RE-READ | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

First time around this was easily my least favorite book of the series.  Don't get me wrong, I’m sure I snarfed it down with a quickness as I did most of the others but Harry is so moody and sullen and...well...unpleasant in this book.  No matter that his attitude is understandable and probably inevitable considering his age, Harry is a hero and heroes don't get to be self-pitying.  At least that was my feeling on first read. 

At the time I read Harry Potter the first time around, I wasn't a regular reader of YA fiction.  For a couple years now that has changed and I wonder if that had something to do with my being able to be much more sympathetic towards Harry during this second reading.  In fact, I absolutely adored this book second time around and it may end up tying with Goblet of Fire as my favorite of the series.  Rowling puts her characters through the emotional hoops in this book and adds some fascinating complexity to almost all of them.  The book has a decidedly grimmer tone than all the books that have come before but it's a necessary progression of the story and it didn't bum me out this time around.   I have a lot of thoughts about characters and relationships in this book so I'll get right to them:

o - O - o

• New Characters: Dolores Umbridge, Luna Lovegood, Nymphadora Tonks.  Two really wonderful additions and one brilliant villain. 

• My disillusionment with Ron continues but he has definitely gained some maturity in this book and there is a subtle shift in he and Hermione's relationship.  There is not quite as much arguing and bickering because they are united in their worry about Harry.  You can see more how they may complement each other - Ron keeping Hermione from getting too intensely naggy and Hermione giving Ron some complexity.

• As I said I was much more sympathetic to Harry's tantrums this time around.  Dumbledore’s insistence on keeping Harry in the dark about things and not communicating well with him is incredibly frustrating even if Dumbledore's reasons for it makes sense and even serves to illustrate that he is in fact only human. He admits that it was a mistake to pull away from Harry as he did.  The scene between he and Harry towards the end where Dumbledore admits how much he cares for Harry and how he has wanted so badly to not burden him with more responsibility made me cry this time around.  However, Harry’s anger and frustration is understandable.  He doesn’t feel like he’s a kid anymore, especially after dueling Voldemort and watching Cedric be killed, so to be treated like a child is infuriating.  There is also a lot of trauma from his ordeal and instead of being able to talk it out with his friends and loved ones, he is shunted to a place where he is at best ignored and at worst actively emotionally abused.  He could’ve used some counseling and instead he is basically thrust into solitary confinement. Also there is nothing more frustrating and infuriating than being told you’re a liar when you are telling the truth especially when it is about something important. I kept comparing Fudge, Dolores Umbridge and all the other magical folk that don’t believe Voldemort is back, to Climate Change deniers.  Less sympathetically, Harry has got a full on hero complex at this point and all the blows to his ego – Ron being made a prefect, lots of his friends not believing him, getting kicked off the Quidditch team etc…help to undermine his foundation. And then the blow of Sirius.  ALSO, it struck me this time around that some of Harry's sulkiness may be some bleed over from Voldemort since Harry can feel some of big V's emotions.  Long story, not so short I really appreciate what Rowling did with Harry's character and the journey he went on in this book. 

• The scene with Molly Weasley trying to deal with the Boggart and seeing all her family dead was really emotionally affecting for me.  I was also wondering 1) why on earth are the Weasleys living at the Order’s headquarters?  It seems a little odd as no one else but Sirius is really living there full time and they apparently don't continue to live there once the kids are back at school.  2) Also interesting was why the Weasleys weren’t a part of the Order during the first go round?  They are certainly older than Harry’s parents and would have had many children during the first go round – Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George and newborn Ron – was it just all the kids that kept them out of it?

• Are Ron and Harry more clueless, less mature about girls than the average 15 year old boy?  They seem extra especially clueless about girls. 

• I just expressed my curiosity in my Goblet of Fire re-read, about why Hermione was not sorted into Ravenclaw given that her number one trait is her cleverness and Hermione actually addresses it in this book!  Apparently, like with Harry, the sorting hat went back and forth about whether to put her into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw and decided on Gryffindor.  THAT makes me wonder why? With Harry it was because he begged the hat not to put him in Slytherin.  I’m sure Hermione wouldn’t have had a strong preference at that point so I wonder if the hat can see the future and knew that Hermione needed to be in Gryffindor to play a particular and very important role in what was to come.   

• Should I talk about Dolores Umbridge?  She is really odious and in many respects, scarier than Voldemort.   Cruel and masochistic as well as being a control freak.  Her whole persona is seriously wacko and deliciously evil.  All the technicolor kittens on plates *shivers*.

• Two of my favorite parts of this book are the formation of the DA which once again proves what a genius Hermione is and the O.W.L.s because I apparently love standardized testing?  The formation of the DA is a lot of fun and it serves to give Harry an ego boost he needs as well as giving him something productive to focus on.  Not sure why I think the O.W.L.s are such a fun plotline but I do.

