Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In the third installment of the Harry Potter series we really get the ball rolling. Major characters and plot points are introduced. This is my favorite of all the books so far. Mainly because we are introduced to the Marauders and their backstory. We also meet Trelawney and see how divination works in the Wizarding World. And let's not forget, Gryffindor finally wins the Quidditch Cup. The most brilliant part of the book is JKR's writing. She frequently set's us up and bowls us over with plot twist after plot twist.

HP&POA brings up several big questions that as of book 6 have not been answered:
Why is Neville so afraid of Snape? Sure Snape is very critical of Neville, but so is Neville's whole family. Neville is terrified of Snape. Does Neville know more of Snape's history than we think? I belive that's possible. Neville's Grandmother has told him all about his parents, Voldemort, and the Death Eaters. What has she told him about Sanpe? I hope we find out in Book 7.
When we are first made privy to the events of Halloween '81 by Sirius he mentions how he was to check on Wormtail that night. When he didn't find Wormtail, he went to check on Lily & James and found them dead. If Sirius was not the secret keeper, how would he know where to go? I hope we get a clear description of this night in Book 7, because I am so confused.
How did Peter Pettigrew get sorted into Gryffindor? And what made him adopt such Slytheriny ways? I think we will find Wormtail's redemption as a Gryffindor in Book 7.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

After finishing Year 2 of the Harry Potter Series I've noticed a few more subtle clues to the outcome of the books. We are introduced to a Horcrux in this book in the form of Tom Riddle's diary. Though at this time it is only viewed as a serious piece of dark magic. Harry instinctively destroys the Horcrux, which is probably a path he should stick to for destroying the rest considering Dumbledore's hand in Book 6. This secret Horcrux introduction is mirrored in Book 6 where the Horcruxes are a major plot device and explained, though somewhat inefficiently.

During the post-action Dumbledore wrap-up, Dumbledore explains to Harry why he is a Parselmouth. "Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" says Harry. Well, upon further reflection this supports the Harry is a Horcrux theory now doesn't it? I know this has been a major key to that theory but in now observing the structure of Years 1 & 2 it seems far more likely. Harry mentions to Riddle that he does not know why the spell Voldemort cast backfired, in fact no one does. My theory is since he had intended to make a Horcrux from Harry's murder, he probably had to cast Avada Kedavra and the Horcrux spell at the same time. The spells hit Harry, who was protected by Lily's sacrafice, and the spells flew and backfired everywhere. Most likely turning Harry into an accidental Horcrux in the process.

I also wonder if Harry will make a return to the Chamber of Secrets on his Horcrux hunt. There is no item specifially mentioned in the text that could be a Horcrux, but Harry could go into the lair of the Basalisk now that it's dead. Voldemort might not have left it there before graduating, but he could have dropped it of during his application for the DADA job.

There's not much going on with Snape in this book. Knowing JKR, there probably is something crucial but oh-so-subtle that I'm missing.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

So of course with the imminent release (37 days-squeee!) of HP & the Deathly Hallows I have begun rereading the series. After finishing HP&SS my head is spinning, I really think JKR has structurally bookended the series with Books 1 & 7. By this I mean, Books 1 & 7 will mirror each other. For instance I believe Harry needs Ron and Hermione to complete the things he needs to do to face Voldemort, but ultimately he must face Voldemort alone. The quest to find the Horcruxes and confront Voldemort will be much like the tasks to find the Sorcerers Stone.
I also had quite the revelation about the DADA teachers and the pattern they have through the series. Then there is Snape, throughout SS Snape is set up to be the bad guy but given the reprieve at the end of the book. I think this will be the ultimate outcome of Snape's character in Book 7. But naturally JKR will do it in some super tricksy way we never saw coming.
In addition to reading the books I've been participating in The Leaky Cauldron's Ultimate Deathly Hallows Prediction Exam. You sign in, answer the questions, and eventually when the answers in Deathly Hallows are revealed you have the chance to be THE ULTIMATE HARRY POTTER MASTER OF KNOWLEDGE! And maybe win a prize, it's fun stuff.

