TGHPR-R 2009: The Goblet of Fire

This is the first Harry Potter book I actually had to wait for. My college roommate got me Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets for Christmas one year, and Prisoner of Azkaban was published not long after, so I was able to read books 1-3 right in a row, whereas I had to wait a year for Goblet of Fire. I remember that, on the day it was officially released, my family was on its way to Lancaster for a day trip, and I begged my father to stop at the bookstore on our way out of town so I could buy my copy.

(He was awesome and complied. This was before the midnight release parties began and which I attended for the last two books. That's a story for book 6, however.)

Okay, so I'll be honest: while I do love Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I also think it's the most bloated of the Harry Potter books -- books 1-3 are more streamlined (read: shorter) and books 5-7 are, for the most part, necessarily long -- and while Goblet of Fire has numerous important storylines, there is a lot of filler that would make it a quicker, more intense read.

It's Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, and instead of holding the annual Quidditch/House cup, the school will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which three champions from three different wizarding schools compete for a thousand galleons and the glory of his or her school. This means we finally learn about two other wizarding schools in Goblet of Fire -- Beauxbatons and Durmstrang -- and meet their respective headmasters: Madame Maxine and Igor Karkaroff, both of whom contrast really delightfully with Dumbledore.

Harry isn't planning on entering the tournament -- in fact, he's looking forward to cheering on the Hogwarts champion, hanging out with Ron and Hermione, and crushing on Cho Chang from afar -- but when the Goblet of Fire spits out his name, Harry has no choice but to participate, despite the fact that he is slowly beginning to believe that someone entered him into the tournament in the hopes that it would kill him.

We meet or revisit a number of other characters in Goblet of Fire, some of whom are very significant to later books: Victor Krum, the Bulgarian Quidditch player and Durmstrang champion; Fleur DeLacour, part-veela, Beauxbatons champion, and later Bill Weasley love interest; Rita Skeeter, the queen of yellow journalism; Mad-Eye Moody, the famous Auror and newest DADA teacher; and of course, Cedric Diggory, the (true) Hogwarts champion and all-around decent guy, who suffers one of the most upsetting fates in the Harry Potter series.

(Seriously, if you can read the section where his ghost asks Harry to return his body to his parents, where Mrs. Diggory talks about how at least Cedric "died happy" while Mr. Diggory sobs in the background, where Dumbledore gives his "Remember Cedric Diggory" speech, without tearing up, you're made of stone, I tell you! I'm tearing up at I write this!

Now I feel kind of lame, but I think it's a testament to how well-drawn Cedric Diggory is. He's a fairly minor character in the grand scheme of things, but Rowling makes you feel his death profoundly. He's a genuinely good guy who dies because he refuses to claim victory in the tournament alone -- he believes Harry deserves it more and only touches the cup when Harry suggests they share it. I mean, seriously, how honorable is that? *TEAR*)

Anyway, I love the character and backstory development here as well. I was most interested in the history of the Death Eaters and the continued slow reveal of Snape's involvement with them and with Voldemort (this is, of course, especially important when you consider where Snape's storyline is going as we head into the later books). Again, it shows remarkable planning on J. K. Rowling's part -- we're slowly learning about the prophecy, about why Dumbledore trusts Snape, and so on -- which I appreciate as a re-reader.

The overarching "villainous plot" is a little convoluted (I'm not quite sure why Voldemort's faithful servant/spy couldn't have cooked up a Portkey before the third task in June), but it does offer a lot of payoff for events and characters throughout the book. Voldemort's resurrection is pretty terrifying, and the conflict that arises between the "good guys" at the end (the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that Voldemort has returned) is realistic and sets up book 5 well.

Ultimately, Goblet of Fire is way too long, though, and could do with a good trim (or chop, depending on how much you feel is unnecessary). I think Hermione's fight for house elf rights, while totally in character, is too drawn-out and doesn't really pay off enough in later books to warrant so much space in this one. The three tasks are also spread out so much that I feel the entire competition loses its intensity (part of me wonders, "Really? They cancelled the annual Quidditch cup for 3 tasks over 3 days out of the whole school year?").

I also think that the World Quidditch Cup scenes at the beginning of the book go on a little long, and the character of Ludo Bagman could probably be excised without too much being lost. Too, Rowling tends to offer a lot of previouslies here instead of trusting that her reader is familiar enough with the first three books and doesn't need an explanation of Hagrid's love of dangerous creatures, for example, or the entire plots of books 1-3...

