Top Ten Tuesday: And Then a Heroine Comes Along

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Favorite Heroines."  I've decided to list mine in alphabetical order by first name because I am late getting this post finished and I don't want to take the time and mental energy to figure out whom I like best.  I'm also going to list a few attributes I associate with each of them, though, so you can get an idea of what they are like!

Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Jane Austen -- shy, quiet, sensible, loyal, kind, tenacious, bookish

Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery -- quirky, imaginative, bookish, starry-eyed, stubborn

Constance Kopp from Girl Waits with Gun and the rest of the Kopp Sisters series by Amy Stewart -- sensible, down-to-earth, brave, stalwart, capable, determined

Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling -- intelligent, loyal, courageous, level-headed, resourceful, curious, bookish

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- strong-willed, strong-minded, indomitable, resilient, affectionate

Jo March from Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott -- independent, smart, imaginative, bookish, understanding, stubborn, resourceful, dependable

Mary Russell from The Beekeeper's Apprentice and the rest of the series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King -- willful, intelligent, gutsy, bookish, indomitable, skillful

Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series by Jasper Fforde -- trustworthy, diligent, determined, curious, strong-willed

Trixie Belden from the Trixie Belden series by Kathryn Kenny -- smart, loyal, curious, pugnacious, determined

Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- bright, vibrant, bookish, diligent, kind, forthright

Well, from my listing of random character traits and descriptions, I think we can see the sorts of traits I value in fictional characters!  There are a lot of similarities here, aren't there?

The In or Out Tag

Spotted this at both Deborah Koren's blog and Cindy's Book Corner and thought it looked like too much fun to pass up :-)

Unlike most tags, there are no rules about thanking people or tagging people.  If you want to fill it out, you can!  If you don't, then don't!  

Reading the Last Page First -- OUT.  I can only remember doing this once, and it was for And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field.  I did it that time because the first section of the book made it sound like the book was going to end differently than the 1944 movie, and I adore the 1944 movie, so I had to find out if it ended the same way or not.  Because, if it didn't, I wasn't going to bother reading the whole book.  But it does, so I did read it.  And loved it.

Ordinarily, though, I don't want to ruin the flow of a story by reading the ending first.

(Bwahaha!  I snuck an Alan Ladd picture in here!)

Enemies to Lovers -- IN.  It's not my favorite trope, but I love books like Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and the Anne of Green Gables books a lot, and they all use this, so I'm fine with it.

Dream Sequences -- IN.  Sometimes, I don't even mind "it was all a dream."

Love Triangles -- IN.  They're a classic.  I've even used them myself, like in My Rock and My Refuge.  

(This and all the following book photos
are mine from my Instagram account.)

Cracked Spines -- OUT.  OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT.  My mother gave me a boxed set of four Jane Austen novels for my birthday when I was in my upper teens.  Then she borrowed them each in turn to read herself and absolutely destroyed their spines.  Not only did they no longer fit in the slipcover, you couldn't even read the titles on the spines.  They made me sad every time I looked at them, and I eventually gave them away.  I still have my original Anne of Green Gables paperbacks that my mom also ruined that way, but my grandma gave me those, so I keep them anyway.

Now, a caveat to all that, though -- if I'm buying a used copy of a vintage paperback, like a Louis L'Amour or a Rex Stout or something like that, I am super fine with the book looking like it lived in someone's back pocket for weeks on end fifty years ago.  In fact, I prefer those to shiny, new copies for specific genres and authors.  But I WILL NOT contribute MORE crackage to their spines.  And I prefer them not to be so cracked that I can't read the title anymore.

Back to My Small Town -- IN.  Although "someone new comes to town, and everything changes" is my favorite trope, I also love "someone comes back home, and everything changes."  Probably my favorite versions of that are the book The Count of Monte Cristo and movie The Lone Ranger (2013).

 

No Paragraph Breaks -- OUT.  Also, ew.  Also, I don't think I've ever read a book like that, but I'm against it on principle.

Multi-generational Sagas -- IN.  I mean, I'm embarking on a quest to read all of the Sackett novels by Louis L'Amour this year, so I'm obviously a fan, right?  Also, I love historical fiction, and that sort of thing generally involves lots of history.

