Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Jack Thorne

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Author: Jack Thorne, J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany

Publication Date: 7/31/16

Pages: 330

Genre: Fantasy / Play / Fiction

How I Found It: Is this even a question?

Date Completed: 8/1/16

Summary: Nineteen years on from the ending of the iconic series, Harry Potter is now a Ministry employee and sending his middle son, Albus, off to Hogwarts. However, neither father nor son feel settled in their new roles. 

What I Thought: One of my dearest friends and fellow Potter fans once said to me, "The best thing that could happen to Harry Potter would be for J. K. Rowling to die." While I find this sentiment more than a little overblown, I get where he was coming from. Rowling gave us one of the best book series of this era. She's inspired thousands if not millions. She's become one of the richest people in the world. And, yet, she cannot leave Harry and his story alone.

I don't blame her for this. As she's said in interviews, she's spent far longer with these characters than any of us. Over twenty years, now. Her emotional connection to them is indisputable deeper than any of us will ever really understand, despite feeling like Harry and company are practically family. So, when she drops new, little ideas on Twitter or talks about the characters in interviews, I get it. I understand that this irks some fans who would rather she let the books alone be canon (my friend included). In general, though, it doesn't bother me. I can separate the books from everything else. In a lot of ways, I think it's neat to sort of pick and choose what of her new ideas I want to accept and which I want to reject. The idea that it should have been Harry and Hermione together in the end? Hard pass to that one. But knowing that Teddy Lupin grew up to become Head Boy. It warms my heart. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J. K. Rowling

Publication Date: 7/21/07

Pages: 759

Genre: Harry Potter / Fantasy / Young Adult / Fiction

Date Completed: 9/6/15

Summary: Harry, Hermione, and Ron search the English countryside for Horcruxes and are ultimately led to a final battle at Hogwarts, where self-sacrifice, teamwork, and love are the strongest magic they have at their disposal. 

What I Thought: Where to begin?

Here at the close, I always feel so many emotions. It's like saying goodbye to a good friend. I know I'll return to the series again and again, but coming to the close always feels so final in a way. 

After nearly two years of taking the journey together, Kevin and I finished the final book at the start of this month. I had worried (unnecessarily) about having time to get through this final book before the fall. Yet, once we got going, it's hard to put it aside. We listened while we drove, while we painted, while we organized our new house. Pretty much any excuse was good enough.

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

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Author: J. K. Rowling

Publication Date: 7/16/05

Pages: 652

Genre: Harry Potter / Fantasy / Young Adult / Fiction

How I Found It: Listening through the series with Kevin

Date Completed: 5/18/15

Summary: In case you had any doubts about the good vs. evil, light vs. dark battle building in the series, Rowling fully embraces Harry's internal and external conflicts in this penultimate novel.

What I Thought: Back at the start of 2014, I had grand illusions of Kevin and I finishing the Harry Potter series together in a year. If we finish book 7 by the end of this year, a mark double the length I had originally hoped for, I will be quite happy. Our slow pace has been due entirely to limited time spent in the car together and not at all lack of enjoyment of the books. Kevin really seems to be liking the series, a fact which thrills and slightly relieves me. 

After watching Harry work through all that teen angst in book 5, it is so refreshing to see a new maturity developing in book 6. It is clear that Sirius's death has sobered him and forced him to face the unpleasantness of Voldemort's return in new ways. Plus, you know, people believe him now, which helps. Just as Rowling draws a distinct line in the series with the Dark Lord's return at the end of book 4 separating Harry's childhood from his adolescence, so I think she does again with book 6. It is here that Harry Potter really begins his journey into adulthood.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It has been a year now since Kevin and I started listening to the Harry Potter series together. To be honest, I thought we would be done by now. I guess I underestimated their length and overestimated how much time we would spend listening. Of course, I could not have predicted that we would become obsessed with Serial this fall and not ever want to listen to anything else. 

The holidays made a huge difference, though. We spent somewhere in the vicinity of 30 hours in the car in a 10-day period. Yes, I did hate my life, but at least my strong propensity to motion sickness only led to one lost lunch on the side of the road. It could have been worse. In the midst of all that driving, we blazed through some serious Harry Potter. After, of course, we listened to the Serial finale and discussed it for at least an hour or more.

The trip gave us a chance to finish up book five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, or, as we now call it, Harry Potter and the Hormones. I mean seriously. Can we all just agree on how freaking annoying Harry is in this book? I get that he's fifteen and suffering some PTSD after watching Cedric's murder, but he's just awful. I don't care if you are Harry Potter. No one yells at Dumbledore. 