• There are two more characters which I particularly want to highlight because I really enjoyed their development:
• The heroic Sirius of the last two books is somewhat muddled in this installment.  It becomes clear that while Sirius loves Harry very much and is in fact a very good person, he may not have ended up being a great influence on Harry if he had been able to be a full guardian for him.  Sirius has his own petulant streak and isn't always the most kind or forgiving which is understandable given his upbringing.  In fact, his death is especially sad because Sirius' life has been very hard and had very little happiness.  It is that which makes him a heroic character, that despite all he's been through he will still not flinch from sacrificing himself for others. 
• Snape. Snape, Snape, Snape.  He is for me one of the most fascinating characters in the whole serious.  I think it's clear that he is in fact a pretty unpleasant sort of guy and yet... still a hero.  Perhaps the biggest damn hero in the series next to Harry.  Because while Harry gets to be the up front, good guy everybody-can-see-how-brave-I-am hero, Snape has to do all that is odious and horrible and completely under the radar while enduring many of his allies' contempt.  In this book, we learn that he has very good reason to despise James Potter and his childhood was likely as miserable as Harry's.  Instead of getting to Hogwarts and making some great and true friends however, he is just tormented some more.  We also learn that while he has joined the right team, his past still owns him - transferring his hatred of James to Harry and not even being able to be the adult when Harry invades his privacy.  Harry's continued hatred of and lack of trust towards Snape is understandable but REALLY annoying. 

FINAL VERDICT:  A book that took a second reading for me to really appreciate it and boy do I appreciate the heck out of it now.  Takes the series down a darker road and provides so much good character development fodder for contemplation.  5 out of 5 Stars.

o - O - o

The Movie

Like with Goblet of Fire, the movie has to do a lot of cutting to fit all the major happenings of the book into the movie and thankfully it does it just a little bit better.  I remember the first time around really loving this movie, because I could apparently deal with watching Harry's surliness and the darker tone of the story better than reading it.  This time the movie did not work for me as well probably because I enjoyed the reading so much more so the movie was bound to pale in comparison.

The first thing I have to say is thank God Harry got his hair cut!  Well thank goodness all of the fellows got their hair cut!  And yes I suspect I sound like a curmudgeonly old person but seriously all the shaggy hair from Goblet of Fire was TERRIBLE.  Everybody looks 1000% better.

Other important things?  Daniel Radcliffe does do a really good job of showing us Harry's emotional state.  He makes Harry completely sympathetic while also being...you know...kind of a jerk.  The film also does a good job of portraying the alienation between Harry and his two best friends and how hard they are trying to be there for him.  

The film makes use of a LOT of montages to show all the changes Umbridge is making within a compressed time allotment.  It's an effective way of doing it but perhaps gets used a little too much.  Again, the film struggles to fit everything from the book in and it at least does a little bit better job then movie 4 in capturing the overall feel of the book.

I think the scene that I found to be the emotional climax of the film was different than in the book.  In the book it was the quieter moment in Dumbledore's office and Harry struggling to come to grips with Sirius' loss and Dumbledore reaching out to him.  In the movie it is the confrontation between Dumbledore and Voldemort and particularly the internal struggle Harry has when V tries to possess him.  It's a really well done scene.

Finally, the casting as ever is pretty spot on.  Imelda Stanton as Umbridge is great though she is, perhaps, a tad too nice.  I believe Alan Rickman, though not a new casting, deserves some recognition as perhaps the best piece of casting in the whole series (though Maggie Smith as McGonagle is also pretty perfect).  

FINAL VERDICT:  Better than Goblet of Fire but still losing the battle with effectively transferring the awesomeness of the book to screen.  3 out of 5 Stars. 

Saturdays in the Garden - Country Music and Slumpage

OUTSIDE 

Bear with me - my thoughts this Saturday are a little philosophical.  I had a work-related training last week about communicating conservation.  That likely sounds trite but it is one of the biggest challenges that exists in the field of natural resources.  People don't like to hear the doom and gloom message about all that is being lost and what that might mean for life on this planet and most of us delivering the message are a) not educated in communication and 2) scientists who are uncomfortable presenting anything but facts penned in by numerous caveats which makes us sound like we don't know what we're talking about.  And we are still ignorant about a lot of things; we have only begun to really understand our world and how it is all connected (which is one of the main arguments for conservation - "The first rule of intelligent tinkering - keep all the parts.").  The problem is that "the other side" is just as ignorant but they aren't hampered by the ethical imperative of admitting that ignorance.  But I digress.  A lot. Sorry.

What I wanted to bring up about the training is that the trainer gave us an interesting exercise to describe ourselves, i.e. write our bio, using our natural address.  What natural environment gave rise to who we are today, what experience in the outdoor world drove us to become conservationists.   Everybody in the room read theirs and it was incredibly moving.  Mine was:  "My name is Stephanie Shepherd and my place is on the edge of the Atlantic ocean, vast, unknowable and wild and in the middle of the prairie that somehow reminds me of that ocean."  Whether it drove you to become a natural resources professional or not, I think many of us have this origin story, this sense of natural place, of what inspires us and keeping that in mind and recognizing it can change the view of the natural world and our place in it quite a lot!  So what would your bio look like?