Squeeee!

There is a trailer for The Golden Compass film on the Yahoo! Movies site via this link here.
And this poster is so beautiful.
It looks amazing! It's got a lot of CG work to it, which makes sense, you could never get a polar bear to wear armor and co-operate. It will be interesting to see if they fuse the CG and live action a little more or if they leave it as a style choice.
So exciting!

Snape Theory Begins!

As noted in previous posts, I have a fabulous Snape theory and I pledged to have it finished before Book 7 arrives. The short version of the theory is this: Snape is ultimately good and wants Voldemort to go down, but he wants to be famous because of it. He wants to be the greatest wizard in the world.
I've been pondering how best to post this theory and instead of a big fat post on the 101 blog I decided to drag it out over the next two months on my newest blog: ElizaB's Snape Theory, Severus Snape: The Epic Hero Wannabe.
I'm very excited about this process but blogger is being a pain and won't let me pretty up the site. Grrrrr!
*cross posted at the 101 blog*

Bookround

Tonight I attended my first Bookround. This is a local book club in New Haven. It works by announcing the book, meeting place, and time online, then members sign up for the books they want to read and discuss. It's perfect for me. I'm not forced into reading anything I don't want to and I can attend the discussion if it fits into my schedule. I've been meaning to attend one for a while, but between one thing and another (and chickening out once) I never made it before tonight.
I had a great time. We discussed To Kill A Mockingbird as part of Big Read New Haven. One of the ladies who works at The Arts and Ideas Festival was there and expalined why they chose this particualr book. 1.) The race issues in the novel were something that New Haven-ites could relate to. 2.) It is available in Spanish. 3.) It's a book many ages can read and connect to because it works on so many levels. So we discussed the race issues, and the ages we were when we read the book initially. This was one girl's first reading, which was exciting to hear. We talked about social class and the difference between kids now and then. It was a good discussion.
I think I will try to attend another. I'm sure there is a difference in the type of book and group dynamic at every Bookround which is exciting. I am voting for the current contenders The Red Tent, The Tao of Pooh, and The Robber Bride. Hopefully I will be able to attend another this summer.

*cross posted at the 101 blog*

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

by Diana Gabaldon
I've made it! I've finished! I have read all the Outlander books! I am done!
What's that?
There's going to be another book! Oh for christ's sake...

Annoyance with the fact that I'm still not at the end of the story aside, A Breath of Snow and Ashes was great. It cooked along at a fast pace with many exciting plot twists. I even stayed up waaay late into the night a few times because the story was so gripping. Less politics-more melodrama!
Editing is still an issue. It tends to get worse towards the end of the book. This time I noted words with letters left out and a sentence that literally repeated a phrase with in itself. Were these flaws buried deep within the text I could have forgiven them. But they were not only at the beginning of paragraphs, but at the beginning of chapters!
Really? Who is it that's not doing their job at Delta? Come on!
Hopefully they will get it together for the final (maybe?) book King, Farewell. It is dubious amongst any press I can find whether there will actually be another book. However Snow and Ashes did not tie everything up, and it left out the chapter printed in The Outlandish Companion. The biggest indicator is that a big hoopla was not made over Snow and Ashes being "THE END." Now DG is no JKR but you'd think they'd make a big deal over the end of a story that has taken 5347 pages so far.

