Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The first time I read a Harry Potter book it was to Isaac, my oldest, when the final book came out. There was this huge buzz over the series' final installment so I was curious and Isaac wanted to read it, so it worked out for both of us. A couple years ago Isaac, Alan, and I had a reading challenge where we all would each read the books and 'raced' to see who could finish first. Now I have Adam at that age and he's been dying to read the series so I finally granted him his wish. 

I love the series as a whole, but I've never gotten too excited about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's good; they're all good, but it's my least favorite in the series. I understand the burden of this novel: it has to set the stage for not only the rest of the series but must introduce the reader to this wizard world. And Rowling does that pretty successfully. I've just never been able to get too excited about it. (Generally speaking, I think the books get better the further into the series.) But bottom line, the books are fun--all of them--whether read alone or aloud... though they are particularly fun to read to a wide eyed child who is spellbound by the magic of it all.

The One and Only Ivan

I'll admit there was only one reason I picked up Katherine Applegate's novel The One and Only Ivan: that it had the gold Newberry medal plastered on its cover. I'm a sucker for checking out the Newberry winners. I don't have as much time to read these days so I knew the chance that I would read it myself was unlikely. After perusing what the book is about, I decided that Adam would be a captivated audience and asked if I could read it to him. He agreed and Noah started reading it with us before shaking his head and saying that he wasn't interested. (The funny part was when we were about 2/3 of the way into the book, Noah changed his mind and ended up being a big fan of the novel.)

Applegate wrote a novel inspired by a real gorilla named Ivan that lived in a cage in a mall for 27 years. She takes the true story and fictionalizes his journey from the mall to the zoo, exploring his life before the mall and giving him a voice. He is a lovable character and Applegate does a wonderful job tackling his feelings about his situation, which vary at different times in the book. It's a heartwarming story and one that makes for a nice read aloud. The chapters tend to be short, which made getting through a 300 page novel with (at times) two kids much more manageable. I recommend it for anyone looking for a nice read aloud for a child, the book states it's recommended for ages 8-12. (Of course don't let the age recommendations discourage you to pick up the book alone if you're interested in checking it out... it really is a cute book.)

Heft

I originally read a review of Liz Moore's novel Heft in Book Page when the novel first came out. I thought it sounded good so I tried checking it out at the library, but they didn't have it. I forgot about it, until recently when I joined Goodreads. I was searching lists and saw the novel on a recommended reading list. I checked the library again and this time they had it. (Oh am I glad that they did!)

Heft tells the story of Arthur Opp, a 550 pound man who has not left his house in ten years, and Kel Keller, a seventeen year old baseball player. Arthur has been in love with Kel's mother for almost twenty years. It is his correspondence with Kel's mother that keeps Arthur going, her letters giving him slices of strength and hope. The reader soon learns through Kel's perspective how troubled his mother actually is, that she is not the young student that Arthur once knew. The novel is told from the alternating voices of Arthur and Kel and eventually their stories weave together in an unexpected way. It is a beautiful, funny, and heart-wrenching novel about love, friendship, and family. I'm going to go ahead and recommend this one because it's really that good. It's compulsively readable, well written with memorable characters, and a near perfect story that tugs at your heart. I loved this book.

Cooked

I've been a big fan of Michael Pollan since the first time I heard him on NPR, years ago talking about a book I had at the time never heard of: The Omnivore's Dilemma. Even though I hadn't read the book and didn't even catch the entire interview, I was hooked by the eloquent way that Pollan spoke about food. Some people speak better than they write, others (like me) write better than they speak, but Pollan just may be equally skilled at both. I didn't run out right away and place a hold on his new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation because it looked long and I wasn't sure how interesting it would be so I wasn't sure I'd get through the whole thing in three weeks. (And I knew there would be multiple holds on the book so I knew that renewing wouldn't be an option.) Eventually my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to check it out.

I read this book with much more enthusiasm than I would have predicted. I guess it had been too long since I read one of Pollan's books and had forgotten how much I adore the way he writes. Cooked is broken down into four section, which explore different ways to 'cook.' He makes a correlation between each method and one of the earth's elements: fire (in which he explores grilling meat), water (in which he explores cooking with liquid, not specifically in water like the noodles on the cover, but also cooking vegetables in a pot), air (in which he describes baking bread), and earth (which deals with fermentation). I liked the fire and water chapters, but it was the air and earth sections that I was captivated by, reading passages aloud to my husband and making plans to tackle the arts of sourdough bread making and fermenting vegetables. (Both activities that are best done under less hot conditions... I'm making plans to do both when it begins to cool down a bit.) In other words, Pollan did in this book what he does best: inspires one to try a different way of doing something. He's not into evangelism; he's very moderate and never attests to an all or nothing way of living. He makes his readers see why something matters and inspires them to make some small change for one day, just to see how it feels. He's a great writer and Cooked is a great book. 

Thinking Fast and Slow

For Christmas my mom gave me Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow. It was a s-l-o-w read, but interesting. Kahneman explores the way we think and two distinct mental systems, one that processes things quickly, the other slowly. He calls them System 1 and System 2 and makes them into characters to explain how they are different and how they work. He presents examples to the reader to test the theory by asking the reader to answer the question with the surface information and discusses what he calls WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is). The book has some fascinating information, but can be dry at times. And it's long, making it difficult to get through (says the girl who read it over a 6 month period). I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about thinking processes and why we think the way we do, but otherwise I'm not sure that the book would appeal to a wide audience.

Fifty Shades Freed

It's official- I finished reading the "Fifty Shades" trilogy. I learned what happened to Ana and Christian and finished each and every one of those over-the-top novels. There's really not much to say. The books aren't meant to be fine literature and the writing sucks. They are full of cliches and are a mindless read. Yet, that's what's so addictive and appealing about them-- they are great escapes. (If you can push aside any possible embarrassment for picking them up and ignore the bad writing and just let yourself get lost.) I appreciate this kind of reading from time to time. These books gave me my fill for a while though...