Sunday, December 11, 2016

Top 10 Books I Hated in School

Hi book lovers!
I'm incredibly grateful for all the support my teachers have given me over the years, especially my English teachers who fostered a love of reading and learning in me. Despite their best efforts, there are some books school kind of ruined for me. This is a list of these book. The list is ranked, they get worse as we go along.
Video version of this blog is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhghsuJ6jdg&t=2s

#10. The Red Badge of Courage.

When I was 15, I read this book straight through in one night, not because I had great interest, but because I had forgotten I had a quiz on the next day. That, in and of itself, is never a recipe for fun reading. We hadn’t had any classes on the book yet, we were supposed to read it first and we’d be quizzed to see if we truly read it,and not just sparknotes. It’s about this teenage guy who was a soldier in the Union army in the US Civil War and he deserts during battle and he feels bad about himself. And he struggles to accept his duty as a soldier. This book is fairly low on plot and plumbs the psychology of the main character. I became frustrated that I was being quizzed on plot and yet there wasn’t a lot of plot. The main character’s name is Henry, but he’s constantly referred to as “The Youth” and the dialogue is written in a really strong dialect.  The first line of dialogue in the book is "We're goin' t' move t'morrah--sure," and it’s just more of that for another 200 pages. The dialogue takes awhile to read through and combined with the fact that I read this very quickly for a test, I didn’t connect with this book.  


#9. Ethan Frome

So, for the same high school English class as The Red Badge of Courage, We had to read a certain number of extra books each semester, books that weren’t being taught, but you had to read them and you would be tested on what happened in the story. And actually it wasn’t the number of books we read, we had to read a certain number of pages of classic literature. And there was a list of classic books that we could choose from. It was near the end of the term and I had less than 100 pages left that I had to read that semester, so I picked the shortest book on the list, which to begin with is NOT a good reason to read a book, and that book was Ethan Frome. It was May, I was a vivacious teenager who was mentally done with school and dreaming about summer break and this bleak story set in the dead of winter in isolated rural New England was total misery. The characters are passive aggressive, suicidal and anxiety rideen nad. Again, the book is more psychological and does a very thorough job of establishing the setting and the feel of the place, and it’s pacing is slow. It’s low on plot, which isn’t necesarily bad, but it makes for a difficult read when you’re a high schooler who’s in a bit of a rush to finish the book. I could not get out of frozen, isolated Starkfield Massachusetts fast enough. There is a crazy twist at the end of this book, but it wasn’t enough to save it from making this list.

#8 Beowulf

I read this college. And my professor gave me the essay topic to compare the really, really ancient English, NOT Shakespeare English. Like this: "HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon." Do you understand that? Yeah, me neither.  My professor had everyone go to her office hours to meet about one of our term papers, and the topic she gave me involved a comparison of the ancient English and the modern version of Beowulf. I didn’t get a good grade, and anytime I hear the word Beowulf my stomach clenches.
#7 Ulysses by James Joyce

Also for college, I had to read Ulysses, which is massive tome that entirely takes place in one day,June 16, 1904. I was struggling to connect with it. For me, it was slough mostly due Joyce’s meandering writing style, and I shared that with some of my classmates when we were talking about it.   And the thing about some literature students, is that their self esteem comes from knowing more about literature than everyone else. And that’s the group of people I happened to be talking to.  One girl actually told me I needed to drop the class if I didn’t understand Ulysses and asked if I came from a bad high school. Thanks guys, thanks.

#6 Oedipus Rex
So, two days before my Enlgish AP exam in high school, my teacher told me I needed to read Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, which was really bad advice.  Oedipus Rex is the famous Greek Tragedy where the main character kills his dad and has sex with his mom. Anyway, I was told to read this right before my AP exam, because it was sure to be on there, so instead of studying intelligently for my AP exam with a more general approach or with practice tests I was frantically reading Sophocles.  I now associate this book with the stress of that AP exam. By the way, nothing by Sophocles was on there.

