Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling 759 pp.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. In brief, Harry leaves the Dursleys once more, but this time not to go to his final year at Hogwarts, but to pursue the remaining Horcruxes in which Voldemort has embedded parts of his soul. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend the year traipsing about the English countryside slowly finding and destroying these magical items. After they have destroyed all that they can, they return to Hogwarts for the final, climactic showdown with Voldemort.

Stepping outside of my attempt to read these books with a fresh eye for a moment, I enjoyed Deathly Hallows much more on this read-through than the first time I read it. On that reading, I felt like the portion of the book in the tent would just never end, dragging on and on for what felt like an interminably long time. This time I was happy to note that the tent section felt much better paced, possibly because I knew what was coming at the end. For those who have not read Deathly Hallows,Harry spends a large portion of the book stuck in the countryside inside of a magical tent, trying desperately to further the plot. While this does recall some of the frustration which dominated Order of the Phoenix, Rowling made two important changes for Deathly Hallows. First, Harry is not punished in the narrative for attempting to achieve his goals. While he is frequently stymied in his aims, he is still able to make at least small steps towards resolving the plot.

Second, and more noticeably, the interpersonal drama between Harry, Ron, and Hermione is much more effective. While the characters frequently lapse into brooding over their failure to make progress, again much like Order of the Phoenix, Harry maintains a cautious optimism that things will get done. This optimism infects the reader, making continued reading much more enjoyable. Additionally, the three main characters have a much better sense of who they are in this book. Harry and Ron spend no small amount of time figuring out exactly how they will relate to each other, especially with regards to Hermione.

This treatment of Hermione as a prize for one of the boys to acquire in the story could be problematic, but Rowling subverts it masterfully in three ways. Most importantly, Hermione is not simply along on the adventure as arm candy, but actively participates in resolving the plot, reliably outshining Ron and Harry’s efforts to destroy Horcruxes. Second, the competition between Harry and Ron is entirely in Ron’s head, foisted onto the two other characters through misunderstanding and frustration. Third, the three characters are able, by the end of the forest sequences, to put this tension behind them and continue working towards their goals.

Rowling also scores highly in my mind with the death of Peter Pettigrew. No small part of my frustration with Order of the Phoenix was that she devoted 870 pages to establishing that the Harry Potter series does, indeed, play by the tropes of fantasy. Dumbledore’s prophetic words towards the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, that Harry may be grateful that he spared Pettigrew’s life made more than a little bit of a nod towards Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings. Reading those words in this way, it seemed like Rowling was setting Pettigrew up as an analogue towards Gollum and I strongly expected his final actions in the series to echo Gollum’s in The Return of the King.

I was pleasantly surprised that Rowling chose to subvert this trope with Pettigrew’s death. While Peter does indeed contribute to Harry and company’s escape from Malfoy Manor, his participation in the downfall of Voldemort is nowhere near as heavy as Gollum’s in The Lord of the Rings. Gollum accidentally destroyed the Ring when Frodo could not; Pettigrew merely submitted to Harry’s order to stand aside, at which point he was quickly dispatched by Voldemort.

The climactic fight between Harry and Voldemort was enjoyable, certainly a nice pay-off after reading 4,000+ pages of build-up. Rowling establishes that Dumbledore’s act of self-sacrifice laid the final seeds of Voldemort’s downfall, and surely enough, Voldemort is defeated by Harry’s completion of Dumbledore’s long con. The pacing in that fight was marvelous. Harry calmly submits to his own murder at the hands of Voldemort, followed by a lengthy expository sequence between him and Dumbledore in a pseudo-afterlife. After that, everything is in place, Harry simply needs to play his final role in the downfall, letting the dominoes fall one after another.

At the end of this series, I must admit, I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Harry Potter was certainly an enjoyable part of my reading growing up, and I remember waiting anxiously for each new book to come out so that I could marathon-read through it. Curiously, I can’t think of another series which has inspired the desire to plow through each new book in as short a time as possible. I think that the extreme length of the last four books contributes largely to this phenomenon, polishing off 700 pages of reading in a single night just feels good. That feeling aside, I don’t think I have ever gone back and read the books since Deathly Hallows was released. No small part of that may have been my initial frustration with Deathly Hallows when I first read it.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Yes.