Monsters Are Regular People -- OUT if you mean horrific villains are portrayed as normal and acceptable.  IN if you mean stories where vampires just wanna make friends and hold down a job.  Angel (1999-2004) is my second-favorite TV show of all time, after all.

Re-Reading -- IN.  I reread a LOT.  I've estimated that 1 out of 4 books I read is a reread, usually.  This past year, it was closer to 1 in 3 -- I read 103 books, and 29 were rereads.

Artificial Intelligence -- OUT.  I don't read much sci-fi, and I just am not a fan of sentient robots in general.

Drop Caps -- IN.  They usually look amazing.

Happy Endings -- IN.  I LOVE happy endings!!!

Plot Points That Only Converge at the End -- IN, as long as the book isn't too long.  I must admit, I've never read a book by Tom Clancy because I've heard so many people talk about how he'll start like eight little plots going and you never find out how they're related until the very end, and that does sound kind of daunting to keep straight.  But J. K. Rowling did the same thing over the course of the Harry Potter series, really, and I loved that.  So... I'm not against it, anyway.

Detailed Magic Systems -- IN if I don't have to read all the details.  Out if the book is basically a travelogue about a fictional world.  This is part of why I don't read a ton of fantasy and sci-fi.  Descriptions of places and how things work bore me, and if that's the bulk of your first few chapters, I'm outta here.

Classic Fantasy Races -- IN.  The fantasy I do dig, such as The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and Harry Potter, all use classic things like unicorns and elves and dwarves and centaurs and dragons. 

Unreliable Narrators -- OUT.  I am not a fan.  I want to trust the narrator to tell me what's going on.  If I can't, I'm probably going to dislike the book.

Evil Protagonists -- OUT.  One of the things I demand from fiction is that it restore moral balance by the end of the book.  Also, if the protag is evil, I'm really not going to want to like them.  And if I don't like the protag, and they either have to face dire consequences or will get away with being evil... why would I want to read that?  Why???

The Chosen One -- IN.  Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, Eragon, the Pevensie kids... I'm totally a fan.

When the Protagonist Dies -- IN and OUT.  Ordinarily, I hate it.  I want my happy ending.  Buuuuuuut... Hamlet dies.  And I adore Hamlet.  I can be okay with protag death if that still results in a good ending.

Really Long Chapters -- IN, I guess?  I don't care, when I read.  I tend to write short chapters, though.

French Flaps -- OUT just because I don't really have any books with them and they seem annoying.  I had to look up what they are, though.

Deckled Edges -- IN.  I am a very sensory, tactile-oriented person, and how a book feels can matter a lot to me.  Like, I really can't stand cloth-bound books and avoid buying them.  I love the feel of deckled edges :-)

Signed Copies by the Author -- IN!  Why would anybody not want that?

Dog-Earing Pages -- IN!  Books are not sacred objects.  It's okay to bend the pages.  When I was just starting to read chapter books, I had a toddler brother who delighted in pulling bookmarks out of every book he found, so for several years, dog-earing was a necessity.  I usually use a bookmark, but if I don't have one, I don't feel guilty about dog-earing. 

Chapter Titles Instead of Numbers -- IN!  But be aware I will probably ignore them completely.

I was not tagged with this, so I'm not tagging anyone else, but if you think this looks fun, by all means fill it out yourself!

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J. K. Rowling

Whew.  I blazed through this book at about four times the speed of Order of the Phoenix.  Even though I also cry during this one, it didn't have the same sort of dread for me, so I didn't keep putting off reading it.

These books continue to feel extremely timely, with social and political upheaval disrupting ordinary life, dangers encroaching on wary and unwary alike, and so on.  I particularly loved the themes of standing by your friends and offering grace to your enemies.

I feel like this book might have benefited from a little tighter editing -- there were a few places where discussions of feelings seemed repetitive, or when things got reexplained that readers should be trusted to remember.  But not to the point where I got annoyed.  There really is a LOT going on in this book, both tying together threads from previous books and setting stuff up for the next one, and most of it simply is needed!

This is the first Harry Potter book I bought my own copy of.  It was the first one to get released after I was in the fandom, and I planned to get it from the library to read, not buy a copy.  But I was working overnights at Walmart at that time, and it released at midnight one Tuesday when I was at work.  Our store was offering some kind of excellent deal on it, like 25% off the cover price for release day or something, and I ended up buying it on my way out that morning.  And was not sad that I did :-)

Only one book left in my quest to read all of Harry Potter this year!

