Harry Potter

A friend of mine IMed me yesterday to give me her theory on who R.A.B. is in book Six of the Harry Potter series. If you haven't read Harry Potter, I'd think you're crazy!

I first read Harry Potter in college, after several of my sorority sisters raved about the book. On a whim I bought the first three books at the same time. Unbelievably, the books were so easy to read, I plowed through them just like that! *snaps fingers*

Naturally it's because the books originally were written for children, but after gaining world-wide recognition and an international audience ranging from children to adults, book 4 came out thick and was "in-between" the different audiences, book 5 was no exception and then book 6 came out just last year. With a dark twist! My friend and I have re-read the books so many times, we have both lost count! All this while waiting for book seven, supposedly the final book in the series.

Harry Potter is a wizard who attends the Hogwarts School. Hogwarts is for all of the coming of age wizards so they can learn to better channel their magic and, as they get older, specialize in what their talents provide them with. The reason Harry is so famous is because he survived an attack by one of the baddest wizards of them all - Voldemort. The thing is that he survived it when he was a baby and the attack left a visible scar on his forehead. I mean if you all already read the books, you'd already know all this.

Rumor has it that Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter series), is still in the middle of writing book seven. My friend thinks it must be because it'll be SO thick. Nevertheless, I just can't wait for it to come out so I can read it and finally get all of the answers that the first six books brought up. Every time a book was finished, there would be more unanswered questions than there were answers.

If you have not read Harry Potter, please do so! You're missing out on a great series! I wonder about whether Rowling has plans for anything beyond book Seven. I mean, the reason there are only seven books is because Hogwarts is a seven-year program for all of the young wizards while they're learning how to hone their skills, but now my question is, how does the wizards live after they "graduate" from Hogwarts? Would Rowling expand her seven-book series by including a few books that focuses on Harry Potter and his friends beyond Hogwarts? Or will Rowling have all of the questions answered by the time book Seven is complete?

Only time will tell - but I assure you, as soon as Book Seven is announced, I am pre-ordering it and having it delivered to me the day it is released so that I can start reading it and finish it as soon as possible!

'Til next time, keep reading!

-j

What I bought instead...

Now I'm "up north" in good old Canada! But wanted to take a few minutes and tell you what I ended up buying at the RIT bookstore. It was this book by a woman named Harrison (last name, mind you, I can't remember her first name!) and the book's called "Dead Witch Walking" - seems to be the first book - the second book is called "The Good, The Bad and the Undead" - of course, sci-fi/fantasy genre - I can't seem to get away from this genre!

Read the first 6 chapters (of many) so far, I've found it to be quite interesting. Will give you a full review of it once I finish it.

Just that I actually went out and bought SOMETHING! :)

'Til next time, keep reading!

-j

Books to check out...

I just wanted to write in here today and put down a list of my own to remind myself of the books that I saw at the RIT bookstore and would like to check them out.

All Sci-Fi/Fantasy books (my favorite genre!)

1) Dragon's Eye by Hetley
2) Laws of the Blood series - by Sizemore
3) The Book of Skulls by Silverberg (now this one is supposed to be made into a feature movie, should be a good movie - but then again not all books into film are good - but that's an entire topic of its own which deserves a post of its own).

I also like mystery (murder mysteries are fascinating!). Those are the book genres that I would limit myself to - because my criteria for liking a book is one that I cannot put down even though I'm sooo tired, or if I'm going to the kitchen to get something to drink, I actually bring the book with me, that's when I know this book is addictive, and once I know that, I look up the author's other books to read as well. With my previous post about Kelley Armstrong, I'm not sure if I neglected to mention that I have ALL of her books (only 6 so far, but I have them all) - sci-fi/fantasy there for Armstrong, but with Patricia Cornwell - she is a mystery writer - fascinating too from the perspective of a Chief Medical Examiner who is also female, so of course, I can relate to that. Another author I'm also enraptured with is James Patterson. His style of writing is interesting, he keeps his chapters short but filled with so much detail.

I admire authors out there who do it for a living, how they can get the creativity to write, while growing up I've always wanted to be a writer myself, but when I start a story, I often find myself at an obstacle, which is well known as "Writer's Block" which I hate. Once I have writer's block, I give up easily. *sigh* Got to get over that obstacle then the rest of it should be easy? Well - nothing in life is ever easy.

I'm going to shut up and head over to the bookstore to get one of the three books mentioned above as I saw them there - and will be sure to let you know how the book is!!

'Til next time - keep reading!

-j

Kelley Armstrong

As my first post in this new blog - books reviewed by *ahem* yours truly... I decided to give a fellow Canadian the honor of being mentioned.

Kelley Armstrong is a new writer from Canada, and I got hooked into her by the recommendation of another author while I was browsing on the internet. After reading her first novel, Armstrong was able to get her claws into me, as one of her permanent fans. I'm not surprised if there are many others that Armstrong's writings have clawed into her world of "Women of the Otherworld".

The first book, Bitten, talks about a werewolf pack, and there is only ONE female werewolf in the entire pack, and she was bitten by one of the other males who couldn't imagine life without her. But it's not a romance novel, mind you. There are adventures, there are a lot of struggles that the werewolves go through just to maintain a normal life. It's quite fascinating. The second book, Stolen, introduces other characters from other supernatural races, witches, sorcerers, vampires, demons. From that second book on, Armstrong is able to spin a big tale surrounding each or one of the races. Her following novels: Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, Haunted and Broken meets expectations.

Kelley Armstrong also has her own website: www.kelleyarmstrong.com, this is a cool website - it has the synposis of all of her books, as well as three prequels (online novellas) prior to her first novel - Bitten, and some other online novellas that shoot out of the novels. A must visit!

This is a series that I recommend to those who have a love for the supernatural/fantasy genre (werewolves, witches, vampires, sorcerers, demons, etc.)

I recommended to a friend and lent her the first two books, she finished them both in like 2-4 days, and then lent her the next two books, she said that she was so fascinated by those books and she kept reading and reading, and she couldn't put the books down! She has an interest in the supernatural, so this kind of book is ideal for those who enjoy this genre.

More authors to come soon - but Kelley Armstrong had to be the first to get the honor of being mentioned in this blog first!

Til next time, keep reading and flipping those pages!

-j