Score: 3.8/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling 659 pp.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth entry in the Harry Potter series. It is easily the strongest volume of the seven, a welcome breath of fresh air after the drudgery of reading through Order of the Phoenix. In brief, Harry is rescued from the Dursleys once more, this time by Albus Dumbledore himself. Dumbledore and Harry then spend an interesting year together at Hogwarts as they struggle to unravel the mystery of Voldemort’s soul-splitting grab at immortality, the Horcruxes. All the while, someone is attempting to murder people at Hogwarts and while their attempts fail to find their mark, eventually this plot is resolved with Dumbledore’s death at the highest tower of Hogwarts.

Rowling’s earlier investments of time in worldbuilding pay out dividends throughout the book. We spend our time at Hogwarts watching the places and characters she has established work together to weave a solid plot through the book. Malfoy’s use of the room of requirement comes across as a particularly salient example. Until this point we had never seen one of the antagonists using a feature of Hogwarts which had seemed to be solely the domain of Harry and Co. 

The earlier sections of the book establish two important principles. First, Dumbledore’s light-heartedness is played to an immediately enjoyable effect. His relaxed manner as he sweeps through the narrative solving problems welcomes the reader into the book. If Harry’s impotence was the recurring theme in Order of the Phoenix, then Dumbledore’s agency takes its place in Half-Blood Prince. We know from the second chapter on that in this book, problems are going to be solved.

In that same vein, Rowling’s writing reveals to us that while this is a book primarily about Dumbledore’s actions and abilities in the confrontation with Voldemort, Harry is going to be involved.  In Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore went out of his way to exclude Harry, and thus the reader, from the action of the book. (Last time I’ll bash on Order of the Phoenix, I promise.) Harry spends much of the book directly involved with Dumbledore, learning about Voldemort’s past and preparing for the battle to come.

The only real criticism I have to make of this book is that Dumbledore is played a tad too aloof. By the end of the series, we know that he had a plan all along and was actively sowing the seeds of Voldemort’s downfall in the long con, but in this book his casual dismissal of his impending murder comes across as a touch too much. When Harry begins to discover that Draco Malfoy is actively plotting to murder someone at the school, Dumbledore simply brushes his concerns aside. At the end of the book, when Dumbledore is eventually murdered, setting aside the long-term resolution of the plot, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “What else did you expect?”

That aside, I enjoyed Half-Blood Prince tremendously. Harry spends the book working towards goals, and most importantly, he makes real steps in that direction. Rowling establishes the nature of the Horcruxes which will dominate Deathly Hallows, and gives the reader an immensely enjoyable portrayal of the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Yes.

Score: 4.0/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling 870 pp.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. In brief, Harry is brought from seclusion with the Dursley’s to Hogwarts, where he tries to work around the heavy-handed rule of the Ministry-of-Magic-appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge. During his year at school, he is intermittently visited by visions of Voldemort’s crimes against the wizarding community, and ultimately led to a confrontation with Voldemort and his servants at the Ministry of Magic. During this confrontation, we learn that Harry and Voldemort are fated to fight and that “neither may live while the other survives.”

If the plot summary above seems rather short compared to the other novels in the series, do not fear, it is deliberate. Order of the Phoenix is a filler volume between books four and six. The only major plot thread not included in the summary is Harry’s creation of Dumbledore’s Army, a student-run organization to train in fighting the Dark Arts. This volume is weaker than any other in the series, without any significant action taking place for the reader to follow and enjoy.

In each volume of the Harry Potter series, excepting Order, the variable portion of the title refers to an object or person with whom Harry will interact over the course of the book, each playing its role in the development of Harry’s fight against Voldemort or understanding of himself. Order of the Phoenix bucks this trend with all possible effort. The eponymous Order of the Phoenix is purposefully excluded from Harry’s life to the greatest extent possible. While this could work if Harry were to have more things to do in the novel, most of the text dwells on Harry trying vainly to get involved with the Order and thus the plot.

Harry’s vain ambition to become involved with the Order of the Phoenix in the fight against Voldemort demonstrates the core theme of this novel-Harry’s impotence. Every plot thread taking place in the book consists of actions going on outside of Harry’s ability to influence. On the rare occasion when he, and thus the reader, is able to become involved in the main plot of the book, Rowling immediately swoops in with a narrative smackdown, punishing Harry for daring to involve himself in the story.

