Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Okay, so this actually more of a movie review. On Friday morning I went to see the move (Part 1), and then I read the entire book over the weekend, finishing last night. Normally I would have reread the book prior to seeing the movie, but this time I just wanted to experience the movie, and then read the book again to see what might have been different.

I have to say, the movie held very true to the book. They changed some things from narrative to action, and the kids didn't spend nearly as much time in Grimmauld Place in the movie as they did in the book, but for the most part they kept almost everything. I guess that's why the movie was 140 minutes long or so. But it was definitely not too long, and they ended it at a good place.

Based on my reading the whole novel, I think most of Part 2 will be the final battle at Hogwarts. And that will make for a very exciting and action-packed movie.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

The Society of S

This is the first in the series of Susan Hubbard's ethical Vampire novels, and I did not like it as much as I liked The Season of Risks. I think that is because in this one, Ari is just learning that she is a Vampire, and all that goes with it, so it's kind of... young, I guess. Plus Ari is younger in overall experience than she is in the later novel, so her adventures are more childish, at least to me.

That's not to say that this isn't a good book - it is. There's some interesting ideas about Vampires, and some good humor, and Ari's father is a much more important character in this novel than in the third one. I particularly like that subject matter he feels it's important to educate her about and the things he doesn't - at 13 she can recite Poe poems but she can't ride a bike. I also like that he goes to Baltimore for Poe's birthday every year - after all, Poe was "one of us."

I would probably have liked the novel more if I had read it before I read The Season of Risks, but I still liked it. It's definitely a good Vampire novel.

Society of S, The

The Swan Thieves

This was a beautifully written novel that I did not fully understand until the very end - all 560 or so pages of it. Elizabeth Kostova writes deep, rich, intriguing characters, as anyone who has read The Historian knows. But she also writes with a great deal of mystery - I honestly had no idea that things would turn out as they did.

Robert is a troubled artist, seemingly obsessed with a woman long dead. Marlow is the doctor at the sanitarium who will seemingly do almost anything to help him. I didn't particularly like Robert, although he is certainly an intriguing character. He's just almost too... everything - self-absorbed, moody, unpredictable, and often dishonest. Marlow on the other hand is more my style - smart, quietly humorous, solicitous. Not that the novel is entirely about these two men, but it's impossible not to compare them.

But at the heart of the novel is the story of Beatrice de Clerval, one of the greatest woman Impressionist painters, who mysteriously stopped painting at the tender age of 29. What is the connection between Robert and Beatrice, and why is he obsessed with her? I had all sorts of ideas about, but came nowhere near figuring out the truth. And that is Kostova's gift.

I highly recommend this book, whether you liked The Historian or not. It's just a fabulous (if hard to carry) story.

Kostova's The Swan Thieves A Novel (The Swan Thieves: A Novel by Elizabeth Kostova)

The Season of Risks

Yes, this novel is part of a vampire series - "ethical vampires" - but it's really quite different from the other Vampire series I have read, and I very much enjoyed this book.

These vampires live among humans - though they may or may not make themselves known. They mostly subsist on synthetic blood and food - oysters are an excellent nutritional source. They lives fairly normal daily lives, and don't explode in the sun (though they are highly susceptible to sunburn). They can also read people's thoughts and turn invisible, which is pretty cool.

Ariella is actually a hybrid - half vampire, half human - so she often feels like she doesn't fit in. In order to have a real relationship with Neil Cameron, the man she is in love with, she decides she wants to take the artificial aging drug Septimal, which will age her 7 years, taking her from 15 to 22. What happens after that is strange, confusing, confounding, and highly entertaining.

I really enjoyed this book. Author Susan Hubbard writes wonderful characters - we really like the ones we're supposed to like, and we really dislike the ones we ought to. She also writes believable "vampireness," without the sticky Southern sweetness of the Sookie Stackhouse books. I'm definitely going to go back to the beginning and read The Society of S, the first novel in the series.

The Season of Risks: An Ethical Vampire Novel

Gourmet Rhapsody

I loved Muriel Barbery's first novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. At least I thought that was her first novel... turns out she wrote this one first, but Hedgehog was the first one translated for an English-speaking audience.

This novel is about the great French food critic Pierre Arthens, who is on his deathbed and searching for that elusive "flavor" that gave his life meaning. Through brief chapters we are taken back through Arthens' memories, as well as the thoughts and memories of family-members and friends. I had difficulty getting into the novel - the story and characters just didn't grab me the way those in Hedgehog did, and I found the back-and-forth between Arthens and others a bit tedious at first. But I stuck with it, and I wound up really enjoying the story.

I think what I liked best was the marvelous descriptions of food, and the way food can be experienced. None of the characters ever wound up grabbing my sympathy - we don't really spend enough time with any of them, except Arthens, and he is a pompous, nasty old man. But the food - and drink - are almost their own characters, and well worth the read.

Gourmet Rhapsody

Savor the Moment

I like Nora Roberts - I'm a fan. I liked this book, I did. And I read the first two books in this series, and I liked them. They are great beach reads, or time-passers for the Metro or the dentist's office. But deep and meaningful, great literature? Absolutely not.

It's a really nice story about great friends, falling in love, and being happy. But it's just SO FAR REMOVED FROM REALITY. I mean, seriously, there is a group of four women friends who all work and basically live together, and they never seem to argue? And they are all beautiful (though in different ways of course) and sexy and love their jobs and are fabulous at what they do? And the men in their lives are all gorgeous and well-employed (some even wealthy), and they all have deep feelings that they SHARE? I'm sorry, but please tell me what planet that is, because it isn't like anything I have ever experienced on Earth.

As I said, it's a nice escape, a good read, but it's just too... unreal. If I were an 18-year-old girl reading these novels I would fall into a serious depression, wondering what the hell was wrong with me and my life. C'mon, Nora, let's write something that normal people can identify with, OKAY?

Savor the Moment (The Bride Quartet, Book 3)