Harry Potter

Remember me telling you a couple of months ago that I had succumbed to the madness that is Harry Potter? Well, the week before last I finished with Year 6, which is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I wanted to make my comments on the series so far and then read the last one, since we all know how much the final book in a series can change your opinion of it. =)

In short, I loved them. I can now easily see the obsession as I am now wondering how close I am to it. Hahah. I'm not used to reading books so "simple" and I was amazed at how well they did everything "adult" books do but much better. I mean, when I'm reading a book I sometimes visualize the scenese in my head, but not all the time. When I was reading Harry Potter I had a vision in my head 99% of the time. I always knew the emotions of each of the character, and the character development was something else entirely. I loved it.

The stories kept me enthralled, and I didn't care about the fact that they doubled in size with each book. All I wanted was more more more. And then some more after that, which I guess I'll get when I read Year 7, which is the final one. Plus, I haven't seen the movies, so I'm looking forward to watching those, too.

I couldn't even tell you know why I avoided them for so long, but I'm actually sorry I did. I've never been one for reading YA, but with the introduction of Harry Potter and the Twilight series I think I just might peek into it more often. Another one keeps catching my eye, too, that I think I just might go ahead and get. The title is "Luxe" but I'm not sure who the author is.

But I digress.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books. The only irks I had were in the beginnings of the second and third ones, when I felt that they repeated way too much of the previous book. Then I remembered that most people weren't reading them as quickly as I was and that the previous book probably wasn't as "fresh" to other people as it was to me, so the annoyance of it dissipated rather quickly.

My hat is off to JK Rowling and her amazing storytelling abilities.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

When I heard another Chuck P book was being made into a movie, I immediately had to go out and get it. I love his writing and his books do lend themselves to being made into movies. For those of you who don't know, the movie Fight Club was based on Chuck's book Fight Club.

Choke is written in very much the same style. I could actually picture Edward Norton soeaking the main character, Vince Mancini's, lines and thoughts will I was reading. That should give you a pretty good idea as to the tone of the book. As for the whole choking in restaurants thing, I can understand it for the attention, but as for the people who "save" him sending him checks and cards and such, I think that's a bit fartfetched. But hey, it's a fictional story. If that's the way Chuck wants it, that's the way it will be.

I'm anxious to see the movie now to see how it compares to the book. There's a lot of stuff in there that I'm wondering if the movie will portray or not. I mean, a book from the POV of a male sex-addict has some pretty interesting narrative and situations in it. LOL Plus, the whole situation with his mother and...well, let's just say you've got to read it. Keep in mind, Chuck P's books aren't for everyone. You'll either love them or you'll hate them. There is no in between.

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

A song that kills. Can you imagine that? That would be really deadly in the hands of someone like me, pun intended. Oh man, Myles. Think of the wondrous things we could do? *wink wink*

Anyways, back during Christmas time, Misty and I were roaming through Barnes and Noble for books for my mom and Myles, and of course, I end up looking at books for myself. So I picked up some Chuck P. books and Misty scans the back and says, "That looks really good" and takes it up to buy it. A few days later, she walks into my work with a box of homemade cookies and that book on top. =P Needless to say, life has been hugely busy for me since then and I haven't had a chance to read for pleasure until recently. And first I wanted to finish all the books I had started but not finished, which I'm pretty sure I got done. =) So after Misty stole it from me and read it, I just finished reading it. And it was awesome, if you like that sort of thing, that is.

Now, for those of you who don't like to know anything about a book before you read it, don't continue to read further. Knowing me, there's bound to be some spoilers in here. =)

I was hooked by the Prologue that Misty actually read aloud to me while I was putting away my laundry. =P It basically talks about Helen Boyle, "the hero", who is a real estate agent. But no, she's not just any type of real estate agent. That would be way to ordinary and simple for Chuck P. She's a real estate agent who acquires haunted properties and then continues to sell them over and over and over. After the Prologue describes her, we learn about Carl Streator being a reporter/journalist and how much he pays attention to details. And here is when I started to go "Huh? What does this have to do with anything?" Then, it begins to come together.

His boss ends up having him do a peice on SIDS, interviewing families and so on and so forth. Since Mr. Streator is so freaking wonderful at paying attention to details, he happens to notice that the same book is at all of the scenes, and that page 27 is where they were are left at. So our wonderful reporter makes the connection and the deduction and fingers it all out. =) He assures that he's right by reciting the culling poem/song to his boss...and his boss dies. =P So there we have it. He connects up with "the hero", Helen/realtor, and together, along with a couple of tagalongs, they go on the road to destroy all the copies. This is how good old Mr. Streator finds out what Helen is doing with her knowledge of the poem. They're also searching for the grimoire to be able to reverse the culling song and blah blah blah.

