Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (#1) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In my heart, this will always be the best one. Everyone was already talking about this series when I first read the first book in 2001. I was 22, and I was really dubious about reading a children's book at first, but a few pages in, I was cheering for the boy under the stairs. The whole book was so aggressively charming and magical. I wish I'd had the pleasure of reading it as a kid when the wall between pretend and reality isn't so clear.

This is the book where we meet: Harry Potter- the loyal outsider!, Ron Weasley- the courageous poor kid!, Hermione Granger- the smartest in the class! We also meet Albus Dumbledore!, half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, Professor Severus Snape!, Professor Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom!, and Ron's siblings: Ginny, Fred, George, and Percy. In other words, we meet all our best friends at Hogwarts.

We also meet the less inspiring: Petunia Dursley, Vernon Dursley, Dudley Dursley, groundskeeper Filius Flitwick, Draco Malfoy, Professor Quirinus Quirrell, Professor Pomona Sprout.

And of course, we hear about Lord Voldemort, Lily Potter, and James Potter.

Don't forget to get your wand from Ollivander's! The invisibility cloak is the best ever!

Some potential spoilers up next. (Is there anyone who hasn't read this yet?) I don't know who won at Quidditch. Gryffindor wins 2 of its 3 matches, and we never hear who wins Slytherin-Hufflepuff, Slytherin-Ravenclaw, or Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff. What's to stop these games from being 3-way ties with 3 the teams winning 2 of their 3 games? Or even two-way ties with 2 teams winning 2 games, with no championship game?

The Sorcerer's Stone (or the Philosopher's Stone in the British version I own) lets you live forever. Now that I'm an old-hearted adult, that sounds like a terrible curse to me. Also, in my opinion, the mirror in the story is way more memorable than the stone. The mirror lets you see your heart's desire!

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The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I didn't like this one, though having read the reviews, I seem to have a unique reason for not having liked it.

First, let me briefly address the other concerns people mentioned. Yes, there's some distaste for other religions, but the treatment of the honest prince of another religion clarifies that it's the good values not the right God that's the issue for Lewis. This is generous of Lewis, but it's not Christianity, which does indeed require belief in precisely the right God.

Second, I don't think it's so horrible that the "happy ending" is that everyone is dead in heaven, nor do I think in such a situation Susan's "punishment" is very terrible as it's only of a temporary nature. It's going to be a rough life for Susan, but it will be a longer one with it's own rewards, and eventually she'll probably also get to Narnia-Heaven. It's going to be a rough sad life, yeah, but possibly also good with a husband, kids, and maybe she'll become a train-safety reformer or something.

The main reason I don't like this book is how totally off-base and contradictory it is. Tirian says that it would have been better to die than to live and learn that Aslan was so different than he thought he'd be. In other words, he didn't want to learn that Aslan was evil on earth... though it turns out he's not! This concept is repeated over and over again in the book so I'm really not nitpicking here. Did Lewis live a charmed life? Do children not starve on earth? Do people not die of horrible diseases and train accidents? If Aslan didn't order people to be sold into slavery didn't he allow it? We can barely tell if allowed a train accident to happen at the end of he actually caused it mostly because it doesn't make a difference. We're supposed to believe either that "God works in mysterious ways" or that the afterlife is the life that matters so our own suffering on earth doesn't make a difference. Tirian would make a very poor Christian, and is not even a very good Aslan-follower.

Also, the entire first half the book was depressing and boring. It would have been one star but I do enjoy their run through heaven. It's a lovely wish.

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The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember this being my favorite one when I was young and it was still very strong. Except for the discussion of healing the sick which seems pretty offensive now. (If you're a fan of Lev Grossman's Magicians which bases Fillory on Narnia, this might be the most fun book to read or reread.)

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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wanted something cheerful to read during my honeymoon. This is my husband's idea of "cheerful." Some of it takes place in Greece, which is where we were honeymooning. Loved the beginning, but loved the end less. Maybe because I was less interested in the "male" Cal.

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The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my new favorite Narnia book! I don't think I ever read this one as a child actually. I might have skipped it? Or maybe I had just completely forgotten it because I know I read the next one in the series. I tried to read this one with James but I think it was a little above his head. Might keep trying, but I was sufficiently into it that I wanted to finish it myself.