The Outlandish Companion

by:Diana Gabaldon
In Which Much is Revealed...if you really want to know. Truth is, I don't need to know. I don't need to read emails between Ms. Gabaldon and her fans about herbal medicine practices. I don't need to read the birth charts and horoscopes for Jamie and Claire. I don't need a synopsis of all the books I've already read, thanks.
I had checked this out of the library when I had begun The Fiery Cross, intending to blast through FC and the latest book, and continuing on to Companion. Unfortunately (or really rather fortunately) I was only able to skim this before I had to return it to the library. I read the chapters I wanted and skipped such things as character horoscopes, emails between Diana and her readers on various obsessive topics, and bad computer generated images and rehashed descriptions of items like wedding rings, necklaces, and other "Objects of Use."
What I did get out of this book was the process of Diana's writing and research, which was interesting. Just as I suspected she writes random chapters and then strings them together with filler. Enh...whatever works for you. She frequently re-iterates that the first book was for practice and never meant to be seen by anyone, therefore she has been using this series to develop her style and process. OK, I can live with that. Seriously though the editing still needs work, I thought the point of the editor was to help the author string these things together.
The other big point of interest was the chapters of things she has already written for future books. One was for The Fiery Cross, which has been published, although part of that ended up in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Interestingly the series was intended as 6 books with the final being King's Farewell. But we know A Breath of Snow and Ashes is #6 and the chapter from King's Farewell "Surgeon's Steel" was not in Snow. So I'm thinking we still have one more book to go.

Forever

So the good olde Post Office will be raising stamp prices again on Monday the 14th. They are also producing a "Forever Stamp." Meaning, no matter how high prices go you can always use the Forever Stamp at whatever price you originally purchased it. Considering prices only go up and technology is now way ahead of the stamps and mules they use to deliver mail, a Forever Stamp seems like a good idea.
Or is it?
In Ring Around the Sun a group of mutant humans is secretly manufacturing items like the Forever Light Bulb, Forever Razor Blade, and the Forever Car. Coincidence? Well... yes it probably is-but a creepy one none the less!

The Golden Compass

I overheard recently on Pottercast that The Golden Compass Movie site was up and that it would generate your Daemon for you. Those of you who have read the books know what I mean when I say Daemon. The rest of you, well read the books or check out the http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/ for yourself.

The site is pretty cool and in addition to the Daemon Generator has a lot of the concept art. It looks beautiful, especially those armored bears! The alethiometer was kind of disappointing, you twiddle with it and it reveals...desktop wallpapers! These are nice, but really? Wallpapers?

My Daemon's name is Alvin and is a crow, which means I am "responsible, modest, shy, flexible, and solitary." Yep, pretty much sums me up.

The Fiery Cross

By Diana Gabaldon

I have finally finished reading the fifth installment of the Outlander Series, The Fiery Cross. It took a while for a few reasons,
1. The book is 1443 pages long. That's a bit much even for me.
2. I was too busy to read.
3. Like Dragonfly in Amber, the book stalled out with it's talk of politics.

I was heartened to finish when I talked about the books recently with my colleague and neighbor Amanda. She had also read the first book and loved it. When she moved onto the second book, she too got bored. We realized it wasn't just her or me, it was the book. So I encouraged her to read Voyager-which is my favorite thus far. In turn she encouraged me to skip forward.
Now skipping forward in books is something I don't make a practice of. Garth does it all the time, but my fear is I will miss something important or at least that I'll miss a good bit of gravy. If it's a book I've read a dozen times like Gone With The Wind, I'll skip parts that I'm not keen to re-read again. Like the descriptions of the Civil War battles-snooze!
In Fiery Cross I was trucking along, things had gotten very exciting with a good death fake-out. Then, boom! Mired down in the politics once again. Then another major character nearly dead! More politics. Snooze. Then finally the culmination of a mystery that's been lingering through the last three books. End scene. Again it's Gabaldon's erratic writing style that bugs me, but on the other hand I need to know what happens to these people!
Now I'm on to the last installment (thus far), A Breath of Snow and Ashes. We'll see how we go....

