WWW Wednesday, 17-August-2016

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community.

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Currently reading: Unfortunately, I have no new update on In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. I was out-of-town for the weekend (again) and couldn’t find the time. I hope to make some more progress soon.
I’m really enjoying In One Person by John Irving. It has all of the classic Irving tropes so far and for some reason, they never get old for me. I have two weeks to finish this for my book club and it’s a bit long so I hope I make it!
I started the audiobook for World Without End by Ken Follett and so far I absolutely love it. Follett is an amazing writer and this one is just as enjoyable as the first. It’s 26 files on my phone and I’m on file three. It’s going to be a long run.

Recently finished:I really enjoyed The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman a lot more than I thought I would. His advice makes sound sense to me and I’ve been trying it out a bit with my husband. I’m still trying to figure out his language by speaking them all and seeing what he responds to.

Three reviews for you all this week! It’s crazy, I know. Last Thursday was 10% Happier by Dan Harris. I enjoyed the book for its memoir qualities but I’m not going to start meditating anytime soon. Three out of Five stars.
The second is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne. No surprise here, I loved it. A full Five out of Five stars and a possible reread at any point in the future.
The third is Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles. This was a solid read that reminded me of A Separate Peace but was enjoyable in its own way. Four out of Five stars.

Reading Next: I’ve got Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi on my bedside table. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to pick it up, but I’m looking forward to this one. So many people have said wonderful things.

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Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (5/5)

I was so beyond excited to read this book. I’ve been looking forward to it since it was announced and I went to a midnight release party to celebrate it. Would I surprise anyone if I said I finished it by 2:30 PM the day it came out? I didn’t think so.

Cover image via Goodreads

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

Other books by this author:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Illustrated by Jim Kay
Harry Potter y el orden del fenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter y el misterio del principe by J.K. Rowling
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Very Good Lives by J.K. Rowling
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

Summary from Goodreads:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

I was apprehensive, to be honest. This is my favorite franchise of all time, what if it wasn’t what I was hoping for? It was so fun to see the characters I love all grown up and grappling with parenting. It was great to meet the young children we only get a very brief glimpse into during the epilog of the 7th book. This was everything I could have hoped for. I’m going to try to keep this spoiler free and I’ll let you all know if you need to skip a paragraph.

I loved Scorpius and Albus. It would have been easy to make them similar to their fathers but Rowling (who I’m going to credit with the plot for this review) built them into entirely different people. I liked how they developed and interacted during the accelerated first years of the book and I enjoyed their relationship during the main focus of the plot as well. Again, I don’t want to get to any spoilers here, but Scorpius was very smart and resourceful when he needed to be and he had that Slytherin cunning to get him through.

If it’s not obvious, Scorpius was my favorite character. It was too easy to read Albus as a whiny teenager while Scorpius had real problems to deal with and a positive outlook on things that were beyond his control. I liked Ron the least. I thought he was turned too much into a bumbling dumb old man. It was disappointing.

I think Albus was easy to relate to. Growing up, I felt the pressure to be like my parents. I should be as successful as them, as happy as them, and do the work they did. I can’t imagine what that pressure would feel like if Harry Potter was my dad! The end of Deathly Hallows gives us a rosy view of Albus but this book really digs into the difficulty he has to go through.

J.K. Rowling
Image via The Telegraph

Ok, being vague here to not give away the plot. I liked Scorpius and Albus’s adventures in the meat of the novel. I liked what they had to go through to fix the problems and put things back to how they were. Was that vague enough? I hope so. If you read the book, I hope you know what I’m talking about.

I think the biggest difference to me between this play and the original novels was the multiple points of view. Not only do we get Albus and Scorpius’s conversations, but we have Harry and Ginny as well as Hermione and Ron. That was weird for me and threw me off a bit. I know it’s better for a play, but it was not ‘Harry Potter-y’ and to me was one of the most marked differences.

 

I think we’ve all wondered what would happen if one thing in our past changed. Maybe something that we consider insignificant but it could have resounding impacts on the future. I liked the way this was explored in the novel. (Again, trying to be vague here.) I thought the alternatives that were presented made sense and showed how important every part of our past can be.

Writer’s Takeaway: I hadn’t read a play in a while. I read Shakespeare in high school but I honestly think that might be the last time I cracked one open. It was fun to read this style again, but I see why Rowling needed some assistance to be an effective writer in this format. There’s a lot to consider with who is on stage when, how much you can do with effects, scene changes, etc. I think the team pulled the whole thing off well.

Yes, it’s because of the nostalgia and I don’t care. A full Five out of Five stars.