#5 Animal Farm

My eighth grade teacher read this book out loud to us. The entire book. She read it in a strange, high pitched singing voice. Imagine sitting at an uncomfortable desk in a cold classroom, underneath buzzing florescent lights, listening to a woman with an amateur singing voice, sing Animal Farm at you. I think you’d hate Animal Farm too. It’s still beyond me why she wouldn’t just rent the audiobook from the library, or since she did this every year, just buy the audiobook.

#4 Romeo and Juliet

Same eighth grade class, I sat in the desk behind my middle school crush. We talked to each other and laughed constantly about … god knows what. And one day, halfway through a lecture about Romeo and Juliet that I wasn’t paying attention to, the boy and I got into a lot of trouble because he did something really goofy to make me laugh, and I couldn’t stop laughing. And the more I laughed, the more he laughed. And we’d both gotten in trouble before. Like, quite a bit I think, actually, for talking, but this time we really got in trouble because I had to switch seats with someone at the other end of the classroom.  And I had to spend  an extra period in the library copying Act I of Romeo and Juliet by hand. And to top it all off, by the next week my crush just started goofing off with a different girl who sat close to him.  Anytime I think about Romeo and Juliet, all I can think about is the misery of copying all of Act I by hand. All the middle school drama I associate with this play is pretty appropriate actually, since Juliet was only 13 when she committed mutual suicide with Romeo.

#3 The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

Okay, I had to read this book in college. It’s not a book, it’s an epic poem. And it’s the epic poem that never ends. It’s an allegory that’s supposed to be about how to live your life, and how to pursue certain Christian virtues . It came across as political diatribe, that promotes the Queen of England, and blames the Catholic Church for much of the evils in the world.  Overall, I had a really hard time connecting with this book. To make matters worse, I had the flu the week that I had to read this. I was soooo miserable. I had a massive headache, I couldn’t breathe out my nose, I had a fever, I was a hot mess. All I wanted to do was sleep, but instead, I was staying up past midnight several nights in a row to pass a test on to this gargantuan epic poem The Faerie Queene. I was so sick, that I slept through two alarms and missed the quiz. My professor let me take it, but automatically dropped my score by one letter grade. I associate the Faeire Queen with Elizabethan propaganda, the flu, and bad grades.

#2 The Stranger by Albert Camus

So, I complained earlier about the problem of testing for plot when the book isn’t driven by plot. But this book, is by far, far and away the worst offender. Our teacher did try to talk some about the book being a commentary on how humanity focused on immediate, basic needs such as food and being comfortable, but that little nugget was not worth the experience of reading this book. The Stranger just seemed like an argument for the meaninglessness of life, and I really think high school is too young to read this book. Unless you’re a high-schooler who has a lot of exposure to modern philosophy, just... no.

Most of these books I’ve somewhat come around on. But I’m actually still a little bit confused by The Stranger, because the main turning point of the book is the narrator choking a priest and accepting the indifference of an entirely physical world with no afterlife. It’s like we’re supposed to be happy for him, but the narrator is also a genuinely terrible person whose worldview leads him kills other people without emotion.

#1 The Return of the Native

My number one hated book. We made it guys! The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.   The year I was introduced to this book, I was in high school, and I had a teacher who had not taught this course before.  She was new and she didn’t know how to pace the course. We spend three MONTHS. MONTHS. Just on this book.  Way too long. Like, ten weeks too long.  Three months of hearing that the heath is a character and listening to my classmates complain about how annoying Eustacia Vye is and taking copious vocabulary quizzes on words in every chapter.  And all of this was interspersed with tangents about my teacher’s pet peeves of which there was never any shortage. When we finally finished with this book, I never wanted to hear about it again.  

So those are my top ten books that I hated in school. I’d love to know down below which books the school system has ruined for you.  I want to end this video by sincerely thanking all of my teachers, especially my English teachers, because even though there were a few times that didn’t work out so well, on the whole, you instilled a love for reading and a love for learning in me for which I am incredibly grateful. 💗


Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Fall Time Cozy Time Book Tag!

