My theory was that if I wrote about the books as I went along that I’d be faster in posting my reading roundups. Clearly that just isn’t so. Instead it gives me time to think about what I’ve written and how I’d like to say something else and it just gets delayed by the normal amount anyway. Such is life… On to the books!

Into the Mist: The Land of Elyon, by Patrick Carman (due out Sept. 1)

From the jacket: “Before the walls went up … there were adventures. Follow young Thomas Warvold and his brother as they journey through Elyon, discovering new mysteries, new challenges, and new magical creatures that will alter the history of the land.”

Why this book? A freebie from my first day of working at ALA, this was the book I cracked open that day at lunch and that captivated my interest sufficiently that I felt obligated to keep reading so I could find out what happened at the end.

My take: I liked the story of the brothers and their magical, mysterious adventures. And I liked how the story was told from two different perspectives. I will definitely read some of the other books in the series.

Pages: 304

C Is for Corpse, by Sue Grafton

From the jacket: “Kinsey meets him in the local gym. Bobby Callahan is a scarred young man struggling back to life after a car forced his Porsche over the edge of a canyon, battering his body and muddling his memory. All he remembers is that someone, for some reason, tried to kill him. Desperate for clues about his own past life and certain he is being stalked, he asks Kinsey to protect him. Kinsey can’t resist the brave kid — and neither can the killers. Three days later Bobby is dead. Kinsey Millhone never welshed on a deal. She’d been hired to stop a killing. Now she’d find the killer.”

Why this book? Another recommendation from Mum.

My take: I liked the characters — both main and secondary — and you get the feeling that Grafton has thought out whole lives for all of them. And her writing style is taut. Take the start of the book:

I met Bobby Callahan on Monday of that week. By Thursday he was dead.

Aren’t you hooked? Don’t you want to know why? Doesn’t it just yell at you to keep reading?

It stays like that through the whole novel, compelling you on line by line to find out what happens next. Did I guess who had done it? Yes. But not without one wrong guess first. And the storytelling was so good that it didn’t matter; I kept turning pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how the story would resolve itself. A writer I’ll add to my favorite mystery author list.

Pages: 212

Rum and Razors, by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain

From the jacket: “After a cold winter in Cabot Cove, Maine, and with another soon-to-be bestseller on the way to her publisher, mystery writer Jessica Fletcher is off to balmy St. Thomas with its aquamarine sea and white sand beaches. But from the moment Jessica arrives at a four-star inn nestled by a beautiful lagoon, she senses trouble in paradise.”

Why this book? Seeking candidates for the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge, I hit the local charity bookshop. This was one of the $1 mysteries, and, as a fan of the tv show, I found it impossible to pass it up.

My take: Maine mystery writer cum detective heads to the Caribbean for some R&R only to find that murder and mayhem have followed her to Paradise. It wasn’t a stellar read, but it was captivating for the two afternoons it took me to plow through. Bain (the author of the book series based on the tv show), likes to give a lot of detail and I found that particularly noticeable at the beginning of the book. But I thought that the book followed the characters from the tv show sufficiently closely that I wasn’t annoyed by something jarringly out of place. The ending of the book was complicated so I didn’t guess the outcome, but it wrapped things up neatly, so I can’t complain. I don’t know I’d seek another of these out again, but if one were to fall into my lap, I’d probably read it.

Pages: 293

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

From the jacket: “… In the richest installment yet of J.K. Rowling’s seven-part story, Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice.”

Why this book? I’d just seen the movie and wanted to reassure myself that the discrepancies I’d noticed were true and not just imagined. Plus we had to make our way steadily forward for the end of the story.

My take: Hopefully, without giving away too much from the movie, I will just say that the book is so much better, particularly at the end. I shed not a tear at the theater, but found myself sniffling into the book the same as usual. Rowling is a master of portraying emotion — particularly grief — and of making you empathize, not just sympathize, with her characters. My heart broke once again — for Sirius, for Harry, for Lupin, and for Dumbledore.

I can also say that while I was right in most instances about omissions from the movie, periodically my memory had altered events or chronology from the book. It will be interesting to rewatch the movie in the future to see if my opinion of the movie is improved by that knowledge.