Doggies Love Fall

LIFE

So I went to see Little Big Town in concert last night.  Didn't know I was a Country Music Fan?  Well I'm not, really.  I like older country music and in fact my very first concert ever, at the age of 10, was Willie Nelson (Favorite Song on Favorite Album). Why my dad thought it was a good idea to take his 10 year old daughter to a Willie Nelson concert, I'm not sure - I probably begged to go.  The thing I most remember about it is that there was this gigantic drunk cowboy sitting in front of us that equally fascinated and terrified me.  ANYWAY, basically if it's got an acoustic guitar, some drums and a bass, maybe a little harmonica or piano it's my kind of country music.  Add in a fiddle, banjo and or a mandolin and I get even happier (i.e. I love bluegrass best of all). Electric guitars have no business in country music. None. I had not even heard of Little Big Town before Thursday when my friend asked me to go to the concert with her.  They were decidedly NOT of the old school variety and I suspect my hearing may be permanently impaired (and Hey Kids! Get Off My Lawn!) but it was kind of fun.  I actually enjoyed the openers quite a bit more than the main act particularly the first opener, Cam, who performed with two acoustic guitarists. She had a fantastic voice and appeared to have written all her songs herself which were equally fun and heartfelt.  So how do you feel about country music?  Got any favorites that I should check out?

Little Big Town

WATCHING, READING and BLOGGING

Watching 

Nothing much.

Reading

First, I wanted to mention a nice article on SF Signal that has very short essays from a BUNCH of great authors on what book(s) started their love of Science Fiction and Fantasy literature.  It's a lot of fun.

Finished Last Week:

Not a darn thing.  I am in a bit of a reading and TV show slump at the moment.

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak:  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey: Space Opera!
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I think this book may be suffering under the influence of too much hype.  I like it okay now that I am halfway through but still not craving it.
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater:  The second book in the Raven Cycle which focuses a bit more on the character of Ronan.  Very close to finishing this one!
• Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson (Book #4):  This is becoming a go to cozy historical mystery series for me.  It is the only book I am currently feeling drawn to read.

Added to the TBR:

This is kind of a new thing I may try, listing books that get added to my Goodreads TBR list each week.  Maybe it will help burn them into my mind a little bit better, get them on some other folks TBRs and it will give me a chance to recognize a lot of the awesome bloggers that add stuff to my TBR!

•  Silver on the Road by Laura Ann Gilman: I heard about this just-released Weird Western on SFSignal.com.  The conceit is that the Devil rules the American West and recruits a young woman to be one of his factotums.  This would be a new author for me but I love me some Weird Westerns.
• The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and The Missing Corpse: An Extraordinary Edwardian Case of Deception and Intrigue by Marie Piu Eatwell:  I'm not sure where I saw it but I am pretty sure I was sucked in by the title alone.  I think it's non-fiction?
• Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis:  Added it as a recommendation from Selah at A Bibliophile's Style who encouraged checking out R.C. Lewis if you enjoy Robin McKinley.  I do so I will!

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

SUNDAY:  Re-read of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Thoughts on the book and it's movie after a second reading.
TUESDAY: Review of In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker A mash up of Science Fiction and Historical Fiction which works pretty well but maybe not as much as my high hopes.
THURSDAY: Romance Re-read: Romancing Mr. Bridgerton and One Good Earl Deserves a Lover. Revisiting a couple of romances for very different reasons.

 

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

SUNDAY:  Re-read thoughts about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix plus a re-watch of the movie.
TUESDAY:  This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is about pairing authors you'd like to see write a book together.  This is a pretty intriguing topic and we'll see if I can put together any coherent thoughts on it!
THURSDAY:  This week's Tough Traveling topic is 'Pure Good' about those characters that are never ever bad. The only one that comes immediately to mind is Melanie from Gone With the Wind which isn't exactly SFF.... I'll have to contemplate this one.  Join in if you have some ideas - its a fun meme hosted by Fantasy Review Barn.  Otherwise I will likely post a book review.

Romance Re-Read | Romancing Mr. Bridgerton and One Good Earl...

This is perhaps a somewhat random post.  Last month I got a wild hair to re-read a couple of romance novels: one because I loved it so much and writing a review for it made me want to re-read and one that I read a couple years ago and for which I had high expectations which were dashed and disappointed. Both are beloved by readers in general.  Read on for more if you dare. It does get a little ranty at times and there may be some spoilers though can you really spoil a romance novel? In this case I think you really can  - there is a spoiler for the entire first part of the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn.  You've been warned!

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One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah Maclean

So I literally just posted a review of this book but I mentioned that just writing the review made me want to re-read.  I won't even make you wait in hushed suspense for the verdict. It was still super awesome.  The End.  Okay I have a little more to say about it but not too much more because it really did remain awesome on a second reading.  In fact, it may have improved a little bit.  One of my complaints originally was that reading it so soon after A Rogue by Any Other Name, made Cross seem a little generic and that we didn’t get to see much of his nerdtacularness.  With some distance his sameness to Bourne no longer stood out and there is a little bit more exhibition of the pair’s dorkiness then I remembered.  There is also just not a lot of room in the story to really spend too much time on sciencey goodness which is a crying shame but I have no choice but to forgive because this book owns me. 

