Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists

Hi everyone! Sorry I’m slow this month so far. Big things are happening in my life, from planning my wedding, which is coming up in September, to hopefully starting up a little business with my fiancee to raise some extra income for said wedding! Needless to say these things take up loads of time when I’m already working a full-time and a part-time job! But I’m still reading as much as I can and Bookstagramming when I can and (obviously) blogging whenever I can. So here goes!

Just in case you didn’t know, there are three Pottermore collections of short stories by J.K. Rowling:

• #1: Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies
• #2: Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists
• #3: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide

I read them out of sequence (if there is a proper sequence…I don’t think there really is, even though they technically are numbered), and read the first one first, followed by the incomplete and unreliable guide, and I just now finished the second book. There wasn’t a real reason or logic as to why I did this, I just opened them up one at a time at random on my iPad. I finished book 1 in November of 2016 and gave it 4 stars, writing that “I liked it but…I wish it was more narrative than encyclopedic.” Book 3 I thought I remembered liking less than book 1 but I gave it 5 stars so apparently not. I even wrote that its “my favorite one so far” and that I “love all the info!” Guess I need a re-read!!

As for book number 2, Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists, I also gave this 5 stars. From what I remember of the other two books, I am pretty sure I felt this one was the best formatted. I thought the chapters were longer and held more information and were more story-like. I absolutely love backstories and side characters which means that these little books were practically made for me!

I really enjoyed all of the tidbits, from the good characters whom I like such as Slughorn to the topics that I find interesting like the Ministers for Magic, and even the evillest of evil: Umbridge herself. She, too, has an interesting background. Plus, of course, there is more than what I have mentioned here and there are more quips and FYI’s thrown around…I always love reading about how Rowling came up with this name or that place or bla bla bla. Its all fascinating to me and if these tiny 75-page tidbits were 10x bigger, I would still devour them and recommend them to you all!

Listening to: “Obliviate” from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Soundtrack

Bout of Books *Read a Thon* Wrap-Up

Hi everyone! I hope the final stretch of your Bout of Books read a thon was productive!….or at least moreso than mine. Fortunately, though, this is one of the most encouraging RAT’s out there. My problem is that I’m doing so much multi-tasking these days that I don’t know where to invest most of my time. I’m involved in three group challenges, several ARCs, I’m working on getting a blog and a bookstagram going, AND preparing for a real life certification exam at the end of the month. I think I’m going to explode!!! But that’s not why you’re here. That’s all personal me bla bla bla. Reading progress:

The Circle – I’m ALMOST done. I read about 420 pages out of just over 500. The book is creeping me out so expect a ranting review coming soon.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Finished about 100 more pages so I’m about 2/3 of the way through. I was tempted to abandon this to start on a new ARC with a fast approaching deadline but I really dislike abandoning books so I’m just going to finish.

So that’s that, everyone. As I said, I hope everyone finished strong. I wish I could say that I completed these books, but I am much closer to finishing than I was a few days ago, so that is good. Until next time!!

Listening to: “Kowalski Rag” from Fantastic Beasts Soundtrack

Bout of Books *Read a Thon* Day 6 & 7

#seasonsofbooks – This hashtag for today’s challenge got the song “Seasons of Love” from the musical RENT stuck in my head so of course that’s what I have to be listening to right now. This, of course, is making it harder for me to concentrate on choosing which books I think fit with which seasons, which is the challenge for today (this sounds like an exhausting, real-life version of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie….like, if you give a Music/Book Nerd a Challenge lol!). Okay, enough shenanigans. Down to business.

I’m going to be honest. I collect and hoard bookish Buzzfeed seasonal lists like they’re going out of style. I don’t know why but I just love them. I have all 4 seasons plus every holiday down to freakin’ Flag Day or something like that. I just love lists. And I love books. So I guess its easy to say that I love book lists! So here are the highlights of my seasonal book lists (note: I have read none of these. They are literally from my lists and they just sound good to me!):

Spring ~ The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon; Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham; Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Summer ~ One Plus One by Jojo Moyes; Love Like Crazy by Megan Squires; Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews

Fall [my favorite season for books and ALL THE THINGS] ~ The Magicians by Lev Grossman; Dark Matter by Blake Crouch; The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Winter ~ The Likeness by Tana French; Heartless by Marissa Meyer; Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

So there you have it, folks. My not-at-all brief list of books for all seasons. I guess my spring books are pretty light and have some humor to them, and there’s even a non-fiction in the mix (I rarely read non-fiction…only a couple each year). Summer books are also pretty fun. I might try to get through a series in the summer. I was thinking about tackling a Sarah J. Maas this summer. Maybe. Fall is all small towns and paranormal and thrillers and cozies. I read like crazy in the fall. Winter I read a lot too. Lots of holiday books and fun series re-reads. I tend to feel Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Arcana Chronicles-ish in the winter time. What did everyone else pick? I’m so curious now! I want more lists and recommendations!! 😀

Soundtrack for today: RENT original cast recording

Bout of Books *Read a Thon* Day 4

Clearly, since I am new to the blogging world, I am always the last to know about awesome things. So here I am playing catch up…but that’s okay, because at least I caught it!! I have 4-6 books that I need to finish plus some major studying that I need to do, and then I am not doing this to myself again!! So here goes!

