{"id":90,"date":"2006-07-18T21:17:23","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T01:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/?p=90"},"modified":"2007-09-14T21:22:43","modified_gmt":"2007-09-15T01:22:43","slug":"finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/finally\/","title":{"rendered":"finally"},"content":{"rendered":"

After renewing the book more times than I can count (a major benefit of being a librarian!), I FINALLY finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish that I had some incredibly intelligent and informed comments to make about the book, but, alas, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0 Although that is telling in itself, since I usually have more to say about a book that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just read than other people care to hear.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll squeeze a few comments out of myself…<\/p>\n

Though there were exciting plot twists and turns in the book, mostly I found it to be just plain dull, and tortuous to slog through.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost as though J.K. Rowling has lost her spirit, and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care about Harry and the gang anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 The first few books in the series aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very well-written, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a certain joy and vivacity in them that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing from The Half-Blood Prince<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully Rowling will regain her stride a little in the upcoming final book of the series; maybe the light at the end of the tunnel will inspire her to recapture some of the freshness that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s missing from books five and six.<\/p>\n

So now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to move on to OTHER books.\u00c2\u00a0 Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the docket:<\/p>\n

Spy Force: Mission: In Search of the Time and Space Machine<\/em>, by Deborah Abela<\/p>\n

Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m expecting a whole lot from this one.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading it because books about spies seem to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d right now, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m previewing this particular one before I order the series for the library.\u00c2\u00a0 It hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gotten the best reviews, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather read it for myself and make my own judgement before investing the library\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money in it.<\/p>\n

The Owl Service<\/em>, by Alan Garner<\/p>\n

We just ordered a new paperback copy of this 1967 work, and I remember really enjoying it when I read it in graduate school.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to cleanse my reading palette with something of quality!<\/p>\n

The Pilot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Wife<\/em>, by Anita Shreve<\/p>\n

My good friend Judy gave me a copy of this book a few weeks ago.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m looking forward to reading it.\u00c2\u00a0 And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s adult literature, what a concept!<\/p>\n

New Boy<\/em>, by Julian Houston<\/p>\n

I\u00c2\u00a0heard Houston speak at The Concord Bookshop back in April or May, and I was very impressed by him and by the book passages that he read aloud.\u00c2\u00a0 Impressed enough that I bought a copy of the book and had him sign it, despite my complete moratorium on book purchases for myself.\u00c2\u00a0 (Our small house just can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hold another book…)<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to hear what other people are reading right now; drop a comment and let me know what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re enjoying this summer!\u00c2\u00a0 And also check out my brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blog (follow the link on the right to “Yet Another Unitarian Universalist”); he has periodic entries about his summer reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After renewing the book more times than I can count (a major benefit of being a librarian!), I FINALLY finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish that I had some incredibly intelligent and informed comments to make about the book, but, alas, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0 Although that is telling in itself, since I … Continue reading finally<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-book-reviews","category-childrens-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/abbykingsbury.org\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}