I loved Pippa and Jasper a little more the second time around and I appreciated even more the journey they went on.  Pippa’s discomfort at marrying Castleton is so well done. It doesn’t even occur to her that her anxiety and panic are signs (among other signs) that the marriage is not right – for either of them.  Instead she is focused on those elements of marriage that she doesn’t feel she has control over.  As always she tries to bring order to her life by pursuing greater knowledge but when she finds that knowledge all she gets is a whole lot of disorder. Blissful, dreamy disorder.  I love the imagery of a broken heart and how she had always scoffed at this notion as being anatomically ridiculous until it happens to her.  Anyway, I love her.  Also I think the sexy times in this book are some of my all-time favorites. 

FINAL VERDICT: Stands up and remains awesome upon re-read. Yay! :0)

o - O - o

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton By Julia Quinn

I’ve been meaning to re-read this book for a while and was suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to do so.   My reasons for wanting to revisit this book were very different than for One Good Earl.... This book and I have a rocky past. It goes something like this.   I was swimming along in the marvelous Bridgerton series, happy as a sunfish when suddenly this book came along (Book 4).  In the first three books, Colin was by far my favorite Bridgerton (though on the re-read here I developed quite a crush on Hyacinth) and when I read the blurb that he was going to be matched up with Penelope Featherington, the awkward wallflower, I was SO EXCITED!!!  I ADORE the whole popular guy falls for geeky girl trope so hard (hhhmm…I wonder why…) – it’s so clichéd but so awesome.  Safe to say, my excitement for this book was extremely high and ………I ended the book completely disappointed.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t the magical confection I had anticipated. It was a three star read.  I have yet to read another Bridgerton series book since, that’s how deflated I was. 

As a few years have passed, I began to feel the need to re-read, to make sure it wasn’t just my super high expectations that had led to the disappointment.  I think it’s safe to say this book is considered a favorite in the series and a number of book bloggers I admire really liked it.  So in I dived. 

Interestingly (well at least to me), the things I remembered really bothering me, didn’t as much this time – specifically I remember being really annoyed early on at how whiny Colin was and woe is me about his lack of purpose in life.  I was still a little put off by this but was able to empathise a lot more this time and didn’t think it was too emo or out of character for him.  My whole remembered impression of him from this book was as broody and domineering, just like his brothers and not at all like he had been portrayed in the previous books.  The out-of-character issue was still a problem for me but it wasn't his dissatisfaction and questioning of life that was really the problem.  In fact I can pinpoint exactly when the book lost me and became a three star instead of a five star: the carriage ride and proposal.  Colin can be really damn sinister in this book and I really really hated that.  I’m going to write about two scenes in particular and there will be massive spoilers not only for this book but the series so beware! 

First of all just in general, I think Colin’s whole response to the Whistledown thing felt out of character for me.  Up to this point in the series he has been portrayed as witty, extremely good-natured and a bit of an irreverent prankster. He is not overly concerned with society’s rules or its snobbier citizens. Colin should think what Lady Whistledown has done, and the possibility that it is his sister, hilarious and great.  Yet when he suspects it’s his sister Eloise and then finds out it’s Penelope he becomes obsessed and seriously deranged and angry about it.  Even if it is just out of concern for these ladies’ reputations, we are told several times that Colin solves problems with charm and by always knowing the right thing to say - it doesn’t ring true that his response would be autocratic browbeating and saying cruel things aimed to hurt and shame.  Yet that is exactly what he does with both Eloise and Penelope.  Quinn introduces the idea that he feels jealousy at Lady Whistledown's accomplishment and that it is that which is driving his ill humor. However, she also tries to make the case that his losing his temper, which he apparently never does, is a sign that he cares about Penelope.  Okay, but I think Quinn takes him a little far.  The things he says to Penelope are quite cruel.  Then there is this odd switch from really scary anger to “I think you’re the beautifullest” followed by some heavy petting and making out and Penelope just melting like he hadn’t just been berating and belittling her.  THEN, his marriage proposal is just awful.  He doesn’t even really bother to ask Penelope, he just jumps out of the carriage and when Penelope is a little confused by what’s going on states rather irritably “are we getting married or what?” He then charges into her house without waiting for her answer and asks her mother for permission while Penelope just blinks stupidly with stars in her eyes.  While I do love how he sets down her mother, I really hate the rest of this “proposal”.  I wanted to see Penelope wooed and courted properly and Colin is supposed to be the most charming man in Regency England and yet he practically bullies her into marriage with an arrogance that I don’t think his character should have.

