books I've read

Anne Hawn's books

Who Moved My Cheese?
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Scientific Secrets for Self-Control
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Vanishing
Exercises in Knitting
The Good Dream
The Very Best of Edgar Allan Poe
The Chosen
BT-Kids' Knits
Talking God
The Professor
The Christmas Files
The Finisher
Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls: Create 10 Room Settings with Furniture and 15 Outfits with Accessories
Dracula and Other Stories
A New Song
Christy
All Quiet on the Western Front
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents


Anne Hawn Smith's favorite books »

I'm reading 150 Books

2019 Reading Challenge
2019 Reading Challenge 19614 members
<b>Are you ready to set your 2019 reading goal?</b> This is a supportive, fun group of people looking for people just like you. Track your annual reading goal here with us, and we have challenges, group reads, and other fun ways to help keep you on pace. There will never be a specific number of books to read here or pressure to read more than you can commit to. Your goal is five? Great! You think you want to read 200? Very cool! We won't kick you out for not participating regularly, but we'll love it if you do. Join us!

Books we've read

The Help
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Night Circus
The Golden Compass
11/22/63
The Little Lady Agency
Catch-22
The Good Father
A Discovery of Witches
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A Christmas Carol
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Color Purple
Matched
Cloud Atlas
The Princess Bride
The Catcher in the Rye


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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am listening to this book for about the 6th time. I need a story which will carry me along without much effort and yet capture my interest and challenge me to see more than I saw the last time. There are confusing times in my life when this comfort read is exactly what I need and Rowling and Jim Dale, the narrator, always deliver.

In this book, Harry finds a potions book from a former student and when he follows the instruction, he produces extraordinary results. Hermione is deeply troubled by the book and insists that he turn it in. Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

It is hard to review this book without giving the plot away, so I will stick to the generalities. We learn a lot more about Tom Riddle and how he came to be Lord Voldemort. The reader begins to have a little sympathy for him...until he reveals his cold bloodedness at such a young age. It goes way beyond the mind of a schoolboy.

We get to see a lot more of the pensive and it begins to reveal the prequel to the stage that is set for Harry when he comes to Hogwarts. I think the pensive is an absolutely brilliant device. I would love to have one myself! Suddenly, Harry is there, seeing the people in the past as they were without being interpreted by flawed memories. I think the memories also reveal the depth of Rowling's talent. She has constructed these books as if she knew from the very beginning just where she was going every step of the way. Tiny bits of information in book 1, come back in book 6 and their importance is revealed. In fact, I think that is why I keep coming back to these books. I make connections that completely eluded me up to that point. I am in awe of the depth of her organization for what is ostensibly juvenile fiction.

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