Thanks to Book Roast for tagging me! I posted this on the first day it snowed, so a little late.  Autumn technically goes until December 20th, right? 
You can see the video blog here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rEZnSixk0Y

1. Crunching Leaves: The world is full of color – choose a book that had reds/oranges/yellows on the cover.
The Healthy College Cookbook by Alexandra Nimetz

2. Cozy Sweater – It’s finally cold enough to don warm cozy clothing: what book gives you the warm fuzzies?
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter 




3. Fall Storm: The wind is howling & the rain is pounding – choose your favorite book OR genre that you like to read on a stormy day.
The National Parks An Illustrated History 100 Years of American Splendor by Kim Heacox

4. Cool Crisp Air: What’s the coolest character you’d want to trade places with?
Mowlgi from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book



5. Hot Apple Cider: What under hyped book do you want to see become the next biggest, hottest thing? 
Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath

6. Coat, Scarves, and Mittens – The weather has turned cold & it’s time to cover up – What’s
the most embarrassing book cover you own that you like to keep hidden in public?
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

7. Pumpkin Spice: What’s your favorite Fall time comforts food/foods?
Macaroni and cheese! I have the best recipe ever for macaroni and cheese, which is...

3 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 pound processed (Velveeta) cheese
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 
1  3/4 cups milk
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs 
Cook the macaroni according to package instructions. Stir all ingredients into slow cooker. Cook on low for 3 hours & enjoy 



Again, THANK YOU to Book Roast for the tag! You can check out her lovely video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syoe44IqUgE&t=215s 

I TAG 
Book Your Imagination https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW6R5Ip42InfMHMC2pGwGzg
Biblioaddict 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3EJA7EtuGsji8B74Hou4iw
Reading In The Making 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7b_LQtXgn1oaxfeo1jVug

Welcome to some booktube newbies! I tag you too.
Wordfeast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YzLqfgfL58 
BooksMichelle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWQFusCZOuk
Emmasbookishlifestyle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkgyLhZ4gN4
AshTheReaderAssassin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PngZs37FPvQ

Friday, November 11, 2016

The Best Nonfiction of 2016

Happy Nonfiction November!
To celebrate, I’m sharing the best nonfiction books of the 2016.  It is the middle of November, so there’s still 6 weeks or so for new books to come out.  In January I will be doing a huge wrap up posts for the best books of 2016 with all combined genres, so if I miss any standout nonfiction entries between now and the end of the year, I will include them in there. There are no rules here! This is really just what nonfiction I liked in no particular order.
So let’s get on with it. Vlog version available here:
  1. Narconomics: How to Run A Drug Cartel by Tom Wainwright

    1. Released in February 2016
    2. 4.5 stars on Amazon
    3. Narconomics is a solutions oriented book that covers the topic of the illegal narcotics trade from an economic perspective. NPR did a great interview with the author, and I’ll link it down below if you’re interested in checking it out. The author spent three years in the Andes mountains and Central America and Mexico as a journalist researching and reporting on the production and the brutal supply chain of cocaine. Wainwright describes the book as a how to manual on both running a drug cartel, and stopping a drug cartel.
  2. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach

    1. Released in June 2016
    2. 4.5 stars on Amazon
    3. I never think about military science as humorous, but this book about military science, is hilarious. Mary Roach already written numerous other books, Gulp, My Planet, Spook, Packing for Mars… And Mary Roach has created quite the reputation for herself as a comedic science writer. This book covers topics that are huge issues for militari to deal with, but that you normally wouldn’t think about.  These include the issue of hearing over military noise, flies on the battlefield, shark repellant, and an entire chapter dedicated to exploring diarrhea as a threat to national security.
  3. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

    1. Released in May 2016
    2. 5 stars on Amazon
    3. This author won a Pulitzer Prize-winning for writing a book called The Emperor of All Maladie. a magnificent history of the gene and a response to the defining question of the future: What becomes of being human when we learn to “read” and “write” our own genetic information?
    4. The first part of this book is a sweeping history of genetics and the scientists who moved our understanding forward. The second half is a meditation on what studying the gene means for human biology and medicine. The author uses a lot of personal stories, and it’s very informative, but it’s accessible to people who don’t have a strong background in science.
  4. A History of American Sports in 100 Objects