This one isn't a bunch of random adventures, but one straightforward story with developed characters and explorations of bravery, social class, and politics. The religious aspect of the book is not cumbersome in this one either and actually help to unite the story. Lewis has created a world with no coincidences, but coincidences in novels often seem contrived and lazy anyway so I can't fault this aspect of the religious storyline.

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The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A bit heavy-handed in the analogies again. More fun than Prince Caspian but maybe less fun than Dawn Treader. Kind of the same, random adventures capped with extremely obvious Christian analogy. Specifically: life after death.

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Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Diamond starts with an introduction that sets out the thesis that technological and historical success over other populations was not caused by racial biology. He then reminds us- not so subtly- that many of those victors achieved their success at least in part by being the bigger assholes in history.

(1) Despite the title, the first factors were what plants were available for domestication (ie. high protein wheats are better than corn) and what large mammals were available in the area for domestication (ie. horses were effective but zebras ineffective). The domesticated animals also helped with the plowing farmland. The migration of these plants and animals depended on the adaptability of those domestic plants and animals to the new area (horizontal or vertical migration). That's about the first 40% of the book.

The thesis of Guns, Germs and Steel is about the next 30% of the book but should be called Germs, Writing, Diffusion of Technology, and Huge Complex Warring Governments (haha, not as catchy):

(2) As for "germs," the people with domesticated animals caught infectious diseases from those domesticated animals and developed immunities. When they met people without these immunities they wiped them out with diseases both by accident and on purpose (again- the bigger assholes).

(3) Then Diamond talks about the development of written language, that also migrated along the domestic plant and animal routes- from groups that invented simple writing. Bureaucrats that were fed by food surpluses had time to adapt writing systems to their phonetic language. These bureaucrats also had a use for writing to manage large societies that grew from these food surpluses. While written language gave these people an advantage, Diamond reminds us that these "civilized people" didn't always defeat barbarians (example: the Hun).

(4) As for technology, it was developed on all continents and in all different types of societies. However, the diffusion of this technology (along these same trade routes of the domesticated plants and animals) helped maintain and grow technology. Isolated populations had less access to technology they could improve or have their technologies improved by others, and occasionally they lost this technology. Additionally, for the technology to get advanced quickly, a population had to be sedentary and be able to accumulate goods.

(5) Increased food production leads to increased populations which lead to large complex societies that in turn allow for job specializations, war and patriotic (read suicidal) military forces. Complex societies also develop lots of other things. There's a lot of belaboring the point in this section.

That's about it for the thesis, and though the title is a bit misleading, the thesis itself is solid.

The end of the book is a look at different regions of the world to show how these factors played out. This part feels like a rehashing and it covers too much area and history to be very helpful or memorable. I read this book twice and I didn't remember this part of it from my first reading. The areas covered are: Australia, New Guinea, China, other East Asian regions nearby, Indonesian islands, Polynesian islands, the continents of North and South America, and the entire continent of Africa. Each of these areas is compared to Europe (sometimes to the larger Eurasia area).





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The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

C.S. Lewis's Christian version of The Odyssey. The crew sails to islands at the end of the world and faces a number of adventures and challenges.

Eustace is probably the best part of the book because he's funny-nasty in that he has no idea that he's in a magical world so he thinks the other characters are acting like madmen and he's also hilariously selfish. I would have preferred that his conversion be less complete for the sake of staying interesting. Reepicheep the warrior mouse is pretty great too.

Why can't Lucy make herself more beautiful? It's not the use of magic- after all she uses magic for the visibility spell. Oh well.


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Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first time I read this book I was a little kid and found it terribly depressing and boring that Narnia had lost all its magic. I must have been older than when I read the first book, TLTW&TW because I did understand the religious allegory, I just found it unpersuasive. On an adult reread, I don't find it depressing at all, though it's still a bit boring, and definitely not convincing. Also, someone explain to me why Aslan is hanging out with Bacchus and his orgy maidens?

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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first time I read this I was a little kid and I don't think I picked up on all the Christian allegory stuff. The second time I was a little older and did but I did my best to ignore it. This time, I've read some of C.S. Lewis nonfiction about Christianity so I kept an eye for how some of his philosophy was written right into the story. Beyond the more obvious story of Aslan, the professor's thoughts on whether or not Lucy is telling the truth is the thesis of Mere Christianity. I mostly remember reading this but I wanted to reread it before rereading the others.

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