Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley–a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry–and anyone who reads about him–will find unforgettable. For it’s there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that’s been waiting for him … if Harry can survive the encounter.

There are no spoilers in this review.

I’ve now had the chance to read both the UK and US editions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. (I’ll refer to it as Sorcerer’s Stone instead of Philosopher’s Stone because that is what I’m use to.) While I love the cover art of the US edition more, reading the UK version was like reading an entirely new story. I loved every minute of it!

Some of you are probably wondering if the editions are really that different. The answer is no, and yes. No because it’s still the same story. I still knew what was going to happen. But, yes, because I got to read JK Rowling’s original words; the words she wrote, not the words “translated” for US readers. And, that was priceless!

When I first read Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, I was transported to a wondrous, magical world. I was awed by Rowling’s ability to capture my attention and invoke a desire stronger than anything I had ever experienced to be a part of a world other than my own. Now, a little more than a decade later, I still feel that same magic, captivation, and desire as I reread this novel.

Rowling’s ability to foreshadow the events to come is amazing! Even with this read, I found foretelling of things that I hadn’t noticed before. Even if I didn’t know what happened in the other six books, her foreshadowing within the same novel is amazing. But, I think it’s a true testament of her ability to see the overarching foreshadowing she does throughout the entire series. Every time I encounter foreshadowing, I just smile and think, “Rowling, you genius!”

I love the little bit of humor Rowling brings into the story. The story is very intense. Many of the topics are not easy to discuss or even think about. But, the humor interwoven throughout the story helps lighten the way, making it easier to deal with the darker topics.

The characters are complex and endearing, even the ones you hate or can’t make up your mind about. I loved getting to know the main characters in Sorcerer’s Stone. Even though, as a reader, you’ve barely touched the surface of who they are, you learn to love them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s friendship is one to be jealous of, one to wish you were a part of. Not only do you wish you could share in their adventures, but you also wish to have a friendship as strong as theirs that it can withstand anything that comes its way.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.” Albus Dumbledore

Out of all the characters, Dumbledore is, by far, my favorite. In fact, he’s my favorite literary character of all time. We don’t often get to see him. He waits along the sidelines, allowing Harry and his friends to figure things out on their own. But, when he is around, you can be sure that Harry (and the reader) leave as better people. His wisdom, or I should say Rowling’s, is astounding. I’m always amazed at how profound these stories are because of Dumbledore.

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious–and dangerous–trap. But when things go haywire. Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary. About the Film (haywiremovie.com)

While the story was somewhat unoriginal, the actors and action made up for it. And, I ended up really enjoying the movie.

The way it was filmed was unique and artsy. The fight scenes were in real time with no fancy special effects like those you see in the Bourne films. Some may think it’d make for a slow movie, but I thought it made the fights seem more real, especially since you could tell the actors were actually doing the fighting. From what I could tell, only one actor used a stunt double in the fighting scenes. (I’m sure stunt doubles were used in other scenes, but not while they were actually fighting.)

I also loved the music. It had a very 60s feel to it and it stopped each time a fighting scene  began. It really added to the scenes and made them all the more exciting.

I thought the cast was well put together. I really enjoyed how they each brought their characters to life. ***spoiler*** There was only one problem: Ewan McGregor was the bad guy, which I didn’t like at all. But, that’s because I like him to be the good guy. Oh well. He still did a fantastic job in that role. ***end of spoiler***

For those of you concerned with the R rating, I honestly felt it didn’t deserve it. I’ve seen more PG-13 movies with more content concerns than I did with this movie. There’s only one F-word and hardly any other swearing at all. There’s no nudity, although there’s implied sex in one scene. The only thing I can think of that’d give it its R rating is the violence, but it’s not gory or very bloody. (View Content Advisory on IMDB for details.)

Follow Friday

This week’s featured blogger from Parajunkee’s View is Progress and Procrastination. This week’s featured blogger from Alison Can Read is Omnom Books.