Ring Around the Sun

by Clifford D. Simak
Ring Around the Sun is a sci-fi novel published in 1952. It's been on my "Unread Bookshelf" for a year or two now and I finally managed to blast through it this week. I think it's been said before that I'm a huge Stephen King fan. (Has it? Are you really?) He has stated that this book was a big influence on him writing the Dark Tower Series. Well, last weeks Lost episode reminded me I needed to reread the Tower series and then reminded me I still had this book kicking around. I figured since it is only 200 pages I really had no excuse.
It was good, though old school sci-fi really isn't my thing. The writing style is a little flat but the ideas are way ahead of their time for '52. The writing was not terribly descriptive which normally I would find annoying, however it didn't immediately bring to mind the "future" specific to the 50's either. It was much more archetypal. I could clearly see the influences on the Dark Tower. The main one being the idea that there is an Earth one second in front of us and another behind and so on stretching to infinity. Creating a ring round the sun. Unless you really dig the 50's sci-fi I wouldn't rush right out and buy it. However for King and Lost fans might be worth a perusal.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee
This year the International Festival of Arts and Ideas here in New Haven (my employer for the month of June) is participating with the New Haven Public Library in a project called The Big Read. The reading selection is the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird. A book which I have not read in 15 years. In May I will be attending a Bookround discussion of the novel and I will try to make it to a few of the Mockingbird events around the city. Or at the very least I will watch events from the 12th floor office of the Festival.
I have just completed a first read through of the book. It's still as good as I remember But I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. It's difficult to forget the Tom Robinson trial as Gregory Peck's movie performance was so magnetic. And who could forget Boo Radley and the children's obsession to see him in the flesh? The rabid dog in February was another high point. But when isn't a rabid dog in February a high point?
I also remember being completely confused by the "chiffarobe" What the heck is a chiffarobe? In this day and age one could just Google the damn thing. But I grew up like Scout and Jem, playing outdoors with no internets or fiber-optic anything.

I am pleased to present or your information (and mine)...a chiffarobe.

Sitcom Style

By Diana Friedman
As a child I watched a fair amount of TV. I remember being limited by how much I could watch and that I had a fairly early bedtime. Therefore I watched a lot of sitcom reruns in the hours between getting home from school and dinnertime. My favorite was the Brady Bunch, I was thoroughly fascinated by this large suburban family. Mine is very small so the idea of more than three or four people living in one space is completely foreign to me. The Brady's house and their frequent space and privacy issues were mind boggling to me. Why not move? Why doesn't Mr. Brady-an architect-build an addition? Why all that living space and then sleep in the tiniest bedrooms known to man? Where the hell are the closets?
Sitcom Style is a coffee table book dedicated to the scene design of the genre known as sitcom. This was an interesting book. Not only do I finally get the layouts of these homes that have plagued me with their inconsistencies for years, but the designers also discuss the set dressing and where and why they acquired it. My favorite bit of trivia. The granny square afghan on the back of Roseanne's couch was made for the show because the designer couldn't find one. And people kept lifting it from the set, so after the third one they had custom made it was stitched directly to the couch.
The book also has a strange aspect of it which is how to design your home to look like a sitcom home. Wanting your home to look like a sitcom? Now if that isn't a symptom of media obsessed consumerist America, I don't know what is.

Drums of Autumn

Before my trip to Lulu-land I did manage to read another of the Outlander novels, but didn't have time to post. Drums of Autumn is the continuation of the saga of Jamie and Claire. This episode brings us to colonial North Carolina. Back in modern Scotland there is a nice counterpoint with the adventures of Claire and Jamie's daughter Brianna going back in time to find them and her boyfriend Rodger following. I enjoyed this book as much as Outlander, Voyager is still my favorite, and Dragonfly in Amber is still my least favorite. And less editing problems this time! I have a co-worker who also reads these novels and is a huge fan. She feels like Diana Gabaldon doesn't write in a linear fashion. Most novelists (it seems, though I am no expert) sort of have an outline, at least in their head, and write with the intention of point A to point B. It turns out Diana Gabaldon writes random chapters and then pieces them together into a story later, filling in the blanks with other chapters. This explains a lot of the editing issues and occasional plot holes. The series is still enjoyable, regardless and I am onto the next one.

