Books #33 and 34: Cinders and Sapphires and Diamonds and Deceit by Leila Rasheed

One of my friends wrote about this book on her book blog, and she said it was basically a book version of Downton Abbey--she called it "frothy, drama-laden, and fun," and I thought I could definitely use some books that had those qualities in my life right now. I have been in the mood for easy reading, and these definitely qualified! I totally agree that it is very similar to Downton Abbey, particularly the first book. (The second book loses its focus on the servants as much, and looks more at the wealthy people who they're working for.) They were published in 2013 and 2014, so I almost think they were ripping off of Downton. Some of the plotlines are extremely reminiscent of Downton (like the valet who is gay and in love with his master... sounds semi-familiar). However, it is definitely fun and both books were interesting enough to keep my attention. (I read both in the same day, actually. They were really fast reads.) I really liked Ada and Rose, the two main characters, who you're rooting for and following their romances, and I enjoyed Rose's transformation from maid to lady during the second book (although it really seemed far too easy to me).

However, the storyline here is definitely soap opera-ish--there's blackmail, sudden deaths, catfighting, sudden marriages, revelations of a maid becoming a lady, obsessive romance, people getting thrown in prison, etc. I feel like the books both may have been stronger if the author had taken out some of the crazy side stories and focused on strengthening the main characters' interactions and romances, etc. She added so many characters and plots that it was a little confusing to keep track of everyone at the beginning. Some of the side plots became a little far-fetched to me. Both books actually ended with a dramatic death, which seemed a little heavy-handed. The romance in both books also is pretty formulaic, where the man and woman fall in love after a two-minute conversation and basically stay in love forever after that (now, come on). I also think that the prejudices and moral systems that the characters exhibit seems far too twenty-first century to be true pre-WWI Britain. For example, one of the characters is homosexual, and he tells his stepsister about it, and she has about a half-page tussle in her mind about whether it's right or wrong and decides, "How could it be wrong for him to just love someone?" and leaves it at that. Now, come on. How heavy-handed can you be? And really, how realistic is that for that time period? There are also several Indian characters (one of them is the Ada's love interest) and it seems odd that there isn't any racism exhibited towards them at all. Not that I think that's okay, but it seems like it was probably pretty common in 1912 and there doesn't seem to be ANY racism, even from the mean, closed-minded characters we don't like. And Ada talks about dying to be independent and going to Oxford, and I just felt that the way she talked about it seemed pretty modern to me.

Overall, I enjoyed these books. I'd probably read the sequels if there are any, but I might forget about this series too.

Book #32: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

This, as the finale to the series, is amazing. I remember being blown away when I read it by how beautifully Rowling wraps up all of the questions that have been raised in the plot of all of the other books. There were SO MANY QUESTIONS, so many things that needed to be answered and explained, and overall, I think she did a fantastic job. Everything, from Harry being born in Godric's Hollow and that being Godric Gryffindor's birthplace (love that!), to everything about Snape (ahhhh!).

I love all of the action scenes in this book--the wedding, them breaking into the Ministry and Gringotts, the war at the end. (I didn't love Harry and Hermione's trip to Godric's Hollow, though.) The non-action scenes tended to drag a lot though. I don't know if she needed to dwell so much on them being at Shell Cottage, or the camping and searching (and fighting) that went on for a while while looking for Horcruxes. I love, love, love the backstory you learn about Dumbledore (it makes him seem so much more human) and especially Snape in this book. In one chapter, Snape becomes the deepest character in the series--so torn between his hatred and his love, yet choosing, overall, to act on his love, and forced for years or decades to act like what he was not. Snape, who we hated for so long, actually turns out to be the most hardcore character in the series. I loved that. I love how Harry, Ron, and Hermione figure out about and find the Horcruxes, and I love that Harry finally masters the problem of seeing Voldemort's mind and thoughts, in his own way.

