Banned Books Week #2 (September 21-27) Review #2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Hello again all, I meant to post this yesterday but I got so caught up in my reading for school that I didn't have a chance. Goblet of Fire is the 4th book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Visually it is stunning and much thicker than any of the other books so far (the cover I have has Harry being chased by a dragon who is guarding a golden egg (that's important later on in the book, NO SPOILERS) and it's beautiful!) But enough about the appearance of the book.

The story itself starts, much as it has done for the past 3 books, with Harry's horrible relatives at Privet Drive. Everything seems as if it's going to be business as usual until a letter comes from Harry's best friend Ron inviting him to go to the Quidditch World Cup with them (Bulgaria vs. Ireland, no I won't say how it ends, you have to read the book) Everything's going swimmingly until a strange mark appears in the sky, the mark of the Dark Lord, the one most often left by his Death Eaters in the wake of an attack. Things happen, they're not too important, but soon everyone is packing off to Hogwarts again for their 4th year. Between a dangerous tournament fir inly the best and brightest students from 3 schools and a crazy ex-auror Defense professor, will Harry have a quiet year? Of course not. As for what happens in the end you'll have to read to find out!

This book is poignantly, brilliantly written with plot twists every step of the way that will keep you guessing and the magical adventures along the way will keep you hooked and leave you wanting more. You'll laugh, you'll be scared, you'll fly with dragons and you'll love every minute of it. Speaking of laughing I wonder if Draco's father every found out about his little run in with Moody...(I will say no more, you have to read it) I'll try and post again soon...probably on the 5th book (the longest of the lot interestingly enough)

Banned Books Week #2 (September 21-27) Review #1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Hi all, it's Banned Books week again! I must admit I have been most remiss in my reviews for this week, I posted the list and ever since I've been reading Neverwhere. However, my first review this week (I know, it's already Thursday, school gets in the way sometimes) is the third Harry Potter book.

It's the start of Harry's third year and he's at the Dursley's again. This year there are no house elves with dire warning on his birthday and his letters come through but it's still shaping up to be an awful summer. Ron's off to Egypt with his family to see his eldest brother Bill and his Hogwarts letter arrives with a permission slip for Hogsmeade, the wizarding village near Hogwarts. Unfortunately his Aunt Marge is coming to stay and suffice it to say that her visit doesn't end well and Harry runs off. When he reaches the Leaky cauldron, thats in London, Hedwig is already waiting for him. A few days later he meets his friends there and the new school year starts with promise. Unfortunately for Harry there's an escaped mass murderer on the loose with dementors chasing him, so much for a quiet year. Why is he after Harry? Who is he? What does he really want? Find out all this an more in the third installment of the acclaimed Harry Potter series.

This book, these books, are brilliant and once you've read them you never go back. It's brilliantly written and the story is so wonderful, sad at parts I won't lie, but great. This installment, like it's predecessors, is so cleverly written it keeps you guessing with endless questions, who is the mysterious, Prisoner of Azkaban? didhe actually commit the crimes he was jailed for? If he was innocent why didn't Dumbledore do something? What kind of coward chops off his finger and frames his best friend for murder? What kind of Cowardly Lion are you? And you call yourself a Gryffindor, McGonagall would be disgusted.

You can probably tell I'm a huge Potterhead but if you've read the books and seen the movies, you understand...I highly recommend this book, and it's predecessors and once you read them you never see the world the same way, I promise you that.

As always you can recommend me books to read through Twitter or my blog here, even on Shelfari, until next time (sorry for the delay) keep reading, keep writing, and DFTBA!

Banned Books Week #2 September 21-27, 2014 - Review list

Hi all, I'm doing the September Banned Books Week (I did the one in February as well) and I thought I'd post a list of the books that I'd be reviewing...feel free to comment of tweet me with other banned books that you'd like me to review and I'll work through the list during both Banned Books Weeks (the one now and the one in February) and in honour of my birthday in October I might do my own Banned Books week then (or something) and of course I'll try my hardest to finish my old summer reading list, I know I didn't get far.

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
6. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
7. Looking for Alaska - John Green
8. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
10. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
11. The Giver - Lois Lowry
12. Carrie - Stephen King
13. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
14. The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman
15. The Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman
16. The Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman
17. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
18. Are you there God? It's me Margaret - Judy Blume
19. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
20. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
22. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Hi again, I told you a new review would be up shortly. This time I review "Bridget Jones:The Edge of Reason"

This book is brilliantly written, witty and funny. I loved the first book and the second was just as good, funnier and Bridget is back with more trials and tribulations of living her urban lifestyle in London. As always she has her friends Sharon (Shazzer) and Jude by her side and this time, she takes on world travel. As they journey to places unknown (I know where they're going I just want it to be a surprise) and meet knew people they are bound to have an adventure or two. Will Jude marry Vile Richard? What has happened to Sharon and Simon? What's going on with Mark and Bridget? Read on to find out (not read on here, read the book, sillies, I'm not going to give it all away, although do, by all means, read on here if you want to read the review and not just the summary)

This book, much like the first one is witty, poignant and funny and continues to strike a chord with people everywhere. It's a diary of a year in her life and it's absolutely wonderful. Read it, read it, read it! Fielding's writing is wonderful, it carries you into Bridget's life on a fast moving (sometimes out of control) train but everything evens out by December.

