Thanksgiving 2016

I've seen a few memes floating around in the past day or two asking how we can celebrate Thanksgiving when the DAPL protestors are being sprayed with fire hoses in subfreezing temperatures, and treated as rioters when they're protesting peacefully.

Honestly, I think we need Thanksgiving this year more than ever.

No, I don't buy into the story of the First Thanksgiving that I learned about in elementary school.  I'm not saying that this Thanksgiving, Native Americans should "just get over it" and celebrate what they do have like the rest of us.  Because that is bullshit.

But here's a small history lesson for you: Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to be a national holiday as we know it, celebrated on the last Thursday of November, in 1863.  It was a desperate attempt to unite the nation in the middle of the Civil War.  Part of his Thanksgiving proclamation read:

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

Notice that there isn't any garbage in there about celebrating how nice the Natives were to the Pilgrims.  It's honestly mainly religious, thanking and praising God for what we have and asking him to heal the warring nation.  But even if you take out the religious aspect, Lincoln's proclamation essentially says "Let us as a nation be thankful for what we have, let us be united, and let us as a nation heal from the atrocity of war."

This is what I choose to celebrate this year.  A day of peace, love, and unity, as laid out by Abraham Lincoln.  This is what we should all celebrate as a nation, every day of every year.

I've seen 143/270 movies!

I originally filled this out in 2009.  It popped up in my Timehop the other day, and I thought, wow, I've seen a lot more of these movies, so I figured I'd fill it out again!  But it was too long for a Facebook status, and Notes aren't really a thing any more (or at least, I don't know how to make a new one), so on the blog it goes.  Movies I've seen sine 2009 are in red!

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are over 270 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun!

(x ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
( ) Grease 2
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x ) Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End
(x) Boondock Saints
( x) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x ) Blazing Saddles

Total so far: 7 8

( ) The Neverending Story
() The Neverending Story II
() The Neverending Story III
(x) Airplane
(x) The Princess Bride
( ) Willow
( x) Anchorman
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth

Total so far:10 12

( ) Saw
() Saw II
() Saw III
() Saw IV
() Saw V
() White Noise
() White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates

Total so far:10 14

(x)The Princess Diaries
(x)The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
(x ) Scream
( x) Scream 2
(x ) Scream 3
(x) I Know What You Did Last Summer
( ) I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
(x) The Shining
( ) Candyman
(x) Stand By Me

Total so far: 14 22

(x ) Scary Movie
( x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
(x ) Scary Movie 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
(x ) American Pie
(x ) American Pie 2
( x) American Wedding
(x ) American Pie Band Camp

Total so far:15 30

(x) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(x) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(x) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(x) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
(x) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
( x)The Wedding Singer
(x) Little Black Book
(x)The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
(x) Finding Nemo

Total so far:24 40

(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(x ) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
() Robots

Total so far:29 46

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) King Pin
() Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights

Total so far:30 51

() Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
(x) A Cinderella Story
()The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
(x ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Halloween
() Surviving X-MAS

Total so far: 33 56

( ) Final Destination
( )Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) The Ring
( )The Ring 2
(x) Flubber
( x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic (but this one's on my Netflix watch list!)
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship

Total so far: 35 60

(x) From Hell
(x ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x ) The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards
(x) The Day After Tomorrow
() Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( )Bride of Chucky

Total so far:37 64

(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
( x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
() The Mask
() Son Of The Mask

Total so far:39 68

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
() Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
( ) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Ocean's Thirteen
(x) Bourne Identity
(x )Bourne Supremacy
(x) Bourne Ultimatum

Total so far:39 72

(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Pretty in Pink
() Lone Star
( x) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: 42 77

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
() Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
() My Boss's Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
() War of the Worlds

Total so far: 44 79

(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
(x) Rush Hour 3
() Best Bet
() How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
(x) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon

Total so far: 45 83

(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
(x )The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-Men:The Last Stand

Total so far: 50 92

(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Spider-Man 3
(x) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
() Reign of Fire

Total so far: 55 99

() The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
(x) Shrek the Third
() Swimfan
() Miracle on 34th street
()Old School

Total so far:60 103

() The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
() A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
(x) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(x) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Total so far: 63 107

(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(x) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
() Basketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
(x) Elf

Total so far: 68 112

() Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
() American History X
() Three
() The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
( ) Titanic

Total so far: 69 (ha.) 115

(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard
() HighTension
() Club Dread
(x) Hulk
( x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Total so far: 73 121

(x) 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
() Waterworld
(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
() Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes

Total so far: 73 124

() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
(x)Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor

Total so far:78 130

() Re-Animator
() Army of Darkness
(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
() Ghosttown

Total so far: 79 136

() Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
(x) Wall-E
(x) Batman Begins
(x) The Dark Knight
(x) The Prestige
(x) Cars
( ) Gone With The Wind
(x ) Top Gun

Total seen:83 143

I've seen 143/270 movies.  Personally, I don't consider that as having no life!  I love movies.  I consider it personal growth that I've almost doubled the number of moves that I've seen from this list!  Plus, some of these movies have sequels by now, and I've seen those, too. :)

Now put "I've seen "xxx"out of 270 movies" in the subject line (filling in your total in the blank), repost it, and tag some of your friends (including the person who tagged you) to see what they say.

The best TV show episodes for this time of year!

Halloween is the best time of the year, I don't care what anyone says.  I usually only watch Halloween TV episodes on the magickal day itself, but this year I've decided to embrace the spookiness all month long!  So I've compiled a list of the best episodes from a few of my favorite shows.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Technically any episode is in the spirit of Halloween, because vampires and werewolves and magick and otherwise general demonness.  But here are the best Halloween episodes!  You can find Buffy on Netflix.

• Puppet Show, season 1 episode 9: this one scared the crap out of me when I first saw it because I have an irrational fear of those damn puppets.  Also, I was in middle school and it was the middle of the night, so I was spooked.  
• Some Assembly Required, season 2 episode 2: Has a Frankenstien-esque plot!
• Inca Mummy Girl, season 2 episode 4: Deals with mummies.  Mummies = spooky.
• Halloween, season 2 episode 6: the first of three Halloween-themed episodes, you can't miss it this time of year!
• Killed By Death, season 2 episode 18: Buffy sees Death in the hospital while she's sick.  It leaves me quaking in my stylish yet affordable boots.
• Dead Man's Party, season 3 episode 2: Zombies! 'nuff said.
• Fear, Itself, season 4 episode 4: The second Halloween episode of the series. It's my favorite of the three!
• Hush, season 4 episode 10: The Emmy-nominated episode where everybody loses their voices in a dark, wicked fairy tale.
• Buffy vs Dracula, Season 5 episode 1: Ugh, if you must.  It's a pretty silly episode, but, it's Dracula, so I guess you gotta watch it in October.
• All the Way, season 6 episode 6: The third and final Halloween episode in the series.  It's not as great as the other two, but it's directly tied to Halloween!
• Conversations With Dead People, season 7 episode 7: Lots of creepy shit happens to everybody.  Season 7 is a bit hard to follow if you've never seen the show, so I don't recommend this one if you're not a seasoned Buffy fan.  But if you know the show, it's a good spooky one!

Psych

Netflix has tragically taken Psych off of its repertoire, but if you can find it elsewhere, there are some great episodes here!

• Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast, season 1 episode 15: The flashback at the beginning takes place on Halloween, and then there's some spooky ghost-y stuff that happens throughout the episode.  Also, an abandoned insane asylum.
• Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead, season 2 episode 16: a mummy in the museum gets up and walks out?! eeek!
• Ghosts, season 3 episode 1: Shawn forces Gus to help him on a case that involves a very creepily haunted house.
• Tuesday the 17th, season 3 episode 15: takes its inspiration from Friday the 13th.  Also, any time there is an actual Friday the 13th on the calendar, the following Tuesday is on the 17th so I like to watch it on those days!
• The Devil is in the Details (and the Upstairs Bedroom), season 4 episode 4: takes its inspiration from The Exorcist.
• Let's Get Hairy, season 4 episode 8: The suspect in a crime is a werewolf???
• Not Even Close... Encounters, season 5 episode 3: Shawn and Gus investigate an... alien abduction?
• In Plain Fright, season 5 episode 11: Shawn and Gus investigate creepy goings-on at a Halloween-themed theme park, and predictably creepy stuff happens.
• This Episode Sucks, season 6 episode 3: Shawn and Gus are convinced that the suspect in a crime is a vampire.
• Heeeeere's Lassie, season 6 episode 11: this one takes inspiration from The Shining, enough said!
• Lassie Jerky, season 7 episode 3: takes inspiration from the Blair Witch Project, and also Bigfoot and some other scary lost-in-the-woods stuff.
• A Nightmare on State Street, season 8 episode 9: zombies!!! and other scary nightmare things.

I'll be updating this post with other shows throughout the rest of the month!