Rowling wastes no time establishing this pattern. In the opening chapter Dudley is attacked by a dementor and Harry rescues him. While Rowling does deserve credit for following the rules she has established about Harry using magic outside of school, driving Harry away from the action from the get-go sets up the rest of the book for ineffective drama. When Harry does emerge from his seclusion with the Dursleys, he is immediately sequestered again. From this point on, Harry slips into a brooding angst which is immediately recognizable to anyone who has been fifteen, but does not make for enjoyable reading.

Once he is at school, Umbridge takes over the role of pushing Harry to the outside of the story. Her constant rulings and restrictions on life at Hogwarts are purposefully over-done. Umbridge plays her role of overbearing guardian of Hogwarts to perfection, but if the character has a flaw, it is perhaps that she is a little too easy to hate. I found myself wanting to sympathize with her more than I could with Harry because, unlike Harry, she is a moving agent in the plot. She has a goal, she takes steps towards accomplishing that goal, and despite her setbacks, succeeds in some areas. Rowling does not give me this satisfaction-Umbridge’s policies fly too far in the face of decency and fact to make her anything more than a caricature of over-regulative guardians.

Finally, at the end of the book, Harry’s visions lead him to escape Hogwarts to the Ministry of Magic so that he can save Sirius from imminent demise at the hands of Voldemort. Harry has learned of this threat through the visions he has snatched unintentionally from Voldemort’s mind. Rowling then throws the reader for quite a nice loop, these visions have been nothing more than a long con on Voldemort’s part so that he can lure Harry to the Ministry for this battle. Ultimately, by playing into the con, Harry causes Sirius to arrive at the ministry, leading to his murder and punishing Harry for daring to be involved in the plot one final time.

At the end of the book, Rowling attempts to make amends for the dreadful content of the longest volume of the series by revealing a grand prophecy-that Harry and Voldemort are fated to fight until one of them kills the other. Taking a step back from the book itself, one wonders what reader of fantasy would not have simply assumed that Rowling was playing into this trope all along.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sums up nicely then in one sentence. Harry Potter spends a book outside of the story, constantly punished for trying to become involved, so that Rowling can establish her fantasy series is playing by the traditional rules of its genre.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? Short answer: No. Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Score: 1.2/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Only to complete the series.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling 752 pp.

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series. In brief, Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup, expanding both his and the readers’ perceptions of the wizarding community around the world. Afterwards, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year of instruction, where he competes in the Triwizard tournament against champions from two other wizard schools and one from Hogwarts. The tournament shunts much of the normal school drama to the sidelines, as Harry and the other champions test their mettle against a series of increasingly daunting challenges. During the final challenge of this tournament, Voldemort is brought back to life and once more Harry does battle with his mortal foe.

Of the seven books in the Harry Potter series, I feel that Goblet of Fire is by a wide gulf the most important. Not only is Voldemort raised from the dead in the climax of the book, but in this book Rowling takes the reader out of the Hogwarts-centric narrative she has employed in the series so far. Rowling moves her story into the wider wizarding world through which Harry’s actions will resonate. First, we see the Quidditch World Cup. Rowling’s choice here to open her book with a gathering of witches and wizards from around the world was quite effective in delineating the divide between the beginning and end of the series. Second, the driving event in Goblet of Fire’s plot is the Triwizard Tournament, in which Harry is competing under the auspices of the national Ministry of Magic against students from magical schools across three countries. Finally, Harry spends the end of the book miles away from Hogwarts, in a graveyard fighting the newly risen Voldemort. Harry’s problems, and therefore his actions, have been elevated beyond the level of schoolyard drama, put onto a stage for the whole world to see.

Throughout the novel, Harry’s interior life is portrayed for the wider wizarding world to gossip over. Admittedly, the reporting in the text is cartoonishly awful, but titillating for the fictional readers. While I understand Rowling’s choice to make Rita Skeeter’s reporting purposefully bad, she missed an opportunity to play the reader against Harry. If reading Skeeter’s articles in the novel had caused us to question Harry’s actions, I feel that it would have heightened the satisfaction we get at the end of the book when Harry does battle with Voldemort.