    1. October 2016
    2. By Cait Murphy
    3. The title of the book is pretty self explanatory.  Murphy selected 100 objects she feels best represents the story of American sports.  I really enjoyed this, I thought it was a fun and engaging way to cover a huge breadth of information under the umbrella of American sports.  And with the pictures of each object, the read gets to see the history as well as read about it. The objects are ordered chronologically,
    4. The book starts with a statue of a chunkey player from around the year 1100,  Who knew Native Americans played a game called chunkey that involved rolling a stone disc with sticks? I didn’t know.
    5. The book ends with the CTE-Related Brain Scans and discusses the issue that has evolved around the serious brain damage that can come with with repeated blows to the head from playing football.  If you saw the movie Concussion, that does a great job of telling the story about this issue.

5) Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics

  • Released in October 2016
  • 5 out of 5 on Amazon
  • I love books with pictures! This is a book that features the gritty history of 100 of history’s most compelling women. The book features heroines from all over the world and across millennia. Each heroine has a full page color drawing and 2-3 pages of written context about her story.  Despite the illustrations, this book contains adult content.

6) The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman

  • Released in May 2016
  • 4.5 Stars on Amazon
  • This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a collection of nonfiction speeches, front matter, notes, essays, and the occasional tribute to individuals both living and dead. Neil Gaiman is a very diverse writer.  He’s written novels, comic books, and screenplays. And in this book, Neil Gaiman is funny as always, and he has a way of framing ideas that makes them thought-provoking and interesting. This book is full of quotable bits of brain candy. This is the kind of book that you finish and then months, years later you find yourself wanting to go back and reread certain passages from the book.

7) Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

  • 4.5 Stars on Amazon
  • Released in September 2016
  • This is a book about Bruce Springsteen by Bruce Springsteen.  If you love his music or if you enjoy memoirs, you’ve gotta get this. Springsteen talks about his earliest memories, his current inspiration, and everything inbetween.  He delves into his and his family’s struggles with mental health including depression, anxiety and paranoia. He’s honest about his huge ego, and he opens up about his first marriage and conflicts with band members.  It was a very interesting read.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

What I'm Reading for Banned Books Week

Celebrating the Freedom to Read: September 25- October 1, 2016

HELLOOOO friends, today marks the beginning of banned book week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Caz with http://www.littlebookowl.com/ is hosting a banned book read-a-thon. And I will be hosting a banned book reading sprint on Twitter from 6-9pm on Wednesday evening eastern daylight time. If you're not familiar, a reading sprint is when a group of people intentionally set aside a specific time to focus on reading. I very much hope you will be able to "sprint" with me this coming Wednesday. If you choose to accept this challenge, I will be live Tweeting during the event @BrittanygReads and using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek

Without further ado, here are the books I will be reading this week and the reasons they have been been challenged. 

1. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 

Up and coming author Kate Chopin entire sacrificed her writing career to bring us The Awakening. Widely considered a feminist classic and on many required reading lists today, the book was censored when first published in 1899 and banished for decades until being rediscovered in the 1960's. The Awakening has been called "morbid, vulgar, disagreeable, and scandalous". 


2. To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird received the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Though it has been called classic literature, the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, still remains frequently challenged. Profanity, racial content, and rape references have led people to challenge this book to be removed from classrooms and libraries.


3. Harry Potter and The Sourcer's Stone
In 2012 the American Library Association said the Harry Potter books were the most frequently banned books in America. Banned for content related to witchcraft and sorcery, including detailed depictions of potions and other hocus pocus - Harry is alright with me. 


4. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 

A stunningly beautiful novel about a horrific experience in and escape from slavery in Kentucky. And a gut wrenching topic of whether or not there is ever a good enough reason for a mother to kill her own child. Reasons for attempted bans on this book include sexual material, violence, bestiality, language, and other"inappropriate topics". This book has been challenged in classrooms across the country, but the only school where it was successfully banned was... Kentucky. 


5. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Published in 1952 and immediately considered a masterpiece, Invisible Man has been banned from schools for language and sexual content. The book addresses many issues facing African-Americans during the early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism and the relationship between black identity and Marxism.

I do hope you'll be able to join me this Wednesday for a reading sprint.  Please post your favorite banned books down below!



Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Why Ben-Hur Is an Important Book

First, What is Ben-Hur?

The full title of the book is Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Despite including the phrase "A Tale of the Christ" in it's title, Jesus Christ is only in a few chapters. Ben-Hur is mostly a story about the spiritual change in a Jewish prince named Judah Ben-Hur who is betrayed by his adopted Roman brother Messala.  Ben-Hur lived during the same time as Jesus Christ, and their lives cross paths a few times Based on the auto-fills on my Google searches for Ben-Hur, many people seem confused about whether or not Ben-Hur is based on a true story.
Ben-Hur is an entirely fictional person invented by author Lew Wallace in the 1870's. Although, I get why people might be a little confused, because Ben-Hur includes minor characters who are actually in the Bible and greatly expands their narratives. Essentially,  Ben-Hur is biblical fan fiction.

For example Wallace gives the names Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar to the wise men from the east mentioned in Matthew chapter 2. Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar become important characters throughout the book. Balthasar goes on to witness Christ's execution beside Ben-Hur, and Ben-Hur becomes the man mentioned briefly in Matthew 27:48 who offers Jesus wine on a sponge as he hangs on the cross. Pontius Pilate, who infamously washed his hands clean from Jesus's crucifixion sentencing, releases Ben-Hur's mother and sister from prison.

So it's Biblical fiction... does that make it important?  
No, not really. When Ben-Hur was written, biblical fiction was pretty common. Some of the most popular biblical fiction from the 1800's includes Scenes in Judea and The Prince of the House of David. But hardly anyone today has heard of these other biblical fiction books, so what set Ben-Hur apart?

Movies

Ben-Hur has had multiple film adaptations including 1907, 1925, 1959 and 2016.  I realize mentioning the film adaptations is tangential to explaining why Ben-Hur is an important book. but I can't pretend the films don't play a huge role in the staying power of the Ben-Hur story. The 1959 re-make especially helped cement the story of Ben-Hur in cinematic history. The 1959 version of the film had the largest budget and the largest sets of any film ever produced at the time. At the 1960 Academy Awards, Ben-Hur swept 11 categories including best picture, best director, best actor and best supporting actor. As of 2016, no film has ever beaten Ben-Hur's 1960 record of 11 Oscars (Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King have both matched it).  Anyways, the success of the 1959 re-make probably has a lot to do with why you've probably heard of Ben-Hur. But why is the book important?

Bestselling Book of 19th Century 

When it was published, Ben-Hur wasn't just popular. It was REALLY popular. First published in 1880, it surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin by 1893 to become the #1 selling book of the entire 19th century. The whole world went wild for it. The U.S. President  at the time, James Garfield, wrote a letter to Lew Wallace sharing how much he enjoyed Ben-Hur. "With this beautiful and reverent book you have lightened the burden of my daily life," he wrote. Ben-Hur went on to be the first work of fiction to ever be blessed by Pope Leo XIII. It has been translated into over 40 languages and has never been out of print since 1880. Even if Ben-Hur never sold another copy from this day forward, it would still maintain a prominent place in literary history because of it's status as the bestselling book of a century.  

Why was Ben-Hur so popular?