There are many plot points that I don't agree with or like that much though. The Hallows themselves are ridiculous. I hate that she introduces them as if they are this SUPREMELY IMPORTANT THING that matter so much to the wizarding world--but she waits until halfway through the LAST book to mention them! Seriously, Harry and Hermione don't figure out about them until like page 350 of the book. What the heck? Why couldn't you have just left that out and had them find all the Horcruxes and finish right there? I don't know; I just don't think they really were that important or necessary to the overall storyline. Also, I feel like Harry returning back to life really stretches my suspension of disbelief--it is NOT explained fully, to my satisfaction, although of course I am glad that it happened (of course, it had to happen). I hate that Hedwig died (come on! Why Hedwig?) and Dobby (seriously, probably the most affecting death of the whole book). And okay, seriously, Voldemort gets killed by his OWN REBOUNDING SPELL? Harry didn't even try to kill him when he dueled with him? I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT! Why would you not try to kill Voldemort? I am so confused by that thought process now and have no idea why J.K. would choose to have it end that way. However, I must say, this ending is a bajillion times better than the one in the movie. I love that they have this ending conversation in front of everyone in the Great Hall, instead of out by themselves somewhere.

I've read lots of complaints about the epilogue, and I can totally see where they are coming from. It totally wraps everything up so neatly, almost too neatly, and you wonder why nobody seems emotionally scarred or had any problems here after everything. Even Draco is there at the end! But honestly, the only problem I have with the epilogue is that it was too short and I wanted more details about what they were up to (and what they HAD been up to for the past nineteen years--how did they get to that point?). It would have been almost more satisfying for her to write a "This is what each of these characters is up to now" thing for EVERYONE we knew and loved from the series so that you could swallow it all up and be happy about it. But oh well, obviously she couldn't include everything.

Book #31: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

After having finished the series now, I feel like this book is unique among the Harry Potter books. In retrospect, this book really does seem like it's just a lead-in to the climax of the seventh book. The sixth has a distinct lack of action going on throughout the storyline--all of the most important parts of this book are really surrounding Dumbledore's lessons with Harry, where you learn backstory on Voldemort. That's not to say that I don't like the book--I actually LOVE that we learn so much of Voldemort's story and that it helps us to fill in so many questions that have been raised throughout the rest of the series. I also like that for once, Harry is not the most hated person in Hogwarts for most of the book (it seems like that is the case for almost every other book). For once, Harry has a pretty good year--he gets really good at Potions (thanks to his used Potions book he gets), he gets the girlfriend he wants, he's not passing in and out of Voldemort's mind any more, and he gets to spend a lot of time with Dumbledore and learn a lot from him (and get closer to his goal of finishing off Voldemort). I mean, of course, the year ends on a pretty unfortunate note, which basically cancels out all of the good things that happen, but most of the book has Harry in a pretty good place.

A note about the romance in this book: I really, really like Hermione and Ron getting together in this book. I love that Ron starts dating Lavender Brown and they fight for a while, until Ron almost dies and they make up. I know that Rowling said in a recent interview that Ron and Hermione would probably not have made it and that it was a mistake to get them together (and honestly, I see that, because Hermione is too much better than Ron at everything and in every way for that to be an even match) but I still love it and I am totally happy about them being together. I don't feel quite so enthusiastic about Ginny and Harry, though--I feel like Rowling just decided when she started writing the fifth book that they would get together so she suddenly made Ginny have a personality in that book, and then they just fell together during this book. I totally get that Harry and Ginny getting together really completes the Harry-Weasley connection so it makes us all feel warm and fuzzies about Harry's future life, but I've never really gotten that into Ginny's character ever and felt that intrigued by her (and she is totally awful in the movies).

Book #30: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

I had never realized how crazy LONG this book is. It's almost 900 pages! And that seems excessive, because even the sixth book is like 650. I haven't started the seventh yet, so I can't compare, but even while I was reading this book I felt like it was a little too long. It took me a few days to get through (what with General Conference going on this weekend) and there was so much teenage angst and terrible things happening to Harry that some of it felt like a drag. I absolutely HATED Harry in this book when I first read it. Why was he being so mean to Ron and Hermione all the time? Why was he whining so much and acting like such a baby? He'd never done stuff like this before; I hated how much yelling and whining he was doing. But now, I actually kind of like the angst--because it makes him seem so much more of a realistic teenager. (When I first read the book, as a teenager myself, I didn't realize or notice how much angst I had myself as a teenager so it didn't seem realistic then.) I read in some review that Harry had an "abnormal maturity" in the first few books, and that is TOTALLY true. But in this book he at least acts like a pretty normal teenage boy, being super awkward around girls and feeling like everything is against him. And it kind of is, in this book! That's the other thing that makes this book hard to read--there is seriously NOTHING that goes right for Harry in this book. Umbridge makes Hogwarts terrible, Hagrid brings his giant brother home, Harry gets banned from playing Quidditch ever again, no one in the magical world believes his story that Voldemort is back and everyone thinks he's crazy, he and Cho go on a few dates but end up fighting and breaking up, he has to have Occlumency lessons with Snape, he keeps having Voldemort's thoughts and feelings, Sirius dies at the end. Seriously--how could anyone have a worse year? It's almost too depressing, with not enough happy stuff to balance out the heavy, depressing stuff that Harry is going through.