The other scene that really bugged me was the engagement ball.  Colin and Penelope are still at odds over the Whistledown papers so when the Whistledown column they were arguing about in the carriage, gets delivered in the midst of their ball, Colin is understandably upset. However again his response borders on abuse. He drags Penelope (bruising her arm) up in front of their crowd of guests for the official toast by his brother and then forces her in front of the crowd to drink a glass of champagne by holding it to her mouth and not taking it away until she has drunk it all.  It is hugely disturbing, cruel and controlling.  He then drags her off to a bedroom where there is some more berating and belittling before another abrupt change into loving, kind Colin after which he lays her down and makes sweet sweet love to her for the first time.  It’s completely wacko.  Again, we are supposed to see the anger as evidence that he truly cares for her, the problem is that the way he displays that anger is seriously inappropriate.  I think he is written too harshly and it does not jive with how he had been been described or written in the other books.  

So my conclusion is that it stays at 3 stars which means, I liked it.  Despite Colin morphing into the autocratic Alpha male character I despise and the two pretty atrocious scenes above, there was still a lot about the book I liked.  Lots of witty banter and as I mentioned above my previously unrealized love for Hyacinth which is pushing me towards finishing the Bridgerton series.  I was also able to appreciate Colin’s search for more purpose in his life much more this time around so there’s that I suppose.

FINAL VERDICT:  Still disappointed and perhaps even a little more so upon a re-read. Boo. :0( At least now I know it wasn't just my high expectations that scuppered the book for me.

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So have you ever re-read a book hoping you were too hard on it the first time around?  If so how'd that go for you?  How about books by authors you like with premises that are to die for...that just fizzle and don't work?  Why do the books torture us so?

REVIEW | In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

Publication Year: 1997
Genre: Fantasy, Historical
Series: The Company #1
Awards: None
Format: Paperback
Narrator: NA

Why?:  It's about cyborgs in Tudor England.  It's like Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction had a baby.  Need I say more?

As is explained right up front In the Garden of Iden, The Company is a corporation, formed sometime in our far future, that has figured out the mystery of time travel.  They have, of course, used this knowledge to make themselves very rich, by sending operatives to "save" extinct organisms, culture, etc... from the past and then reaping the benefits by revealing the continued existence of these thought-to-be-extinct things in their present.  The operatives are not, as you might imagine, future dwellers sent back but are actually children recruited in the far past time, trained, and turned into cyborgs so they are essentially immortal.  They live their long lives working for The Company saving items in their specialty and trying to blend in with, while being contemptuous of, the mortals around them.

The Company operative that narrates In the Garden of Iden is Mendoza, recruited as a 5 year old peasant girl in Inquisition run Spain in the early sixteenth century.  After being thoroughly trained and altered by the company at a hidden facility in 16th century Australia she emerges as a young  botanist, ready for her first assignment.  She will be working as part of a team being deployed to England just after Queen Mary has taken the throne.  Mendoza's team will be working at a manor house owned by Walter Iden that has a spectacular garden with all kinds of rare plants that are extinct in the future.  Mendoza's job is to collect cuttings of all of them so they can be reborn in the future. 

This book has such a terrific premise.  The immortals are brought up and trained in the technology and culture of the future in The Company's hidden facilities around the world. They are people of that past time or of an earlier time but they are steeped in technology and trained to know all that happens in history.  They go into their assignments like an embedded anthropologist, trying to blend in with the current culture, so they are not just scientists but also historians and actors.  All the implants they have been augmented with make them inhumanly smart which in turn makes them arrogant and a little disgusted by the mortals they must interact with during their assignments.  They are playing a constant game of trying to hide their strangeness and blend in while achieving their goals and NOT getting entangled with the mortals they encounter.  Guess what?  In this book some entangling happens.

The book is written as if Mendoza is writing the story many years after the events have occurred.  As many young people fresh out of school and particularly bright, she is cocky and has been so sheltered that she is really unprepared when not only does she not find all the mortals she meets contemptible, dirty and stupid but she actually very much likes the garden owner's factotum, Nicholas Harpole.  As usually happens, feelings complicate everything.

So what do I think?  The premise, despite being very very cool and pretty well executed, did not work for me as I hoped.  The historical fiction aspects of the book were fantastic and Baker did a great job creating a believable Tudor household and weaving in the futuristic elements introduced by the cyborgs. If you are at all interested in the politics, particularly of the religious variety, of Tudor England, this topic is dealt with heavily and well. 

The problem for me really lay with the cyborgs, that is to say the characters.  The way they are imagined is likely pretty realistic but it doesn't make them terribly sympathtic or interesting after their initial introduction.  Mendoza's voice is caustic and cynical, just shy of being dislikeable.  Mendoza's boss on the mission, Joseph, was the immortal I found the most interesting and I would have liked to explore his Point of View but the story stays firmly with Mendoza.  The story, despite being about time traveling cyborgs, is actually pretty quiet, without a lot of action, which isn't a bad thing but wasn't entirely what I was in the mood for.  The two things together made for a mildly dull read. 

However, the book has stayed with me more than others I have read lately - it made an impression.  I do want to continue with the series (there look to be about 12 books?); book two appears to be about Joseph in fact so I am interested to learn more about him! 