In opening the series up to a larger perspective on the effects of the plot, Rowling succeeds with Goblet of Fire particularly well as a transition book to the remainder of the series. This novel marks the last time that Harry’s problems will be centered around Hogwarts, before his conflicts move out into the larger world. Additionally, in Goblet of Fire Rowling moves from the clearly youth-oriented focus of the first three books towards a wider, adult-inclusive audience. For the first time, she shows an explicit murder, as Peter Pettigrew kills Cedric Diggory with hardly a moment’s hesitation. Between this slaughter and the questionable methods of Voldemort being brought back to life, Rowling’s audience has clearly shifted towards the adult end of the Young Adult genre.

The climax of the book, Voldemort’s resurrection and duel with Harry are some of the most exciting aspects of the book. While Voldemort was placed directly in the series a little earlier than I would have liked, spending books two and three without a straight-forward conflict between Harry and his nemesis allowed space for the reader to breathe in the world of Rowling’s text, making the resurrection that much more satisfying. Moreso than any book in the series, in  Goblet of Fire Rowling throws her punches hard, and spends her time dwelling on them to a triumphant effect.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? Yes.

Score: 3.7/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling 448pp.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment in the Harry Potter series. In brief, Sirius Black has escaped from wizard prison, where he was imprisoned for murdering a crowd of people in the middle of a busy street, and everyone believes he’s coming to kill Harry. When Harry learns that Sirius was directly responsible for the murder of his parents, he sets out to track Sirius down and avenge their deaths.

Deviating slightly from my attempt to read these books with a fresh eye, I recall that previously, Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite installment of the series when I read them for the first time. One of Harry’s central conflicts as a protagonist is how he deals with the fact that he is an orphan. Prisoner of Azkaban not only deals with this subject, but dives headlong into it with a gleeful sense of abandon. Throughout the book we follow Harry coming to understanding the man he believed responsible for his parents’ deaths, eventually reconciling with him when he learns that his godfather, Sirius Black was not culpable for their deaths as Harry believed.

This realization prompts Harry to feel, for the first time in the series, that he still has a family. At the end of the book, this conflict seems resolved, even if its resolution is subverted by the fact that Sirius is still an escaped convict on the run from the law. Rowling’s choice to give Harry the feeling of a family, knowing that someone who can fill the need for a father-figure is out there is poignant in the extreme. More than any other aspect of the story, I was pleased by this addition.

At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling has accomplished a thorough preparation of her protagonist for the larger adventures looming before him. Sorcerer’s Stone was principally about Harry learning how the wizarding world works and how he belongs in it. Chamber of Secrets delved into the personal history of his antagonist, allowing Harry and the reader to understand the threat Harry will have to conquer by the end of the series. Finally, Prisoner of Azkaban explored Harry’s family and his own mind in great detail. With these three central aspects of her narrative established, Rowling is free to begin taking Harry into the main action of her series.

Perhaps my favorite moment in Prisoner of Azkaban was a callback to the end of The Chamber of Secrets and a general observation on the exploits of Harry Potter and company. During Professor Snape’s dressing-down of Harry Potter, he calls out the fact that Potter is a jock, and as such, is given wide-ranging freedoms which would never be accorded to any other student. It occurred to me at this point that I should have kept a tally during the novels of how many times Potter’s reckless disregard of the rules was simply hand-waved aside by the teachers and other authority figures at the school. 

It is unfortunate that this observation had to come from the mouth of  Snape, who up to this point in the series has only been given the slightest hints of depth beyond simply being the antagonist teacher. Had this come from Professor McGonagall or another professor, it would have stuck with the reader as a more effective observation than simply a cheap shot from the hero’s foil. That being said, it was still a worthwhile subversion of the narrative structure of blindly allowing Harry to work around and frequently against the rules in pursuit of his latest goal.

Prisoner of Azkaban is a solid entry in the Harry Potter series, accomplishing the final stages of preparation for Harry’s larger conflict with Voldemort. Rowling’s writing once again charms the reader with its smooth rhythm and carefully parceled out action sequences.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? Yes.

Score: 3.8/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling 341 pp.

     J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second entry in the Harry Potter Series. In brief, Harry continues his career at Hogwarts, which is having quite the problem with a mysterious creature let loose in the school, paralyzing students by its mere gaze. Harry investigates and eventually does battle with the creature’s controller, a memory of Lord Voldemort left trapped in a journal written when the dark lord attended Hogwarts.

