Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (24) - I'm warming to this wizard!

I have surprised myself by warming to the Harry Potter books. I felt that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling had greater depth to it than the previous books ... maybe that's natural and right in books where the characters age by one year each time. There is no getting away from the fact that this is a good story - with this third installment, the characters are familiar and there isn't too much time required anymore to set the scene. This means that the book starts at a run and maintains its pace pretty much the whole way through. Harry, once again, gets into trouble at his aunts and uncle's home and flees after he inflates his aunt like a balloon. He is surprised to find that instead of being banned from his beloved Hogwarts for practising magic out of the school boundaries, he is welcomed back and those in charge are being very protective towards him. On the train back to school, Harry encounters The Dementors - he goes weak, hears screaming and eventually slips into unconsciousness. It turns out that these are the guards at Azkhaban - the dreaded prison of the magical world. They suck the joy out of everyone around them. They are on the hunt for an escaped prisoner - Sirius Black - who, Harry is told, helped to kill his parents and who is now after him. But, as always, things are never as simple as that! As Harry and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, start their new school year, the action really gets going and keeps going - including a werewolf, a hippogryff and a smidgen of time travel. If I hadn't already seen the film, I think there would have been some super twists and turns in this book. And you know what, I am actually looking forward to the next installment!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: Free - borrowed the ebook from my local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (23) - spells, potions and beasts

Harry Potter is a total, worldwide phenomenon. The books, the films, the games ... on and on it goes. When the first book came out, I thought I would find out what all the fuss was about, and read it. I thought, at the time, that it was okay ... not spectacular and certainly not deserving of the ridiculous following that it created. Maybe because I had also read the first of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy around the same time - now THAT was a book that made me want to find out more and keep on reading. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I embarked on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, one of several of JK Rowling's series on the Top 100 Reads list. Weirdly, my thoughts about the actual quality of the writing haven't really changed ... there are much better written books out there, but I have to admit that there is something compelling in the stories themselves. You do want to keep reading despite the occasional jarring (in my opinion) of the actual words. There is no denying that they are page turners. In this book, the second outing for our schoolboy wizard, Harry has had a miserable summer at his aunt and uncle's house, and thinks his friends from Hogwarts have forgotten all about him. With the arrival of Dobby, an elf, comes a warning for Harry not to go back to school - but when Ron Weasley and his brothers come to rescue Harry from the clutches of his relatives, he can't wait to get back to learning more about becoming a wizard. However, danger stalks the corridors and when people start to be attacked, Harry and co are determined to find out what is going on. And so the adventure begins ... I did enjoy this book, but it's very much forgettable fluff - good while it lasts, but doesn't stick in the mind. And maybe sometimes, that's exactly what we need.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 251 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (borrowed from my local library)
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook

Watership Down (42) - don't go "tharn" on me

A book about rabbits ... surely this couldn't be exciting in any way? Well, you would be wrong. Watership Down, by Richard Adams which I read in print, is full of incident from page 1 until the very end. Our hero is Hazel, a brave rabbit with a bigger brain than most, who trusts the instincts of his best pal Fiver - who is a bit of an oddity amongst their home warren in that he has a sixth sense. When Fiver tells Hazel that they all have to leave the warren, Hazel tries to persuade the leaders ... but to no avail! Only a handful of rabbits join them in their escape, and those who stayed behind befall a deadly fate at the hand of man. The small band of escapees, including Bigwig, my favourite character, then begin an epic journey to find somewhere new to set up home. Dangers and perils abound but they eventually end up at Watership Down. All seems good until they realise that the lifespan of their warren is limited, as they have no does ... so there will not be a second generation! Hazel hatches a plan to secure prospective mothers for the warren, but this means facing the danger of approaching a huge warren that is run by a despot called General Woundwort. This book is an odd mixture - it's an action adventure at its heart, but it is also a bit of a wildlife manual with a bit of rabbit religion thrown in too. For me, it's at its best in the adventure elements - the characters are well written and individual, with clear goodies and baddies and a few who might have a paw in each camp! The bunny theology kind of left me a bit cold, and the special rabbit words were totally unnecessary - I didn't feel that it drove the story forward in any way. The only phrase I liked was "going tharn", which describes how a rabbit is transfixed by danger and can't move ... a rabbit in the headlights! Even though this is primarily for children, it's quite adult in style and there are some dark moments. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't feel that it is a MUST read book by any means.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 478 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (borrowed from my local library)
Formats available: print, audio CD, audio download, ebook.

David Copperfield (34) - not so humble!

It may have taken me a while, but I have now finished another epic from "the list" - David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, which I read in an audio format. This is the tale of a small boy, who loses his father at a very young age. He adores his mother and his nurse, Peggarty, but his life is really turned upside down when his mother remarries. His new step father is a nasty man, but his step aunt is even worse. David is sent away to school - a formative year where he meets James Steerforth (the charismatic head boy who takes a shine to David) and Tommy Traddles, who is a fellow outcast. But then his mother dies. Now at the mercy of his step father and aunt, David is sent to a new school ... a very different place altogether. All does not go well and he runs away, eventually heading to his real Aunt - Mrs Trottwood - who becomes his guardian and is an all round good egg. Young Davey's life is now much improved, and he forms strong bonds with Mr Peggarty, the brother of his old nurse, and Agnes, the daughter of the lawyer he boards with while at school in London. Time moves on and David becomes a young man, falls in love and marries the pretty, and, quite frankly, pretty vacant, Dora - what an irritatingly silly character! There are times of tragedy, times of joy and times of poverty. Really strong characters abound in this entertaining story - Uriah Heap (ever so humble) and Mr Micawber to name but two - but Mrs Trottwood was my absolute favourite. There is so much going on in this semi-autobiographical book that you do have to pay attention, but that is no bad thing. I felt that there could have been a bit of judicious editing towards the end of the book, which had a bit of a "strung out" feel to me. However, I would have no hesitation in recommending this tome - just make sure you give yourself the time it needs to get the most out of it.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 768 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.99
Formats available: print, audio CD abridged, audio download unabridged, ebook.

