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

Finally!  After four days without power, the Connecticut Light and Power Co. turned on our power sometime yesterday afternoon.  I can't tell you how relieved we are to have electricity and hot water again.  I feel about 100% more human than I did the whole beginning of this week, and more equipped to tackle what's been going on my job (things be crazy lately).  But I'm even MORE ready to run headlong into the upcoming three-day weekend!  Two more days and I'm there!

Because of the power outage, I'm really behind in my reviews (I was reading faster than I was reviewing).  Today is book 73, an old favorite, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry Potter, now 12, has spent his entire summer daydreaming about returning back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but is off-put by a visit from Dobby, a long-suffering house-elf, who warns him not to return to Hogwarts, since he is in grave danger.  Ignoring the warning, Harry returns to find his school in chaos.  Students are being Petrified by a mysterious being that moves through the school  unseen. Words painted on a wall declare that "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened".  And rumors run rampant about the identity of the "Heir of Slytherin", the only person who can open the Chamber.  Harry must work with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, to discover the identity of the Heir and the location of the Chamber of Secrets and to clear his reputation for good.

This book, second in the series, is certainly not my favorite, though I think it's a great "second" novel.  Now we know the characters -- Harry and Ron, Hermione and Snape and Dumbledore.  The lack of Voldemort in this book is what sets it apart from the later books -- granted (spoiler) he makes an appearance in some form towards the end of the book, but it is certainly different from his presence in Books 4 - 7, where he is a constant malevolent presence.  Chamber of Secrets is still lighthearted enough that I feel it can still be categorized as a childrens' book.  Harry and the crew are only 12 years old, and they still have the pre-pubescent thought patterns that children their age have.  Plus we have the introduction of the Polyjuice Potion, when it was a plot point and not a fall-back.  Ahhh, the good old days.

Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart
(from the Harry Potter Wiki)

Plus, we have the introduction of "Professor" Gilderoy Lockhart, possibly my favorite of all the one-shot Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers (Remus Lupin excluded, of course).  Although he's a complete con artist with a shoddy past, I can't help but like Lockhart, and feel sorry for him when he gets his come-uppance is spectacular fashion.  His overbearing presence throughout Chamber and his whopping tales is what makes him relatable -- we've ALL had that relative/friend/acquaintance whose entire repertoire of stories has to do with his commendable courage, his riveting good looks, or his astounding intelligence.  And Kenneth Branagh was absolutely perfect at playing Lockhart in the film.  I can't help but laugh when I see him donning the ridiculous colored attire and prancing about Hogwarts like he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

A good second novel, and worth a reread every few years, most definitely.

Rating: ****

Review: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott first wrote Little Women as a submission for a newspaper column's call for "a girls' book" -- and that really is, at its heart, what Little Women is.  I'm sure there must be some men who enjoy it (I don't know any) but it is a book about and directed towards young women.  A unisex book, this very much is not.

Alcott patterned the titular "little women" of her book after herself and her three sisters, which may explain the very lifelike characters and very obvious failings of each girl (except for Beth, of course, who has no failings -- more on that later).  Gentle Meg is sweet and nurturing, but her vanity and covetous nature often lead to heartbreak.  Tomboy Jo is always blundering into one mishap after another, though she has a heart of gold and a fervent desire to do good.  Pretty Amy is spoiled and pettish, but quick to repent of her wrongdoings.  As for character development -- the book is rife with it (and should be, since it takes place over the course of fifteen years), and the girls' natures are tried and changed throughout.

The language is antiquated and can be difficult, not to read, but to endure without eye-rolling at times. Despite their clearly-outlined weaknesses, the girls speak like "Mary Sues" at times, parroting their elders and, when criticized, falling docily into line.  Also, there's the issue of the character of Beth.  *sigh*  There is a reason why nobody ever says that Beth is her favorite character.  Because Beth doesn't really have much of a personality.  Sure, she's sweet and good, but that's it.  The only chapter in which one really starts to feel any sort of emotion about Beth is where she visits the Hummels when the baby has scarlet fever.  Other than that, she's relatively forgettable.  Perhaps the personality was true to life -- Alcott modeled the character of Beth after her own younger sister, Elizabeth Sewell Alcott -- but when compared to the vivacious and entertaining personalities of Meg, Jo, and Amy, Beth fades into the background and becomes largely forgettable.

I think I loved this book more when I was a teenager, because it is more a teenager's (or even a child's) book.  Not necessarily because it has a happy ending (it doesn't in the fairy tale sense), but because it truly is a story about "little" women coming of age.  Nevertheless, I will keep the paperback on my shelf, to hopefully share with a daughter of my own someday.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: Anne of Avonlea by Lucy M. Montgomery

Forty books down, sixty to go!  My goal was to be halfway through by June 1.  I don't think I'm going to quite reach fifty by that point, but I shouldn't be more than a book or two off!  The last few books have flown by, and I've enjoyed them immensely.  This book, number 40, also fulfills the requirement of "book that continues a series I've started already" for the Nest Spring Book Challenge (SBC).  So let's get to it.