FINAL VERDICT:  If you like a good genre mash up you will certainly appreciate this book though it was not quite as exciting an adventure as I'd hoped.  3 out of 5 stars.

Other Opinions Do Exist: SF Site | The Eyrie | NESFA

RE-READ: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

From my first read of Harry Potter many years ago, this was my favorite book in the series and I think it’s easy to see why.   It’s the first chunkster of the series at 734 pages and so much happens in those pages.  There’s the Quidditch World Cup, and the Tri-wizard Tournament which introduces other magical schools and a whole wider world of wizarding.  This is also the book where things get real.  At my local library this is the book where the series starts getting shelved in Young Adult rather than children’s fiction.  The death of Cedric Diggory was shocking and devastating on my first read.  Rowling lets us get to know him and we like him.  He's a good and decent person and young, the apple of his father’s eye and then he is dead.  People say George R.R. Martin isn’t afraid of killing people but Rowling in her way is just as brutal. And of course Harry meets the real LIVE Voldemort in person for the first time and the struggle he is up against becomes very real as well.  So this book represents a definite turning point for the series on top of all the adventure and happy mayhem.   It will be interesting to me to see if it holds onto the top spot by the end of my re-read. 

THOUGHTS
- As I mentioned this is where the books start getting longer.  It feels like the books were popular enough at this point that the publishers were like "J.K., you write as long a book as you like!"  I am perfectly happy with this, though there is at least one book of the last 4 four that could have used a little heavy editing. 

-Characters introduced:  Rita Skeeter, Madame Maxine, Karkaroff, Victor Krumm, Barty Crouch, Mad-eye Moody, Fleur DelaCouer

- My re-read is seriously making me dislike the character of Ron and wonder why on EARTH J.K. put him and Hermione together?  He's not a bad friend to Harry despite his petulant jealousy in this book but he could not be less supportive of anything Hermione does and is constantly sniping at her.   Most of the arguing he and Hermione do in this book isn't even in a “I like you and don’t know how to express it way” but frequently in an annoyed or patronizing way.  He says things like “They enjoy being enslaved” about the house elves which how am I supposed to like him after that (not that anyone is much better)?  In this installment he is also so shallowly obsessed with appearances and fame (Victor and Fleur).  Basically he’s an idiot and perhaps relatively typical for a 14 year old boy but Jeez! 

- Speaking of Ron being a jerk, there is he and Harry’s fall out.  While Ron's feelings and behaviors are immature, the issue of what it is like being Harry Potter's best friend really needed to be addressed.  It's amazing that no jealousy has flared up before quite frankly.  Being Harry's best friend can't be easy for Ron and for that matter he kind of floats in the shadow of both Harry and Hermione so it was only a matter of time before he rebelled.  It was a good way to get it out of the way.   

-S.P.E.W.:  This is a really problematic story line for me mostly because NO ONE thinks what Hermione is doing makes sense – not even folks like Hagrid.  Ron is openly disgusted by it.  Hermione is not trying to take away the house elves work, she is simply saying that they should be rewarded for that work as any human would be.  I get that most folks, out of guilt or shame, may avoid dealing with it but folks like Ron, Hagrid, Fred and George are openly derisive and hostile to the idea  and there is no resolution in this book.  There are a lot of story lines in this book and this didn’t really serve any purpose besides giving Hermione something to do and making everyone else look like gigantic assholes.  I honestly can't remember where this ends up going in the series  - I'm sure J.K. isn't making a case for slavery - so I guess I will re-visit later in the series.  I was just really surprised how little support Hermione gets for her campaign.

- I am very curious about the sorting hat and which houses people get put into.  Hermione, while she certainly is brave, is equally clever - so why not Ravenclaw?

- I love  how the character of Neville develops and that in some ways his story is harder and more heartbreaking than Harry’s.  Harry also has to face how unfair he has been to Neville - never asking him about himself and his family and not even thinking about seeking his help with any of the tasks.  
- Floods of tears at the end of this one. Just floods.  The loss of Cedric, the betrayal/overall douchebaggery of Fudge, Fawk's and Mrs. Weasley’s sympathy and compassion for Harry and the Weasleys wanting to take Harry in, Snape’s unflinching readiness to do something completely dangerous and terrifying (this is more apparent on a re-read, knowing what he is agreeing to), the standing cheers for Diggory and the tough talk that Dumbledore gives the students.*sobs*

- Jim Dale’s reading was particularly good for this book.  Although he does pronounce certain names oddly like  - "Uh-Lester" instead of "Al-i-Ster" Moody.

FINAL VERDICT:  I still really love this book and can't imagine it being rousted from the top spot.  It effectively marries the lighter more charming tone of the earlier books with the grimmer more serious tone of the later books.  Plus, I love the tri-wizard tournament stuff and Voldemort's return is suitably dramatic and emotional.  5 out of  5 stars!