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

"...I make mistakes like the next man.  In fact, being -- forgive me -- rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger" (p. 197).

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth" (p. 564-65).

"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water.  "I am with you" (p. 578).  (This time through, that line is where I cried the most in the whole book.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for magical violence, a more liberal sprinkling of bad words than I'd remembered (but still not continuous or severe), and quite a bit of time spent kissing or daydreaming about kissing.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J. K. Rowling

It took me a couple of months to read this book.  Not because it is hard to read, or because it's 870 pages long, but because I knew what was coming at the end and I just kept dragging my feet about getting there.  Also, I was loving how much Sirius Black gets to be in this one!  He gets more page-time in it than in the previous two books combined, and I adore that.  So much Sirius.

(Spoilers in this paragraph if you haven't read this book or seen this movie.)  Of course, Sirius is also why I didn't want to get to the end of this.  Because he dies, and it's such a sudden, gut-punch kind of death that I did not want to reach it.  Interestingly, I didn't cry when he died this time.  I cried a little later, when Harry unwrapped the mirror he could have been using all this time to communicate safely and easily with Sirius, but never got around to opening.  The thought of Sirius checking that mirror over and over for months, always hoping Harry would be there, and always being disappointed really got to me.

I will admit, though, that this was a hard read because it felt horribly relevant right now.  A proliferation of little rules to try to control every aspect of someone's lives?  Rules about who can go where and with whom, demands for compliance with things individuals don't agree with, firing people for not toeing every new line drawn arbitrarily in the sand, and a general attack on personal freedoms... no, that doesn't sound familiar at all, does it?  I'm sick of it in real life, and so reading a fictional version of that was not enjoyable.  I like my reading to be a time to experience new things, not be reminded of what I'm currently going through, and that's never been truer than this past 18 months or so.  

But I did finish it.  I did enjoy it, on a whole.  I'm very much looking forward to the next book, though I have some October reading commitments that mean I might have to put off book 6 until next month.  We'll see.

Mine from my instagram

Particularly Good Bits:

"No, like all young people, you are quite sure that you alone feel and think, you alone recognize danger, you alone are the only one clever enough to realize what the Dark Lord may be planning..." (p. 496).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for a lot of danger and peril, some child abuse and torture, and more bad language than in the previous books, though still nothing strongly offensive to me.

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag (2021)

Yeah, yeah, it's the end of August, so we're past the true middle of the year, but whatever.  I saw this on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness, and again on I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read), and it looked fun, so I'm doing it too :-D  Because I haven't done a tag in like... months.  And I love tags.

I'm linking all titles to my own blog reviews when available.  All pictures are mine from my Instagram account.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2021:  This is very hard because I've read/reread some awesome books this year.  I'll just go with The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas because it was even more wonderful than I was remembering.  For the last couple hundred pages, I would pause reading at least once a chapter just to revel in how much I was loving it.  Which sometimes involved small bounces or squeals of joy, and other times involved hugging the book.  Or taking a deep breath.  Or just grinning a lot.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2021:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling, which is my favorite Harry Potter book.  Oh, my goodness, it is so delightful!

And, yes, a lot of the reason it's my favorite is because Sirius Black is my favorite character in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Unquestionably.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to:  Ignite by Jenna Terese.  I had it in my sidebar here as "currently reading," but it wasn't quite the right book for me right now, so I've set it aside for a bit.  I hope to read it soon, though!  It's Christian indie fiction about superheroes!  I'm sure I will enjoy it when I'm in the right mood.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:  The London House by Katherine Reay!  I'm so excited to see what she does with historical fiction.

Biggest disappointment in 2021:  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  At least it was short.

Biggest surprise in 2021:  Probably Caraval by Stephanie Garber, because YA fantasy is not my usual thing, but I inhaled that book in 2 days.  The sequels were good too, but didn't grab me as hard as that first one.  My goodness, it was such a delicious, dizzying ride!

Favorite new author in 2021:  Emily Hayse!  I absolutely adored These War-Torn Hands and want to read more of hers ASAP.  I'm eagerly anticipating the next book in this series, The Beautiful Ones, but I'm also interested in reading some of her previous books, even though they're not westerns :-o

Newest fictional crush/ship: For ship, it's Rue and Robbie in Wait Until Tomorrow by Jenni Sauer.  They were such a sweet, supportive, kind couple!