I first read Lucy M. Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables when I was in fifth grade (I was captivated by the paperback cover picture of Anne "walking the ridge-pole of the roof"), and it's safe to say that I loved it from first read.  I never really bothered to get into the rest of the series as a child.  I picked up the second book a year later and couldn't get into it.  The other day, I decided to download it to the Kindle and give it another shot.

As the title suggests, Anne Shirley has grown and branched out from her earlier moniker, and has now become Anne of Avonlea.  Fifteen years old and now the mistress of the school she used to attend, Anne believes she has become quite grown up indeed, and sets out to do a world of good for anyone she meets.  Whether it's the crotchety old bachelor who moved in next door, or a pair of orphaned twin cousins that she and her adopted mother, Marilla, resignedly adopt, or pretty imaginative Miss Lavender, the self-proclaimed "old maid", Anne is determined to spread her good influence (and a little bit of cheer) to everyone she encounters.  And of course, there's always Gilbert Blythe, her tormentor-turned-competitor-turned-friend, who seems to have something else entirely on his mind...

It is nice to go further in the series and find out exactly "what happened?" to Anne, Marilla, Mrs. Lynde, Gilbert, Diana, and the host of other "Avonlea folk" from the first book.  The hamlet of Avonlea is still, author Lucy Montgomery assures us, the prettiest place on earth with the most interesting and well-meaning inhabitants to ever grace Prince Edward Island.  Yet, I wasn't prepared for the amount of reminiscing on what happened in Green Gables.  Montgomery clearly doesn't belong to the writing school of "show, don't tell."  In nearly every chapter, I was greeted with another recap of one of Anne's many misfortunes from the first book.  I guess, for the reader who isn't familiar with Green Gables, it would be helpful, but for someone who has read it so many times, it just came off as tedious.

Some of the character development (especially Anne's and Marilla's) was interesting and continued to captivate me up until the very end.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same for all of the characters -- Dora Keith and Paul Irving in particular.  Montgomery has mixed feelings about "perfect" characters.  Where Dora and Paul were equally praised for their sweetness, diligence, and obedience, Dora was referred to as placid and boring, and Paul was "angelic".  I can't think of a reason why Montgomery would choose to exalt one character and patronize the other -- unless it is because Paul, unlike Dora, aped the same penchant for "imagining" that our heroine Anne did in Book One.

Going down the road to Avonlea a second time was fun.  But I am not sure I'll be continuing on with book three, Anne of the Island.  Maybe I, like Marilla, just want to keep Anne the same scrapgrace she was when she first came to Green Gables at age 11 -- red hair, freckles, imagination, and all.

Rating: ***

Review: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

We have all heard it said, in a disgusted, or almost derogatory term, to "quit being a Pollyanna."  The name Pollyanna, it seems, has become synonymous with obnoxious, in-your-face optimism, and so, even having seen the Hayley Mills film a couple of times when I was a kid, I started Pollyanna with a smidgen of trepidation.  Just how sugar-coated vanilla-cupcake sprinkles-on-top was this book going to be?

Pollyanna Whittier is the original "cockeyed optimist."  Orphaned at age 11 when her missionary father dies unexpectedly, Pollyanna is sent to live with her no-nonsense old maid Aunt Polly Harrington, who makes it clear she is only doing her duty in taking Pollyanna in, and that she has no interest in children.  Pollyanna insists on making a bleak future bright by playing "The Glad Game" and teaching it to anyone who will listen.  The Glad Game, she says, originated when she received a charity present for Christmas.  Hoping for a doll, Pollyanna was dismayed to find that she'd been given a pair of crutches.  Her father quickly said that she should be glad that she got crutches, since she "didn't have to use 'em".  Pollyanna's bright-eyed, optimistic way of turning every bad situation into a good one slowly begins to win over even the most caustic and ornery inhabitants of the town.  But when tragedy strikes, it is Pollyanna who needs reminding that even the worst situations can be made the best of.

The book's titular heroine reminds me in many ways of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables.  Like Anne, Pollyanna is eleven years old, freckled, orphaned, and adopted unwillingly by an older person who did not originally want her.  Both girls talk a blue streak and endear themselves to anyone in their paths.  But Pollyanna lacks some of Anne Shirley's drama, theatrics, and love of tragedy.  In Pollyanna's world, the sun is always shining, and if you're miserable, it's only because you haven't found the reason why you should be happy yet.  The saccharine-sweetness I expected never did come.  Pollyanna is optimistic, yes, but she isn't a "Mary Sue" -- she realizes that there is darkness and sadness in the world, and she doesn't shy from it; she is only determined to make the best of every situation.  And when her life takes an unexpected turn for the worst, she exhibits very real little-girl emotions. 

