Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5)
J. K. Rowling, Mary Grandpre (Illustrator)
Wow. Now I have GOT to Read It Again...

I have a problem, in general, with exciting can't-put-it-down books: I can't put them down. The END, when it comes rushes past like a roller coaster - and I'm left blinking, with a vacant what happened? look on my face. In this case I've got all kinds of questions - some caused by my whirlwind reading, others - more satisfying questions coming from Rowlings careful ommissions.

hopefully what follows are not spoilers - but skip it if you aren't sure

NOW we know why EVERY dead person isn't a ghost! Now we have some answers about why Dumbledore left Harry on Privet Drive. The Harry and Snape relationship is changing, maybe. I wonder in reading this, if I knew my pre-WWII history better, if I'd know/understand more.... or be lead astray in following the plot.

This was worth the wait... but I HOPE it isn't another 3 years before book 6.....

Okay, I messed up
The Horse and His Boy should have been next, but I read the (correctly... historically the next book!)


The Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #4, no 2, oh never mind)
C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
An excellent story - devotional high point: Lucy following Aslan, even when no one else can see him. Practical atheist Trumpkin is an interesting convert as well. Ah...but NOW... NOW I have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so Lewis goes back on the shelf...

patiently, okay, not SO patiently, waiting....

LONNG ago, I pledged to re-read Narnia in the new, approved, chronological order. I read The Magician's Nephew, then got stalled. Okay, so now my incentive is to wait for MY turn on The Order of the Phoenix.



The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #2)
C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
Classic, classic, classic. I once wrote a paper on the Chronicles as "devotional literature". I'd still hold by that. Lewis has a charming and irresistible way of telling A story, and telling you YOUR story within the same text. At least, it works that way for me. On to Prince Caspian!