Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets By: J.K. Rowling

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• Title: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2)
• Author: J.K. Rowling
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Publication Date:  June 2, 1999 (1998) 
• Pages: 341
• Genre: Fantasy
• Recommended Age: 9+
• First Read: 2006
• Source: Gift
• Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 stars

The magic of Harry's world continues as we are more familiar with his world than in the first book. Of course, there are still more secrets to be revealed, including seeing where the Weasleys live for the first time. I quite enjoyed this book (as I did for the entire series of course!) because just when you think there are no more surprises-bam-you get hit with one harder than Harry and Ron get hit by that Whomping Willow.

I seriously love this book because this is where I got to meet Dobby for the first time and where we learn so much more about all the characters. I admit that I did like this better than the Philosopher's Stone simply because I was more entrenched in Harry's world. This book had a darker tone to it than  its predecessor and contained a mystery that I was trying to solve as well when I first read it. And now since I have read it so many times, I am able to pick up on clues that J.K. had left earlier in the book. Every single time I read this book I pick up another subtle hint that relates not only to the ending of this book, but connects to all the other books as well, and it just blows my mind, every single time. 

My favorite part, weirdly, was Ron's backstory on why he hated spiders so much. There is something in Ron's childhood fear that speaks to everyone. And though Rowling portrays it as a funny anecdote, (the story goes that Fred and George turned Ron's teddy bear into a giant spider) she instills in us something much deeper, and it is this recurring motif of fear and the ability to overcome it that appears in every single one of the books that I love so much. She teaches us to be unafraid without preaching, and she does it so subtly that it's as if we came up with it on our own. And we did. She simply planted the seed of it in our mind.

This book also contains one of my (many) favorite quotes that Dumbledore tells Harry after Harry finds out that he and Voldemort have a lot of things in common:

"It is our choices, Harry, who make us what we truly are, far more than our abilities"

Isn't it magical what a an orphaned boy with an owl and a broomstick and two amazing best friends can teach us about life?

And just for the record, this was my favorite movie of the entire series; I love the part where Mrs. Weasley yells at her sons for sneaking off and bringing Harry back with them. It's the one part that I liked better in the movie than in the book. It's a classic.

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Where have you been? Beds empty! No note! Car gone! You could have died! You could have been seen! 

I just love everything about this book. So shoo and go read it (or better yet, re-read it) until you can quote both the movie and book versions word per word!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone By: J.K. Rowling

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• Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  (Harry Potter #1)
• Author: J.K. Rowling
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication Date:  June 30, 1997 
• Pages: 223
• Genre: Fantasy
• Recommended Age: 9+
• First Read: 2006
• Source: Gift 
• Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 stars

I've read this book and this series more times than I can count, to the point that I can quote (pretty accurately) the entire first chapter of each book because Harry Potter is an institution unto itself. 

This entire series has grown up with me, ever since I first read them when I was eight years old and it feels only right that I write a review on perhaps the greatest book series that mankind has ever come out with. Because Harry Potter and his friends, and even his enemies, not only taught me about the magic of love, loyalty, friendship, but they further fostered my love for reading. So indirectly, this blog is here today because of of the line,

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

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No Dursleys, thank you for giving Harry a childhood fraught with challenges that taught him to overcome the hardships he faces later in life. Because of the Dursleys, I learned an infinite amount of lessons: that normal wasn't always better, that not all people are beyond hope, and most importantly that mail does not arrive every day.

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Everything about this book was well, magical because who can't love invisible cloaks, chocolate frogs, magic wands, and a sport with flying broomsticks? The language is simple yet conveys so much and that's what makes this series so amazingly successful; children are able to learn from Harry's world without realizing it at first, yet they take away with them lessons that will last them a lifetime.

"Words, in my not so humble opinion, are our most inexhaustible source of magic"

I can't help but smile as I write this because it feels as if I am opening up Harry's world for the first time, meeting Ron, Hermoine, Fred, George, Neville, and Malfoy for the first time. And for those who say, that these are children's books, then they are right, but for those who say that only children can enjoy them, then I must say that they are sorely mistaken. Do not feel as if you are "too old" for Harry and his friends because all great stories do not have an age limit. When I started the series, the trio looked like this:

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And I have grown up with them, so it is as if the stories are growing with me, changing to fit the context of my life, as these stories will do to all who delve into them.

In this first book of course, we are introduced to the magic, where we first come upon King's Cross, Diagon Alley, and the famous Hogwarts Castle, which are all described in such rich detail that I feel like I have been along for the ride the entire time, which, in a way, I have. I especially love the moment where Harry's wand first chooses him. I think it perfectly sums up the entire series because it captures all the feelings everyone feels throughout the entirety of the series.

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Here I am, talking about the entire series when it's only the first book! But this book is my second favorite in the series, second only to The Goblet of Fire, if that says anything. I love this book so much because it is the gateway to a world I have never fully left and was the one that introduced me to a brand of magic that  I am able to access, all by just turning a few pages.

As for my Hogwarts letter? Well, I'm still waiting for it, though it's been years since my 11th birthday. I'm convinced it was lost in the mail somewhere and it will eventually find its way to me, because "things we lose always have a way of coming back to us," to quote the admirable Luna Lovegood.

A Thousand Splendid Suns By: Khaled Hosseini

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• Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
• Author: Khaled Hosseini
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Publication Date: November 25, 2008 (2006) 
• Pages: 415
• Genre: Fiction
• Recommended Age: 15+
• First Read: 2013
• Source: Purchase 
• Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 stars

After I read The Kite Runner,  I went around trying to get my hands on all of Khaled Hosseini's books because I had fallen in love with his writing style. And when I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, I realized that it had become my favorite stand alone book. I have read this book more times than I can possibly count and have wept every single time I have read it, which I am not ashamed to say in the least.