Ode to leggings, and other trends that I used to hate

Dear Leggings,

I'm sorry I used to hate you.  "YOU ARE NOT PANTS, YOU ARE AN UNDERGARMENT!" I used to say.  You're fine under dresses and tunics but if the top doesn't cover the butt, then you don't belong.  That was before I embraced what an amazing set of legs I have, and what an amazing ass, too.  It was also before I could ever find leggings opaque enough to truly cover my underwear.  You first became pants when I was in high school, and the popular girls embraced you first.  I didn't like them very much so I didn't like you.

But you're so comfortable.  I can find you fleece-lined, opaque and warm and cozy, at my grocery store.  Your tops are elastic so they don't pinch my gut when I sit down.  You cling to me enough to keep me warm, but flex with me and don't restrict my movements.

To put it simply: I've embraced you as tightly and snugly as you embrace me.

Dear Ombre hair styles,

I'm sorry I used to think you looked stupid.  "Why would anyone pay to look like they got their hair dyed six months ago?" I used to think.  I didn't realize that people would use you to go creatively from natural to unnatural colors, or from one unnatural color to another.  I also didn't realize yet how great you would make my hair look when my dye job did grow out after several months. 

I'm too cheap and lazy to keep my roots covered up all the time, you see.  And now you're here, making me look trendy when I'm actually being lazy.  (It's also stubbornness - I only want my best friend touching my hair, and she lives 600 miles away.)

In short: you're every bit as gorgeous as everyone has always said you are.

Dear High-waisted pants,

I'm sorry I used to rip on you.  "They're horrible for anyone with big thighs or a big butt, and I have both!" I used to proclaim.  I still have those big thighs and butt, too.  But what I also have (and always did have) are love handles.  Low- and mid-rise pants sort of make them quelch outwards and I find it unflattering.  But High-waisted pants?  You cover the love handles, hold them in to make me look a bit more slim.  You don't, in fact, make me look like my ass goes up to my waist.  Nor do you make my thighs look wider or gross.

However, I am still a bit peeved with you, though this may not be entirely your fault: designers seem to think that for shorts and skirts, they can use the same amount of fabric when they're high-waisted as when they're low-rise.  Which means that, when you're a pair of shorts, you barely extend past my crotch.  I wish I could find some of you with a good 6" crotch panel so my aforementioned large thighs don't get the chub rub!  But, again, that's less your fault than it is the designers'.

In summary, you're all right.

Sincerely,

Kate
a woman who takes a while to come around to trends sometimes

2016 Reading Challenge: a book published before you were born

Honestly, the challenge in finding a book for this category was in narrowing it down to just one book!  I'm pretty sure that ALL of the canonical classics were published before I was born.  (That year was 1991, so booknerds, please let me know if there are any classics that are younger than I!)

Before I spent too much energy trying to decide on a book, I went to my town's Labor Day weekend festival with a friend.  (People from Berkley: it's basically like Berkley Days, but for Labor Day!)  There was a used book sale going on in one area, and books were ALL $1 each!  Ahh!  I grabbed two mysteries that seemed interesting, a Kathy Reichs book, and then I happened to notice sitting there a copy of Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It's a very nice hard cover, with a built-in bookmark ribbon, and by the inscription it was evidently a Christmas present for someone named Connor in 2009 from his aunt and uncle.  I kind of really like knowing who it used to belong to!  I hope that Connor at least read the book, and willingly donated it to the sale.  If he lost it and it somehow wound up donated to a book sale, I'd feel bad.

Anyway!

Yet again, Jules Verne's writing style kind of disappointed me.  It was nowhere near as bad as getting through Tolkein, but it definitely did drag every now and then.  Some of it - the high formality of the language, for example - could be the fault of the translator.  There were definitely a few sentences that I had to read a few times in order to understand.  (My beginner's knowledge of German could imagine the different grammatic structure of the German sentence, and then imagine the translator struggling between a literal translation which probably felt more "true" to him, vs a more casual English sentence structure that reads easier but is perhaps a technically less accurate translation.)

I ended up reading this a lot more quickly than I normally would have.  When I read the first few chapters, it was at home on my couch as usual... and I kept struggling to stay awake, due in part to my odd fatigue all summer long, the slow/formal language of the book, and how comfy my couch is.  But before too long, I got an internship with The Advocacy Project in downtown DC!  I decided to take the Metro rather than attempt to drive during the morning rush hour, and boy oh boy does that ~40 minutes each way 3 days a week make for a lot of great reading time!  One day, there was a 20 minute delay on the Metro, and rather than get all frazzled about being late to work I simply smiled and read for an extra 20 minutes that morning.

