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After an extended interlude I like to call The Elm Shakespeare Company, I have returned to blogging. I have still been reading, just not writing. Updated posts continue below...

Stumbling on Happiness

By Daniel Gilbert
The self-help book industry is huge, giving the public much advice on how to be thin, be sucessful and ultimately how to be happy. This book does not tell you how to be happy. What it does tell you is how the human brain functions in the pursuit of happiness. It gives us suggestions on how to utilize this information, but it does not tell you how to be happy.
What we learn is we cannot ever reasonably predict our future feelings due to our imagination. We are the only creatures on this planet who not only think about, but imagine the future. But current and past influences skew our imaginations into a warped version of what our future may bring. We think this imagining is the way things absolutely will be and then are constantly disappointed in outcomes that are diferent.
Society is also a factor. We are told make more, spend more, breed more, ultimately to keep society functioning for the greater good, not for our individual happiness. Case in point, I do not want to have children. I don't like 'em, I don't know what to do with them. I can reasonably predict I would feel resentful towards them. I feel resentment towards my neighbor when his screaming wakes me up at 7:30 am, why wouldn't I feel resentful towards a screaming baby at that hour? Even if it's the blood of my loins and all. So I choose to not have children so I do not make some poor child unhappy with my terrible parenting, and I'm making myself happy by not feeling resentful and bitter for 18 years. But society would have me have children, so there are more people to fuel the economy. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." be damned, you need to have children and while your at it you need to buy a $900 stroller.
So what can we do to be happy? As I said there is no instruction list in this book. What I took away from it is I need to make predictions based of what I know, not what I imagine. For example, I have Crohn's Disease. Popcorn makes it act up. Popcorn smells really good. When someone makes popcorn and it smells so good, it is tempting to eat some. Now I could eat the popcorn, I could savor that puffy, salty, buttery goodness and be really happy about it for about 5 minutes. But what I know is about 24 hours later, I will be curled up on my bathroom floor for about 5 hours praying for death. According to Mr. Gilbert the way the brain works, it would actually have me keep eating the popcorn, resulting in 5 hours of pain for the 5 minutes of pleasure. This is true as it took me several years to figure out the same action would keep producing the same result. Fortunately, I'm already on the road to happiness as I have retrained myself over the years not to eat things that cause Crohn's flare ups, no matter how good that food may taste.
So for an experiment I'm going to try a new way of thinking about loosing weight. I've always gone into the weight loss thing with the idea that if I lose weight things will be so much better! Clothes will fit! Boys will like me! I will be able to manage my finances! OK, maybe not the latter but you get the point. What I know is if I loose weight I will physically feel better. When I was 20lbs lighter I could move faster, lift more, and wasn't so wiped out all the time. I shouldn't imagine what it will be like because I can't know what the outcome will be. So my goal is to loose weight to gain physical health. To be able to do run for an emergency at work and not feel like I'm having a minor heart attack. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

The Lovely Bones

By Alice Sebold
You'd have to be living under a rock not to at least have seen this book around. I've seen it many times and as usual, I refused to hop on the bandwagon right away. I'm glad I finally got on for the ride. The narrative of this book is really different than anything I've ever read. Susie Salmon at fourteen is brutally raped and murdered by her neighbor. The rest of the book is Susie watching her family, friends, and her killer from her personalized heaven.
What's really interesting is that instead of first person narrative from each character we get first person emotions and actions through Susie. Because she is dead she can sense the thoughts and feelings of the other characters and express them to us. This is really brilliant as we get so many perspectives on the story but through only one "voice."
The actions and plot are very realistic. This is life in the suburbs. All the houses look the same but behind the similar facades are broken hearts, broken marriages, weak adults, strong children, murderers, and unhappiness. The end is not tied up neatly in a bow, and I appreciate that as life never is. This is an impressive debut novel. Alice Sebold's next novel is due out in October and I'm looking forward to reading it. Peter Jackson is directing the movie, which is very exciting as he is good at the adaptations.

Atonement

By Ian McEwan
I had started Atonement last year and didn't finish. I tried again, letting the locale of Edgerton Park and oppressive heat of Connecticut in the summer put me in the world of an English country manor in August. I found myself completely drawn in by the story, characters, and McEwan's writing style. Briony is a girl of thirteen who is isolated and over-imaginative. (I can relate!) She misconstrues an encounter she witnesses between her sister, Celia and a family friend, Robbie. This leads to her accusing him of the reap of her cousin. In turn it leads to the destruction of her family. We then see the continuation of Robbie's life after his release from prison. He is now a soldier in the Army retreating from Dunkirk. He and Celia are still in contact. Briony is now a nurse, like Celia, and tries to atone for her sins though her work. It is still not enough and she tracks down her family in an attempt to redress the wrongs against Robbie and clear his name.
The end is Briony in her 70's, a successful novelist and the author of all we have read before. Were the previous accounts true? Parts are explained and parts are left to the readers imagination. I actually wish it had been a little less specific in regards to Robbie and Celia's outcomes. But I do see where the fictional author is attempting to use her novel as her atonement which is something she could not do in her actions. Much is made that until her "character's" are all dead, the novel will not be published. Briony herself is dying, so it is unclear if she will even be able to atone, or worse be aware of it if she does. This is the irony of Briony's situation, she has been diagnosed with vascular dementia. The person who over-fantasized will now be stripped of her mind and the guilt over her accusation may be relieved but she may not even be aware of it. Sad ending. It will be interesting to see how the movie pans out.