Well that's all for today folks, I told you there would be 2 reviews today, so far. Until next time keep reading, writing and for heaven's sake comment! (or tweet me) but tell me what you think!

See you next time!

Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris

Hey All I'm finally back!

I'm not quite through the stack of library books but they have to be returned (doing that tomorrow (or, as such, later today)) but I finally finished reading Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris.

This is the second book in the Lily Bard mystery series and this time finds her in a bit of a spot.

Between mysterious strangers and threats and a mysterious ring she's really got her hands full this time. But when she's caught between her old friend (and once beau) Claude Friedrich, Shakespeare's chief of police and a mysterious stranger who uses a false name and seems to have come to Shakespeare on the winds of the past she manages to get in way over her head. But you know our heroine, never one to back down from a fight. But when the situation escalates and Lily is caught up in it, what will happen? Who knows, read the book to find out.

Now this book was very good, and especially if you read the first one I would strongly suggest that you continue the series. However there are mature themes,think, To Kill a Mockingbird themes. I loved it. Charlaine Harris is a wonderful author and she really has a way with words that weaves you in to the background of little town Shakespeare.

Well, short review today folks but I will be posting another one very shortly. as always please comment or Tweet me about what you thought or with book recommendations. Until next time keep reading!

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

The epic sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone and the second book in the trilogy this book with grip you from beginning to end on a roller-coaster ride of action and emotion, magic and wonder that will leave you wanting more.

Hi again readers I'm back! This time I review Days of Blood and Starlight, the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. This book once again follows Karou on her journey through life. This time the resurrectionist in a Kasbah in Morocco creating monsters for a man as monstrous as can be. Will Karou ever be able to leave, flee, will her friends find her? Will she ever see her beloved Akiva again? Read on to find out.

This book was gripping from beginning to end, I didn't want to put it down. The journey was wonderful, if a little bloody at times but what can you expect from battles and a book titled "Days of Blood and Starlight"? It was a great read though and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. obviously read "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" first but if you have, and you liked it? read this one. (The third one's out too I just haven't read it yet).

Well folks, short review today, I'm working at BluesFest this weekend so I might not have too much time to read for the next 4 days but I will definitely try to keep up with it. I can't believe it's August already. If you hadn't already guessed my summer reading list will carry on into the school year and I might have a hope of finishing it. (I'm slowly buying copies of the books I wanted to read and had borrowed from the library, some of them are overdue and they really need to be returned so buying them, especially if I wanted to read them more than once, seemed the easiest option.)

As always I'm open to suggestions in comments or over Twitter and feel free to comment with what you think! As always keep reading and I'll see you next time!

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Hey all I'm back, I just finished reading "Practical Magic" a book by Alice Hoffman. Now, some of you might recall that this is also a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, it's usually on around Halloween. As always with these things the book differs from the movie in some aspects but mostly the story remains the same.

Well how did I come to know that "Practical Magic" wasn't just a movie? Funny story, I was looking for the movie in my local library database, they didn't have the movie but they had the book. This book will captivate you from beginning to end, it's almost...bewitching. The story is wonderful and captivating and absolutely amazing...I can almost hear you saying "Enough with the praise, and the personal anecdotes what's it about?

Well, it's about two sisters, Sally and Gillian Owens who go to live with their aunts after their parents die. The Aunts (Aunt Frances and Aunt Bridget (everyone calls her Jet)) live in Massachusetts in an old house on Magnolia Crescent. The Owens women have lived there for generations and by all accounts Gillian and Sally had a pretty good life living with the Aunts on Magnolia Crescent. But the Aunts were always considered a little weird by everyone in the neighbourhood. everyone was convinced that they were witches. Sally and Gillian had to deal with that all through school, but Gillian runs away with her then boyfriend Jimmy and Sally stays behind, she eventually moves to a different town where nobody knows her or thinks she's a witch and she gets married and has two children. One day tragedy strikes however, shattering her world, not long after that Gillian comes back into her life bringing a whole host of trouble that Sally neither wanted nor expected. Will they be able to work through their issues and their problems? Or will Gillian's past come back to haunt them and hang over them forever? Read on and find out.

As I said, it's a great read, absolutely worth reading, worth savouring. It's magical and captivating and I would definitely recommend that you read it, especially if you're a fan of the movie.

That's all for today folks, I have to go through my library books and figure out which ones to return (I just ordered, like, 6 books online from one of the local bookstores and then I went out and bought more and most of the books I bought were ones I'd borrowed from the library (some are, admittedly, overdue (I know, I have to go return them tomorrow)) But I figured, if I was going to read them anyway I might as well buy them (not all at once obviously) especially if it sounded like, or was, something that I might like to read again *cough* Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell.

As always feel free to leave books for me to read in the comments or suggest them to me via Twitter. See you next time, until then, read on book lovers!