Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I'm actually on chapter 23 of this, but it's my fourth time through.  And I'm listening to it again; why read when Jim Dale will so excellently read it to me?

Anyway I'm not really trying to write a review here.  I want to note what parts of the book I'd like to see in the movie, though I'm pretty sure most will be left out.

Here's what I'm convinced, based on previews, we will see:
1. The Order taking Harry away from Privet Drive.  I'm wondering though what that will look like?  I saw a preview that looks like Hagrid driving Harry through a city street.  Definitely not through the air.  Will they do the 7 Harry's?  I'd like to see that.

2. Harry's Birthday the day before the wedding.

3. The Wedding and the conversation with Doge.  Which, after checking IMDB, he's listed as a character, so hopefully this happens.

4. Disapperating to that street in London, which I believe I've seen previews for, so that happens.  Does the cafe get destroyed though?  I hope so.

5. The conversation with Creacher where we learn about RAB.  I believe this is in the movie because of what JK said when they wanted to cut Creacher out of the 5th movie and she told them not to as he had an important role in the 7th.  I think the part about the letter from Lily will be cut.

6. That last sentence makes me think most of the backstory about Dumbledore and his sister and brother is probably cut.  Because - well - they have to cut something.  So how do they work out the end with Hogwarts?  And the painting?  So many questions!

7. How much camping?  The Doe has to be there.  That's like, pivotal.  I want to see Hermoine yell at Ron when he comes back.  I know the part at Godric's Hollow has to be there.  Crucial.  And Xeno's house.  I think I saw that.  And Shell Cottage, I saw what I think is that house.

7a. Harry say the taboo name and them getting caught by the snatchers.  I'm reading this right now I want to see this.  And I want to all the Voldy parts because that's interesting.

8.  And the Malfoy's.  Hermoine getting tortured, Ron yelling ... that's the part I'm at in the book.  So I'm going to stop my list there.  After I see the movie on the 20th I want to come back and say what was shown and what wasn't.  Hence, this list.

Happy Ever After

Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts

Fourth one in the series.  Parker's story.  Probably my least favorite of the bunch.  Got so tired of all the wedding details.  Redundant.  BORING.  And, the book is over, and we don't get to see them all married off?  I mean really what was the point?

I'm glad this series is over.  I'm wondering if she's going to continue to do series books in the publisher's edition size or if she'll go back to mass market paperback.  I'm a little irritated with how expensive these were.  Especially considering how forumulaic they are.

But, I mean, come on.  What was I expecting?

House Rules

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult

I read this for a book club that I was recently invited to join (yea!).  Otherwise, based on my review of My Sister's Keeper, I don't think I would have picked up another Picoult book.

Jacob Hunt has Asbergers, and acts out in ways that are different and hard to understand.  His mother has been a single parent since her second son, Theo, was just a few months old and her husband walked out on them.  Jacob loves the show Crimebusters (read: CSI) and forensics.  He sets up crime scenes for his mom to solve and religiously watches the show.

But Jacob's social skills therapists turns up missing, and is found dead.  And Jacob admits to moving her and setting up the crime scene.  He's charged with her murder and the book really is on how the justice system fails people that don't communicate the way "normal" people do, and how they can't really get a fair trial.

My issues:
1. This is so much like My Sisters Keeper it made my eyes hurt.  Jacob needs 100% of mom's attention, Theo the younger son acts out by breaking into houses and stealing things.  (MSK - Kate needs 100% of mom's attention, older brother acts out by setting fires around the city).  Even the writing was the same - different chapters from each persons perspective.

2.  The different perspectives - I don't need to see how EVERY conversation is viewed by EVERY character.  I mean the book could have been 300 pages shorter if she would have stopped doing that.

3.  I get that Jacob has to do the same things every day.  I get that he eats colored foods on certain days.  I get it.  I get that he got in trouble in school for hurting that one girl.  I get it.  Quit telling me.  Quit hitting me over the head with it.  This was just bad editing.

4. I don't think she understands Asberger's or Autism very well.  I know she researched it.  BUt like one reviewer said on Amazon, it's like she took EVERY symptom and put them in Jacob, which doesn't really make sense.  I have a relative that has Asberger's and he has some of the symptoms she describes, but if he had the others, well he'd have Autism and not Asbergers.  They are not the same.  They are actually on two different ends.  I just don't think there are people that have both.  But maybe I'm wrong.

5.  The ending.  Oh mylanta how ridiculous.  It just ends.  Done.  No resolution.  No answer to any question at all.  Not even one of the strings are tied up.  Does Emma have a relationship with Oliver?  Does Jacob's Dad remain in the picture?  DOES JACOB GET CONVICTED OF MURDER?  Does he go to jail?  Does Theo get in trouble for breaking into houses?  What happens?  Seriously.  Maybe don't tie it all up, but you can't write nearly 600 pages (I mean dude, that took me a long time to read, I have a small baby - finding time to read is hard) and then NOT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS.  I feel cheated.