“You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.”

It often seems that this book and The Kite Runner are endlessly compared, but it is important to regard this novel as its own separate entity with its own story to tell, and boy, what a story, or rather, stories they are.

The novel intertwines the fates of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, who grow up very differently, yet come together to battle adversity and find joy in a country frought with turmoil. Everything is richly described and Hosseini is able to use simple language to convey powerful emotion, which was  the defining aspect of this book. There was not a single moment where I felt the plot line was at all slow because every word is chosen with the utmost care and contributed to the beauty of the work.

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

My favorite aspect of this novel is the world Hosseini created for me-for everyone-as I got to know Mariam, whom I felt an intense emotional connection with, and Laila, whom I loved greatly as well. I had no trouble at all delving into a world that I knew very little about because I was utterly entranced by the evocative language used. There is nothing better than to be transported to another world from the first word of a novel and this is exactly what happened as I read this book. I also relished the fact that these women portray the stark reality of Afghanistan and give a powerful insight to the lives of people in a land that we are sadly misinformed about. The greatest message this novel gave to was not only the strong resiliency in the women of Afghanistan, but its entire people's spirit as well because  we seem to forget to give faces to the tragic stories we hear abroad and this novel does just that.

There was nothing in this novel I disliked outright, but I felt that the main protagonists in the story could be clarified a little better. Throughout the first half of the book, Mariam is the central focus, but later, the focus shifts more towards Laila, with Mariam still playing an integral part of Laila's narrative. With the loosest definition I say that there are two main protagonists, but I choose to believe that the novel is most strongly conceived around Mariam, with Laila acting as a very strong supporting role. This is of  course, how I choose to view the novel, and I know a great number of others who argue that Laila and Mariam are equally represented in the story. I do not argue with that fact; to me however, Mariam's spirit and presence within the book is more ingrained in the story than Laila's because Mariam truly endured more hardship than her younger counterpart. The novel also begins and ends with Mariam, so I feel that Mariam's story was more prevalent.

“And that, ...is the story of our country, one invasion after another...Macedonians. Saddanians. Arabs. Mongols. Now the Soviets. But we're like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to look at, but still standing.”

Regardless, both women demonstrate an incredible capacity to endure and to thrive in an environment that was more unforgiving than a desert to a delicate rose. I admire their strength in the face of such adversity and hope that I can have even a fraction of the resiliency they posses.

Discussion: Books vs. Movie Adaptations

Some of you may have noticed that I sometimes include a quick commentary about the movie adaptation of a particular book and whether or not they are worth watching and how they differ from and/or are the same as the movie. I include these because I think that it's important to acknowledge that there are movie adaptations out there and some might be great, even greater than the original book, while some books might have not been transferred to the silver screen quite as successfully (ahem Percy Jackson).

I want to be able to provide a platform where everyone can find out about upcoming book to movie adaptations and in turn discuss these adaptations.

So what are your favorite book to movie adaptations? Or do you have any? Which ones did you like the least? Which ones do you want to happen?

Memoirs of a Geisha By: Arthur Golden

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• Title: Memoirs of a Geisha
• Author: Arthur Golden
• Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries
• Publication Date: December 1, 2005 (1997)
• Pages: 497
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• Recommended Age: 13+
• First Read: 2012
• Source: Purchase
• Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 stars

Well, I have to confess that I haven't read this book in a while, but after re-reading it a second time, I realized just what made me love this book in the first place. It a sensual, eye-opening, and a pretty dang great piece of literature.

The first thing that I want to clear up a about this book is that it is fictional, and though it does say that it is a novel on the cover (or at least it does on my edition) some people still get confused about that because the novel does function as a frame story in the aspect that it opens with a fictional "author's note." The actual author does such a great job of introducing us to Chiyo's world that it seems (or at least it did to me) that I couldn't tell the difference between the book and reality. I will also refer to her as Chiyo for the entirety of this review, even though she goes through multiple name changes.

My favorite aspect of this novel was the use of first person as Chiyo's relayed her story to us so that we went along on the journey at the same pace as she did, but also got to have an insight to the enigmatic world that the geishas inhabited. I'm a sucker for a well written historical novel (who isn't?) so I enjoyed all the facts that went into this work, especially considering the fact that the author did extensive research on the world of the geisha. 

Did I like Chiyo? Well yes, and not really. I admired her spirit and her will to survive even in the most dire of circumstances and make the most of the life that she had given. I was annoyed, however, at Chiyo for giving so much of her time and effort into torturing herself, pining for a man that was her forbidden fruit. I know that being with the Chairman is what kept her going, and that it was not unusual at the time for something like this to happen, but I just wish she had other motivation, other than a guy (who was at least thirty years older!) than her to strive for. But what can I really do? The world of the geisha relied on intrigue, even in the most intimate levels of their lives, and love, or rather the lack thereof, was the number one motivation for all of this.

And yes, there is a movie that was released in the early 2000s about this novel. Was the movie accurate to the book? Well, no movie truly is, and of course read the novel first of course, but I can definitely recommend the movie as well because it brings all these wonderful characters to life. Interestingly, my favorite character in the movie version is Hatsumomo because the actress portrays her so well-just like how I imagined her.

You know a novel is truly special when you can't wait to re-read it again, and that's exactly how I feel about Memoirs of a Geisha.