Good Old Fashioned Storytelling

At the risk of sounding like a 7th grade reading teaching...the elements of fiction in Ben-Hur are FANTABULOUS!  The character development, plot, point of view, theme and setting all come together for a spectacular epic. The plot includes betrayal, revenge, action, profound struggle, intrigue, world travel and a tense love triangle. Based on plot alone, it's not hard to see why Ben-Hur was popular. The point of view is an expansive third person that allows the epic scope of the narrative to include the thoughts, emotions and reflections of many characters as well as some interjection from the narrator. Main themes for Ben-Hur are positive and uplifting and include forgiveness and peace. The character development of Ben-Hur in particular is one for the ages.  Ben-Hur starts off in a position of great privilege. He is ignorant about the suffering of many in his society. Through betrayal and a freak accident, he falls into the lowest position of society as slave sentenced to hard labor.  Expected only to live for another year, Ben-Hur survives three years as an captive propelled forward by an all-consuming desire for revenge. The rest of the story is about (many things, but primarily) Ben-Hur's struggle to let go of the hatred and bitterness that has utterly consumed him.  He struggles to become someone capable of showing generosity, kindness, or forgiveness. Last but not least is the setting. The setting that Lew Wallace presents in Ben-Hur is closely related to why the book blew up into becoming the bestselling book of the century.  

Historical Accuracy in the Time of Darwin 

As mentioned earlier, author Lew Wallace invented most of the major characters and events in Ben-Hur. However, Lew Wallace did not make up the setting. In fact, he painstakingly researched geography, topography, climate, plant life, people, cultures, and economies to provide a hyper-realistic portrayal of the Roman Empire in the time of Christ. 

In 1880 when Ben-Hur was first published, the theory of evolution was still new and sweeping American culture. American Protestantism was especially in a cultural upheaval. Evolution is obviously no longer a new or shocking theory. By 2016 most Christians, in one way or another, have reconciled the theory of evolutionary with their core beliefs, but many Christians in the late 19th Century were still unsure what to make of it all. Perhaps most importantly, at the core of post-Darwin America was a call for scientific evidence to be used in support of belief. In 1880, American Protestants were eager to engage their science-driven culture while still maintaining their religious identity, and along came Ben-Hur.
Lew Wallace was exceptionally methodical in providing his readers with the utmost historical accuracy.  He spent weeks just researching Roman battleships in 5BC in order to accurately describe the life of Ben-Hur as a slave on a Roman Trireme. And when writing about the great chariot race, no detail was overlooked. Wallace researched the construction of various chariot models, how the audience would have been sectioned in the arena, etc. Exact dates and extensive genealogies are given to provide context for events and people. Detailed descriptions of various people groups are provided including Nazarites, Samaritans, Pharisees, Sadducees and Roman soldiers. Most importantly, Wallace is astoundingly precise with his geographic description of ancient Judea. As Wallace explains in his autobiography, "I examined catalogues of books and maps, and sent for everything likely to be useful. I wrote with a chart always before my eyes". He spent weeks researching at the Library of Congress. And so, because of Wallace's zeal for historicity, Ben-Hur provides much more than an interesting story.  Ben-Hur gives readers an accurate understanding of the cultural and historical context in which the life of Christ took place, and this was provided at a time when many Christians desperately wanted to engage with their faith through facts and research. 


In Summary

Why is Ben-Hur an important book?  
  • It's the best-selling book of the 19th Century. 
  • It's a good story with an epic scope 
  • It was a timely cultural response to the issues of belief and science.
If you know of any other reasons, feel free to comment below. 

This is Fantastic! I Want to Go Read Ben-Hur!

Awesome, I hope you do.  Buuuut I should probably mention that it's a massive tome. The unabridged audiobook is over 23 hours long. And there's one element of fiction I haven't mentioned yet: style. Sometimes reading Ben-Hur feels like you're watching a hippopotamus pick up a pea. It's okay to skim through the winding descriptions of setting if that's not your cup of tea. But spend some time reading Ben-Hur and you'll become acquainted with an ancient time and a spiritual place. 

"Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love stays with us. Love is God"

Monday, August 1, 2016

Spoiler-Free Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child



Let's do this!!!  This review goes over the premise of the book, lists several reasons Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is worth reading, and lists two reasons you might want to skip reading it.

Premise of the Book

First of all, this is not a book. It's a the script of play. Personally, I would have preferred it as a novel with more of the setting, and characters' thoughts, emotions and expressions filled in, but around page three I accepted Cursed Child for the play that it is and moved on with my life.