The problem with working in theatre...

...is that sometimes your life is consumed by it. For the past month or so I've been working on the current production at our humble regional theater. The first few weeks were helping out in the costume shop pulling costumes from stock and ordering things, the last two were spent in a hellish tech process. Fortunately the actors and run crew on the production have been the most amazing, positive, and fun group of people anyone could hope to work with in this kind of situation. Through all the craziness, we are having a blast.
So there has barely been time for sleeping, much less blogging, reading, or working on the 101. I have only the briefest bit of down time over Easter weekend as I am also designing costumes for a show as well. The good news is my finances are in great shape with all the OT and extra income. But is it worth it? I have no qualms about working endless hours on a show where the end result is an amazing theatrical experience. But Lulu is not my cup of tea. It may well be just me, though. I have a HUGE problem with the portrayal of women as original sin and objects of lust. I don't like the stories of Helen of Troy or Guenivere either-an unsympathetic female holds no interest for me. Oh all the men of the world love you, yet you are so miserable?-cry me a f-ing river. Therefore it's not suprising Lulu grates on me. The show is visually quite stunning, even if those visuals leave us wiping up stage blood and picking blue berries out of the washing machine. Between myself and the props runner everyday is a new laundry disaster. Now that we've opened things will settle down and I'll be back in the blogging groove soon.
(cross-posted on the 101 Blog)

Voyager

By: Diana Gabaldon
Due to a vicious sinus infection I spent the last week in bed. Subsequently I was able to blast through Voyager, the third book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I liked this book a great deal more than Dragonfly in Amber. There were more locations and we didn't spend too long in one place, which prevented the stall-outs I found in the previous novel. The action centers around a treasure and a kidnapping. We jump from Scotland of the '60's to Scotland of the 18th Century, America, France, and finally the 18th century West Indies, giving things a very Pirate's of the Caribbean feel.
The characters have aged 20 years in this episode and we see more action from a few minor characters from the previous books. In particular there is a huge twist at the end which I did not see coming. Thing's tied up nicely and I found this plot to be much more intricate and better structured than the previous novels. I think the idea of a historical novel is great, but it's possible that structuring your story around specific events can be limiting. For instance DIA takes us up to the Battle of Culloden. This can't really happen until the end of the novel so the expanse before is used to build the political intrigue of the Jacobite uprising. Problem is, it was not very intriguing, it felt very forced. In Voyager the plot is driven by the character's attempt to resolve conflict in a historical setting. Not to participate in history itself. And yes, there were editing problems once again. This time the work suffered from an overuse of unreferenced pronouns and a few grammatical errors.
All in all, the series is still compelling and I'm moving on to the next book Drums of Autumn. I only hope it's as good as it's predecessor.

Catundra

By: Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by: Robin James
While I was sorting through the small mountain of books in my mother's attic I happened upon one of my favorite children's books, Catundra. In the late 70's, a fellow named Stephen Cosgrove was shopping for a book for his three year old daughter. What he wanted was a nice story, with pictures, with a small moral attached, and a small price tag. He didn't find any, so he wrote his own. Thus was born the Serendipity Books
I had several of these books, but my favorite was always Catundra. One, it had a cat, my favorite critter. Two, the cat was a big fat orange cat, my favorite kind of cat. Three, it had a good story. The good parts version: Catundra is fat, she lives alone in the woods, the forest critters laugh at her because she is so fat, so she is miserable. One day she is so hungry, she catches a mole to eat. The mole convinces her that she should not eat him but let him become her personal trainer. With hard work and coaching from the mole, Catundra loses the weight. She and the mole live happily ever after. The End.
What's now amazing to me, at age 30, is this book comes right out and says "Poor Catundra would feel so bad after their name calling that she felt she just had to do something to forget what they had said and so she would eat more and more. Every time she ate some more she got just a little fatter, which made her feel worse and so she ate some more." Catundra is the source of her own misery. She is comfort eating. This is still something people can't wrap their heads around, and this book was written in 1978?! Maybe if more people read Catundra, we wouldn't have this obesity epidemic in America.
I took a look around the web to see what Stephen has been up to. Turns out he's re-edited all the books to correct errors and now they all take place on the mythical island of Serendipity. He's also created this amazing website called bookpop.com. It has interactive stories, printable coloring books, and audio books read by Steve himself. I think it's a brilliant way to get kids reading- Stephen Cosgrove Rocks!