Rowling departs from the relatively lighthearted tone of Sorcerer’s Stone towards a darker adventure in this volume. While she carefully avoids explicit murder, she certainly comes close throughout the book. Several characters are threatened with death, each avoiding it by a carefully manipulated trick of narrative.

Additionally, in this book Rowling begins to place Harry and the fight with Voldemort in the midst of a larger narrative, extending beyond the reach of the series. In Sorceror’s Stone, the entire plot revolves around Harry becoming acclimated to attending Hogwarts, but in Chamber of Secrets we begin to get a glimpse into the larger history of the school. Voldemort is present again as the principle antagonist of the book, but he does not act through literally being present in the school. Rather, a shade of his person torments Ron’s younger sister throughout the story.

This placement of the antagonist in the story is much more effective for an early volume of the series than Voldemort’s actions in Sorcerer’s Stone. Rather than being physically present for Harry to fight and presumably conquer, he merely acts through others, extending his malevolence through an artifact. Additionally, we begin to see more of the way that Voldemort’s attack on Harry and his parents twelve years earlier will shape the story to come.

Harry’s trademark scar on his forehead begins to act not only as a triumphant symbol of his mother’s victory over Voldemort, but signifies a greater depth of connection between the two. When Voldemort attacked him on that night, a certain element of his person was transferred into Harry, leaving the young boy with abilities he is only just beginning to understand. It is worthwhile to note that a lightning bolt visually connotes not only the ray with which Voldemort murdered Harry’s family, but is also a visual reference to a snake.

Rowling employs snakes in an interesting manner throughout this series as well. They are predominantly employed as symbols of evil: Voldemort’s serpentine visage, Slytherin’s house symbol, and especially the basilisk. Rowling also works them into the series as gatekeepers to hidden knowledge. Consider the only unintentional magical event in Harry’s life prior to Hogwarts that Rowling explores in any depth-the escape of the boa constrictor in the zoo. Harry speaks to the snake, and barely a week later, he enters into the world of magic.

In Chamber of Secrets the re-emergence of the basilisk from the eponymous chamber draws Harry into a greater understanding of Voldemort’s own history. Through his interactions with the basilisk, we learn in detail of Harry’s ability to speak to snakes and the dark connotation this trait carries in the wizarding world. Even Draco Malfoy, Harry’s primary foil in the series is unsettled by Harry’s ability. Harry’s quest to defeat the basilisk brings him into a confrontation once more with Voldemort, although in the form of a memory. Through their interaction, Rowling gives the reader a glimpse of Voldemort’s life at Hogwarts, adding a depth to the villain sorely lacking in his role as the embodiment of pure evil in the first book.

One of my favorite moments in the book is tucked in towards the end, in a little throw-away bit of Harry’s thought. When prompted to select his classes for his third year at Hogwarts, Harry reflects that he is not particularly enthused about any of the classes offered to him, he’s only really passionate about Quidditch. This little remark prompts a realization about Harry’s career at Hogwarts. He’s a phenomenally skilled athlete, who by virtue of his popularity, athletic prowess, and in no small way his role as the central protagonist of the series, is allowed to flaunt the rules in place at the school in service of whatever adventure he pursues in a given book. 

Chamber of Secrets maintains the clever writing and slick wordplay which made Sorcerer’s Stone such a success in my mind, but does little to further my enjoyment of the series. Despite Rowling’s better use of Voldemort as an antagonist in this volume, the book feels somewhat like a pause between volumes one and three to give the reader more background on Harry and Voldemort. This settling-in to the narrative, while somewhat detrimental to Chamber of Secrets on its own, helps pull the reader into the series as a whole and confirms the narrative formula Rowling’s novels follow: evil is present at Hogwarts, Harry learns of this evil and raises his concerns with his teachers, they are unwilling to follow up on the leads Harry presents them and forbid him to investigate further for his own good, Harry then investigates the evil behind their backs, learns a twist on its nature, and ultimately triumphs.

Would I recommend Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? Yes.

Score: 3.4/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? On its own, maybe not, but for sake of the series, certainly.

-Mr. Cheddar

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling 309 pp.