This week’s Follow Friday question is: Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

Most of the books I consider my favorites have some sort of a fantasy element to them. I love high fantasy and Urban fantasy. I also love science fiction and mythology. I just love things that are either not part of this world at all or are like Harry Potter and take place in our world but have some supernatural/paranormal twist.

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But, I think it’s time to break out of this funk. And, what better way to do it than with Harry Potter. For Christmas, I received the UK editions of all seven books and I started rereading the series at once. Unfortunately, I’m only about halfway through Philosopher’s Stone.

However, I thought it’d be fun to post some discussions as I read through the books again. I hope you’ll join me and answer the questions for yourselves in the comments or add to what I have to say. Here are the questions for Philosopher’s Stone (I used some of the discussion questions provided by Scholastic):

How would you feel if you discovered you were a wizard?

I’d be so excited if I discovered I were a witch. Ever since I read Harry Potter for the first time in 2001, I have longed for the world of Hogwarts to be real, even the bad stuff. Of course, I think I’d be stunned because I’d find out that the world was actually real, which to my current knowledge isn’t true.

What do the names of the four Hogwarts houses–Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin–suggest to you? Which one would you be in and why?

It’s kind of funny because I think the names of the houses embody how people feel about them. It could be that the world of Harry Potter is so engrained in me that it’s hard to think any differently. But, Gryffindor sounds brave and grand. Hufflepuff sounds cough*wimpy*cough. Ravenclaw sounds knowledgeable and wise. And, Slytherin sounds a bit sinister.

According to Pottermore, I’d be in Slytherin. And, according to every personality quiz I’ve ever taken that parallels the Hogwarts houses, I’d be in Slytherin. It’s because I yearn for approval and attention. When Harry’s sorted, he asks the Sorting Hat to put him in any house except Slytherin. The hat responds: “… a nice thirst to prove yourself…. Not Slytherin, eh? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that.”

Many novels borrow from the traditional stories of fairy tales, myths, and legends. Fluffy resembles Cerberus, the three-headed dog which guards the underworld of Greek mythology. What other creatures from traditional tales are paralleled in the story? How does each of these creatures play a pivotal role in advancing the plot?

I wish I remembered my Greek mythology as much as I did when I was younger. In the first book, the only characters I can think of are the centaurs and dragons. But, they’re kind of blatant, not like Fluffly, who’s a more subtle representation of a mythological creature.

Besides Harry Potter, who is your favorite character in the book? Or, which character do you find most interesting and why?

Dumbledore is, by far, my favorite. However, before I became a member of Pottermore, I loved Ron second. Now that I’m a member and I’ve had the chance to read the awesome backstory about Professor McGonagall, I have a lot of respect for her and interest in her character. Oh, the fan-fiction that could be written about her! I wish I could explain more, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

What is your favorite quote from this book and why?

It’s no surprise that my favorite quote from this book (and the entire series for that matter) is: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live,” said by Dumbledore when he finds Harry returning over and over again to the Mirror of Erised. This quote and this whole situation with the mirror helps me remember that I need to do more than just survive or dream; I need to actually live and do things.

How do you feel the movie did at capturing the magic of the first book?

The movie started it all for me. I had tried to read Harry Potter before the movie came out, but I couldn’t follow the story. (I wasn’t a reader back then.) Then, I saw the movie and I had to know more. I wanted to be a part of the world JK Rowling had created. Because of that, I feel like the first movie did a great job at capturing the magic and overall feeling of the book. And, it amazes me at how well it follows the book, unlike other book-to-movie adaptations.

What about You?