Noughts & Crosses (61) - pacey thriller but no laughs

In this fictional, yet familiar world created by Malorie Blackman, the Crosses have everything .... the money, the power, the educational opportunities and the jobs. The Noughts, on the other hand, are only 50 years down the line from being enslaved - but for them, not much seems to have changed. Equality is simply a dream. Most Noughts just keep their heads down and try to stay out of trouble, out of prison and, if they are lucky, well away from the hangman's noose. Within this atmosphere, two youngsters become friends - Callum (a Nought), and Sephy (a Cross). As they get older, the friendship has a chance of developing into something beautiful ... if it wasn't for everyone else trying to force them apart. Noughts and Crosses cannot be friends, let alone lovers. Callum's life changes for good when his sister commits suicide, which pushes his father and older brother to join the Liberation Movement, leading to a bomb blast which very nearly kills Sephy. Can Callum and Sephy ever be together in this world of hate and mistrust? This is a story that pulls no punches, with violence, racism, unhappy marriages, despair, love and joy in equal measures. The author pushes all your emotional buttons, and leaves you begging for someone to tell a joke just to relieve the tension. But there are no jokes. This is a book that exposes the utter ridiculousness of racism, but in a very accessible way (the book being written for young adults). It's gripping and you do root for the characters despite you having a nagging feeling that they are doomed! Noughts & Crosses, which I read in print is a very modern Romeo and Juliet and I can understand why this has become a very popular book and is now studied in British schools.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 443 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (borrowed from my local library)
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download; ebook.
     

On the road (90) - a novel of its time?

I found myself having enormous deja vu after the first few chapters of On the road, by Jack Kerouac (print). I am convinced that I have actually read this book before ... but as I couldn't be 100% sure, I ploughed on.  Set in the late 40s and early 50s, it's really a bromance between Sal Paradise, the narrator, and Dean Moriarty - a man totally wrapped up in himself who is hooked on drugs, booze, women and jazz. Although, the bromance is very much one-sided - Sal is totally in awe of Dean, and despite the amount of times Dean lets him down, always wants to experience more of what Dean does and says. The book follows Sal as he crosses America on various road trips over several years - trying to hook up with old friends and places that have a resonance to him, or places he wants to "experience". Sal is a writer, so feeds off the odd, the mad and the just plain bad people he meets along the way. Money is always a problem, but invariably, there always seems to be enough to find weed or alcohol. This is supposed to be a seminal work of the "beat" generation. It is a hedonistic, roller coaster ride, that you feel is only going to end in disaster. Not my type of people, not my type of book. I felt no empathy or understanding for the characters - but that's probably because I am a "square". However, there are sporadic passages of pure beauty - like an occasional oasis in a bleak desert. Depressing if this is how people think that this is the only way to get the most out of life. I first thought that this was a book very much of its own time, but when I think about it - this is still going on now, maybe not the big road trips, but just check out any town centre on a Saturday night! Seriously, we, as a species, just don't learn!

All in all, I'd rather listen to Donkey from Shrek singing "On the road again ..."

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 291 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from my husband)
Formats available: print, audio CD; audio download; ebook

Persuasion (38) - a romance that was never in doubt

I don't know whether I just wasn't in the right kind of mood for this book, but Persuasion, by Jane Austen, which I read on my Kindle didn't quite light my fire as much as I was anticipating it would. It could be that I sort of remembered the essence of the story, or maybe it was because I found myself getting confused between some of the characters, which was irritating. This is the tale of Anne Elliott, a thoroughly decent creature, who, following the early death of her mother, is, for some reason, virtually ignored by her vain father Sir Walter, and her eldest sister, Elizabeth. She has a stalwart friend, however, in Lady Russell, who lives near their home and in whom she confides. We discover that Anne was persuaded by this formidable woman to break off an engagement to a Mr Wentworth when she was just 19 years old, as the Lady didn't think it a suitable match. In the intervening years, her heart would compare any other suitor to her first beau, and they just didn't measure up. Now in her late twenties, Anne was convinced that she would never marry. When her feckless father runs into financial difficulties, he rents out their ancestral country pile and takes a house in Bath. Anne, while looking after her clingy, hypocondriac and married younger sister Mary, stays in the vicinity for a while, and finds the new tenants - Admiral and Mrs Croft - to be fine people, and she soon becomes an intimate of theirs, although she is nervous when she discovers that the Admiral is Mr Wentworth's brother-in-law. Inevitably, she and Wentworth (now a naval Captain) start to move in the same circles, and all the old feelings are stirred up once again. The remainder of the story is a bit of a will they, won't they affair, with a few twists and turns and misunderstandings. It is a romantic tale, but it didn't quite keep me gripped or in any doubt as to what was going to happen. I just wanted to shake the pair of them and get them to tell each other how they felt! Don't get me wrong, it's still a very enjoyable read, but it's no Pride and Prejudice.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 208 print pages
Price I paid: free on the Kindle.
Formats available: print, audio CD abridged, audio download unabridged, ebook.