This book was a very quick read -- I think because it's definitely geared more towards children or young adults -- so I read it in two days, and I liked it.  I don't know if I'll reread it, since it was geared towards someone much younger than me -- but still, very cute.

Rating: *** and 1/2

Review: A Little Princess by Frances H. Burnett

Because so many "classic" novels are free on the Kindle, I hauled off and downloaded a whole bunch of them back in December when I received the e-reader as a Christmas gift from my family.  When I saw that the SBC (see above link) featured a "read a classic" task, I had any number of books on my Kindle to choose from -- many of which I have never read.  But I went with an oldie that was a favorite as a kid: A Little Princess, by Frances H. Burnett (author of The Secret Garden).

Sara Crewe, the titular "little princess", is pre-teen royalty at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Girls, where her wealthy, pampering father leaves her when she is only seven years old.  A girl who is used to having everything her little heart desires, Sara is sweet-natured, sympathetic, and generous with her many, many possessions -- qualities that skyrocket her to the coveted position of most popular girl in school.  But when Sara is eleven years old, tragedy strikes, leaving her alone, penniless, and entirely dependent on the school's headmistress, Miss Minchin, who has secretly resented and despised her for several years.  Her world obliterated, Sara must face up to the lonely, difficult years ahead of her, striving all the time to behave as if nothing ever happened, as if she is still just "a little princess".

I read a scathing review of Princess on Goodreads, stating that Sara Crewe is the original "Mary Sue" -- a disparaging name for a female protagonist who is unnaturally sweet and empty, with little to no character development or negative qualities.  I very much disagree.  Although Sara remains a gentle, good-natured character throughout the novel, she experiences quite a bit of personal growth.  At the beginning of the novel, she is depicted as a feisty child, who enjoys discomforting others who are cruel to her by refusing to stoop to their level of rage and simply staring at them in response.  She falls back on this quality throughout her years of tribulation -- admitting, during one particularly dark night of the soul, that it is not always easy to hold in her pain and anger.  I feel quite the opposite from the reviewer about Sara Crewe's character -- I think she's a very natural depiction of a little girl.

Burnett's novel, at its core, is the tale of a child who must face a terrible adversity, who squares her shoulders and accepts the burden she is forced to carry, without believing that she will ever have a reversal of fortune, without any hope that her situation will change someday.  Warning: if you have seen the Warner Bros. adaptation of the novel, the ending of the book will come as as surprise to you, and possibly not a pleasant one (I read the book before I saw the movie; my sister did not, and she disliked the book as a result).  The ending of A Little Princess is fairy-tale like, while retaining some level of believability.  The film ending is, well...what we've all come to expect from a typical children's film (re: Disney-esque) ending. 

Rating: ****

Review: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Apologies to my (few) readers, but right now I've developed a wicked case of "re-read-itis", and I'm tearing through books I've read several times before.  Not that it will make any difference to you, really.  Maybe it's because we're moving and I'm falling back on the old, comfortable, and known.  Whatever the reason, this book (and the one I'm currently reading) are both well-read favorites.

For me, there are certain children's stories that never get old.  My favorite of these is The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  I read this for the first time when I was in fourth grade, and I can't count the number of times I've read it since.

The story of solemn little Mary Lennox, orphaned at 10 by a cholera plague in her homeland of India and sent to live with her widowed uncle on the moors of Yorkshire in England, has become a classic.  Mary is lonely, friendless, and disagreeable, and sees absolutely no benefit to her living in her uncle's lonely old manor until her cheeky maidservant, Martha, boots her out-of-doors to play.  During her walks about the grounds, Mary discovers an abandoned, walled-up garden -- the former property of her deceased Aunt Lilias -- and the buried key that unlocks it.  Within the walls, Mary realizes the joy of helping what has been abandoned and left to die, come back to life -- and in doing so, comes to life herself.

Frances Burnett is best-known for her tales of young children who persevere in difficult situations -- her other popular children's book, A Little Princess, focuses on the same theories of self-worth and belief in one's own personal "Magic" as The Secret Garden.  But Secret Garden is much gentler than Princess is.  While it still deals with the sensitive topics of parent death and abandonment,  the overwhelming message of The Secret Garden is the idea that the simplest, smallest things in life can help reawaken the beauty inside us all.  To a child, the story is as magical as a fairy tale...and for me, after 18 years, it's really no different.

Rating: *****

Review: Through the Looking Glass... by Lewis Carroll

Loving Alice's Adventures In Wonderland as I did, I was hoping to love Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There just as much.

