Happy International Harry Potter Day

Prime Minister David Cameron said,
“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ms. Rowling’s work has had a huge and undeniable impact on the literary world as we know it. In order to fully commemorate and immortalize her work, we have to decided to officially declare May 2nd as an official international holiday, in honor of the date that protagonist Harry Potter conquered the main antagonist of the series, Lord Voldemort. We hope that children and adults alike will be reminded of Harry Potter’s strong and courageous character on this day, as well as of the true credit that Ms. Rowling has made to society.”

Finally. A day for Harry Potter lovers like me. I am wearing my Maurader's Map t-shirt. On the front it says "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and on the back it says "mischief managed." It was tricky deciding between my three HP shirts today. :) 

I have some chalk...maybe I'll write HP things on the sidewalks today...who knows? So many mischievous possibilities. Hopefully I'll watch at least one of the movies today and read some of the best parts of the books. My friend Ariel got to go to platform 9 3/4 - I wish I could be there TODAY. Or at Harry Potter world in Florida. Now that would be ideal.

Happy Harry Potter Day!

Book Review: the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

We read The Hobbit in my English novel class this semester. I, sadly, have never read anything by Tolkien before. This book was a lot of fun.

It follows the adventures of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins as he travels with some dwarves in search of their old treasure that has been guarded by a dragon named Smaug for years. They encounter goblins, elves, eagles, wolves, giant spiders, and thanks to Bilbo's secret ring and the wizard Gandalf , most of them survive the journey.

The writing style is very much like storytelling. The narrator takes on this paternal tone and even intercedes with explanations to teach the reader. I thought that was unique and seemed to fit Tolkien really well. I do not think the novel would do so well if it was published today, though. We have too many faster-paced novels available now and taste has changed. I think people would find it juvenile.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was fun, well-written, and unique. Tolkien didn't steal ideas for his made-up worlds or his creatures - he is basically the first fantasy writer ever. Side track! I actually think J.K. Rowling was a big Tolkien fan. I have not looked into that at all, but she also uses crazy-powerful objects (the Deathly Hallows), she has giant spiders, she has a super powerful father-figure wizard, and the objects are what can be used to defeat the ultimate bad guy...and now I'm going into Lord of the Rings as well. I warned you about the side track.


Anyways, I really enjoyed The Hobbit and I highly recommend it. For my English novel class I had to make a blog about The Hobbit and Tolkien (with a classmate, not on my own). You can read more about these ideas and other more in-depth thoughts at that blog: Journeys with Tolkien.

Book Reviews: The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner

He's been on the New York Times YA best seller list...WHY? Dashner's books were juvenile, ridiculous, confusing, and way too violent. I'm sorry, YA readers, but I was not impressed by Dashner's trilogy, I was highly disappointed. I just now put down the third book, walked into my kitchen and told my roommate that this "may be the worst trilogy I have ever read." Harsh, I know, but that's how I felt.

First off, lots and lots of hype was made about these books. I was interested of course. The trilogy is yet another distopian one. The world is ending and in chaos and only a few can save it. Typical, yes. But, Dashner did get a good spin on it by not answering any questions until basically the epilogue. Actually, that's not a good spin, it's just frustrating to the reader to be 100% in the dark through the bitter end. I don't think Dashner himself knew the answers. Honestly, I'm still a bit confused on who's who and what's what.

The violence was a bit over the top in my opinion. I understand that it fit the story line really well and was actually realistic for the world-in-chaos idea, but this is YA fiction and I think Dashner went a bit too far. Too much killing, "blood spurting," things like that. It was gross. The only good thing was that he rushed through the intense and significant killings. Which is bad writing, but good to get through the violence. He rushed through the deaths of important characters so much that I didn't even feel anything at all. No sadness, no relief, no nothing. Looking back, I don't think I cared about any of these characters. ... Nope, I don't care about them at all. I have no way to connect to them because they can't even remember their lives before all the chaos. Lack of characters you can relate to = bad.

I'm sorry if you loved these books. I was not impressed. I thought they were badly written and I don't feel satisfied at all. The ending was frustrating, and not just because of who ends up with who. I almost feel like I, as a reader, was tricked. I also felt like Dashner was growing into writing as the books continued, but he's already written the entire 13th Reality series, so he should be better at writing than this trilogy was.

