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Bookwi.se Reviewed KindleUnlimited Books

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Takeaway: I take it back, this is my favorite Harry Potter

Just like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, this is the first time I have re-read the book since it first came out.  And I have only watched the movies once in the theater straight through (but I have watched pieces of them on TV a couple of times) prior to watching them this week. (Well I watched the first one, tried to record and watch the second, but my DVR recorded the first one a second time.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is far removed from Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ Stone.  They are clearly from the same universe, but one is a children’s book and one is as engaging as any other piece of fiction I have read.  (I am not knocking children’s books, I read children’s books for pleasure, but they are rarely as compelling as adult fiction.)

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling (#6)

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood PrinceTakeaway: Even after I have read most of these books multiple times, Harry Potter is still engaging.

I picked up Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on a whim.  To the best of my memory, I do not think I have read this since it first came out in 2005.

Inspite of the single reading, this has been my favorite of the series.  And while I have liked all the books, 1-3 are very much middle grade books (I know technically this is still middle grade too, but it clearly is an older middle grade).  I like the older books better.  The Goblet of Fire felt too much like a quest, then wait, then quest then wait formula.  In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry was too whiney.  The Half Blood Prince is just right in tone and Harry Potter.  He is old enough that he starts maturing in many ways (although he is still Snape/Malfoy obsessed.)

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

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The Handmaid's TaleSummary: A dystopian novel where women have become chattel and a theocratic government has taken over the US.

The Handmaid’s Tale was written in 1985 and I never would have read it if Audible had not commissioned Claire Danes to read it.

I know that it should not matter that famous authors are reading famous books, but this series has excellent quality narrations.  (Others in the series that I have listened to are The End of the Affair and The Wizard of Oz).

Claire Danes give a very flat narration, which is perfect for the book.  The narrator, OfFred, is the first generation after the US has been taken over by a theocratic government.  The coup d’état was started when a small group of highly placed officials were behind a mass assassination of the President and the entire Congress.  The assassination was blamed on Islamic terrorists and a state of emergency was called.

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The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

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The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh LoftingSummary: The original classic children’s book, where a doctor and lover of animals learns to speak animal language.

Audible.com gave away several short books as part of a promotion for members in July.  The Story of Doctor Dolittle was one of them.

The audiobook starts out with an introduction to the tenth edition that praises the book as the first real children’s book since Alice in Wonderland. But since I really did not like Alice in Wonderland that did nothing to entice me to the story.

The story (published in 1920) is set in the 1820s.  Doctor Dollittle is a good doctor, but his love of animals eventually drives all of his human clients away.  After all of the human clients leave, Dolittle starts learning animal language from his parrot.  Eventually he learns how to speak to all of the animals and starts treating animals.

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Cashelmara by Susan Howatch

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Cashelmara by Susan HowatchSummary: A multi-generational family drama based around the Irish estate Cashelmara.

Cashelmara was originally published in 1974. It is a good example of the importance of the digital book market. Open Road is a publisher that mostly focuses on former bestsellers that are now out of print.

After reading Susan Howatch’s Church of England Series this spring, I have decided to pick up anything written by Susan Howatch when it goes on sale.

I was surprised that Cashelmara was told in a very similar format to the Church of England series (just compressed into one very long book.) Both have six sections, each with a different person narrating the story from their perspective.

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The Other Wind by Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea Cycle #6)

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The Other Wind by Ursula Le GuinSummary: The final book of the Earthsea Cycle.

Urusula Le Guin is one of the classic authors of young adult fantasy. I read the first three books in this series as a teen, but the later books were not published until I was older. This last book was published 33 years after the first in 2001.

I re-read the first book in the series last year (The Wizard of Earthsea). The last book in the series (The Other Wind) was on sale a while ago and I decided it would be a good beach read.

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From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

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From Russia With Love by Ian FlemingSummary: Bond knowingly walks into a trap and still manages to get caught.

Just over a week ago all of the James Bond novels were on sale in kindle format.  So I decided to pick up two more.  I was frustrated with the last James Bond novel I read, Goldfinger, because it was so cartoonish in its story line.

But I thought maybe an earlier novel will be better.  So I borrowed the kindle version of From Russia With Love from Lendle.me and then used promotional Audible credit to get the audiobook.

The story line is that SPECTER, the Russian black ops group, wants to kill a western spy to teach the west a lesson.  Bond is the one that is chosen and a young female agent is trained to seduce him and a British turncoat is chosen to kill him.

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Reflections on the Psalms by CS Lewis

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Reflections on the Psalms by CS LewisSummary: Lewis reads the Psalms as an insightful outsider.

I am continuing my quest to read more CS Lewis after reading McGrath’s new biography a few weeks ago.  (And to justify the fact that I have purchased so many of Lewis’ books recently.  Many of his non-fiction books are less than $3, this one is currently $2.24 on kindle).

This was the first of Lewis’ non-fiction books I read after reading McGrath’s biography.  Psalms and I have had a difficult relationship.  I am not extraordinarily fond of poetry and for too long I have viewed Psalms as a book of poetry, not a book of prayers.

Part of this is that I grew up in a church background that values extemporaneous prayers, not written prayers.  So it has only been recently that I have started regularly using prayer books like Phillis Tickle’s Prayers for Summertime or the Book of Common Prayer.

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Wool – Books 1-3 by Hugh Howey

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I am reposting this review because the Omnibus edition (first 5 books) is on sale for $3.99.

Wool - Part One

Summary:  Creative post-apocalyptic independent novel.

Whenever I hear about the death of publishing I tend to 1) dismiss the claim, 2) remind the person of the enormous number of books being published every year (too many, not too few) and 3) point out that what is being disrupted is not book writing or reading, but the late 20th century model of publishing.

Wool by Hugh Howey is a good example of this.  Wool started as a 58 page short story/novella released on Amazon just in kindle format in 2011.  Response from readers lead to the next four books (each getting a bit longer), until the Omnibus edition was released with all five stories.  In total the Omnibus edition is 550 pages (but the individual books together add up to over 700 pages, not sure the difference.)

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