flip side school means friends & sports. Jackets & scarves come out and pumpkin spiced everything is back. But for some of us September 1st is more bitter than sweet.

We are the generation that could never get our letters. Which generation are we? We were the kids that picked up that book in the bookstore wondering why that kid was on a broom stick. Or maybe we had someone give us the book for a birthday or holiday. We were the kids that talked about Quidditch & Time Turners with the one other kid at school that knew what we were talking about. We were those kids that adults gave a double take to because they were walking around with a novel at least twice as thick as their text books. We cheered when Gryfindor won the House Cup because of Neville, paniced when we realized someone put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire to kill him, had our hearts sink when we learned about Snape, and got goose-bumps when McGonnagall called the castle to life. We waited anxiously for each book (sometimes 3YEARS!) & begged our parents to take us to the bookstore at midnight in hopes of being the first one to hold that long awaited treasure in our hands. We are the Harry Potter Generation, and we were the first.

I know many adults read the books then too, and many children came after us. But we were the first children old enough to read Harry Potter when they came out, unfortunately most of us had already had our 11th birthdays. That means that most of the Harry Potter Generation realized during one of the early books (for me it was SS) that even though every part of us wants this world to be real, and even if it were real, we would never get that letter from Dumbledore telling us that we had been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. For many children in this generation Harry Potter changed our lives, or at the very least made it a little more fun. For us September 1st is always just a little bit sad but "why" is hard to put to words.
 
September 1st is the day the Hogwarts Express leaves from King's Cross Station carrying all the students to north towards Hogwarts. For the last 16 years I have known it was leaving with out me. I never got to hope that one day I would get to ride a train to Scotland where magical adventures happened at every turn. I never got to anticipate my 11th birthday and think about what kind of owl would drop my letter off. I always knew that I wasn't going. But there is no name for that feeling.

It's this complicated jumble of conflicting emotions. We know we're too old to believe in magical castles & wizards. But damn-it we still really wanna play Quidditch! And not the Muggle kind either, because that's taking it too far. Even though we love reading other, more adult reading level, books we still have this attachment to all the wondrous things we learned about & dreamed up while we were reading these books. For the first time we had that feeling of wanting to step inside a book & live in that world so intensely that it never left.

But it's more that that, Harry Potter took all the best parts about being a child, the wonder the magic & the adventure, then it used them to teach us real life lessons. We didn't just learn to do the right thing, that friendship is important, or that people aren't always what they seem. We learned that sometimes the "right thing" is way more complicated and hard to see requiring more sacrifice that anyone want to give. We learned what it means to be a good friend even when our friends hate us, won't listen to us. And that real friendship can never be broken. We learned that some people have good reasons for acting the way they do, even if they are still wrong and act like a jerk. But also that some people are exactly what they seem and we learned how to tell them apart. We learned about standing up for ourselves but also how to lose. We learned from heroes, villains and all the characters that were in between. We can't let Harry Potter go because it's a part of who we are. It took the best parts of being a child & gave us the moral compass for being the best kind of adults. 

For us September 1st reminds us that we are not going to Hogwarts this year, or any year. It reminds us that magic is just beyond our reach and that most adults were not young enough to cherish the lessons we learned from reading Harry Potter. We remember all the worst parts about being an adult and are left with a sense of longing to somehow go back in time and give our past self a copy of the books before we turned 11. That way all that magic, wonder & hope could be real for just a little longer.

So what do I do on this day? I try to ignore how much I long to get on that train and think about the children in my life. I look forward to being their crazy aunt who has the cool books about wizards! Getting to live the adventure again through their young eyes & maybe get to curl up to read it with them. Pass on all that magic, wonder, and the lessons too, because isn't that what you're supposed to do when you're the first generation to do something? Give it to the young and hope that it lives on? Then maybe just for a little while it will feel real again. Only this time I will be dropping them off at King's Cross Station on September 1st.  

"From Notting Hill With Love... Actually"

Recently I noticed that my book reviewing on Goodreads was getting a little... well non-existent, so I decided I should get back to it but I thought if I'm going to be writing reviews shouldn't I  be putting them in my blog?? Of course I was in the middle of a series at the time and didn't feel right about reviewing it half way through, but since I just finished this lovely Chick-lit by Ali McNamara I shall give this a try!

I picked this book up originally because the title cracked me up. "From Notting Hill With Love... Actually", how many more chick-flick titles can you fit on one book cover? (Apparently more than that because there are sequels) So after reading the paragraph on the back I selected this to be my "break book". I read a lot of books that come in multiple installments, or classics, and I try my best to read non-fiction and other books with more substance. As a result sometimes you get done with a book and think "I just need something fluffy, light and maybe a little funny. These are my "break books".

This was exactly the type of book I was looking for. I had read some troubling reviews ahead of time that gave it one star but in my opinion their expectations were too high. No one watches reality TV or a Life Time movie expecting it to blow their minds and be thought provoking. They watch it to turn their brain off and just have fun. So why should books be any different. "From Notting Hill With Love... Actually" if a fun book. The main character is relate-able and easy to root for. There were a couple of spots that made me go "Really? Who does that!?" but only a couple. One was when she went to the flat of a perfect stranger to get a stain out of her shirt. It felt contrived and unrealistic, but it fit with the whole premise of the book which was to follow various movie scripts.

As someone who watches movies and quotes them regularly, I loved the ridiculous amount of references to chick-flicks! I say ridiculous because there is no other word to describe it. The main character sets out to prove a movie life is possible, and so between quoting movies or recreating scenes the references number at least 2 a page! They fit with the character & the plot so it never bothered me, and every time it came close to bothering me the author brought it right back to a reasonable place.

My biggest criticism  for this book is that the end felt rushed. The author does a good job of throwing a twist in to make you doubt the hero. It really wouldn't be a chick-flick with out it :) but it was so late in the book that the explanation for why he wasn't actually being a total jerk was really fast and confusing. It felt forced and a little hard to believe. You should believe in your hero again when he is returned to grace. It's that vindication of your belief in your hero that really connects your story with readers. I found that part was lacking and I was not as satisfied at the end as I wanted to be.

Overall Rating: 4 Stars