My favorite parts of this book, hands down, are the D.A. meetings--which I wish we learned more about, because it seems so awesome--and Fred and George's havoc and chaos they create for Umbridge. I LOVE Fred and George and it makes me grin to have Umbridge get what she has coming for her.

My least favorite parts of this book are Umbridge (of course), Grawp, and Sirius dying. Umbridge is just such a hate-able character--she is so terrible and evil and power-hungry it drives me insane. How does she go free, basically, after she escapes Hogwarts? (And are there really people like that? How could someone be that terrible and still be in normal society?) The whole storyline with Hagrid and his giant brother, Grawp, is actually kind of ridiculous to me. I don't really see the point of it all--why did J.K. Rowling include that side plot? It doesn't add anything to the story and Grawp plays the tiniest of roles in the end, which could easily have been taken out, and in a book this size, it probably should have been. (I guess she just wanted Hagrid to play a larger role in the story somehow?) And of course, Sirius dying stinks--Harry just keeps losing any adults he cares about in his life. However, I was thinking about it, and Sirius is really a pretty complicated character. We like him because Harry clearly likes him, and he likes him mostly because of his connection to his parents and Sirius's love for him. But really, Sirius is not exactly the most clear-cut good guy. He tries to get Snape killed while they are at Hogwarts (and how was he never punished for this? Did Dumbledore never know about it?), and the look at Snape's memory in the Pensieve shows him being kind of a jerk. You can see why Snape hated them. Sure, you can't judge someone for how they were when they were 15, but in a lot of ways Sirius never moved past that age and stage, in the way he treated Snape. So, I guess I kind of have mixed feelings about Sirius, really, but you feel terrible when he dies because of how it affects Harry (who obviously doesn't have mixed feelings about him).

Overall, I think this book is not my favorite of the Harry Potter series. It's really a little too long (some stuff should have been taken out, for sure) and it's too depressing with too much negative stuff happening for Harry all over the place the entire book. But of course, still always worth a read.

Book #29: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

I have a question, first off: Why is this book called "Goblet of Fire"? The goblet really doesn't play that much of a role in the book; it only shows up in one chapter. I guess it does sound catchier than "The Triwizard Tournament" but that would be much more accurate to describe what happens in this book.

Let's just do some bullet points here:
-The Weasleys picking up Harry and the Ton-Tongue Toffee. So hilarious and such a great sketch of all the Dursleys (Petunia trying to pull out Dudley's tongue and Vernon throwing things at Mr. Weasley, hahah).
-I love the Quidditch World Cup scene (up until all the Death Eaters and Dark Mark stuff). Any time Harry is with the Weasleys I am super happy for him and it is so fun to learn about international wizards and more of the wizarding world at large.
-The blast-ended skrewts. I totally forgot about them and they are hilarious, not to mention Hagrid loving them.
-Malfoy, the magical bouncing ferret! Go Moody!
-I don't really love the whole Triwizard Tournament, honestly. The challenges themselves and Harry's preparation for them aren't the most compelling part of the book.
-I like that finally Ron and Harry get in a big fight and Hermione is the one sticking by Harry. Ron is so great and real in this book--he finally falls prey to his jealousy with both Harry AND Hermione (with the Yule Ball) and does things that best friends really shouldn't do. I also love their apologies to each other and how they wrap up a several-month-long dispute with just saying "Don't worry about it." BOYS.
-I LOVE Viktor falling in love/like with Hermione. Objectively speaking, Hermione is clearly the superior and most under-appreciated character in the series (always the third one out of the trio and neither Harry nor Ron even consider asking her to the ball for MONTHS--now, really?), and finally, finally, she gets a moment of glory. Viktor seems like a good guy, and it's just pretty awesome that she gets to go to the ball with the most famous and popular guy there. Ron and Harry totally are jerky fourteen-year-olds in that whole situation (towards Hermione), although it totally makes me laugh to see how scared they were to talk to girls and ask them to the dance. I love how they are suddenly acting their age in some ways.
-Hermione and Rita Skeeter--SO AWESOME. Hermione comes through again! Seriously, without Hermione, WHAT WOULD ANYONE DO? Also, Rita Skeeter is totally the WORST and I wish Hermione would just keep her in that jar in her beetle form forever.
-I very vividly remember being so scared and sad during the climax-graveyard-Voldemort-reincarnation scene when I read this the first time. I had to close the book and take a few deep breaths several times during that scene. SERIOUSLY, how crazy freaky terrifying is that? I was so sad that Cedric died (I mean, he is a pretty boring character to us, but we know that he is decent and good and kind and it sucks that he is killed). I take this scene for granted now, but it's basically everyone's worst nightmares thrown into one, and Harry is there for it. I can't even imagine it. (I would totally not be in Gryffindor. I am not brave, unfortunately. Probably Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, because OBVIOUSLY NOT SLYTHERIN.)

