June 2016 shall forever be the month when I finished the Harry Potter series for the first time. Have you guys heard of that one? It’s super good. Written especially for women who have just turned 40. (Just go with it. Let’s pretend I’m not almost 10 years behind the curve on this one.)
I finished 9 books this month, so it wasn’t all Harry Potter. Here’s the full list.
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Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
As I discussed last month, I love Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, so I was eager to read Happier at Home. The formula was really similar to her first book, which worked for me. I liked learning about the projects she did to make herself happier at home and hope to implement a few. (Except I’m sort of sick of lists right now, so I might need a little break first.) If you like the first book, you’ll probably like this one too. They’ve covered a lot of the topics on the Happier podcast too.
The Player and the Pixie by L H Cosway and Penny Reid
This is the second installment of the Rugby series that Penny Reid cowrites. I don’t love this series quite as much as the standalone Penny Reid books, but they are still enjoyable reads. This one was light and, although predictable, was a good romance.
The Assistants by Camille Perri
Amazon kept recommending this book to me. Probably because I read Big Law. I really wanted to like this book. I loved Camille Perri’s writing style. She had some lines in there that were absolute gold. But, the plot… It just drove me batty. Maybe I’m not sympathetic to the millennial doom of crippling student loans. No, wait, I still owe a little under $90k for law school, so I’m pretty familiar with that. I don’t know. I just didn’t love it and her writing didn’t save it for me. That said, I will definitely read any future novels by the author.
Harry Potter, Books 2 through 7
Okay, I’m putting all of the Harry Potter books together for my thoughts and comments. And it needs to start like this:
HOLY CRAP, THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD. IF YOU ARE SOMEHOW ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE WHO HASN’T READ THEM YET, YOU NEED TO REMEDY THAT ASAP.
I don’t really have a good reason why I had never read the Harry Potter books. If anything, it was because I usually don’t love the stuff that is super popular. I blame Bridges of Madison County. Remember when that was huge? I remember reading it and thinking, meh. I tried to read Twilight and I stopped that really fast. We saw what happened with Outlander last month. I guess I just assumed that if everyone is trying to force me to love it, I would be disappointed.
I WAS SO INCREDIBLY WRONG.
I’ve read JK Rowling’s adult fiction, including the Robert Galbraith books. She is a masterful writer. While the Harry Potter books are for kids, they are not dumbed down at all. In fact, she made me feel all sorts of emotions that I typically avoid while reading: sadness, fear, anxiety, etc. (I cannot wait until the toddler is old enough to introduce to Hogwarts.)
Of the series, my favorite was probably the Goblet of Fire. After I finished that one, Cat said, oh, it’s about to get dark. And, yes, it did. But the whole series is so spectacular that it is hard to pick a favorite.
Now, I want to see the movies. And go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And go to Bad Owl Coffee. And try to avoid talking about the fact that the Pottermore quiz sorted me into Slytherin.
And the best part? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child comes out at the end of this month! Now there’s a book I’m willing to pay full price for!
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