Again, I'm sorry if Dashner is your inspiration, but I cannot recommend these books. They were so disappointing and awful.

Hopefully the next book review I do will have a better response.

Too Busy for Life

I need a shirt that says that. Seriously, this is ridiculous. I'm sorry for the lack of posting and book reviews - school and work has me BUSY. But here are some book reviews you get to look forward to in the next 2ish weeks when things calm down:

The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I'll also write about (FINALLY) meeting Shannon Hale (!!!), bacon on desserts, some exciting book-related adventures I've been having (launch parties, meeting people, ect.), possibly some Native American Literature stuff, and maybe a few brief dramatic stories.

If you're in school, good luck with the rest of the semester! If you're not...I'm currently jealous.

Book Review: The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison

This is the third book in Mette's series. This one follows the story of the daughter of Richon and Chala as she follows in her father's footsteps to fight the magic-sucking forces in the world. Liva has a ton of magic - she can change into an form she wants, except a Snowbird, which is a little baffling to her. She meets Jens early on in the book and is surprised by his total lack of magic, but also his complete acceptance and love of all things magical. They stick together to fight against the Hunter, who wants to make all humans unmagical like himself.

I liked this book because Mette continued to have a wonderful tone, and the emotion she gets into her novels is pretty impressive. I think she rushed through some scenes that should have been drawn out a bit, but I highly recommend this (clean) novel.

Also, when I met her (!) she told me she has a fourth book for this series but it's only offered electronically. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read it...

Happy Reading!

One Day, I'll Tweet This

There was a writing symposium at UVU this past weekend. I was only able to go to some of the workshops on Thursday, but I loved every minute of it. I took one of my YA books, The Princess and the Hound, to get signed by the author, Mette Harrison. Since it was the actual book signing time, I only took that one instead of all three that I own by her. I went up to her after the Vampires are NOT Your Boyfriend panel, and with sweaty hands and a racing heart, I asked her to sign my book. She was very nice and wrote a cute little message. Day made.

But there's more! The next day, my beautiful roommate went to more When she went to get them signed Mette asked what name to put. My roommate explained that she was actually getting them signed for her roommate who had asked Mette to sign a book the day before. Well then Mette smiled and said something along the lines of, "Oh, I remember her. I Tweeted about her yesterday." So my fantastic roommate came home with my two other books signed, and found Mette's Tweet. She showed me when I got home and I was on cloud nine! I WAS TWEETED ABOUT BY AN AUTHOR! So incredibly cool. And, look! I have the proof! I am the woman mentioned in the first full Tweet on her feed.

Yeah, that's what's up. :D

Movie Sort-of Review: Breaking Dawn Part One

(I'm writing this as if my audience has already seen the movie.)

I finally went to see the new Twilight movie last night at the dollar theater. It was kind of what I expected: more mediocre acting, some good special effects wolf-wise, and a lot teenage angst. I feel like they could have easily made the last book into just one movie; splitting it into two just drug out the movie to the point where it felt tedious. I thought the flash-backs, dreams, and weird internal-transitioning parts were over-the-top and didn't fit too well. Bella's first dream, about the wedding, seemed a little too gory to me, especially for the target teenage girl audience.

The wolf story line was very well done. They way they do the wolves is spectacular, but this time around, I thought their canine teeth were too saber-tooth tiger - way too long for the size of their mouths. I love the fight scenes with the wolves. Even in human form, I thought they were fantastic. Leah did a great job, and Seth was darling. Jacob, of course, is always great. The log/coast bit was good but I think they tried to make Jacob's defying Sam part too dramatic and it ended up being confusing.

Bella spent too much time in too little clothing. Her wedding dress was not flattering. I was impressed with the way they made her look so sickly; she looked skeletal, and it was amazing. Her body popping back to health at the end was a little strange though. Poor Jasper only got one measly line, and Emmett looked...off. Not sure how, but he looked different. I always love Charlie and I especially liked the bit in the Cullen's house when he noticed the graduation caps. That was a clever touch. Alice's hair (especially at the wedding) was my favorite. It was so classy.

Overall, it was okay. The movies are slowly improving, and I do like the special effects. I think that for this movie, it'd be better to read the book or the wolf story line, imprinting, and the maid's freak-out may be confusing. There was (finally) a fight scene in this movie, and that was exciting, even if it was brief. Hopefully the next movie will be the best.