For crush, well, Declan in On These Black Sands by Vanessa Rasanen was awfully lunchable.  

Newest favorite character: Jack Selby in These War-Torn Hands by Emily Hayse.  My goodness, he was marvelous.  He made me cry, melt, cheer, sigh... all the things.  I can't wait to read more about him.

Book that made you cry in 2021: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling hit me a lot harder this time around than I was expecting.  Not just the death at the end, but so much of the growing-up stuff that Harry, Ron, and Hermione go through made me tear up a lot.

Book that made you happy in 2021: I reread Shane by Jack Schaefer while in Wyoming this summer, and it was glorious.  My goodness, that book gets better and better every time I reread it.  (And yes, I took this photo in Wyoming.)

Favorite book-to-film adaption you saw in 2021:  Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) is probably my answer for "best book-to-movie adaptation" of all time.  I rewatched it this year for the first time in quite a while and it is still magnificent.  I'm considering starting to reread Patrick O'Brian's books once I finish the Harry Potter series.  

Favorite bookish post you’ve done so far in 2021: It's not a single post, but I really enjoyed leading the Sense and Sensibility read-along this past spring!  We had so many good discussions about the characters, storylines, Jane Austen's writing, the era it takes place -- good times :-)

Most beautiful book you bought so far in 2021:  My Seasons edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  It's almost too pretty to touch.  Good thing it came with a protective vinyl sleeve so I don't have to worry about ruining the paper dustjacket!

Books you need to read by the end of the year:  The last two Harry Potter books because I want to reread the whole series in one year :-)  I'm working on Order of the Phoenix right now, but I don't know that I'll finish it by the end of August.  I might, though!  We'll see.

How about you?  Have you had any spectacular reads this year?  Did you do this tag yourself already?  If so, leave a link in the comments so we can read it!

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J. K. Rowling

So, it took me like six weeks to read this one.  Not because it's more difficult (it's not) or longer (it is) than the previous three, but because... I was dragging it out as long as I could, to be honest.  This is the last one that's super fun, before the badness and the madness descends.  This is the last full book where (spoiler alert?!?) my favorite character is alive through the whole thing.  

I do really enjoy this book, which is part of why I lingered over it.  I suspect I'll read the last three much faster because I will not want to savor them, I'll want to get through a pretty big chunk of them quickly.  Kind of like how I read through the Frodo-and-Sam-wandering-around-Mordor parts of Lord of the Rings as fast as I can so I can get back to the parts I enjoy.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for mild bad language, peril of children, and an intense and scary finale.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J. K. Rowling

This is my favorite Harry Potter book.  It's the book that made me a real fan of the series, and it's the book that gave me my favorite character in that universe, Sirius Black.

I love this book so much, I lingered over it and made it last me for days and days instead of gobbling it down like I did the first two.  I would pause at favorite bits and savor them.  I reread my favorite page in the whole series multiple times.  I stopped and reread my favorite two chapters.  I let myself savor the story, the characters, the writing.  It was a glorious reread.

Happy times.

I was very much struck, this time, with Snape's correct assessment of Harry's character flaws.  He says, "famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself.  Let the ordinary people worry about his safety!  Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences" (p. 284).  How right you are, Snape!  Harry really does think he can do just about anything, and so far, he's gotten out of some bad scrapes pretty handily that he wouldn't have really needed to get out of if he hadn't gotten himself into them in the first place.  

This is a common thing in kids books, where kids just ignore the wise adults and go their merry way and solve everything on their own by doing ridiculously dangerous things.  I'm glad Rowling addresses that issue in her series, that she shows that this is NOT a good way to go about things, especially as the series progresses.  Yes, Harry is not an ordinary boy... but he's also only a boy.  And his stubborn belief that He Knows Best does have serious consequences at times.  As Lupin says about himself and his friends at Harry's age, "We were young, thoughtless -- carried away with our own cleverness" (p. 355).  It's a dangerous business, being young and thinking you're invincible.

Part of me wants to just stop here, with a vast array of possibilities ahead for Sirius and Harry, everything hopeful and unknown.  I won't.  I'll keep rereading the series.  But I'm also going to very much enjoy the next couple of weeks before I start book four, of living in this in-between world for a bit.