I had a few questions from this read-through. How is it freaking possible that no one suspected that Moody was an impostor? Not even Dumbledore noticed that this guy he's known for DECADES is someone else completely? I don't buy that now. And what's this whole thing about entering your name in the goblet as being a magically binding contract? Why couldn't they just say, "Nope, sorry, we don't do four champions, and Harry doesn't even want to do this anyways. So never mind, you're off the hook." (Obviously why not--because then the story would involve Harry being an observer instead of a participant and that Harry DOES NOT DO!)

I am super excited to re-read the last three books.

Book #28: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

I remember thinking that this book was one of the scariest books I had ever read when I read it for the first time (probably at the age of 10)--and it probably was, for that age. I look at it now, and it's not scary at all, knowing that Sirius is awesome and is Harry's godfather and surrogate parent in the next few books, but when you read the beginning of the book and hear all these terrible things about Sirius and Harry has all of his near-death experiences and moments with the dementors--man, it really is scary! This book really feels like it diverges from the children's series that it was in the first few books, to me. You really start to get a sense of the outside wizarding world, more than just Hogwarts and Diagon Alley (the Knight Bus? I love it!), and you learn a lot more of people's backgrounds in the book (including Harry's, his parents', and Snape's). I LOVE learning more backstory (especially to help explain Snape's outright hatred for Harry) and I love that Harry gets two father-figures in this book through Sirius and Lupin. I also love that so many of the things you learn in this book become super important later on.

This book is really the first precursor to the rest of the series, although it still is more of its own unit (since it's the only one in which Voldemort does not feature at all, and Sirius is the fearsome, far-off villain throughout most of it). My favorite moments in this book include: Harry blowing up Aunt Marge, the Knight Bus, Professor Lupin, the Marauder's Map, Hermione PUNCHING MALFOY (THANK YOU SO MUCH) and especially the freaking Time Turner at the end and saving Sirius and Buckbeak in one fell swoop. (Although, let's be honest, the Time Turner does kind of raise lots of questions--why doesn't anyone use the Time Turner to solve any other problems? Ever?)

Okay, there is so much to say and talk about with all of these books, I'm sure I could keep coming up with awesome moments and obvious pseudo flaws with the magic and plotting (a la the Time Turner) all day long. I'll just say that reading this again has helped to confirm that I really, seriously do love this series.

Book #27: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Okay, I have never been someone who has thought too deeply about these books when I've read them. Like I said with the last book, I LOVE Harry Potter and I always have. But now I am laughing because out of curiosity, I just looked at the Goodreads reviews for this book and OH MY GOODNESS there are some crazy insane people who spend SO MUCH TIME reading and thinking about everything in these books! I honestly have never thought much outside of the normal realm of readership, but I'm glad I read those reviews because it gave me some ideas for what to say in my own review here.