When I saw the 2008 movie with Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson, I either heard or figured (or both) that it was quite different from the book.  But, wow, it was REALLY different.  It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but I remember them doing a lot of running from dinosaurs and something about a ground that was over a bottomless pit, and said ground was very fragile and dangerous to walk on.  Not to mention that they spent the majority of the movie actually in the center of the Earth.

But the book?  They didn't even enter the extinct volcano (from several thousand feet ABOVE the surface) until HALFWAY THROUGH the book.  Then, while they certainly spent several months and a good portion of the book very deep beneath the surface, they actually never make it to the center of the Earth!  The book is definitely more about the journey TO, while the movie is about the adventures IN.  So, that was definitely a surprise.  Of course I figured that the book would be slower and a little less action-packed, simply because of the time period it was written in, but I guess I also expected some of the scenes that I remembered from the movie to be in the book.

Despite the differences, I did enjoy the book.  I don't think it quite earned a place on my list of favorites, again mainly because of the formal language, but I'm definitely glad that I read it!  It also amused me that I read the bulk of the book on the subway, which averages about 4 stories below ground.  Here are my heroes several hundred leagues under the Earth, and I'm suffering from the pressure on my ears less than one thousandth of a league under the surface!

Coming up next in the challenge: probably a book chosen for me by a friend.  Last night at my crochet meetup, we talked a lot about books and I complained about how many difficult books I've read this year.  My friends had a looooot of good recommendations for me!  I'm excited to read some of them.  I'm also planning on reading The Magic Kingdom of Landover series, which I discovered on Goodreads and am very intrigued by.  Also, I started watching Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell on Netflix, and I'd reeeeeally like to read the book!  I got the audiobook on Audible (woo free Gold subscription trial!), which I think will be great on the Metro because I'll be able to let my eyes rest but still get through my book.  If you had told me this time last year that I'd be flying through much more than one book per month, I'd have been pretty surprised!

Myla Goldberg: Bee Season

My decision to read this book isn't actually part of the 2016 reading challenge.  That's right, after so many years of barely reading, I'm reading an extra book on top of the 12 that I've decided to read this year - before I've finished the challenge!  I'm definitely loving reading more often.

Back in early July (or maybe it was the end of June?), I checked out several books from the library.  My library is only about two or three blocks away (although I don't actually walk on the streets - it's much faster if I cut through the series of parking lots between my apartment and the library).  Sort of on the way home from the library is Roosevelt Square, a quaint little plaza with a Co-op grocery store and a few restaurants and even a movie theater.  (Have I mentioned how much I adore the community in which I live?)  Right outside the grocery store is one of those Little Free Libraries - a small kitchen cupboard unit where people drop off unwanted books, and hopefully pick up a book or two in return.

So as I was walking home from the public library, I decided to check out the little free one.  After all, I'd just returned two books, so why not pick out one or two more?  There were more books in the shelf than I expected.  Most of them didn't really appeal to me, but this one did.

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg proved to be... an experience.  Based on the description on the back, I was expecting it to be on the lighter side and mostly kid-friendly.  But, wow.  The first few pages (the book doesn't really have chapters - just line breaks with asterisks to denote a scene change/time passing) were mostly what I was expecting.  After a few scenes, things started to change.  I don't want to say enough to spoil it, because I'm definitely going to recommend that you read this book.  But... let's just say that because the book is written not just from Eliza's perspective but from the whole family's, things get emotionally heavy.  Much more so than I would ever have understood or liked as a kid.  We get insights into Eliza's parents' struggling relationship, into Eliza's brother's struggles as an unpopular 16-year-old, and Eliza's struggles to understand what is going on with her family.  Towards the end of the book, things get REALLY intense.

There weren't many lines in the book that stood out to me as profound, but there was one very early in the book that I really liked.  As we learn in the beginning of the book, Eliza has never been particularly smart or special at anything.  Her fourth grade class is divided into two reading groups: she is placed in the Racecars group, while the other is called the Rockets.  At first, Eliza enjoys being a Racecar, until she learns the name of the other group.  "... [S]he can't get it out of her head that, while she is speeding around in circles waiting to be told when to stop, other kids are flying to the moon." (p 7).

Something about that line just really struck me as special.  Picturing a child, proud of herself for being a speedy race car, suddenly feeling less than special because her classmates are rocket ships, made me smile sadly.