(Mine from my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Meanwhile, in the rest of the castle, the usual magnificent Christmas decorations had been put up, despite the fact that hardly any of the students remained to enjoy them.  Thick streamers of holly and mistletoe were strung along the corridors, mysterious lights shone from inside every suit of armor, and the Great Hall was filled with its usual twelve Christmas trees, glittering with golden stars.  A powerful and delicious smell of cooking pervaded the corridors, and by Christmas Eve, it had grown so strong that even Scabbers poked his nose out of the shelter of Ron's pocket to sniff hopefully at the air (p. 222).

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" said Black, with a terrible fury in his face.  "Only innocent lives, Peter!" (p. 375).

Black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile Harry had seen upon it.  The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask; for a moment, he was recognizable as the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding (p. 379).  (That's basically my favorite paragraph in the whole series.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some rude humor, mild bad language, peril to children, discussion of executions, and the very scary Dementors.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

My Year with Harry Potter continues rolling delightfully along!  I basically inhaled The Chamber of Secrets in three days.  I just kept sneaking off to read it whenever I had a few minutes, and that's such a delightful way to live :-)

My plan for this year is to make myself read at least two books between each installment of the Harry Potter series so that I won't just smush them all together in my head.  And to make their joy last longer.  I do love to savor things I particularly enjoy.  And I love to anticipate things -- sometimes the anticipation can be as pleasurable as the actual experience or even itself, to be honest.  So I simply cannot pick up the next book (which is my favorite) until I finish a cople of the books I have going right now, and that is kind of killing me... but also, I'm loving how much I am looking forward to it!

I find this book SO MUCH BETTER than the first one, which I reviewed here a couple weeks ago.  Of course, it helps that we don't have to spend as much time explaining the wizarding world, though Rowling deftly catches any potential new (or forgetful) readers up to speed on things like Quidditch and the Sorting Hat and why everyone's so scared of Voldemort.  But overall, the pacing in this second book is so much tighter than in the first one.  The mystery about the Chamber of Secrets gets rolling quickly, and the book's tension builds so beautifully to the very thrilling climax.  Having high human stakes for Harry to fight to protect was extremely effective.

Once again, we have characters learning to be kind to people who are different from them, how to be a good friend instead of a wishy-washy one, and how to treat those who some would say are inferior to you.  A huge theme here is the importance of actions versus words.  Good or bad intentions are not as important or as powerful as good or bad behavior.

Also, Dobby makes me laugh a lot.  The whole book does.  Wonderful stuff.

And Mrs. Weasley is #MomGoals.

(From my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger (p. 32).

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" (p. 333). (I know that gets quoted a lot, but It's Just So True I Must Mention It.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some rude humor, children in danger, and a pretty creepy gathering of ghosts.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J. K. Rowling

I have not read the Harry Potter books since 2007, when I reread the first six books to prepare for the seventh book's release.  So, I've decided it's high time to reread the whole series, and I'm calling 2021 My Year with Harry Potter.  

I've read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone three times before, which is once more than books 2 through 6 and twice more than book 7, which I've only read once.  The reason I've read this one an extra time is that, when I was a senior in college, I did an internship working for one of my college's literature professors.  I helped her teach classes, write tests, grade tests and papers, and so on.  It was great experience that has helped me a lot in teaching my own kids, my nieces and nephews, and the kids in our homeschool co-op.  I helped primarily with two classes: Poetry and Drama, and Creative Writing.  And for Creative Writing, this was one of the books the students studied.  I hadn't read this before, so I had to quick read it so I could help teach it.

That first time through, I thought it was reasonably clever and enjoyable, but I didn't love it.  I didn't feel any desire to read more of the series, so that was that.  But in 2004, I started seeing trailers for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in the theater, and I just loved how they set Shakespeare's "Double, double, toil and trouble" to music.  Really loved it.  And, well, I quite like Gary Oldman.  So that made two reasons why I wanted to see the movie in the theater.  However, I didn't want to see the third movie in a series in the theater without having read the books first.  And possibly seen the first two movies too, so I'd know what they were doing with the stories.  