A lot of reviews for this book rated this as the worst book in the Harry Potter series, because it was basically just following the mystery formula Rowling set up in the first book, but didn't do it as successfully. Many people didn't like a lot of the pivotal scenes in that book, either--the flying car, Aragog/the spiders, the Polyjuice Potion. And I really get all that. I wouldn't say this book was my favorite, when I look at it objectively. Even when I was younger, I never bought why Ron and Harry would take the car and fly it to Hogwarts. The obvious solution is to just wait for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to come back out from the platform and have them help them! I honestly think that's a theme of Harry and his friends' characters--they do not think or act like normal twelve-year-olds do. Normal twelve-year-olds still rely heavily on adults to help them when they are in trouble. And sure, Harry has never had adults really to help him, but it still does not make sense why they would end up being the ones to go to the Chamber of Secrets without talking to Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore. You have to buy their mentality (suspension of disbelief), however, in order for the story to work, because if Rowling wrote them like real twelve-year-olds, the adults would be doing all the work and there would be no story.

So, sure, this story may be not as deep or fun or important to the rest of the series, but I love a lot of the moments in this book. The best part is Fawkes showing up and saving Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. I love how Hermione figures out the mystery and they find it out by the page she had held in her hand. I love Harry being rescued by Ron, Fred, and George from the Dursleys' house! I think it's important to be introduced to Dobby (although he is not endearing at all in this book, only annoying; he becomes much more endearing later). So I definitely like this book still, although it's more of a stepping stool to the rest of the series, which begin to be more interconnected after this book.

Book #26: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Now, this is OBVIOUSLY a re-read. My mom always laughed at me when I was a kid because if I ever was bored or didn't know what to do, I would head back to HP and read them again. I have probably read HP #1 maybe eighty times now (no idea, just guessing). But it has been a few years since I have revisited them myself, and I have been meaning to for a while. Recently, I have been feeling like reading some non-challenging, fun and easy books, and it felt like a great time to revisit my favorite series.

I was a huuuuge Harry Potter fan as a kid. I don't remember when I first got the first book, but I remember getting the second and third books when for what must have been my eleventh birthday. And man, I was hooked. I have vivid memories of my first time reading many of the Harry Potter books--I remember reading the fourth book in the front seat of the car driving down the 5 freeway with my mom, and panting with fear as Harry began facing off with Voldemort in the graveyard. I stayed up all night long to read someone else's copy of Harry Potter 5 at girls' camp, because it came out while we were there and some lucky girl brought hers with her (and that night was the only chance I would have to read it). The sixth book came out when I was at Cornell doing a high school-college seminar and I bought it at the student bookstore with my own money, and some mean kids in the dorms made copies of the page where Dumbledore dies and hung them up all around the dorms to surprise the kids who hadn't read it yet. And when the 7th book came out, I went with my sister and some cousins to the midnight party at Barnes and Noble to buy a book (turned out we weren't allowed to buy a copy because we hadn't registered beforehand--but we did get some great HP glasses that they were handing out as party favors). Look:

Hahahaha, this was such a long time ago!

Long story short, I have a longstanding relationship with the whole Harry Potter series. I am seriously looking forward to the day when Dane is old enough for me to start reading them out loud to him. (But there are LOTS of books I can't wait to read to him--Little House on the Prairie is another one.) 

As I have been reading the books again now, at the ripe old age of 25, one and a half decades past when I was first introduced to them, I have been thinking about why they were so captivating to me. I think this first book was a masterpiece of creating a world. It is pretty amazing to read how amazingly specific everything is in the wizarding world, from the appearance of the Hogwarts train to the currency--Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. My favorite chapter in this book has always been when Harry goes to Diagon Alley for the first time (and it may still be my favorite chapter in the whole series). It is just so fascinating to finally get a look at everything the wizarding world has to offer, and J.K. Rowling does not disappoint with every last detail that she provides about the stores and products and people that Harry sees and meets there. 

I love that these books are filled with these sorts of interesting plot points which are not necessarily significant to a major plot development later, but they are just included because they help to round out the characters and the setting and the world they live in. I feel like that is something that I notice a lot about YA books (like the many, many dystopian novels that are all the rage right now)--they speed from moment to moment throughout the story and nothing is included in the story unless it will turn out to be especially significant later. I love that the Harry Potter books, this first one especially, is more focused on developing the characters and everything about the setting in addition to racing you towards the climax of the book.