Mapping the World of Harry Potter

Edited By Mercedes Lackey
"Purveyors of Aids to Literary Mischief Makers is proud to present the highly unauthorized work: Mapping the World of Harry Potter." In which, science fiction and fantasy writers expound upon the Harry Potter world with varying results including but not limited to: hilarity, amusement, incredulity, and dullness.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. First off, there is the embossed cover which has such a nice texture to it that with the sepia and gold printing you are kind of fooled into the notion that it could be parchment. The essays were all relatively short, lending itself to mealtime and waiting room reading. The quality of the essays were all very good, well researched and holding strong points of view.
I learned a few things such as the existence and format of the "Schooldays Novel." The existence of extensive fan fiction that leans towards the, ahem, adult fantasy genre. Ok, fine it's porn, there is fan fiction porn out there, on the internet with Harry Potter characters! On one hand I'm not surprised, on the other I'm a little disturbed. It's like movies with puppets or muppets having sex. I understand it's about pushing an envelope for some people, it's supposed to be a controversial thing. For me personally, it crosses a line and I just can't go there.
Anyway, onward to more decorous topics. Sarah Zettel proves that Hermione Granger, while somewhat annoying, is indeed a feminist and a fine role model for girls. Martha Wells tells us why Neville Longbottom is an epic hero in his own right. Richard Garfinkle has the most ludicrous theory on why Harry should really die and leave the defeat of Voldemort in the far more capable hands of Hermione Granger. Maybe he's just writing this tongue in cheek, but seriously? Have you not read Hero With A Thousand Faces? Do you not know the epic hero's journey? Have you been reading the same books as the rest of the free world?

Dragonfly in Amber

By Diana Gabaldon
Wow. In looking back over the book blog I haven't finished a fiction book in two months. I've been mostly spending time in the Harry Potterverse working on the Snape Theory, so I've been perusing quite a bit of non-fiction on that subject. I had planned to finish Dragonfly in Amber long before I left for Oregon, but I became busy with the Theory and ran out of time. I couldn't take the book with me due to the enormous size of the hardback copy I own. It was also unfortunate that the book began to drag in the last third. Dragonfly in Amber is the continuation of Outlander and while it is a good book it was not as exciting as it's predecessor.
The characters are still amazing, the story is moving, there were interesting plot twists. But again the editing is out of hand. My previous experience with Outlander's editing was an annoyance at obvious grammatical errors. This time there was rambling and unnecessary action. I'm all for descriptive color. One of my favorite authors is John Irving who can ramble on about detail with the best of them. In the case of Diana Gabaldon I find some of it wasteful.
Perhaps my problem is too much Harry Potter and Lost. Both of these creations have so much depth and texture but all of it is carefully constructed and all of it has some deeper meaning. Maybe I'm being too hasty, after all there are at least four more books in the series and more to come that are not published. I think I'm putting this series in the Robert Jordan George R.R. Martin, and Jean M. Auel category of excellent writer, excellent story, amazing scope, however not quite brilliant-and in need of a better editor.
It is still compelling enough a series to move on to the next book Voyager. However the Acknowledgments are disconcerting.... "To...Jackie Cantor, as always, for being the rare and marvelous sort of editor who thinks it's all right for a book to be long as long as it's good..." Hmm, we'll see about that.