J. K. Rowling’s, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first entry in the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series. In this book, Rowling sets out the characters, establishes the space, and gives a deeply satisfying taste of the adventure which lies ahead. In brief, Sorcerer’s Stone tells the tale of the young orphan Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts, a school to teach magic to wizards, spending his first year there, and eventually fighting against a shade of the dark wizard Voldemort who murdered Harry’s parent’s eleven years prior.

Rowling’s wordplay is enjoyable, easily the most effective aspect of the book. Stepping back from my attempt to read these books as though I’ve never read them before, it was refreshing to be reintroduced to the students of Hogwarts. I quickly realized that my mental impression of the characters was so filtered through the way that this series has been integrated into mainstream culture. On this reading, however, I was charmed by the light-hearted simplicity with which Rowling dives into her story. Even knowing the horror which looms over the characters, I was able to enjoy their youthful exuberance at beginning their careers at Hogwarts.

Rowling places a marvelous amount of importance on developing Hogwarts as a space, focusing especially on establishing its otherness. Moving staircases, Harry’s wonder at the living paintings, the casual acceptance of ghosts drifting throughout the castle, all of these elements play together to draw the reader into the castle. In this regard, Harry’s friendship with both Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger works particularly well. Harry is the traditional fish-out-of-water protagonist, but instead of being guided into the new world by an older mentor figure, the world is explained primarily through a peer.

This choice seems particularly useful in placing the novel in the genre of children’s literature. In the first book, I think it is beyond dispute that Rowling’s work functions in this sphere. As a general note, I think that books one through three are aimed primarily at children up to about 13. From book four onwards, the series tends towards children farther along towards adulthood, with characters who particularly respond to this change in perspective.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone succeeds on a structural basis as well. Each chapter feels enclosed as an entity almost unto itself. In retrospection, the specific structure Rowling has employed can be likened to a weekly television drama, with every chapter introducing an issue in Harry’s year at Hogwarts, tracing the way that Harry and his friends try to resolve this issue, with each of these incidents building towards the larger plot of the book. Rowling uses this again in the course of the series as a whole, each book building towards the eventual conflict with Voldemort.

The book’s only real flaw is that perhaps it introduces the reader to Voldemort in person a little too quickly. For a seven-book series, ranging in the 3000 page length, to meet the primary antagonist in person (even if not in his body) within 300 pages felt like Rowling was playing her hand a little too early. This issue, however, does not damage the enjoyment or the effectiveness of the book, which was still very effective.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was an enjoyable book, a quick afternoon read launching into a larger series. On its own the book may have been forgettable, but after it was quickly followed up by a series of enjoyable and strongly written books, it launched itself into a strong place in my library.

Would I recommend  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Unhesitatingly yes.

Score: 3.5/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

The Bathroom Trivia Book

The Bathroom Trivia Book Jim Kreismer 106 pp

     Jim Kreismer's, The Bathroom Trivia Book is a short diversion from the realm of more serious tasks. As the title promises, it is full to bursting with small bits of trivia, much of it unexpected. Kreismer plays to the genre well, dotting every few pages with a couple pieces of scatological humor which flow mostly uninterrupted into the stream of dated celebrity gossip which makes up most of his book.
     Published in 1986, it immediately became apparent that the book has not aged well. The constant allusions to the personal goings-on of celebrities popular in the early 1980's flew right over my head. After a few dozen celebrity quips, trying to like it, I went through my first perspective shift with this book. I decided to stop worrying about not getting the references and just enjoy it as a piece of very dated pop culture.
     This, however, did not prove to be enough. Most of the trivia is phrased so that it hinges on a bit of tired, uninspired wordplay. The few occasions when the puns were successful were so sparse throughout the text that I could never expect another one to come to my aid soon. "Alright," I sighed, heaving the book before my eyes once more, "I'll just enjoy this ironically."
     From that decision on, the book was acceptable, but nothing remarkable. Kreismer's research shows up in every page, reliably bringing little facts disguised in tricky bits of phrasing. On the whole, however, this book simply felt uninspired. At no point did Kreismer's wordplay or choices of facts give me any real satisfaction. Backing that point up, on at least two occasions that I noticed, repeated bits of trivia were not cleaned up in editing.
     Perhaps the strongest element of this book was the brief interest many of the bits of trivia inspired in me. Frequently I found myself letting out a small chuckle and thinking, "I should tell Mrs. Cheddar about that." But, much like the activity which this book is meant to accompany, I refrained from talking about it with her. It occurred to me after finishing this book that James Joyce summed it up nicely for me in Ulysses, "It did not move or touch him but it was something quick and neat."