The Cider House Rules

By John Irving
I spent my re-read of Deathly Hallows with the other two authors from the charity event I attended last year. Stephen King organized a fund raiser for The Haven Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. He read from his work as did J.K. Rowling and John Irving. My three favorite authors in one setting at Radio City Music Hall. It was heaven!
Anyway to recreate the triumvirate I listened to The Cider House Rules on audio book. Cider House is one of my favorite Irving novels. It doesn't deal with the usual issues of his main characters and this has a nice historical backdrop of the US during the first half of the 20th century. It also goes into detail about a controversial subject, abortion. I must say reading the graphic detail and hearing it are two different things. Reading any of it doesn't phase me, but hearing the squelchier details was a little much. The narrator Grover Gardener has a suitable reading voice. He doesn't do "voices", but I don't think " voices " are necessary for the story. It sound's as if Homer Wells himself were telling the tale at the end of his life.

Cell

By Stephen King
How does one make the transition from Harry Potter Mania back to their regular reading. With a zombie novel of course! I had read this book last summer and enjoyed it. I wanted to read something familiar and comforting. This novel is classic King, I think of it as sort of a mini-The Stand.
Take a common item in society-cell phones. Make them destructive-everyone who uses them turns into a zombie. Break down society-zombies vs. the normal people. Have a big confrontation between the two-normal people blow up the zombies. End on a vague but hopeful note-leading man tries to heal partially zombified son, but we don't know whether it worked or not. I'd like to think it did.
This is short by King's standards-only 450 pages. It cooks along at a fast pace and has some surprising and shocking twists. As usual the character's are the best, including Tom-King's first Homosexual!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So as promised, more on Deathly Hallows. However I feel a little Harry Pottered-out. So instead of a detailed post (which would be long) I have made a list of my Five Favorite Things about this book...
1. Severus Snape's back story. Yes he's ultimately on Harry's side but it's so much more complex than good and evil. The biggest surprise, Snape and Lilly BFF's! Never saw that coming.
2. The Deathly Hallows. New mythology at this late stage of the game? Yes!
3. Neville Longbottom, he could have been the chosen one. In this book he proves he was equal to the task.
4. Harry's use of the Hallows and Horcruxes for the greater good and not his own purposes.
5. Voldemort's stupidity. He doesn't trust, he has a huge superiority complex, and he's assumptive. I love that part of his undoing was thinking only he knew of the Room of Requirement. Where did he think all that crap came from?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It's a little over 24 hours since I picked up the book at Borders yesterday at midnight. This was without a doubt the best read of my 30 years on this earth. I will write more later as I am just going to reread the book again at a slower pace. I also wish to not spoil the book for anyone.

Some of my favorite moments:
"Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run."
"You know, sometimes I think we Sort too soon..."
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Thanks Jo this was well worth the wait.

The Order of the Phoenix

I enjoy Order of the Phoenix a great deal more than most. Sure it has Angry Harry-but if I had to go through all that I'd be pissed too. My favorite parts:
1. Voldemort's possession of Harry and then vacating the premises when love is in the air. I can just see Volde jumping around saying "Ewww!....Love...Nasty!"
2. Umbridge getting hauled off by Centaurs.
3. Neville kicking ass.
4. Luna Lovegood.
5. The badges given out at the Ministry of Magic "Harry Potter-Rescue Mission."

The Deathly Hallows

So I've just discovered that there are major spoilerish happenings on the interwebs. People who ordered their copies of Deatly hallows from DeepDiscounts.com got their books already. (Lucky bastards.) Of course these idiots are now posting scans of the book on the internet. Again-bastards. So I think I am headed into official internet silence. After tomorrow's internet orders for the shows I'm designing, other than email checks and whatever blog posts I can manage, there will be no other internet viewings until after the book is finished.
More time to spend with the cats.
UPDATE: The following piece in the Times is causing an uproar, claiming it has spoilers galore. I don't think it does. It has hints and mentions a few things from previous books but it does not give details. I thought it was the perfect thing to read to quench any taste I might have had for a spoiler.
This piece from the NY Times is great. It is their carefully worded review of the book. Again who are these people that just go buy the book early? So unfair!

Goblet of Fire

I finished Goblet of Fire two days ago. It is my least favorite of the books but it does have some key points for the series at large.

1.No one stops being a Death Eater. Sirius mentions this to Harry when describing Karkaroff. It is indeed true as Karkaroff is killed later. Every other Death Eater has either died in the line of duty or on Volde's orders. Foreshadowing to Snape's Death? You betcha. Draco's death? Could be the reprieve, likely he'll be used alive to torment Narcissa and Lucius for a while at least.

2. Mad-Eye Moody fake out. One of the best fake-outs in the history of Literature. Absolutely Brilliant. It even works so well when you know the conceit and are re-reading and thinking about it from Barty Crouch Jr.'s point of view. Why is he so nice to Neville? He's sneaky and manipulative sure, he's trying to emulate Moody, and he wants Harry to figure out the Gillyweed thing. But Mad-Eye Barty is really kind to Neville. Residual guilt perhaps? He was stopped in his Death Eater tracks by a Dementor so I suppose we'll never know.

3. Snape's reveal of the Dark Mark. I think this tiny moment is HUGE and proof of Snape's true colors more on this at the Snape Theory.

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!