Ahem. Sorry...getting off track already. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The journey continues.

As many of you know, this year, Kevin and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter series courtesy of Jim Dale's masterful audiobook recordings and a lot of hours in the car.

We have been working on book four since May but finally finished it up in early August while on our way to North Carolina to go house hunting. It's crazy to me that we finished the book on the 8th, I'm writing this post on the 15th, and, by the time it posts, we will have been living in our new town for a week. This process has been so crazy and so hard and so good.

Kind of like Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts (ok, ok, that was a weak transition).

Book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is the first of the series that I really truly love. To me, it's the first of the books that no longer feels like a children's story. By this point, Rowling has settled into her loquacious style (Goblet of Fire is over 700 pages) and the characters are begin to grow and mature and face bigger issues. Though in the book, Harry and co. are technically only 14, they start feeling like the young adults we cherish by the end of their journey.

We learn a lot more about the Ministry of Magic and some of its key figures in this book. And Lord Voldemort returns. All key elements as Rowling sets us up for the end.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

If you've been a regular reader this year, you know Kevin and I have been slowly working our way through the incomparable Harry Potter series. 

For the most part, we only do audio books when we are traveling, so a trip to Michigan for Easter proved the perfect opportunity to finish up the third tome.

Rowling definitely improves with each book, diving deeper into characters and the consequences of good vs. evil. Still, to me, Prisoner of Azkaban falls in line with the first two books. The trio feel much more like a children's series than the deep story they develop into.

That progression either shows a growing writer or growing characters. Probably both. 

In Azkaban, Harry begins to learn even more about his real history. Lupin and Black are able to give him a much more clear picture of his parents and help prepare him for the fight ahead.

I have to say - I really like Lupin. He is, without a doubt, the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher the students have in the whole series. I love that he pulls Harry aside to personally train him in the Patronus charm. It's evident that he understands the very real need for these students to be prepared. He knows about the real world and doesn't think textbooks or fictional stories are good enough preparation. Maybe because he's a werewolf....

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

We have slowly been making our way through the Harry Potter series since I first blogged about it back in January. 

Even though Kevin has been doing a ton of traveling for work lately, we have done little together, so our pace is leisurely, at best. 

We did take a weekend trip to Charlotte at the start of March (we were desperate for warm weather!) and happily used the opportunity to finish book two and start book three.

I won't go into a whole review of the book. We all know J.K. Rowling is awesome. No need to debate that.

Mostly, I just wanted to touch base, let you know we finished Chamber of Secrets, and get your thoughts on the series as a whole.

I still want to talk about our favorite parts of the books, favorite characters, symbolism, funny memes, interesting facts, whatever! Feel free to share any good Harry Potter stuff and I hope to put together a post of it all when we reach the end of the series.

Meanwhile, feel free to discuss what an amateur move it was when Lucius Malfoy stuck that diary in with Ginny's books. 

Pages: 352

Date Completed: March 9, 2014

What do you love about Harry Potter?

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

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I am so so excited to be starting a mini series today! Let's be honest - how many of you got excited just when you saw the title of the this post? 

So, first, a little background...

When I met my dear, sweet husband, there were a few holes in his pop culture knowledge. For one, he had never seen the show LOST. Tragic. We starting watching through it together soon after we started dating and finished it up right after we got engaged. I told him I wouldn't marry him until he'd seen it all. We've also watched through all of The West Wing together. Before we met he only read for pleasure very occasionally. He's come a long way in that area for sure. No one can say my cultural education for him isn't also actually educational. 

One particular glaring gap that needed immediate attention was his Harry Potter virginity. He not only had never read the books (no surprise there), he had never seen the movies. When I realized this, my attempts to turn him into an avid reader were still in their infancy. I had no hope of convincing him to read the books; I had to settle for the movies at that point.

Being the wonderful sport that my husband is, he consented and we watched all eight movies within a few weeks. Since then, we've watched 4-8 again. He's not a huge fan of the earlier ones just because they still have a pretty "kid movie" feel to them. 

Ok, ok. I swear this introduction is about over. The rest of the story basically boils down to this: over the holiday season, I convinced him that we should listen to the audio books together. You all know that we're big fans of audio books for when we are traveling. I have been feeling the itch to read through the classic series again  for a few months now (it's been over six years for me!) and really wanted to enjoy the experience with Kevin.