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Mary E.
Wagner |
Brisingr -- Christopher Paolini
This is the Book Three in the Inheritance Cycle and it will be available on Saturday the 20th of September at midnight. Following the tradition begun by the Harry Potter series, some stores will be opened at the time of the release. Mary's Bookstore will be opened for half an hour for anyone who wants the book, and it will be discounted that day.Remember, Saturday the 20th of September at midnight!
Books on Dragons
Children have always been fascinated by dragons. Christopher Paolini's series about Eragon and the Dragon Riders has reminded all of this interest. Usborne and other publishing companies have produced stories and picture books for all ages, including ones about dragons.
Cape Cod
To this day, Cape Cod, written by Henry David Thoreau and which was published in 1865, is considered by many people as the best book ever written about Cape Cod. It is a surprisingly funny and wonderfully written account of nineteenth century life on Cape Cod, before it was discovered by tourists in the past century.
This year, there are two coffee-table sized books printed, each with spectacular photographs.
Cape Cod- Illustrated Edition of the American Classic. Photographs by Scott Miller.
Thoreau's Cape Cod. Photographs by Dan Tobyne.Half-Price Room
One of the things Becki will help me with is the Half-Price room. Over the years, books that were not sold for a while were taken off the shelves and put away, and they became forgotten.. Many of them are no longer being published, but are still good reads. Publishers do not always continue printing earlier works by many authors-- even the popular ones. Mystery readers always want to read the first book in a series. Having Becki work here gives me an opportunity to go into the closet and look for "lost treasures".
Reminder: There are wonderful spiritual DVDs, dramatizations of people and moments in history and classic movies in new digitally mastered versions for DVDs. I am slowly collecting them to rent or sell.
Bella, a motion picture masterpiece is now available in DVD to buy or rent. This film won many awards in Canada and Europe. In America, however, it was only available in selected places.
I write this review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows not as a bookseller nor as a theologian but as a mother and a grandmother. I first listened to the Harry Potter audio about the time of the second book. It was such fun and so very funny I have been a H.P. fan ever since. As Harry grew older and the power of the Dark Lord became stronger, however, it became obvious that this series was not just fun. This is a serious story.
First and above all it is a tale of fantasy. The time is contemporary, the children are real but the setting is the fantasy world of magic, of wizards and witches, of giants and trolls.
It is a tale of evil founded on a lie and pursued by more lies. The reader follows young, handsome Tom Riddle turn into the Dark Lord, grotesque, snake-like, and terrifying. We meet his loyal deatheater Lucius Malfoy, wealthy, proud and arrogant in the first Harry Potter book. By the end of this tale he is a broken, terrified and truly pathetic person. At the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows when the Dark Lord is at the height of his powers, and believes he has won the Battle of Hogwarts and killed Harry he still needs to lie about how Harry came to be dead.
It is a tale of the power of mother's love to protect and defend her children with such strength and determination that it can equal the power of evil. Harry is reminded in every book that his mother died to give him the protection she knew he would need. But Lily is not the only mother. For 6 and 1/2 books Molly Weasley is the perfect model of a housewife using her magic skills to clean house, peel potatoes and fold socks for her seven children, showing no ability or interest in fighting. Then in the Battle of Hogwarts she takes on Belletrix, the Dark Lord's most fanatical deatheater. To those who rush to help she screams," Get back. She is mine." and to Belletrix she screams, "You will never touch our children again." And as the tale comes to an end it is another mother, a loyal deatheater, who defies the Dark Lord and shields Harry in the belief that this will protect her own son.
And finally it is a wonderful tale of growing up, of developing friendships, and learning to trust ... the adult world as well as peers. After months of wandering with Hermione, lonely, cold, frequently hungry, Harry arrives back at Hogwarts. Within minutes, using the magical powers of communication and apparition all the friends we have met since book 1 arrive to help Harry defeat the Dark Lord. And the wonderful author gives many of them moments to make their individual contribution to the Battle of Hogwarts. The final blow to defeat the Dark Lord had to be made by Harry but the author makes it clear that Harry needs the efforts of all his friends to get to that final blow.
I commend all you readers who persevered. Book 7 is a long, tough read without the humor of the other books. I think the author wanted the reader to truly feel the pain of their situation and therefore appreciate the courage and determination necessary to persevere. I am a loyal H.P. fan who never doubted that he would defeat the Dark Lord but there were times when I said "enough!!" I would note the author included "...you who have stuck with Harry until the very end" in her dedication.
My thanks and gratitude to the author J.K.Rowling. She has taught our children the joy of reading; she has shown them the enormous potential for adventure, expanding their vocabulary to portray this adventure. She has shown all of us that serious subjects still need humor. She has given us a wonderful hero, not perfect, but someone we can respect. She has portrayed the power of love, of friendship and loyalty and forgiveness like no other author. And finally she has left it to her readers to finish the tale with our own vision of what happened to all Harry's friends that we have come to love.
In the words of Professor Dumbledore,"For this I honor her."
I have copies of all the Harry Potter books on spoken word audio that I loan out. Jim Dale reads them and they are fabulous. He has a voice and an accent for every character. Ask me about them.
Monday-Saturday 10:00-8:00 Sunday 11:00-5:00 |
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