Would I recommend The Bathroom Trivia Book? No.

Score: 1.2/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? No.

-Mr. Cheddar

The Third World War August 1985

The Third World War August 1985 General Sir John Hackett 509 pp

General Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War August 1985 gives a chilling account of a possible war between NATO and the Soviet Union. Written in 1979, the novel follows the looming tension between the two superpowers through war as the authors felt was likely to happen. It is immediately apparent that the authors wrote the book with an eye towards spreading fear of the looming war in order to spur heightened military spending. Fortunately the book can stand as an interesting story without regard of the authors’ intent.

Having been born in 1990, it is strange to imagine the feeling of living through the Cold War. The spectre of preparing for a large-scale war against an existential threat in the mode faced during World War 2 is unimaginable to me. Thus, this book gave me an interesting mental escape from the drone wars which have dominated my adult life, into considering a large-scale war along the lines of World War 2.

I found the book riveting, fantastically hard to put down. The text ranges in form from a very dry pseudo-historical description of troop movements to more intimate personal narratives of soldiers stationed up and down the battlefield. This historical writing plays out one of the weaker sides of the novel’s writing. Hackett is obsessed with acronyms. Every different organization of military units, civil or political organizations, or supply convoys are given and almost exclusively referred to by an acronym. Aside from difficulties with keeping AAFCE, ACLANT, AFCENT; CINCHAN, CINCUKAIR, CINCSOUTH; SLBM, SLCM, and SNAF straight in my mind, the book was unquestionably desirable.

Perhaps the most haunting aspect of the book is lurking in the appendices. The last of the appendices is a series of logs from civil emergency stations throughout southern England. In the closing stage of the war, the Soviet Union launches a nuclear strike against Birmingham. This attack is dealt with in the main body of the text in the same dry and distant manner Hackett takes to the description of troop movements. But in the logs from Birmingham, the reader can follow the panic as the war escalates, the sense of dread from people hiding in the cellars as war rages over their heads until 

“1129 Signal-RED ALERT (air raid warning sounded): President USA has received Soviet warning of immediate nuclear attack on Birmingham Engla… [The charred remains of this log were found in the cellar of the ‘Red Cow’]”

Would I recommend The Third World War? For anyone with an interest in military history, yes. For the reader looking for more direct social commentary or soft literature, no.

Score: 3.8/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

- Mr. Cheddar

The Seven Storey Mountain

The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 467pp

Thomas Merton’s  The Seven Storey Mountain presents the succinct autobiography of a Trappist Monk’s journey from a youth of worldly diversions to his blossoming into the Catholic faith. Merton’s writing is strong and enjoyable, if a little clunky at time. Comparisons to Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions are immediately apparent, and in no small way encouraged by Merton.

Seven Storey Mountain can be divided into two sections of approximately equal length, hinging around Merton’s conversion. The first half of the book is easily the weaker example of Merton’s writing. His desire to distance himself from his youth rings through every paragraph. It is clear from the get-go that Merton considered his life prior to conversion nothing more than preparatory fuel for the fervor with which his religious zeal burned.

From the religious position in which Merton was writing, this may have been decidedly useful, but it did not make for enjoyable reading. For the first half of the book I was almost flipping through the pages, waiting for Merton to get to the “good parts,” after his conversion. And it was almost precisely there that Merton’s prose made an about-face. From the very line where he first makes the change-of-heart towards Christianity to the end of the book his prose lightens, the mood improves, and the book becomes aggressively enjoyable.

It is worth pausing to mention that while the first half of the book is not enjoyable, it is effective. Merton’s clear purpose is to paint a picture of the life devoted to God and to cause his readers to desire that life. In this regard, the transparent negativity in Merton’s portrayal of his youth functions wonderfully. Enough time is spent dwelling on Merton’s youth that we can enter into his head rather well, leading to a sense of cathartic joy at Merton’s conversion.

Would I recommend The Seven Storey Mountain? Yes.

Score: 4.3/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Definitely.

-Mr. Cheddar