6.  It was really hard for me to read this book.  I don't like anything that's about bad things happening to children.  I don't like thinking about Autism and the spectrum.  I kept looking at Grady ... and it just makes my heart constrict and breath stop.

7. And vaccines.  Experts and doctors can tell parents all day long that getting your children vaccinated is the best thing and that there is no link between vaccines and autism, and people don't listen.  Pop culture books like this one and the one written by Jenny McCarthy come out and people rave and want to stop getting their kids vaccinated.  I almost returned it when I got to the parts where she blamed Jacobs condition on his vaccinations.  She says it over and over again.  Even in my book club, where most of us have kids under a year old, there were moms that said they were scared of getting their kids vaccinated.  I had to shake my head and point out that illnesses that are perfectly preventable are coming back and KILLING kids because people aren't getting vaccinated.

I don't like putting chemicals in G's body either.  But if they keep him safe?  Babies that get the flu can die.  Babies are dying all over from Whooping Cough because parents aren't getting boosters.

Those were my issues.  I kept reading because I wanted to see the train wreck.  And there wasn't a crash.  We came slowly up to the top and then it never went down.  It's like the train is still stopped at the top of the hill.

Some in the book club think that we'll hear what happened to Jacob in another book.  But I don't think I'll be buying another Picoult book.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

It's been a year since we last left Kalle Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander after their investigation into the Vanger family and the Werrenstrom affair (The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo).  Lisbeth, nursing a wounded heart has fled the country and is running around the world.

Blomkvist is still helping manage Millenium, and has taken on a new book to publish and new expose that will reveal how bad the sex trafficking trade is in Sweden, and how much government officials are involved.

When the writer of the new book and his girlfriend are murdered, and Lisbeth's fingerprints are found on the gun, she is the immediate suspect due to her convoluted and disasterous past.  She has very few friends but Blomkvist believes her to be innocent.

Thus starts his research into who the real murder is, and his hunt for both Salander and the killer.

This book is much faster paced then the first one.  Mostly because all the characters involved in the Vanger family just confused me.  There were a lot of needless characters in this book too (lots of police offers and investigators that had no purpose) but the action moved things along.  Salander is nonexistent in part three of the book which is drives you on because you really want to know her side.  But she doesn't just come out and tell us, she never does.

I'm interested to see how the third book wraps this all up.  The sex trafficking has been a theme in both the first two and I suspect it will all be revealed in the final chapter.  At least, I hope so.  Lots of what's written in these books is based on real crime statistics for Sweden.  Who knew they had such a human trafficking problem?  Or a domestic abuse problem?

Will read the next one.  Too bad Larsson is dead.  His books have already been made into films in Sweden and Hollywood is making their own versions too.  I hope the members of his estate are putting the money to good use.

Savor the Moment

Savor the Moment, Nora Roberts

The third in the Brides Quartet series.  This is Laurel's story, the cake maker of the four, and it follows the method of all of Roberts books.  Couple banters, realizes they like each other, fall in love, have some sort of falling out, make amends, get married.  If there were later books, we'd see them all getting pregnant.

I will pick up the fourth one, because I'm addicted to series'.  And I like all the characters.

However.

The conflict in these is just so lame.  And frankly, I'm tired of hearing all about how great these women are at their jobs.  I'd like to see Laurel drop a cake, or Emma clip the bloom off a rose accidentally or Mac miss the groom kiss the bride or SOMETHING normal.  These women are all supposedly super perfect, never fight, even in high stress situations and they talk about each other funny.  I have friends, but I don't sit around with them talking about how much I love them.

Mac's mom as the only bad guy is just old.  I hope the 4th one gets away from that but I don't see that happening.

Still ... fans of Nora Roberts will pick it up and read it quickly because it's easy and fun.  The next one comes out in November and is Parker's story.  So far, Malcolm is the most intriguing of all the male leads.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

The Girl Who Chased the Moon, by Sarah Addison Allen

17-year-old Emily comes to the small town her mother was raised in shortly after her mother's death.  She will be living with her grandfather in the room where her mother grew up, with wallpaper that changes with the inhabitants moods!  What she finds when she gets to the small town is that her mother wasn't the same person in her childhood as she was as her mother, and the townspeople don't have very fond memories of her.  She becomes friends with her neighbor Julia, and the teenage son of the family that her mother allegedly wronged.

I love Sarah Addison Allen's books.  They are so fun and whimsical.  If you read Garden Spells or the Sugar Queen, you have to read this.  It's really excellent, light summer fare with a little fairy tale touch.

Year End Wrap Up

This is a really belated post.  But ... my literary doings for 2009.

Books read: 44
Challenges started: 5
Challenges completed: 3

I read most of the books that I did read in the first half of the year (January - June).  From that point onward, I fell off the bookshelf, so to speak.  I didn't read much of anything in October or November.  But, to my credit, I am having a baby.  And I'm not listing on here all the baby books I've been reading (okay there really aren't that many - but I've been reading some).

I'd like to read more than that in 2010, but ... I imagine the books I'll be reading will be more little one focused.  I'm okay with that.