Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (#5) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am rereading in 2018 and holy cow Rowling saw the future when she wrote this. I know that’s because she wrote it about the past, but even so, so much in this one relates to modern politics and resulting personal interactions. This one in the series is particularly enjoyable because it’s about the resistance and the resistance leaders and headquarters.

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good book that would have been better without the tricky ending. The ending cheapened the entire book quite a bit and lessened the main character's responsibility. I would recommend all but the last few pages of the book. (3 stars)

Update from 3/2018 reread: Besides being captivated all over again by the author's amazing writing and his unreliable narrator, it seems clear to me that the entire point of the story is that there are a chain of people at fault, and the fault of the others does not negate the narrator's responsibility at all. In fact, his particular character flaws left unexamined all these years have gone on to affect the rest of his life as well. (4 or 5 stars)

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Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this for a seminar I took in law school that challenged us to read nonfiction books on a number of social and ethical topics. I loved the physical book, that true to the author's word, you could bring right into the shower with you, and I loved his message that we need to aim higher in our environmental goals. Rather than reducing waste or recycling products (downcycling he called it) we need to be creating products that produce no waste or produce consumable waste as nature does.

It just got a bit boring in the technical details. Eventually, I donated the book, and I wonder sometimes what happened to it. Did it make it to the next reader perfectly intact as the book doesn't degrade, or if it did ironically end up in a landfill to never ever break down?

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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It explores some of our worst instincts in such a carefully constructed and subtle manner. The author doesn't condescend. Despite being a short book, it leaves a lot for you to think about. I snatched this book away from Kevin who was about to read it, but it would have been a perfect book club selection.

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Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was really entertaining. I didn't laugh out loud but it definitely cheered me up. I actually really enjoyed the chapter on her drug adventures in high school. A lot of the rest of it was so strange on its own that it seemed over the top to discuss it with so much silliness. Like too much frosting on an already really sweet dessert.

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The World According to Garp by John Irving

The World According to Garp by John Irving
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this as a teenager and didn't fully appreciate it. At the time, it just seemed really weird and sexualized. Which it is. But wow, there's so much happening in this novel, both on the surface and in a literary way. And dear lord, the under toad. I hear you, Irving. And I see the toad everywhere.

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Virtual Book Club- July 2013

We're doubling down this month by reading Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, and/or One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez (in either English or Spanish).

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mixed feelings. I was not impressed when I read this in high school. When I reread it over 20 years later I appreciated it much more. The writing is of the passionate Jane Austen style, Mr. Rochester is the ultimate in romantic bad boys, and the character of Jane Austen is simultaneously relatable and inspirational— no small trick.

But since I am familiar with Jane Austen now, Jane Eyre feels a little derivative of Pride and Prejudice, especially the awful cousin theme. Is there any meaningful difference in the cold soul of Mr. Collins and St. John Rivers? Also, I found the entire coincidence of Jane Eyre stumbling onto her cousin by coincidence nearly unforgivable.

Final decision: Mr. Rochester, liar though he is, is worth it. Jane and her character development are perhaps unequaled in classic literature.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (#4) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the one with both the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament. Mad-Eye Moody might be my favorite Hogwarts professor ever even if I also feel like I don't actually know him.

The second challenge in the Triwizard Tournament makes me cry. I'm a total sap!

Goblet of Fire is like 2016. It's when things get dark. When all the (anti-muggle and mudblood) racism comes back out of the shadows, and innocent people pay the price. I'm glad that Rowling has prepared a generation for this.

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Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Our May book club selection. I found the first half pretty boring despite of or because of how beginning spoiled the end, but I enjoyed the end a little more. Still, it was a little predictable, and didn't have a lot of deeper literary value.

It's interesting though that a lot of research went into the book to make both the experience of working on a circus and the actual elephant realistic. I respect that.

I also agree with my dad that the book could have used "more elephant."

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