**************

THE MOVIE

So I feel for the filmmakers on this one.  This is a long book and there is so much that happens.  Trying to fit all of it in a 2.5 hour film must have been a real challenge.  I'm sorry to say that with this particular film they did not meet the challenge.  It's not a very good movie, at least for someone who is a fan of and has just read the book.  It's choppy and too condensed so that it misses out on a lot of what makes the book so fantastic.  There are also some changes that don't make a lot of sense to me like turning Beaux Baton and Durmstrang into single sex schools which serves no purpose besides perhaps allowing for the dramatic entrances of the schools' students.  They also added a couple of small things which I liked because they give Neville some color (dance lessons and him coming in from the dance late) but which seems indulgent when they're cutting and slashing everywhere else.  It makes me covet a Harry Potter TV series.  The first few books may only need a 3-4 episode series but once you get to Goblet of Fire you could have a 10 episode series that would really give the book room to come to life. 

I'm not sure I have anything else very profound to say about the movie except to outline all the things I wish had been included.  There's no Ludo Bagman, no Bill or Charlie Weasley, no Percy Weasley for that matter, no Dobby or Winky.  They completely change the Barty Crouch and junior story line and I'm not sure it works as well as in the book.  All the boys in the film inexplicably have really long shabby, unkempt hair - no idea why.  Emma Watson's acting is back to being a little stilted and forced after I thought she had improved in Prisoner of Azkaban.

There are a few things that I liked of course.  Viktor Krum is quite a bit more attractive than how he is described in the books which makes me happy for Hermione.  She deserves to be coveted by hot boys:0).  The scene when Harry comes back with Cedric after the third task is well done; very emotional and effective.  It's fun seeing Robert Pattinson and David Tennant before they were quite the thing.  


FINAL VERDICT:  Being that this is my favorite book of the series, this movie was perhaps always destined to not work for me.  The movie struggles to handle all the books content and doesn't quite succeed in capturing the magic of the book.  3 out of 5 stars.

Saturdays in the Garden - Screw Ennui

OUTSIDE

It's October!  There is a LOT that goes on in the garden this month and it can, in fact, be a little stressful especially if you live somewhere that winter can come on anytime and is miserably cold and snowy.  Like Iowa.  The A Way to Garden blog does a great monthly garden chores post. I particularly love the number one item on her list:

1. Leave especially ornamental or wildlife-friendly plants standing. Don’t act as if you’re vacuuming the living room; clean up beds tactically for maximum enjoyment by you and the birds.

Most garden to do lists for preparing for winter will encourage the gleeful removal of all dead vegetation.  It is certainly important to do this for any diseased plants but for everything else? As long as you're not too type A? Just leave it until spring.  There are so many living things that use that dead and dormant vegetation to get through the winter and many of them may even be helpful to you come next garden season (like loads of beneficial insects). Just leave it. And take the time you saved to go have a piece of cake to console yourself that winter is coming.

So what's going on here?  We've had some chilly nights but no frost yet so I'm still harvesting some tomatoes, peppers, a last few green beans and some gargantuan carrots!  I finally grew normal sized carrots! It's a garden miracle!  I need to harvest and process the kale and chard for storing as there is a good crop of those.  There are even a couple of plants still flowering - marigolds and a pretty aster that I don't know the name of and have no idea where it came from. Those are the best kinds of plants.  I'm hoping that some radishes and sugar snap peas I planted in early August will bear fruit but I think I will run out of time.  Finally I need to start thinking about planting my garlic and have pulled out a few of the bigger heads from the harvest for re-planting.

LIFE

Though I'm afraid to jinx it by mentioning it, I think I am coming out of a mild case of depression that's been plaguing me the last 3-4 months or so.  It hasn't been debilitating, I've just been unmotivated and uninterested in almost everything.  The word that keeps coming to mind is Ennui which is French and pretentious but in my mind it seems to perfectly encapsulate the mixture of boredom and mild despair I've been feeling lately.  Listlessness and just wishing something, anything, would happen. The change in season has helped as has being home again.  I've also decided that while I need to continue my work towards some of my longer term goals, I also need to bring some activity and excitement into the short term.  One thing I'd like to do is start doing some traveling again.  I love to travel and never do it anymore mostly because of cost and it being hard to get away from work.  Well screw all that.  Life's too short.  I'm not going to be irresponsible but it also doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put things off.  Honestly I'm not sure I shouldn't feel lucky to have such first world "problems". 

So are you a cheerful personality who never has an attack of the doldrums or do you wrestle occasionally with periods of lower spirits that seem to come out of nowhere?  What usually pulls you out of it if anything?    Finally, If you could travel somewhere and were trying to go easy on the pocketbook where would you go?


WATCHING, READING, and BLOGGING

Watching

I finished up my binge watch of Longmire Season 4 last weekend and was....super disappointed.  I haven't really wanted to watch anything since as if all TV has been tainted by unmet expectations:0).

Some friends and I had a girls night last night and one of the women's husbands very kindly picked out a few movies for us to watch.  We picked Serena (2014) which he pitched as a romance.  Ummm..... I guess it's a romance if highly dysfunctional relationships in depression era North Carolina are your thing?  Despite a pretty stellar cast (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Toby Stephens, Rhys Ifans) it was terrible.  The nicest thing I can say about it, is that it was a perfect movie to watch and tear apart with friends!