Oh, and don't get me started on Voldemort's chapter-long, post-resurrection monologue (I kept imagining Syndrome from The Incredibles: "Oh, ho ho! You sly dog! You got me monologuing! I can't believe it!").

We see Harry start to grow up here, along with Hermione and (to an extent) Ron. Voldemort rises again. A major character dies. The wizarding world is at odds, as the book ends. Overall, Goblet of Fire is a solid transition between the innocence (of sorts) of books 1-3 and the darkness to come in books 5-7.

As Hagrid very wisely notes, "What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does."

Those Who Can...

I wrote a whole long post about my (continued) pathos about teaching, but rather than subject you to it -- it's very prosaic -- I'll just link the article that resonated so strongly with me:

"Why I Left Teaching Behind" by Sarah Fine (The Washington Post, 9 August 2009)

I feel much the same about teaching as Fine does, for many of the same reasons, especially as she discusses the current perception of teachers -- "the fact that," as she writes, "a portion of the American public sees teaching as a second-rate profession."

One of my least favorite quotes of all time is "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Because, please. The Simpsons says it best:

Dance Instructor: Marge, there's an old saying about those who can't
do...

Marge: Teach?

Dance Instructor: No, they go home. How can you teach if you can't
do?

And... word.

Ros Needs to Relax: The Car Dance Remix

I am so needlessly stressed out by my summer job. It's not what I'm doing (because, to be perfectly honest, a monkey could probably do this job, so long as he followed the building's strict dress code) but rather the people I'm working with.

They are driving me crazy. Let me give you an example:

As I've mentioned before, a lot of my job involves alphabetizing evaluations and sending them to the file room by the box. I've probably sent about 8 or 9 boxes to the file room over the last four weeks.

So yesterday afternoon, the AA who supervises me calls me. "We're looking for [insert name here]'s evaluation," she says. "Have we received it?"

I look at my (carefully kept) records. "Yes, we received it a few weeks ago," I say. "It should be in the file room."

Twenty minutes later, AA comes to my desk. "Can you go down to the file room?" she asks. "They can't find the evaluation."

Would you like to know why they can't find it? They can't find it because they haven't filed a single box that I've sent down since I started working here. When I got down to the file room, I found the evaluation in five minutes. In a box. That I sent over a month ago.

Seriously, what do these people do all day? They work in the file room. Shouldn't they be, I don't know, filing?

... Anyway. It's frustrating, and it makes the endless traffic that I sit in on my way home from work even worse.

So when I got home yesterday afternoon, knowing that I'd be turning around and driving back out to Jess's, I decided to make a CD of songs that would inspire more car dancing and less swearing:

1. I Got a Feeling -- Black Eyed Peas
2. Inside Out -- Eve 6
3. Monkeywrench -- Foo Fighters
4. That's Not My Name -- The Ting-Tings
5. Mercy Me -- Alkaline Trio
6. Right Round -- Flo Rida
7. Love and Memories -- OAR
8. Sexbomb (Peppermint Disco Remix) -- Tom Jones
9. Original Prankster -- Offspring
10. Untouched -- The Veronicas
11. How Far We've Come -- Matchbox 20
12. Rock Star -- Prima J
13. Who Do You Love -- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
14. Timebomb -- Beck
15. So Sad to Say -- Mighty Mighty Bosstones
16. Shut Up and Let Me Go -- The Ting Tings
17. We Used to Be Frieds -- Dandy Warhols
18. Don't Trust Me -- 3Oh!3
19. Blue Skies -- Blue October
20. American Idiot -- Green Day

In the end, car dancing was the ultimate destresser. I just turned up the music superloud and sang along (superloud) and danced as I drove (superflail!).

(This was especially helpful when, driving home from Jess's, I got caught up in unexpected roadwork, and the normally 35-minute drive was... an hour and a half. Closing three out of four lanes of traffic on a major highway? Not cool, road guys. Not cool.)

TGHPR-R 2009: The Prisoner of Azkaban

Taren at The Chick Manifesto posted a question about spoilers last week that made me pause a bit before writing this post. I find it difficult to write about books without giving away too much, but I really do think that, for Harry Potter at least, the no-spoiler rule expired a while ago. So if you haven't read Harry Potter yet, (1) get on that (2) before reading the rest of this post.

So Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely my favorite of the early Harry Potter books. (In my head, I split the series in half -- books 1-4 are rerise-of-Voldemort and books 5-7 are how-do-we-redestroy-Voldemort.)It's also the last of the streamlined books in the series -- I started re-reading The Goblet of Fire last night, and holy macaroni, I can barely hold it -- but despite this, Prisoner of Azkaban packs a lot of story, backstory, and character development into what is, comparatively, a short read.

The story begins, as always, at the end of Harry's miserable summer with the Dursleys, but Harry's stay with them ends this time on his own terms, as he packs up and storms out after a galling (and funny) incident with Aunt Marge. Harry catches the Knight Bus quite by accident, but not before he learns about the escaped criminal Sirius Black and sees the big black dog that seems to follow him throughout the rest of the story.

Once Harry returns to Hogwarts for his third year, we begin to learn more about Harry's father, James, and his time at school, as well as about the circumstances surrounding Harry's parents' deaths, which are more complicated than we (and Harry) originally thought. We meet Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and one of my favorite characters in the series, who has a number of secrets that affect Harry greatly. Lupin is such a tragic figure -- I would argue more so even than Sirius Black -- but he bears his burdens with dignity, recognizes his errors, and tries to rectify them.

(Obviously I think Snape is the most tragic figure in this series, for reasons that are not revealed in Prisoner of Azkaban but that we see inklings of in his interactions with Sirius during the climax. Poor Snape. Knowing his history and what is to come, I feel a lot more sympathy for him in rereading the series.)

We also meet the Dementors, the Azkaban guards who have come, ostensibly, to protect Hogwarts from the threat of Sirius Black but whose true motives are suspect. (I mean, even Dumbledore hates them, and I tend to trust Dumbledore's judgement.) The Dementors are seriously frightening, and the fact that whenever Harry is around them, he hears his mother about to be killed by Voldemort, well, that doesn't make them any more cuddly.

But the Dementors lead Harry to work with Lupin more closely and to learn the Patronus spell -- which of course plays a significant role in the rest of the series but also leads to one of its most powerful scenes as well, when Harry sends his fully formed Patronus -- a stag -- against the Dementors in order to save himself, Hermione, and Sirius from the Dementor's Kiss. (I'll be honest here: the moment that the Patronus stag returns to Harry and he realizes its significance always makes me cry. No less so on this reread.)

When I first read Prisoner of Azkaban, I remember that the climax in the Shrieking Shack, when Harry discovers the truth about Sirius Black, took me by surprise, but in the reread, I see how perfectly Rowling sets it up (even from the beginning of The Sorcerer's Stone, when Hagrid mentions seeing Sirius Black at the ruins of the Potter house). I especially like how a number of plot points from the two previous books return here: the origin of the Whomping Willow and the longevity of Scabbers, among others.

I also love Buckbeak, of course, and how Hagrid's efforts to save him intersect with Hermione's Time-Turner and Sirius's eventual escape. Every plot point, in fact, seems to dovetail at the end, which, for me, makes this the most satisfying book of the Harry Potter series.

Ultimately, so much is introduced in Prisoner of Azkaban that it could feel more like exposition than plot. But the story -- of the hunt for Sirius Black, of Harry's struggle with the Dementors and what he experiences when he's around them, of the continually developing friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione (which is tested and reaffirmed yet again) -- is both gripping and affecting.

It is, in essence, the perfect lead-up to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which begins the descent into the darker half of the Harry Potter series. Oh, yes, now the death count truly begins, and I have to keep tissues nearby for cry-worthy moments, of which there are many.

Is that your tail in the water, or are you just happy to see me?, or, Sea Change by Aimee Friedman

You know, Jess has lent me a lot of books over the last few years, some of which I have loved (The Hunger Games, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks), some of which I have not-so-loved (The Forest of Hands and Teeth), and some of which I couldn't drag myself through (er, perhaps better not named, yes?). Usually, though, Jess is right on, so when she raved about Sea Change by Aimee Friedman, I was definitely willing to give it a try.

And I'm so glad I did.

Sea Change begins as Miranda, the protagonist, takes the ferry to Selkie Island, a small island off the coast of Georgia. Her grandmother, Isadora, has recently died and left the family summer house, the Mariner, to Miranda's mother, with whom Isadora had a falling out thirty years earlier. Miranda's mother, a successful New York surgeon, plans to clear out the house and sell it and has asked Miranda to help.

The story follows Miranda as she arrives on Selkie and learns about its mysterious history as well as her mother's. There are actually a number of mysteries within the story -- why did Miranda's mother have a falling out her own mother, Isadora? Why did Isadora leave the Selkie house to Miranda's mother? What happened between Miranda and her best friend in NY? -- and all are interesting and, ultimately, satisfyingly resolved.