I did the math and the majority of this plot takes place in the future so I’m counting this title toward ‘the future’ time period for the When Are You Reading? Challenge.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Related Posts:
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling | GemsBookNook
Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne | Bookiecookie Blog

Book Release Party for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

It should be no surprise to anyone here that I made a point of going to the midnight release party for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It might surprise you that HP is the only form of cosplay I’ll engage in. My trip to Universal Studios in February added socks, a scarf, and a Slytherin pin to this ensemble. The rest is a time turner from a purchase at Barnes & Noble, a cape left over from one of my husband’s old Halloween costumes, an old black skirt (with running shorts underneath because man is that thing short!) and a t-shirt my sister-in-law made for me that says, “My Patronus is a Bookwork.” I added green eye shadow and was good to go. Thankfully, I was walking around Ann Arbor in a cape and not another city where this might be weird. Seriously, no one stared at me. Really.

We went to Literati Bookstore for the event. This is probably my favorite independent bookstore in existence for many reasons that I’ve articulated before. It was raining that night so my good friend Kristine (my partner in magic for the night) and I didn’t explore AA too much before the event. We picked up some ice cream (and I Instagrammed the image on the left while in line of my awesome lip-liner scar) before heading over as fast as we could to Literati. The party started at ten but we got there at nine to look at books and grab a cup of tea. I’m glad we got there early because we got to talk to the staff about their amazing costumes and watch them set up, getting a good idea of the different things they’d set up around the store. There was a guest list of those who had registered so the store wasn’t overly crowded and we could get around easily which was great. You were handed a vial of ‘Liquid Luck’ (green tea) when you walked in and I’ll likely save the bottle forever. The basement had a sorting hat quiz. I surprisingly got Gryffindor for my results, with Slytherin second and Hufflepuff third. For consistency’s sake, I still took a Slytherin pin.

There were some incredible costumes. The staff was Fawkes, Draco, Harry, Luna, Trelawney, Moody, Dumbledore, Bellatrix, and Rita Skeeter. There was a costume contest for those not on staff and the winner was a girl dressed as Moody with an amazing staff and scars on her face. My second favorite were two moms who dressed as the Weasley twins. Their daughters were so proud. They were serving Butterbeer from the Espresso Bar and there was a birthday cake for everyone to take a slice of. The first movie was playing in the cafe all night except for the costume contest. There were stations for wand making and temporary tattoos. I was surprised to see a few girls get the ‘I must not tell lies’ tattoo on their wrists. Come on, people! My favorite was a young 10-year-old who walked up to her dad and put a lightening bolt right on his hairline and he didn’t flinch. Dad of the year right there!

At 20-till we lined up on the first floor in front of the registers.  I was so excited! Kristine took a few pictures of me and I think it’s pretty obvious how excited I am! We counted down to midnight and I immediately led the crowd in a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ for Harry. I didn’t exactly cry when I was handed my copy, but I was darn close!

It was late and I had a long drive so Kristine and I parted ways and I headed home. Due to some lovely construction (thank you, Michigan Department of Transportation), it took me about an hour to get home. My plan was to read until I feel asleep, but the drive alone was rough so I didn’t want to push it. I read 40 pages before falling asleep.

I picked it right up in the morning and was half-way through before church. I finished it that afternoon. I don’t want to talk too much about the book here because I’ll post a review post next week.

Huge shout out to Kristine for going to this event with me! I had so much fun. It was 2007 the last time I went to a midnight release for a book and that was Potter as well. I doubt I’ll ever go to a launch for anything different. The magic is real and it never ends!

Until next time, write on.

 

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

WWW Wednesday, 3-August-2016

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived here on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses. Please, take some time to visit the other participants and see what others are reading. So, let’s get to it!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Note: For users of Blogspot blogs, I’m unable to comment on your posts as a WordPress blogger unless you’ve enabled Name/URL comments. This is a known WordPress/Blogspot issue. Please consider enabling this to participate more fully in the community.

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Currently reading: I read about a chapter of In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. My husband is out of town for a few days which might give me some time to read while I’m eating dinner alone. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I make a little progress here.
Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles is a short book and I’m hoping to finish it before this weekend when I head out of town. Then I can take just my ‘next’ book with me and not worry about running out of reading material. Maybe I’ll send another book ahead just in case…
The audiobook I want to listen to next has a hold on it, so in the meantime, I’m going to listen to The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I had a roommate in college who read this and talked to me about how it helped her relationship with her boyfriend and ever since, I’ve been interested in listening to it myself. It’s a shorter audiobook so I hope I can power through it before the other hold comes in.

Recently finished: I finished off two! The first was 10% Happier by Dan Harris. This was a cross between a memoir and a self-help book. I liked it, but I wasn’t convinced to start meditating, not just yet. I understand how mindfulness might help a person and I understand there are proven health benefits, but I’m still a skeptic. I struggle to fit in my five minutes a day of prayer! We’ll see how that goes. Review will be up soon.
I don’t know how I could have blanked on this, but another WWW reminded me that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling would be released before this week’s WWW. I’ll post soon about the release party I went to and I’ll add that I finished it about 14 hours after starting it. The book reads really fast because of the formatting and it was one I want to reread soon because speeding through it, I’m sure I missed something.