Reading 

Finished Last Week:

•  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling:  On the downhill portion of my Harry Potter re-read.  I think this book is going to be the one about which my opinion changes the most from first to second read. 

Currently Reading:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: So maybe some day I'll pick this up again?  Until then it will sit here on the currently read and look encouraging.
• The Founding (The Morland Dynasty #1) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: This is the first book in a series that follows a single British family through numerous generations into modern times.  This first book takes place in the early 15th century.  This is such a fascinating idea and I have high hopes but I have to say the characters in this first book are shallow and are doing nothing for me.
• Of Noble Birth by Brenda Novak:  Despite the presence of pirates it is not making me happy mostly because of deficient humor and boring main characters. 
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey: Space Opera!
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I think this book may be suffering under the influence of too much hype.  I like it thus far (about 1/4 in I'd guess) but I don't feel gushy about it and am definitely not craving it.
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater:  The second book in the Raven Cycle which focuses a bit more on the character of Ronan.

Blogging 

On the BLOG LAST WEEK:

I posted stuff - go me!

TUESDAY:  Review of Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter  I really liked this book about modern feminism and work culture.
WEDNESDAY: Review of Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor I loved this YA book about a young witch in Nigeria.

 

On the BLOG NEXT WEEK:

SUNDAY:  Re-read thoughts about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire plus re-watch of the movie.
TUESDAY:  This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is all about quitting which seems a bit of a downer.  I'll either post on this OR I may post a book review of one of the 25 books I have as a backlog because one of the things I want to quit is procrastinating writing reviews!
THURSDAY:  This week's Tough Traveling topic is Creative Cursing which is awesome but since this is the kind of detail I NEVER remember about a book (though two TV shows and one book come immediately to mind) I may just have to enjoy everyone elses' lists.  Join in if you have some ideas - its a fun meme hosted by Fantasy Review Barn.

REVIEW: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Year: 2011
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Series: Akata Witch #1
Awards: None
Format: Hardback (from Library)
Narrator: NA

Why?:  Ever since reading a review of one of her newer adult novels Lagoon, I’ve wanted to give her books a read.  My library doesn’t have Lagoon (sadly) so I picked up Akata Witch (happily).  Yay me!

This book starts with a young girl seeing the end of the world in a candle flame.  She is so surprised and sucked in that she burns most of her hair off before she notices it. She is Sunny, a 12 year old Nigerian-American girl who was born and spent the first nine years of her life in America before her family moved back to Nigeria. She has two obnoxious brothers and conservative educated parents and she’s also an Albino.  While this hasn’t made life easy for Sunny, it has made her sensible and tough.  Shortly after her vision of the end of the world, she makes a couple of new friends, Orlu and Chichi.  Little does she know that they are about to open up a whole new world to her, because Sunny? Is a witch.  Unlike Orlu and Chichi whose parents are also magical and who have brought them up in the culture, Sunny has no idea and even though magic is hereditary neither of her strait-laced parents even recognizes its existence. Soon after Sunny’s initiation and the beginning of training, a fourth is added to the group of friends – Sasha a slightly older Nigerian-American who was getting in trouble back in the states resulting in his parents sending him away.  The four form a group with magical significance, which means they are destined to do great things together.

I loved this book. If the above description strikes a familiar note and perhaps conjures up a vision of a boy wizard with untidy black hair and a scar, you will have recognized that Akata Witch takes advantage of some well worn tropes. While it is as delightful as Harry Potter, it most certainly goes its own way, based in African culture and myth.  Basically if you enjoyed the Harry Potter books you will undoubtedly enjoy Akata Witch but you will also be continually surprised.

Sunny is a brilliant protagonist whose reactions to all the craziness around her are just as they should be.  All four children feel very real but my major affinity was with Orlu and Sunny.  They are the uptight rule followers – they’re brave and will break rules when necessary but they aren’t reckless or thoughtless.  Being a total goody-goody myself I really appreciated them:).  ChiChi and Sasha are the reckless free spirits and though I should have been annoyed by them I never was as they are also caring, kind and just a teeny bit eccentric.

The book uses the trope of a small magic community completely hidden within a much larger non-magical world and population and as Sunny is introduced into this secret world so is the reader.  The magic and the community around it is effortlessly imaginative without ever being over the top.  For the most part it feels very down to earth, gritty and real. It’s wondrous and familiar all at once.  And not without dangers.  I was curious at first why a book with a twelve year old protagonist was classified YA rather than middle-grade but it doesn’t take much reading into the book to realize why.  The danger they face is dark and the magic they do is sometimes not pretty.

FINAL VERDICT: Very enjoyable YA read with a distinctive atmosphere about young witches and wizards taking on a great evil.  It has characters that are easy to believe in and care about and a magic system and magical community that is imaginative and fun to be immersed in. Fans of Harry Potter should love this one! 4 out of 5 stars.    

Don't just take my word for it - Other Reviews: GeekDad | Jim C. Hines | Odinani