The central mystery, of course, deals with the legend of Selkie island's original inhabitants -- are said legends based in reality? Friedman manages to keep Miranda (and the reader) guessing about this throughout, and I love that she leaves the answer to this question open-ended.

The most significant comment I can make about Sea Change is that it is beautifully written. This is a huge compliment, trust me -- a lot of YA these days ignores the style part in favor of plot-love-triangle-sparkly-vampire-love-shield, and so I really appreciate it when an author makes the effort to utilize evocative language and imagery. Friedman's writing style truly captures the mysterious atmosphere of Selkie Island while also developing it as a place steeped in Southern tradition, and this not only sets the stage for the story but also enriches it throughout the novel.

But atmosphere isn't everything. For example, Saundra Mitchell's Shadowed Summer (a novel similar to Sea Change in its style) is also brilliantly atmospheric, but the atmosphere takes center stage, at the expense of plot and character. In reading Sea Change, on the other hand, I enjoyed not only the language but also the development of the relationships Miranda, the protagonist, has with the other characters in the story, most prominently with her mother.

I'll admit to becoming annoyed with Miranda as the novel wore on; she is characterized as being scientific and logical, but this characterization is laid on slightly too thick at times and makes Miranda difficult to like. But by the end, I felt as though Miranda had grown and become less judgmental and more open-minded.

My biggest issue with the novel is Miranda's relationship with Leo. As Jess so eloquently put it last night over flourless chocolate waffle, we might be a little old for the typical romances depicted in YA, which go from zero-to-true-love far too quickly for my taste. I like to see a relationship truly develop, not magically pop into being, and I found Miranda's insta-love with Leo hard to believe. That said, Friedman writes some lovely scenes between Miranda and Leo, and I appreciate that she doesn't tie their storyline into a neat bow at the end.

Overall, Sea Change is one of the best YA novels I've read this year, and I'd highly recommend it. Of course, now I really, really want to go to Selkie Island (if it existed), but no more vacation for me this summer. Oh, well.

TGHPR-R 2009: The Chamber of Secrets

It's so hard for me to criticize any Harry Potter book -- they all have such a special place in my heart and always will -- but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the weakest of the series for me, both in my initial reading and the more recent reread. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, Chamber of Secrets is the book I either (a) skimmed through or (b) skipped when rereading the series each time a new book came out.

I actually liked Chamber of Secrets more on the reread, especially since I was rereading it on the heels of Sorcerer's Stone -- and reading it while on vacation with family friends in beautiful, peaceful Ohio, sitting outside and drinking a glass of my favorite pinot gris. Setting makes a serious difference in the reading experience, doesn't it?

I think my real problem with Chamber of Secrets is the beginning; though I love Ron and the twins' flying car rescue of Harry from his uncle-imposed exile (and Mrs. Weasley's reaction when the boys -- with Harry in tow -- return in the early morning after having been gone all night), I'm not a big fan of the flying car in general. That Ron and Harry would jump into the car when they can't get through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4 instead of, you know, waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to return, struck me as a device, and a forced one, at that. Rowling makes up for it by making Ron's wand (broken in the inevitable flying car crash) a major plot point as well as by bringing the flying car (now gone feral) back later in the book, but the illogical flight to Hogwarts and the trouble the boys get into is maybe my least favorite moment in the entire series.

There are some truly fantastic moments in Chamber of Secrets, though, like:

• Harry's discovery of and subsequent dive into the diary of Tom Riddle -- Rereading all of the scenes in which Tom Riddle makes an appearance is fascinating, especially when you couple those scenes with Dumbledore's memories of Tom from Half-Blood Prince. Over the course of seven books -- and you really have to put all seven together to get this -- Rowling develops a complete, complex portrait of Voldemorte.
• The introduction to Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes -- Harry first meets Fawkes when Fawkes is at the end of his phoenix cycle; he burns up before Harry's eyes and is reborn from his own ashes. It is a beautiful, beautiful moment.

Side story: I teach ninth graders, and every March we read Fahrenheit 451, which is my favorite book to teach, bar none. Anyway, if you've read Fahrenheit, you know that the phoenix plays an important role in the story, for its representation of both fire and rebirth. When the phoenix is first introduced at the beginning of the novel (as a symbolic patch on the firemen's uniforms), I always ask, "So what is a phoenix? What does it do? Why is it significant?" And the students always know the answers, because they've most of them read Harry Potter, and they remember Fawkes.