Unfortunately, I couldn't.  Maybe it was because I was less familiar with the story line (everyone is familiar with the original Alice, not many of us are as familiar with its sequel).  Wrapping my brain around "backwards living" was a trip in itself, but like Alice, I just found myself very confused.

Still, it's entertaining, bringing Alice falling through her own mirror into Looking Glass Land, where everything is backwards and the effects occur before their causes -- for example, the White Queen's finger bleeds before she pricks it with her brooch.  The concept is interesting -- in Wonderland, the royal court is comprised of suits of cards; in Looking Glass Land, there are two royal courts, one White and one Red, and the whole world is a giant game of chess which Alice (taking the place of a White pawn) must navigate if she is to become a Queen piece at the end of it, and thus secure her way home again.

This book took me a longer time to read than its predecessor (mainly due to work, knitting, and checking out apartments for the eventual move in April), but it was still a quick read, which is exactly what I have needed in this chilly, gray weather.  I'd recommend it, if for no other reason than to continue following Alice's journeys.  Be advised though, the Kindle edition of Through the Looking Glass does not feature any of Lewis Carroll's poetry.  The lines are taken out, removing such classics as "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter", which are so vital to the storyline that they leave the reader at quite the loose end.

Rating: ***

Yarn Along!

It's Wednesday, and we're halfway to the weekend!  That's enough reason for excitement.  We're in the midst of another cold snap in CT (brrr) but fortunately, the sun is shining and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day, even if it doesn't melt any more of the snow.  Even better, it looks as if the snowstorm predicted for tomorrow is going to go right past us, without hitting us.  I'm so happy.  We might get through one whole week without a snow day!

Today, I'm participating in the Yarn Along over at Ginny's blog.  Participants take a picture of what they're knitting and reading, and upload it to their blog.  Then Ginny posts the links on her blog, so we reading knitters can all see what other people are reading and knitting.  Get that?  Good.

I'm knitting (what else?) a baby hat for one of the many babies that are coming into the world this year in my extended family.  It's not one of the hats in that entry; this one's going to be a little more subdued.  I'm knitting it out of a skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (55% merino wool, 33% microfibre, 12% cashmere), in what I think is color 002 (as the Yarn Harlot would say, bewitching name) -- I lost the ball band a while ago.  I love this yarn for baby garments; it's super-soft and bouncy.  Plus it's easy on the fingers.

As for reading?  I know you can't get a good idea from just looking at the attractive apple green cover of my Kindle, Annabelle Lee.

After finishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and enjoying it very much, I downloaded its sequel, Through The Looking Glass and started it last night.  I'm more than halfway done with it.  I like it, although not as much as I liked Alice.  There are more characters (many who don't last more than a page or two) and the settings change quite often, which isn't surprising, as she's now in Looking Glass World (where everything is backwards), so it can be a bit more confusing than the first.  But I'm really enjoying it.

Also, I finally saw the Tim Burton version of Through The Looking Glass last night -- more about that when I finish the book!

Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I refuse to believe that there are people who are reading this who haven't heard of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and who, even if they haven't read the book yet, aren't familiar with little Alice and what happens to her after she tumbles down the rabbit hole.  So I won't waste time in writing a synopsis.  Let's not kid ourselves.  We're all familiar with it.

But there is a huge difference between knowing what happens in the pages, and actually reading Lewis Carroll's story about a curious and bored little girl who finds herself hopelessly lost in the world of her own illusion.  I've seen two versions of the movie (no, not the Tim Burton fest of weirdness, but the Disney animation and a made-for-TV musical -- more about that later), and I thought I knew the story inside and out. I was wrong.

For one thing, reading Carroll's prose is quite different from simply knowing the story (I've found this can be detriment in some ways -- such as with Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter -- love the story, hate the actual prose).  I really did enjoy Carroll's style of writing, and I was surprised to find that it really is a children's book.  I could easily have read this when I was eight or nine, at the same time as I was reading The Secret Garden -- which is much longer than Alice.  I'm just a little sad that I didn't forge ahead with Alice as a child, and have resolved to read it to my children as soon as they're old enough to understand it.

I'm also, in hindsight, disappointed with the Disney animated adaptation, and wish they had been a little more faithful to the book.  The made-for-TV musical, made in 1985 and starring Natalie Gregory (shown on the right) as Alice, is a much better adaptation, with the added bonus of co-starring every famous person from the 1980's (except Michael Jackson).  There's also a second part, which is Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice.  If you can find a copy (try Amazon, I think that's where my sister got hers), give yourself a treat and watch it.

I loved Alice.  It was just what I needed right now, in the middle of this really dreary New England weather -- a short, fun book I could snap up and read really quickly, and enjoy 100%.

Rating: *****