So I got the first three books and first two movies out of the library.  I reread the first one and still thought it was okay.  Read the second one and thought, hmm, this is getting pretty interesting.  Read the third one and fell madly in love with Sirius Black and the series as a whole.  Even had time to watch the first two movies before going to see the third.  Then read books four and five.  Told myself I wasn't going to buy book six when it came out, but would wait for the library to get it, and then promptly bought a copy the first night it was available because I worked at Walmart on third shift, and there it was, and I could not resist it.  And put in a preorder for the last one, which is another story for another time.

Well, this is the first time I've reread any of these since the last one came out, so it's the first time reading them with full knowledge of how everything turns out.  I have to say, that makes it really poignant to read all about Harry's beginning, and his faith in Dumbledore, and the way he gets treated by Snape, and so on.  I really liked this first book better this time through than any of the previous ones.  It made me laugh aloud so often, and chortle with glee at how cleverly Rowling was setting things up for even the very last book, already here.  Wow.

I think one of the things I love most about these books is the theme of standing by your friends even when you don't agree with them.  That's an idea we need more of right now -- that you can disagree with someone, but not discard or dismiss them.  That it's okay for friends to have different views and ideas and even beliefs, and that friendship is what lets people be comfortable with those differences.

Anyway, I'm eager to dive into book two, but I have to finish a couple other things first before I can.  Soon!

Oh, and if you don't know, in this book, an orphaned boy named Harry Potter learns that he is a wizard when he turns eleven and gets invited to leave his repressive and abusive aunt and uncle to go attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  

Although it has the word 'witchcraft' in the school title, this has nothing to do with actual witchcraft, black magic, the occult, or Satanism.  All the spells are humorous variations of Latin words, all the potions require pretend things like dragon teeth, and you can't do any magic at all if you aren't born a magical person.  I see no danger of this book teaching children -- or adults -- how to do magic. It is entirely, obviously imaginary.

I do see, however, that there could be a danger of people thinking that because the magic in this series is imaginary and harmless, all magic in the real world is also imaginary and harmless.  The Bible teaches us that there is such a thing as black magic, sorcery, and Satan-worship, and that we are to have nothing at all to do with them.  So I make sure my kids and I discuss the difference between fake magic like this and the stuff practiced by the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, which is harmless make-believe, and the kind of real-life magic that draws its power from Satan and which we must never get anywhere near.

Particularly Good Bits:

Harry felt a great leap of excitement.  He didn't know what he was going to -- but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind (p. 98).

"Always the innocent are the first victims," [Ronan] said.  "So it has been for ages past, so it is now" (p. 253). (In an amazing bit of coincidence, I read this part on the day of the annual March for Life.)

"Me!" said Hermione.  "Books!  And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- be careful!" (p. 287).

"Always use the proper name for things.  Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself" (p. 298).

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling.  "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.  I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom" (p. 306).  (This part makes me cry.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple minor cusswords, some rude humor (looking at you, Peeves), and children in peril.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Where You Lead, I Will Follow

This week's TTT topic from The Broke and the Bookish is "Ten Characters Who Would Make Great Leaders."  I'm tweaking that a little to list off my top ten characters who lead so well, I would follow them.  So here we go!

I've put them in order by first name because... I have to have some sort of order.  Also, I spent like twenty minutes trying to decide if I should put Bard or Boromir first, and failing to come to any satisfactory conclusion.

+Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

+Bard the Bowman from The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

+Boromir from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

+Faramir from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

+Captain Frederick Wentworth from Persuasion by Jane Austen

+Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

+Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling

+Captain Jack Aubrey from the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian

+Robin Hood, especially from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

+Roran Stronghammer from the Eragon books by Christopher Paolini


Um, yeah, there's a lot of Tolkien here.  Probably because I'm re-reading LOTR right now!  I just started another LOTR read-along, so if you're interested in joining that, you're hereby invited to do so!

Did you do a TTT list?  What leaders did you talk about?  Leave me a link to your list if you want to!

"Wizards, Hobbits, and Harry Potter" edited by Mark Whitlock

This book was not exactly what I was expecting.  I thought it was going to be all about the bad and evil things contained in fantasy fiction, and why we should stay away from them.  The subtitle of "What Your Family Needs to Know" certainly made it sound that way.  But actually, it was a thoughtful discussion of what the Bible says about magic, the power of storytelling, and also how to read fiction in a discerning manner.  My copy also includes a CD of an audio discussion of these same topics, but I haven't listened to it yet.  