• Hagrid's backstory -- I'm actually not a huge Hagrid fan, but Rowling teases a lot of Hagrid's past in Sorcerer's Stone, and I like that she follows up with it. His expulsion from Hogwarts (at Tom Riddle's hands, no less) is very in character, and while I think his bumbling gets old at times, I like how Rowling uses him to introduce many of the creature characters throughout the series (Aragog, Buckbeak, etc.).
• Gilderoy Lockhart -- The first time I read Chamber of Secrets, I hated Gilderoy Lockhart so much, but on rereading -- well, I still think he's a jerk, but I absolutely love how Rowling characterizes him. I laughed through every one of his scenes, especially his wizard duel with Snape (Snape! *heart*), and when he gets his comeuppance at the end, well, no fate was more richly deserved.

But while I loved the parts, the whole is ultimately a little clunky and the climax a little too convenient. Too, though Ginny Weasley plays a huge role in the climax, she is barely a presence in the book. As usual, Rowling does an excellent job in foreshadowing not only the resolution of the mystery of The Chamber of Secrets but also future installments in the series, but I felt that I was picking up on clues because I've read the entire series already; a lot of the foreshadowing is either too subtle or too "pay attention! This is important!"

Still, The Chamber of Secrets is a solid second book and starts to move out of YYA (young young adult) into YA nicely -- just in time for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is one of the strongest books in the series and which I am super-excited to reread, because Prisoner of Azkaban is when things really start getting good. And by good, I mean darker. Well, and good. I think Rowling hits her stride with PoA, but I'll save that for another post.

Best Reads of 2009 (So Far) Part II

Again, thank goodness for Goodreads, without which I would never be able to keep track of what I've read. Sometimes I pick up a book that sounds interesting and, about halfway through it, I think, "Wow, the story is so familiar!" And it is familiar, because I've read it before.

Anyway, on to #s 6-10 in my favorite reads of 2009:

6. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (NF)
My brother gave me this book for Christmas, and I devoured it immediately. Gladwell explores success and where it comes from, and it truly makes you think about luck versus hard work versus innate talent. The chapters on Korean pilots and Japenese school culture were especially fascinating, and whether you agree with Gladwell's hypothesis -- that success is a lot about luck (where geographically, in what month, in what family, in what year you were born) -- or not, Outliers offers food for thought.


7. Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3) by Richelle Mead (YA)
I read the first Vampire Academy book (titled, appropriately enough, Vampire Academy) a year ago February, and though I liked it, I wasn't wowed by it. I gobbled up the second in the series, Frostbite, but Shadow Kiss topped both. This is a series that (unlike some -- *cough* Twlight *cough*) only improves as it continues; I love Mead's characters, her world-building, and most importantly, her fearlessness -- she doesn't hesitate to force her characters, especially the protagonist, Rose, to face tragedy. The end of Shadow Kiss, for example, was heartbreaking, but necessary, and it offers intriguing possibilities for book four, Blood Promise, which comes out at the end of August. Huzzah!

8. Fade by Lisa McMann (YA)
I loved Wake, the first book in the Dream Catchers series, but while I feel Wake was mostly about character and concept development, Fade (book #2) adds real danger, both in Janie's work with the police department and in her dream-education, where she discovers that her power comes with a life-altering price. The scene at the end of the book, when Janie goes "undercover" at a party to discover whether a teacher has been inappropriately involved with his students, is a nail-biter, and I just adore Janie's relationship with Cabe. I just discovered that this is actually a trilogy (yay!) and that the last book (boo!) will be out in February 2010 (yay!).


9. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams (YA)
I already expounded on The Chosen One in my beach reading post, but again -- this was an affecting, beautifully developed story that pulled no punches and had me speeding through to the conclusion, anxious about Kyra's fate. Seriously, this is a must-read.


10. The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart (YA)
Can I take a moment to mention my deep and abiding love for E. Lockhart? I just adore her. I've read nearly all of her books, and I've never been disappointed by a single one. In fact, if I were making my list of top 10 YA books I've ever read, Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks would be in my top 5. Anyway, what I love about The Boyfriend List is Ruby Oliver, the protagonist and first-person narrator. Her voice is just so engaging that I would totally want to be friends with her (if she existed).

Oh, books are so awesome. Way awesomer than the work I'm currently avoiding...