The climax of Bee Season was very intense.  It felt more like an actual climax than most of the books I've read this year, which was super satisfying.  For really only the second time this year (Cursed Child being the first), I was completely unable to put the book down until I finished it.  Dinner ended up being a little bit later than usual that night.  Derek reminded me that it was 5:00, but I had a few pages left and didn't want to put the book down yet.  (Yeah, we eat super early.  I often start cooking at 4:30ish because we're apparently 60 years old.)  To be honest, it kind of felt like the book ended during the falling action.  It was like climax, some falling action, and not really much of a resolution.  Then again, I was always terrible at figuring out the exact moments that define the story arc.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good ending.  It's just that the emotions were so high and so much was happening at once until just a few pages before the end.  Still a satisfying ending, but I kind of wished there was a little bit more to it, you know?  I guess that's partly because I like a perfectly rounded, happy-for-everyone ending.  When a book ends on a sort of "will it work out or won't it?" note, I'm like "show us that it will work out!"  I know that's not realistic, but that's what I like and I'm not embarrassed to admit it.  I think I've matured enough that I can still enjoy a book (or movie) that doesn't end with the sentence "All was well," but I still generally wish it was there.

So, what's next?  I'm hoping to check off the book chosen for me by a BFF category next.  A friend of mine at my crochet group is distantly related by marriage to the author of a successful fantasy series, but I'm on a waiting list at my library for the first book.  If that takes too long, I might skip to a book that I previously abandoned.  Of course, there's a HUGE plethora of amazing books that were published before I was born, but I have to figure out which one of them I want to choose for the challenge!  And, I've preordered all 3 of the new Pottermore Presents books on the Google Play Store.  They're all super short but I'm definitely going to read them, though they don't count for the 2016 challenge.

2016 Reading Challenge: A book that was published this year

Since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been out for less than 24 hours, I promise you that there will be NO SPOILERS in this post.  This post is just my general reaction to the book as a whole, and to keep with the continuity of how I've been doing this challenge.

At first, I was happy that this is a script instead of a novel because everything moves faster in a script.  No descriptive paragraphs, no pages of a character's internal struggle or confusion.  Everything  just happens.  But as I finished Part One in under three hours, I realized that a novel would last longer.  After all, it took me at least two full days of binge-reading to get through Deathly Hallows.  I finished Cursed Child within 13 hours of owning it, and that's including breaks for 7 hours of sleep, two meals, and doing a load of laundry.

Still - and obviously -  I loved every second.  I absolutely devoured it.  I considered forcing myself to stop for the day, to preserve the length, but really, there was never a chance of that happening.  Rowling's fast-paced style and tendency to end a chapter (or in this case, a scene) on a very intense moment if not an outright cliffhanger were not marred by the presence of the other two authors.  So it was pretty painful to put it down for five minutes to go put the laundry in the dryer.

For years, I've been wishing that I could temporarily delete everything that I know about the Harry Potter series, just so I can experience it for the first time again.  The suspense, the thrill, the wonder and joy, the twists and reveals.  I finally got to experience all of that again, and as an adult at that.  Of course, it happened all too quickly and once again I'll be cursed with the knowledge of what happens, unable to feel surprise because I knew what was coming at every turn.  It's a blessing and a curse.

One more thing, because I fear that if I keep going on I'll reveal too much: I WANT TO SEE THIS PLAY.  The stage directions in the script must be beautiful.  Of course I can picture them in my head, what's happening, as it would in a movie or as I would picture a book happening... but some of these things seem so impossible to happen on stage without the use of CGI!  Some of the stage directions actually gave me goosebumps as I tried to imagine how incredibly magical they would look when enacted on stage.  It makes me hope that Cursed Child will wind up like Phantom of the Opera - it'll have its home base theater for at least 30 years, and there will be occasional tours so that people outside of London can see it, and maybe after about 18 years they'll turn it into a movie.  (I hope it takes way less than 18 years.)  The effects should be as well-known as Phantom's falling chandelier, but I don't think that would take the magic away because everyone still adores the falling chandelier, even after 30 years.

Okay, that's enough out of me.  Maybe, probably, I'll write an entirely spoiler-riddled post that anyone who hasn't read the book yet will know to avoid so I can share my reactions to specific points.

I only have four books left for this challenge!  Once I finish them, I'll officially have out-challenged myself.  Hoorah!  I'm so glad to have gotten back in to reading.  I didn't realize how much I'd missed it. <3