Good story. I liked it. Of course, the editor I am found a couple of things that annoyed me or bothered me. The first was the way the main character described everything. "The details of the man are..." I understand this is because the guy was a reporter and we had this whole long diatribe about him paying attention to detail. But it felt very intrusive when every single character and location in the book was described that way. There was something off about it to me. Then again, good old Chuck might have done that on purpose for all I know. The other thing that bothered me was that I was confused about how Carl's wife and daughter died. Maybe it was me not paying attention, maybe it wasn't really said, but I was left wondering why. Or did Carl read the culling song to them from a book before he knew what it was a what it did.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. A lot. I'll definitely be keeping it in my library. =) And I'll also be picking up some more of his works, too.

Phantom Waltz by Catherine Anderson

I read this book years ago...it was one I took from my mom's shelf...and when she recently gave me all of her books since she was "cleaning house", I remember this one and just had to reread it. Most hero and heroines are perfect specimans of human beings that each one of us who about them would love to be them or look like them, or something. But in this book, the heroine, Bethany, isn't so perfect. Due to a barrel-racing accident she's left in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Bethany was warm, witty, and really believable. The author did a perfect job at bringing us into Bethany's world and enabling the reader to completely understand how she feels and where she is coming from. And Ryan? Oh, man. Why hasn't God created more men like him. For serious. He is EVERYTHING a girl could dream of. Gorgeous, extremely thoughtful, rich, a cowboy...the whole nine yards.

It was really different to read a story with this element, but the author really did a great job with this one. I don't normally believe in the "love right from the beginning" stories, but this one had me. It REALLY had me. =) Put this one on your to-be-read list.

Perfect by Judith McNaught

I just finished reading this one on my lunch hour today. I started it back in January on one of my many plane rides when on my Hawaii trip, but I found that I was having a really hard time getting into it for some reason. Which is really odd for me, considering the fact that Judith McNaught is one of my favorite authors. When I finally picked it back up again last week, I started looking at how I would change that sentence around, or if a sentence was too long, or all the filter words I came across. We got to talking about reading for pleasure on our Samhain editor loop, and Angela James said something that got me to thinking, or, as the end result was, thinking less. =) She said that you have to learn to seperate, to take your editor hat off and just read.

And that's exactly what I did.

I just read. And read. And then I read some more. I got home from work last night and spent about a total of four hours just sitting on the couch reading. And yes, I'm a fast reader, but Judith McNaught's books are pretty long. =) And you know what happened? I found myself loving the book, just as I love the rest of the Judith McNaught books I've read. I love her characters and I really loved Julie in this book. She's a strong, caring, compassionate woman, and I think she's a great example for many of us. She's an extremely giving person, and that's something that, well, to be honest, you just don't really see anymore.

I enjoyed the struggles and the conflict, too, which is something Judith is GREAT at. Especially in Whitney, My Love. When you read one of Judith's books, you think the happy ending is just around the corner, and then BAM! Something happens that's totally unexpected. But it's not some unbelievable "oh come on" happening. It's something very real. And Judith doesn't disappoint with this one.

And have I mentioned the hero yet? Zack Benedict? Hot damn! I absolutely adore my Myles, but if was just a teeny bit like Zack you can bet I wouldn't be complaining. =)

To sum it up, Perfect was a damn good book. =)

Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

I've been reading this one for the past few months, literally, and finally got around to finishing it. I'm caught up on my editing, and even ahead of the game so I've had some time to actual read for pleasure. Not that I don't enjoy the stories I edit, but it's different. =)

I've heard of Lisa Jackson, but I must admit, I'm so out of the loop lately that I'd never read one of her books. Glad I did. I really liked it and was actually emotionally involved, which is something that's hard to do with me. I liked Cissy and I could relate to all of her actions, she's the opposite of her name, which is nice in a heroine. I also had very strong feelings toward the hero, but if I try to explain them at all, it will spoil part of the book, which is just no good. Lots of action and it kept me engaged all the way through out. I must say, the last fifth of the book was phenomenal and completely surprised me. I LOVE a book where the ending does that to me. That's really rare to find for me, too.

This one definitely gets an A from me. =) Pick a copy of it up here.

Arousing Suspicions by Marianne Stilling

Just finished reading this one over my lunch hour today. Loved it! I don't think I really have anything negative to say about it, other than the fact that I wish the ending would have been more of a surprise. I think I've read so many similar stories that I had already guessed it, just not all the details of it. It was still really good though.

I loved the chemistry betwen Tabby and Nate, too. They worked well together. And now that I think about characters, I think there were some secondary characters that could have been left out, like Jani, Tabby's best friend. She's only in the book for one scene, and the conversation she and Tabby had could have taken place between Tabby and someone else. I guess I'm one of those that sees no point in bringing characters into a book if they're only going to be in it for one scene. I know there are times when that is okay, but in most cases, it's not needed. It's just another name for the reader to try and remember and sort out who that person is.

But, like I said before, I don't really have anything bad to say about this book. I will now pass it on to Jennifer, who it rightfully belongs to. When I gave her the donated books, she ended up leaving half of them with me to read, since she said she'd never be able to finish them that quickly. Plus, they've been in a hotel for a while, and that means not much room. So, I'm getting to read some of them. :)

But, I digress.

Good book, recommended read!