Albus Severus Potter is Harry and Ginny's middle child of three. For some reason I expected this to mainly be Albus's story. It's not. It's half Albus's story and half Harry's story. There are several subplots, but the leading plotline is about Harry and Albus's strained relationship.  Harry, Ron, Draco and Ginny are all major characters.  I don't know why this blindsided me. Harry's name is in the title, so it should have been pretty obvious he's a major character.

Also, the timeturner returns in a big way.


Reasons to read it 


  1. The Queen Regnant of all living authors has written* a post script to one of the greatest children series ever penned. Reason enough, people!
  2. Cursed Child has a lot of heart, and the emotional core of the play is a relatable one. Albus Severus struggles in school academically and (save for his one friend, Scorpius) he's a social pariah. He struggles with living in the shadow of his famous father.  He struggles with living in the shadow of the famous men who are his namesake.  Harry worries a lot about Albus and tries to connect with him, but handles it poorly (raising a teenager is tough). The harder Harry tries to reach out, the more their relationship worsens. 
  3. Friendship, one of the great themes of the Harry Potter series, continues to be explored here. 
  4. There's a lot of action.  The plot moves, the pages turn. There's suspense. There's twists. It's wonderful. 
  5. Ron still tells jokes. 


*with the help of two other playwrites

Reasons to skip it

  1. If you have never read the Harry Potter series or seen the movies, this play isn't meant for you. Because Cursed Child is a script it lacks setting descriptions and background info.Without any background knowledge about the Sorting Hat, the Forbidden Forest, The Battle of Hogwarts, Hagrid, Aunt Petunia, and the sacrifices of Severus Snape, this play is going to be confusing and weird. If you can't imagine how tall of a shadow Harry must cast on his son, you won't appreciate what Albus Severus is moaning about all the time. 
  2. If you have the opportunity to go to London and see this as a play, wait and just see the play.  The script describes some of the special effects. It would be way cooler to actually experience them then to read about them.
Those are the only reasons I can think of to actually skip reading Cursed Child. That's not to say Cursed Child is perfect. It isn't. Time travel is tricky to deal with, and personally I think the time travel takes up more of the plot than is ideal.  I also wish the antagonist was better developed, but at the end of the day, it was great story.  I didn't put it down once. I loved the suspense, the twists, the humor and the emotional heart. Just as Albus struggles to grow up in his father's shadow, this play also had a lot deliver on to escape the shadow of the great original Harry Potter series.

They both find their way. 







Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Book Review of Clive Cussler's The Bootlegger

My husband and I had a 16 hour road trip to northeast Maine, and we spent it listening to all 9 audio CD's of The Bootlegger. It's not exactly literature for the ages, but that was never the point. The Bootlegger is a good time and a fun escape. The story started out a bit slow to start, but after awhile I was fully engrossed in the story and hardly noticed the interstate whizzing by (don't worry I was in the passenger seat).

The Bootlegger is the 7th book in Cussler's Isaac Bell series.  It's the first Isaac Bell story I've read, and I was worried I'd be lost since I was entering pretty late into the series.  The beginning was a bit slow for me since I didn't have the background on the Van Dorne Detective Agency, but overall it wasn't a problem.  The book did a pretty good job bringing newcomers along for the ride.

Premise of the Story
 Isaac Bell is a hero investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency.  The Van Dorn Detective Agency is like a weird hybrid between the Pinkerton's and the CIA.  The CIA didn't exist at the book was set, but I mention the CIA similarity because the Van Dorn Detective agency has intelligence gathering across the globe and far more financial resources than the Pinkerton's.