There are a lot of great books out there that would be awesome as a book club pick. And, I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot of them just on my own. But, out of the books I’ve read, here are my top ten:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Night by Elie Wiesel
4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
5. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
6. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
7. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
8. La Dama del Alba by Alejandro Carsona
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
10. Anything by William Shakespeare (although I’ve only read Othello)

Honorable Mentions

1. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
2. Dune by Frank Herbert
3. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
4. These is My Words by Nancy Turner
   
5. Matched by Ally Condie

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Brodi talked about her road to success by doing her first ever PowerPoint presentation. It was a huge success! The crowd was laughing at her hilarity. (She’s really a very funny person. If she ever gets tired of writing novels, she should be a stand-up comedian or a writer for TV or movies.) She also showed us about a quarter of the rejection letters she received in the querying process for her first novel, Echo. She was “excited” to receive her first personalized rejection rather than just all the form-letter rejections. It was interesting to find out that that rejection was actually from Suzanne Collins’ agent and the agent rejected Brodi’s manuscript because he/she already had The Hunger Games manuscript on her desk getting ready to be published. After her presentation, the crowd was able to ask some questions. Some of the questions were:

• “Is it harder to write under deadline?” She answered yes.
• “Where did you get your idea?” She said that Sam, her husband, challenged her to write a heroine completely different from her first heroine. So, she thought of writing about a heroine who was broken yet strong. And, as she started thinking about that, she started thinking about why she was broken and Everneath was born.
• “Was the title always Everneath?” She said no. At first, it was Broken, then it was Underneath. Then, she and Bree Despain, friend and fellow author, decided to play with the words “forever” and “underneath” and came up with Everneath.
• ***spoiler*** “Did you mean to write a love triangle?” She said she doesn’t think of the book as being a love triangle. Cole is the villain. Nikki knows who she wants and it’s not the villain. ***end of spoiler***

After the questions, Brodi signed books. She started around 7:30 pm. My friends and I were the second to the last in the line and our books were signed around 9:40 pm. Two hours of signing for a debut author! Isn’t that incredible?! The wait was definitely worth it.

I’m so glad I was able to go and show my support for Brodi. I absolutely love her writing style. I’ve had a chance to read both Echo and Everneath and I love them both. I hope that one day Brodi can also publish Echo. But, if not, I’m sure whatever she does publish will continue to be fantastic.

Our beloved Cassinova Felix passed away on Thursday. He was 13.5 years old.

In September, we found out he had Kidney Disease. Our vet told us it wasn’t time to put him to sleep. She said with some medication, flushing out his kidneys and by keeping him very hydrated, he may make a full recovery. We fought for him for 4.5 months. He also fought for himself during that time. And, for a while, he improved and did okay. But, last week, we decided that his quality of life was such that it wasn’t fair to him to keep putting him through the regimen he was going through just to stay alive because we didn’t want to say goodbye. At the end, he only weighed 4 lbs and could barely walk. … We’re trying to remember him as he was before he got sick.

We found Cassie in July 1998, four months after we were married. At the time, we couldn’t see any sign of his manhood so we named him Cassie thinking he was female. When we got him fixed, we were surprised to find out he was male. We lengthened his name to Cassinova. (We know Casanova is the proper spelling, but we like our spelling for him.)

Cassie’s name fit him to a T. He was the most loving, friendly kitty anyone could ever meet. Even people who hated cats liked him. He was always so inquisitive and excited to meet new people.

In fact, Cassie turned Corey into a cat person. Corey didn’t much care for them when we found him. But, he was so cute and acted kind of like a dog. He would always fetch his toy mice. Soon, Corey fell in love with him and now would rather have a cat than a dog.

Although our kitties are inside kitties, Cassie loved to play outside. Every now and then, we’d go out with him and let him play in the grass and run around. It was fun to watch him have so much fun. He also loved strawberries, particularly strawberry yogurt and creamies.

We miss Cassie dearly. We miss his presence. All the places that he used to sleep in seem empty. Our two other kitties are missing him too. They keep looking for him, not understanding why we don’t bring him home. Right now, we can’t get through a day without crying or feeling depressed in some way because we miss him so much. The only comfort and peace we have is that we’re happy he’s no longer suffering and that we’ll see him again someday. For now, I guess that’ll have to do.

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