If Book Four made the series a serious contender in the fantasy genre, Book Five changes the tenor of the series from one aimed at children to one about children. It is dark and angry and whiny — and totally captures the essence of being 15 — most of the way to adulthood but still not quite there.

Pages: 870

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling

From the jacket: “The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses. And yet… As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate — and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straight-forward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.”

Why this book? The end is nigh. We must revisit the recent past in order to understand the future. And, frankly, I’d read this book only the once as it was one of the most painful from the series to read.

My take: As painful as Dumbledore’s withered hand, as dark as Voldemort’s soul, as spot-on as Ginny’s Bat Bogey Hex, and as powerful as love, this book offers it all.

Harry is definitely an older teen in this book and is struggling on the road to adulthood. He must find a way to meet both his own expectations of himself and those others have for him, as well as to figure out whom to trust and how far. And he’s learning to empathize with people he doesn’t particularly like — a skill he will need later on.

Again, Rowling’s ability to capture the beauty of pathos is particularly stunning in the final chapters of the book. And Harry proves time and again why he’s Dumbledore’s man through and through.

Pages: 652

Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea, by Catherine Goldhammer

From the jacket: “In this lovely, unconventional memoir, Catherine Goldhammer wakes at midlife to find herself newly separated and several tax brackets poorer, forced by circumstance to move from the affluent New England suburb of her daughter’s childhood into a new, more rustic life by the sea. Against all logic, partly to please her daughter and partly for reasons not clear to her at the time, she begins this year of transition by purchasing six baby chickens — whose job, she comes to suspect, is to pull her and her daughter forward, out of one life and into another.”

Why this book? I was still in the flush of a new garden, when I picked this up from the library. I thought there’d be more about farming in it than there turned out to be.

My take: Well, aside from chickens and a brief mention of a garden-to-come, there wasn’t a lot about farming. But the book still offered a pleasant glimpse into a suburban life filled with half a dozen chickens and a teenage daughter. I think it was intended to be more about chickens as a metaphor for the Zen of life, which I got a small sense of, but not overly so. It was a pleasant enough read, but more to be consumed in small sips than long draughts.

Pages: 178

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

From the jacket: “We now present the seventh and final installment in the epic tale of Harry Potter.”

Why this book? You have to ask? Seriously?

My take: I don’t want to give away any plot spoilers for those who are still waiting to read it, so I will merely say this: Rowling is a consummate storyteller. The pace was nonstop and overwhelming at times, but not so much that it didn’t fit with the story and what the main characters are supposed to be feeling. I still need to process my thoughts about the book, but it may become my favorite of the septet. It will be reread — and soon.

I was happy to have the epilogue, although I understand other reader’s frustrations with the stylistic shortcomings of it. I would have been totally disappointed if it had been left out, because I have an intense desire in my reading (and in real life) to make sure that everyone lives happily ever after.

I can’t believe it’s over. ::sniff::

Pages: 759

Redwall, by Brian Jacques

From the jacket: “In the glorious tradition of Watership Down comes a powerful tale of fantasy, courage, and epic adventure — the heart-soaring story of a wondrous quest to recover a legendary lost weapon … and of a bumbling young apprentice monk named Matthias, mousekind’s most unlikely hero. War erupts in the Summer of the Late Rose, shattering the peace that had reigned in Mossflower since the magnificent mouse, Martin the Warrior, laid down his mighty sword generations earlier. Now a dark cloud of doom and despair hangs over the ancient stone abbey of Redwall. Cluny the Scourge — the one-eyed embodiment of evil, the most savage bilge rat that ever jumped from ship to shore — has arrived with his rodent horde to conquer … and to destroy.”

Why this book? I’ve been interested in this series since I lived in Connecticut when Jacques came to do a booksigning at a local shop and when the CBC cartoon was on tv. My local library branch was highlighting books that they had audiobooks for, and this book was one of them. Since finding the first book of the series can be challenging, I grabbed it up and fled the premises.

My take: Generally, I liked it. I thought that some of the storyline was a bit contrived, particularly the prophecy about Martin’s sword, but was able to overlook that because of Jacques’ other strengths — namely his characterization and his ability to move a complicated plot forward on several fronts simultaneously.

This is another book told from multiple viewpoints and I really thought that added to the success of the novel.

I’ll definitely look up the next book in the series.

Pages: 349

Total pages read in July: 3,101