This book also discusses the first four Harry Potter books, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Narnia series.  It gives a summary of each book, questions to think about or discuss as a family, and Bible verses that relate to various issues faced by characters in each book.  

I thought I was going to read through this quickly, then put it in the box of books I'll be selling at my yard sale.  Instead, I want to share the discussions of Narnia with my son, as he loves those books, and I know I'll be using some of the questions about LOTR next fall when I read through those books with my niece for her high school lit class.

This is my fourth book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Challenge 2017.

Top Ten Tuesday: Fandom-onium

Today's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a "fandom freebie."  I'm choosing to focus on ten literary worlds that can count me as a devoted fan.

I'm thirty-six, so I tend not to use the term "fangirl" to describe myself.  But I absolutely use the verb "fangirling" to describe my behavior at times -- I can act all fangirly even if I'm not exactly a fangirl.  Just drop a character name or quote a line, and *boom!* I'm ready to discuss, dissect, drool, or daydream.  Also bounce and make happy noises.  Pretty much this:

I belong to a multitude of fandoms, both literary and filmed, but today I'm going to limit myself to talking about my top ten book fandoms because, after all, this is my book blog.  And I have to draw the line somewhere, or we'd be here all summer.

1.  Sherlock Holmes

I'm a Sherlockian.  Or a Holmesian -- I'll answer to either :-)  I first started reading his stories in my early teens and have grown to love the canon dearly.  I also love Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novels by Laurie R. King, the Granada Television show starring Jeremy Brett, and much of Sherlock.  But the canon is the best.

2.  Lord of the Rings

I came to LOTR backwards.  My college friends dragged me to the theater to see The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, and I bought a copy of the books that same week.  I've read the trilogy six times, and am calling 2017 My Year in Middle Earth because I'm reading it again, and digging into several other books about Tolkien or Middle Earth as well.

3.  Anne of Green Gables

I've been an Anne fan since one of my mom's friends introduced us to the books when I was probably seven or eight.  We watched the movies over and over as I was growing up, but I like the books best, especially Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of Windy Poplars, and Anne's House of Dreams.  I dream of visiting PEI one day.

4.  Raymond Chandler

My absolute favorite author.  I've read all his novels and short stories numerous times, and re-read one now and then just for the pure delight of soaking in his amazing descriptive power.  People ask me what my favorite Chandler novel is, and the truth is, I don't truly have one.  My favorite tends to be whichever one I read the most recently.

5.  William Shakespeare

This one's pretty obvious, given that I've taken my blogging name from one of his plays.  I love Hamlet the most, and also Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew, but I get a lot of joy from many of his works.

6.  Jane Austen

Ahh, the divine Jane.  I prefer being called an Austenite rather than a Janeite, but either way, I'm a fan.  She makes me laugh, she makes me think -- it's all good.  I love Persuasion the most <3

7.  Nero Wolfe

I came to Rex Stout's mystery series backwards too -- first, I started watching the A&E series starring Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin and Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe, then I found some of the books at the library and tried them.  How I love those books!  They're my bookish version of comfort food.

8.  Robin Hood

I've been a fan of Robin Hood in books and on film since I was very tiny.  It started with the Disney read-along book that came with a record, which I totally still have -- my kids listen to it now.  I've had to tape the cover of the book back on like three times.  Then I progressed to the Great Illustrated Classics version, which I wore out.  Except the last chapter.  I never read the last chapter in any Robin Hood retelling that is going to involve Robin Hood d-y-i-n-g.  If I don't read it, it doesn't happen.  Just the fact that the chapter is titled "The Death of Robin Hood" or something equally dismal doesn't make it so, as long as I don't read it.  My favorite book version so far is definitely Howard Pyle's, which delights me to no end.

9.  Harry Potter

Yup, I'm a Potterhead.  (Is that still what HP fans get called?)  My favorite characters are Sirius Black, Severus Snape, and Ron Weasley.  My favorite book is Prisoner of Azkaban.  I like some of the movies too.

10.  Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin

I read all 20 of Patrick O'Brian's naval novels more than a decade ago, before there was a movie, and I have been itching to re-read them.  Maybe I'll dedicate the next two years to them or something.  I love hanging out with those characters!