The story is set in the 1920’s in the United States. Prohibition is in full swing so is the black market of bootlegging. Isaac Bell's boss and friend at the Van Dorn detective agency (Joseph Van Dorn) is shot and severely wounded while busting who they thought were run of the mill bootlegger gangs. Bell and the rest of the Van Dorn team take it very personally that Joseph Van Dorn was shot.  Isaac Bell swears to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice, but it turns out that's not as easy as it seems. A potential witness to the shooting is executed in the hospital under police guard in the manner of the Russian secret police.  After digging a bit more, Bell realizes the rum-running team are far from run of the mill bootleggers. They are a network of Bolsheviks who are running rum as a way to finance their plan to upturn the U.S. government. Vast in scope and network, Isaac Bell and the rest of the Van Dorn detectives uncover gang alliances and secret connections from New York to Detroit, to Florida and the Caribbean.

Reasons to Read It 
  1. Do you have a long drive? Pick up the audiobook!  I really liked the reading. My only wish is that they'd had a full recording cast or had a female read the female voice parts. 
  2. Does reading about speedboat chases, gun fights and conniving Bolshevik assassins sound like it's up your alley? Yes? Then this book is up your alley, 
  3. I liked that Cussler gave close third person point of view chapters to a wide array of characters.  Marat Zolner was a great villain, and I especially enjoyed the chapter where he deals with the new overseer sent from Moscow to replace Yuri.  I also enjoyed the Asa Summers chapter where we to see Pauline from Asa's perspective. These changes in point of view made the whole world seem more fleshed out. 
  4. I also appreciated the complexity of the antagonists.  I liked the struggle with communist ideals vs the allure of wealth and power that came with being a top bootlegger. I also liked the internal struggle that was shown with the heiress's character. She was weak, but she was interesting, and she showed courage at the end.  I'm still a little confused if her story line ending was relatively innocent or a bit more insidious. 
  5. An overall good job with solid female characters, too.  I thought Bell's wife was a pushover until the very end when she arranged for Asa Summers to be Pauline's apprentice in Berlin.  Then I realized that she was actually quite sharp and not to be underestimated. Pauline was a badass. 
  6. I also felt like I truly met a whole slew of seedy New York gang members by the end of the story.  I thought Cussler's written dialogue for the gang members was particularly well done, especially the tough, calculated answers they provided when under duress.  
Reasons to Skip It 
  1. This book is LONG, and if you're only looking for an action packed book then The Bootlegger might actually disappoint you. There's quite a bit of buildup and plot to uncover. I'll be honest, there were times when my attention faded in and out, mostly during the first third of the book.
  2. There are elements of the story that are a bit cliche, and there were a few times I rolled my eyes. 
    1. For example, every woman in the story who meets Isaac Bell, falls in love with Isaac Bell (eye-roll). 
    2. I also never felt like Isaac Bell was in any real danger no matter how dire the situation.  He was built up to seem too infallible, too much like a wonder boy.  For example, Bell catches a detonated grenade out of the air, instantaneously recognizes the make and model of the grenade and perfectly calculates how long he needs to hold the grenade before successfully throwing it back to his nemesis and blowing them up (another eye-roll).  
    3. Even at the end, Bell winds up sustaining fairly significant injuries and just seems to walks them off which was a bit puzzling.  
    4. Cussler overuses cliched phrases like "The real McCoy". 
  3. Where does all the Van Dorn money come from?? I know Bell is supposed to be independently wealthy and the Van Dorne Agency makes money through all sorts of security gigs and a coveted Coast Guard contract, but Bell seemed to have an utterly unlimited budget when it came to avenging Joseph Van Dorne. It all seemed a bit silly. 
Some final thoughts

I found myself wishing that Cussler would have gone full-fantasy with Isaac Bell and Marat Zolner.  When I say fantasy, I don't mean he should have had orcs show up with a wizard or something.  I liked the largely realistic setting and plot within 1920's North America. But I found myself getting a little too annoyed at Isaac Bell and Marat Zolner's seemingly superhuman abilities (especially in the final boat chase sequence in the hurricane).  Don't get me wrong, I found the ending really enjoyable. But I think the ending and the entire book could have been even better if I could more readily suspend disbelief in the hero and lead villain's super abilities.  If the reader was operating under the assumption that Bell and Zolner were both augmented somehow- think more like Captain America's super serum and less like Magneto-  I would have more easily embraced the action.  

Overall, a fun read with enjoyable characters.