Day 1 was introductions #insixwords …no more, no less. So here is what I would say: Colorful ~ Singer ~ Reader ~ Teacher ~ Loving ~ Organized

Day 2 was typography titles, which I thought was really cool. Fact: my little brother is a big, fancy graphic designer in NYC and I’m super proud of him. He works with this company that does projects for companies like Kashi and M&Ms and Budweiser (I’m allowed to say all of this pubically, right? Hope so…I don’t know why not). Its a great company and they do good work. Anyway, back to the books here.

  

Day 3 is always a favorite topic for everyone: THE SHELFIE!! If you want to see mine, you’ll have to click the link here to see my Twitter page. I posted my favorite shelfie, of course….my Harry Potter shelf! I’ve got my favorite set of HP paperbacks, a few Funko figures, a few candles, a few creatures, a few magnetic bookmarks, the Elder Wand, my Blu Ray set, my illustrated books thus far (I can’t wait until all of those release!!!).

So now I’m going to go do my reading for Day 4 and think about this “Dating profile for a literary character” thing. I’m awful at this type of thing but we’ll see if I can come up with anything. Happy reading, all!

Currently listening: “Fawkes the Phoenix” by John Williams from HP & The Chamber of Secrets

“The Princess Diarist” by Carrie Fisher

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher was very much not what I was expecting. I was expecting a straightforward run through her journals from her movie days when she was filming the “Star Wars” movies. Apparently I don’t know Carrie very well. Well, I already knew that. I’m really not that big a Carrie fan, or Leia for that matter, but I am a “Star Wars” fan and since Ms. Fisher recently passed I figured I’d give the book a shot. The book was actually written very well, but the content was…just ok. Here’s why:
75-80% of the book is really about Carrison (Carrie + Harrison if you’re slow….their name for their affair, not mine). And not just “about” them…but its literally either recent Carrie talking about it, or teenage Carrie pining over it. Its quite beautiful and poetic for about 10-20 pages and then its just old. The beginning and ending biographical pieces about how she got casted and how she feels about her fans are funny and candid and that’s what I wanted. I wanted on-set memories as well and interactions with the cast and crew and the script. However….you can’t always get what you want.

At the end of the day, the book had its extremely well-written moments where I was so shocked I was ready to give it a 5 star rating because Ms. Fisher is so articulate and the book is quotable and memorable and funny. There are pictures in the actual book and the audiobook is read mostly by Carrie Fisher herself so its really great. Then we sometimes hit the doldrums of talking on and on as a teenage would-be poet about Harrison Ford for dozens of pages at a time…is it love or is it not? bla bla bla. Ugh.

Soundtrack: Return of the Jedi: “Luke & Leia Theme” by John Williams

Bookmail! … Otter Nonsense Designs

Ah, Star Wars! Don’t hate me, but Princess Leia has never been my favorite character in the galaxy. I’ve always been more on the nerf-herder’s side. Oh, and little R2 too! Its amazing what that droid who is all boxed in could do. Never underestimate R2-D2!

Anyway, I wanted to make the point that even though I haven’t exactly been a Leia fan over the years, I have been curious about reading some of Carrie Fisher’s books, especially “The Princess Diarist.” This book is a behind the scenes look at the Star Wars prequel movies, as told from young Carrie’s journals while actually filming. Interesting, methinks! I’d especially love to listen to the audiobook because Ms. Fisher narrates it herself, and I love it when authors read their own books…especially memoirs.

So here is my cutesy bookmail for now. A new bookmark from a great seller I found on Etsy by the name of Otter Nonsense. She has tons of other bookmarks and printables from Star Wars and several other fandoms…something for everyone. Check her out if you’re so inclined. 😀

Listening to: The Force Awakens Soundtrack – “Han and Leia” (John Williams is love, guys. The fugue [“Han and Leia” allude to it; “March of the Resistance” is the big one! It will get your blood pumping! So exciting!! So exciting my grammar gets bad – sorry] in this soundtrack is my favorite thing in the galaxy! And his new instrumentation for Leia’s theme…subtle, but amazing. It makes me actually enjoy the theme, when I didn’t before [don’t hate me please!]).