Reading Next: I’ll be taking In One Person by John Irving with me on vacation this weekend. I’m not sure if it’s much of a beach read, but I’m really looking forward to diving into Irving. I love his crazy-twisted books.
The next audiobook I plan to undertake is World Without End by Ken Follett. This will be a long trek and I’m ready to make it because I enjoyed the first book so much. I’ll likely lose the hold and have to come back to it a few times, but I hope it will be worth it in the end.

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Leave a comment with your link and a comment (if you’re so inclined). Take a look at the other participant links in the comments and look at what others are reading.

Have any opinions on these choices?

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Challenge Update, July 2016

I was finally able to pick it up in July! Woo. I’m hoping to carry this through August because after that it will be back to school and hard for me to fit too much reading in again. You can look at my progress at any time on my challenge page.

Books finished in July:

Truth & Beauty // Ann Patchett
In the Hand of Dante // Nick Tosches
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Illustrated) // J.K. Rowling and John Kay
The Drunken Botanist // Amy Stewart
The Invention of Wings // Sue Monk Kidd
10% Happier // Dan Harris
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child // J.K. Rowling

Reviews are up for all except the last two, both of which I finished Sunday. I’ll get to them soon. You can tell I’ve been writing reviews pretty soon after finishing books lately. I think my reading has slowed down since I got my new job about a year ago but I’m still reading as much as I can and I’m much happier in the new role.

When Are You Reading? Challenge

11/12
This is my challenge to read a book from 13 different time periods. You can read about it here. I’m glad to say I added TWO this month! I filled in 1800-1899 with The Invention of Wings, set during American slavery. I decided to count Cursed Child for the future. If you do the math, it starts 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts (1997+19=2016) but a lot of the action takes place three years later (2016+3=2019) so I’m counting it in the future. One more to go! I’ll have to see about finding a book set in the 1600s, it was a challenge last year as well.

Goodreads Challenge

30/45
Four ahead! I’m feeling a lot better about this. For a while, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I’m out of the woods now and we’ll have to see how I finish out the year. This is a good time for me to feel like I can start a long audiobook.

Book of the Month

This probably seems obvious, doesn’t it? A big Potterhead like me, picking a book of the month. Yes, I’m going to pick Harry every time and this month, my favorite book was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling. I’ll be posting more about the book in the coming days so look out for more about how amazing this book was.

Added to my TBR

I only added three! And one of these I’ve already started so ha! I’m really proud of this because, for a while, it seemed my TBR would never go down but I’m knocking it apart bit by bit now.

• A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. I’m not sure how this wasn’t on my list before. I’m a bit ashamed of that.
• Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple. This got great reviews when it came out and I got it from the library sale for $1. What’s not to love?
• The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I needed a short audiobook to listen to while waiting for a hold to come in and this seemed a good filler for the time I have. I started it yesterday and I hope to finish it soon.

How are your challenges going? I hope you’re killing it. If you love historical fiction, give some thought to my challenge, it’s fun!

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!

Book Nerd News 23-Feb-16

As many of you know, I took last week off from blogging. There were two things that happened while I was ‘off’ that I think are worth discussing with  you like-minded folk here in the blogosphere. My opinions are below.

Amazing News: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be released as a book on July 31.

AHH! It’s real, the magic is continuing. J.K. Rowling worked with other writers to put together a two-part stage play of an eighth book in the Harry Potter universe which begins after Harry sends Albus Severus off on the train to Hogwarts. The play opens on July 30th and the screenplay will be available on July 31st.

Honestly, I think I’m going to go into work late on the 31st. There’s a midnight release party at a bookstore in Ann Arbor that I want to go to. Honestly, I love that Rowling is still invested in her characters and thinking about them so long after the book ended. Things keep happening for Potter fans and the magic hasn’t ended. Now I’ve got to find a way to make it to London to see this show on stage!

(News source)

Sad News: Harper Lee passed away.

I heard about this while at Disney World. Not the best place to hear such downer news. This makes me really sad and really angry at the same time. Lee’s book Go Set a Watchman was published late last year to mixed reviews (including my own). The circumstances surrounding its publication were a little hazy and in my opinion, a bit shady. It seemed like a cash grab by some greedy lawyers and publishers. It makes me sad that the last thing people will remember about Harper Lee is this mediocre book which never should have seen the printing press. We should remember her for the amazing book that many of us read in high school and gave us a great message about race and what it means to be human. RIP, Ms. Lee.

 

Reader, I’d love your thoughts on these two huge pieces of news. I’ve been dying to have some good literary conversations. Leave me a comment and let me know.

Until next time, write on.

You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!