July - December 2007

July 2007
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by JK Rowling
Re-reads before the 7th book came out. Obsessed much?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling
Finally, the conclusion of the series. I enjoyed this book. There was some boring sitting around and waiting for the next exciting event to occur, but that’s okay – even Harry Potter has slow periods on occasion. The end was pretty satisfying, although the epilogue was sort of cheesy.

August 2007
Eragon, by Christopher Paolini
A fantasy story about a boy who discovers that a dragon has hatched and he’s supposed to go on an adventure with the dragon. This book was good for being written by a teenager, but not good enough that I wanted to read the next two books in the series. It isn’t the most original of stories, so it felt rather like I’d read it before.

Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
It took me a while to get into this book. A group of tourists go to Burma/Myanmar, and it is not the fun holiday that they expect. Most of the group is kidnapped by some tribesmen who believe one of them is a deity. It’s not a bad book, it just starts a little slow.

September 2007
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, by Ann Brashares
Girls in Pants, by Ann Brashares
Re-reads, again

October 2007
Forever in Pants, by Ann Brashares
I have no idea why I needed to read this book just nine months after the previous read, but that should tell you that it’s an enjoyable series.

Broken for You, by Stephanie Karros
This book is about a few people who are “broken” in their own ways – one character wants to return her inheritance of items stolen from Jews during the Holocaust, one character is seeking her ex-lover, and a couple other characters are just misfits. They all end up together, and find ways to use their talents to help the others heal. It’s both entertaining and meaningful.

Every Living Thing, by James Herriot
Another book of stories from the English country vet who wrote All Creatures Great and Small, etc.

November 2007
My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
I’m really glad that I finished this book in a hotel room, alone, because the end is devastatingly sad. A girl is born for the sole purpose of being a living donor for her older sister, who has leukemia. When she is a teenager, Anna decides that she does not want to donate a kidney to her sister, Kate, so she hires a lawyer and sues her parents for medical emancipation. It’s a fascinating story about the ethics behind conceiving and using one child to provide for the health of another child.

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli
Re-read (October 2004)

Love, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli
The sequel to Stargirl, this book is a series of diary entries from Stargirl about her new town and how she misses the boy from the first book. Her perspective is always interesting – she sees things that most of us overlook or take for granted – but the first book was much better.

December 2007
An Acceptable Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
Polly O’Keefe, who is featured in several other books, goes to visit her grandparents and does some time traveling. Not one of my favorite L’Engle books, but not too bad either.

Saints, by Orson Scott Card
A young woman in Britain becomes a Mormon and moves to America, where she becomes one of Joseph Smith’s wives. At the time, most Mormons were not a fan of polygamy, so her marriage was kept secret. A very interesting story about early Mormons that explains polygamy without idealizing it.

Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
The story of the Wicked Witch of the West, this book was made into a musical that everyone told me was awesome. Naturally, I had to read the book. It’s okay – the idea is interesting, but there is far too much political nonsense for me.